Facilitation of responses to degraded targets by non-degraded distractors

It is well-established that distractors interfere with goal-directed responses. Our recent findings indicate that the presence of corners in degraded line drawings of distractor stimuli modulates response times and accuracy to non-degraded targets (Kritikos and Pavlis 2007, Experimental Brain Research183 159–170). In the present study we asked whether non-degraded distractors may facilitate responses to degraded targets (corners or line segments missing). We presented targets at fixation and accompanied by identical, category-congruent, or category-incongruent distractors. Participants responded to two object categories (musical instruments and tools) consisting of four line drawings. Corners-missing targets in particular were associated with greater interference from distractors than non-degraded targets. This interference was modulated when distractor locations were endogenously or exogenously cued. Findings are discussed in the context of additional processing of object features that are crucial to action.