This didactic aims of this review are to demonstrate the advantages of examining the entire reaction time (RT) distribution to better realize the efficacy of mental speed assessment in clinical neuropsychology. RT distributions are typically non-normal, requiring consideration of a host of statistical issues. Specifically, the appropriate model of the mental speed task’s distribution (e.g., ex-Gaussian, Weibull, Normal-Gaussian, etc.) must be determined to know what parameters can be used to characterize test performance. While RT mean and standard deviation are typically used to characterize clinical performance, these parameters are usually inappropriate because RT performance rarely conforms to a normal-Gaussian distribution. For illustrative purposes, a tutorial for examining the entire RT distribution is provided that demonstrates differences between an Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity and a neurotypical group of college students. While such analyses are descriptive, it is important to characterize test performance in the context of a theoretical model of RT performance. Therefore, the tutorial includes interpretation that uses the Diffusion model (Ratcliff Psychological Review, 85, 59-108, 1978), which assumes an ex-Gaussian distribution. It is concluded that current results conform to a large literature demonstrating a more nuanced understanding of cognition afforded by non-Gaussian analysis of RT. This literature is compelling neuropsychology to enlarge assessment technology beyond the limitations of paper-and-pencil instruments.

中文翻译：

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反应时间（RT）的非高斯分布分析：改进，提高了描述认知过程的RT任务的功效

本文的教学目的是证明检查整个反应时间（RT）分布的优势，以更好地实现心理速度评估在临床神经心理学中的功效。RT分布通常是非正态分布，需要考虑许多统计问题。具体而言，必须确定心理速度任务分布的适当模型（例如，前高斯，威布尔，正态高斯等），以了解可以使用哪些参数来表征测试性能。尽管通常使用RT均值和标准差来表征临床表现，但这些参数通常是不合适的，因为RT表现很少符合正态高斯分布。出于说明目的，提供了一个用于检查整个RT分布的教程，该教程演示了注意缺陷/多动症与神经性典型大学生群体之间的差异。尽管此类分析是描述性的，但在RT性能的理论模型的背景下表征测试性能非常重要。因此，本教程包括使用扩散模型（RatcliffPsychological Review， 85，59-108，1978），其中假设存在前高斯分布。结论是，目前的结果符合大量文献，表明对RT的非高斯分析提供了更细微的认知理解。这些文献令人信服的神经心理学将评估技术扩大到纸笔工具的局限之外。