Cognition 4 Flashcards
motor system
includes the components of the central and peripheral nervous system along with the muscles joint and bones that enable movement
well defined problem
problem in which starting conditions, actions available and goals are all completely specified
utility
is the subjective value of an option
two system
view is that there are two modes of thought; system 1 and system 2
torque
is a measure from physics that measures rotational force such as when muscles ap
ply a force for a limb to rotate about a joint centre
thinking
process of mental explroation of possible acions and states of the world
system 2
a hypothetical system that carreis out slow deliberate thinking
system 1
is a hypothetical system that carries out rapid intuitive thinking
subjective probability
is hw likely a person believes an outcome to be irrespective of the objective probability
status quo bias
a tendency to prefer the current state of affairs
state action space
is a representation of how problems can be transformed from starting state through intermediate states to the goal
single attribute
decision problems involve alternatives that vary in only one dimension
set
is a tendency to persist with one approach to a problem
riskless
decisions involve choices where the outcomes of the choices are known with certainty
risk seeking
is a preference for risky choices even when riskless alternatives of higher value are available
risk aversion
is avoiding risky choices even when a higher expected value than riskless alternatives
risk
a decision involves risk if there is a probability that one of the options could lead to negative outcomes for the decision maker
restructuring
is changing how one represents a problem
representativeness heuristic
involves juding frequency or probability of an event or object by how representative or typical it is of its category
recurrent networks
are a type of artificial neural network with connections between units arranged so to obtain a cycle of activation. this design allows a temporal context to be designed into computation
recognition primed decision
is expert knowledge based decision making in which cues in the situation are recognised as indicating particular actions
reasoning
is the cognitive process of deriving new information from old information
prospect theory
a decision theory stressing reltive gains and losses
progress deepening
is searching a state-action space by using depth first search to a lmited depth. when depth limit is reached search backs up to start and repeats, avoiding previously eplored branches and so on until the whole space has been searched up to the initial deth limit. if a solution is not found, increase depth limit, and repeat until the goal is reached
problem space
is an abstract representation of possible states of a problem
problem
is a situation in which you have a goal but do nwt know how to achieve it
parallel processing
is the ability to divide thee process of solving a problem into multiple parts and to work simultaneously on each part
optimal control theory
is the ability to divide thee process of solving a problem into multiple parts and to work simultaneously on each part
normative approaches
attempt to establish ideal ways of deciding that will give the best decision possible. economists have tended to develop normative models
non-adversary problems
are problems in which the solver is dealing with inert problem materials with no rational component
neuroeconomics
the study of neural processes underlying economic decisions
naturalistic decision making
refers to making rela life decisions in the field
multi attribute decision problem
is a decision task in which the alternatives vary in many dimensions or aspects
motor systems
includes the components of the central and peripheral nervous systems aliong with the muscles joints and bones that enable movement
motor primitives
are the basis set of elemental movements that serve as building blocks for an animas repertoire of movements
mirror neurons
neurons with the special property that they reoresent both the sensory aspects of perceiving actions as well as motor aspects of how to produce the action
loss aversion
is a key idea of prospect theory that there is greater dislike of losing utility than liking for gainng the same degree of utility
knowledge rich problems
are problems that require extensive specialist knowledge
knowledge lean problems
are problems such as puzzles that do not require specialist knowledge
inverse problem
in vision is where there are more than one interpretation of the 3d world given the 2d image information
invariance
the principle that choices between alternatives should not be affected by how the options are described
interactive activation
a term used to describe the pattern of network activity generated bt excitatoy and inhibitory interactions of feature detectors and object representations
insight
is a restructuring of a problem that makes the solution obvious and understandable
incubation
a period in which a problem is set aside, it may be immediate, directly after presentation or ‘delayed’ after a period of conscious work
ill defined problem
is a prblem in which starting conditions or actions available or goals are not completely specified
ideomotor theory
relates how thinking abot the results of an action can give rise to producing the action
homologous
in biology means to have the corresponding psition, structure and possibly function. it is common to consider across species that anatomical parts are homologous. for brain regions this is important for using data obtained in say monkeys to predict relations n human brain
heuristic
a problem solving method that often finds a low effort solution but is not guaranteed to solve
goal-subgoal space
is a representation of how an overal problem gola can be broken down into subgoals and sub-subgoals
Gestalt approach
the theory proposes that the whole of an object or scene is more important than its individual parts.
geneplore
is a model for creative thinking which stresses the role of a generative and exploratory phase
functional fixity
is a difficulty in thinking of a novel use for a familiar object
framing
effects arise when irrelevant features of a situation affect the decisions that are made
forward models
are used to predict the relationship between actions and their consequences. given a motor command the forward model predicts the resulting behaviour of the body and the world
feeling of warmth
rating is a rating of how close the solver feels to prblem solution, taken at intervals during the solving process
expertise
the accumulated high level knowledge that allows outstanding performance in complex problem areas
expected value
the longterm average value of a repeated decision which is determined by the probability and size of the outcome. so if the chance of winning 100 euro in a gamble is 0.5, then the expected value is 50.
equilibrium point hypothesis
a theory of morot control that emphasizes how the problem of control can be simplified by taking into account muscle properties
endowment effect
is a tendency to over-value a possessed object and to require more money to sell it than to buy it in the first place
dynamical systems
aproach to motor contro emphasizes interaction between the body and the environment eand uses special mathematics that describe how systems behaviour changes over time
detour problems
are problems in which the hill climbing method does not work well, as the solver has to move away from the goal at some stage
depth first search
is searching a state-action space by generating one state only from each intermediate state
degrees of freedom
of a joint are the number of ways it can move.
decision making
is the cognitive process of choosing between alternative possible actions
critical incident analysis
is gaining information about naturalistic decision making by analysing detailed recalls of recent important decisions
creative synthesis task
is a task in which participants have to combine presented shapes to make novel interisting combinations
creative
in relation to a product is generally defined as novel to the producer of the product and valuable in some way, alternatively, that the product is novel and meets a goal
conjunction fallacy
is the mistaken belief that the conjunction of two events (a and b) is more likely than either of one a or b
common coding
is a theory of perception and action production which holds that both production and perception share certain representations of actions in the world
cognitive sandwich
describes the view that perception and action are like slices of bread that surround cognition as the filling of a sandwhich
breadth first search
searching a state-action space by generating all possible states from each intermediate state
brainstorming
is stimulating the production of unusual ideas, by stressing quantity as agianst quality and deferment of evaluation of ideas
base rate
of an event is the overall probability of the event in a population; so the base rte of engineers in the uk is the probability that a randomly selected person in the uk will be engineer
basal ganglia
are a group of neurons in the base of the forebrain that are connected to cortex and involved in action selection. Disorders of the basal ganglia are related to movement disorders such as parkinsons disease
availability heuristic
involves judging frequency or probability of events by hw easy it is to bring the events to mind
associative chain theory
is a behaviourists theory that explains how sequnces of action arise from linking together associatios between individual action components
apraxia
neurological condition typically resulting from brain damage where a person loses the ability to perform activities that they are physically able and willing to do
algorithm
a problem solving method that is guaranteed to solve but may do so only with high mental load
affect heuristic
involves substituting feelings (positive or negative) for target attributes in decision problems
adversary problems
are problems in which the solver has to deal with a rational opponent as in board games
reasoning
is the cognitive process of deriving new info from old info
deductive reasoning
drawing logically necessary conclusions from given information
inductive reasoning
process of inferring probable conclusions from given information
premises
statements assumed to be true from which conclusions are drwan
valid
arguments are those in which the conclusions must be true if the premises are true
propositional reasoning
reasoning about statements connected by logical relations such as ‘and’ ‘or’ ‘not’ ‘if’
syllogistic reasoning
is reasoning about groups/sets using statements connected by logical realations of ‘some’ ‘none’ ‘all’ and ‘some not’
inference rules
are rules for reaching a conclusion given a particular pattern of propositions modus ponens which states that given if p then q and not q we can infer not p
mental models approach
the view that people tackle logical reasoning problems by forming mental representations of possible states of the world and draw inferences from those representations
atmosphere effect
a tendency to draw conclusions in syllogisms that are over influenced by the form of the premises rather than the logic of the argument
four figures of syllogism
are the four possible layout of terms which give four syllogistic figures
figural bias
the tendency to be influenced by the order in which the information is presented in the premises when attempting to solve a syllogistic reasoning problem.
belief bias
a tendency to accept invalid but believable conclusions and to reject valid but unbelievable conclusions to arguments
hypothesis testing
is assessing hypotheses for truth/falsity against data
hypothesis generation
deriving possible hypotheses from data for later testing
hypothetico-deductive reasoning
is a form of inductive reasoning in which a hypothesis is tested by deducing necessary consequences of the hypothesis and determining whether the consequences are true (supporting the hypothesis) or false disconfirming or falsifying the hypothesis)
matching bias
the four card task, is choosing the cards mention in the rule
social contract
theory proposes that rules expressing payment of costs for privileges will be easily solved in 4 card tasks as the correct choices would uncover cheating
deontic rules
are rules regarding obligations and typically involve terms such as ‘should’ ‘must’ ‘ought’ ‘may’ and so on
confirmation bias
in hypothesis testing, is a tendency to seek out and attend only infomration consistent with the hypothesis while ignoring falsifying information
syntax
refers to the rules governing the ways words can be combined to create meaningful sentences
content words
are words that provide meaning to the sentence ; these contrast with function words which do the grammatical work of the sentence
language production
refers to a number of processes by which we convert a thought into language input, in the form of speech , sign language or writing
social cognition
refers to the ways in which poeple make sense of htemselves and others in order to function effectively ina social world
conceptually driven
or top-down processes reflect the influence of higher order cognitive processes sucha s thoughts, beliefs and expectations
communication
refers to any means by which info is shared
mental lexicon
our store of knowledge about words and their uses
linguistic universals
are linguistic features said to be found in all languages
tonal languages
use changes in tone to alter the meaning of the word
functional reference
refers to the use by animals of a specific call to stand for a specific object or threat
phones
the basic speech sounds
phonectic
study of speech soudns
phoneme
smallest meaningful sound unit within language
allophones
are phonetic variants of the same phoneme
phonotactic rules
stipulate which combinations of sounds are permitted in a language
morphemes
the meaning units of language
morphology
the level of linguistic analysis concerned with morphemes and their role within words
free morpheme
a morpheme that can stand alone as a word
bound morpheme
a morpheme that cannot form word on its own, but forms a word when attached to free morpheme
function words
provide grammatical structure that shows how content words relate to each other within a sentence
semantics
study of meaning
productive of language
refers to the ability to generate novel utterances
phrase
a group of words referring to a particular idea
slang
describes an informal pattern of speech that is considered to be non-standard
subject
of a sentence is the word or words that gives what the sentence is about or performs the action
object
of a sentence is the word or words that receives the actions or is acted on by the subject of the sentence
recursion
refers to the ability to extend sentences infinitely by embedding phrases within sentences
discourse
refers to multisentence speech and includes dialogue, conversation and narrative
pragmatics
refers to understanding of the communicative functions of language and the conventions that govern language use
aphasia
term given to a group of speech disorders that occur following brain injury
disfluency
hesitation or disruption to the normal fluency of speech. by contrast, the term ‘dysfluency’ is used to refer to an abnormal disruption to fluency such as following brain damage.
clause
a part of a sentence containing a subject and verb
paraphraxes
slips of the tongue or other actions originally thought to reflect unconscious motives
lexical bias
refers to tendency for phonological speech errors to result in real words
feeling of knowing
is a subjective sense of knowing that we know a word, and is an example of meta-memory our knowledge about the contents of our memories
lemma
an abstract word form that contains syntactic and semantic information about the word
lexeme
the basic lexical units that gives the word morpho-phonoligical properties
non-plan internal errors
occur when the intrusion is external to the planned content of the utterance
neurolinguistics
the study of the relationship of brain function to language processing
lateralization of function
refers to the asymmetric represenation of congitive function in the cerebral hemispheres of humans and higher primates
dichotic listening task
one where different stimuli are presented to each ear
transcranial magnetic stimulation
a non-invasive method of temporarily exciting or inhibiting cortical areas
electrocortical stimulation
of the surface of the cortex allows a surgeon to locate, and avoid damage to, brain regions associated with a particular cognitive function
wernicke-geschwind model
a simplified model of language function used as the basis for classifying aphasia disorders
crossed aphasia
refers to the language dysfunction following right hemisphere damage in a right-handed individual
broca’s aphasia
an acquired language disorder characterized by non-fluent speech, reduced speech output and problems with grammar processing
global aphasia
an acquired language disorder involving extreme impairment of language function
non-fluent aphasia
when the patients speech output is reduced laboured or absent
wernicke’s aphasia
a fluent aphasia, characterized by fluent but meaningless output and repetition erros
fluent aphasia
when the patients speech is fluent but not meaningful
conduction aphasia
when the patient has a specific difficulty affecting the repetition of speech
anomic aphasia
when the patient has a specific difficulty with word retrieval
prosody
refers to the rhythm, intonation and stress patterns in speech
invariance problem
reflects the variation in the production of speech sounds across speech contexts
co-articulation
tendency for a speech sound to be influenced by sounds preceding or following it
segmentation problem
refers to detection of distinct words in what is a continuous string of speech sounds
phonotactic constraints
describe the language specific sound goupings that occur in a language
onset
of a word is the initial phoneme or phonemes. the rime follows the onset
slips of the ear
occur when we misperceive a word or phrase in speech
categorical perception
the perception of stimuli on a sensory continuum as falling into distinct categories
voicing
when speech sounds are produced while the vocal cords are vibrating
right ear advantage
for speech sounds refers to the finding that language sounds are processed more efficiently when presented to the right ear compared to the left
phoneme restoration effect
describes the tendency to hear a complete word even when a phoneme has been removed from the input
mcgurk effect
a perceptual illusion that illustrates the interplay of visual and auditory processing speech perception
lexical decision task
a task where participants are presented with a letter string and they must decide whether or not it is a word
localist representation
where a single unit represents a particular concept
lexical access
the process by which we access stored knowledge about words
word naming tasks
require participants to name a word while repsonse time is measured
sentence verification tasks
present a sentence frame with a target word, and the participant must decide if the word fits in the frame
open class words
content words such as nouns verbs and adjectivesn new words can be added to this class of words
closed class words
such as articles prepositions remain stable over time and are not added to
repetition priming
refers to the finding that repeated exposure to a word leads to faster responses in a lexical decision task
homographs
words with the same spelling but more than one meaning and pronunciation
parsing
the process by which we assign a syntactic struccture to a sentence
phrase structure tree
a graphic representation of the syntactic structure of a sentence
garden path sentence
grammatically correct but ambiguous sentence that biases the readers initial parsing
minimal attachment
introduces new items into the phrase structure using as few syntactic nodes as possible
late closure
attaches incoming material to the phrase that is currently being processed
transparant or shallow orthography
uses a one to one correspondence between the letters and sounds
opaque or orthographically deep
languages are those where the relationship between letters and sounds is more complex
word superiority effect
refers to the finding that a target letterw ithin a letter string is detected more readily when the string forms a word
saccades
fast movements of the eye made when reading or scanning an image
grapheme to phoneme conversion
route allows us to sound out words based on letter sound correspondences
lexical or direct route
to reading involves the selection of a word from the lexicon
non semantic reading
a pattern of reading deficit whereby the patient can read an irregular word (which cannot be sounded out) and yet cannot access its meaning
pure word defness
a deficit affecting the ability to recognize speech sounds while comprehension of non speech sounds remains intact
pure word meaning deafness
the patient can repeat back the word but cannot understand it
acquired dyslexia
refers to reading difficulties following brain injury
surface dyslexia
deficit in the reading or irregular words, while the reading of regular words is spared
phonological dyslexia
affects non-word reading but real words can be read
skin conductance
reflects changes in the skins ability to conduct electricity in the presence of an emotion eliciting stimulus
amygdala
linked to fear
insula
linked with disgust, implicated in aspects of emotion cognition and action
limbic system
consists of the thalamus hypothalamus hippocampus and amygdala
default network
network of brain regions that is active when a person is not focused on the external environment
salience network
involved in monitoring the external and internal environments to allow detection of salient stimuli
display rules
social conventions governing how when and with whom emotions may be expressed
autonomic nervous system
part of the peripheral nervous syte and regulates internal organs
central nervous system
consists of the brain and spinal cord
facial feedback hypothesis
proposes that feedback from the facial muscles can influence emotional state
appraisal theories
have in common the assertion that emotions result from our interpretations of or reactions to events
attentional bias
refers to the tendency for emotional stimuli to capture or draw attention
tunnel memory
refers to the enhancement of memory of central details with reduced memory of peripheral details
network models
of memory treat memories as items related in a network which can affect each other through activation
state dependent memory
refers to the facilitation of memory when the mental or physiological state at encoding and retrieval matches
thought congruity
the tendency for thoughts and judgmenet to be consistent with mood state
processing efficiency theory
performance is impaired due to fear of failure costing so much energy that it can not be spend on carrying out the task
conscious processing hypothesis
performance is impaired because fear of failure disturbs automatic processes
omission bias
people state that they would feel more responsible for deaths caused by their actions than by their omission
