Reconciling the Neurophysiological and Cognitive Theories of Stimulus–Response Spatial Compatibility Effects: A Visual–Motor Dissociation Approach

This study investigated the differential impact of two visual dimensions (direction and spatial location) in two spatial Stroop tasks, where the relevant dimension for the response varied. Three studies compared the interactions between spatial compatibility and congruence effects on reaction time performances to infer how the dorsal pathway (DP) and ventral pathway (VP) of visual processing interfered with one another in processing relevant and irrelevant spatial information. This allowed us to bridge neurophysiological mechanisms with dual-process models of spatial compatibility. The participants responded from an avatar's perspective, manipulated through rotations relative to the forward position, along with independent rotations of the avatar's screen and keyboard. The results revealed two distinct response patterns: in the Direction Stroop, the performance was influenced equally by the relevant direction (VP) and the automatic processing of irrelevant location (DP); in the Location Stroop, the VP exerted minimal interference on the DP. Furthermore, the Only Keyboard rotation disrupted hand-eye coordination, modulating the DP interference on the VP in the Direction Stroop. These findings provide insights into the functional interaction of these visual pathways and their contributions to spatial compatibility effects, along with evidence for the dual-process model of spatial compatibility. Some issues about the separation of visual pathways are discussed based on our results.