biology

Roger Carpenter

Roger Carpenter is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Roger Carpenter rather than just read about it. In short: Professor Roger Hugh Stephen Carpenter (2 September 1945 – 27 October 2017) was an English neurophysiologist, Professor of Oculomotor Physiology at the University of Cambridge. Early life Carpenter was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, where he was a member of Farfield (1958–1963), and then at Cambridge.

Key takeaways

Roger Carpenter belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Roger Carpenter to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Roger Carpenter from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Professor Roger Hugh Stephen Carpenter (2 September 1945 – 27 October 2017) was an English neurophysiologist, Professor of Oculomotor Physiology at the University of Cambridge.

Early life Carpenter was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, where he was a member of Farfield (1958–1963), and then at Cambridge.

Career Before being appointed as Professor of Oculomotor Physiology in the University of Cambridge, Carpenter was a Director of Studies in Medicine at Caius College. In his principal field, mechanisms of consciousness, his position can be described as a one-way Cartesian. He was the creator of EPIC (the Experimental Physiology Instrumentation Computer) and NeuroLab, a set of interactive demonstrations on the working of the human brain. In his spare time, he ran the CUDOS project (Cambridge University Distributed Opportunity Systems), aimed at using medical students' gap year between school and university. He directed the musical ensembles the Susato Consort and Susato Baroque Ensemble. In 2000, Carpenter was one of a group of twenty inaugural winners of a National Teaching Award of £50,000 from the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Interests Carpenter focussed on mechanisms of decision in his work. Measurement of saccadic latency, the time taken to choose a visual target and initiate an eye movement, is a reliable method for obtaining reaction time data. This work has inspired a model referred to as LATER (Linear Approach to Threshold with Ergodic Rate) to explain the decision mechanism. Technological advances enabled oculomotor measurements to be made both quickly and non-invasively, using micro-devices which have many clinical applications. He also had professional interests in vision in general, motor systems, and physiological mechanisms of consciousness. On a Cambridge web site, Carpenter described himself as "Philosopher, mad scientist, and artiste extraordinaire".

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Roger Carpenter

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Roger Carpenter claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Roger Carpenter before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Roger Carpenter ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Roger Carpenter

In research: Roger Carpenter appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Roger Carpenter in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Roger Carpenter is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 2017 deaths, English physiologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Roger Carpenter outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Roger Carpenter in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Roger Carpenter means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Roger Carpenter out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Roger Carpenter in simple terms?

Professor Roger Hugh Stephen Carpenter (2 September 1945 – 27 October 2017) was an English neurophysiologist, Professor of Oculomotor Physiology at the University of Cambridge. Early life Carpenter was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, where he was a member of Farfield (1958–1963), and t…

Why does Roger Carpenter matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Roger Carpenter?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Roger Carpenter.