Cognitive Science Software
In conjunction with The Mind Project, and with support from the National Science Foundation, we've put together a large collection of web-based applications that can be used to illustrate basic principles of human and non-human cognition. These are presented with tutorials, sample classroom activities, and movies that illustrate possible uses. Best of all, these are absolutely free.
The modules are listed below, with screenshots and brief descriptions of each. We then list the links to each downloadable file. Many of these applications require Java, found here.
| Change Blindness |
| Change Blindness occurs when a brief flash comes between two versions of a scene. This flash prevents the change from rising to the level of consciousness unless the person is actively attending to the object. The interesting aspect is that once the change is noticed, it seems so obvious. This program lets users trace out the pattern that the adopt when scanning through a blurred or low-contrast scene. Move the mouse to guide the circle and then click when you've found the change. |
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Main Page (or use quick links below)
Applet Examples (link to list)
Application Download (zipped .jar file)
Introductory Movie (requires Quicktime)
Online Examples
Selected Publications (pdf)
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Principle Designers |
| Tom Busey |
| Principle Programmers |
Rupali Parab
Dean Wyatte
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| Categorization |
| We form categories as part of everyday life. Sometimes this is good (these foods are all high in fat) while sometimes they can lead to societal problems (as in stereotypes and racism). This program allow students to explore how categories are created and how they affect our perception and judgments of images. |
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Main Page (or use quick links below)
Applet
Application Download (right-click to download to disk)
Application Download in zip file with targets
Sample Images (for use with application)
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Principle Designers
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| Tom Busey |
| Principle Programmers |
Dean Wyatte
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| Complex Adaptive Systems |
| We use the physics-based simulator Breve to demonstrate the optimization strategy known as simulated annealing. |
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Main Page (or use quick links below)
"Ball Dropper"
"Pathfinder"
Breve (link to simulator home page)
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Principle Designer |
| Tom Busey |
| Principle Programmers |
| Dean Wyatte |
| Face Creation |
| This java applet and application allow students to create lifelike artificial faces for use in memory and visual search experiments. |
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Applet
Application for Windows (zipped)
Application (zipped .jar file)
Source code (zipped) |
Principle Designers
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| Tom Busey |
| Principle Programmers |
Dean Wyatte |
| Lateralizer |
| The Lateralizer is a tool for stimulus presentation and response recording in a divided visual field (DVF) paradigm, enabling students to investigate theories of asymmetries between the two cerebral hemispheres. |
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Main Page (or use quick links below)
Application download in zip file with targets
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Principle Designer
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Benjamin Motz
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| Principle Programmers |
Benjamin Motz
Dean Wyatte |
| Linguistics |
| This project challenges the way students think about language, and invites
them to consider alternative views concerning the structure of language and the
nature of its components. Familiar concepts such as words and sentences are
replaced by abstract objects that contain the same informational content as more
familiar symbols such as words, but are novel and therefore introduce new ways
of thinking about semantic, phonemic and orthographic structure. |
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"MiniLing" website
demo page 1
demo page 2
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Principle Designers
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Mike Gasser
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| Principle Programmers |
Shakiya Shayan |
| Memory |
| Students are introduced to an empirical approach to the study of intelligent systems and memory. In this demonstration, students experiment on their own working memories to test various models that describe how the contents of memory are matched to a test item. |
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Main Page (or click the quick link below)
Memory Scanning Applet
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Principle Designers
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Ruth Eberle
Karen Hull |
| Principle Programmers |
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| Reinforcement Learning |
| Through reinforcement learning, demonstrates how an organism can learn from its environment, and how learning depends critically on the composition of the environment and its rewards and punishments. |
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Main Page (or use quick links below)
Application
Tutorial (.doc)
(see also: Robotics)
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Principle Designers |
Tom Busey
Mike Gasser |
| Principle Programmers |
Matthew Farrellee
Dean Wyatte |
Demonstrates how reinforcement learning can solve the problem of backward induction. |
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Main Page (or use quick links below)
Application
Instructions
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Principle Designers |
| Tom Busey |
| Principle Programmers |
Rupali Parab
Dean Wyatte |
| Signal Detection Theory |
| Many decisions in life surround one of two possible alternatives (e.g. the
object on the x-ray is a tumor or it is not) and two possible choices (e.g. have
the painful surgery or do chemotherapy). In this experiment students explore the
tradeoffs that can occur when trying to detect a known signal. |
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Main Page (or use quick link below)
Signal Detection Applet
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Principle Designers
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Ruth Eberle
Karen Hull |
| Principle Programmers |
Dean Wyatte |
| Virtual EEG |
| This program lets students explore apparent motion phenomenon and test models of mapping between objects. In the applet, apparent motion occurs when a dot disappears from one location and reappears in another location. |
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Main Page (or use quick links below)
Virtual EEG you must use Internet Explorer. Don't use Netscape, Firefox, Safari or Mozilla
Safe Virtual EEG - safe version (excludes the more disturbing or graphic pictures)
Instructor Resources
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Principle Designers
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| Tom Busey |
| Principle Programmers |
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| Visual Search |
| Looking for a friend in a crowd, searching for a four-leaf clover and finding an
off-ramp exit sign are all examples of visual search in the real world. This
program allows students to create their own visual search experiments to explore
visual perception and memory phenomenon. Students have used this to explore
effects of familiarity, search asymmetries, top-down influences on perception
and the role of arousal on visual search. |
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Main Page (or use the quick links below)
Visual Search Applet
Tutorial/Instructions (.doc) |
Principle Designers
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| Tom Busey |
| Principle Programmers |
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