Experimental Design, Qualitative Methods, and Sensory Substitution in Cognitive Science

Flashcards covering key terminology, foundational case studies, experimental design concepts, and sensory substitution mechanisms discussed in the cognitive science lecture transcript.

Experimental Design

A research approach in cognitive science used to establish causal relationships and uncover cognitive mechanisms by manipulating variables.

Passive Control Group

A control group in an intervention study whose members engage in no activity, which fails to rule out non-specific factors like novelty, group interaction, or general engagement.

Active Control Group

A control group whose members participate in an alternative activity to control for non-specific effects such as social interaction and general engagement.

Quantitative Research

A research methodology that directly collects numerical data or converts observations and measurements into numerical values for statistical analysis.

Qualitative Research

A research methodology that collects non-numerical data—such as observations, interviews, and text—to analyze themes and interpret meaning regarding subjective experiences or rare conditions.

Patient HM (Henry Molaison)

A patient who had his hippocampus and medial temporal lobe structures surgically removed in the 1950s to treat epilepsy, resulting in the inability to form new memories.

Clive Wearing

A British musician and composer whose medial temporal lobe and hippocampus were damaged by viral encephalitis in the 1980s, leaving him unable to form new memories and feeling as though his consciousness reset every few minutes.

Phenomenology

The scientific or philosophical study of subjective experience.

Awake Craniotomy

A surgical brain procedure performed while the patient is awake to allow real-time language mapping and protect critical speech processing centers during tumor removal.

Sensory Substitution

The use of one sensory modality to convey environmental information that is typically processed by a different sensory modality.

Paul Bach-y-Rita's Tactile Vision-Substitution System

A pioneering 1970s sensory substitution setup consisting of a dentist chair equipped with camera-controlled tactile pins that conveyed visual information to the user's back.

BrainPort

A commercially available sensory substitution device consisting of camera glasses and an electrode array placed on the tongue to translate visual images into electrical stimulation.

The Voice

A sensory substitution system that translates visual stimuli into auditory soundscapes, mapping visual elevation to acoustic pitch height.

Metamodal View

The theoretical position that spatial information is modality-independent and can be accessed interchangeably through different sensory modalities, such as vision, touch, or sound.