Simple Reaction Time in “Brain-Damaged” and Normal Children under Regular and Irregular Preparatory Interval Conditions

Abstract

Two different reaction-time conditions were employed to explore differences in “mental set” between 2 groups of children: one with anamnestic and/or electroencephalographic evidence of cerebral dysfunction (the “brain-damaged” group); the other, a control group of normal children. There were 15 boys in each group. The groups were matched for age and IQ. The procedure consisted of regular and irregular preparatory interval conditions. The results demonstrated that latency was directly related to length of preparatory interval for the normals but not for brain-damaged Ss. No clear separation between normal and brain-damaged Ss was obtained when the set-index formula was employed. However, when ages 8 through 10 were analyzed separately, a good separation could be obtained.