Which is an example of forward inference?

• A. Inferring pain because the anterior cingulate cortex is active.
• B. Observing increased visual cortex activity when participants view images.
• C. HRV indicates autonomic health.
• D. One brain region equals one psychological process.

Answer: (B)

Forward inference is predicting the brain’s response from a known stimulus or task. Knowing that participants are viewing images sets up the expectation that the visual cortex should show increased activity, since that region processes visual information. Seeing that pattern is exactly forward inference—you move from the stimulus (viewing images) to the corresponding neural activation (visual cortex activity).

Inferring pain from ACC activation exemplifies reverse inference: you’re drawing a mental state or experience from a brain region’s activity rather than predicting brain activity from the stimulus. The other statements don’t illustrate a stimulus-to-brain mapping, either, and one brain region alone doesn’t reliably map to a single psychological process.