Features of a Simple Psychophysiological Reaction

Abstract

The latency of a simple psychophysiological (visual motor) response (SPPR) was studied as dependent on the waiting time, which was the period between the previous response to a subsequent stimulus and was varied from 1 to 3000 ms. An ordinal approximation was used for the resulting monotonic dependence. The latency of the simple psychophysiological response at shorter intervals between the previous response and a subsequent stimulus was observed to be far greater than at longer intervals. The latency decreased with the increasing waiting time until 3–4 s after the previous response. The decrease included at least two components. The components were found to be interdependent. The decrease in latency was assumed to result from autoinhibition due to the previous response.