Involuntary Rest Pauses in Tapping as a Function of Drive and Personality

The hypothesis was tested that involuntary rest pauses occurring during massed practice on a tapping task would be more numerous for extraverted Ss and that involuntary rests would be less numerous under conditions of high drive thanunder conditions of low drive.

Abstract

The hypothesis was tested that involuntary rest pauses occurring during massed practice on a tapping task would be more numerous for extraverted Ss; significant correlations in the predicted direction were obtained. It was also predicted that involuntary rests would be less numerous under conditions of high drive than under conditions of low drive; support for this hypothesis was suggested by the results of an analysis of covariance, but not at a statistically significant level. As anticipated, high-drive Ss produced a greater number of taps than did low-drive Ss.