L9 - From the lab to the real world

Question 1

What’s the importance of cognition in everyday behaviour?

Answer 1

visual processing is central to numerous tasks

eye movements help direct the fovea, the region of greatest visual acuity, towards different visual field locations

Question 2

What was the prevalence effect (Wolfe et al. 2007)

Answer 2

ppts were asked to search for specific targets in luggage screening (e.g., guns or knives) among other items and were asked to identify them as quickly and accurately as possible

high prevalence condition - target was present in 50% of the trials

low prevalence –> target was present in 2% of the trials

Question 3

what were the results of Wolfe et al.’s 2007 study?

Answer 3

High Prevalence Condition:
Participants had a lower error rate with a proportion of errors around 0.2.

Low Prevalence Condition:
Participants had a significantly higher error rate with a proportion of errors around 0.46.

Question 4

what were the implications of Wolfe et al.’s 2007 study?

Answer 4

Airport Screening: Regular retraining with high prevalence targets can improve accuracy.

Broader Applications: Applicable to medical screening and other critical search tasks with rare targets.

Question 5

What’s the importance of literacy?

Answer 5

cultural significance - reading is crucial cultural invention

impact - essential for knowledge, socioeconomic success + enriching human experience

Question 6

How is reading taught?

Answer 6

Phonics method:
Approach: Teaches the relationship between graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds).

Benefits: Allows new words to be “sounded out.”

Criticism: Can be perceived as boring but modern materials aim to make it engaging.

Whole-Word Method
Approach: Teaches children to read words as whole units.

Arguments For:
English language irregularities necessitate whole-word recognition.
Promotes reading for meaning.

Arguments Against:
Regular words can benefit from phonics (sounding out).

Whole-Language Method
Approach: Emphasizes meaning, guessing unknown words from context, and providing engaging reading materials.

Criticism: Does not encourage sounding out unknown words.

Question 7

What is a speed reader?

Answer 7

Read almost 3x faster than normal readers

perform well in comprehension but poorly in detailed understanding