S-R relationships and reaction times to new versus repeated signals in a serial task

Previous experiments showed that, in a serial responding task, RTs to repeated signals are longer than RTs to new signals. The influence of S-R relationships on this phenomenon was examined. In Experiment I, 9 Ss gave 550 responses under each of 3 S-R conditions in a 2-choice task with a spatial display. RTs to both repeated and new signals were significantly (.01) affected by the conditions, but covariance analysis shows that the effect is significantly (.05) larger on RTs to new signals. These results are fully confirmed by Experiment II where 33 Ss, after prolonged practice on a 4-choice task with a numerical display, under a staightforward S-R pairing, did 4 short runs of 50 responses under the saime pairing and then under a less compatible one.SCOPUS: ar.j