title: Temporal expectation and information processing: a model-based analysis.
abstract: People are able to use temporal cues to anticipate the timing of an event, enabling them to process that event more efficiently. We conducted two experiments, using the fixed-foreperiod paradigm (Experiment 1) and the temporal-cueing paradigm (Experiment 2), to assess which components of information processing are speeded when subjects use such temporal cues to predict the onset of a target stimulus. We analyzed the observed temporal expectation effects on task performance using sequential-sampling models of decision making: the Ratcliff diffusion model and the shifted-Wald model. The results from the two experiments were consistent: temporal expectation affected the duration of nondecision processes (target encoding and/or response preparation) but had little effect on the two main components of the decision process: response-threshold setting and the rate of evidence accumulation. Our findings provide novel evidence about the psychological processes underlying temporal-expectation effects on reaction time.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, The Netherlands. Marieke.Jepma@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Marieke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jepma
authors.forename: Eric-Jan
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Wagenmakers
authors.forename: Sander
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nieuwenhuis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*