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Reaction-Time Distributions in the Detection of Weak Signals in Noise
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1965
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EngineeringBehavioral MeasurementIndividual DifferencesReaction-time DistributionsCognitionStochastic AnalysisPerceptionAttentionReaction TimesPsychologyReaction TimeSocial SciencesNoise ReductionStatistical Signal ProcessingExperimental Decision MakingPsychophysiologyDifferent Signal StrengthsNoiseSignal DetectionPsychophysicsStatisticsCognitive ScienceBehavioral SciencesSensor Signal ProcessingMean LatencyProbability TheoryStochastic ResonanceExperimental PsychologySignal ProcessingExperimental Analysis Of BehaviorCognitive DynamicsAffect PerceptionTime Perception
Reaction times were collected for three observers in a YES-NO signal detection experiment, for two different signal strengths, and three a priori probabilities of a signal occurrence—P (S): 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8. Each server gave 1800 responds under each of the six conditions. A trial ended only when the observer terminated it. Some of the major findings are (1) latencies have Pearson distributions, mainly Beta of the first and second kind; (2) there is an apparent genetic character to the distributions—that is, they resemble each other according to the response (YES or NO) rather than the stimulus (signal or noise alone); (3) at P (S) = 0.2, the mean latency of a false rejection of a signal is least, that of a correct detection greatest, but for P (S) = 0.5, and 0.8, mean latency is least for correct detection, and greatest for correct NO'S, and (4) generally, reaction times are inversely related to the a priori probability of their associated stimulus classes.