The Eriksen flanker task is a traditional conflict paradigm for studying the influence of task-irrelevant information on the processing of task-relevant information. In this task, participants are asked to respond to a visual target item (e.g., a letter) that is flanked by task-irrelevant items (e.g., also letters). Responses are typically faster and more accurate when the task-irrelevant information is response-congruent with the visual target than when it is incongruent. Several researchers have attributed the starting point of this flanker effect to poor selective filtering at a perceptual level (e.g., spotlight models), which subsequently produces response competition at post-perceptual stages. The present study examined whether a flanker-like effect could also be established within a bimodal analog of the flanker task with auditory irrelevant letters and visual target letters, which must be processed along different processing routes. The results of two experiments revealed that a flanker-like effect is also present with bimodal stimuli. In contrast to the unimodal flanker task, however, the effect only emerged when flankers and targets shared the same letter name, but not when they were different letters mapped onto the same response. We conclude that the auditory flankers can influence the time needed to recognize visual targets but do not directly activate their associated responses.

埃里克森侧翼任务是一种传统的冲突范例，用于研究与任务无关的信息对与任务相关的信息的处理的影响。在此任务中，要求参与者对与任务无关的项目（例如，字母）两侧的视觉目标项目（例如，字母）做出响应。当与任务无关的信息与视觉目标相一致时，与不相干时相比，响应通常更快，更准确。一些研究人员将这种侧翼效应的起点归因于在感知水平上不良的选择性过滤（例如，聚光灯模型），其随后在感知后阶段产生了响应竞争。本研究检查了是否在侧翼任务的双峰类似物内也建立了类似侧翼的效果，并带有听觉无关的字母和视觉目标字母，必须沿不同的加工路线进行加工。两项实验的结果表明，双峰刺激也存在侧翼状效应。但是，与单峰侧翼任务相比，这种效果仅在侧翼和目标共享相同的字母名称时出现，而在它们是映射到相同响应的不同字母时才出现。我们得出结论，听觉侧翼可以影响识别视觉目标所需的时间，但不会直接激活其相关的响应。两项实验的结果表明，双峰刺激也存在侧翼状效应。但是，与单峰侧翼任务相反，这种效果仅在侧翼和目标共享相同的字母名称时出现，而在它们是映射到相同响应的不同字母时才出现。我们得出结论，听觉侧翼可以影响识别视觉目标所需的时间，但不会直接激活其相关的响应。两项实验的结果表明，双峰刺激也存在侧翼状效应。但是，与单峰侧翼任务相反，这种效果仅在侧翼和目标共享相同的字母名称时出现，而在它们是映射到相同响应的不同字母时才出现。我们得出结论，听觉侧翼可以影响识别视觉目标所需的时间，但不会直接激活其相关的响应。