Reaction time studies attempt to determine in quantitative terms certain temporal relationships of behavior. Depending on the interests of the particular investigator, measurements of reaction times and their variability have been related to differences in stimulus intensity, sense modality, physiological conditions, sex, age, race, and many other factors.For the purpose of this study, which presents results from human as well as anthropoid subjects, the term reaction time is used as meaning, roughly, the time elapsing between the onset of a stimulus and the beginning of a striate muscle response with which the stimulus has become associated during recent individual experience, the measurements being made under the conditions of a "set" for a maximum rapidity of response (induced by verbal instructions or training), with a preparatory "ready" signal given in advance.The distinction between reflex and habit, between the innate and the acquired, is not always clear, but, fortunately, there are, in the past experience of the individual, various responses which can be clearly and unequivocally differentiated as being relatively fixed or arbitrary. The definition proposed at once differentiates
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