Premium
A simple two‐stage model predicts response time distributions
Author(s) -
Carpenter R. H. S.,
Reddi B. A. J.,
Anderson A. J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the journal of physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.802
H-Index - 240
eISSN - 1469-7793
pISSN - 0022-3751
DOI - 10.1113/jphysiol.2009.173955
Subject(s) - sensory system , response time , stimulus (psychology) , computer science , afferent , decision process , linear model , mathematics , biological system , pattern recognition (psychology) , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , psychology , machine learning , cognitive psychology , biology , process management , business , computer graphics (images)
The neural mechanisms underlying reaction times have previously been modelled in two distinct ways. When stimuli are hard to detect, response time tends to follow a random‐walk model that integrates noisy sensory signals. But studies investigating the influence of higher‐level factors such as prior probability and response urgency typically use highly detectable targets, and response times then usually correspond to a linear rise‐to‐threshold mechanism. Here we show that a model incorporating both types of element in series – a detector integrating noisy afferent signals, followed by a linear rise‐to‐threshold performing decision – successfully predicts not only mean response times but, much more stringently, the observed distribution of these times and the rate of decision errors over a wide range of stimulus detectability. By reconciling what previously may have seemed to be conflicting theories, we are now closer to having a complete description of reaction time and the decision processes that underlie it.