SPEED-ERROR TRADEOFF IN A 3-CHOICE SERIAL REACTION TASK

Emphasized speed and accuracy in a self-paced serial 3-choice task with no response-stimulus delay. 5 20-yr-old, right-handed male undergraduates consistently adopted speed or accuracy sets. The faster overall performance under speed set was due to: (1) faster correct responses, (2) faster error responses, and (3) additional faster error responses. There was a general speeding of RT distributions and no specific effects were found in digram or sequential analysis. In Exp. II, 3 of the Ss in Exp. I traded off accuracy of speed, making up to 50% errors. Overall mean RT decreased linearly and information transmission decreased curvilinearly with increasing errors, but RT was linearly related to information in bits/symbol. Error RT was again faster than correct RT by a similar amount over the error range. Results reveal deficiencies in both serial classification and statistical decision models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.