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Some Tasks' Demands Require Collapsing Bounds: Evidence from a Behavioral Analysis

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Traditional models of choice response time assume that sensory evidence accumulates for choice alternatives until a threshold amount of evidence has been obtained. Although some researchers have characterized the threshold as varying randomly from trial to trial, these investigations have all assumed that the threshold remains fixed across time within a trial. Despite decades of successful applications of these models to a variety of experimental manipulations, this time-invariance assumption has recently been called into question, and a time-variant alternative implementing collapsing decision thresholds has been proposed instead. Here, we investigated the fidelity of the collapsing threshold assumption by assessing relative model fit to data from a highly constrained experimental design that coupled a within-subject mixture of two classic response time paradigms - interrogation and free response - within a random dot motion (RDM) task. Overall, we identified strong evidence in favor of the time-variant model with collapsing decision boundaries, suggesting that subjects may adapt a dynamic decision threshold due to task characteristics, specifically to account for the mixing of response time paradigms and motion strengths across trials in the mixed RDM task. We conclude that time-variant mechanisms may serve as a viable strategy for human subjects when completing a task that significantly constrains the amount of evidence ostensibly giving rise to perceptual decisions.
Brandon Turner (Advisor)
Per Sederberg (Committee Member)
Andrew Leber (Committee Member)
106 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Palestro, J. J. (2018). Some Tasks' Demands Require Collapsing Bounds: Evidence from a Behavioral Analysis [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1514901294586086

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Palestro, James. Some Tasks' Demands Require Collapsing Bounds: Evidence from a Behavioral Analysis . 2018. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1514901294586086.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Palestro, James. "Some Tasks' Demands Require Collapsing Bounds: Evidence from a Behavioral Analysis ." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1514901294586086

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)