Psychological Refractoriness and the Latency Time of Two Consecutive Motor Responses

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Abstract When the response movements are as short and simple as possible, the time lag between stimulus and response for one movement is shortened by introducing the stimulus for a second movement during the latent period for the first (usually about .22 sec). Under these conditions the latent period of the second movement is increased about 25 percent. This does not seem to be caused by true psychological refractoriness, since ability to accept the second stimulus and respond to it is still present. A control experiment furnishes evidence that it is probably a foreperiod-expectancy phenomenon. The length of the response latency of a simple single movement is increased about 40 percent if conditions are altered so that a second stimulus requiring a second movement is expected some time within a half-second after the first stimulus. All of these results are consistent with the recent memory drum theory of neuromotor response.