An Investigation of Spatial Stimulus-Response Compatibility Effects Based on German Particles

In the current study, we tested if stimulus-response (SR) compatibility effects of spatially ambiguous words depend on a semantic priming context. Although many words, including spatial words, can take on several meanings, this is an open question. From Experiments 1 to 3, we manipulated the likelihood that the vertical meaning of the German particles auf and ab was processed by (1) instructing the processing of vertical meaning in Experiment 1, but not in Experiments 2 and 3, and (2) by using verbs that either primed (Experiments 1 and 2) or did not prime (Experiments 1-3) the targets' vertical meanings. Spatial SR compatibility effects resulted, regardless of whether or not the processing of the vertical meaning was instructed and the vertical meaning was primed. Results suggest that the selection between vertically discriminated responses could be sufficient to elicit the participants' extraction of the vertical meaning of the ambiguous particles.