The effect of a second stimulus on the first reaction time within the psychological refractory period paradigm

This study was to examine the effects of the second stimulus and response on the first response by investigating RT1 under controlled conditions with different S2-R2. 24 subjects participated in this study. Results of the repeated measure ANOVA revealed that the effect of the second stimulus and response on the first response in PRP paradigm was significant. The findings of this study suggest that PRP exist not only in the processing of the second stimulus but also in the processing of the first stimulus and response. The result from this study failed to support either traditional bottleneck models or parallel model. An alternative model, a model consists of characteristics of both bottleneck and parallel models, is proposed to explain the result of this study