Latence des réponses à une série de noms en mémoire immédiate

Abstract

Summary When several stimuli are presented tachistoscopically, the latency of the first response increases with the number of responses when the number of stimuli is smaller than or equal to the perceptual span. When the number of stimuli is larger than the perceptual span, the latency increases when the difference between the number of stimuli and the number of responses increases. The present experiments confirm this double effect when the presentation is successive (with 900 ms intervais) instead of simultaneous. The results are interpreted in terms of the hypothesis of a double process intervening at the level of response elaboration : checking responses before giving them when the S. is capable of giving an exhaustive answer ; sear-ching for missing responses when the S. perceives a difference between the number of perceived stimuli and the number of available responses.