Sufficient Conditions for Monotone Hazard Rate An Application to Latency-Probability Curves

It is assumed that when a subject makes a response after comparing a random variable with a fixed criterion, his response latency is inversely related to the distance between the value of the variable and the criterion. This paper then examines the relationship to response probability of (a) response latency, (b) difference between two latencies and (c) dispersion of latency, and also some properties of the latency distribution. It is shown that the latency-probability curve is decreasing if and only if the hazard function of the underlying distribution is increasing and, by using a fundamental lemma, sufficient conditions are obtained for monotone hazard rate. An inequality is established which is satisfied by the slope of the Receiver Operating Characteristic under these sufficient conditions. Finally, a Latency Operating Characteristic is defined and it is suggested that such a plot can be useful in assessing the consistency between latency data and theory.