Response times are a fascinating source of information on how the mind is organized - the time taken to carry out an action tells us something about the choice process involved. This is a critical but even-handed treatment of the major themes of how response times play a role in our thinking about the mind. Professor Luce provides a comprehensive, clear review of the experimental data, and puts forward the idea of the hazard function - a novel and important approach that he and his colleagues have developed. This function, based on the probability that an reaction is about to occur given that no reaction has occurred so far during a trial, exaggerates the differences that normal analysis methods often obscure. This enables the researcher to rule out more confidently known mechanisms of time delay in human performance.Since measurements of response times are widely used by experimental psychologists as one approach to distinguishing between theories of intellectual functioning, the conceptual arguments that Professor Luce brings to bear on mathematical models of response time are of great relevance to mathematical and experimental psychologists.
Representing response times as random variables; DETECTION PARADIGMS: Simple reaction times: basic data; Decomposition into decision and residual latencies; Distribution of simple decision latencies; Detection of signals presented at irregular times; IDENTIFICATION PARADIGMS: Two-choice reaction times: basic ideas and data; Mixture models; Stochastic accumulation of information in discrete time; Stochastic accumulation of information in continuous time; Absolute identification of more than two signals; MATCHING PARADIGMS: Memory scanning, visual search, and same-difference designs; Processing stages and strategies; Appendixes; References; Indexes.
An extensive and well presented account...Will certainly remain the basic reference for years to come...The book will be useful to many, whether or not they are theoretically inclined, and will be mandatory reading for anyone dealing with behavioural response times.
Fergus I. M. Craik, Toronto) Craik, Fergus I. M. (Senior Scientist Emeritus, Senior Scientist Emeritus, Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Fergus I M Craik
David M. Green, University of Florida) Green, David M. (Graduate Research Professor of Psychology, Graduate Research Professor of Psychology, David Marvin Green
Doreen Kimura, Canada) Kimura, Doreen (Professor, Department of Psychology, Professor, Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Russell L. DeValois, Karen K. DeValois, Berkeley) DeValois, Karen K. (both Professors of Psychology, both Professors of Psychology, University of California, Russell L. De Valois, Russell L. de Valois
Arthur S. Reber, City University of New York) Reber, Arthur S. (Professor, Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, Professor, Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College
Jan Bures, F. Bermudez-Rattoni, T. Yamamoto, Czech Republic) Bures, Jan (, Institute of Physiology, Videnska, Mexico) Bermudez-Rattoni, F. (, Instituto de Fisiologia Cellular, UNAM, Japan) Yamamoto, T. (Professor, Department of Behavioural Physiology, Professor, Department of Behavioural Physiology, Osaka University, Takashi Yamamoto, Federico Bermudez-Rattoni
Doreen Kimura, Canada) Kimura, Doreen (Professor, Department of Psychology, Professor, Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Ian P. Howard, Canada) Howard, Ian P. (Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus and Founder of the Centre for Vision Research, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus and Founder of the Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario, HOWARD, Howard
Janette Atkinson, Janette Atkinson Dr., UK) Atkinson Dr., Janette (, Head of the Visual Development Unit, Department of Psychology, University College London
Stephen M. Kosslyn, William L. Thompson, Giorgio Ganis, USA) Kosslyn, Stephen M. (Chair of the Department of Psychology, John Lindsley Professor of Psychology, Chair of the Department of Psychology, John Lindsley Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, USA) Thompson, William L. (, Psychology Department, Harvard University, USA) Ganis, Giorgio (Associate Profesor in Radiology, Associate Profesor in Radiology, Harvard Medical School
C. J. Brainerd, V. F. Reyna, USA) Brainerd, C. J. (Professor, Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology, Professor, Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology, University of Arizona, USA) Reyna, V. F. (Professor, Clinical Research Unit, Professor, Clinical Research Unit, University of Arizona
B. S. Rosner, J. B. Pickering, University of Oxford) Rosner, B. S. (Visiting Professor, Department of Experimental Psychology, Visiting Professor, Department of Experimental Psychology, Winchester) Pickering, J. B. (, IBM UK Scientific Research Centre