Topic list (at least 70% of the exam covers these topics):
1. CODELAB: EEG event-related potentials (ERP), frequency analysis (theta
oscillations), cognitive load.
CODELAB Part 1:
CODELAB Experiment (introduction):
Key features:
o Spontaneous smartphone use. Letting participants use their smartphone as usual,
while wearing an EEG cap?
o Random auditory tones. In the environment of participant.
o EEG recordings. Of brain participant.
Key question:
o How does the brain process auditory information when engaged on the
smartphone? (especially information that is NOT on your screen)
CODELAB Part 2:
Key Question: How does the brain process auditory information when engaged on the
smartphone?
Audio probe
Smartphone usage
Average response (ERP)
Study design: observational design with a sensory probe (auditory probe). You keep getting
auditory ‘pings’ and looking what the brain does with that.
Smartphone usage is quantified: touches on screen for example
Advantage: person behaves like normally, real world set up
Disadvantage: if you find a relation between the two, what else could be driving it? If it is not usage
of the phone itself. The state you (arousal) could be.
Set up: you observe someone using their
smartphone. We are interested in how that
is influencing auditory processing.
We provide little sound probes, sounds to
see what the brain does with it.
Using EEG to see what the
brain directly does with this
auditory information.
,CODELAB Part 3:
How does the brain process auditory information when engaged on the smartphone? 3 answers:
No change in auditory processing corresponding to smartphone usage?
Auditory processing is suppressed during ‘high’ smartphone usage? (perceptual load)
Auditory processing is enhanced during ‘high’ smartphone usage? (cognitive load)
Prediction: Auditory processing is enhanced during ‘high’ cognitive load (smartphone usage).
1. Does increased smartphone usage correspond to high cognitive load?
2. If yes, is auditory processing enhanced during high smartphone usage?
What makes us think that there could be suppressed processing during high smartphone usage?:
Reduced processing:
In low load condition you
process the flanker/distractor.
In high load condition you won’t
process the flanker/distractor.
While you are on smartphone, the
auditory information is not really useful.
When you are really invested in your
smartphone (texting), there are no
resources left to process the irrelevant
auditory information.
But wait! Should we not distinguish
,between perceptual load vs. cognitive load?
Perceptual load is about how much sensory information the brain has to filter and focus on.
o Refers to the amount of sensory information (e.g., visual or auditory stimuli) that a
person has to process at a given time. High perceptual load means that the
environment presents many details that require attention, making it harder to
process irrelevant distractions.
Cognitive load is about the mental effort required to process and use information.
o Refers to the amount of mental effort required to process and understand
information. Cognitive load theory
suggests that too much mental effort
can hinder learning or decision-
making.
There are certain tasks that are really hard for people
to do: such as remembering a complex string of
numbers.
When remembering a large string of numbers (high
load condition) they were more vulnerable to the
distractor being present, as if they were processing
the distractor.
Cognitive load says: When you are really busy
cognitively doing something really hard, you have
no resources left to TAKE AWAY the distractor,
so you will process the distractor and suffer in
performance.
While I’m on my smartphone, doing something
difficult on a smartphone (cognitively engaging on
a smartphone), then I will process the auditory
information more.
CODELAB Part 4:
Key Question: How does the brain process auditory information when engaged on the smartphone?
CODELAB has an observational design: we’re observing smartphone behaviour. Because we want
to know what the brain does with auditory information, we send random probes of auditory
information and try to see what it does to the brain.
Under high PERCEPTUAL load we ignore the distractors due to limited resources. There are no
resources left to process the distractors.
The other view, COGNITIVE load, your brain is very busy with a very hard/difficult task. The
attentional resources are exhausted. Under high COGNTIVE load we cannot ignore the distractors,
we get distracted.
this distinction between perceptual load and cognitive load is very important!
High cognitive load can be created by giving participants a working-memory task, where they for
example have to remember a large string of numbers (must be complicated).
To increase high perceptual load, we need to make the primary visual task more complex and
resource-demanding (increase task difficulty, increase speed).
We came across two ideas:
1. Does increased smartphone usage correspond to high cognitive load?
2. If yes, is auditory processing enhanced during high smartphone usage?
Prediction: auditory processing is enhanced during ‘high’ cognitive load (smartphone usage).
, 1. Does increased smartphone usage correspond to high cognitive load?
Neural marker of cognitive load? Kahana et al.
1999
Experiment:
Put participants in simple virtual mazes.
Eventually they had to find/reach a
certain target.
While in the maze, researchers gained EEG signals from the
brain.
They put the electrodes directly on the brain instead of the scalp,
they got a more clean signal.
Whenever the participants were doing something hard, solving a
hard maze which was very difficult to navigate, blue line
appeared. Green line for easy maze.
Frequency of around 8 Hz starts dominating when the brain
does something hard.
Why does the brain start generating these dominating
oscillations when it is doing something hard?
In this manner you can find out if the brain finds something
cognitively demanding with simply looking at the neural activity
and particular its neural oscillations.
More oscillations in a certain area of the brain when
participating in difficult tasks.
More smartphone usage, more neural power.
There seems to be a
reasonable trend that the
more you use your
smartphone, the larger
1. CODELAB: EEG event-related potentials (ERP), frequency analysis (theta
oscillations), cognitive load.
CODELAB Part 1:
CODELAB Experiment (introduction):
Key features:
o Spontaneous smartphone use. Letting participants use their smartphone as usual,
while wearing an EEG cap?
o Random auditory tones. In the environment of participant.
o EEG recordings. Of brain participant.
Key question:
o How does the brain process auditory information when engaged on the
smartphone? (especially information that is NOT on your screen)
CODELAB Part 2:
Key Question: How does the brain process auditory information when engaged on the
smartphone?
Audio probe
Smartphone usage
Average response (ERP)
Study design: observational design with a sensory probe (auditory probe). You keep getting
auditory ‘pings’ and looking what the brain does with that.
Smartphone usage is quantified: touches on screen for example
Advantage: person behaves like normally, real world set up
Disadvantage: if you find a relation between the two, what else could be driving it? If it is not usage
of the phone itself. The state you (arousal) could be.
Set up: you observe someone using their
smartphone. We are interested in how that
is influencing auditory processing.
We provide little sound probes, sounds to
see what the brain does with it.
Using EEG to see what the
brain directly does with this
auditory information.
,CODELAB Part 3:
How does the brain process auditory information when engaged on the smartphone? 3 answers:
No change in auditory processing corresponding to smartphone usage?
Auditory processing is suppressed during ‘high’ smartphone usage? (perceptual load)
Auditory processing is enhanced during ‘high’ smartphone usage? (cognitive load)
Prediction: Auditory processing is enhanced during ‘high’ cognitive load (smartphone usage).
1. Does increased smartphone usage correspond to high cognitive load?
2. If yes, is auditory processing enhanced during high smartphone usage?
What makes us think that there could be suppressed processing during high smartphone usage?:
Reduced processing:
In low load condition you
process the flanker/distractor.
In high load condition you won’t
process the flanker/distractor.
While you are on smartphone, the
auditory information is not really useful.
When you are really invested in your
smartphone (texting), there are no
resources left to process the irrelevant
auditory information.
But wait! Should we not distinguish
,between perceptual load vs. cognitive load?
Perceptual load is about how much sensory information the brain has to filter and focus on.
o Refers to the amount of sensory information (e.g., visual or auditory stimuli) that a
person has to process at a given time. High perceptual load means that the
environment presents many details that require attention, making it harder to
process irrelevant distractions.
Cognitive load is about the mental effort required to process and use information.
o Refers to the amount of mental effort required to process and understand
information. Cognitive load theory
suggests that too much mental effort
can hinder learning or decision-
making.
There are certain tasks that are really hard for people
to do: such as remembering a complex string of
numbers.
When remembering a large string of numbers (high
load condition) they were more vulnerable to the
distractor being present, as if they were processing
the distractor.
Cognitive load says: When you are really busy
cognitively doing something really hard, you have
no resources left to TAKE AWAY the distractor,
so you will process the distractor and suffer in
performance.
While I’m on my smartphone, doing something
difficult on a smartphone (cognitively engaging on
a smartphone), then I will process the auditory
information more.
CODELAB Part 4:
Key Question: How does the brain process auditory information when engaged on the smartphone?
CODELAB has an observational design: we’re observing smartphone behaviour. Because we want
to know what the brain does with auditory information, we send random probes of auditory
information and try to see what it does to the brain.
Under high PERCEPTUAL load we ignore the distractors due to limited resources. There are no
resources left to process the distractors.
The other view, COGNITIVE load, your brain is very busy with a very hard/difficult task. The
attentional resources are exhausted. Under high COGNTIVE load we cannot ignore the distractors,
we get distracted.
this distinction between perceptual load and cognitive load is very important!
High cognitive load can be created by giving participants a working-memory task, where they for
example have to remember a large string of numbers (must be complicated).
To increase high perceptual load, we need to make the primary visual task more complex and
resource-demanding (increase task difficulty, increase speed).
We came across two ideas:
1. Does increased smartphone usage correspond to high cognitive load?
2. If yes, is auditory processing enhanced during high smartphone usage?
Prediction: auditory processing is enhanced during ‘high’ cognitive load (smartphone usage).
, 1. Does increased smartphone usage correspond to high cognitive load?
Neural marker of cognitive load? Kahana et al.
1999
Experiment:
Put participants in simple virtual mazes.
Eventually they had to find/reach a
certain target.
While in the maze, researchers gained EEG signals from the
brain.
They put the electrodes directly on the brain instead of the scalp,
they got a more clean signal.
Whenever the participants were doing something hard, solving a
hard maze which was very difficult to navigate, blue line
appeared. Green line for easy maze.
Frequency of around 8 Hz starts dominating when the brain
does something hard.
Why does the brain start generating these dominating
oscillations when it is doing something hard?
In this manner you can find out if the brain finds something
cognitively demanding with simply looking at the neural activity
and particular its neural oscillations.
More oscillations in a certain area of the brain when
participating in difficult tasks.
More smartphone usage, more neural power.
There seems to be a
reasonable trend that the
more you use your
smartphone, the larger
