The effect of attention on different features of the same stimuli on the P3 component in a Simon task

The current study investigated whether attending to different features of the same stimuli had an influence on the latency and amplitude of the P3 component. An event related potential (ERP) component derived from the electroencephalogram. 18 participants took part in the study and performed a Simon task, in which they responded to either the colour or the shape of the stimulus. The current study clearly proves that the P3b waveform is mediated by the feature of the stimulus that the participants attend to. This finding seems to implicate that Polich’s (2007) proposal about the P3b representing some kind of memory mechanism is no longer a valid one.