University of Groningen Exploring the Variability of Media Multitasking Choice Behaviour Using a Network Approach Wiradhany

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

University of Groningen Exploring the Variability of Media Multitasking Choice Behaviour Using a Network Approach Wiradhany University of Groningen Exploring the variability of media multitasking choice behaviour using a network approach Wiradhany, Wisnu; Baumgartner, Susanne E. Published in: Behaviour & Information Technology DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2019.1589575 IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2019 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Wiradhany, W., & Baumgartner, S. E. (2019). Exploring the variability of media multitasking choice behaviour using a network approach. Behaviour & Information Technology, 38(12), 1355-1368. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1589575 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 28-09-2021 Behaviour & Information Technology ISSN: 0144-929X (Print) 1362-3001 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tbit20 Exploring the variability of media multitasking choice behaviour using a network approach Wisnu Wiradhany & Susanne E. Baumgartner To cite this article: Wisnu Wiradhany & Susanne E. Baumgartner (2019) Exploring the variability of media multitasking choice behaviour using a network approach, Behaviour & Information Technology, 38:12, 1355-1368, DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2019.1589575 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1589575 © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 18 Mar 2019. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 993 View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 2 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tbit20 BEHAVIOUR & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 2019, VOL. 38, NO. 12, 1355–1368 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1589575 Exploring the variability of media multitasking choice behaviour using a network approach Wisnu Wiradhany a and Susanne E. Baumgartnerb aDepartment of Experimental Psychology and Research School of Behavioural Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; bAmsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Many researchers have used the Media Multitasking Index (MMI) for investigating media Received 21 September 2018 multitasking behaviour. While useful as a means to compare inter-individual multitasking levels, Accepted 22 February 2019 the MMI disregards the variability in media multitasking choice behaviour: certain media KEYWORDS combinations are more likely to be selected than others, and these patterns might differ from Media multitasking; media one population to another. The aim of the present study was to examine media multitasking ff use questionnaire; media choices in di erent populations. For this means, we employed a social network approach to multitasking index; network render MMI responses collected in eight different populations into networks. The networks analysis showed that the level of media multitasking as measured by the network densities differed across populations, yet, the pattern of media multitasking behaviour was similar. Specifically, media combinations which involved texting/IMing, listening to music, browsing, and social media were prominent in most datasets. Overall the findings indicate that media multitasking behaviours might be confined within a smaller set of media activities. Accordingly, instead of assessing a large number of media combinations, future studies might consider focusing on a more limited set of media types. 1. Introduction 2013; Baumgartner et al. 2014). Reviews have also indi- Media multitasking, the behaviour of consuming mul- cated that the findings have been mixed (van der Schuur tiple media streams simultaneously or consuming one et al. 2015; Uncapher et al. 2017), with meta-analyses media stream while doing another activity, has become showing weak associations between media multitasking increasingly prevalent over the years (Rideout, Foehr, and difficulties in information processing (Wiradhany and Roberts 2010). It is thus not surprising that research- and Nieuwenstein 2017) and everyday functioning (Wir- ers have begun to investigate whether engaging in media adhany and Koerts, forthcoming). multitasking frequently is related to potential difficulties While the mixed findings could be the result of stat- in information processing and everyday functioning. istical, small-study, or publication biases (Ioannidis With regard to everyday functioning, studies have 2005; Button et al. 2013; Wiradhany and Nieuwenstein found that heavy media multitaskers (HMMs) reported 2017), it could also be the case that previous studies more problems related to executive function (Baumgart- have been comparing different populations of media ner et al. 2014; Magen 2017), and they reported increased multitaskers. Indeed, previous studies have been using levels of attentional lapses and mind-wandering (Ralph the Media Multitasking Index (MMI; Ophir, Nass, and et al. 2013) in comparison to light media multitaskers Wagner 2009; Pea et al. 2012) computed from responses (LMMs). However, with regard to the efficiency of infor- from the Media Use Questionnaire (MUQ) to dis- mation processing of media multitaskers, the findings tinguish HMMs and LMMs. MMI captures a broad have been mixed, with some studies reporting that range of media multitasking behaviour combinations, HMMs performed worse in various performance-based with the number of combinations varying from 36 (Moi- tasks while others found no differences (Cardoso-Leite sala et al. 2016) to 144 (Ophir, Nass, and Wagner 2009; et al. 2015; Wiradhany and Nieuwenstein 2017), or Wiradhany and Nieuwenstein 2017), and the types of even that HMMs performed better (Alzahabi and Becker combinations ranging from reading while listening to CONTACT Wisnu Wiradhany [email protected] Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruistraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, The Netherlands © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/ 4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. 1356 W. WIRADHANY AND S. E. BAUMGARTNER music to playing games while having a phone conversa- simultaneously (Salvucci and Taatgen 2008; Courage tion. The basic idea underlying the MMI is that the con- et al. 2015). As a result, people develop different strat- cept of media multitasking is best captured by including egies to deal with interferences induced by multitasking all possible combinations of media activities and that on (see for examples, Adler and Benbunan-Fich 2012; Sal- the individual level it does not matter whether someone vucci and Bogunovich 2010). One of such strategies is multitasks frequently by listening to music while reading, to select media pairs which induce lower cognitive or by watching television while gaming. demands. Specifically, Wang et al. (2015) introduced Given that the MMI has been used as a single overall 11 basic cognitive dimensions of media multitasking score of media multitasking, little is known about the behaviours. They showed that the likelihood of media combinations of media underlying the score. Specifically, multitasking increases as the cognitive demands created from the many media multitasking combinations within each dimension decrease. For example, they assessed in the MMI, we do not know the number of showed that media multitasking combinations which combinations people typically engage in, and which engage more sensory modalities and those with an over- media types are typically used for the primary activity lap of used modalities are less frequently combined. or the secondary activity. Additionally, patterns of Similarly, in a cross-sectional study, Carrier et al. media multitasking might vary across populations. For (2009) found that participants preferred ‘easy’ (e.g. lis- instance, media multitasking behaviours among younger tening to music while eating) compared to ‘difficult’ populations might differ from those among older popu- media multitasking combinations (e.g. reading while lations, in that younger people use different types
Recommended publications
  • Complex Internal Representations in Sensorimotor Decision Making: a Bayesian Investigation Doctor of Philosophy, 2014
    COMPLEXINTERNALREPRESENTATIONS INSENSORIMOTORDECISIONMAKING: A BAYESIAN INVESTIGATION luigi acerbi I V N E R U S E I T H Y T O H F G E R D I N B U Doctor of Philosophy Doctoral Training Centre for Computational Neuroscience Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour School of Informatics University of Edinburgh 2014 Luigi Acerbi: Complex internal representations in sensorimotor decision making: A Bayesian investigation Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 supervisors: Prof. Sethu Vijayakumar, Ph.D., FRSE Prof. Daniel M. Wolpert, D.Phil., FRS, FMedSci ABSTRACT The past twenty years have seen a successful formalization of the idea that percep- tion is a form of probabilistic inference. Bayesian Decision Theory (BDT) provides a neat mathematical framework for describing how an ideal observer and actor should interpret incoming sensory stimuli and act in the face of uncertainty. The predictions of BDT, however, crucially depend on the observer’s internal models, represented in the Bayesian framework by priors, likelihoods, and the loss function. Arguably, only in the simplest scenarios (e.g., with a few Gaussian variables) we can expect a real observer’s internal representations to perfectly match the true statistics of the task at hand, and to conform to exact Bayesian computations, but how humans systemati- cally deviate from BDT in more complex cases is yet to be understood. In this thesis we theoretically and experimentally investigate how people represent and perform probabilistic inference with complex (beyond Gaussian) one-dimensional distributions of stimuli in the context of sensorimotor decision making. The goal is to reconstruct the observers’ internal representations and details of their decision- making process from the behavioural data – by employing Bayesian inference to un- cover properties of a system, the ideal observer, that is believed to perform Bayesian inference itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Moira Rose (Molly) Dillon
    Moira Rose Dillon Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003 Email – [email protected] Departmental Website – http://as.nyu.edu/psychology/people/faculty.Moira-Dillon.html Lab Website – https://www.labdevelopingmind.com Employment New York University New York, NY Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (July 2017-present) Concurrent Positions New York University New York, NY Faculty Affiliate, Institute of Human Development and Social Change, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (May 2019-present) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA Invited Researcher, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), Foundations of Learning (April 2021-present) Education Harvard University Cambridge, MA (August 2011-May 2017) Ph.D., Psychology (May 2017) A.M., Psychology (May 2014) Yale University New Haven, CT (August 2004-May 2008) B.A., Cognitive Science; Art (May 2008) Funding 2019-2024 National Science Foundation (PI: $1,718,437) CAREER: Becoming Euclid: Characterizing the geometric intuitions that support formal learning in mathematics (PI: $24,671) CLB: Career-Life Balance Faculty Early Career Development Program Supplement 2019-2023 DARPA (Co-PI; to NYU: $1,703,553; to Dillon: $871,874) Cognitive milestones for Machine Common Sense, Co-PI: Brenden Lake 2019-2021 Jacobs Foundation (PI: 150,000 CHF) Early Career Research Fellowship 2018-2019 Institute of Human Development and Social Change at NYU (PI: $14,848) The arc of geometric
    [Show full text]
  • Why the Bayesian Brain May Need No Noise
    Stochasticity from function – why the Bayesian brain may need no noise Dominik Dolda,b,1,2, Ilja Bytschoka,1, Akos F. Kungla,b, Andreas Baumbacha, Oliver Breitwiesera, Walter Sennb, Johannes Schemmela, Karlheinz Meiera, Mihai A. Petrovicia,b,1,2 aKirchhoff-Institute for Physics, Heidelberg University. bDepartment of Physiology, University of Bern. 1Authors with equal contributions. 2Corresponding authors: [email protected], [email protected]. August 27, 2019 Abstract An increasing body of evidence suggests that the trial-to-trial variability of spiking activity in the brain is not mere noise, but rather the reflection of a sampling-based encoding scheme for probabilistic computing. Since the precise statistical properties of neural activity are important in this context, many models assume an ad-hoc source of well-behaved, explicit noise, either on the input or on the output side of single neuron dynamics, most often assuming an independent Poisson process in either case. However, these assumptions are somewhat problematic: neighboring neurons tend to share receptive fields, rendering both their input and their output correlated; at the same time, neurons are known to behave largely deterministically, as a function of their membrane potential and conductance. We suggest that spiking neural networks may have no need for noise to perform sampling-based Bayesian inference. We study analytically the effect of auto- and cross-correlations in functional Bayesian spiking networks and demonstrate how their effect translates to synaptic interaction strengths, rendering them controllable through synaptic plasticity. This allows even small ensembles of interconnected deterministic spiking networks to simultaneously and co-dependently shape their output activity through learning, enabling them to perform complex Bayesian computation without any need for noise, which we demonstrate in silico, both in classical simulation and in neuromorphic emulation.
    [Show full text]
  • Wilken and Ma 2004
    Journal of Vision (2004) 4, 1120-1135 http://journalofvision.org/4/12/11/ 1120 A detection theory account of change detection Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Patrick Wilken Pasadena, CA, USA Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Wei Ji Ma Pasadena, CA, USA Previous studies have suggested that visual short-term memory (VSTM) has a storage limit of approximately four items. However, the type of high-threshold (HT) model used to derive this estimate is based on a number of assumptions that have been criticized in other experimental paradigms (e.g., visual search). Here we report findings from nine experiments in which VSTM for color, spatial frequency, and orientation was modeled using a signal detection theory (SDT) approach. In Experiments 1-6, two arrays composed of multiple stimulus elements were presented for 100 ms with a 1500 ms ISI. Observers were asked to report in a yes/no fashion whether there was any difference between the first and second arrays, and to rate their confidence in their response on a 1-4 scale. In Experiments 1-3, only one stimulus element difference could occur (T = 1) while set size was varied. In Experiments 4-6, set size was fixed while the number of stimuli that might change was varied (T = 1, 2, 3, and 4). Three general models were tested against the receiver operating characteristics generated by the six experiments. In addition to the HT model, two SDT models were tried: one assuming summation of signals prior to a decision, the other using a max rule. In Experiments 7-9, observers were asked to directly report the relevant feature attribute of a stimulus presented 1500 ms previously, from an array of varying set size.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Games to Understand Intelligence
    Using Games to Understand Intelligence Franziska Brandle¨ 1, Kelsey Allen2, Joshua B. Tenenbaum2 & Eric Schulz1 1Max Planck Research Group Computational Principles of Intelligence, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics 2Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Over the last decades, games have become one of the most isons between human and machine agents, for example in re- popular recreational activities, not only among children but search of human tool use (Allen et al., 2020). Games also also among adults. Consequently, they have also gained pop- offer complex environments for human-agent collaborations ularity as an avenue for studying cognition. Games offer sev- (Fan, Dinculescu, & Ha, 2019). Games have gained increas- eral advantages, such as the possibility to gather big data sets, ing attention during recent meetings of the Cognitive Science engage participants to play for a long time, and better resem- Society, with presentations on multi-agent collaboration (Wu blance of real world complexities. In this workshop, we will et al., 2020), foraging (Garg & Kello, 2020) and mastery (An- bring together leading researchers from across the cognitive derson, 2020) (all examples taken from the 2020 Conference). sciences to explore how games can be used to study diverse aspects of intelligent behavior, explore their differences com- Goal and scope pared to classical lab experiments, and discuss the future of The aim of this workshop is to bring together scientists who game-based cognitive science research. share a joint interest in using games as a tool to research in- Keywords: Games; Cognition; Big Data; Computation telligence. We have invited leading academics from cogni- tive science who apply games in their research.
    [Show full text]
  • Wei Ji Ma CV Apr 2021 Center for Neural Science
    Wei Ji Ma CV Apr 2021 Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology New York University 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA, (212) 992 6530 [email protected] Lab website: http://www.cns.nyu.edu/malab POSITIONS 2020-present Professor, Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University ● Affiliate faculty in the Institute for Decision-Making, the Center for Data Science, the Neuroscience Institute, and the Center for Experimental Social Science ● Collaborating Faculty of the NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai 2013-2020 Associate Professor, Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University (with affiliations as above) 2008-2013 Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine ● Adjunct faculty in the Department of Psychology, Rice University TRAINING 2004-2008 Postdoc, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester. Advisor: Alexandre Pouget 2002-2004 Postdoc, Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology. Advisor: Christof Koch 1996-2001 PhD in Theoretical Physics, University of Groningen, the Netherlands Jan-Jun 2000 Visiting PhD student, Department of Physics, Princeton University. Advisor: Erik Verlinde 1994-1997 BS/MS in Mathematics, University of Groningen 1993-1996 BS/MS in Physics, University of Groningen RESEARCH INTERESTS Planning, reinforcement learning, social cognition, perceptual decision-making, perceptual organization, visual working memory, comparative cognition, optimality/rationality, approximate inference, probabilistic computation, efficient coding, computational methods. TEACHING, MENTORING, AND OUTREACH Improving the quality of undergraduate teaching, improving mentorship, diversity/equity/inclusion, science outreach, science writing, science advocacy, translating science to policy, social justice. Founder of Growing up in science Founding member of the Scientist Action and Advocacy Network (ScAAN) Founding member of NeuWrite NYU 1 PUBLICATIONS 1.
    [Show full text]
  • COSYNE 2012 Workshops February 27 & 28, 2012 Snowbird, Utah
    COSYNE 2012 Workshops February 27 & 28, 2012 Snowbird, Utah Monday, February 27 Organizer(s) Location 1. Coding and Computation in visual short-term memory. W.J. Ma Superior A 2. Neuromodulation: beyond the wiring diagram, M. Higley Wasatch B adding functional flexibility to neural circuits. 3. Sensorimotor processes reflected in spatiotemporal Z. Kilpatrick Superior B of neuronal activity. J-Y. Wu 4. Characterizing neural responses to structured K. Rajan Wasatch A and naturalistic stimuli. W.Bialek 5. Neurophysiological and computational mechanisms of D. Freedman Magpie A categorization. XJ. Wang 6. Perception and decision making in rodents S. Jaramillio Magpie B A. Zador 7. Is it time for theory in olfaction? V.Murphy Maybird N. Uchida G. Otazu C. Poo Workshop Co-Chairs Email Cell Brent Doiron, Pitt [email protected] 412-576-5237 Jess Cardin, Yale [email protected] 267-235-0462 Maps of Snowbird are at the end of this booklet (page 32). 1 COSYNE 2012 Workshops February 27 & 28, 2012 Snowbird, Utah Tuesday, February 28 Organizer(s) Location 1. Understanding heterogeneous cortical activity: S. Ardid Wasatch A the quest for structure and randomness. A. Bernacchia T. Engel 2. Humans, neurons, and machines: how can N. Majaj Wasatch B psychophysics, physiology, and modeling collaborate E. Issa to ask better questions in biological vision J. DiCarlo 3. Inhibitory synaptic plasticity T. Vogels Magpie A H Sprekeler R. Fromeke 4. Functions of identified microcircuits A. Hasenstaub Superior B V. Sohal 5. Promise and peril: genetics approaches for systems K. Nagal Superior A neuroscience revisited. D. Schoppik 6. Perception and decision making in rodents S.
    [Show full text]
  • Bayesian Modeling of Behavior Fall 2017 Wei Ji Ma
    Bayesian modeling of behavior Fall 2017 Wei Ji Ma This syllabus is subject to change. Changes will be announced in class and by email. Description Bayesian inference is the mathematical framework for making optimal decisions and actions when the state of the world is not exactly known. This course will provide an intuitive yet mathematically rigorous introduction to Bayesian models of behavior in perception, memory, decision-making, and cognitive reasoning. While this is primarily a psychology course, we will also discuss connections to economics and neuroscience. This course is not about Bayesian data analysis, but about theories that the brain itself is a Bayesian decision-maker. Nevertheless, we will spend some time on model fitting and model comparison. Prerequisites • Strong command of Calculus 1 or equivalent • Introductory course in probability or probability-based statistics. • Ability to code in Matlab. If you have not coded in Matlab before, you will be ok if you have other programming experience and do a tutorial before the course starts. Email Wei Ji if you have any questions about prerequisites. Lecturer Prof. Wei Ji Ma, [email protected], 212 992 6530 Weekly schedule Lecture Wednesdays, 4-6 pm Meyer 815 Recitation Thursdays, 2-4 pm Meyer 815 Office hours By appointment Meyer 754 (Wei Ji’s office) Materials • Bayesian modeling of perception, by Ma, Kording, and Goldreich. Will be distributed in electronic form. • You will need Matlab. If you have a laptop, please install Matlab on it before the course starts. Instructions for if you are on the Meyer building network: http://localweb.cns.nyu.edu/unixadmin/#august10-2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Bayesian Modeling of Behavior Fall 2018 Wei Ji Ma
    Bayesian modeling of behavior Fall 2018 Wei Ji Ma This syllabus is subject to change. Changes will be announced in class and by email. Description Bayesian inference is the mathematical framework for making optimal decisions and actions when the state of the world is not exactly known. This course will provide an intuitive yet mathematically rigorous introduction to Bayesian models of behavior in perception, memory, decision-making, and cognitive reasoning. While this is primarily a psychology course, we will also discuss connections to economics and neuroscience. This course is not about Bayesian data analysis, but about theories that the brain itself is a Bayesian decision-maker. Nevertheless, we will spend some time on model fitting and model comparison. Prerequisites • Strong command of Calculus 1 or equivalent • Introductory course in probability or probability-based statistics. • Ability to code in Matlab. If you have not coded in Matlab before, you will be ok if you have other programming experience and do a tutorial before the course starts. Email Wei Ji if you have any questions about prerequisites. Lecturer Prof. Wei Ji Ma, [email protected], 212 992 6530 Weekly schedule Lecture Wednesdays, 4-5:50 pm Meyer 851 Recitation Thursdays, 4-5:50 pm Meyer 851 Office hours By appointment Meyer 754 (Wei Ji’s office) Materials • Bayesian modeling of perception, by Ma, Kording, and Goldreich. Will be distributed in electronic form. • You will need Matlab. Instructions for installing Matlab if you are on the Meyer building network: http://localweb.cns.nyu.edu/unixadmin/#august10-2015. 1 Grading The total grade will be calculated as follows: Best 8 of 11 homework sets 55% Project 30% Participation 15% Letter grade Your numerical grade will be turned into a letter grade according to the following scale: 90-100 A; 87-89 A-; 84-86 B+; 80-83 B; 77-79 B-; 74-76 C+; 70-73 C; 67-69 C-; 64-66 D+; 60-63 D; 57-59 D-; 0-56 F.
    [Show full text]
  • Testing the Bayesian Brain Hypothesis in Visual Perception
    TESTING THE BAYESIAN BRAIN HYPOTHESIS IN VISUAL PERCEPTION A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by APRIL SWAGMAN Dr. Jeffrey N. Rouder, Dissertation Supervisor JULY 2016 The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled: TESTING THE BAYESIAN BRAIN HYPOTHESIS IN VISUAL PERCEPTION presented by April Swagman, a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Dr. Jeffrey N. Rouder Dr. Clint Davis-Stober Dr. Chi-Ren Shyu Dr. Jeffrey Johnson ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For providing the inspiration for this project and my first experiment, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Wei Ji Ma at New York University, who was sure we would find evidence that people are ideally Bayesian. To all past and present members of the Perception and Cognition Lab{Jon Thiele, Julia Haaf, Jory Province, and Tim Ricker{thank you for the encouragement and friendship you provided as I worked on this project. I would especially like to thank Jory for being a mentor and friend throughout my learning experience in the Rouder lab, and for the significant theoret- ical contributions he made to this work. I would like to thank all the PCL undergrad- uate research assistants who helped out with data collection, and especially to Ryan Bahr who helped me become a more effective mentor and was even willing to learn R along the way. And of course I am eternally grateful to my adviser Jeff Rouder for being helpful, inspiring, and, most importantly, patient as I made my way through this work.
    [Show full text]
  • High Precision Coding in Mouse Visual Cortex
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/679324; this version posted June 21, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. High precision coding in mouse visual cortex Carsen Stringer1∗, Michalis Michaelos1, Marius Pachitariu1∗ 1HHMI Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA, USA ∗ correspondence to (stringerc, pachitarium) @ janelia.hhmi.org ABSTRACT this behavior-related neural activity only accounted for ∼35% of the total coordinated variability, leaving the possibility that Single neurons in visual cortex provide unreliable mea- the rest is stimulus-related and thus potentially information- surements of visual features due to their high trial-to-trial limiting. variability. It is not known if this “noise” extends its ef- Estimating the impact of information-limiting noise on cod- fects over large neural populations to impair the global ing is difficult, because even small amounts of information- encoding of sensory stimuli. We recorded simultaneously limiting noise can put absolute bounds on the precision of from ∼20,000 neurons in mouse visual cortex and found stimulus encoding [27]. To detect the effects of such small that the neural population had discrimination thresholds noise, it is thus necessary to record from large numbers of of 0.3◦ in an orientation decoding task. These thresholds neurons. This introduces a new problem: the information con- are ∼100 times smaller than those reported behaviorally tent of such recordings cannot be estimated directly and de- in mice.
    [Show full text]
  • Computational Neuroscience 2017
    Computational Neuroscience 2017 1 Instructor: Odelia Schwartz Computational neuroscience • Introductions… What area are you in / background? Why Computational Neuroscience? 2 Computational neuroscience Lots of interest from multiple fields! Computer Science Biology Math Cognitive Science Engineering Psychology Physics Medical 3 Computational neuroscience Lots of interest from multiple fields! Computer Science Biology Math Cognitive Science Engineering Psychology Physics Medical Computational principles Experiments Algorithms Data … Computer simulations … 4 Brain machine interfaces Lots of interest from multiple fields! Schematic from http://www.brainfacts.org/-/media/Brainfacts/Article-Multimedia/About-Neuroscience/ 5 Technologies/Illustration-Brain-and-Arm.ashx Research such as L.R. Hochberg et al., Nature 2012 Computational neuroscience Lots of interest, including from industry! 6 Computational neuroscience • But what does it mean to understand how the brain works? (discussion) 7 Computational neuroscience Levels of investigation Psycholog y 8 Diagram: Terrence Sejnowski Computational neuroscience Levels of investigation PsychologBehavior/Cognition y Perception, behavior, cognition 9 Diagram: Terrence Sejnowski Computational Neuroscience • Finding low dimensional descriptions of high dimensional biological data • Proposing models to explain data, making predictions, generalization • Often close interplay between computational frameworks and experiments 10 Computational Neuroscience • Finding low dimensional descriptions of high dimensional
    [Show full text]