ABSTRACT
Results are reported from a response-priming procedure designed to investigate how partial information is accumulated by rapid mental processes during the performance of reaction-time tasks. When a delay occurs between a priming stimulus and a subsequent test stimulus, the results reveal that subjects typically use the prime to prepare for the response required by the test stimulus, producing faster reaction times. Depending on the amount of delay, observed reaction-time distributions are mixtures of a few underlying component distributions. Such an outcome, which complements some of our other findings (Meyer & Irwin, 1982), provides further tests for continuous (e.g., cascade and random-walk) models versus discrete (e.g., stage) models of information processing and response preparation. It suggests that response preparation involves only a small number of discrete states. This is consistent with stage models of preparatory processes and casts doubt on cascade models.
