Abstract
Performance in a periodically repeating keypress response was measured as a function of the relation between the response patterns required of the two hands. Compared to identical left- and right-hand responses, performance was degraded when the temporal periods of the left- and right-hand responses were not harmonically related. By contrast, performance was not degraded compared to the identical task control when the left- and right-hand responses had the same or harmonically related periods. These findings suggest a limitation in parallel generation of multiple time frames that is assumed to be associated with a late stage of central processing in which response commands are generated.
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This research was supported by Grant BNS 76-13466 from the National Science Foundation. George Eggleton and Doug Filangeri assisted with the equipment. Pearl Barker, Carol Daniels, Mark Hagerty, and Victor Pereira assisted with Experiment 1 and with pilot experiments. Robert Snider carried out Experiment 2. Helene Brodrick, Sabine Dickerson, and Margie Gasper carried out Experiments 3 and 4 and assisted with manuscript preparation. Experiment 3 was reported by Brodrick, Dickerson, and Gasper at the Western Psychological Conference for Undergraduate Research, Santa Clara, California, May 1979. After Experiments 1 and 2 were completed, the author became aware (August 1978) of rather similar work designed and being initiated by Diana Deutsch.
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Klapp, S.T. Doing two things at once: The role of temporal compatibility. Memory & Cognition 7, 375–381 (1979). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196942
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196942