Abstract
Reaction time to the start and end of white noise was measured as a function of rise-decay time. Six values of rise-decay time (1, 5, 25, 50,100, and 500 msec) and two noise levels (40 and 60 dB SPL) were employed. The results snowed reaction time generally to increase with rise- decay time and decrease with level. For the shorter rise-decay times, reaction time was faster to the start than to the end of the noise but, for longer rise-decay times, the reverse was true. It is suggested that, when long rise-decay times are used in reaction time experiments, consideration be given to the definition of signal onset.
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I am grateful to M. B. Simmonds for his useful suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. The research was partially supported by the National Acoustics Centre of New Zealand.
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Kemp, S. Reaction time to the start and end of noise as a function of rise-decay time. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 21, 195–198 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334685
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334685