Effects of foreperiod interval upon reaction time, alpha blocking, and heart rate under variable conditions with reduced learning factors

Abstract

The present experiment was to investigate the effects of foreperiod interval upon reaction time (RT), alpha blocking, and heart rate (HR) under conditions in which learning factors and conditional probability were minimized. Twenty college students were given a series of 44 randomized foreperiod intervals (0–30 sec). The fastest RT was obtained at 0.6 sec foreperiod. Alpha blocking provided the same trend as that of RT, showing that the 0.6 sec foreperiod yielded the largest alpha blocking. Positive correlation was observed between the speed of RT and alpha blocking ( r = 0.56, p<0.001). HR curve was different from those of RT and alpha blocking. No significant correlation was obtained between RT and HR. The results were discussed, particularly, in terms of the theory of classical conditioning.