THE ELUSIVE TRADEOFF: SPEED VERSUS ACCURACY IN CHOICE REACTION TASKS WITH CONTINUOUS COST FOR TIME.

Abstract

The study attempted to discover the conditions necessary for a speed-accuracy tradeoff in choice reaction time. The subjects' entire payoff depended on both their accuracy and response time on each trial. Cost for response time was proportional to that time. Session-to-session changes in the payoff difference between a correct response and an error varied the relative attractiveness of speed and accuracy. Experiments varied the emphasis on speed versus accuracy over a wide range, and used a free delay interval that charged subjects only for time exceeding 250msec. Two different versions of the random walk model both fit these empirical tradeoff functions but neither could account for the systematic differences between times for correct responses and errors. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1968
Accession Number
AD0690591

Entities

People

  • Richard S. Swensson

Organizations

  • University of Michigan

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Errors
  • Intervals
  • Random Walk
  • Reaction Time

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.