The modification of an already-programmed response: a new interpretation of Henry and Harrison (1961).

In an influential study, Henry and Harrison (1961) examined the capability of subjects to inhibit an already-programmed response. Their experiment showed that when a stop signal was presented only 100 ms after the imperative go signal; a subject could not inhibit the movement. The inferences were that rapid ballistic actions are programmed and the program cannot be altered in a limited amount of time (see Schmidt, 1988). In the present note, we describe some forgotten data from the Henry and Harrison paper and, with a trend analysis, demonstrate that the stop signal does have an influence on the movement in a somewhat continuous fashion.

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