How quickly participants respond to a ‘go’ after a ‘warning’ signal is partly determined by the time between the two signals (the foreperiod) and the distribution of foreperiods. According to Multiple Trace Theory of Temporal Preparation (MTP), participants use memory traces of previous foreperiods to prepare for the upcoming go signal. If the processes underlying temporal preparation reflect general encoding and memory principles, transfer effects (the carry-over effect of a previous block’s distribution of foreperiods to the current block) should be observed regardless of the sensory modality in which signals are presented. Despite convincing evidence for transfer effects in the visual domain, only weak evidence for transfer effects has been documented in the auditory domain. Three experiments were conducted to examine whether such differences in results are due to the modality of the stimulus or other procedural factors. In each experiment, two groups of participants were exposed to different foreperiod distributions in the acquisition phase and to the same foreperiod distribution in the transfer phase. Experiment 1 used a choice-reaction time (RT) task and the warning signal remained on until the go signal but there was no evidence for transfer effects. Experiment 2 and 3 used a simple- and choice-RT task, respectively, and there was silence between the warning and go signals. Both experiments revealed evidence for transfer effects which suggests that transfer effects are most evident when there is no auditory stimulation between the warning and go signals.

参与者在“警告”信号后对“开始”的反应速度部分取决于两个信号之间的时间（前期）和前期的分布。根据时间准备的多迹理论（MTP），参与者使用先前前期的记忆痕迹来为即将到来的走信号做准备。如果时间准备的基础过程反映了一般的编码和记忆原则，则无论呈现信号的感觉方式如何，都应观察转移效应（前一个块的前段分布到当前块的结转效应）。尽管在视觉领域有令人信服的转移效应证据，但在听觉领域只有微弱的转移效应证据。进行了三个实验来检查结果的这种差异是否是由于刺激的方式或其他程序因素造成的。在每个实验中，两组参与者在获取阶段暴露于不同的前期分布，在转移阶段暴露于相同的前期分布。实验 1 使用了选择反应时间 (RT) 任务，警告信号一直持续到开始信号，但没有证据表明存在转移效应。实验 2 和 3 分别使用了简单和选择 RT 任务，并且警告和开始信号之间没有声音。两个实验都揭示了转移效应的证据，这表明当警告和前进信号之间没有听觉刺激时，转移效应最明显。