Synonyms
Definition
A speeded response is the rapid deployment of a motor movement, perhaps a key press or utterance, triggered by the presentation of a stimulus in an experimental paradigm where participants must act as quickly as possible.
Introduction
The time it takes to produce a speeded response to a stimulus is the reaction time (or response time or latency). Reaction time (RT) is used as a behavioral index of the strength of association between stimulus characteristics and the response, it is usually measured in milliseconds, and it is a common dependent variable in studies of performance. The idea is that rushed responses are less susceptible to modification than are considered ones.
Participants in speeded response time tasks respond to briefly presented stimuli as quickly as possible over many trials, and the pattern of performance is thought to reveal the underlying relationships between stimulus characteristics and...
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Vanhoy, M. (2020). Speeded Response. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1915
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1915
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