Response Times and Decision-Making

Response times have been very informative for the understanding of mental processes, 1 for many years. The most useful analyses of response times have been those based on 2 cognitive theories of decision-making, known as evidence accumulation models. We review 3 the history of decision-making models, and the empirical phenomena which have guided 4 their development. We focus particularly on the common elements of the models, as they 5 represent theoretical agreement about the most fundamental elements of decision-making 6 theory. We also review the practical usage of evidence accumulation models as data-analysis 7 tools, with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of this popular approach. While 8 popular, model-based analysis of response time data can be challenging, and so we review 9 developments which make those analyses easier, and also discuss common approaches to 10 the most common problems in plotting, parameter estimation, and model selection. 11