Reaction Times to Regularly Recurring Visual Stimuli

Abstract

In this experiment, which was concerned with reaction times to regularly recurring visual stimuli, four experienced Ss made 21 serial responses at eight interstimulus intervals with eight replications each. The experiment was designed to provide answers to the following questions. With regularly recurring visual stimuli, (a) what is the relationship between foreperiod length and mean reaction time to light at the asymptote of the reaction time practice curve, and (b) what are the differences, for various foreperiod lengths, in the effects of practice on mean reaction time to light? The predicted answers to both questions (a) and (b) were confirmed. First, the relationship between interstimulus time interval and reaction time to regularly recurring visual stimuli is best depicted as an increasing function which reaches an asymptote at a different time interval for each S. In addition, practice results in a greater decrease in reaction time for the 1- and 2-sec. interstimulus intervals, and especially for the former, than for longer intervals; this effect is most pronounced after one experience with the given interstimulus interval.