The effects of advance information on human information processing in a choice reaction task

Abstract

A study was conducted to explore the human’s ability to take advantage of the advance information which significantly reduces the amount of uncertainty associated with the up-coming trial in a choice reaction task. Each of eight Ss performed under three experimental conditions: (1) a six-choice condition with 2.58 bits of average stimulus uncertainty, (2) a four-choice condition with only 0.99 bits of average stimulus uncertainty, and (3) a condition consisting of a randomized merge of the stimulus sequences used in the previous two conditions in which information regarding the uncertainty (i.e., 2.58 or 0.99 bits) associated with the up-coming trial was advanced.5, 1, or 2 sec before the presentation of the stimulus signal. It was found that the Ss could reliably take advantage of advance information to reduce their response time as long as the delay between the advance information and the stimulus signal was 1 sec or longer. In addition, it was found that advance information had little effect on first- and second-order sequential effects customarily found in choice reaction time data.