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Time taken to change the Speed of a Response

Abstract

CRAIK1, in seeking to understand the nature of reaction times, questioned whether they were due to stimuli having to pass through a long chain of synapses between sense organ and effector, or whether some “condensed” time lag due to a decision process occurred in one part ot the chain. He argued that if the latter was the case, the process would be subject to serious interference from subsequent stimuli unless protected by a form of switching mechanism or “gate”. Subsequent experimental work2 has indicated that the reaction time to a signal (S2) arriving during the reaction time to a previous signal (S1) is longer than when S2 arrives well after the reaction to S1, and the theory (the “single-channel hypothesis”) has been advanced that the arrival of S1 raises a “gate” which is not lowered until the reaction time to S1 has ended. Reaction to S2 is thus delayed by the time elapsing between the arrival of S2 and the end of the reaction time to S1. Clear exceptions have been found only when it has been reasonable to regard subjects as able to group S1 and S2 into a single unit and respond to both together. Typically, this occurs only when they are less than about 0.1 sec apart, and not always then.

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References

  1. Craik, K. J. W., Brit. J. Psychol., 38, 142 (1948).

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  2. For reviews see: Bertelson, P., Quart. J. Exp. Psychol., 18, 153 (1966). Welford, A. T., Brit. J. Psychol., 43, 2 (1952); Acta Psychol. (in the press).

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  3. Vince, Margaret A., Brit. J. Psychol., 38, 149 (1948).

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VINCE, M., WELFORD, A. Time taken to change the Speed of a Response. Nature 213, 532–533 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/213532b0

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