Module 12

OBJECTIVE: Considering a Complex Mental Process as the Sum of its Component Parts

The time it takes to do a Complex Process is the sum of the times of each component process. This what you learned in high school as "The whole is equal to the sum of its parts." This principle is widely used in Experimental Psychology, whether we are talking about subtracting out reaction times (RTs) in order to determine the time necessary for color perception (in the experiment below) or determining which area of the brain is responsible for processing certain types of stimuli (Experiment 9, Dr. Raichle's Research).

This method has often been called Additive Factors Methodology. You can sum component processes in this manner only if they don't interact with each other. For a discussion of Additive Factors Methodology, see Psychmate, Student Guide (2003-2005), version 2.0, page 2-53.

Activity : Color Perception
How long does it take for a person to perceive and discriminate color?
Suppose you want to find out how long it takes for someone to perceive color and the materials you have available are a deck of 52 playing cards.

Let's see how long Anna takes to sort the same deck of 52 cards into two separate piles based on color: Red and Black.

Answer the following questions in the boxes provided. After you complete each answer, click the "Check Answer" button for feedback.