November 15, 2017
Addressing the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Coordinating Committee (BSSR-CC) on October 6th, Brandon Turner, The Ohio State University, shared insights from his research, Why More is Better: A Bayesian Method for Multimodal Data Fusion. Turner’s research attempts to unify behavioral and neural explanations of cognition in order to generate predictions that are more accurate.
According to Dr. Turner, EEG measures provide “incredible temporal resolution,” but they lack in spatial information. Alternatively, fMRI measures provide good spatial resolution, but lack in temporal information. Combining the two measures, known as data fusion, allows scientists to develop one approach for studying cognitive processes. Turner’s research shows that both bivariate and trivariate models using the neural and behavioral measures generate better predictions.
Dr. Turner’s presentation was described as “beautifically, elegant work.” His talk to the BSSR-CC is part of a series of talks supported by FABBS and its member scientific societies. The BSSR-CC includes social and behavioral scientists selected by each of the 27 NIH Institute and Center (IC) Directors. The Society for Mathematical Psychology recommended Brandon Turner for the talk.
