The locus of temporal preparation effects: Evidence from the psychological refractory period paradigm

Temporal uncertainty degrades perceptual processing

“…This conclusion agrees with the results from recent chronophysiological studies in which temporal uncertainty was manipulated using either short foreperiods (Hackley & Valle-Inclán, 1998; short, medium, and long foreperiods (Müller-Gethmann et al, 2003); or variable versus fixed intertrial intervals (Smulders, 1993). The conclusion is also in line with the PRP study discussed in the introduction (Bausenhart et al, 2006), which used the effect propagation logic (Miller & Reynolds, 2003) of the PRP and localized the temporal uncertainty effect prior to or at the response selection bottleneck. Moreover, our result extends the present knowledge, and strongly suggests a perceptual locus of the temporal uncertainty effect.…”

“…Therefore, this account cannot distinguish between a perceptual and a more central locus of the temporal uncertainty effect. A similar limitation applies to the PRP study (Bausenhart et al, 2006): Since the effect propagation logic of the PRP is based on the assumption that the bottleneck in processing emerges from a response selection bottleneck (see, e.g., Pashler, 1994;Sommer, Leuthold, & Schubert, 2001), even this study was not able to localize the influence of temporal uncertainty on different premotoric processes. Thus, the issue of whether the temporal uncertainty effect is restricted to central processing stages or influences stimulus processing at a perceptual level remains unresolved.…”

“…Additional evidence for a premotoric 1 locus of the temporal uncertainty effect has emerged from a recent study by Bausenhart, Rolke, Hackley, and Ulrich (2006). Those authors used the effect propagation property (Miller & Reynolds, 2003) of the psychological refractory period paradigm (PRP; Pashler & Johnston, 1998) to obtain further, independent evidence regarding the locus of the temporal preparation effect.…”

The speeding of voluntary reaction by a warning signal

“…Prior studies of temporal attention effects on the rapidity of late motor processes have obtained either no effect or only a very small one (e.g., Bausenhart, Rolke, Hackley, & Ulrich, 2006;Mu¨ller-Gethmann, Ulrich, & Rinkenauer, 2003;Tandonnet, Burle, Vidal, & Hasbroucq, 2006). The only previous study of visual processing that used a subtraction component to avoid contamination by CNV offset and motor potentials similarly found no variation in the speed of perceptual analysis (Rudell & Hu, 2001).…”

Temporal preparation improves temporal resolution: Evidence from constant foreperiods

“…More recent work in the field of temporal preparation addressed the question of whether, in addition to motor-related behavior, premotor processing might be enhanced by preparation. Studies employing the psychological refractory period (Bausenhart, Rolke, Hackley, & Ulrich, 2006) or psychophysiological measures (Hackley, Schankin, Wohlschlaeger, & Wascher, 2007;Hackley & Valle-Inclán, 2003;Müller-Gethmann et al, 2003) have provided evidence for this notion. These results are further supported by studies demonstrating that temporal preparation facilitates perceptual processing of visual (Rolke, in press;Rolke & Hofmann, 2007) as well as auditory (Bausenhart, Rolke, & Ulrich, 2007) stimuli.…”