A Behavioral Characterization of the Drift Diffusion Model and Its Multialternative Extension for Choice Under Time Pressure

Abstract

In this paper, we provide an axiomatic foundation for the value-based version of the drift diffusion model (DDM) of Ratcliff, a successful model that describes two-alternative speeded decisions between consumer goods. Our axioms present a test for model misspecification and connect the externally observable properties of choice with an important neurophysiologic account of how choice is internally implemented. We then extend our axiomatic analysis to multialternative choice under time pressure. In a nutshell, we show that binary DDM comparisons of the alternatives, paired with Markovian exploration of the consideration set, approximately lead to softmaximization. This paper was accepted by Manel Baucells, decision analysis.