Chapter 1. CogTK Experiment Prototype

1.1 Introduction

Cognitive Tool Kit
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Mental Rotation

This experiment is a replication of one of the most important experiments in psychological history. For decades the study of mental images had been thought to be beyond the reach of science, and their very existence was questioned. The issue was how to find a method for developing rigorous measures that could indicate that mental images existed and explain how we used and manipulated them. The measures had to be clearly interpretable and repeatable by other researchers. Roger Sheperd, Lynn Cooper and colleagues developed this methodology which rotated two images relative to each other and measured how long it took for people to determine if the images were the same or mirror images. The results allow both a rigorous and replicable set of findings that enabled mental images to be examined for the first time in a replicable scientific study.

References:

Cooper, L. (1975). Mental rotation of random two-dimensional shapes. Cognitive Psychology, 7(1), 20-43.

Cooper, L., & Shepard, R. (1973). Chronometric studies of the rotation of mental images. Visual information processing Oxford England: Academic Press.

Metzler, J., & Shepard, R. (1974). Transformational studies of the internal representation of three-dimensional objects. Theories in cognitive psychology: The Loyola Symposium Oxford England: Lawrence Erlbaum.

1.2 Experiment Setup

This tab will look and function differently depending on whether a student or instructor is viewing it.

The instructor will set up the experimental paramaters she wants to use for her class. She can also decide whether or not her students should see the "Quiz" tab.

Saved Settings:
Number of angles to test:
Stimulus duration

A student will see the options of using the class setup and taking the experiment himself, or setting parameters for running participants in his own version of the experiment.

1.3 Instructions

You will need to press the space bar to start the experiment. Afterwards a fixation mark will appear in the center of the screen. Please fixate on this mark. After a brief period of time, two images will be presented, one to either side of the fixation mark. These two images will either be the same or mirror images of each other. Your task is to decide, quickly and accurately, if these images are the same or mirror images of each other. You may respond by either clicking on the buttons below the images or using your keyboard.

1.4 Experiment

Click the button below to submit simulated data for the experiment:

simulate data button goes here

1.5 Results

data download button goes here

The following four graphs show your data plotted against data for the other 34 members of your class who have submitted data, as well as against data submitted by students from other classes. The first two graphs show reaction times for "Same" and "Mirror" responses, respectively (these data include only trials on which the response was correct), and the second two graphs show accuracy rates for "Same" and "Mirror" responses, respectively.

Click a button at right to download data from the experiment.

1.6 Quiz

Question 1.1

EGGqP+qBcLjReGEPYOfN/0yJ9D/8s4/Eb8P2PO+BGsrW5I2lYt9oHDrCChplEVNv9MrEmT9X8Wuwl5HVBE4Zgp2pWm1C2Q8oQn9moskxzMw+sdIckbbwGi/VxNQwyuPbFMJTot+rcDB+OJFP3IO8n+N8iDwbswY3Qmr4vObk1mdmqFxlpHVVF2Yjsblb5193DSxKMiG2L2Tgjniqnjpbz8Cq57ApTsudq2TdWp9eMgbY9ZEnP94F2STuscJM0kvD9v0rvCFiLaghal7E5yaR80Bu+zFih1i9/y9+kFE39Ws5wAaCj7+i2WCIOOc31S2hUXEFstGvSNpL1NH5KZeb9Ec1GHp2C3D2YXdxnuZEYVQ=
2
Try again.
Incorrect.
The frequency of appearance of letters (R, V, K, L, N) in certain positions (first or third letter) in words is the variable measured in the first part of the current study. Tversky and Kahneman (1973) used the fact that individuals overwhelmingly assume that these letters appear more often in the first position rather than the third as evidence for their availability explanation of human decision-making.

Question 1.2

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2
Correct.
Incorrect.
Tversky and Kahneman’s availability heuristic was tested in the current study. These authors contend that people make many decisions based on the number of examples they can think of. In the first part of the experiment, participants guessed that all of the letters used were found more often as the first letter in a word rather than in the third position because it was easier to think of words in which that letter was found at the beginning.

Question 1.3

aF1BRzcqmROts3DINhaCn1WJPMQzjiRY7L4Fjb2XYU+rlrEIKPernnFhzuR5JDsAnwyebaijuMDx9ONdOFsXkwSuLkYz0GOS9LPPiiybFW8VUiXTUTxqbotdRyTnDB7lmMIdEsEAelqEJDSE/X9JFAO1kRRTb3SnKR7rGH8owmKsYCr5pbCGTQE/ToypRbKRlBj9GQSg8hGOvPq0r73CfsuudQcMwv4yMzfhEi4GsnAsuMsRr9v8wAeCQ3c=
2
Correct.
Incorrect.
Tversky and Kahneman’s availability heuristic was tested in the current study. These authors contend that people make many decisions based on the number of examples they can think of. In the first part of the experiment, participants guessed that all of the letters used were found more often as the first letter in a word rather than in the third position because it was easier to think of words in which that letter was found at the beginning.