Throughput: a simple performance index with desirable characteristics.
Throughput is a corrected response rate measure giving the number of successes per unit of discretionary time. It is a simple but general index applicable to psychomotor, behavioral, and cognitive tasks in which response times are measured. This measure has several attractive features: (1) It allows comparisons to be made across various tasks in which speed and accuracy are meaningful and measurable, independently of temporal differences in hardware, software, and procedures; (2) under conditions in which both speed and accuracy decline (or improve), throughput will be a more sensitive index of performance than either alone will be; and (3) in those tasks in which the speed-accuracy trade-off phenomenon operates, throughput will tend to be relatively less variable than either component alone will be. The measure allows both behavioral and information-processing interpretations of data and may be useful as a simple composite index, a measure of effectiveness or of cognitive efficiency [corrected] in studies investigating performance degradation or enhancement.
Thorne
David R
DR
Department of Behavioral Biology, Division of Neuroscience, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, 503 Robert Grant Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910-7500, USA. david.thorne@us.army.mil
D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011584:Psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*