Do reaction times in the Perruchet effect reflect variations in the strength of an associative link?
In 3 experiments, we examined Perruchet, Cleeremans, and Destrebecqz's (2006) double dissociation of cued reaction time (RT) and target expectancy. In this design, participants receive a tone on every trial and are required to respond as quickly as possible to a square presented on 50% of those trials (a partial reinforcement schedule). Participants are faster to respond to the square following many recent tone-square pairings and slower to respond following many tone-alone presentations. Of importance, expectancy of the square is highest when performance on the RT task is poorest-following many tone-alone trials. This finding suggests that RT performance is determined by the strength of a tone-square link and that this link is the product of a non-expectancy-based learning mechanism. The present experiments, however, provide evidence that the speeded RTs are not the consequence of the strengthening and weakening of a tone-square link. Thus, the RT Perruchet effect does not provide evidence for a non-expectancy-based link-formation mechanism.
Mitchell
Chris J
CJ
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2052, USA. chris.mitchell@unsw.edu.au
Wardle
Susan G
SG
Lovibond
Peter F
PF
Weidemann
Gabrielle
G
Chang
Betty P I
BP
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult