Use of Response Time for Measuring Cognitive Ability

Abstract

Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to review some of the key literature on response time as it has played a role in cognitive ability measurement, providing a historical perspective as well as covering current research. We discuss the speed-level distinction, dimensions of speed and level in cognitive abilities frameworks, speed-accuracy tradeoff, approaches to addressing speed-accuracy tradeoff, analysis methods, particularly item response theory-based, response time models from cognitive psychology (ex-Gaussian function, and the diffusion model), and other uses of response time in testing besides ability measurement. We discuss several new methods that can be used to provide greater insight into the speed and level aspects of cognitive ability and speed-accuracy tradeoff decisions. These include item-level time limits, the use of feedback (e.g., CUSUMs), explicit scoring rules that combine speed and accuracy information (e.g., count down timing), and cognitive psychology models. We also review some of the key psychometric advances in modeling speed and level, which combine speed and ability measurement, address speed-accuracy tradeoff, allow for distinctions between response times on items responded to correctly and incorrectly, and integrate psychometrics with information-processing modeling. We suggest that the application of these models and tools is likely to advance both the science and measurement of human abilities for theory and applications.

Weaker semantic language lateralization associated with better semantic language performance in healthy right‐handed children

“…Besides in‐scanner task accuracy, we evaluated in‐scanner reaction times during performance. Reaction times may provide an additional measure of task difficulty (Kyllonen & Zu, ). Some studies show that right‐hemispheric activations increase when additional resources are needed to sustain tasks with increasing difficulty ([Dima, Jogia, & Frangou, ; Postman‐Caucheteux et al., ] but see also [Dräger & Knecht, ]).…”

Individual differences in cortical processing speed predict cognitive abilities: a model-based cognitive neuroscience account

“…Previous research has suggested that those individuals with greater cognitive abilities have a higher speed of information-processing, typically measured as reaction or inspection times in elementary cognitive tasks on a behavioral level (Kyllonen & Zu, 2016;Sheppard & Vernon, 2008), or as latencies of event-related potential (ERP) components on a neurophysiological level (e.g., Bazana & Stelmack, 2002;Schubert, Hagemann, Voss, Schankin, & Bergmann, 2015;Troche, Indermühle, Leuthold, & Rammsayer, 2015). Neuroimaging studies have shown that the association between the speed of information-processing and cognitive abilities may reflect individual differences in white-matter tract integrity, either as an overall brain property (Penke et al, 2012) or in specific brain regions such as the forceps minor and the corticospinal tract (Kievit et al, 2016).…”

A semi‐parametric within‐subject mixture approach to the analyses of responses and response times

“…The interest in response times in psychometrics dates back many decades (Thorndike, Bregman, Cobb, & Woodyard, ). Since then, effort has been devoted to the development of item response theory (IRT) models for responses and response times (e.g., Roskam, ; Thissen, ; see Schnipke & Scrams, ; Kyllonen & Zu, ; for a more comprehensive overview). Recently, work in this area has been boosted by the development of a general modelling framework for responses and response times (Van Der Linden, , ).…”