Serial retrieval processes in the recovery of order information.

The retrieval of temporal order and item information from short-term memory (STM) are examined with the cued-response speed–accuracy trade-off (CR-SAT) procedure and a complementary reaction time (RT) task. The retrieval of order information was examined with a 2-alternative forced-choice (2AFC), relative judgment of recency (JOR) task. Analyses of the pattern of mean RT, RT accuracy, and the overall shape of the RT distribution for correct JORs suggest that order information is retrieved by a serial retrieval mechanism. Analyses of SAT retrieval functions confirm that order information is retrieved by a recency-based, serial retrieval process. These results contrast with previous SAT analyses of STM item recognition (B. McElree and B. A. Dosher, see record 1990-09049-001), which indicate that item information is retrieved by a parallel or direct-access mechanism. The dissociation between item and order information retrieval was further documented in a 2AFC item recognition SAT study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer of training from reaction time to tachistoscopic recognition.

Describes 2 experiments in which RT practice preceded a tachistoscopic recognition task. Ss were 108 and 180 undergraduates, respectively. The amount of positive transfer obtained was shown to be a function of both the type of RT task and the amount of RT practice. This transfer was attributed to the learning of an attentional response to the foreperiod which was the same length in both tasks. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

La prise de décision rapide en situation de choix dichotomique: Une approche intégrée qui tient compte de l'amorce et de l'exécution de la réponse.

Reviews models of response performance developed to explain the relation among overall reaction time (RT), motor RT, spatial precision of response, and accuracy of response. Emphasis is on the compromise between RT and response accuracy in choice situations and the compromise between movement speed and spatial precision in decisions involving dichotomous choices. An integrated model that considers that both RT and movement time can be modified as an S adapts to the demands of a given task is proposed. The model also allows for the prediction of speed, accuracy, and RT strategies for a particular decision-making situation. Recent research that supports the integrated response performance model is presented. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motor coactivation revealed by response force in divided and focused attention.

Four experiments examined effects of bimodal stimulation on response force (RF) in addition to reaction time (RT). In a divided-attention task (Exps 1–3), Ss were asked for a speeded response to either a visual or an auditory signal. In unimodal signal trials, either a visual or auditory signal was presented alone, and in redundant-signals trials, both signals were presented simultaneously. The same stimulus arrangement was used in a focused-attention task (Exp 4), but Ss had to withhold their response when an auditory signal was presented alone. In all experiments, the fastest RTs were attained in redundant-signals trials. In addition, RF was largest in redundant-signals trials, especially in the divided-attention task, suggesting a motor coactivation hypothesis. The results indicate that the type of stimulation influences not only when a response is initiated but also how the response is executed. This finding challenges the view, commonly held in mental chronometry, that late motoric processes remain untouched by experimental manipulations. A detailed analysis of the relationship between RT and RF revealed that these variables are not inherently redundant measures, and therefore, RF recording may supplement the traditional RT measurement in mental chronometry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The inaction effect in the psychology of regret.

Previous research showed that decisions to act (i.e., actions) produce more regret than decisions not to act (i.e., inactions). This previous research focused on decisions made in isolation and ignored that decisions are often made in response to earlier outcomes. The authors show in 4 experiments that these prior outcomes may promote action and hence make inaction more abnormal. They manipulated information about a prior outcome. As hypothesized, when prior outcomes were positive or absent, people attributed more regret to action than to inaction. However, as predicted and counter to previous research, following negative prior outcomes, more regret was attributed to inaction, a finding that the authors label the inaction effect. Experiment 4, showing differential effects for regret and disappointment, demonstrates the need for emotion-specific predictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial attention and response control in healthy younger and older adults and individuals with Alzheimer's disease: Evidence for disproportionate selection impairments in the simon task.

The authors examined the degree to which aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) influence the ability to control attention when conflict is presented in terms of incongruent mapping between a stimulus and the appropriate response. In a variant of the Simon task, healthy older adults and older adults with mild or very mild AD showed disproportionately larger reaction time (RT) costs when the stimulus and response were in conflict relative to RT costs of healthy younger adults. Analyses of RT distributions provide support for a 2-process model of the Simon effect in which there is a short-lived transient effect of the irrelevant dimension in younger adults and a more sustained influence across the RT distribution in older adults. An analysis of error rates showed that the older adults with mild and very mild AD made more errors on incongruent trials, suggesting that AD leads to increased likelihood of selecting the prepotent pathway. The findings are discussed in terms of the special nature of the response requirements of the Simon task to better illuminate the attentional decrements in both healthy aging and early stage AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of the go/no-go task.

In this article, the first explicit, theory-based comparison of 2-choice and go/no-go variants of 3 experimental tasks is presented. Prior research has questioned whether the underlying core-information processing is different for the 2 variants of a task or whether they differ mostly in response demands. The authors examined 4 different diffusion models for the go/no-go variant of each task along with a standard diffusion model for the 2-choice variant (R. Ratcliff, 1978). The 2-choice and the go/no-go models were fit to data from 4 lexical decision experiments, 1 numerosity discrimination experiment, and 1 recognition memory experiment, each with 2-choice and go/no-go variants. The models that assumed an implicit decision criterion for no-go responses produced better fits than models that did not. The best model was one in which only response criteria and the nondecisional components of processing changed between the 2 variants, supporting the view that the core information on which decisions are based is not different between them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The temporal selectivity of additive factor effects on the reaction process revealed in ERP component latencies

An experiment was conducted to relate individual components of the event-related brain potential to specific stages of information processing in a two-choice reaction time (RT) task in a group of undergraduate students. Specifically, the latency of the P300 component and the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) were studied as a function of variations in stimulus degradation and response complexity. It was hypothesized that degrading the stimulus would delay the P300 and LRP to the same extent as RT, and that increasing response complexity would affect RT but not P300 latency. The extant literature did not permit any hypothesis regarding the effect of response complexity on LRP latency. The two task variables were found to have additive effects on RT. As predicted, variations in stimulus degradation influenced the latencies of both components, whereas alterations in response complexity had no effect on P300 latency. A significant new finding was that the onset latency of the LRP remained unchanged across levels of response complexity. The overall pattern of results supports the notion of temporal selectivity of stage manipulations that is derived from discrete stage models of human information processing. Furthermore, these results refine the functional interpretation of the LRP by indicating that within the conceptual framework of a stage model the processes this component indexes succeed the start of response choice but preceded the start of motor programming.     

Modeling aging effects on two-choice tasks: Response signal and response time data.

In the response signal paradigm, a test stimulus is presented, and then at one of a number of experimenter-determined times, a signal to respond is presented. Response signal, standard response time (RT), and accuracy data were collected from 19 college-age and 19 60- to 75-year-old participants in a numerosity discrimination task. The data were fit with 2 versions of the diffusion model. Response signal data were modeled by assuming a mixture of processes, those that have terminated before the signal and those that have not terminated; in the latter case, decisions are based on either partial information or guessing. The effects of aging on performance in the regular RT task were explained the same way in the models, with a 70- to 100-ms increase in the nondecision component of processing, more conservative decision criteria, and more variability across trials in drift and the nondecision component of processing, but little difference in drift rate (evidence). In the response signal task, the primary reason for a slower rise in the response signal functions for older participants was variability in the nondecision component of processing. Overall, the results were consistent with earlier fits of the diffusion model to the standard RT task for college-age participants and to the data from aging studies using this task in the standard RT procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Diffusion Model Analysis of the Effects of Aging in the Lexical-Decision Task.

The effects of aging on response time (RT) are examined in 2 lexical-decision experiments with young and older subjects (age 60-75). The results show that the older subjects were slower than the young subjects, but more accurate. R. Ratcliff s (1978) diffusion model provided a good account of RTs, their distributions, and response accuracy. The fits show an 80-100-ms slowing of the nondecision components of RT for older subjects relative to young subjects and more conservative decision criterion settings for older subjects than for young subjects. The rates of accumulation of evidence were not significantly different for older compared with young subjects (less than 2% and 5% higher for older subjects relative to young subjects in the 2 experiments). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory S-R compatibility: The effect of an irrelevant cue on information processing.

Two experiments demonstrated the existence of a strong population stereotype which affected the processing of verbal commands. In a choice RT task, Ss pressed the right- or left-hand key in response to the words "right" or "left" which were presented to the right or left ear. RT was significantly faster when the content of the command corresponded to the ear stimulated than when it did not, i.e., information processing was affected by a cue irrelevant to the task itself, the ear in which the command was heard. Removing S's uncertainty regarding the ear to be stimulated resulted in significantly faster RT, and reduced but did not eliminate the effect of the irrelevant directional cue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A violation of pure insertion: Mental rotation and choice reaction time.

Six experiments tested the assumption that the mental rotation process is purely inserted into a mirror–normal discrimination task. In Exp 1, Ss took significantly longer to respond to upright characters in blocks containing rotated stimuli than in blocks containing only upright stimuli. Exps 2 and 3 showed that this rotational uncertainty effect was not caused by the need to determine stimulus orientation, and Exp 4 showed that it was independent of the visual quality of the stimulus. Exp 5 showed that the effect was greatly reduced when Ss performed a go–no-go task rather than choice reaction time (RT), and Exp 6 showed that it was independent of the complexity of the response required in the choice task. Results suggest that response selection in a choice RT mirror–normal discrimination task is altered when mental rotation is added, violating the assumption of pure insertion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The temporal dynamics of visual search: Evidence for parallel processing in feature and conjunction searches.

Feature and conjunction searches have been argued to delineate parallel and serial operations in visual processing. The authors evaluated this claim by examining the temporal dynamics of the detection of features and conjunctions. The 1st experiment used a reaction time (RT) task to replicate standard mean RT patterns and to examine the shapes of the RT distributions. The 2nd experiment used the response-signal speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure to measure discrimination (asymptotic detection accuracy) and detection speed (processing dynamics). Set size affected discrimination in both feature and conjunction searches but affected detection speed only in the latter. Fits of models to the SAT data that included a serial component overpredicted the magnitude of the observed dynamics differences. The authors concluded that both features and conjunctions are detected in parallel. Implications for the role of attention in visual processing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial compatibility effects with Hemifield presentation in a unimanual two-finger task.

A unimanual, 2-finger choice RT task was used in conjunction with visual signals presented to either the left or right visual field of 16 right-handed undergraduates. Spatial compatibility effects were noted. Responses were quicker for right-field presentations when the rightmost fingers of either hand made the response, and for the left-field presentation when the leftmost finger responded. This compatibility was observed for easy but not difficult decisions on both perceptually and symbolically based choice tasks. The magnitude of the compatibility effect did not differ as a function of which hand made the response. (French abstract) (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptive decision processes in perceptual comparisons: Effects of changes in global difficulty context.

Adaptive decision processes were investigated in experiments involving an unexpected change in the global ease or difficulty of the task. Under accuracy stress, a shift from an easy to a difficult context induced a marked increase in decision time, but a shift from a difficult to an easy context did not. Under speed stress, a shift to a more difficult context induced lower accuracy and rated confidence, depending on the difficulty of the decisions. A view of caution developed in D. Vickers's (1979) accumulator theory--whereby one seeks to base decisions on more information--is compared with a view based on slow and fast guessing theory (W. M. Petrusic, 1992; W. M. Petrusic & J. V. Baranski, 1989a)--whereby one seeks to base decisions on more diagnostic information. On balance, the findings support the latter view. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does irrelevant stimulus location affect response selection?

Reaction time (RT) is shorter when the irrelevant location of the stimulus corresponds to the relevant location of the response: When a subject is to perform a left or right keypress according to the colour of a stimulus delivered either to the left or to the right of a fixation, RT is typically shorter when the location of the stimulus corresponds to the location of the response (e.g., left stimulus/left response) than when it does not (e.g., left stimulus/right response). Umiltà and Nicoletti (1990) have suggested that this effect, known as the ?Simon effect' in the literature, occurred at the response selection stage, a stage whose duration depends on the effectors used to perform the task. In the present study, this effect and that of the finger response repertoire (within- versus between-hand composition) were found to be additive, which does not support the response selection hypothesis of the Simon effect.     

Clever homunculus: Is there an endogenous act of control in the explicit task-cuing procedure?

Does the explicit task-cuing procedure require an endogenous act of control? In 5 experiments, cues indicating which task to perform preceded targets by several stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Two models were developed to account for changes in reaction time (RT) with SOA. Model 1 assumed an endogenous act of task switching for cue alternations but not for cue repetitions. Model 2 assumed no such act. In Experiments 1 and 2, the cue was masked or not masked. Masking interacted underadditively with repetition and alternation, consistent with Model 2 but not Model 1. In Experiments 3 and 4, 2 cues were used for each task. RT was slower for task repetition than for cue repetition and about the same as RT for task alternation, consistent with Model 2 but not Model 1. The results suggest that the explicit task-cuing procedure does not require an endogenous act of control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of the single-channel bottleneck in dual-task interference.

Two experiments used the locus-of-cognitive-slack method to determine whether dual-task interference occurs before or after the response selection stage. The experiments used the overlapping tasks paradigm, in which 2 signals, each requiring a different speeded choice response, are presented in rapid succession. In Exp 1, stimulus–response (S–R) compatibility was manipulated by varying whether Task 2 stimuli were mapped onto their responses by a rule or arbitrarily. Compatibility effects were additive with the effects of degree of task overlap, manipulated by varying the stimulus onset asynchrony between the signals. Exp 2 examined 2 additional forms of S–R compatibility: symbolic compatibility (arrows vs letters) and spatial compatibility (the "Simon" effect). Effects of symbolic compatibility were additive with effects of degree of task overlap, whereas the effects of spatial compatibility and degree of task overlap were underadditive. It is argued that only a central-bottleneck model provides a consistent account of these results. The nature of the central bottleneck is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bias in the priming of object decisions.

Seven experiments examined priming effects for 3-dimensional line drawings in the object decision task. One of the most important previous findings about object decisions has been that the decision about a possible object is primed by previous presentation of the object, but the decision about an impossible object is not. Through the use of manipulations that can eliminate processes that retrieve episodic information (response time deadlines, memory load, forced choice, and similarity), equal size effects on impossible and possible objects were obtained. This is interpreted to mean that priming effects reflect a bias to respond "possible," which can be opposed for impossible objects by episodic information so as to yield the approximately null priming effect for impossible objects found in past experiments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)