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Updated: May 21, 2026
07:13
A Two-interval Forced-choice Task for Multisensory Comparisons
Published on: November 9, 2018
The optimality of sensory processing during the speed-accuracy tradeoff
Tiffany Ho1, Scott Brown, Leendert van Maanen
1Department of Psychology and Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. tcho@ucsd.edu
Summary
Making decisions fast often reduces accuracy. This study reveals that speed-accuracy tradeoffs (SATs) also involve inefficient sensory information processing in early visual areas, not just later decision stages.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Decision Science
Background:
- Speed-accuracy tradeoffs (SATs) traditionally link performance changes to response caution and later decision-making stages.
- The role of early sensory processing, particularly in the primary visual cortex (V1), in SATs remains less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether suboptimal information processing in early sensory areas contributes to performance decrements under speed pressure.
- To determine if primary visual cortex (V1) activity patterns are modulated by task demands emphasizing speed versus accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Human subjects performed an orientation discrimination task under speed or accuracy emphasis.
- Choice behavior was modeled to assess sensory evidence accumulation rates.
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combined with forward encoding models analyzed V1 activation patterns.
Main Results:
- Evidence accumulation rate was modulated by accuracy emphasis but not speed emphasis.
- Optimal gain patterns in V1 orientation-selective tuning predicted accuracy and evidence accumulation when accuracy was prioritized.
- These V1 tuning-behavior relationships were absent when speed was prioritized.
Conclusions:
- Performance decrements during speeded decision-making may stem from impaired sensory signal processing in V1.
- SATs involve not only response threshold adjustments but also alterations in the efficiency of early sensory information processing.
- Findings suggest a broader neural basis for SATs, encompassing early visual processing stages.
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