case 1 Flashcards
what is cognition ?
it is the mental action or process of aquiting knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses
What are the limitations of behaveiourism
2- Limitations of behaviourism:
- Neglect internal mental processes, viewing the mind as a ‘black box’
o Ignore thoughts, emotions,perceptions,motivations,intentions
o No role for consciousness
- Does not address complex human behaviour.
o novel/creative behaviour
o language acquisition (CHomsky)
- Inflexibility in explaining individual differences
o Assumes that same conditioning principles should apply to all individuals.
Explain a bit about the little albert experiment?
Shows evidence of classical condition in humans, fair full responds to loud noise
Explain what behaviourists study.
Behaviourists study the outward reactions (behaviour) to certain stimuli. They do not study what happens inside of the mind (Black Box), because the mechanisms of the mind cannot be measured.
What is rationalism and what is empiricism?
Rationalism: all knowledge can be gained through the use of reason alone (deduction)
Empiricism: all knowledge comes from sensory experiences (induction)
- Brain starts as blank slate, on which sensory experience acts
- Emphasize role of experience.
what was the experiment from Tolman (1938)
A experiment rat was placed (always the same position) in a maze to explore it. After a number of trails in a row food was placed (always the same place). After some time the rats knew always to turn right (in this case, because food was always in the same place and the rat was always in the same place) than the rat was placed in the opposite place and the rat turned left right away to the food. This has to do with the first step. Because of the first step the rat developed a cognitive map. Therefore the rat knew where it was.
what happened mid 20th century
7- Mid 20th century: cognitive counter-revolution.
- Brought the mind back into experimental psychology: cognitive science
o Heavily influenced by development of computer: the human mind like a computer
o Multi-disciplinary research field: psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and philosophy
- This revolution paved the way for cognitive neuroscience.
What was Phrenology of Gall about ?
Pseudoscience from the 19th century. The idea that you have in the brain regions that correspond to or support different personality trait. That the amount that you have of a certain personality trait changes the size of a specific brain region. The skull follows the brain and therefore you can from touching the outside conclude which personality traits a person have. This has been tested and falsified. For several reasons.
- The skull does not follow the shape of the brain.
- There is no evidence of personality traits being localized and actually changing the size of specific brain regions.
Explain a few details correlated to Brodmann’s cytoarchitectonic map (1909)
52 regions according to him different in cellular density etc and these are referred to as Brodman area’s. also done in different species and have correlation. Interesting is it still holds up to that they hold up to different functions associated with them. Broca’s area hold on to brodmann’s area 44 and 45 and Wernicke’s area hold to brodmann’s area 39 and 40. Primary vision is area 17. Many regions can be characterized to architecture and have functions Is not 100 procent true. Sometimes it also complicate.
Explain a bit about Ramón y Cajal (neuron Doctrine) .
He proposed the idea that we have cells in the brain that are concrete identities that communicate with each other through the synaps.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The term was first coined in the 70s by George A.Miller and Michael Gazzaniga. cognitive neuroscience studies: how the brain and other aspects of the nervous system are linked to cognitive processing and, ultimately, to behaviour.
Give some Historical context of cognitive neuro science.
- Historical context
- Neuroscientist explored the organization of cerebral cortex in response to simple stimuli (for ex. :visual perception(1950 hubel & wiesel)
- Models were built to describe how single cells interact to produce percepts
- Psychologist moved towards idea that the behaviours they were interested in had biological origin and instantiation.
Give some historical context of computers
historical context
- Late 1940: de development of first digital computers
- 1954 IBM introduces first computer available to general public.
Computers found their way into research laboratories:
- For data analysis
- Suggested a new way of thinking about the mind
- Be directional:
o Is it possible to program computers to mimic the operation of the human mind?
o Could it be that the human mind works as a computer?
Explain the Turing test
Turing test (Alan Turing (proposed the Turing test))
- ‘’imitation game’’ as measure of a machine’s ability to exhibit human behaviour
- A human tester has to determine whether they are talking to a human or machine
- If human interrogator fails to correctly identify the machine, the machine passed the Turing test.
Prediction machines will pass this test by year 2000
