People’s parallel-processing ability is limited, as demonstrated by the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect: The reaction time to the second stimulus (RT2) increases as the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between two stimuli decreases. Most theoretical models of PRP are independent of modalities. Previous research on PRP mainly focused on vision and audition as input modalities; tactile stimuli have not been fully explored. Research using other paradigms and involving tactile stimuli, however, found that dual-task performance depended on input modalities. This study explored PRP with all the combinations of input modalities. Thirty participants judged the magnitude (small or large) of two stimuli presented in different modalities with an SOA of 75–1,200 ms. PRP effect was observed, i.e., RT2 increased with a decreasing SOA, in all the modalities. Only in the auditory-tactile condition did the accuracy of Task 2 decrease with a decreasing SOA. In the auditory-tactile and tactile-visual conditions, RT to the first stimulus also increased with a decreasing SOA. Current models could only explain part of the results, and modality characteristics help to explain the overall data pattern better. Limitations and directions for future studies regarding reaction time, task difficulty, and response modalities are discussed.

中文翻译：

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视觉，听觉和触觉中的跨模式心理不应期。

人们的并行处理能力有限，如心理不应期（PRP）效应所证明：随着两个刺激之间的刺激发作异步（SOA）减少，对第二个刺激（RT2）的反应时间增加。PRP的大多数理论模型与模式无关。先前对PRP的研究主要集中于视觉和听觉作为输入方式。尚未充分探索触觉刺激。但是，使用其他范式并涉及触觉刺激的研究发现，双任务性能取决于输入方式。这项研究探索了PRP与所有输入方式的组合。30名参与者判断了以不同方式呈现的两种刺激的大小（大小），其SOA为75–1,200 ms。观察到PRP效应，即RT2随着SOA的降低而增加，在所有形式上。只有在听觉条件下，任务2的准确性才随着SOA的降低而降低。在听觉和触觉视觉条件下，随着SOA的降低，第一刺激的RT也随之增加。当前的模型只能解释部分结果，而形态特征有助于更好地解释整体数据模式。讨论了有关反应时间，任务难度和响应方式的未来研究的局限性和方向。