title: Simple and choice reaction time methods in the study of motor programming.
abstract: In an extensive series of experiments Sternberg, Monsell, Knoll, and Wright (1978) reported that simple RT increased as a linear function of the number of items to be pronounced or typed. The present experiments replicate a portion of these results, but show that the effect is less general than may have been supposed. Since the effect does not occur in every case in which a response programming interpretation would predict it, this interpretation must be rejected. This conclusion is consistent with the viewpoint that response programming should be investigated in a choice- rather than simple-RT paradigm. In this view, motivated subjects can program responses in advance of the simple-RT interval because the particular response to be made has been precued. Effects of response parameters which are observed for motivated subjects in the simple-RT paradigm, such as those reported by Sternberg et al. (1978), should be attributed to processes other than programming motor responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, California State University, Hayward, CA 94542, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klapp
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Abbott
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Coffman
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Greim
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Snider
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Young