Speed-accuracy tradeoff and information processing dynamics

For a long time, it has been known that one can tradeoff accuracy for speed in (presumably) any task. The range over which one can obtain substantial speed-accuracy tradeoff varies from 150 msec in some very simple perceptual tasks to 1,000 msec in some recognition memory tasks and presumably even longer in more complex cognitive tasks. Obtaining an entire speed-accuracy tradeoff function provides much greater knowledge concerning information processing dynamics than is obtained by a reaction- time experiment, which yields the equivalent of a single point on this function. For this and other reasons, speed-accuracy tradeoff studies are often preferable to reaction-time studies of the dynamics of perceptual, memory, and cognitive processes. Methods of obtaining speed-accuracy tradeoff functions include: instructions, payoffs, deadlines, bands, response signals (with blocked and mixed designs), and partitioning of reaction time. A combination of the mixed-design signal method supplemented by partitioning of reaction times appears to be the optimal method.