Input-output relations in simple reaction time experiments.

Abstract

The isotonic muscular effort was measured from the thenar muscles of human subjects during simple reaction time experiments. It was found that the output (Θ) was related to the input (φ) by a simple power law, i.e. Θ = φn for visual, auditory and electrical stimuli applied to the digits. The exponents found were 0.21, 0.11 and 1.04 for auditory, visual and electrical stimuli respectively. Although different from those determined by Stevens for the transformation of the input energy to a psychological magnitude, their relative values are almost identical.