Response time and decision making: An experimental study

Abstract

Response time is used here to interpret choice in decision problems. I first establish that there is a close connection between short response time and choices that are clearly a mistake. I then investigate whether a correlation also exists between response time and behavior that is inconsistent with some standard theories of decision making. The lack of such a correlation could be interpreted to imply that such behavior does not reflect a mistake. It is also shown that a typology of slow and fast responders may, in some cases, be more useful than the standard typologies.

Keywords

• response time
• reaction time
• decision problems
• Allais paradox
• mistakes
• neuro-economics.