Despite the concern that has been expressed about potential method biases, and the pervasiveness of research settings with the potential to produce them, there is disagreement about whether they really are a problem for researchers in the behavioral sciences. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to explore the current state of knowledge about method biases. First, we explore the meaning of the terms “method” and “method bias” and then we examine whether method biases influence all measures equally. Next, we review the evidence of the effects that method biases have on individual measures and on the covariation between different constructs. Following this, we evaluate the procedural and statistical remedies that have been used to control method biases and provide recommendations for minimizing method bias.

Sources of Method Bias in Social Science Research and Recommendations on How to Control It

Levels of processing: A framework for memory research

https://www.fafich.ufmg.br/cogvila/discexp3/wmebuff.pdf

The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory?

A free-energy principle has been proposed recently that accounts for action, perception and learning. This Review looks at some key brain theories in the biological (for example, neural Darwinism) and physical (for example, information theory and optimal control theory) sciences from the free-energy perspective. Crucially, one key theme runs through each of these theories — optimization. Furthermore, if we look closely at what is optimized, the same quantity keeps emerging, namely value (expected reward, expected utility) or its complement, surprise (prediction error, expected cost). This is the quantity that is optimized under the free-energy principle, which suggests that several global brain theories might be unified within a free-energy framework.

/pdf/the-free-energy-principle-a-unified-brain-theory-3vz1twg7nv.pdf

The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?

The emergence of a unified cognitive moment relies on the coordination of scattered mosaics of functionally specialized brain regions. Here we review the mechanisms of large-scale integration that counterbalance the distributed anatomical and functional organization of brain activity to enable the emergence of coherent behaviour and cognition. Although the mechanisms involved in large-scale integration are still largely unknown, we argue that the most plausible candidate is the formation of dynamic links mediated by synchrony over multiple frequency bands.

The brainweb: phase synchronization and large-scale integration.

A pattern made by randomly filling cells in a square matrix was presented for 1 see and followed, after various intervals, by an identical or similar pattern. Ss responded “same” or “different.” Performance was fast and accurate if the interval was short and there was no movement or masking of the pattern during the interval. Performance was slower, less accurate, and highly dependent on pattern complexity if the interval exceeded 100 msec or if there was movement or masking. The results are interpreted as evidence for two distinct classes of visual memory: high-capacity sensory storage which is tied to spatial position and is maskable and brief; and schematic short-term visual memory which is not tied to spatial position, which is protected against masking, and which becomes less effective over the first few seconds but not over the first 600 msec.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758%2FBF03203943.pdf

On the distinction between sensory storage and short-term visual memory

The concept of locally specialized functions dominates research on higher brain function and its disorders. Locally special- ized functions must be complemented by processes that coordinate those functions, however, and impairment of coordinating processes may be central to some psychotic conditions. Evidence for processes that coordinate activity is provided by neurobiological and psycho- logical studies of contextual disambiguation and dynamic grouping. Mechanisms by which this important class of cognitive functions could be achieved include those long-range connections within and between cortical regions that activate synaptic channels via NMDA- receptors, and which control gain through their voltage-dependent mode of operation. An impairment of these mechanisms is central to PCP-psychosis, and the cognitive capabilities that they could provide are impaired in some forms of schizophrenia. We conclude that impaired cognitive coordination due to reduced ion flow through NMDA-channels is involved in schizophrenia, and we suggest that it may also be involved in other disorders. This perspective suggests several ways in which further research could enhance our under- standing of cognitive coordination, its neural basis, and its relevance to psychopathology.

/pdf/convergence-of-biological-and-psychological-perspectives-on-3qnwf190bb.pdf

Convergence of biological and psychological perspectives on cognitive coordination in schizophrenia

It is worthwhile to search for forms of coding, processing, and learning common to various cortical regions and cognitive functions. Local cortical processors may coordinate their activity by maximizing the transmission of information coherently related to the context in which it occurs, thus forming synchronized population codes. This coordination involves contextual field (CF) connections that link processors within and between cortical regions. The effects of CF connections are distinguished from those mediating receptive field (RF) input; it is shown how CFs can guide both learning and processing without becoming confused with the transmission of RF information. Simulations explore the capabilities of networks built from local processors with both RF and CF connections. Physiological evidence for synchronization, CFs, and plasticity of the RF and CF connections is described. Coordination via CFs is related to perceptual grouping, the effects of context on contrast sensitivity, amblyopia, implicit influences of color in achromotopsia, object and word perception, and the discovery of distal environmental variables and their interactions through self-organization. Cortical computation could thus involve the flexible evaluation of relations between input signals by locally specialized but adaptive processors whose activity is dynamically associated and coordinated within and between regions through specialized contextual connections.

/pdf/in-search-of-common-foundations-for-cortical-computation-3rw40bf5zl.pdf

In search of common foundations for cortical computation.

Visual recognition memory for a sequence of non-verbalized patterns is shown to have a large and clearly defined recency effect. This recency effect occurs with random list lengths and therefore ca...

Components of visual memory

It is often claimed that visualizing and perceiving interfere with each other because they compete for special purpose visual processing resources. The arguments for this view (e.g. Brooks, 1967, 1968) are criticised. Five experiments are then reported which attempt to determine whether specific processing activities interfere with the visualization of novel abstract patterns. Visualization was greatly interfered with by adding five digits but not by reading them. Presentation modality of the digits did not affect the interference they caused. When the intervening activity involved processing patterns similar to those being visualized, the amount of interference depended upon whether the subject had to form and use representations that outlived the icon. Perception caused interference when it involved formation of a maintainable representation, but not when it required only sensory storage. It is concluded that visualization requires general purpose resources, and that interference between visualization a...

William A. Phillips

Papers

On the distinction between sensory storage and short-term visual memory

Convergence of biological and psychological perspectives on cognitive coordination in schizophrenia

In search of common foundations for cortical computation.

Components of visual memory

Interference with visualization.