Functional Locus of Intensity Effects in Choice Reaction Time Tasks

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Jaśkowski ◽  
Izabela Szumska ◽  
Edyta Sasin

Long reaction times (RT) paradoxically occur with extremely loud auditory stimuli ( Van der Molen & Keuss, 1979 , 1981 ) or with ultrabright and large visual stimuli ( Jaśkowski & Włodarczyk, 2006 ) when the task requires a response choice. Van der Molen and Keuss (1981 ) hypothesized that this effect results from an arousal-driven elongation of response-selection processes. We tested this hypothesis using visual stimuli and chronopsychophysiological markers. The results showed that the latency of both early (P1 recorded at Oz) and late (P300) evoked potentials decreased monotonically with intensity. In contrast, the latency of stimulus-locked lateralized readiness potentials (LRP) abruptly increased for the most intense stimuli, thus mirroring the reaction time–intensity relationship. Response-locked LRPs revealed no dependency on intensity. These findings suggest that the processes responsible for the van der Molen-Keuss effect influence processing stages that are completed before the onset of LRP. The van der Molen-Keuss effect likely occurs later than those represented by early sensory potentials. This is in keeping with the hypothesis of van der Molen-Keuss.

1954 ◽  
Vol 100 (419) ◽  
pp. 462-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. L. Hall ◽  
E. Stride

A number of studies on reaction time (R.T.) latency to visual and auditory stimuli in psychotic patients has been reported since the first investigations on the personal equation were carried out. The general trends from the work up to 1943 are well summarized by Hunt (1944), while Granger's (1953) review of “Personality and visual perception” contains a summary of the studies on R.T. to visual stimuli.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 172-177
Author(s):  
Łukasz Tyburcy ◽  
Małgorzata Plechawska-Wójcik

The paper describes results of comparison of reactions times to visual and auditory stimuli using EEG evoked potentials. Two experiments were used to applied. The first one explored reaction times to visual stimulus and the second one to auditory stimulus. After conducting an analysis of data, received results enable determining that visual stimuli evoke faster reactions than auditory stimuli.


1991 ◽  
Vol 159 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Williams ◽  
G. H. Jones ◽  
M. Briscoe ◽  
R. Thomas ◽  
P. Cronin

Auditory evoked potentials were recorded in a choice reaction-time task. This test paradigm elicited the attention-related P300 component and was used to study cognitive processing. Compared with age-matched controls, 17 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type were shown to have significantly longer reaction times as well as delayed latencies of several components of the auditory evoked potentials. The fractional increase in the reaction times was much greater than that of the P300 peak latency. The latter is commonly accepted as an index of stimulus-evaluation time. These findings suggest a delay in both response selection and stimulus evaluation.


2002 ◽  
Vol 94 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1101-1112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Włodarczyk ◽  
Piotr Jaśkowski ◽  
Agnieszka Nowik

Arousal and activation are two variables supposed to underlie change in response force. This study was undertaken to explain these roles, specifically, for strong auditory stimuli and sleep deficit. Loud auditory stimuli can evoke phasic over-arousal whereas sleep deficit leads to general underarousal. Moreover, Van der Molen and Keuss. (1979, 1981) showed that paradoxically long reaction times occurred with extremely strong auditory stimuli when the task was difficult, e.g., choice reaction or Simon paradigm. It was argued that this paradoxical behavior related to reaction time is due to active disconnecting of the coupling between arousal and activation to prevent false responses. If so, we predicted that for extremely loud stimuli and for difficult tasks, the lengthening of reaction time should be associated with reduction of response force. The effects of loudness and sleep deficit on response time and force were investigated in three different tasks: simple response, choice response, and Simon paradigm. According to our expectation, we found a detrimental effect of sleep deficit on reaction time and on response force. In contrast to Van der Molen and Keuss, we found no increase in reaction time for loud stimuli (up to 110 dB) even on the Simon task.


1968 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter A. Busby ◽  
Donald E. Hurd

To determine the relationship between reading achievement and the reaction time of an individual responding to auditory and visual stimuli present in his perceptual field Ss were selected at random from Grades 2, 4 and 6. S lifted his finger from a key as rapidly as possible at the onset of any one of four stimuli (red or green light, high or low tone). Shifting reaction time was not independent of reaction time in either the auditory or visual channel. Hence, the possibility that relative perceptual difficulties could exist in shifting behavior while no defect existed in either single channel was not supported. Perception defined as the reaction time of an individual responding to auditory and visual stimuli was not significantly related to reading achievement.


1976 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti J. Saari ◽  
Bruce A. Pappas

The EKG was recorded while Ss differentially responded to auditory or visual stimuli in a reaction time task. The EKG record was analyzed by dividing each R-R interval encompassing a stimulus presentation into 9 equal phases. Reaction times were determined as a function of the phase encompassing stimulus onset while movement times were determined for the phase in which the response was initiated. Only reaction time significantly varied with cardiac cycle, with reactions during the second phase being slower than later phases.


1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf Verleger ◽  
Rudolf Cohen

SynopsisEvoked potentials and reaction times were obtained from chronic schizophrenics and normal controls to light and sound stimuli presented in random order. In the ‘ certain’ condition subjects were told what the next stimulus would be, in the ‘uncertain’ condition they were asked to guess. Amplitudes were usually larger for normals than for schizophrenics, for ‘uncertain’ than for ‘certain’ conditions, and in cross- than in ipsimodal stimulus-sequences. The effect of certainty was stronger in normals across 4 leads; so was the effect of modality shift at vertex. While these findings replicate earlier results from acute schizophrenics, no condition x group interactions could be found in the reaction time measures.Two additional results were interpreted as showing basically different attitudes with respect to the predictability of events: (1) there was a slow positivity between the verbal information and the following stimuli which was largest for schizophrenics in the conditions of certainty; (2) while normals showed long-term habituation only in N1- but not in P3-amplitudes, the reverse was true for schizophrenics.


1966 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Everdina A. Lawson

It was thought that the physical aspects of auditory stimuli were possibly transmitted via separate pathways from those transmitting the verbal aspects. Three experiments were designed to test this hypothesis. In these experiments subjects had to perform a shadowing task and had to respond simultaneously on response keys to pips superimposed in either ear on verbal messages. The response to these pips was of increasing complexity, in that it was a simple reaction time which was measured in the first experiment, a choice reaction time in the second experiment and a more complex choice reaction time in the third experiment. Subjects were able to perform these tests although the increasing difficulty was reflected in longer reaction times and more errors. The reaction times to the pips presented to the ear which was not being shadowed were slower, and the errors, made to pips in both channels, were “false positives” rather than errors of omission. These results were taken as favouring the hypothesis.


Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 451
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Castro-Palacio ◽  
Pedro Fernández-de-Córdoba ◽  
J. M. Isidro ◽  
Sarira Sahu ◽  
Esperanza Navarro-Pardo

An individual’s reaction time data to visual stimuli have usually been represented in Experimental Psychology by means of an ex-Gaussian function. In most previous works, researchers have mainly aimed at finding a meaning for the parameters of the ex-Gaussian function which are known to correlate with cognitive disorders. Based on the recent evidence of correlations between the reaction time series to visual stimuli produced by different individuals within a group, we go beyond and propose a Physics-inspired model to represent the reaction time data of a coetaneous group of individuals. In doing so, a Maxwell–Boltzmann-like distribution appeared, the same distribution as for the velocities of the molecules in an Ideal Gas model. We describe step by step the methodology we use to go from the individual reaction times to the distribution of the individuals response within the coetaneous group. In practical terms, by means of this model we also provide a simple entropy-based methodology for the classification of the individuals within the collective they belong to with no need for an external reference which can be applicable in diverse areas of social sciences.


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