Maylor, Elizabeth A. and Rabbitt, Patrick. (1989) Relationship between rate of preparation for, and processing of, an event requiring a choice response. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Section A: Human Experimental Psychology, Vol.41 (No.1). pp. 47-62. ISSN 0272-4987

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

It is known that alcohol increases the time taken to identify signals and to make responses to them, but it is not known whether it also slows the rate of preparation for such events. These two performance parameters are not necessarily related, as age affects the former but not the latter. Twenty subjects participated in a 4-choice reaction time experiment in which they received no alcohol (NA) in the first session and either no alcohol (10 subjects) or 0.8 ml alcohol (A) per kg body weight (10 subjects) in the second session. In each session there were 300 practice trials, followed by 400 experimental trials at each one of five Response–Stimulus Intervals (RSI: 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800 msec). There was a significant effect of alcohol such that the reduction in response time from the first to the second session was 39 msec larger for the NA/NA group than for the NA/A group. Response time decreased significantly with increasing RSI, but there was no interaction between the effect of alcohol and RSI. Thus, alcohol slows the processing of an event requiring a choice response; however, like age and individual differences, but unlike practice, alcohol has no effect on the rate of preparation for that event. In addition, an analysis of what happened before and after an error revealed that practice and increasing RSI produce real improvements in performance rather than shifts in the tradeoff between speed and accuracy, whereas alcohol produces a real impairment. It is concluded that the relationship between the rate of preparation for, and processing of, a stimulus is not simple, as one factor (practice) influences both rates, whereas other factors (alcohol, individual differences, and age) influence the rate of processing only.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Alcohol -- Psychological aspects, Reaction time, Cognition, Attention
Journal or Publication Title:	The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Section A: Human Experimental Psychology
Publisher:	Psychology Press
ISSN:	0272-4987
Date:	1989
Volume:	Vol.41
Number:	No.1
Page Range:	pp. 47-62
Identification Number:	10.1080/14640748908402352
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Funder:	Medical Research Council (Great Britain) (MRC)
Grant number:	G8221479 (MRC)
References:	* 1. Brebner, J. M. T. and Welford, A. T. 1980. “Introduction: An historical background sketch”. In Reaction times Edited by: Welford, A. T. London: Academic Press. * 2. Huntley, M. S. 1973. Alcohol influences upon closed-course driving performance. Journal of Safety Research, 5: 149–164. * 3. Jennings, J. R., Wood, C. C. and Lawrence, B. E. 1976. Effects of graded doses of alcohol on speed–accuracy tradeoff in choice reaction time. Perception and Psychophysics, 19: 85–91. * 4. Jensen, A. R. 1985. The nature of the black–white differences on various psychometric tests: Spearman's hypothesis. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 8: 162–185. * 5. Laming, D. 1968. Information theory of choice reaction times London and New York: Academic Press. Check for fulltext * 6. Luce, R. D. 1986. Response times Oxford: Oxford University Press. * 7. Maylor, E. A. and Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1987a. Effects of alcohol and practice on choice reaction time. Perception & Psychophysics, 42: 465–475. [CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], Check for fulltext * 8. Maylor, E. A. and Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1987b. Effect of alcohol on rate of forgetting. Psychopharmacology, 91: 230–235. * 9. Maylor, E. A. and Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1987c. Effects of practice and alcohol on performance of a perceptual-motor task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 39A: 777–795. Check for fulltext * 10. Maylor, E. A. and Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1988. Amount of practice and degree of attentional control have no influence on the adverse effect of alcohol in word categorization and visual search tasks. Perception & Psychophysics, 44: 117–126. * 11. Maylor, E. A., Rabbitt, P. M. A. and Connolly, S. A. V. Rate of processing and judgement of response speed: Comparing the effects of alcohol and practice. Perception and Psychophysics., (in preparation). * 12. Maylor, E. A., Rabbitt, P. M. A., Sahgal, A. and Wright, C. 1987. Effects of alcohol on speed and accuracy in choice reaction time and visual search. Acta Psychologica, 65: 147–163. * 13. Niemi, P. and Näätänen, R. 1981. Foreperiod and simple reaction time. Psychological Bulletin, 89: 133–162. * 14. Posner, M. I. and Boies, S. J. 1971. Components of attention. Psychological Review, 78: 391–408. * 15. Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1966. Errors and error correction in choice-response tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71: 264–272. * 16. Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1968. Three kinds of error-signalling responses in a serial choice task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 20: 179–188. * 17. Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1969. Psychological refractory delay and response-stimulus interval duration in serial, choice response tasks. Acta Psychologica, 30: 195–219. * 18. Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1979. “Current paradigms and models in human information processing”. In Human stress and cognition: An information processing approach Edited by: Hamilton, V. and Warburton, D. M. New York: Wiley. * 19. Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1980. The effects of R–S interval duration on serial choice reaction time: Preparation time or response monitoring time?. Ergonomics, 23: 65–77. * 20. Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1981. “Sequential reactions”. In Human skills Edited by: Holding, D. London: Wiley. * 21. Rabbitt, P. M. A. 1984. “How old people prepare themselves for events which they expect”. In Attention & performance X: Control of language processes Edited by: Bouma, H. and Bouwhuis, D. G. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. * 22. Rabbitt, P. M. A. and Vyas, S. 1982. “Age and the rate of preparation for signals and responses”. In Experimental Brain Research, Supplement 5 Berlin: Springer-Verlag. * 23. Salthouse, T. 1985. A theory of cognitive aging Amsterdam: North-Holland. * 24. Shepherd, M. 1984. EMDISP: A visual display system with digital and analog sampling. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments and Computers, 16: 297–302.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/35780

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item