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Time uncertainty, number of alternatives and particular signal-response pair as determinants of choice reaction time

par Alegria Iscoa, Jesus ;Bertelson, Paul
Référence Acta psychologica, 33, C, page (36-44)
Publication Publié, 1970

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

The problem was to know if time uncertainty and number of choices affect the same or separate components of RT. In exp. 1; 2-, 4- and 8-choice RTs were measured in the same Ss under two warning conditions, constant foreperiods of either 0.5 or 5.0 sec. Two groups of Ss had different sub-sets of the 8 signal-response pairs for the 2- and 4-choice tasks. Time-uncertainty was found to interact with number of alternatives in one group not in the other. Closer inspection of the data showed that it was necessary to exert a better control on practice received on different sub-sets of signal-response pairs. This control was achieved in exp. 2 where only 2- and 8-choice tasks were used, and all combinations of two signals were used an equal number of times for the 2-choice task. The effect of time-uncertainty was then found independent of number of choices. It is shown that this result is not necessarily inconsistent with the previous finding that signal relative frequency does interact with time-uncertainty. An important incidental finding is the extent of the differences in RT between signal-response pairs in the multi-choice tasks. These differences are completely context-bound, and vanish when the pairs are considered two by two, as in exp. 2. © 1970.