The self-relevant spotlight metaphor: Self-relevant targets diminish distractor–response-binding effects

TL;DR

The study shows that when a task is personally relevant, it reduces the influence of distractions on performance.

Contribution

The novelty is showing that self-relevance reduces distractor–response-binding effects, indicating a boundary condition for self-relevance's influence.

Findings

Self-relevant targets diminish distractor–response-binding (DRB) effects compared to non-self-relevant targets.

Self-relevance influences higher-order cognitive processes like executive control, not just perception.

Abstract

Recently, it has been proposed that self-relevance of a stimulus enhances executive control and reduces the impact of distractors on current task performance. The present study aimed to test whether the binding between a distractor and a response is influenced by self-relevance, too. We assumed that targets’ self-relevance should increase executive control processes and therefore reduce the influence of distractors on current performance. In a distractor–response-binding (DRB) task, which measures the strength of binding between distractor stimuli and responses, we varied target relevance so that participants responded to targets that either were or were not self-relevant. Our design made it possible to measure DRB effects for both relevance conditions separately. DRB effects were diminished if targets were self-relevant compared to when they were not. These results expand our understanding of the influence of self-relevance on cognitive performance. The influence of self-relevance is not purely perceptual (Sui & Humphreys, 2012, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38[5], 1105–1117), but also found in higher-order processes such as executive control. Moreover, whereas for different paradigms binding advantages of self-relevance are assumed (Sui & Humphreys, 2015a, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19[12], 719–728; Humphreys & Sui, 2016, Cognitive Neuroscience, 7[1/4], 5–17), this study identifies an important boundary condition, in that distractor–response binding is reduced by target self-relevance.

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