Response time distributions: Some simple effects of factors selectively influencing mental processes

When hypotheses about mental processing are tested with response times, inf erences are often based on means, and occasionally on variance or skewness. Calculations on entire distributions of response times are more informativ e and can be conveniently carried out. Recently investigators have been upd ating procedures primarily based on means (such as additive factors tests) to procedures employing entire distribution functions. in one such advance, Nozawa and Townsend upgraded earlier tests of whether factors selectively influence serial or parallel processes, and whether parallel processes ente r AND gates or OR gates. We discuss generalizations of the tests to complex arrangements of processes in networks. Results for a particularly difficul t network, the Wheatstone bridge, are presented here. We use simulations to demonstrate the feasibility of the tests, and the possibility of mimicking .