mental chronometry and simple decisions

Question 1

Kant (1798)

Answer 1

The mind is infinitely fast and essentially unanalysable

Question 2

Nerve conduction velocity (NVC)

Answer 2

NVC first tested on frogs in 1850
Used electrical current to measure how fast muscle contraction would be
It was around 25/30 m/sec

Question 3

Why reaction time

Answer 3

Marker of mental processing speed
Can vary with many things, like sleep, intelligence, motivation

Question 4

Age on reaction time

Answer 4

Used Wii balance board and flashing light to measure difference in reaction speed as age increased
As got older, got slower
Men tended to be slightly faster

Question 5

Subtraction method (Donders, 1896)

Answer 5

Used reaction time to study the structure and function of mental processes

Question 6

Task A - Subtraction method (Donders, 1896)

Answer 6

Press a button when see a light
Simple RT
Detection and execution stages

Question 7

Task B - Subtraction method (Donders, 1896)

Answer 7

Press one button when see a yellow light, press a different button when see a blue light
Choice RT
Detection, identification, selection and execution stages

Question 8

Task C - Subtraction method (Donders, 1896)

Answer 8

Press one button when see a yellow light, do nothing when see a blue light
Go/No-go RT
Detection, identification, excecution stages

Question 9

Explanation - Subtraction method (Donders, 1896)

Answer 9

If you compare the tasks with each other you can estimate the duration of mental processes
Can infer speed taken to do these processes

Question 10

Assumption 1 - Subtraction method (Donders, 1896)

Answer 10

Serial processing

Question 11

Serial processing

Answer 11

Processes arranged sequentially
Processes can’t overlap
Selection can happen at different times that will feed into execution at different times

Question 12

Assumption 2 - Subtraction method (Donders, 1896)

Answer 12

Pure insertion

Question 13

Pure insertion

Answer 13

A stage can be added or omitted to a sequence of processes without altering other processing stages

Question 14

Additive factor method

Answer 14

Can infer the existence of independent processing stages
Doesn’t rely on the assumption of pure insertion

Question 15

Application of additive factor method

Answer 15

Ask participants to press right button for numbers 1 or 4, left button for any other number
Can change stimulus quality and memory set size

Question 16

Changing stimulus quality - Additive factor method

Answer 16

Affects detection

Question 17

Changing memory set size - Additive factor method

Answer 17

Affects identification

Question 18

Application to major depressive disorder - Additive factor method

Answer 18

Major depressive patients have slower RT
MDD affects response selection
Interaction between compatibility and groups