Hick's law

Question 1

pre hicks law

Answer 1

Merkle’s work states as the number of stimuli increase, the RT also increased at a smooth inclined curve (1885)

• Known as the “reaction time era”
• Merkle experiment used 10 keys with illumination bulbs
• Subjects were to respond to illumination by lifting finger off corresponding key
• Findings state with practice large improvements were made with predetermined sequences but little improvement with irregular sequences

Question 2

apparatus

Answer 2

• Similar to Merkle’s operated on a punch tape principle at a rate of 5 sec/stimulus
• 10 lamps with 10 corresponding keys
• Coding system present to eliminate excessive amount of pens but did not record any mistakes accurately

Question 3

experiment 1

Answer 3

• GOAL: minimal to no errors being made
• Incorrect responses were eliminated from data
• Experimenter was the test subject

Question 4

experiment 2

Answer 4

• GOAL: to increase RT with the increase of degrees of choice with mistakes allowed
• Two test subjects
• Were told they were allowed as many mistakes as possible but encouraged to perform accurately as possible

Question 5

experiment 3

Answer 5

• GOAL: to determine if any learning of sequences were taking place
• Same two subjects
• Slightly faster RT to the first stimulus, which was the same for each of the two sequences but not the second stimulus
• RT are slightly increase at higher number of stimuli, but decreased at lower number of stimuli than what was expected

Question 6

recent study

Answer 6

The simple reaction test would produce no difference in reaction time but the three cognitive demanding tasks would give an advantage to the dominant hand due to the left-hemisphere primarily processing information
Their conclusion: That there was no consistent difference in RT between dominant and non-dominant hands related to the left-hemisphere processing theory. The researchers failed to find any difference in reaction time between the dominant hand and the non-dominant hand on both simple and choice reaction time tasks.

Question 7

what is a saccade

Answer 7

? A small jerky eye movement as it jumps from fixation on one point to another

Question 8

2 types of saccades

Answer 8

1. Prosaccade: saccades directed to a visual target

2. Anti-saccade: saccades directed away from a target

Question 9

findings from saccade study

Answer 9

• Anti-saccade latencies conform to Hick’s law meanwhile, prosaccades do not.
• Stimulus response uncertainty could influence the duration of stage progression that is involved in the performance of tasks.
• They were able to demonstrate that prosaccade latencies were unaffected by S-R uncertainty, which implies that S-R uncertainty does not influence the time it takes for the visual system to identify the target.
• Prosaccades are able to avoid the time costs associated with response selection, this raises questions about the premotor programming of saccades.

Question 10

application of hicks law

Answer 10

-website design layout
-sport: martial arts
simplify not eliminate: camera

Question 11

activity

Answer 11

logos and number of presented stimuli

-more stimuli the slower the reaction time will be