Analysis of the No Return Point Hypothesis: The Effect of Audio and Visual Stimuli in the Fast Movements Inhibition

The No Return Point hypothesis is one of the research areas that has been done in line with the motor program. In this hypothesis emphasized an inability to inhibition move after its start by the motor program. Several factors are affecting the mechanism of this inhibition.

In this study, we investigate the effects of audio and visual stimuli on blocking quick moves to test the No Return Point hypothesis. In the final part of the study, we explore the effects of the assignment based on tests conducted by Slater & Hammel, who first began to test this hypothesis.
Methods. In this study, 40 male participants (age 23-29) were selected and organized in four different groups, i.e., digital- visual stimulus, an auditory stimulus, visual and auditory stimuli, and visual stimulus with an analog pattern that simulated the Slater and Hamel’s experiment. Each of these groups practiced different stop-signal and did a retention test. We used RMSE for statistical analysis.

The results showed that the reaction speed of the audio group is considerably faster than other groups (sig = 0.00028, p < 0.05). It was also found that the motor program is active in a period before and after the target (stop) time, and it seems that this process is independent of the type of stimuli and assignment (p < 0.05). Besides, it was found that the reported time for Slater and Hamel test is 210 MS in this experiment. In other words, participants were not able to stop motion for the announced stop time for around 210 Ms.; however, it was not observed for all the groups.

Based on the result, participants were significantly dependent on the assignment (p < 0.05). Moreover, this dependency can affect the result. It seems in that study time providing achieved relying on the types of tasks used, and the type of the variable used to measure the statistical have been impressive on the results. Thus, the results of the Slater and Hamel experiments should be analyzed with caution. It seems that the announced time in that research (Slater and Hemel) is based on the employed assignment type, and the variable type for statistical analysis was influencing the results. Thus, not only the motion stop time in response to the stop stimuli is different, but also these times are significantly dependent on the stimuli and test condition.