Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

This proposal requests funds to purchase an electroencephalography (EEG) system to study the nature of visual short-term memory (VSTM) and perception across the lifespan (i.e., childhood, adulthood, older adulthood). Visual short-term memory has been linked to a number of everyday behaviours, from finding objects at the grocery store (visual search) to completing complex tasks (fluid intelligence). Not enough is known, however, about the neural mechanisms that support VSTM, or how these mechanisms change across the life span, e.g., as the brain develops in childhood, or as individuals start to age. Some of the experiments proposed here will investigate this question. In addition, there is evidence that face perception changes across the lifespan, and that way information about faces is perceived reflects similar underlying processes to those involved in simple visual memory tasks. Thus, some of the experiments proposed here will look at the nature of face perception across the lifespan, by recording brain activity while participants perform perceptual and memory tasks involving faces.