Examination of stimulus-response-effect structure in choice reaction tasks

Yun Kyoung Shin, Purdue University

Abstract

The theory of event coding (TEC) updated the original ideomotor principle and provided a radical approach to describe the perception-action interface within a common representational domain. The essential feature of TEC is its off-line anticipatory process, which suggests that an action is planned in advance by anticipation of the to-be-produced effect. Kunde (2001a) found that responses were faster when the action effects were spatially compatible to the responses. He suggested that an endogenous anticipatory process for the action effect is operated to select an adequate action as a mental cue, which exerts a parallel role to that of an external stimulus. In this thesis, I question the validity of the goal-driven TEC model and suggest an alternative hypothesis within the information-processing architecture to account for R-E compatibility effects. I assume that response execution is an independent decision-making process governed separately from the response-selection process as a cornerstone of the model, and I test this assumption by varying the task types in which a response is delayed until a go-tone occurs with varying delays. Altogether, the current study observed the R-E compatibility effect to be very weak, with failure to replicate when the effect was task-irrelevant and non-controlled by an action. When the effect was defined as a goal-satisfying event by an instruction, it mediated an early phase of response preparation. If the effect is highly correlated with an action such as in the cursor effect with mouse control, the cursor motion adjusted performance from early to late preparation until the action was completely carried out.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Proctor, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Cognitive psychology

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