Methods Flashcards
Introspection
an examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings. Very subjective. We are not always aware of things that happen: anosognosia for hemiplegia (not aware of movement). They make a plausible story based on ideas about the world, not real introspection.
Behaviorism
Watson- we can only objectively report behavior and environment. Forget about the mind, behavior is essentially reflexive. We are all stimulus-response machines. Classical conditioning
Computer era
comparing computers with the brain, they receive input and turn it into output.
Representation
behavior is not based on the physical world, but on the representation of the world, as generated by the brain. For ex. Red, the colour or the word
Multiple representations
representations exist at various levels of abstraction, have various purposes/functions, are localized at various places
Interference
Stroop test, conflict between representations of colour, eyes and linguistics.
Chronometry
Reaction Time Substraction. Interference - incongruent minus neutral RT
Psychophysics
study of what natural laws you can find in the mind.
Constancy in responses. You get distribution, response times. You can see how fast you react to stimuli, and look at the medium response time difference between light and sound for ex.
Multisensory response
people are faster at responding to sound, touch and light together
Detection threshold
how much signal strength do we need to detect a stimulus xx% of the time?
Cumulative distributive function/psychometric curve
shows proportion of detection responses in relation to stimulus contrast. The bigger the contrast, the higher the proportion of detection responses.
→ Attention modulates sensitivity: changes threshold at which you perceive something.
Illusion
internal representation that does not accurately reflect the real world.
Illusion is informative about the nature of that representation and how it is constructed. We correct for the size given the perspective. Context is important. Cons adapt to colours, you reduce sensitivity to colours.
Adaptation
cone adaptation. We have receptors sensitive to different wavelengths. Long stimulation of channel reduces sensitivity causing the complementary colour to be perceived.
Bayesian cue integration
accurately predicts performance. Brain uses reliability of sensory input to weigh how important the imput is in the location of a stimulus. Optimal cue integration: in the middle. Wider distribution - less sure of where its coming from. Rely more on the smaller distribution.
Optical cue information
People are less precise at localizing sound sources than visual.
If there is a conflict between light and sound, the optimal is in the middle because there is a weighing if sensory input determined by the weight of the distribution. Used to predict.
Brain maps of space
- Receptive fields are organized neatly into maps. Map spatial relations are similar to relations on the retina (which has a direct relation with the visual field). Retinotopic maps, in relation to the fovea where it is more precise.
- Auditory spatial representation: frequencies are organized neatly into maps.
- Brainstem: spatial locations of sound are transformed into the reference of eyes. You can make eye movements towards a sound.
Tonotopic map
some neurons respond to low pitch, others to high pitch. Not as precise as visual representations. Different format of spatial information.
Interoral time difference:
Sound reaches the left ear before the right ear, but the brain uses it to determine where sound comes from on horizontal level. Distribution is true for sounds that have a low pitch. Frequency determines pitch, amplitude the intensity.
Oral level difference
Head blocks some sound waves, sound coming from the left will be more intense in left ear. World for high frequency content, low frequencies can go through stuff (base).
Lesions in animals
Irreversible (destroyed or removed) or reversible (cooling to find crucial areas). Classical conditions of rabbit eye-blik response. Investigate causal relation between function and area investigated.
Structural imaging
CT/CAT: X-Ray computed tomography
MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging
