The Effects of Stimulus Context on Components of Simple Reaction Time

Simple reaction time (RT) depends not only on stimulus intensity but also on the context in which that stimulus intensity is presented. We investigate contextual effects of neutral, weak and strong stimulus intensities on simple RT and its premotor and motor components in response to auditory stimuli of three different intensities. We find that the context of weak stimulus intensities lengthens the premotor RT compared to neural context. The implications of these findings for the accounts of contextual effects in simple RT are discusse