The importance of choice and response times

The six published papers making up the main body of this thesis aim to communicate the many benefits provided by a combined, model-based, analysis of choice and response time (RT). Consideration of both choice and RT is important largely because the two naturally trade with each other – fast responses are error-prone while slow responses are more often correct. Quantitative models based on evidence accumulation allow for a combined analysis of choice and RT. These so-named choice RT models take into account both the speed and accuracy of responses to produce quantities associated with performance, response caution, bias, and other elements of decision making. The first section contains tools sufficient to carry out a model-based choice RT analysis. The first chapter of the thesis provides software for the collection of both choice and RT data from vocal responses. The second chapter contains software for applying a particular choice RT model to data. Choice RT models can be used to better understand differences in the way that decisions are made, say between different groups or across different experimental conditions. This powerful ability, however, requires many important assumptions be made. The second section of the thesis deals with issues surrounding the assumptions made about the effect of experimental manipulations on the parameters of choice RT models. The third chapter demonstrates the ramifications of such assumptions, while the fourth chapter shows how careful choice RT users must be when making these assumptions. The third and final section details a process model of both choices and RT in absolute identification, in which the use of a choice RT model as a description of the decision process is integral. The fifth chapter outlines the process model and the sixth chapter tests a prediction of the model which highlights the importance of a quantitative account of both choice and RT in absolute identification.