Hatice Buket İkizoğlu, Exploring Hand Movement Dynamics During the Simon Task: A Mouse Tracking Study

Msc. Candidate: Hatice Buket İkizoğlu

Program: Cognitive Science

Date:  13.12.2019 14:00

Place: B-116

Abstract: Understanding the how the cognitive system processes information in real time is one of the key concerns for researchers in experimental psychology and cognitive science. Several measures and software tools have been proposed to explore different aspects of cognitive processing phenomena. One of these methods, mouse-tracking, helps researches to trace the participants’ hand movements during cognitive tasks which may be a reflection of their mental processes. Mouse-tracking method allows researchers to collect data about the dynamic unfolding of motor responses, and thus, provides additional insights about the process through which outcome-based measures such as reaction times or error rates are observed. Although the mental processes are treated as having discrete labels in traditional cognitive science, the new perspective indicates continuous processing of mind trajectories. Continuous and probabilistic representation of mental phenomena points out the continuous trajectory of the mind which travels through the set of possible brain states. Mouse Tracker’s real-time response data may shed light on continuous perspective of mind trajectories and temporal dynamics of cognitive processes. From this point of view the Simon Task which known as “stimulus-response compatibility effect” will be implemented with Mouse Tracker software. The collected multiple response alternatives will be analyzed in the light of continuous processing phenomena in an effort to shed further light into how the temporal dynamics of cognitive and motor processes contribute to the Simon effect.