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A Response Time Model for Choice Behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Walter Kintsch
Walter Kintsch*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
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Abstract

A subject in a two-choice situation characteristically makes several observing responses before performing the final choice. This behavior can be described by means of a random walk model. The present paper explores some possibilities as to how this model can be extended to include choice time. The assumption is made that the duration of each step in the random walk is a random variable which is exponentially distributed. With this assumption, one can predict the probability distributions of the choice times as well as the moments of these distributions.

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1963 , pp. 27 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © 1963 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

The author gratefully acknowledges his debt to W. K. Estes and C. J. Burke. This study was initiated while the author held a USPHS postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University.

References

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