Mental Chronometry: Beyond Onset Latencies in the Lexical Decision Task

Four experiments addressed the influence of variables on lexical decision performance after response initiation has occurred. In Experiment 1, participants made an arm movement in one direction for word trials and pressed a button with the other hand for nonword trials. The results indicated that word frequency not only modulated the speed to initiate the arm movement, but also modulated the acceleration and force of the movement after initiation. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that word frequency and stimulus degradation produced large and additive effects on response latency, accuracy, and the force of the response after initiation. In Experiments 3 and 4, participants made the same arbitrary speech response in a modified lexical decision task for both high-and low-frequency words. The results indicated that both the onset and duration of the speech response were modulated by word frequency. The results are viewed as most consistent with an enabled response model, wherein early operations can enable appropriate action systems before central decisions are made.