"Reaction time (RT) is the elapsed time between the presentation of a sensory stimulus and the subsequent behavioral response. RT is often used in experimental psychology to measure the duration of mental operations, an area of research known as mental chronometry. In psychometric psychology it is considered to be an index of speed of processing. That is, it indicates how fast the thinker can execute the mental operations needed by the task at hand"

Source: Jensen, A. (2006). Clocking the mind: Mental chronometry and individual differences. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

"Reaction time is quickest for young adults and gradually slows down with age. [B]It can be improved with practice[/B], up to a point, and it declines under conditions of fatigue and distractions."

Source: Der, G., & Deary, I. J. (2006). Age and sex differences in reaction time in adulthood: Results from the United Kingdom health and lifestyle survey. Psychology and Aging, 21, 62-73.

You've got to be one of the most retarded people I've seen on the internet, and the internet has vast amounts of stupid.

[QUOTE=Squirrel;18122594]Links to articles/literature for this? And I don't mean bodybuilding forums or rosstraining etc. Your post seems rather verbose, I get the feeling you're actively trying to make your point more valid through your choice of wording. Infact reading it again man that's a ****ing pretentious post.

I respect you tho Josh casue we go way back and shi. Modern Iconoclast can FO though cause he's a tard.[/QUOTE]

How is it pretentious that I use the vernacular that I use in the field? Here, I can explain it more simply, basically, you can alter the way reflexes (any uncontrolled behavior in response to a stimulus) act by changing information about the stimulus. These things include the magnitude of the stimulus, such as how bright a light is, how strong a puff of air is, how sharp is a knock on the knee, etc. The duration of the stimulus, how long it occurs, the time between intervals, so are you doing test after test after test or are you allowing time for recovery in between? And the amount of time overall in your behavior modification trials. All of these things are important when it comes to shaping behavior and decreasing the magnitude at which a reflex is present.


[url]http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/reprint/26/9/2443[/url]

Here is one of the most recent definitive papers on the subject. Dr. Hawkins is an incredible scientist and researcher, I had the privilege of meeting him at a behavioral sciences convention last year.

I will read these tomorrow morning.

Josh that is, Modern Iconoclast can FO. His ban will be sorted soon enough anyway.

Basically, the snail has a reflexive behavior in it's "foot" where when it measures pressure from an outside source, the snail contracts away from the source. Overtime, with enough stimuli trials (flooding), the snail began to contract less and less as its behavior had stabilized and its brain internalized the regularity of the contact. Eventually, the snail stopped contracting at all and you could just touch it and nothing would happen. This supports the idea that some of our reflexes, while automatic, can be shaped and modified in their intensity and regularity in their behavior. However, not all reflexes are equal when it comes to extinction. There are easier things to control, such as jumping at a loud sound, not responding to tickling, bumping on the knee, etc., than say something like not blinking when air is in your eye.

Interestingly enough, this isn't the main focus of the article, I believe that particular article goes into detail about how the reflex mechanism of the aplysia snail has two routes of information transfer. One goes to the brain, the other is a feedback loop between the sensory input organs of the snail and the motor functions of the snail, this ensures that the snails reflex can act quicker than the brain can process the stimuli and choose to respond accordingly.

This is kind of gutting cause I was content with the fact that once i'd finished my masters I wouldn't have to read another journal again.

Some of the academic journals can be brutal. It sucks for when you think you can hammer out a paper in a few days, you just have to find the references and you realize there's no way you can deconstruct those things quickly enough and have a viable paper.

All four of my master's assignments had about 50-60 references in them. Of which I read 3 in their entirety.

Academic writing is a strange thing, for sure. There are more interesting ways to get the information across, but the journal style is just the most efficient clear cut way to do so. It's formula is genius, I have to say.

josh you are a massive nerdatron.

serious, only nerds go to grad school

There were only two nerdatrons on my Masters course. They both dropped out too.

That probably won't happen with me, but I'm going for my PhD. It's daunting to wave good bye to 6 years

Couldn't bare to do one, I couldn't stand nerding out for that long.

I've done it for like 20 years straight, I can keep it up 6 more.

Very reassuring, guys, considering I'm gonna be starting my master's next year (kinda - only real difference between BEng and MEng students is that the disseration is harder. Gah.)...

what were you going at newcastle, squig?

I did my undergrad at Newcastle but did my Post Grad in York. I did a PGCE and hated every minute of it.

You're doing engineering right? aren't Masters for them like, standard? like isnt it regarded as "odd" if you dont do the four years and choose to graduate after 3?

Not really, but I get the impression that the masters courses are sorta better 'advertised' so to speak, a lot of prospectuses pretty much mention them alongside BEng courses, whereas I know a lot of other courses sorta consider it extra and don't really mention it until you're on the course.

But as far as it goes for standards, well, I'm possibly the only person doing EE (electronic engineering) MEng. A few more are doing EEE (electrical and electronic engineering) MEng but the vast majority are doing BEng of either. In short, no, I don't think it's considered odd to do the BEng...

The way it works is that 1st and 2nd year are the same for both bachelors and masters, and 3rd year is effectively the same course layout (but modules are chosen by student), but MEng disserations are a bit harder. You have to get over 55% by the end of year 2 to be allowed to stay on or upgrade to the masters course, luckily I managed to get 59%...

I get the impression my marked was bumped up considerably though, maybe because I'm the only guy on MEng EE :P

i did art in school instead of engineering

and music instead of chemistry

Heh, I did music GCSE. The teacher was nothing short of a complete wanker, and the only way I managed to get an A*, I believe, is that I didn't listen to a word he said. Completely ridiculous.

Just watched Altered States, not really for sure what I just saw :|

just got an external hard drive, says its windows ready already so i figure its ntfs already

is there anything i shud do befor ei load it wit stuff, format it, partition it etc... never used one before on my own system... its mainly jsut to back up all my music sessions and files and folders, photos etc...

or can i just drag my whole HDD on it, its 250gb and ive about 100gb on my current HDD

maybe a 200gb partition then 50gb for other ****

give it a good ol spitshine

[QUOTE=The_Mop;18123188]Very reassuring, guys, considering I'm gonna be starting my master's next year (kinda - only real difference between BEng and MEng students is that the disseration is harder. Gah.)...

what were you going at newcastle, squig?[/QUOTE]

What will you be specialising in? I'm really looking forward to my master's, doing control and awesome lectures like "Unmanned Aircraft Design" and filtering & **** :chug:

[QUOTE=The_Mop;18121925]Not that I know much about fighting, but maybe the whole reactions thing is more improving anticipation...

Anywho, I'm massively stuck in a songwriting rut. Helpabrothaout?[/QUOTE]

whats the last thing you wrote, do you have guitar pros?

[quote=El-Ahrairah;18124748]What will you be specialising in? I'm really looking forward to my master's, doing control and awesome lectures like "Unmanned Aircraft Design" and filtering & **** :chug:[/quote]

The specialist modules I'm gonna be taking in just over a year's time will be some kinda digital thing and some kinda telecoms thing. Would love to give you more detail but sadly not much more is available :P

That sounds pretty bitchin though dude, us engineers do get some mint module titles - I've got 'Machine Vision' this year coming XD

[quote=purple_hazer;18124770]whats the last thing you wrote, do you have guitar pros?[/quote]

[URL]http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_music.cfm?bandID=870660[/URL]

Last thing I wrote - 'Ionosphere' - a self-confessed porcupine tree ripoff to be honest. Not even finished it yet.

Yeah, I've got guitar pro but I don't like writing with it generally. Hope the UI got a bit of a re-jig for the latest version, really don't like the fact that every not that you put in extends the same bar rather than shifts excess notes into the next bar (which sibelius has been able to do for years)

write a fugue!

i guarantee trying to write a fugue on ****ing ANYTHING will give you thousands of new ideas.

Im trying to get into MIT for physics!

taking a few local math classes for the hell of it

I'm starting an MA in Computer Music Composition in October :) should be good

If all goes to plan, I'll be doing a PhD after that too

Damn what a waste of talent we all are, sat here talking **** with each other.