title: Asymmetric interference in concurrent time-to-contact estimation: Cousin or twin of the psychological refractory period effect?
abstract: In a reaction time (RT) task requiring fast responses to two stimuli presented close in time, human observers show a delayed RT to the second stimulus. This phenomenon has been attributed to a psychological refractory period (PRP). A similar asymmetric interference is found when performing multiple concurrent visual time-to-contact (TTC) estimations for moving objects, despite important differences between the tasks. In the present study, we studied the properties of the asymmetric interference found in the TTC task and compared them to the classical PRP effect. In Experiment 1, we varied the time interval between the two objects' arrival times to determine the dependence of the PRP-like effect on the asynchrony between the two TTCs. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the physical or the perceived arrival order determined the asymmetric interference. Our results confirmed the existence of asymmetric interference in the multiple TTC estimation task, but also indicated important differences from the traditional PRP effect observed in the RT paradigm. The origins of these differences are discussed, as well as the practical implications.
authors.affiliation: CerCo, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France. robin.baures@cnrs.fr.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baurès
authors.affiliation: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: DeLucia
authors.affiliation: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oberfeld
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012033:Refractory Period, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Dual-task interference, Prediction motion; Psychological refractory period; Time-to-contact estimation