Need Help With This Assignment?

Let Our Team of Professional Writers Write a PLAGIARISM-FREE Paper for You!

The Signal Detection Experiment

The Signal Detection Experiment

Signal detection theory (SDT) is a framework used to measure how people or machines detect signals and make decisions in the presence of noise or under conditions of uncertainty (Wixted, 2019). The main argument of the SDT is that all reasoning and decisions made by an individual occur with some degree of uncertainty. Based on research, the manipulation of visual information presented to an individual affects how the information is perceived, and errors in the information can be detected or corrected (Pinet & Nozari, 2021). Additionally, evidence shows that sensory noise, whether audio or visual, influences conscious sensation even when the simulation is completely absent (Dance et al., 2021). This means that a degree of uncertainty in what people hear or see may actually not be the reality as it is. This has an influence on how they make decisions and the accuracy of such decisions. Using the SDT can help identify and correct various decision problems.

A Signal Detection experiment was carried out using CogLab CD to determine how individuals make decisions in conditions of uncertainty. The experiment involves the use of a number of dots and tests whether the participants can identify target dots in a field with noise dots.

Do you need an original copy of ” The Signal Detection Experiment “ ? Contact us.

Method

One participant was selected for the CogLab signal detection experiment. The participant was provided with a copy of the CogLab CD to utilize and carry out the experiment. The experiment involved logging in to the CogLab and reading the Signal Detection process instructions. The selected individual underwent 50 trials within a total of 15 minutes. After understanding the instructions, the participant was requested to press the space bar for each trial.

After pressing the space bar, the participants were presented with a screen with randomly placed dots. The placement and number of dots varied from trial to trial. Half of the trials included 10 dots arranged in a diagonal line of 10 dots that were identified as the target or stimuli. Some trials had no stimuli presented. The participants were asked to indicate and confirm the presence or absence of the stimuli by pressing the key z and / keys on the keyboard for stimuli not present and present, respectively. The results were analyzed and compared.

Results

The results were presented in two tables. One table showed the overall detection statistics for different numbers of noise dots, and the other showed Trial-by-trial data. The number of dots presented randomly were either 144, 400, or 900. The most important statistic was d’ as it provided the outcomes showing the ability of the participant to identify whether the target was present or absent. For the fewer dots, 144, the d’ value was 3.1679718; for 400, it was 0.25361583; and for 900, it was -0.31720558. The correct rejections for 144, 400, and 900 were 0.8, 0.5, and 0.2, respectively. The false alarms for 144, 400, and 900 were 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8.

Discussion

The results of the Signal Detection experiments were expected. The observations show that the d’ for correct rejections decreased from 0.8 to 0.2 as the number of noise dots increased. This is due to the increased distraction from the noise. The false alarms also increased with noise dots. This shows that the decisions the participant made with respect to the presence and absence of the target were attributed to both objective and subjective bias of the participant in the presence of uncertainty. Of surprise with the experiment is that after a while, even with the lower number of noise dots, it created uncertainty about the presence or absence of the target. However, the results of the Signal Detection experiment can be influenced by the clarity of the screen, signal strength, noise level, duration of the simulation, and the participant’s attention and biases.

 References

Dance, C. J., Ward, J., & Simner, J. (2021). What is the Link Between Mental Imagery and Sensory Sensitivity? Insights from Aphantasia. Perception, 50(9), 757–782. https://doi.org/10.1177/03010066211042186

Pinet, S., & Nozari, N. (2021). The role of visual feedback in detecting and correcting typing errors: A signal detection approach. Journal of Memory and Language, 117, 104193. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JML.2020.104193

Wixted, J. T. (2019). The Forgotten History of Signal Detection Theory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

Question 


Instructions
The Signal Detection Experiment
Using CogLab, perform the signal detection experiment and create a report on the experiment.

In your report, write a brief introduction that describes the SDT. Next, in the Methods section, describe the process that you followed to complete the experiment. In addition, detailed information about the visual displays should be included. Make sure to include enough information so that others can also perform the same experiment successfully.

The Signal Detection Experiment

The Signal Detection Experiment

Finally, in the Results section, describe the experimental results for the three fields of different sizes. Summarize your report, including answers to the following questions:

Were the results in accordance with your expectations? Provide a rationale to support your answer.
Did anything about the experiment surprise you? If yes, what?
What factors can influence the results of the signal detection experiment?