Donders revisited: Discrete or continuous temporal processing underlying reaction time distributions?
Differences of reaction times to specific stimulus configurations are used as indicators of cognitive processing stages. In this classical experimental paradigm, continuous temporal processing is implicitly assumed. Multimodal response distributions indicate, however, discrete time sampling, which is often masked by experimental conditions. Differences in reaction times reflect discrete temporal mechanisms that are pre-semantically implemented and suggested to be based on entrained neural oscillations.
School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China. baoyan@pku.edu.cn.|Institute of Medical Psychology and Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. baoyan@pku.edu.cn.
Yan
Y
Bao
Institute of Medical Psychology and Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Taoxi
T
Yang
School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Xiaoxiong
X
Lin
School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.|Institute of Medical Psychology and Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Ernst
E
Pöppel
D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D016011:Normal Distribution; D011930:Reaction Time; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult
discrete time sampling; ex-Gaussian distribution; excitability cycles; intrahemispheric learning; neural oscillations; processing stages; reaction time