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A classic discussion in the recognition-memory literature concerns the question of whether recognition judgments are better described by continuous or discrete processes. These two hypotheses are instantiated by the signal detection theory model (SDT) and the 2-high-threshold model, respectively. Their comparison has almost invariably relied on receiver operating characteristic data. A new model-comparison approach based on ranking judgments is proposed here. This approach has several advantages: It does not rely on particular distributional assumptions for the models, and it does not require costly experimental manipulations. These features permit the comparison of the models by means of simple paired-comparison tests instead of goodness-of-fit results and complex model-selection methods that are predicated on many auxiliary assumptions. Empirical results from 2 experiments are consistent with a continuous memory process such as the one assumed by SDT.

We introduce MPTinR, a software package developed for the analysis of multinomial processing tree (MPT) models. MPT models represent a prominent class of cognitive measurement models for categorical data with applications in a wide variety of fields. MPTinR is the first software for the analysis of MPT models in the statistical programming language R, providing a modeling framework that is more flexible than standalone software packages. MPTinR also introduces important features such as (1) the ability to calculate the Fisher information approximation measure of model complexity for MPT models, (2) the ability to fit models for categorical data outside the MPT model class, such as signal detection models, (3) a function for model selection across a set of nested and nonnested candidate models (using several model selection indices), and (4) multicore fitting. MPTinR is available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/MPTinR/.

Acknowledgements: A. Szollosi and C. Donkin are supported by Australian Research Council grants (DP130100124 and DP190101675). Authors thank Jared Hotaling and Ben R. Newell for useful discussion, and various others for their constructive comments on a preprint of the current paper (entitled "Preregistration is redundant, at best"). Contribution statement: A. Szollosi and C. Donkin prepared the original outline, and A. Szollosi converted the outline into a draft. All authors contributed to improving the draft into its final version. All authors reviewed the text for final revisions.

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