Latencies for Matching of Word-Color Pairs with 'Irrelevant' Words or Colors.

Latencies for same and different judgments resulting from comparisons between words and colors were determined with one of the pair of stimuli being both a word and a color. The irrelevant aspect of this dual stimulus bore each of five possible relationships to the stimuli that were relevant to the match. These five conditions plus two control conditions produced large differences in latencies for making comparisons. Correspondence between the irrelevant stimulus and the combined relevant stimulus facilitated same responses but showed no facilitation of different responses. In some conditions irrelevant words delayed matches between words and colors more than irrelevant colors delayed such matches. This suggests that central comparisons between the pair of stimuli were in a form more closely related to words than to colors. Author