Simple Reaction Time with Markovian Evolution of Gaussian Discriminal Processes
Phillip L. Emerson · Psychometrika · 1970
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.