When one or more response dimensions in a choice reaction time (RT) task are provided beforehand (or precued), RT decreases, indicating that the precued part of a response was prepared in advance. In this study, a startling acoustic stimulus was used to investigate the amount of preprogramming that occurs when part of the response is precued because a startling stimulus has been shown to directly trigger preprogrammed responses. Participants performed wrist flexion/extension movements in a precued one to four choice RT paradigm. A control auditory stimulus (82 dB) or a startling acoustic stimulus (124 dB) accompanied the visual "go" signal on each trial. Although RT latencies were significantly reduced by the startle, many more errors were observed in the startled conditions. Importantly, the errors seen at short RT latencies largely reflected multiple movements to the cued response alternatives, suggesting that multiple responses were preprogrammed.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Startle • Electromyography • Information processing • Motor control • Reaction time
Research Division:	Health Sciences
Research Group:	Sports science and exercise
Research Field:	Motor control
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in psychology
UTAS Author:	Summers, JJ (Professor Jeffery Summers)
ID Code:	56545
Year Published:	2009
Web of Science® Times Cited:	18
Deposited By:	Psychology
Deposited On:	2009-05-12
Last Modified:	2014-12-18
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