Rule Expression in a Modified Serial Reaction Time Task

Abstract

This study examined the nature of the knowledge that produced the results of a modified reaction time task descnbed in Lee (1997). In this task, participants responded to visual stimuli appearing in one of six locations. In each ma six stimuli were presented in sequence, with a stimulus appearing in each and every position exactly once in a random order. Thus, the inherent stnicture was not a repeating sequence, but rather the pattern that within a run of six trials, no stimulus would be repeated. Results from the experiment reported here, re-analyses of Lee (1997) and a simulation study suggest that when performing the task, participants registered the four immediate preceding trials and for each trial selected a stimulus different from all the registered stimuli. This result was discussed in terms of the effect of inhibition of return.