A series of visual or auditory stimuli were presented at different intervals and reaction times were recorded. Occasional blocks (latencies 3.29 times greater than the SD) occurred for all Ss. There was no evidence of a correlation between blocking and fatigue, nor was periodicity revealed. Too little is known about the conditions which generate blocks to warrant the formulation of a theory.
An experiment was undertaken to answer the following questions. (1) In obtaining the shortest reaction time, is the duration of the ready signal itself related to the duration of the foreperiod? (2) Does the effective foreperiod start with die onset of the ready signal, or with its cessation? It was concluded that relative duration has no effect, but that the effective foreperiod starts with the onset of the ready signal. The relevance of these conclusions to the discrepancies in optimum foreperiod length reported in the literature is discussed.
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