The Mechanisms of the Effect of Precue on the Stages of Sensorimotor Processing

Afkham Danesh far
School of physical education, Al-Zahra university

Masoumeh Shojaei
School of physical education, Al-Zahra university

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     Last modified: March 14, 2007

Abstract
The parameter precuing is a technique for studying motor programming. In this technique, partial or complete information about the response are presented in advance of a stimulus. The numerous experiments using this technique have shown that the precues reduce the reaction time, the mechanisms by which this reduction is achieved, however, remain disputed. The present study separated the effect of the number and of choices and the nature of precue on reaction time (RT) for the purpose of investigating of the effect of precue on the stages response selection and motor preparation of sensorimotor processing. Therefore, the experiment was performed on 24 right-handed students in age range 18-24 yr. The participants repeated 3 precue (2-choice direction precue, 3-choice direction precue, and 2-choice force precue) and 1 control (non-precue) conditions 30 times with random order after performing 200 training trials by parameter precuing apparatus. RT of isometric force production was measured and analyzed by 4 (condition) * 30 (repetition) repeated measures ANOVA. The results indicated the significant main effects of number of alternatives and precued parameters (p<.01); but the main effect of repetition and interaction of 2 factors were not significant (p>.05). The results of these experiment indicated that the precues reduce RT by involving of response selection and motor preparation stages of sensorimotor processing.