Laws of visual choice reaction time.

Abstract

The published data of 59 visual choice reaction time studies were used to determine the most significant independent variables and to develop empirical functions for them. The functions were then applied in conjunction with a proposed modification of Bonders' law to isolate the relative temporal contributions to choice reaction time of four stages of information processing identified as stimulus coding, stimulus-stimulus translation, stimulus-response translation, and response selection. Of these, coding appears to be a variable component of simple reaction time. This theoretical finding, supported by new data, is not in agreement with Bonders' assumption that simple reaction time is a constant. The results also indicate that choice reaction time is a function of stimulus information, but only up to some amount of practice, after which it is independent of the number of alternatives.An early theoretical approach to the choice reaction time task was that of Bonders (1868-1869) ,* who proposed that the latency involved in choice reactions is the sum of three temporal components: (a) simple reaction time, (b) the time required for stimulus categorization, and (c) the time required for response selection. These processes were hypothesized to be distinct, sequential, and nonoverlapping. Simple reaction time or the a reaction represented the sum of various neural transmission lags, and for any stimulus energy condition it was assumed to be a constant. In order to assess the time required for the other two processes, Bonders developed two experimental paradigms. In one, choice reaction time or the 1 The analysis and theoretical formulation were

The difference engine: A model of diversity in speeded cognition

“…The y-intercept is simply 2mt r , and setting SD equal to zero and solving for RT reveals that the x-intercept is equal to the duration of the response component, t r . As may be seen in Figure 5, the observed x-intercept of approximately300 msec is in keeping with values for simple and choice RTs to highly discriminable stimuli reported in the literature (for a review, see Teichner & Krebs, 1974) and is therefore consistent with the two-compartment assumption of our difference engine model.…”

Amplitude differences of evoked alpha and gamma oscillations in two different age groups

“…As expected, the target, which occurs less frequently than the non-targets, is processed slowest (Teichner and Krebs, 1974). As in a previous experiment by Herrmann and Mecklinger (2000), this was also the case when the Kanizsa square was the target, which would otherwise be expected to be processed faster than a non-Kanizsa square due to its figural features (Pomerantz, 1983).…”

Decisions about identity and orientation of rotated letters and digits

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