MODELING THE EFFECTS OF AGING ON REACTION TIME

描述(改编自调查员摘要)：调查员提议 将反应时间域的理论模型应用于 老化和反应时间的范围。随机游走和扩散模型能够 符合超出平均反应时间的实验数据范围，则会出现 成为共识，认为这些模式正在设定新的会计标准 反应时间现象。提出了五条实验路线，每条路线都需要 关于简单的认知和知觉刺激的二选一决定。每一种 实验对认知过程设置了不同的限制：前两个 要求受试者学习刺激-反应映射；后两个限制 通过限制编码时间和刺激辨别能力的知觉过程； 第三个需要记忆。对于所有五项任务，将检查性能 使用标准反应时间任务、速度与准确性说明，以及 限制受试者必须回答的时间的最后期限。模特将适合 每项任务的所有数据，包括正确和错误的反应时间 反应、反应准确度、反应时间和准确度之间的关系， 以及反应时间分布的形状。模型的参数 将被用来解释老化的赤字。例如， 扩散模型允许信息进入的质量决策 要与进程的其他组件分开的进程。这个 调查人员预计，这种理论方法将提供更多 完整的图片处理比目前的布林利曲线图分析 主要解释老化对反应时间的影响。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from investigator's abstract): The investigator proposes to bring theoretical modeling from the reaction time domain to bear on the domain of aging and reaction time. Random walk and diffusion models are able to fit a range of experimental data beyond mean reaction time, and there appears to be a consensus that these models are setting new standards in accounting for reaction time phenomena. Five lines of experiments are proposed, each requiring two-choice decisions about simple cognitive and perceptual stimuli. Each kind of experiment places different limits on cognitive processes: the first two require subjects to learn stimulus-to-response mappings; the second two limit perceptual processes by limiting encoding time and stimulus discriminability; and the third requires memory. For all five tasks, performance will be examined with standard reaction time tasks, speed versus accuracy instructions, and deadlines that limit the time subjects have to respond. Models will be fit to all of the data from each task, including reaction times for correct and error responses, response accuracy, the relations among reaction time and accuracy, and the shapes of the reaction time distributions. Parameters of the models will be used to interpret aging deficits. For example, the parameters of the diffusion model allow the quality of the information entering decision processes to be separated from other components of the processes. The investigators anticipate that this theoretical approach will provide a more complete picture of processing than the Brinley plot analyses that currently dominate explanations of aging effects on reaction time.