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Effects of type of movement on the temporal precision of response sequences
Author(s) -
Wing Alan M.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.157
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2044-8317
pISSN - 0007-1102
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8317.1977.tb00724.x
Subject(s) - autocovariance , autoregressive model , mathematics , interval (graph theory) , statistics , function (biology) , mathematical analysis , combinatorics , evolutionary biology , biology , fourier transform
The negative covariation between adjacent interresponse intervals (lag‐one autocovariance) observed when people make repetitive responses can be accounted for by a model that postulates two independent processes of timekeeping and response generation (Wing & Kristofferson, 1973 b ). The present paper considers generalizations of this model that assume certain simple types of dependence either among the timekeeper intervals or among the response delays. It is shown that these may be distinguished on the basis of the interresponse‐interval autocovariance function. An experiment is described that contrasts the use of four different types of movement bringing the index finger into repeated contact with a response plate at 400 msec intervals. While the data reject the original formulation of the two‐process model they are consistent with the generalized version in which there is dependence of successive response delays in the form of a first‐order autoregressive process.