LAWS OF THE SIMPLE VISUAL REACTION TIME

FOURTEEN STUDIES FROM THE LITERATURE ON THE REACTION TIME (RT) TO A FLASH OF LIGHT PROVIDED SUFFICIENT METHODOLOGICAL DETAIL AND DATA TO ALLOW FOR A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF THE FOLLOWING SELECTED VARIABLES: LUMINANCE, DURATION, SIZE OF STIMULUS, RESPONSE TO ONSET VERSUS TERMINATION OF THE SIGNAL, AND MONOCULAR VERSUS BINOCULAR VIEWING. MATHEMATICAL RELATIONSHIPS WERE DEVELOPED WHICH CAN BE USED TO PREDICT BINOCULAR RTS OVER A WIDE RANGE OF LUMINANCE, SIGNAL DURATION, AND SIGNAL SIZE. IT WAS ALSO SHOWN THAT THE PRODUCT OF RT AND LUMINANCE MAY BE USED TO REPRESENT A RESPONSE CRITERION IN THE SENSE IMPLIED BY THE THEORY OF SIGNAL DETECTION AS DEVELOPED IN RECENT LATENCY MODELS. THE RESULTS WERE INTERPRETED AS SUGGESTING TWO GENERAL ENERGY-PROCESSING ACTIVITIES -- CRITERION DEVELOPMENT AND AN IMPULSE "COUNTDOWN" -- GOING ON IN PARALLEL WHICH ARE IN SERIES WITH A SENSORY DELAY. /DOT/

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00332909
• Authors:
  • Teichner, W D
  • Krebs, M J
• Publication Date: 1972-7

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 344-58
• Serial:
  • Psychological Review
  • Volume: 79
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: American Psychological Association
  • ISSN: 0033-2909

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Brightness; Flashing traffic signals; Perception; Psychological aspects; Reaction time; Sight distance; Signal lights; Vision; Visual perception
• Old TRIS Terms: Vision characteristics
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00224245
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 19 1973 12:00AM