For decisions in the wild, time is of the essence. Available decision time is often cut short through natural or artificial constraints, or is impinged upon by the opportunity cost of time. Experimental economists have only recently begun to conduct experiments with time constraints and to analyze response time (RT) data, in contrast to experimental psychologists. RT analysis has proven valuable for the identification of individual and strategic decision processes including identification of social preferences in the latter case, model comparison/selection, and the investigation of heuristics that combine speed and performance by exploiting environmental regularities. Here we focus on the benefits, challenges, and desiderata of RT analysis in strategic decision making. We argue that unlocking the potential of RT analysis requires the adoption of process-based models instead of outcome-based models, and discuss how RT in the wild can be captured by time-constrained experiments in the lab. We conclude that RT analysis holds considerable potential for experimental economics, deserves greater attention as a methodological tool, and promises important insights on strategic decision making in naturally occurring environments.

There is ample evidence that people differ considerably in their preferences. We identify individual heterogeneity in type and strength of social preferences in a series of binary three-person dictator games. Based on this identification, we analyze response times in another series of games to investigate the cognitive processes of distributional preferences. We find that response time increases with the number of conflicts between individually relevant motives and decreases with the utility difference between choice options. The selfish motive is more intuitive for subjects who are more selfish. Our findings indicate that the sequential sampling process and the intuition of selfishness jointly produce distribution decisions, and provide an explanation for the mixed results on the correlations between response time and prosociality. Our results also show that it is important to take heterogeneity of preferences into account when investigating the cognitive processes of social decision making.

This paper investigates the usefulness of non-choice data, namely response times, as a predictor of threshold behavior in a simple global game experiment. Our results indicate that the signals associated to the highest or second highest response time at the beginning of the experiment are both unbiased estimates of the threshold employed by subjects at the end of the experiment. This predictive ability is lost when we move to the third or higher response times. Moreover, the response time predictions are better than the equilibrium predictions of the game. They are also robust, in the sense that they characterize behavior in an “out-of-treatment” exercise where we use the strategy method to elicit thresholds.

In this paper we provide new evidence showing that fair behavior is intuitive to most people. We find a strong association between a short response time and fair behavior in the dictator game. This association is robust to controls that take account of the fact that response time might be affected by the decision-maker’s cognitive ability and swiftness. The experiment was conducted with a large and heterogeneous sample recruited from the general population in Denmark. We find a striking similarity in the association between response time and fair behavior across groups in the society, which suggests that the predisposition to act fairly is a general human trait.

This paper investigates how process data like response time and click position relates to economic decisions. We use a social value orientation experiment, which can be considered as a prototypical multi-attribute decision problem. We find that in the social value orientation task more individualistic subjects have shorter response times than prosocial subjects. Individualistic subjects click more often on their own payoffs than on the others’ payoffs, and they click more often on their own payoffs than prosocial subjects. Moreover, the response time information and the click position information are complementary in explaining subjects’ preferences. These results show that response times and click positions can be used as indicators of people’s preferences.

Three plausible assumptions of conditional independence in a hierarchical model for responses and response times on test items are identified. For each of the assumptions, a Lagrange multiplier test of the null hypothesis of conditional independence against a parametric alternative is derived. The tests have closed-form statistics that are easy to calculate from the standard estimates of the person parameters in the model. In addition, simple closed-form estimators of the parameters under the alternatives of conditional dependence are presented, which can be used to explore model modification. The tests were applied to a data set from a large-scale computerized exam and showed excellent power to detect even minor violations of conditional independence.

The study presents statistical procedures that monitor functioning of items over time. We propose generalized likelihood ratio tests that surveil multiple item parameters and implement with various sampling techniques to perform continuous or intermittent monitoring. The procedures examine stability of item parameters across time and inform compromise as soon as they identify significant parameter shift. The performance of the monitoring procedures was validated using simulated and real-assessment data. The empirical evaluation suggests that the proposed procedures perform adequately well in identifying the parameter drift. They showed satisfactory detection power and gave timely signals while regulating error rates reasonably low. The procedures also showed superior performance when compared with the existent methods. The empirical findings suggest that multivariate parametric monitoring can provide an efficient and powerful control tool for maintaining the quality of items. The procedures allow joint monitoring of multiple item parameters and achieve sufficient power using powerful likelihood-ratio tests. Based on the findings from the empirical experimentation, we suggest some practical strategies for performing online item monitoring.

Theory of mind (ToM) is an essential social-cognitive ability to understand one’s own and other people’s mental states. Neural data as well as behavior data have been utilized in ToM research, but the two types of data have rarely been analyzed together, creating a large gap in the literature. In this paper, we propose and apply a novel joint modeling approach to analyze brain activations with two types of behavioral data, response times and response accuracy, obtained from a multi-item ToM assessment, with the intention to shed new light on the nature of the underlying process of ToM reasoning. Our trivariate data analysis suggested that different levels or kinds of processes might be involved during the ToM assessment, which seem to differ in terms of cognitive efficiency and sensitivity to ToM items and the correctness of item responses. Additional details on the trivariate data analysis results are provided with discussions on their implications for ToM research.

The paper provides a survey of 18 years’ progress that my colleagues, students (both former and current) and I made in a prominent research area in Psychometrics—Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT). We start with a historical review of the establishment of a large sample foundation for CAT. It is worth noting that the asymptotic results were derived under the framework of Martingale Theory, a very theoretical perspective of Probability Theory, which may seem unrelated to educational and psychological testing. In addition, we address a number of issues that emerged from large scale implementation and show that how theoretical works can be helpful to solve the problems. Finally, we propose that CAT technology can be very useful to support individualized instruction on a mass scale. We show that even paper and pencil based tests can be made adaptive to support classroom teaching.

Time limits are imposed on many computer-based assessments, and it is common to observe examinees who run out of time, resulting in missingness due to not-reached items. The present study proposes an approach to account for the missing mechanisms of not-reached items via response time censoring. The censoring mechanism is directly incorporated into the observed likelihood of item responses and response times. A marginal maximum likelihood estimator is proposed, and its asymptotic properties are established. The proposed method was evaluated and compared to several alternative approaches that ignore the censoring through simulation studies. An empirical study based on the PISA 2018 Science Test was further conducted.

Item compromise persists in undermining the integrity of testing, even secure administrations of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) with sophisticated item exposure controls. In ongoing efforts to tackle this perennial security issue in CAT, a couple of recent studies investigated sequential procedures for detecting compromised items, in which a significant increase in the proportion of correct responses for each item in the pool is monitored in real time using moving averages. In addition to actual responses, response times are valuable information with tremendous potential to reveal items that may have been leaked. Specifically, examinees that have preknowledge of an item would likely respond more quickly to it than those who do not. Therefore, the current study proposes several augmented methods for the detection of compromised items, all involving simultaneous monitoring of changes in both the proportion correct and average response time for every item using various moving average strategies. Simulation results with an operational item pool indicate that, compared to the analysis of responses alone, utilizing response times can afford marked improvements in detection power with fewer false positives.

Many large-scale standardized tests are intended to measure skills related to ability rather than the rate at which examinees can work. Time limits imposed on these tests make it difficult to distinguish between the effect of low proficiency and the effect of lack of time. This paper proposes a mixture cure-rate model approach to address this issue. Maximum likelihood estimation is proposed for parameter and variance estimation for three cases: when examinee parameters are to be estimated given precalibrated item parameters, when item parameters are to be calibrated given known examinee parameters, and when item parameters are to be estimated without assuming known examinee parameters. Large-sample properties are established for the cases under suitable regularity conditions. Simulation studies suggest that the proposed approach is appropriate for inferences concerning model parameters. In addition, not distinguishing between the effect of low proficiency and the effect of lack of time is shown to have considerable consequences for parameter estimation. A real data example is presented to demonstrate the new model. Choice of survival models for the latent power times is also discussed.

This article presents a joint modeling framework of ordinal responses and response times (RTs) for the measurement of latent traits. We integrate cognitive theories of decision-making and confidence judgments with psychometric theories to model individual-level measurement processes. The model development starts with the sequential sampling framework which assumes that when an item is presented, a respondent accumulates noisy evidence over time to respond to the item. Several cognitive and psychometric theories are reviewed and integrated, leading us to three psychometric process models with different representations of the cognitive processes underlying the measurement. We provide simulation studies that examine parameter recovery and show the relationships between latent variables and data distributions. We further test the proposed models with empirical data measuring three traits related to motivation. The results show that all three models provide reasonably good descriptions of observed response proportions and RT distributions. Also, different traits favor different process models, which implies that psychological measurement processes may have heterogeneous structures across traits. Our process of model building and examination illustrates how cognitive theories can be incorporated into psychometric model development to shed light on the measurement process, which has had little attention in traditional psychometric models.

Traditional measurement models assume that all item responses correlate with each other only through their underlying latent variables. This conditional independence assumption has been extended in joint models of responses and response times (RTs), implying that an item has the same item characteristics fors all respondents regardless of levels of latent ability/trait and speed. However, previous studies have shown that this assumption is violated in various types of tests and questionnaires and there are substantial interactions between respondents and items that cannot be captured by person- and item-effect parameters in psychometric models with the conditional independence assumption. To study the existence and potential cognitive sources of conditional dependence and utilize it to extract diagnostic information for respondents and items, we propose a diffusion item response theory model integrated with the latent space of variations in information processing rate of within-individual measurement processes. Respondents and items are mapped onto the latent space, and their distances represent conditional dependence and unexplained interactions. We provide three empirical applications to illustrate (1) how to use an estimated latent space to inform conditional dependence and its relation to person and item measures, (2) how to derive diagnostic feedback personalized for respondents, and (3) how to validate estimated results with an external measure. We also provide a simulation study to support that the proposed approach can accurately recover its parameters and detect conditional dependence underlying data.

Latent trait models for response times in tests have become popular recently. One challenge for response time modeling is the fact that the distribution of response times can differ considerably even in similar tests. In order to reduce the need for tailor-made models, a model is proposed that unifies two popular approaches to response time modeling: Proportional hazard models and the accelerated failure time model with log–normally distributed response times. This is accomplished by resorting to discrete time. The categorization of response time allows the formulation of a response time model within the framework of generalized linear models by using a flexible link function. Item parameters of the proposed model can be estimated with marginal maximum likelihood estimation. Applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a simulation study and an empirical application. Additionally, means for the evaluation of model fit are suggested.

Signal detection theory (SDT; Tanner & Swets in Psychological Review 61:401–409, 1954) is a dominant modeling framework used for evaluating the accuracy of diagnostic systems that seek to distinguish signal from noise in psychology. Although the use of response time data in psychometric models has increased in recent years, the incorporation of response time data into SDT models remains a relatively underexplored approach to distinguishing signal from noise. Functional response time effects are hypothesized in SDT models, based on findings from other related psychometric models with response time data. In this study, an SDT model is extended to incorporate functional response time effects using smooth functions and to include all sources of variability in SDT model parameters across trials, participants, and items in the experimental data. The extended SDT model with smooth functions is formulated as a generalized linear mixed-effects model and implemented in the gamm4R package. The extended model is illustrated using recognition memory data to understand how conversational language is remembered. Accuracy of parameter estimates and the importance of modeling variability in detecting the experimental condition effects and functional response time effects are shown in conditions similar to the empirical data set via a simulation study. In addition, the type 1 error rate of the test for a smooth function of response time is evaluated.

In this paper, we propose a model-based method to study conditional dependence between response accuracy and response time (RT) with the diffusion IRT model (Tuerlinckx and De Boeck in Psychometrika 70(4):629–650, 2005, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-000-0810-3; van der Maas et al. in Psychol Rev 118(2):339–356, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2011.454498). We extend the earlier diffusion IRT model by introducing variability across persons and items in cognitive capacity (drift rate in the evidence accumulation process) and variability in the starting point of the decision processes. We show that the extended model can explain the behavioral patterns of conditional dependency found in the previous studies in psychometrics. Variability in cognitive capacity can predict positive and negative conditional dependency and their interaction with the item difficulty. Variability in starting point can account for the early changes in the response accuracy as a function of RT given the person and item effects. By the combination of the two variability components, the extended model can produce the curvilinear conditional accuracy functions that have been observed in psychometric data. We also provide a simulation study to validate the parameter recovery of the proposed model and present two empirical applications to show how to implement the model to study conditional dependency underlying data response accuracy and RTs.

Findings suggest that in psychological tests not only the responses but also the times needed to give the responses are related to characteristics of the test taker. This observation has stimulated the development of latent trait models for the joint distribution of the responses and the response times. Such models are motivated by the hope to improve the estimation of the latent traits by additionally considering response time. In this article, the potential relevance of the response times for psychological assessment is explored for the model of van der Linden (Psychometrika 72:287–308, 2007) that seems to have become the standard approach to response time modeling in educational testing. It can be shown that the consideration of response times increases the information of the test. However, one also can prove that the contribution of the response times to the test information is bounded and has a simple limit.

Any family of simple response time distributions that correspond to different values of stimulation variables can be modeled by a deterministic stimulation-dependent process that terminates when it crosses a randomly preset criterion. The criterion distribution function is stimulation-independent and can be chosen arbitrarily, provided it is continuous and strictly increasing. Any family of N-alternative choice response time distributions can be modeled by N such process-criterion pairs, with response choice and response time being determined by the process that reaches its criterion first. The joint distribution of the N criteria can be chosen arbitrarily, provided it satisfies certain unrestrictive conditions. In particular, the criteria can be chosen to be stochastically independent. This modeling scheme, therefore, is a descriptive theoretical language rather than an empirically falsifiable model. The only role of the criteria in this theoretical language is to numerically calibrate the ordinal-scale axes for the deterministic response processes.

This paper provides a statistical framework for estimating higher-order characteristics of the response time distribution, such as the scale (variability) and shape. Consideration of these higher order characteristics often provides for more rigorous theory development in cognitive and perceptual psychology (e.g., Luce, 1986). RT distribution for a single participant depends on certain participant characteristics, which in turn can be thought of as arising from a distribution of latent variables. The present work focuses on the three-parameter Weibull distribution, with parameters for shape, scale, and shift (initial value). Bayesian estimation in a hierarchical framework is conceptually straightforward. Parameter estimates, both for participant quantities and population parameters, are obtained through Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods. The methods are illustrated with an application to response time data in an absolute identification task. The behavior of the Bayes estimates are compared to maximum likelihood (ML) estimates through Monte Carlo simulations. For small sample size, there is an occasional tendency for the ML estimates to be unreasonably extreme. In contrast, by borrowing strength across participants, Bayes estimation “shrinks” extreme estimates. The results are that the Bayes estimators are more accurate than the corresponding ML estimators.