| Abstract: | Studied reaction time (RT) in an 8-alternative choice task. The 8 stimuli were linked either to individual response keys activated by the 8 fingers of the Ss' hands (manual condition) or to 8 different verbal responses (verbal conditions). The choice RT varied systematically as a function of the stimulus in the manual condition with the responses by the index and 4th fingers of both hands being faster than those by the 2nd and 3rd fingers. In the verbal condition with the same stimuli, but with spoken response, there was no significant variation of RT across stimuli. The results in the manual condition replicated those reported by A. T. Welford (1976, 1980) for this task. RT differences were attributed to the order of stimulus inspection that was under the Ss' control. However, the absence of interstimulus differences in the verbal condition argues against this explanation. The RT effect in the manual condition appears to be due to finger-specific differences in the speed of selecting and executing the response and not to stimulus inspection order. (English abstract) (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
