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Simple Reaction Time with Markovian Evolution of Gaussian Discriminal Processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Phillip L. Emerson
Phillip L. Emerson*
Affiliation:
Cleveland State University
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Abstract

If the discriminal distributions of signal-detectability theory evolve in time according to a normal Markov process, they can be characterized by Brownian motion generalized with a constant bias determined by signal strength. If the process is stopped at the first occurrence of a preset criterion displacement, the resulting latency distribution provides a model for the central component of simple reaction time. Discussed are properties of the distribution which should be useful in obtaining experimental predictions from neural-counting assumptions, and in relating reaction times to basic variables of the theory of signal-detectability.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 1970 , pp. 99 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © 1970 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

This paper was written while the author was on a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mental Health Research Institute, University of Michigan, supported by U.S.P.H.S. Training grant T01-MH-7417-07.

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