Dear all,

We would like to invite you to the following talk by Tristan Bekinschtein, organized as part of the ELTE Cognitive Seminar series.

Time and date: 16:00 (CET), Thursday, 14. 10. 2021. 

Speaker: Tristan Bekinschtein (University of Cambridge)

Title: How arousal modulates cognitive processes: using falling asleep people to learn how thinking fragments  

Abstract: Throughout the day our level of arousal and alertness varies, affecting cognitive performance. Chernobyl, work-related mistakes, when you submit an email and then regret it, a myriad of examples of changes that illustrate how alertness modulates the way we think and do things. In the Consciousness and Cognition Lab these last 10 years we have been characterising cognitive control and perceptual decision making when people transition from full alert and attentive to relaxed and drowsy. Low Alertness makes people slower and more variable, but depending on the cognitive processes (via task), the level of mistakes may or may not change. The sharpness of a decision seems to decrease and we think this may be explained by a relaxation of the criterion, the strictness of what is decided with lower alertness, and that the efficiency in the accumulation of evidence to reach the decision is what may be driving these changes. It is this arousal internal fluctuation that allows us to characterise cognitive processes in a pseudocausal manner.

Zoom link:

https://ppk-elte-hu.zoom.us/j/92558443881?pwd=OVlmUmtpR0o2bEJuN29pcUF5QUVaQT09

Meeting ID: 925 5844 3881

Passcode: 766832

We look forward to seeing you at the event,

Zsuzsanna Nemecz

Réka Schvajda

organizers

ELTE Department of Cognitive Psychology