Do people choose an optimal response criterion in an inspection task?

In order to provide models of human behavior useful in selecting tradeoffs in function allocation of inspection systems, an experiment was performed to test five optimization models of the decision component of inspection tasks. Ten subjects examined numbers printed on computer-generated Integrated Circuit (IC) chips to decide whether to accept or reject the ICs under different conditions of defective rate and payoff. The best fitting model was a form of the Expected Utility model, modified to account for the sluggish beta phenomenon. There was a significant relationship between subjects classified as Accurate on the Matching Familiar Figures Test and subjects best fitted by the modified Expected Utility model.