Perceptual Delays and Speed of Reading and Tapping

Abstract

Simultaneous presentation of two stimuli from different modalities often produces an experience of apparent sequence. There are stable individual differences in the direction and degree of this temporal displacement. Comparing the relative latency of perception of visual and tactile stimuli by the above procedure, it was hypothesized that intermodal differences in perceptual latencies will produce a corresponding hierarchy in speeds of reading and tapping. The results were in accord with this hypothesis. The relationship between perceptual latency and behavior was most evident, however, only among the older and less educated Ss.