In order to ponder how adaptive behavior and its underlying executive processes are, a central criterion in psychology is the extent to which experimental findings generalize across response types. The latency of two major acts of control, action initiation and inhibition, was evaluated using a stop–signal paradigm with two response types, involving either a finger key–press or a wrist pen–swipe response. In both conditions, 40 participants were instructed to respond quickly to a GO stimulus but to cancel their responses when a STOP signal was presented, which occurred randomly in 25% of the trials. Taken together, analyses of reaction times and of inhibition probability functions indicated that action initiation generalized across the two response types. In contrast, the finger key–press and the wrist pen–swipe responses involved independent inhibition processes. These results challenge a strictly top–down view for some acts of control by showing an interaction between the executive and motor levels in terms of response modality specificity.

为了考虑适应性行为及其潜在的执行过程，心理学的中心标准是实验结果在不同反应类型之间的普遍程度。使用具有两种响应类型的停止信号范式评估了两个主要控制行为（动作启动和抑制）的潜伏期，涉及手指按下或腕笔挥动响应。在这两种情况下，均指示40名参与者对GO刺激做出快速反应，但在出现STOP信号时取消其反应，而STOP信号在25％的试验中随机发生。两者合计，反应时间和抑制概率函数的分析表明，行动开始在两种反应类型中普遍存在。相比之下，手指按键和腕笔划动响应涉及独立的抑制过程。这些结果通过显示执行方式和运动方式之间在反应方式特异性方面的相互作用，对严格的自上而下的某些控制行为提出了挑战。