Graduate Teaching Materials

As part of annual my lecture on Signal Detection Theory in the graduate seminar series, I have made available some examples of common logical and statistical errors that researchers often make. I was prompted to do this by sitting in numerous seminars over the years and noticing the same basic errors arising time and time again. The examples are in the form of a pdf and do not relate specifically to detection theory. They are available to students who would like to discuss them at the end of my seminar. As they are currently under development I am making them available only to students who attend the lecture, and on the understanding that they are not passed on to anyone else. They can found by clicking here

In the blurb for my lecture, I give examples of simple "yes-no" tasks and of how a person's response can be affected not only by the sensory evidence, but also by his or her criterion. One of the problems in adopting an overly conservative criterion is illustrated by the following cartoon from xkcd.com: