Routes to action in reaction time tasks

Frith, C. D.; Done, D.J.

doi:10.1007/bf00309165

Cited by 166 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Although these effects are generated via a pathway that bypasses the information-processing stages translating a stimulus to a response and are thus independent of regu-lar stimulus processing, energetical mechanisms still feed activation back to the information-processing stages, thereby influencing task performance. More generally, the idea that intensity effects on force may be mediated by processes outside the usual information-processing chain is consistent with theories in which there are different possible processing routes from stimulus to response, with some routes involving more direct activation and other routes involving more abstract coding (see, e.g., Frith & Done, 1986;Kornblum, Hasbroucq, & Osman, 1990;Kramer & Spinks, 1991;Ohman, 1987;Van Duren & Sanders, 1988).…”

Section: Arousal Modelssupporting

confidence: 76%

Effects of auditory stimulus intensity on response force in simple, go/no-go, and choice RT tasks

Miller

Franz

Ulrich

1999

Perception & Psychophysics

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In four experiments, increasing the intensities of both relevant and irrelevant auditory stimuli was found to increase response force (RF) in simple, go/no-go, and choice reaction time (RT) tasks. These results raise problems for models that localize the effects of auditory intensity on purely perceptual processes, indicating instead that intensity also affects motor output processes under many circumstances. In Experiment 1, simple RT, go/no-go, and choice RT tasks were compared, using the same stimuli for all tasks. Auditory stimulus intensity affected both RT and RF, and these effects were not modulated by task. In Experiments 2-4, an irrelevant auditory accessory stimulus accompanied a relevant visual stimulus, and the go/no-go and choice tasks were used. The intensity of the irrelevant auditory accessory stimulus was found to affect RT and RF, although the sizes of these effects depended somewhat on the temporal predictability of the accessory stimulus.It is well known that subjects in reaction time (RT) tasks respond faster to bright or loud stimuli than to dim or soft ones (see, e.g., Kohfeld, 1971). This effect is not surprising, because sensory and perceptual processing are clearly faster for more intense physical stimuli (Levick, 1973). Indeed, it is often assumed that the effects of stimulus intensity on RT can be accounted for entirely within the sensory and perceptual systems (see, e.g., Burbeck & Luce, 1982;Hildreth, 1979;Smith, 1995;Sternberg, 1969; Vaughan, Costa, & Gilden, 1966).Contrary to this view, however, there is evidence that stimulus intensity can affect response processes as well as perceptual ones. First, stimulus intensity has been found to influence the forcefulness of responses. For example, Angel (1973) examined stimulus intensity effects on RT and response force (RF) in simple RT tasks using visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli. In each trial, he recorded the full force-time function of the response and found that the peak of this function increased with stimulus inten- sity for all modalities. Ulrich, Rinkenauer, and Miller (1998) successfully replicated Angel's result for both auditory and visual stimuli, and Jaskowski, Rybarczyk, Jaroszyk, and Lemanski (1995) replicated it for auditory stimuli, although not for visual ones. Clearly, an influence of intensity on RF indicates that intensity must have some effect on the response system, even if this effect is contingent on and mediated by the perceptual analysis of the stimulus input. Using similar logic, Abrams and BaIota (1991) and Balota and Abrams (1995) have demonstrated that response dynamics are influenced by more cognitive factors, such as word frequency and memory set size, and have therefore concluded that these factors influence motor stages as well as perceptual and decisionmaking ones.Second, auditory stimulus intensity has been found to influence the variability of the response system in simple RT tasks. Ulrich and Stapf (1984) asked subjects to respond with both hands simultaneously in a simple RT task, and they c...

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Section: Arousal Modelssupporting

confidence: 76%

Effects of auditory stimulus intensity on response force in simple, go/no-go, and choice RT tasks

Miller

Franz

Ulrich

1999

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…Because this effect depends on Donders, 1868;Frith & Done, 1986;Schluter et al, 2001;Schubert, 1999;Stuss et al, 2002). This difference in executive control implication has been corroborated by Szmalec, Verbruggen, De Baene, and Vandierendonck (2006) using imaging techniques.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 65%

Time and cognitive load in working memory.

Barrouillet¹,

Bernardin²,

Portrat³

et al. 2007

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

459

716

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According to the time-based resource-sharing model (P. Barrouillet, S. Bernardin, & V. Camos, 2004), the cognitive load a given task involves is a function of the proportion of time during which it captures attention, thus impeding other attention-demanding processes. Accordingly, the present study demonstrates that the disruptive effect on concurrent maintenance of memory retrievals and response selections increases with their duration. Moreover, the effect on recall performance of concurrent activities does not go beyond their duration insofar as the processes are attention demanding. Finally, these effects are not modality specific, as spatial processing was found to disrupt verbal maintenance. These results suggest a sequential and time-based function of working memory in which processing and storage rely on a single and general purpose attentional resource needed to run executive processes devoted to constructing, maintaining, and modifying ephemeral representations.

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“…This pattern of results has been given several names, including "suppression of the direct route" (Frith & Done, 1986), "the Gratton effect" (after Gratton, Coles, & Donchin, 1992), "reactive gating" (Mordkoff, 1998), and "conflict adaptation" (e.g., Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001); it will here be referred to as "sequential modulation" (Hazeltine, Akçay, & Mordkoff, 2011), mostly to avoid using a label that is tied to a particular explanation (which could later turn out to be wrong).…”

Section: Abstract Executive Control Cognitive Control Selective Amentioning

confidence: 93%

Observation: Three reasons to avoid having half of the trials be congruent in a four-alternative forced-choice experiment on sequential modulation

Mordkoff

2012

Psychon Bull Rev

120

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Sequential modulation is the finding that the sizes of several selective-attention phenomena-namely, the Simon, flanker, and Stroop effects-are larger following congruent trials than following incongruent trials. In order to rule out relatively uninteresting explanations of sequential modulation that are based on a variety of stimulus-and response-repetition confounds, a four-alternative forced choice task must be used, such that all trials with any kind of repetition can be omitted from the analysis. When a fouralternative task is used, the question arises as to whether to have the proportions of congruent and incongruent trials be set by chance (and, therefore, be 25% congruent and 75% incongruent) or to raise the proportion of congruent trials to 50%, so that it matches the proportion of incongruent trials. In this observation, it is argued that raising the proportion of congruent trials to 50% should not be done. For theoretical, practical, and empirical reasons, having half of the trials be congruent in a four-alternative task aimed at providing unambiguous evidence of sequential modulation should be avoided.

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Routes to action in reaction time tasks

Cited by 166 publications

References 16 publications

Effects of auditory stimulus intensity on response force in simple, go/no-go, and choice RT tasks

Effects of auditory stimulus intensity on response force in simple, go/no-go, and choice RT tasks

Time and cognitive load in working memory.

Observation: Three reasons to avoid having half of the trials be congruent in a four-alternative forced-choice experiment on sequential modulation

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