Recent research suggests that when a response comprises a series of targets, programming time may be a function of the target within the response that imposes the greatest accuracy demand (Sidaway, Schoenfelder-Zohdi, & Moore, 1990). If this accuracy demand affects the programming process, one might expect to find evidence of this demand in the consequent response execution. Of primary interest in the present research was the dispersion of target contacts on the first target, in a sequence of two targets, when the accuracy demand of the second target was changed. Two experiments are reported that required subjects to rapidly strike two targets in series within a simple reaction time paradigm. The size of the first target was kept constant, whereas the size of the second target was varied and was always smaller than the first. Experiment 1 did not require any direction change in the responses, but in Experiment 2, subjects had to make a 90° direction change in the responses. In both experiments, the dispersion and location of stylus contacts on the first target was a function of the size of the second target. When the size of the second target was reduced, the dispersion of the first target contacts decreased and the mean location of those contacts moved closer to the second target. Reaction time increased as the size of the second target decreased. These findings suggest that the maximal accuracy demand of a serial response influences both the programming and execution phases of the response.
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Sidaway et al. (1995) studied this question.