Application of a variable criterion model to auditory reaction time as a function of the type of catch trial

A variable criterion model has been applied to data from an RT experiment by LaBerge in which catch trial stimuli varied in similarity to a single auditory RT signal. Estimates of a sensory recruitment function and the parameters of hypothetical criterion distributions were obtained by a scaling solution. Auditory recruitment was an exponential growth function, and the criterion distributions were normal. In combination, these estimates successfully predicted the empirical RT distributions.