Early and late inhibitions elicited by a peripheral visual cue on manual response to a visual target: Are they based on Cartesian coordinates?

Abstract

A non-informative cue (C) elicits an inhibition of manual reaction time (MRT) to a visual target (T). We report an experiment to examine if the spatial distribution of this inhibitory effect follows Polar or Cartesian coordinate systems. C appeared at one out of 8 isoeccentric (7o) positions, the C-T angular distances (in polar coordinates) were 0º or multiples of 45º and ISI were 100 or 800ms. Our main findings were: (a) MRT was maximal when C- T distance was 0o and minimal when C-T distance was 180o and (b) besides an angular distance effect, there is a meridian effect. When C and T occurred in the same quadrant, MRT was longer than when T and C occurred at the same distance (45o) but on different sides of vertical or horizontal meridians. The latter finding indicates that the spatial distribution of the cue inhibitory effects is based on a Cartesian coordinate system.