Flanker Interference from Activation of Mental Imagery: A Proof of Concept

The flanker task has been used to investigate the distinct effects of "stimulus interference" (SI) and "response interference" (RI) on performance (e.g., response times). In SI, the flankers appear different in appearance from the target but are associated with the same response. In RI, the flankers are different in appearance from the target but are associated with a different response. Interference is greater for RI than SI. We investigated the behavioral effects of a new kind of interference—"imagery interference," in which the flankers are different in appearance from the target and are associated with the same response (as in SI), but the target and flanker are associated with different (verbal) mental imagery. In two experiments, imagery interference yielded more interference than SI. We introduce this new form of interference and hope that its investigation will have implications as far reaching as those of the study of RI versus SI.