On the spatial metric of short-SOA costs of exogenous cuing

PEGGY CHEN, CATHLEEN MOORE, and J. TOBY MORDKOFF
Penn State University

When the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the cue and the target is short, exogenous spatial cues usually produce a response time benefit. However, consistent with several recent studies, we have found that a short stimulus onset asynchrony is not sufficient. At least one more factor—the number of cue and target locations—also plays a role. Even more interesting, when 8 cue and target locations are used, the effect of an exogenous cue produces a cost on valid cue trials, and the spatial metric of this negative cuing effect depends on whether the cue remains visible at target onset.