Miller J
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1982 Apr;8(2):273-96. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.8.2.273.
This article introduces a new technique designed to study the flow of information through processing stages in choice reaction time tasks. The technique was designed to determine whether response preparation can begin before stimulus identification is complete ("continuous" models), or if a stimulus must be fully identified prior to any response activation ("discrete" models). To control the information available at various times during stimulus identification, some relevant stimulus characteristics were made easy to discriminate and some were made hard to discriminate. The experimental strategy was to look for effects of partial output based on information conveyed by characteristics that were easy to discriminate. The technique capitalized on the fact, demonstrated in Experiment 1, that preparation of two response fingers on the same hand is more effective than preparation of two response fingers on different hands. The usefulness of partial output was varied by manipulating the assignments of stimuli to responses. For some mappings partial information could contribute to effective response preparation because the responses consistent with partial information were assigned to fingers on the same hand. For other mappings partial information could not contribute to effective response preparation because the responses consistent with partial information were assigned to fingers of different hands. Performance differences between these mappings were considered evidence that partial information about a stimulus was transmitted to response activation processes before the stimulus was uniquely identified, and thus were considered evidence against discrete transmission of information about the stimulus as a whole. A variety of stimulus sets were studied; the results suggest that information is transmitted discretely with respect to stimulus codes, although distinct codes activated by a single stimulus may be transmitted at different times.
本文介绍了一种新技术，旨在研究选择反应时任务中信息在处理阶段的流动情况。该技术旨在确定反应准备是否能在刺激识别完成之前开始（“连续”模型），或者是否必须在任何反应激活之前完全识别刺激（“离散”模型）。为了控制刺激识别过程中不同时间点可获得的信息，一些相关刺激特征被设置得易于辨别，而一些则设置得难以辨别。实验策略是基于易于辨别的特征所传达的信息来寻找部分输出的影响。该技术利用了实验1中所证明的事实，即同一只手上准备两个反应手指比不同手上准备两个反应手指更有效。通过操纵刺激与反应的分配来改变部分输出的有用性。对于某些映射，部分信息可以有助于有效的反应准备，因为与部分信息一致的反应被分配到同一只手上的手指。对于其他映射，部分信息则无助于有效的反应准备，因为与部分信息一致的反应被分配到不同手上的手指。这些映射之间的性能差异被视为刺激的部分信息在刺激被唯一识别之前就被传输到反应激活过程的证据，因此被视为反对关于整个刺激的信息离散传输的证据。研究了各种刺激集；结果表明，尽管单个刺激激活的不同代码可能在不同时间传输，但关于刺激代码的信息是离散传输的。
