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ERIC Number: EJ933750
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Feb
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0096-1523
EISSN: N/A
What Are the Shapes of Response Time Distributions in Visual Search?
Palmer, Evan M.; Horowitz, Todd S.; Torralba, Antonio; Wolfe, Jeremy M.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, v37 n1 p58-71 Feb 2011
Many visual search experiments measure response time (RT) as their primary dependent variable. Analyses typically focus on mean (or median) RT. However, given enough data, the RT distribution can be a rich source of information. For this paper, we collected about 500 trials per cell per observer for both target-present and target-absent displays in each of three classic search tasks: "feature" search, with the target defined by color; "conjunction" search, with the target defined by both color and orientation; and "spatial configuration" search for a 2 among distractor 5s. This large data set allows us to characterize the RT distributions in detail. We present the raw RT distributions and fit several psychologically motivated functions (ex-Gaussian, ex-Wald, Gamma, and Weibull) to the data. We analyze and interpret parameter trends from these four functions within the context of theories of visual search. (Contains 1 footnote and 12 figures.)
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A