Effectively responding to tactile stimulation: do homologous cue and effector locations really matter?

We report a study designed to investigate the extent to which speeded behavioral responses following tactile stimulation are influenced by differences in neural conduction latencies at different body sites and/or by the characteristics of the compatibility between the cue and effector. The results showed that it may not be particularly desirable to present tactile cues (e.g., warning signals) to an interface operator's feet if a speeded foot response is required, for even though such an arrangement maximizes the set-level compatibility between the stimulus and the response, it turns out that response latencies are primarily determined by conduction latencies through the peripheral nervous system.