Interference effects of verbal and spatial tasks on simple visual reaction time.
Simple reaction times to lateralized light flash stimulation were measured in normal right-handers either with or without a concurrent task. In agreement with a previous report, a counting backwards task resulted in a substantial RT slowing which affected right-side stimuli more than left. Contrary to expectation, however, a tactual orientation discrimination task resulted in RT slowing which affected right-hand responses more than left, with no visual asymmetry.
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D013236:Stereognosis; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014794:Visual Fields; D014796:Visual Perception