A random-walk model of accuracy and reaction time applied to three experiments on pigeon visual discrimination

A random-walk model of visual discrimination is described and applied to reaction time (RT) distributions from three discrete-trial experiments with pigeons. Experiment 1 was a two-choice hue discrimination task with multiple hues. Choice percentages changed with hue discriminability; RTs were shortest for the least and most discriminable stimuli. Experiments 2 and 3 used go/no-go hue discriminations. Blocks of sessions differed in reward probability associated with a variable red stimulus in Experiment 2 and with a constant green stimulus in Experiment 3. Changes in hue had a large effect on response percentage and a small effect on RT; changes in reward shifted RT distributions on the time axis. The "random-walk, pigeon" model applied to these data is closely related to Ratcliff's diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978; Ratcliff & Rouder, 1998). Simulations showed that stimulus discriminability affected the speed with which evidence accumulated toward a response threshold, in line with comparable effects in human subjects. Reward probability affected bias, modeled as the amount of evidence needed to reach one threshold rather than the other. The effects of reward probability are novel, and their isolation from stimulus effects within the decision process can guide development of a broader model of discrimination.