The time-course of preparation: Confirmatory results with visual and auditory warning signals

Abstract

In a previous experiment (B ERTELSON, 1967) an auditory warning signal occurring in a high time-uncertainty situation produced an acceleration of the choice reaction to a visual stimulus which followed it by a predictable interval. The experiment has been replicated with the same click as warning signal in one condition, and with a visual signal, a flash, in the other. The facilitating effects of the flash lag behind those of the click, but they are observed for all positive intervals and are significant from 70 msec onwards. The previous conclusion that a warning signal can be used as a time cue without starting a refractory period was thus not restricted to the particular signal which had been used so far. A consequence is that the current tendency to take the situation of a reaction stimulus prefaced by a no-reaction stimulus as the standard condition in which to study refractoriness should be considered with caution.