LAB 1: Measurement and Experimental Design

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LAB 1 Measurement and Experimental Design
Definition Psychology is the scientific study
of behaviour -The Scientific Method. see pp.
39. -Find the effect of X on Y while controlling
for Z -To prove that X causes Y" we have to
measure the behaviour (Y) twice (once when X is
there and once when X is not there) This is how
BACON would test the SCIENTIFIC METHOD!! -How
does DISTRACTION (Counting X) affect EYE-HAND
COORDINATION (Tracing Y). -Practice also affects
tracing so we need to control these variables or
minimize them - Z (CONTROL VARIABLES) - to
control for PROGRESSIVE ERROR use
counterbalancing. - to control for RANDOM ERROR
use averages.
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LAB 1 Measurement and Experimental Design
What is the effect of DISTRACTION on
EYE-HAND COORDINATION, while controlling for
PROGRESSIVE and RANDOM ERROR?
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LAB 2 Cognitive Neuropsychology and the
Left/Right Hemispheres of the Brain (p 40-44) See
Weiten page 137 -Present Verbal and Symbol
stimuli to either the left visual field or the
right visual field -Stimuli to the left of
fixation are seen by the right hemisphere, right
of fixation by the left hemisphere -For most RH
males, language is better in the Left Hemisphere
and SPATIAL skills are better in the Right
Hemisphere.

• VERBAL - better on Rvf than Lvf
• SYMBOL - better on Lvf than Rvf
• -Right handed males vs. lefties and women
• Brocas area Wernickes area
• What characteristics would define a person with
  damage to the left hemisphere who couldnt speak?
  What area would have been affected?
• -Split Brain example
• We have 3 IVs (or Xs)
• -Type of Stimuli (V and S)
• - Side of Screen (Lvf and Rvf)
• - Serial Position (1st, 2, 3, 4th)
• We have 1 DV (Y)
• - Number correct, or ACCURACY
• We have 3 CVs (Zs)
• - Distance from fixation point
  
• - Hunt and peck times on keyboard
• - Visual Angle

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Are these normal results?
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LAB 2 Cognitive Neuropsychology and the
Left/Right Hemispheres of the Brain (p 40-44) See
Weiten page 137
What is the effect of STIMULUS TYPE, SIDE OF
SCREEN SERIAL POSITION on ACCURACY, while
controlling for DISTANCE FROM THE FIXATION POINT,
HUNT AND PECK TIME VISUAL ANGLE.
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LAB 3 A Polygraph Simulation of Classical
Conditioning PHENOMENA 1) Orienting response -
attentional and/or physiological response to a
NOVEL stimulus 2) Habituation - repeated
presentations of a stimulus causes very little or
no response 3) Arousal - increased physiological
response to an exciting stimulus (UCS or CS) 4)
Conditioning - training employed to teach the
animal to respond to a neutral stimulus 5)
Extinction - loss of a response to the CS as it
is presented repeatedly without the UCS 6)
Spontaneous recovery - reappearance of CR after
extinction and time away from task
GSR - galvanic skin response - electrical
conductivity of our skin, changes when we are
aroused) UCS - unconditioned stimulus - food or
shock UCR - unconditioned response - salivate or
flinch CS - conditioned stimulus - bell, or
tone (or beer logo!) CR - conditioned response -
learned response (flinch) DV - GSR amplitude,
latency, duration CVs - 2s tones, 1s shock IV -
training (pretest/posttest)
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Was this subject conditioned?
How can we test the scientific method according
to Bacon here? Measure Y twice!
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LAB 3 A Polygraph Simulation of Classical
Conditioning
What is the effect of TRAINING on GALVANIC
SKIN RESPONSE, while controlling for STIMULUS
DURATION.
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Lab 4 Sniffy Operant and Classical
conditioning Thorndikes Law of Effect The
consequences of an action make it more or less
likely to occur in the future!

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Lab 4 Sniffy Operant and Classical
conditioning MAGAZINE TRAINING (Classical
Conditioning) -Creating an association
between the Sound of the bar and receiving Food.
Time to magazine train (how long until
Sound-Food reaches 75 percent criteria)
-Creating an association between Clicker and
Food. SHAPING using the secondary reinforcer
to train successive approximations of
target behaviour (teach dog to fetch
stick or Sniffy to bar press) Reward for
standing then standing facing at back of cage
then standing at back of cage facing back of
cage Sniffy discovers bar and starts training
himself
EXTINCTION AFTER TRAINING (presses bar less than
3 times in 5 minutes) -Unlearns behavior, is
Sniffy frustrated? EXTINCTION AFTER TIMEOUT
(Spontaneous Recovery) -Same as before, except
after 24-hr timeout
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Lab 4 Sniffy Operant and Classical
conditioning What is the effect of TRAINING
(classical/operant conditioning) on Sniffys BAR
PRESSING RATE, while controlling for
REINFORCEMENT AND HUNGER.

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Module 6 Measuring Cognitive Processes -Cognitiv
e approach to information processing-computer
metaphor Stage 1 - ENCODING Sensory processing
to create a neural signal Stage 2 - COMPARISON
Compare to information in LTM to get
meaning Stage 3 - DECISION Select response and
planning is initiated Stage 4 - RESPONSE Execute
response (motor commands) -The total reaction
time from when the stimulus is presented until
the response is given is the sum of the times for
four processing stages. Stages 1-4 all required
for choice condition, the simple condition has no
decision stage Subtractive technique - Compare
simple and choice reaction times The difference
in time between Choice and Simple RTs is
therefore the time for the decision stage.

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Correlation
Correlation .3

• -Relationship between 2 variables
• -Positive, negative no correlations
• - Weak, moderate, strong no correlations
• -Causal inferences
• How to make a scatterplot
• 1 Get 2 scores for each person
• 2 Draw x and y axes, label,
• tick marks with equal spacing
• 3 Draw dot for each person using scores
• 4 Eyeball estimate big round blob or oval?
• 5 If not blob, positive or negative?
• 6 How strong (how thick is the oval)?

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What is the Error Score?4 steps to calculate it.

• 1. Look at just the error column.

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What is the Error Score?4 steps to calculate it.

• 2. Take the absolute value of the error scores
  (treat all as positive).

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What is the Error Score?4 steps to calculate it.

• 3. Identify, then drop the highest and the lowest
  error scores.

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What is the Error Score?4 steps to calculate it.

• 4. Find the average of the remaining 5 error
  scores (still treat all as positive).

Error Score (0.150.050.040.080.16)/5 0.096
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Target Answer For Hemispheres Experiment

• Question
• When Hemispheric Specialization was first
  discovered in patients with epilepsy during the
  "covered bucket" task, in what scenario was the
  patient unable to say the name of the object and
  why was he unable to do so? How did we design the
  hemispheres experiment?

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Target Answer For Hemispheres Experiment

• The patient wasnt able to say the name of
  the object when he used his left hand to touch
  the object under the covered bucket. He wasnt
  able to do so because he used his left hand,
  which is connected to the right hemisphere of the
  brain. The body is contra- lateral to the brain
  so when he used his left hand, the message was
  sent to the right hemisphere which does not
  specialize in language, so the message had to be
  transferred to the left hemisphere but there was
  no corpus callosum. It was already cut to prevent
  seizures. The hemispheres experiment was designed
  by using the right or left hand as the
  independent variables and the dependant variable
  was whether he could name it or not. The control
  variable is the fact that his corpus callosum was
  cut already and the covered bucket.

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Target Answer For Hemispheres Experiment

• WAS criteria
• LANGUAGE - Was grammatical accuracy a problem?
• 4 - Excellent - highly accurate with no or minor
  grammatical
• problems
• 3 - Good     - sufficiently accurate with few
  grammatical problems
• 2 - Adequate- some grammatical problems that do
  not interfere with
• understanding
• 1 - Limited - many grammatical problems that
  interfere with
• understanding
• 0 - None    - serious and/or recurring
  grammatical problems that
• prevent understanding

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Target Answer For Hemispheres Experiment

• CONTENT - Did they answer the question?
• 4 - Excellent - covers all points thoroughly
  (corresponding to content
• key)
• 3 - Good     - covers most major points
  (corresponding to content
• key))
• 2 - Adequate - covers some major points
  (corresponding to content
• key)
• 1 - Limited  - missing major points
  (corresponding to content key)
• 0 - None     - inaccurate or irrelevant
  (corresponding to content key)

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Target Answer For Hemispheres Experiment

• ORGANIZATION - Were the ideas clearly organized?
• 4 - Excellent - shows excellent understanding, is
  coherent and
• well developed
• 3 - Good     - shows good understanding,
  sufficiently developed
• with few irrelevant
  details
• 2 - Adequate - shows adequate understanding, is
  poorly
• developed and may have
  some irrelevant details
• 1 - Limited - shows limited understanding,
  inadequate
• development, hard to
  follow
• 0 - None     - shows no understanding illogical
  or irrelevant,
• extremely hard to follow

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Target Answer For Hemispheres Experiment

• The patient wasnt able to say the name of
  the object when he used his left hand to touch
  the object under the covered bucket. He wasnt
  able to do so because he used his left hand,
  which is connected to the right hemisphere of the
  brain. The body is contra- lateral to the brain
  so when he used his left hand, the message was
  sent to the right hemisphere which does not
  specialize in language, so the message had to be
  transferred to the left hemisphere but there was
  no corpus callosum.run on. It was already cut to
  prevent seizures. The hemispheres experiment was
  designed by using the right or left hand as the
  independent variables, and the dependant variable
  was whether he could name it or not name what?.
  The control variable is the fact that his corpus
  callosum was cut already and the covered
  bucketwell this part just doesnt make sense.
• The second part of the question was not
  addressed!!
• Now for a good response

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Target Answer For Hemispheres Experiment

• When the patient was asked to retrieve the
  object with the Left hand he was unable to name
  it because the corpus callosum had been severed,
  thus rendering the two hemispheres unable to
  communicate with each other. Since the right
  hemisphere is not specialized for language the
  patient was unable to name the object even though
  he could identify it.
• In the Hemispheres Experiment, we were asked
  to report 4 characters (letters, symbols) as they
  flashed on the screen either to the left or right
  of the fixation point. The hemispheres experiment
  had three independent variables and they were
  side of the fixation point (LvF, RvF), type of
  stimuli (letters, symbols), and serial position
  (1st,2nd,3rd,4th). Accuracy was the dependent
  variable (number correct out of 15), and the
  control variables were hunt and peck time,
  visual angle, and distance from the fixation
  point.