Cognitive slowing in decision tasks in early and advanced Parkinson's disease.

Ten untreated patients with recently diagnosed Parkinson's disease (PD), 9 treated patients with more advanced pathology, and 17 matched normal controls were investigated with three reaction tasks with increasing cognitive load but identical motor requirements: simple reaction, choice reaction with indicative stimuli, and choice reaction with ambiguous stimuli. Times required until a home key was released (= reaction time) and from then until a response key was pressed (= movement time) were recorded. Estimates of pure decision time (overall response time minus movement time in a simple reaction time task) revealed a difference between advanced and early PD patients. Advanced PD patients showed an overall slowing of decision time in the reaction time tasks, but the effect of the cognitive load of the tasks on the decision time was comparable to a control group. The untreated early PD patients performed quite normally in the more simple decision tasks but showed a disproportionate slowing of decision time in tasks with higher cognitive load.     

Effect of directional response variables on eye-hand reaction times and decision time

To determine if direction of response affects reaction time, we measured the time for hand response to a visual stimulus, using a sensitive, microprocessor-based testing device to determine simple reaction time (RT), choice RT, and decision time. Mean simple RT was 207 +/- 3.7 msec. (mean +/- SEM); mean choice RT was 268 +/- 4.2 msec; and mean decision time was 61 msec. No differences were noted for leftward versus rightward movements, or midline versus lateral movements. Choice RT increased by 1.49 msec./yr. of age. Simple RT increased significantly with age for the nondominant hand, but not for the dominant hand. Right-handed subjects were more rapid with the dominant hand for choice RT. We conclude that dominance of hand tested and test initiation mechanism have major effects, but direction of movement in the lateral plane has little effect on reaction time.     

Reaction Time,Age, and Cognitive Ability: Longitudinal Findings from Age 16 to 63 Years in Representative Population Samples

Reaction time variables are used widely in studies of human cognitive ageing and in research on the information processing foundations of psychometric intelligence. The research is largely based on biased population samples. In the present study, large (500+), representative samples of the population of the West of Scotland were tested at ages 16, 36 and 56 years on simple and choice reaction time. Participants were re-tested eight years later, at which time they also took the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). We report simple and choice reaction time means and their variabilities, their stability across 8 years, and their correlations with the PASAT. Simple and choice reaction times become slower and more variable with age. Women from age 36 to 63 show more variability in choice reaction times than men, an effect which remains after controlling for mean reaction time. Reaction time differences largely account for age differences, but not sex differences, in PASAT scores.     

事故多发驾驶员与安全驾驶员反应时的比较研究

本文对18名事故多发卡车驾驶员和18名安全卡车驾驶员的视觉、听觉简单反应时、选择反应时以及决策时间进行了比较研究.结果表明事故多发组卡车驾驶员的视觉、听觉简单反应时比安全组卡车驾驶员长,但差异不显著;事故多发组卡车驾驶员的视觉、听觉选择反应时与决策时间都比安全组卡车驾驶员长,且差异显著.本研究结果为我国深入开展驾驶员的选拔、培训与驾驶适应性检测提供理论依据与技术支持.     

Decision time and movement time in depression: differential effects of practice before and after clinical improvement

Choice reaction time involves, at least two components of response latency, decision time and movement time. Studies of choice reaction time usually provide values of these two components averaged over a given number of trials. The aim of the present study of depressed subjects was to investigate changes across practice on Decision Time (DT) and Movement Time (MT) before and after clinical improvement. 19 depressed subjects were given two sessions of 50 trials each, one before treatment (Di) and one after recovery (Df). Decision time and movement time exhibited quite different patterns. Decision time significantly decreased with clinical improvement. No significant variation across trials was found, in either session. Movement time values varied across trials but the variations observed on Di and Df were significantly different, whereas before treatment latencies recorded at the end of the session were greater than those scored at the start, the contrary was observed after clinical recovery. No significant difference was found between values of movement time scored at the start of the two sessions.     

Eye Movements in Risky Choice

We asked participants to make simple risky choices while we recorded their eye movements. We built a complete statistical model of the eye movements and found very little systematic variation in eye movements over the time course of a choice or across the different choices. The only exceptions were finding more (of the same) eye movements when choice options were similar, and an emerging gaze bias in which people looked more at the gamble they ultimately chose. These findings are inconsistent with prospect theory, the priority heuristic, or decision field theory. However, the eye movements made during a choice have a large relationship with the final choice, and this is mostly independent from the contribution of the actual attribute values in the choice options. That is, eye movements tell us not just about the processing of attribute values but also are independently associated with choice. The pattern is simple—people choose the gamble they look at more often, independently of the actual numbers they see—and this pattern is simpler than predicted by decision field theory, decision by sampling, and the parallel constraint satisfaction model. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Role of perceptual and motor abilities in instep-kicking performance of young soccer players

The present study made a dynamic analysis of the ground reaction forces developed on the supporting foot during instep kicking to investigate the relation between specific perceptual and motor abilities and the performance of this skill. 45 young soccer players (11-13 years of age) participated in a series of laboratory tests assessing simple, choice, and discrimination reaction time, sustained attention, depth perception, and sense of kinesthesis. Kicking performance measured by the amount of impulse (calculated as the integral of force) developed on the supporting foot during kicking. There was a significant correlation of the kicking impulse with choice reaction time (r = -.54) and attention reaction time (r = -.41). Stepwise regression analysis indicated that choice reaction time accounted for 29% of the variation in the anterior/posterior kicking impulse and 16.4% of the variation in the medio/lateral kicking impulse. The significant relation between kicking impulse and measures concerning speed of information processing suggests that processes associated with fast response selection may play an important role in instep-kicking performance. These findings can provide useful information for designing of training schemes and testing protocols.     

Reaction times and intelligence

A total of 205-nine-year-olds were tested on reaction times providing 12 reaction time (RT) parameters consisting of: movement times, decision times in simple, choice, and odd-man-out tasks, variabilities, and also on a number of intelligence tests measuring the major primary abilities. Virtually all the reaction time parameters were significantly correlated with psychometric intelligence at a magnitude of around 0.2 Factor analysis showed the existence of a general factor on which reaction time and psychometric tests were correlated. In addition, there were four primary factors of psychometric intelligence, movement time, reaction time, and the odd-man-out task. Broad similarities, and some differences, were found between the present results and those of a similar study by Buckhalt and Jensen (1989).     

Motor processes in simple, go/no-go, and choice reaction time tasks: a psychophysiological analysis

Psychophysiological measures were used to compare the response preparation and response execution processes of modified versions of F. C. Donders's (1868/1969) classic simple, go/no-go, and choice reaction time tasks. On all measures, differences between tasks were minimal prior to test stimulus onset, supporting the idea of equivalent motor preparation for the 3 tasks. In addition, the psychophysiological measures indicated that the time from the onset of motor processing to the keypress response was also approximately constant across tasks. These results support the assumption that the mean duration of motor processes can be invariant across simple, go/no-go, and choice tasks, at least for the present modified versions of these tasks. The findings emphasize the utility of psychophysiological measures for both examining preparatory processes preceding stimulus onset and for localizing effects on reaction time.     

Does solution of mental arithmetic problems such as 2 + 6 and 3 x 8 rely on the process of "Memory updating"?

Two experiments are reported that used the selective interference paradigm to study whether, besides response selection, the process of memory updating is involved in simple mental arithmetic. Participants were asked to solve simple sums (e.g., 2 + 6, Experiment 1) or simple products (e.g., 3 X 8, Experiment 2) in a single-task control condition and in three dual-task conditions with a selective interference task, simple reactions, choice reactions, or delayed choice reactions. The role of memory updating was estimated on the basis of the difference in impairment due to the choice reaction time and the delayed choice reaction time task, whereas the difference in impairment between the simple reaction time and the choice reaction time task indicates the role of response selection. While replicating previous results concerning response selection (Deschuyteneer & Vandierendonck, 2005, in press), the study showed that memory updating is strongly involved in solving simple mental arithmetic sums and products.     

A Generalized Strategy for Measuring Performance in the Velocity-Position Phase Plane

Subjects pressed a key down as fast as possible but controlled the response duration of the keypress. The task required long (300 ±100 msec) and short (150±50 msec) durations in both simple (long only or short only) and choice (mixed long and short) conditions. Choice reaction time was slower than simple reaction time, but reaction time for long and short durations did not differ significantly for either simple or choice conditions. This finding fails to support a study by Klapp, Wyatt, and Lingo (1974) which found reaction time differences between long and short durations for choice but not simple conditions.     

Simple visual versus lexical decision vocal reaction times of stuttering and normal subjects

Simple visual and lexical decision vocal reaction times were obtained for a group of stutterers and were compared with data gathered from normal subjects. Subjects were required to phonate the vowel /a/ when tachistoscopically presented a flash of light (simple task) and a series of concrete nouns (lexical task). The second value minus the first was taken as the lexical decision or processing time. The stutterers' responses were significantly more latent under the lexical decision condition, but not for the simple vocal reaction time experiment. Taken in concert with past results, such findings suggest that stutterers manifest generalized increases in sensory-linguistic processing that may not be bound necessarily to generalized slowing of psychomotor latency.     

Reaction time unchanged in older women following aerobic training

The effect of aerobic exercise on reaction time in older women was investigated. 14 women (M age = 65 yr.) were carefully screened for health status and lifestyle, then assigned to a random order of the exercise and control groups (ns = 7). Pre- and posttraining tests of aerobic capacity, simple reaction time, and choice reaction time were administered. The exercise group rode a stationary bicycle ergometer for 8 consecutive weeks for 3 35- to 40-min. sessions per week. There were no significant pretraining differences between groups on simple reaction time, choice reaction time, or estimated VO2max. No posttraining differences for simple and choice reaction time were found even though the exercise group had a significantly higher VO2max than the controls. Contrary to some other findings, the data indicate that reaction time may be independent of aerobic training in healthy older women.     

Menstrual cycle effects on task performance examined in the context of stress research

The study examined the effects of degree of paramenstrual distress, signal frequency, task load and time on task on psychomotor performance across the menstrual cycle. Simple reaction time, choice reaction time and pursuit tracking were the tasks employed, and performance was assessed using the metrics of mean level, variability, and errors of omission and commission. The results showed performance as a function of menstrual cycle phase and paramenstrual distress to be highly task and metric specific, a finding typical of stressor variables: pursuit tracking was affected by phase, with mean performance at its worst premenstrually; choice reaction time was dependent on a complex interaction of experimental variables and measurement metrics; simple reaction time showed no significant effects. Patterns of attention allocation in a time-sharing situation combining both pursuit tracking and choice reaction time components were also investigated. Trends here indicated relatively better performance both menstrually and intermenstrually as components increased in signal/response frequency, with a corresponding deterioration premenstrually. Overall performance capacity appeared to be greatest at menstruation, and the degree of attentional selectivity was least. High distress women performed better on low frequency components, whereas asymptomatic women did better at higher signal rates.     

When Time Is Money: Decision Behavior under Opportunity-Cost Time Pressure

Decison-making dilemmas can arise because errors may result either from deciding too soon or from delaying decisions too long. Delay can result in lost opportunities or reductions in payoffs from the most accurate decision. This paper investigates decision processes in environments where there is time stress due to the opportunity cost of delaying decisions. First, using computer simulation, the relative accuracy of alternative decision strategies is examined in environments that differ in terms of the levels of opportunity cost of delay. The lexicographic choice rule is shown to be a very attractive decision process in situations where there is opportunity-cost time pressure. Two experiments test the adaptivity of actual decision behavior to the presence or absence of opportunity-cost time pressure along with variations in goals (accuracy emphasized vs. effort savings emphasized), dispersion in probabilities or weights across the outcomes of the choice options, and the degree of correlation among the outcomes. Subjects were generally adaptive to opportunity-cost time pressure. However, failures in adaptivity were identified when choice environment properties with conflicting implications for adaptation were present simultaneously. In particular, under opportunity-cost time pressure, subjects received a lower expected payoff when the goal was to emphasize choice accuracy than when the goal was to emphasize savings in effort. The question of when adaptivity in decision making might fail is discussed.     

Reaction times and dyslexia

Five groups of children, including two groups of dyslexics (aged 15 and 11 years), were tested on simple reaction, selective choice reaction, and lexical decision tasks. In simple reactions to a pure tone, the dyslexic children responded as quickly as their chronological age controls and significantly faster than their reading age controls. In selective choice reactions to pure tones, the dyslexic children were significantly impaired compared with their chronological age controls and no faster than their reading age controls. This speed impairment obtained even though a selective choice reaction task has only one positive response. In “by-item” analyses of lexical decisions to spoken words, the dyslexic children were significantly impaired compared even with their reading age controls. The pattern of results suggests that at least two factors contribute to slowness of dyslexic children: a general deficit reflected in slower stimulus classification speed and a linguistic deficit reflected in slower lexical access speed.     

Relation between speed of reaction and psychometric tests of mental ability in musculoskeletal injury-prone subjects

Long reaction time (RT), long choice reaction time (CRT), and low scores on psychometric tests of mental ability (MA) have in previous studies been related to musculoskeletal injuries. There has been controversy concerning the relation between slow reaction and low-grade MA recently, the old hypothesis of negative correlation between RT and MA being discussed. The aim of this study was to analyze the relation between speed of reaction and MA. For a sample of 123 volunteer healthy young men simple RT, choice RT, and spatial (block design), verbal and arithmetic components of MA were tested. A principal component analysis was performed and the factor matrix was rotated orthogonally using the varimax method. Two factors were extracted accounting for 73% of the total variance in data space. The mental ability factor, which was responsible for 70% of the variance in factor space, was comprised of components of MA and choice RT. The speed of reaction factor accounted for the remaining 30% of the variance in factor space and was comprised of simple and choice RTs. As choice RT had significant loading on the mental ability factor, the subjects having scores in the lowest quartile on both choice RT and MA total score were compared with the independent expected value by using the chi-squared test. The results of low-grade MA and slow choice reaction were not independent. Accordingly, the results do not support the entire distinction between traditional mental ability or convergent thinking and speed of reaction in normal subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The time course of perceptual choice: the leaky, competing accumulator model

The time course of perceptual choice is discussed in a model of gradual, leaky, stochastic, and competitive information accumulation in nonlinear decision units. Special cases of the model match a classical diffusion process, but leakage and competition work together to address several challenges to existing diffusion, random walk, and accumulator models. The model accounts for data from choice tasks using both time-controlled (e.g., response signal) and standard reaction time paradigms and its adequacy compares favorably with other approaches. A new paradigm that controls the time of arrival of information supporting different choice alternatives provides further support. The model captures choice behavior regardless of the number of alternatives, accounting for the log-linear relation between reaction time and number of alternatives (Hick's law) and explains a complex pattern of visual and contextual priming in visual word identification.