• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.535-557
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• 2010

Researchers have shown the negative compatibility effect (NCE) consistently using arrows. However, they provided inconsistent interpretations about the reason why the NCE happens. The purpose of the present study is to test the factors suggested to be critical for the NCE including automatic inhibition, updated information and top-down control. Presented with arrays of masked prime and targets composed of colored double-headed arrows, participants demonstrated invulnerable NCE on the basis of direction of arrows in the judgment of direction with corresponding hands (Experiment 1), with reverse-mapping hands (Experiment 2) and even in the color-judgment task (Experiment 3). These results imply that the main sources of NCE might be perceptual dominance and inherent properties of stimuli and responses; this contrasts with previously proposed explanations.