Abstract
At constant luminance levels, simple reaction times (SRTs) decline when the size of luminous stimuli increases. Piéron’s law fits such a decline. Combining the effect of size and luminance suggests that most of the decline of SRTs with increase in size can be attributed to a probability summation process.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bonnet, C. (1990). How to bridge the gap between magnitude estimation and reaction time. In F. Müller (Ed.), Fechner day 90 (pp. 37–42). Würzburg: International Society for Psychophysics.
Breitmeyer, G. B. (1984). Visual masking: An integrative approach. New York: Oxford University Press.
Colonius, H. (1990). Possibly dependent probability summation of reaction time. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 34, 253–275.
Grice, G. R. (1968). Stimulus intensity and response evocation. Psychological Review, 75, 359–373.
Grice, G. R., Nullmeyer, R., & Schnizlein, J. M. (1979). Variable criterion analysis of brightness effects in simple reaction time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 5, 303–314.
Hood, D. C., & Finkelstein, M. A. (1986). Sensitivity to light. In K. R. Boff, L. Kaufman, & J. P. Thomas (Eds.), Handbook of perception and human performance (Vol. 1, pp. 5.1–5.66). New York: Wiley.
Link, S. W. (1992). The wave theory of difference and similarity. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Luce, R. D. (1986). Response time. New York: Oxford University Press.
Luce, R. D., & Green, D. M. (1972). A neural timing theory for response times and the psychophysics of intensity. Psychological Review, 79, 14–57.
Mansfield, R. J. W. (1973). Latency functions in human vision. Vision Research, 13, 2219–2234.
McGill, W. J. (1967). Neural counting mechanisms and energy detection in audition. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 4, 351–376.
Norwich, K. H. (1977). On the information received by sensory receptors. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 39, 453–461.
Norwich, K. H. (1984). The psychophysics of taste from the entropy of the stimulus. Perception & Psychophysics, 35, 269–278.
Norwich, K. H., Seburn, C. N. L., & Axelrad, E. (1989). An information approach to reaction times. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 51, 347–358.
Parker, D., & Salzen, E. A. (1977). Latency changes in the human visual evoked response to sinusoidal gratings. Vision Research, 17, 1201–1204.
Piéron, H. (1920). Nouvelles recherches sur l’analyse du temps de latence sensorielle en fonction des intensités excitatrices. L’Année Psychologique, 22, 58–142.
Piéron, H. (1952). The sensations. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Restle, F. (1961). The psychology of judgment and choice: A theoretical essay. New York: Wiley.
Teichner, W. H., & Krebs, M. J. (1972). Laws of simple visual reaction time. Psychological Review, 79, 344–358.
Tolhurst, D. J. (1975). Reaction times in the detection of gratings by human observers: A probabilistic mechanism. Vision Research, 15, 1151–1155.
Ueno, T. (1976). Luminance-duration relation in reaction time to spectral stimuli. Vision Research, 16, 721–725.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This experiment was run with the support of a convention between the CNRS (France) and the CONICET (Argentina). Acknowledgments are due to Lawrence Ward, who suggested the probability summation hypothesis.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bonnet, C., Gurlekian, J. & Harris, P. Reaction time and visual area: Searching for the determinants. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 30, 396–398 (1992). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334099
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334099