Perceptual Decision-Making and its Implication for Effective Communication in Education
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1
Emirates College for Advanced Education (ECAE), Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, United Arab Emirates
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2
Université de Montréal, Centre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie, Canada
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3
University of Calgary, Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Department of Radiology, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Canada
Background & Goals. The information we perceive from our environment is used for comprehending our surroundings and to make decisions on how to interact with it in a multitude of contexts. These brain operations, based on sensory information, constitute perceptual decision-making. In an educational setting, perceptual decisions are made whenever information appears, and understanding how to present materials so that they fit best with the brain’s representations, allows for more effective communication and easier integration.
Perceptual decision-making assessed along an easy-difficult continuum, has typically been evaluated using stimulus visibility or new rule application. With stimulus visibility, weakly-visible images are more difficult to discern, and for new role application, perceptual categories must be learned. However, most of the information we use in our environment is highly visible and does not require learning new perceptual categorization rules. Little is known of the effect of perceptual content on how easily perceptual information is used in decision-making, and more specifically, of perceptual decisions for ecological, clearly visible stimuli.
Perceptual decisions, or discrimination, for highly visible stimuli can become difficult for observers because of two main factors: 1- perceptual information can vary in the amount, or complexity, of its content (complexity), and 2- the perceptual information that must be discerned can be highly similar or dissimilar (similarity). The purpose of this work is to evaluate how perceptual content along the dimensions of complexity and similarity interact, when making decisions for highly visible information, using psychophysics and fMRI.
Methods. Participants consisted of 12 right-handed healthy adults (age range 24-35, mean 28.4 ± 0.95 SE). Stimuli consisted of two Gabor patches (windowed sinusoidal grating) appearing side-by-side. To manipulate complexity, carrier gratings were shown in the same orientation (simpler information) or in different orthogonal orientations (more complex information). To manipulate similarity, the line width (spatial frequency) of the patterns ranged from highly-different (easy) to highly-similar (difficult). Participants were asked to specify which of the two patterns contained the higher spatial-frequency (narrower lines). Gabor patches were presented side-by-side and remained on-screen until participant response. Behavioral session: the method of constant stimuli with a 2-alternative forced-choice to measure spatial-frequency discrimination thresholds, expressed as Weber fractions for differences in spatial frequency. Scanning: in a mixed-design Gabor pairs were shown at multiples of discrimination threshold to span a perceptually equivalent range of dissimilarity to similarity, for both same-orientation and different-orientation conditions.
Results. General. Psychophysical results indicate that spatial frequency discrimination thresholds, expressed as Weber fractions, are higher (worse performance) for different-orientation (0.077 ± .0077 SE) than for same-orientation conditions (0.054 ± .0043 SE). fMRI results indicate that when comparing information complexity globally, for different-orientation vs. same-orientation conditions, significant activation appeared mainly in visual cortical regions. Stimulus similarity/discriminability: same-orientation (low-complexity) and different-orientation (high-complexity) conditions displayed somewhat-similar patterns, with less discriminable stimuli yielding significant activation in bilateral visual occipital regions and supplementary eye fields, and in regions supporting task-control and decision-making, including the anterior cingulate cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, superior parietal lobule. In addition, the right inferior parietal lobule activated only for the different-orientation condition. In contrast, higher discriminability (easier), yielded significant activity in the IPL bilaterally and in the right angular gyrus, which is involved in perceptual feature saliency and spatial cognition. However, complexity and similarity interacted to yield stronger activations in monitoring and attentional regions (anterior cingulate cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) than in lower visual regions.
Conclusion. When similar images are used in perceptual decision-making, a small change in visual complexity can lead to a large change in brain activity with more elaborate patterns of activation, even for clearly visible images. This suggests that the way in which information is presented can lead to brain processing that is easier or more difficult. Understanding the rules by which the brain uses less demanding processing to simply perceive information and use it, allows us to build effective tools for optimal communication.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research operating grant (MOP-126017) to O.M.
Keywords:
Perception,
Decision Making,
difficulty level,
fMRI,
Cognitive neuroscience
Conference:
International Conference - Educational Neuroscience, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 28 Feb - 29 Feb, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Educational Neuroscience
Citation:
Habak
C,
Nagano-Saito
A,
Seghier
M,
Fahim
MA and
Monchi
O
(2016). Perceptual Decision-Making and its Implication for Effective Communication in Education.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
International Conference - Educational Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2016.92.00023
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Received:
18 Feb 2016;
Published Online:
23 Mar 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Claudine Habak, Emirates College for Advanced Education (ECAE), Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Claudine.Habak@gmail.com