Overview

Welcome to your first lab assignment! In these labs, you will complete tasks that help us measure and understand how the mind truly works. To begin this journey, we will first explore the process of perception. This is the capacity that we have to extract information from the outside world through our senses. Perception occurs when we are able to organize sensory elements into recognizable patterns. We rely on these senses, mostly vision, to help us navigate a complex, three-dimensional space that can change quickly. If we do not perceive something, can we pay attention to it? Can we recall something that we never saw? Perception is the gateway to the mind.

While completing these labs, you should ask yourself some important questions. How exactly do we gather information from the outside world? What is the speed of perception and how does it limit the speed of your reaction? Is what we see really what we get or are we always looking to find what we need from our environment? How do we pick out a face in a crowd while ignoring all the other faces? How do we isolate the signal in a sea of noise?

These labs strip away the more complex aspects of perception to focus on the fundamentals of this process. How fast can you be? How accurate can you be?

Prompt

Complete the following labs:

• Simple Detection
• Signal Detection
• Visual Search

Then complete the Module One Lab Worksheet Template. Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

• Record data and include screenshots of results for all module labs.
• For the Simple Detection lab, address lab questions accurately.
• For the Signal Detection lab, address lab questions accurately.
• For the Visual Search lab, address lab questions accurately.
• Address the module question accurately.