Alternate-Response Preparation in a Visuomotor Serial Task

• Published in: Journal of motor behavior Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 127 - 135
• Main Authors: Gómez, C. M., Vaquero, E., Vázquez, M., González-Rosa, J. J., Cardoso, M. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Heldref 01.03.2005; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Activity levels. Psychomotricity; Adult; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Discrimination Learning; Electrophysiology; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Expectation; Experimental Psychology; Feedback (Response); Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; gambler's fallacy; Humans; Inhibition; Inhibition (Psychology); inhibition of return (IOR); Intention; lateralized readiness potential (LRP); Male; Memory; Motor ability; motor intention; Movement; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor activities; Reaction Time; Repetition; Resistance (Psychology); Stimuli; stimulus-response mapping; Visual Perception - physiology; Human; Alternance; motor intention; Electrophysiology; Electroencephalography; lateralized readiness potential (LRP); Experimental study; Discrimination task; gambler's fallacy; Visual stimulus; Bereitschaftspotential; inhibition of return (IOR); Reaction time; Laterality; stimulus- response mapping; Visuomotor control
• ISSN: 0022-2895; 1940-1027
• DOI: 10.3200/JMBR.37.2.127-135

The preparation of a particular motor pattern is related to the information available that enables the actor to predict the correct response to a forthcoming stimulus. In many situations, however, prediction is not possible. In such cases, the individual can guess the probable parameters of the next stimulus. The authors attempted to establish the bias in the motor intention for movement and its interaction with a possible memory trace of the stimulus-response mapping produced by the preceding stimulus. Two letters were presented bilaterally, and participants (N = 21) had to discriminate the target letter and respond with the compatible hand. The present findings support the existence of a memory trace of the previous stimulus-response mapping.