UB201L This is a late submission because I had tested COVID+ and had

also developed symptoms. I was unable to attend the session. I

Ankur Bhaumik had informed Jean Cletus Sir about this. I had also accumulated
a backlog of assignments from other courses.
18895

Lab 4
Cognition and Psychophysics

1. Colour Pop-out Task

The task is to look out for a single difference between the target and the distractor
which are of a different colour as that of target one

• Reaction Time vs Set Size- In both the cases (target present and absent), we observe
that the slopes of the curve are very less (6.54 and 3.10 respectively). So, this suggests
that this search is a parallel search as reaction time is almost independent of the set
size.
• Probability Curves- Clearly the probability of correct response for both target present
and absent is almost same (close to 1). Some erroneous responses were given when
the target was present for higher set sizes but even then, the probability of correct
response was greater than 0.9. This suggests the responses were highly accurate. No
particular trend between the probability of correct response and set size can be
 observed from this data irrespective of the fact whether the target is absent or
present.
• Presence or Absence of Target and Reaction Time- Reaction time does not change
(remains around 500 ms) whether the target is present or absent. This is what we
expect from pop out parallel search.
• No impact of fatigue was observed while entering responses.

2. Orientation Pop-out Task

The task is to look for different orientations in pop out visual task. The only distractor is
the orientation, whereas colour remains same for all.

• Reaction Time vs Set Size- In both the cases (target present and absent), we
observe that the slopes of the curve are very less (-7.99 and -13.31 respectively).
Although the slopes are negative, it is not of our interest because anyways they
are close to zero. Thus, negative slope is just a coincidence. So, this suggests that
this search is a parallel search as reaction time is almost independent of the set
size.
• Probability Curves- Clearly the probability of correct response for both target
present and absent is almost same (close to 1). Some erroneous responses were
given when the target was absent for higher set sizes but even then, the
probability of correct response was greater than 0.9. This suggests the responses
were highly accurate. No particular trend between the probability of correct
response and set size can be observed from this data irrespective of the fact
whether the target is absent or present.
 • Presence or Absence of Target and reaction Time- Reaction times were slightly
higher in the case when the target was absent (around 600 ms) than when the
target was present (around 500 ms). This difference is most likely because when
the target is absent nothing pops out. When nothing pops out some extra time is
probably taken by the brain to verify the absence of target.
• No impact of fatigue was observed while entering responses.

3. Colour-Orientation Conjunction Task

This task was a conjugation visual search task. The distractors and target differs in colour
as well as Orientation. The target has different colour but can have same or different
orientation distractor. So, we must look at both colour and orientation to decide
whether the target is present or not.

• Reaction Time vs Set Size- In both the cases (target present and absent), we observe
that the slopes of the curve are high (22.01 and 38.83 respectively). So, this suggests
that this search is a serial search as reaction time increases with the set size.
• Probability Curves- No particular trend between the probability of correct response
and set size can be observed from this data irrespective of the fact whether the target
is absent or present. The probability in both case is greater than 0.8. So, the responses
are fairly accurate.
• Presence or Absence of Target and Reaction Time- Reaction time increases with set
size in both the cases. Also, when the target is absent the slope is greater. This is
what we expect from serial search because when the target is present, if the target is
found it is not necessary to scan the remaining objects.
 • No impact of fatigue was observed while entering responses.

4. Colour-Colour Conjunction Task

• Reaction Time vs Set Size- In both the cases (target present and absent), we observe
that the slopes of the curve are high (40.21 and 171.01 respectively). So, this suggests
that this search is a serial search as reaction time increases with the set size. The
slopes are greater than the previous conjunction task which suggests that this task is
more complex than the previous one.
• Probability Curves- No particular trend between the probability of correct response
and set size can be observed from this data irrespective of the fact whether the target
is absent or present. The probability in both case is 1 for all set sizes. So, the responses
are highly accurate.
• Presence or Absence of Target and Reaction Time- Reaction time increases with set
size in both the cases. Also, when the target is absent the slope is greater. This is
what we expect from serial search as explained earlier.
• No impact of fatigue was observed while entering responses.

5. Working Memory Task

In this task, it gave a certain string of letters followed by letters popped on the screen
and I was asked to decide if that letter was there or not in the initial shown string
 • Reaction Time vs Set Size- In both the cases (target present and absent), we observe
that the slopes of the curve are high (57.54 and 46.48 respectively). So, this suggests
that this search is a serial search as reaction time increases with the set size. For a
longer string the search inside memory has to go on for a longer time.
• Probability Curves- No particular trend between the probability of correct response
and set size can be observed from this data irrespective of the fact whether the target
is absent or present. The probability of correct response was greater when the target
was absent in this case. The probability was always greater than 0.85, so the
responses were fairly accurate.
• Presence or Absence of Target and Reaction Time- Reaction time increases with set
size in both the cases as expected for serial search. Also, when the target is absent
the slope is greater. This is what we expect from serial search as explained earlier.
When the shown alphabet is absent, the whole string (stored in memory) needs to be
scanned.
• Some impact of fatigue was probably observed while entering responses as is evident
from the lesser probability of correct responses. This could probably also be because
search inside memory is not as accurate as a direct visual search.

6. Priming Task
The task is performed by target of a particular colour and distractors of different colour.
Same target is repeated while size of set is varied for a few times before switching to
other target pattern. Positions of the unique square also change several times.
• PDF of reaction time of switch trials- The pdf of reaction time of switch trials is
spread out as two bands one from 300-700 ms and another from 800-900 ms. This
is probably because my brain was conscious of the fact that switch trials will come
up and therefore tried to neglect the confusion caused by Priming resulting in
several responses to switch trials in short time intervals (300-700 ms). In several
cases priming was able to confuse my brain resulting in the second band of longer
response times (800-900). As can be seen erroneous responses were given in very
short intervals which is clearly a result of the confusion created by priming.
• PDF of reaction time of non-switch trials- The most probable reaction time is
around 350-500 ms. Also, there were no errors during non-switch trials.
• Reaction time vs trial position graph- As the brain got habituated to the same kind
of stimulus for non-switch trials, the reaction time of non-switch trials is low. As
soon as a switch trial came up, the brain got confused due to priming and the
reaction times went up as can be seen from the peaks.
• Reaction time for same and different position- As each trial is more like a pop out
parallel search the position of the odd-coloured object does not matter. This is
also what we observe as the reaction times are almost same whether the target
was in the same position or not.
• Error percentage vs trial position- Clearly, the only errors are in case of switch trials
because the brain is confused due to priming in this case.