A two-state model of simple reaction time

Abstract

Two experiments of simple reaction time (RT) were carried out, and a two-state model was proposed. Three and eight undergraduate students served as subjects in Experiments I and II, respectively. In earlier experiments, Okamoto (1980) showed that optimum foreperiod (FP) depends on FP's used and on relative frequencies of these FP's. In Experiment I in this article, the author showed that RT depends also on the FP in the preceding trial, and in Experiment II, he showed that the use of a warning signal had no statistically significant effects on RT. Based on these results, a two-state model of simple reaction time was proposed. This model has the following two major assumptions:(a) The subject occupies one of two states, the prepared and not-prepared states (abbreviated as Sp and Snp). When the subject is in Sp (or in Snp), his RT is short (or long). (b) The probability that the subject enters into Sp from Snp at time t depends on the FP in the preceding trial. This model fits qualitatively to the fact that (a) there is the optimum FP and (b) mean RT depends on the FP in the preceding trial.

A test of the fixed-point property of the two-state model for simple reaction time

“…A two-state model for simple reaction time was proposed by Okamoto (1981). When the subject is in the prepared state S,, (or, in the not-prepared state S"p), his reaction time will be short (or, long, respectively).…”