| Abstract |
| Although most behavioral reaction times (RTs) for cognitive tasks exhibit positively skewed distributions, the majority of studies primarily rely on a measure of central tendency (e.g. mean) which can cause misinterpretations of data`s underlying property. The purpose of current study is to introduce procedures for describing characteristics of RT distributions, thereby effectively examine the influence of experimental manipulations. On the basis of assumption that RT distribution can be represented as a convolution of Gaussian and exponential variables, we fitted the ex-Gaussian function under a maximum-likelihood method. The ex-Gaussian function provides quantitative parameters of distributional properties and the probability density functions. Here we exemplified distributional analysis by using empirical RT data from two conventional visual search tasks, and attempted theoretical interpretation for setsize effect leading proportional mean RT delays. We believe that distributional RT analysis with a mathematical function beyond the central tendency estimates could provide insights into various theoretical and individual difference studies. Key words: reaction time, distributional analysis, ex-Gaussian model |
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| Key Words |
| 반응시간, 분포분석, ex-Gaussian 모형, reaction time, distributional analysis, ex-Gaussian model |
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