TRANSLATING BETWEEN ORTHOGONALLY ORIENTED STIMULUS AND RESPONSE ARRAYS IN 4-CHOICE REACTION TASKS

Three experiments examined performance of four-choice reaction tasks u sing stimulus and response arrays oriented along parallel or orthogona l axes. All used a procedure in which pairs of locations were precued in advance of the target stimulus. Responses were slower for orthogona l than for parallel stimulus-response sets, but the pattern of relativ e precuing benefits was similar. Complete transfer occurred when the s timulus array was changed from an orthogonal to a parallel orientation with respect to the response array after three sessions of practice. Transfer was also evident when the orientation of the response array w as changed from orthogonal to parallel with respect to the stimulus ar ray, as long as the assignment of stimulus locations to fingers was no t altered. The results suggest that coding in the four-choice task is by relative location regardless of whether the stimulus and response s ets are oriented orthogonally, and that an additional transformation o peration to align the frames of reference is performed for orthogonal orientations.