Bimanual response grouping in dual-task paradigms

In three experiments we measured response time (RT) and peak force (PF) to investigate the grouping of left- and right-hand key press responses in a dual-task paradigm involving two independent go/no-go tasks. Within each task, a go stimulus within one of two modalities (i.e., visual versus auditory) required a response by one hand. In Experiment 1 with simultaneous go stimuli in the two tasks, responses appeared to be grouped in approximately 75–80% of trials, compared with nearly 100% grouping in a single-task condition requiring bimanual responses to the onset of any stimulus in either modality. In Experiment 2 with stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 0–400 ms between the two go stimuli, response grouping clearly declined as SOA increased, although some grouping was still evident even at the longest SOA. The same pattern was observed in Experiment 3 with the same range of SOAs but unpredictable stimulus order, suggesting that grouping is not strongly dependent on prior knowledge of the likely response order. These results emphasize the pervasiveness of response grouping in bimanual dual-task RT paradigms and provide useful clues as to its nature.