Cognition Week 1: Behavioral Measures

Questions and Answers

What does Signal Detection Theory primarily aim to understand?

The physiological measures of brain function

How people distinguish between different types of stimuli under certainty

How people make decisions under conditions of uncertainty (correct)

The effectiveness of eye-tracking technology

Which of the following best describes a 'false alarm' in detection tasks?

The target is incorrectly identified as present (correct)

The target is mistakenly identified as absent

The target is correctly identified as present

The target is correctly identified as absent

What does sensitivity refer to in the context of detection tasks?

A person’s ability to recognize a signal from noise (correct)

The participant's overall response bias towards signals

How quickly a participant responds to stimuli

The accuracy in recognizing non-signals

What characteristic defines a liberal response bias?

An inclination to assert the presence of a signal Signup and view all the answers

What is a limitation of using EEG as a physiological measure?

It has poor spatial resolution to localize brain activity Signup and view all the answers

Which aspect of eye-tracking does saccadic latency refer to?

The time taken to initiate an eye movement Signup and view all the answers

What does ERP stand for, in the context of physiological measures?

Event-Related Potential Signup and view all the answers

What primary advantage does MRI provide in measuring brain structure?

Static images of brain structure using a large magnet Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Behavioural Measures of Cognition

Signal Detection Theory: Addresses decision-making under uncertainty by distinguishing between meaningful signals and non-signals based on response bias.
Detection and Discrimination Tasks:
- False Alarm: Responding that a target is present when it is actually absent.
- Miss: Failing to identify a target when it is present.
- Sensitivity: The individual's ability to differentiate between target and non-target stimuli.
- Criterion: The threshold for participants deciding between ‘signal’ or ‘no signal’.
- Response Bias: Reflects the distribution of responses, not actual perceptual ability.
  - Liberal Response Bias: More likely to report a target presence.
  - Conservative Response Bias: More likely to report target absence.
Eye-Tracking: Monitoring eye movements and fixation points through cameras.
- Measures Saccadic Latency (time to initiate eye movement) and Saccadic Trajectory (path followed between visual objects).

Physiological Measures of Cognition

EEG (Electroencephalography): Captures electrical activity from the brain cortex.
- Pros: High temporal resolution, capturing events on a millisecond scale.
- Cons: Low spatial resolution, difficulty localizing brain activity.
ERP (Event-Related Potentials): Averaged EEG data time-locked to specific stimuli or events.
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging): Uses strong magnets for static images of brain structures.
fMRI (Functional MRI): Measures brain activity through changes in blood flow, providing insights into functional activation under various conditions.
- Cons: Poor temporal resolution; cannot specify precise timing of brain area activation.
EMG (Electromyography): Measures the electrical activity of facial muscles that contract during psychological processes.
- Pros: Offers objective and implicit data on muscle engagement.
- Cons: Involves intensive muscle tensing.
TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation): Uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in targeted cortical regions, aiding in understanding brain function.

Description

This quiz focuses on the first week of the cognitive psychology course, covering behavioral and physiological measures of cognition. Key topics include Signal Detection Theory and Detection and Discrimination Tasks, along with concepts such as false alarms and response bias. Test your understanding of how decisions are made under uncertainty!