Nadine Nett

• The distractor-response binding effect (Frings & Rothermund, 2011; Frings, Rothermund, & Wentura, 2007; Rothermund, Wentura, & De Houwer, 2005) is based on the idea that irrelevant information will be integrated with the response to the relevant stimuli in an episodic memory trace. The immediate re-encounter of any aspect of this saved episode " be it relevant or irrelevant " can lead to retrieval of the whole episode. As a consequence, the previously executed and now retrieved response may influencing the response to the current relevant stimulus. That is, the current response may either be facilitated or be impaired by the retrieved response, depending on whether it is compatible or incompatible to the currently demanded response. Previous research on this kind of episodic retrieval focused on the influence on action control. I examined if distractor response binding also plays a role in decision making in addition to action control. To this end I adapted the distractor-to-distractor priming paradigm (Frings et al., 2007) and conducted nine experiments in which participants had to decide as fast as possible which disease a fictional patient suffered from. To infer the correct diagnosis, two cues were presented; one did not give any hint for a disease (the irrelevant cue), whereas the other did (the relevant cue). Experiments 1a to 1c showed that the distractor-response binding effect is present in deterministic decision situations. Further, experiments 2a and 2b indicate that distractor-response binding also influences decisions under uncertainty. Finally, experiments 3a to 3d were conducted to test some constraints and underlying mechanisms of the distractor-response binding effect in decision making under uncertainty. In sum, these nine experiments provide strong evidence that distractor-response binding influences decision making.
• Der distractor-response binding effect (Frings, Rothermund, & Wentura, 2007) besteht darin, dass irrelevante Reize mit relevanten Reizen und der dazu adäquaten Reaktion gespeichert werden. Trifft man erneut auf diese irrelevanten Reize, erinnert man sich an die dazu gespeicherte Reaktion auf die relevanten Reize. Dies führt zu einer Verbesserung (gemessen in RT und Fehlerzahl), wenn die neuzugebende Reaktion dieselbe ist, aber zu einer Verschlechterung wenn sie sich unterscheiden. Dieser Effekt findet sich nicht nur für motorische Reaktionen, sondern auch für probabilistische Entscheidungen.