Department of Psychology, California State University, East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA.
School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2019 Feb;26(1):29-47. doi: 10.3758/s13423-018-1498-6.
The Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) effect is a delay in responding that is assumed to be caused by a bottleneck that prevents preparation of a second action until preparation of the previous action has been completed. The bottleneck is usually attributed to a limitation that prevents concurrent selection of two responses. However, evidence reviewed here challenges this selection interpretation. We propose instead that the bottleneck is due to a process that programs the timing of response initiation, and which must be completed immediately prior to responding. This hypothesis is based on two conclusions from recent developments in research, which includes findings from paradigms that do not involve the PRP. The first conclusion is from studies involving the startle response and single-task simple (precued) reaction time; these studies indicate that programming the timing of response onsets is needed to enable response initiation. This programing takes longer for more complicated timing, and must be delayed until just prior to responding. The second conclusion is from studies of concurrent rhythmic movements demonstrating that the representation of timing is restricted to one temporal frame unless very rapid performance enables parallel timing. These findings reveal limitations that can combine to produce the PRP bottleneck. This interpretation clarifies otherwise puzzling aspects of the PRP effect and indicates that a fundamental restriction concerning response timing may underlie both limitations and the PRP effect that they produce. This restriction might arise because timing is controlled by subcortical neural structures with limited working memory.
心理不应期（PRP）效应是一种反应延迟，据假设是由于瓶颈导致的，该瓶颈阻止了第二个动作的准备，直到前一个动作的准备完成。瓶颈通常归因于限制，防止同时选择两个反应。然而，这里回顾的证据挑战了这种选择解释。相反，我们提出瓶颈是由于一个过程造成的，该过程编程了响应启动的时间，并且必须在响应之前立即完成。该假设基于最近研究进展中的两个结论，其中包括不涉及 PRP 的范式的发现。第一个结论来自涉及惊跳反应和单任务简单（预先提示）反应时间的研究；这些研究表明，编程响应开始的时间是需要的，以能够进行响应启动。对于更复杂的时间，这种编程需要更长的时间，并且必须延迟到响应之前。第二个结论来自于对同时进行的节奏运动的研究，表明除非非常快速的表现允许并行计时，否则计时的表示仅限于一个时间框架。这些发现揭示了可以组合在一起产生 PRP 瓶颈的限制。这种解释澄清了 PRP 效应的其他令人困惑的方面，并表明关于响应时间的基本限制可能是产生这些限制和 PRP 效应的基础。这种限制可能是由于由具有有限工作记忆的皮质下神经结构控制的时间造成的。
