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What are the shapes of response time distributions in visual search?

Open access
Palmer, Evan M., Horowitz, Todd S., Torralba, Antonio, Wolfe, Jeremy M.·2011·Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

Abstract

Many visual search experiments measure response time (RT) as their primary dependent variable. Analyses typically focus on mean (or median) RT. However, given enough data, the RT distribution can be a rich source of information. For this paper, we collected about 500 trials per cell per observer for both target-present and target-absent displays in each of three classic search tasks: feature search, with the target defined by color; conjunction search, with the target defined by both color and orientation; and spatial configuration search for a 2 among distractor 5s. This large data set allows us to characterize the RT distributions in detail. We present the raw RT distributions and fit several psychologically motivated functions (ex-Gaussian, ex-Wald, Gamma, and Weibull) to the data. We analyze and interpret parameter trends from these four functions within the context of theories of visual search.

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Crossref · 10.1037/a0020747

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Metadata

Authors
Palmer, E. M., Horowitz, T. S., Torralba, A., & Wolfe, J. M.
Venue
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
Published
2011
Volume
37
Issue
1
Pages
58-71
ISSN
  • 0096-1523 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1277
OpenAlex
W1561320973
Cited by
176
References
2
FWCI
3.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: What are the shapes of response time distributions in visual search? https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037/a0020747
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Palmer, E. M., Horowitz, T. S., Torralba, A., & Wolfe, J. M. (2011). What are the shapes of response time distributions in visual search? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020747

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