A Comparison of Sequential Sampling Models for Two-Choice Reaction Time

Abstract

The authors evaluated 4 sequential sampling models for 2-choice decisions - the Wiener diffusion, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) diffusion, accumulator, and Poisson counter models - by fitting them to the response time (RT) distributions and accuracy data from 3 experiments. Each of the models was augmented with assumptions of variability across trials in the rate of accumulation of evidence from stimuli, the values of response criteria, and the value of base RT across trials. Although there was substantial model mimicry, empirical conditions were identified under which the models make discriminably different predictions. The best accounts of the data were provided by the Wiener diffusion model, th..