Cog Lab 1 - COGNITIVE LAB ASSIGNMENT PDF

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COGNITIVE LAB ASSIGNMENT...

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HOMEWORK #1 Please submit your answers using the HW1 Assessment in ANGEL. The easiest way to do this assignment is to type out your answers first. Only go over to ANGEL when you are ready submit. Then copy and paste your answers to each of the questions. Our CogLab this week explored the blind spot in our visions. Some of the HW questions will relate to the CogLab and other questions will relate to material from class. (NOTE: Each of these questions will be graded as an independent question. So be sure that your answer to each question can be understood without making reference to previous questions. So, if you want to use information from question 1 in a later question, you can't just say "like I said in question 1", you need to re-iterate the information...but in a much briefer way.) 1. Discuss how visual information is relayed into the eye and then the brain for further processing. (Make sure to indicate the physical reason for why we have a blind spot in our vision as part of your answer.) (4 points) A stimulus such as a light, is perceived by the eyes and relayed to the brain to give a mental response. An example of a mental response is deciding whether to push the right or the left button, which is reinforced by having a blind spot in our vision so our brain can distinguish which eye the information is coming from. Afterwards, the brain executes a behavioral response from this decision by pressing a button. 2. Looking at the results of your CogLab data, what do the red dots in the results represent? What does it mean if your results indicate two patches of red dots? (4 points) The red dots represent the amount of times we correctly perceived the straight lines 3. Although a blind spot exists, we don’t tend to notice it in everyday life. Why does this occur? (2 points) People do not notice the blind spot in our eyes because our brain compensates for it and allows us to look past it as if it did not exist. The same goes for our nose. 4. How does neuron firing change in response to stimulus intensity? What is a typical mistake that students often make when answering this question? (4 points) Neuron firing is less frequent but firing remains the same size as stimuli decreases. A typical mistake which students make is saying that as stimuli decrease, neurons fire less frequently and at a smaller size intensity. 5. Explain how Donders' pioneering method allowed for behavior to determine a property of the mind. To answer this question fully and completely students must state the question that Donders' was trying to answer, discuss the method he used to answer the question, and explain how the procedure allowed him to answer the question. (6 points) Donders' researched how long does it take to make a decision. His pioneering method placed reaction time within a certain realm of 0.1 seconds and behavioral responses, such as which button should I press, as they

corresponded to different lights within a different realm of slightly over 0.2 seconds....