CONTENT CALENDAR

1. Tuesday 6 March: Intro & Basic Foundations

2. Thursday 8 March: Run an Experiment, Designing Computerized Experiments & Methods in Papers

3. Tuesday13 March: Classic Experiment 1: & Interference

4. Thursday15 March: Classic Experiment 2: Spatial Attention

5. Tuesday 20 March: Classic Experiment 3: Divided & Selective Attention

6. Thursday 22 March: Experimental Design Proposal

7. Tuesday 27 March: Classic Experiment 4: Memory & Response Inhibition

8. Thursday 5 April: Classic Experiment 5: Embodiment & Sense of Self

9. Tuesday10 April: 14.30-18.30. Kinematic Data Acquisition

10. Thursday12 April: Summary & Test 1 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN PROPOSAL

. Small groups of 4/5 people (for 5/6 groups in total)

. Select one or more relevant recent papers you’d like to focus on

. Upload the paper(s) on e-learning

. Try to review with a critical attitude the method

. Design an original experiment (theoretical impact not essential)

. Describe and list all the relevant variables, the timeline and the general procedure

. Prepare a (visual) PowerPoint presentation

. Present your own experiment in 10/15 minutes maximum (each person of the group should present an equal part), plus discussion from all the class group

2 THE XXXXXX EFFECT

MEASURING ATTENTION & INTERFERENCE

LESSON 3

LAB: COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORAL MEASURES

Luca Rinaldi

3 THE XXXXXX EFFECT

• He received a PhD in experimental from George Peabody College in 1932.

• His dissertation, published in The American Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1935, focused on studies in interference and attention.

• This study developed into a test that has since become foundational for the field of cognitive psychology.

John Ridley Stroop

4 THE

6 THE STROOP EFFECT

A page from Stroop’s original materials for his experiments

7 THE STROOP EFFECT

Stroop did not just use words to test his hypothesis; he also used shapes like these to see if the same interference appeared in both cases

8 THE STROOP EFFECT

In its basic form, the task is to name the color in which a word is printed, ignoring the word itself:

Name and color correspond

RED GREEN BLUE PINK

ORANGE BLUE GREEN WHITE

GREEN YELLOW ORANGE WHITE

BROWN RED BLUE GREEN

PINK YELLOW GREEN RED

9 THE STROOP EFFECT

In its basic form, the task is to name the color in which a word is printed, ignoring the word itself:

Name and color do not correspond (1)

RED GREEN BLUE PINK

ORANGE BLUE GREEN WHITE

GREEN YELLOW ORANGE WHITE

BROWN RED BLUE GREEN

PINK YELLOW GREEN RED

10 THE STROOP EFFECT

In its basic form, the task is to name the color in which a word is printed, ignoring the word itself:

Name and color do not correspond (2)

TOWN CUP BELT PEN

SCARF BELT CUP CLOCK

CUP APPLE SCARF CLOCK

SHOES TOWN BELT CUP

PEN APPLE CUP TOWN

11 DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

Which is the pattern of RTs you would guess on?

Correspond Not correspond (1) Not correspond (2)

RED RED TOWN

ORANGE ORANGE SCARF

GREEN GREEN CUP

BROWN BROWN SHOES

PINK PINK PEN

11 DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

Which is the pattern of RTs you would guess on?

Congruent Incongruent Neutral Neutral (2)

RED RED TOWN

ORANGE ORANGE SCARF

GREEN GREEN CUP

BROWN BROWN SHOES

PINK PINK PEN

12 PATTERN OF RTS

Which is the pattern of RTs you would guess on?

)

ms

(

RTs 400 400 600 800 1000

Incongruent Neutral Congruent

Duncan-Johnson & Kopell, 1981

13 PERFORMANCE COST

 The performance cost in the mismatch condition – usually referred to as the incongruent condition – relative to the controls is called the Stroop effect or Stroop interference

measure the interference of one stimulus dimension on another.

14 PERFORMANCE COST

 How would you actually compute cognitive interference? What is essential and what’s not?

15 PERFORMANCE COST

 How would you actually compute cognitive interference? What is essential and what’s not? PD

Controls

)

ms

(

RTs 400 400 600 800 1000

Incongruent Henik, 1996

16 PERFORMANCE COST

From Lesson 2

17 PERFORMANCE COST

 How would you actually compute cognitive interference? What is essential and what’s not? PD

Controls

)

)

ms

ms

(

Delta ( Delta

RTs

400 400 600 800 1000 50 100 150 200

Incongruent Neutral Delta Henik, 1996

18 PERFORMANCE COST

 How would you actually compute cognitive interference? What is essential and what’s not? PD

Controls )

ms Which kind of analysis would you actually carry (

on?

RTs 400 400 600 800 1000

Incongruent Neutral Henik, 1996

19 PERFORMANCE COST

 How would you actually compute cognitive interference? What is essential and what’s not? PD

2x2 Mixed ANOVA: Controls Group (PD, Controls) x Condition (Neutral, Incongruent)

Henik, 1996

20 PERFORMANCE COST

 How would you actually compute cognitive interference? What is essential and what’s not? PD

2x2 Mixed ANOVA: Controls Group (PD, Controls) x Condition (Neutral, Incongruent)

Main effect of Group and Condition No significant Interaction

Not significant

Henik, 1996

21 PERFORMANCE COST

 How would you actually compute cognitive interference? What is essential and what’s not?

Interference is the difference between the incongruent condition and the neutral condition (or congruent one)

Interference = Incongruent – Neutral (Congruent)

22 STANDARD PROCEDURE

 An intriguing feature of the Stroop literature, though, is that there was virtually no follow-up to his work for about 30 years

 It is only in the 1960s that research on this phenomenon resumed and then with a vengeance

The simplest explanation of this is that the advent of computer-controlled experiments, and especially the resulting ability to time individual trial stimuli, opened up a rich new realm of investigation for which the Stroop task was ideally suited

23 STANDARD PROCEDURE

 Trial by trial presentation, with RTs for each stimulus

500 ms +

Until response BLUE (max 2000 ms)

24 EXPLANATION

Do you have any idea of why interference is occurring?

Speed of Processing Theory Selective Attention Theory

25 SPEED OF PROCESSING THEORY

. Faster processes can affect slower processes

. Slower processes cannot affect faster processes

if the wrong dimension of a stimulus is processed prior to the right dimension (where right and wrong are denned by task demands), interference will result

26 SPEED OF PROCESSING THEORY

. Faster processes can affect slower processes

. Slower processes cannot affect faster processes

From Lesson 1

27 SPEED OF PROCESSING THEORY

. Faster processes can affect slower processes

. Slower processes cannot affect faster processes

RED

28 SPEED OF PROCESSING THEORY

. Faster processes can affect slower processes

. Slower processes cannot affect faster processes

RED

RED

29 SPEED OF PROCESSING THEORY

. Faster processes can affect slower processes

. Slower processes cannot affect faster processes

How would you demonstrate this?

30 SPEED OF PROCESSING THEORY

. Faster processes can affect slower processes

. Slower processes cannot affect faster processes

By asking participants to read words (and not name the ink)!

From Stroop’s original experiment

31 PATTERN OF RTS

Which is the pattern of RTs you would guess on?

Color naming

)

ms

(

RTs 400 400 600 800 1000

Incongruent Neutral Congruent

Duncan-Johnson & Kopell, 1981

32 PATTERN OF RTS

Which is the pattern of RTs you would guess on?

Color naming

Word reading

)

ms

(

RTs 400 400 600 800 1000

Incongruent Neutral Congruent

Duncan-Johnson & Kopell, 1981

33 SPEED OF PROCESSING THEORY

. Faster processes can affect slower processes

. Slower processes cannot affect faster processes

RED

RED

34 SPEED OF PROCESSING THEORY

. Faster processes can affect slower processes

. Slower processes cannot affect faster processes

This effect is basically explained by our amount of reading experience, and thus by the difference in training in the two activities

35 LIMITS

. Reading was made increasingly difficult by manipulating orientation uncertainty

Dunbar & MacLeod, 1984

even when reading a color word was considerably slower than naming the color of ink in which the word was printed, Stroop interference persisted virtually unaltered

36 EXPLANATION

Do you have any idea of why interference is occurring?

Speed of Processing Theory Selective Attention Theory

37 SELECTIVE ATTENTION THEORY

. The Stroop effect depends on specific circumstances and, specifically, on response set selection

. Response set refers to selection on the basis of the vocabulary of eligible responses

A major part of the interference caused by incongruent stimuli is specific to the members of the response set

38 SELECTIVE ATTENTION THEORY

. Color words that are eligible responses produced approximately two times more interference than did color words that are not used as responses in the experiment

GREEN BLUE

Greater interference Lower interference Glaser & Glaser, 1989; Proctor, 1978

39 SELECTIVE ATTENTION THEORY

. Color words that are eligible responses produced approximately two times more interference than did color words that are not used as responses in the experiment

GREEN BLUE

GREEN RTs

BLUE RED

Glaser & Glaser, 1989; Proctor, 1978 Incongruent Congruent 40 SELECTIVE ATTENTION THEORY

. The Stroop effect depends on specific circumstances and, specifically, on response set selection

. Response set refers to selection on the basis of the vocabulary of eligible responses

After broad activation, selective attention is directed only to relevant processes

41 SELECTIVE ATTENTION THEORY

. The Stroop effect depends on specific circumstances and, specifically, on response set selection

. Response set refers to selection on the basis of the vocabulary of eligible responses

Selective attention BLUE Inhibitory processes

RED GREEN

42 THE STROOP EFFECT

MAIN APPLICATIONS

LESSON 3

LAB: COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORAL MEASURES

Luca Rinaldi

43 APPLICATIONS

. In essence, Stroop’s paradigm provides a template for studying interference

investigators have often mined that template to create Stroop-like tasks suited to their particular research purposes.

Any guess?

44 APPLICATIONS

. In essence, Stroop’s paradigm provides a template for studying interference

investigators have often mined that template to create Stroop-like tasks suited to their particular research purposes.

HORSE LEFT

6 6 HTH 6 6

45 APPLICATIONS

. Picture-word interference task: a conflicting word is embedded in a picture

Similar effect in children and adults

Rosinski et al., 1975 50% congruence 46 APPLICATIONS

. Directional version: substantial interference from the embedded word when identifying the direction of the arrow

Congruent

LEFT RIGHT

Incongruent

RIGHT LEFT

For both horizontal and vertical axes

Shor et al., 1972

47 APPLICATIONS

. Digit-version: counting the number of digits is impaired when the digits themselves are incompatible with their numerosity

Congruent 4 6 4 6 6 4 4 6 6 6

Incongruent

4 6 4 6 4 6 4 6 4 4 Similar effect in children and adults

Rosinski et al., 1975

48 APPLICATIONS

. Numerical Stroop effect: demonstrates the relationship between numerical values and physical sizes

Similar effect for both judgments Numerical comparison task Henik & Tzelgov, 1982

49 THE EMOTIONAL STROOP EFFECT

. The emotional Stroop task is assumed to tap the interference from emotionally valent though irrelevant information on a simple task (Willliams et al., 1996)

. As in the classic Stroop task, words are presented and participants have to name the ink of the color

50 THE EMOTIONAL STROOP EFFECT

. The emotional Stroop task is assumed to tap the interference from emotionally valent though irrelevant information on a simple task (Willliams et al., 1996)

. Words have different valence

Positive Negative Neutral TRUTH FEAR ANGLE

HUMOR PANIC CHAIR

FUN LIE SILENCE

TALENT HATE PAPER

DREAM MURDER CORNER

51 THE EMOTIONAL STROOP EFFECT

. The emotional Stroop task is assumed to tap the interference from emotionally valent though irrelevant information on a simple task (Willliams et al., 1996)

. Words have different valence

)

ms

(

RTs 400 400 600 800 1000

Negative Neutral Positive

52 THE EMOTIONAL STROOP EFFECT

. Selective failure of naming colors induced by the concurrent word meaning

. Used to investigate psychopathology: typically more marked effect in emotionally disturbed people

Mitterschiffthaler et al., 2008

53 SYNESTHESIA

. Syn = together + aisthesis = perceiving «a concomitant sensation»

54 SYNESTHESIA

. Syn = together + aisthesis = perceiving «a concomitant sensation»

. a subjective sensation or image of a sense (as of color) other than the one (as of sound) being stimulated

Synesthesia is a conscious experience of systematically induced sensory attributes that are not experienced by most people under comparable conditions (Grossenbacher & Lovelace, 2001)

55 SYNESTHESIA

. About 4% of the general population

. Most frequent associations between days of the week and colors: in more of 50% of synesthetes (Simner et al., 2006)

56 SYNESTHESIA

. Different types of synesthesia (Cohen-Kadosh & Henik, 2008)

Number-Shape Time-Shape

Color-grapheme

57 SYNESTHESIA

. Synesthesia is composed of two interrelated components (Grossenbacher & Lovelace, 2001)

1. Inducer referring to the inducing event 2. Concurrent referring to the synesthetically induced sensory attribute(s)

One sybesthete descibes the letter A (Inducer) as red colored (Concurrent)

Automaticity: synesthetic concurrents are involuntarily induced

58 EXAMPLE

Perceived by a non-synesthete Perceived by a synesthete

59 PROBING SYNESTHESIA

But how would you probe that this is a real sensation?

60 PROBING SYNESTHESIA

Synesthetes’ reports: A B C D E F G H I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Synesthetes Non-synesthetes Incongruent Neutral Congruent

7 7 7

)

ms

(

RTs 400 400 600 800 1000

Incongruent Neutral Congruent

Mattingley et al., 2001

61 PROBING SYNESTHESIA

Cohen-Kadosh & Henik, 2007

62 INTERPRETATION (1)

Cerebral areas devoted to the Typical cerebral activation + processin of other sensory information

E.g., sound-color synesthesia

Auditory areas Visual areas (V4/V8 for shape and color)

63 INTERPRETATION (1)

Hubbard et al., 2005

64 INTERPRETATION (2)

Cross-activation theory: synesthesia as a result of a genetic mutation that causes defective pruning (Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001)

Sensorial experience undifferentiated until 4 months

NORMAL DEVELOPMENT SYNESTHESIA

The processing of sensory Incomplete differentiation and information becomes modular strong connections between and brain areas differentiated brain areas

65 INTERPRETATION (2)

Synesthetes Non-Synesthetes

Hanggi et al., 2011

66 SEE YOU NEXT LESSON!

67