Title:  Information Processing Decoded from Behavioral and Brain Responses

Abstract:  If the brain is a machine that processes information, then its cognitive activity can be interpreted as a set of information processing states linking stimulus to response (i.e. as a mechanism or an algorithm). The cornerstone of this research agenda is the existence of a method to translate the measurable states of behavioural and brain activity into the information processing states of a cognitive theory. Here, I contend that reverse correlation methods can provide this translation. I will illustrate, using examples from visual cognition, how this novel framework can be applied to start understanding the information processing algorithms of the brain in cognitive neuroscience.