title: Parallel response selection in dual-task situations.
abstract: Semantic priming and response priming were studied in a dual-task procedure. In two experiments, reaction times to the first and second stimuli were faster when the finger required for the Task 1 response was the same as the finger required for the Task 2 response. Such priming suggests that Task 2 response information was generated prior to the completion of Task 1 response selection. These data pose a potential challenge to the response-selection bottleneck (RSB) theory of dual-task performance, since they may indicate a violation of the discrete-stage processing assumption on which the underlying locus-of-slack logic depends. Accommodating these data while preserving the essential bottleneck character of RSB theory may be possible but may also alter the very nature of the bottleneck itself.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. watter@mcmaster.ca
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watter
authors.forename: Gordon D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Logan
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics