Effects of Language on Stimulus Response Contingency Learning

Abstract

In the stimulus response contingency manipulation (Schmidt et al., 2007) words are written in different colors, and participants respond to the color of the words. Responses are faster when words are associated with the colors compared to when they are not. The present study investigated the effects of language on stimulus response contingency learning. Turkish or English words were associated with colors, and participants responded either in Turkish or in English. Furthermore, responses to transfer stimuli, which were not associated with any color but had the same meaning in the other language, were observed. Experiment results showed that contingency effect changed according to stimulus and response language. Contingency effect was larger when the stimulus and the response were in the same language, than when they were in different languages. In addition, contingency effect was observed to be larger in the English responses than the Turkish responses. Contingency effect was not observed in transfer stimuli, however. Finally, sequential contingency effect was observed only in the condition in which the response language was English and the stimulus language was Turkish.