Sprint start reaction time: on the advisability of sensory vs motor sets

Currently, the available literature cannot provide definitive advice as to whether a sensory or a motor set will provide the faster reaction times. Two reasons have been proposed for the apparently incompatible results--and these were examined here. The first reason holds that the traditional motor set instructions were inappropriate because they misdirected subjects' attention to output execution which, in turn, resulted in prolonged RTs. Second, spontaneous set preferences (i.e., the set preferred at the time of reporting for the experiment) may influence which enforced set (sensory vs motor) yields the faster latency and, hence, sampling may have contributed to the different conclusions offered in past work. The present data supported the second but not the first proposal. The optimal set is that most practised by the individual.