Modeling Simple Decisions and Applications Using a Diffusion Model

The diffusion model is one of the major sequential-sampling models for two-choice decision-making and choice response time in psychology. The model conceives of decision-making as a process in which noisy evidence is accumulated until one of two response criteria is reached and the associated response is made. The criteria represent the amount of evidence needed to make each decision and reflect the decision maker’s response biases and speed-accuracy trade-off settings. In this chapter we examine the application of the diffusion model in a variety of different settings. We discuss the optimality of the model and review its applications to a number of cognitive tasks, including perception,memory, and language tasks. We also consider its applications to normal and special populations, to the cognitive foundations of individual differences, to value-based decisions, and its role in understanding the neural basis of decision-making.