Hick's law revisited

Abstract

In 1952, Hick proposed his ‘information theory’, that in making choice reactions the subject gains information at a constant rate such that: Mean reaction time = K log 2 ( N + 1). Crossman (1953), claims to have shown the above relationship to hold in another task demanding identification and choice, namely sorting of playing cards. However, many methodological flaws, not least the absence of any analysis of results, cast some doubt on the validity of his findings. The aim of this experiment was to discover the true nature of the relationship between the choice reaction time and the number of classes. Each subject held a well-shuffled pack of especially constructed cards in one hand, and sorted them into their different classes, onto corresponding boards with the other. this was done in one of two conditions, either with the cards face up or face down. A significantly linear relationship was found between the time taken to sort the cards and the number of classes into which the cards had to be sorted. A constant time difference between the face up and face down condition was also found. It appears that the nature of the relationship may be an artifact of the strategy the subject adopted.