Title:
AN ERP STUDY OF THE NEURAL CORRELATES UNDERLYING HYPOTHESIS GENERATION AND WORKING MEMORY
AN ERP STUDY OF THE NEURAL CORRELATES UNDERLYING HYPOTHESIS GENERATION AND WORKING MEMORY
Author(s)
Farooq, Shereen
Advisor(s)
Thomas, Rick P.
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Abstract
Hypothesis generation is the process by which individuals formulate explanations for data found in their environment and evaluating the accuracy of each hypothesis generated is known as a probability judgement. Previous research in decision making has linked hypothesis generation to working memory. This experiment aimed to measure the neural correlates underlying working memory during hypothesis generation in a decision making task. EEG technology was used to measure neural activity and the signals of interest were P300 and CDA. Participants were trained to learn a number of cause-effect relationships between stimuli. Later, participants were asked to make judgements about which causes may have been responsible for an observed effect by remembering the locations of relevant causes in a briefly displayed visual array. The results demonstrate that probability judgements were negatively correlated to the number of relevant hypothesis. The results also show that the peak P300 amplitude did not reveal any significant differences between the ‘Effect’ cues, and the peak P300 amplitude was greatest for Cue 4 which had a total of three relevant hypotheses associated with it. This work can be used to better understand how working memory underlies our everyday decision making.
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Date Issued
2020-05
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Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Undergraduate Thesis