Premium
A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE RELATION BETWEEN CHOICE‐REACTION TIME AND THE NUMBER OF EQUIPROBABLE ALTERNATIVES
Author(s) -
Laming D. R. J.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.157
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2044-8317
pISSN - 0007-1102
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8317.1966.tb00364.x
Subject(s) - interpretation (philosophy) , relation (database) , mathematics , computer science , mathematical economics , data mining , programming language
The interpretation of the results of Hick and Merkel in terms of Communication Theory has failed to lead to a satisfactory theory of choice‐reaction times. This paper presents an alternative interpretation of the original results in terms of n parallel decision processes, the reaction time being determined by whichever of these n decisions takes the longest. This interpretation is slightly preferable in that it gives an adequate account of the variances obtained by Hick. Some of the implications of this new interpretation are discussed.