RESPONSES TO TWO STUDENTS

Student 1
Annie Tonak-Rodeheaver
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3/23/2016 11:52:28 AM
Unit 1 Discussion

As a cognitive psychologist, I would want to investigate memory. Specifically, why we remember some events, not some others, and how perception can affect how we recall events. Hermann Ebbinghaus, Mary Whiton Calkins, and William James were all psychologists that studied memory. Ebbinghaus and Calkins focused more on one's ability to recall information recently presented, while James theorized about reasoning, memory, and attention, among other things. Because the ERP (event-related potential) technique is able to record brief fluctuations in the brain's electrical activity, (Matlin, 2012) I would choose to use this as one of the methods to study areas of the human brain and memory. It is also considered to be fairly precise. (Matlin, 2012) In ERP, electrodes are placed on a person's scalp, and record activity of groups of neurons. Position emission tomography, or PET scans, involve an injection in the brain, and require several seconds to generate data, and can be less accurate. An fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging, monitors the oxygen atoms in blood in different areas of the brain while a subject performs a cognitive task. fMRIs can track brain activity more quickly than the PET scan, but is still not considered precise enough to accurately produce data regarding cognitive tasks that our brain performs very quickly.

Matlin, M. (Oct 2012). Cognition, 8th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://kaplan.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781118545560

STUDENT 2
Rebecca Grim
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3/23/2016 12:05:38 AM
Unit 1 Discussion:
Hello Professor and class,

A cognitive process that I would find very interesting would be perception. Everyone is so very different and seeing the differences in perception on the same object would be fascinating. After reading through the different techniques I would think that the ERP method would be most beneficial since it can identify changes very quickly. "The ERP technique provides a reasonably precise picture about changes in the brain's electrical potential while people perform a cognitive task" (Matlin, M. 10/2012). This seems to be one of the more accurate techniques when it comes to precision and speed. The way this technique could be used would be by placing electrodes on the subjects head, and showing them an image of something, let's just say the image is grotesque. The electrodes will pick up on the activity the brain gives off in response to the image. Identifying the differences in perception by comparing the results of the tested subjects.
-Becky

References - Matlin, M. (10/2012). Cognition, 8th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://kaplan.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781118545560