Stimulus and response contributions to the children's reaction-time repetition effect

Sequential effects on speeded information processing: A developmental study

“…The results obtained for a small group (n D 10) of 10-to 12-year-olds deviated from the adult Wndings by showing (a) a stronger Wrst-order repetition eVect for the short RSI and (b) the absence of a Wrst-order alternation eVect for the long RSI. These results are consistent with the age-related decrease in the size of the repetition eVect reported previously by Fairweather (1978) and (Kerr, 1979) (see also Kerr et al, 1980Kerr et al, , 1982. In addition, Soetens and Hueting (1992) observed a higher order cost-beneWt pattern for the 500-ms RSI that seemed to be less pronounced in children than in adults.…”

“…Likewise, in a series of studies, Kerr and colleagues consistently found a smaller repetition eVect in adults than in children. Moreover, with a lengthening of the response-to-stimulus interval (RSI) from 250 to 750 ms, the repetition eVect changed into an alternation eVect in adults but not in children (Kerr, 1979;Kerr, Blanchard, & Miller, 1980;Kerr, Davidson, Nelson, & Haley, 1982). Consistent with the theoretical framework developed in adult studies (e.g., Kirby, 1980), Kerr and colleagues interpreted the age-related decrease in the repetition eVect in terms of automatic facilitation.…”

“…Based on the pertinent literature just reviewed, we predicted that adults would show a Wrst-order repetition eVect and a higher order beneWt-only pattern when the RSI is short, whereas they would show a Wrst-order alternation eVect and a cost-beneWt pattern when the RSI is long (e.g., Soetens, 1990). Children were anticipated to show a stronger Wrst-order repetition eVect (Fairweather, 1978;Kerr et al, 1982) and a less pronounced Wrst-order alternation eVect (Soetens & Hueting, 1992). This pattern of results is indicative of a developmental decrease in the strength of the automatic facilitation mechanism and an increase in the strength of the subjective expectancy mechanism.…”

“…suggested that repetitions reduce the time needed for selecting the correct response that is particularly slow in children relative to adults (cf. Kerr et al, 1982).…”

“…The Wrst experiment aimed at replicating the pattern of developmental change in Wrst-order and higher order sequential eVects observed previously by Soetens and Hueting (1992). The second experiment was designed to further assess the automatic facilitation hypothesis of the developmental decrease in the Wrst-order repetition (Kerr et al, 1982) and higher order beneWt-only pattern (Soetens & Hueting, 1992).…”