Cognitive intro

Question 1

Mind-body problem approaches

Answer 1

Dualism ( cartesian, epiphenomenalism, parellism, interactionism) & Monism (idealism, physicalism)

Question 2

Epiphenomenalism

Answer 2

Physical events in the body/brain cause mental events, The physical universe gives rise to our subjective experience (which is fundamentally different)

Question 3

Which study, and which phenomena supports epiphenomenalism?

Answer 3

Libet et al. (1979) readiness potential

Question 4

readiness potential evidence assumes consciousness is ? when it could be ?

Answer 4

Binary, gradual

Question 5

primary function

Answer 5

if something has the same primary function, it is the same thing, e.g. mechanical heart vs organic heart, in relation to mind-body problem

Question 6

Introspection principles, by whom?

Answer 6

1. Appeal to thoughts and desires to explain behaviour (e.g. why did you do something you later regretted?)
2. Use of introspection to study conscious mental experience (William James, 1890)

Question 7

Operationalisation

Answer 7

precise and observable definition of psychological phenomena (Attention: simply the fact that an organism responds to a single stimulus when there are several stimuli present to which it would otherwise respond not a mental act of focusing on part of the perceptual field)

Question 8

Classical conditioning

Answer 8

an organism learns to associate two stimuli, so that one neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response that was originally elicited only by the other unconditioned stimulus - Depends upon an association between stimulus and response - Certain stimulus-response pairings are inborn and reflexive

Question 9

Operant conditioning

Answer 9

a type of learning in which behaviour is influenced by the consequences that follow it Skinner

Question 10

Reinforcement

Answer 10

when a response is strengthened by an outcome that follows it = increases frequency of a response, positive reinforcement, negative reinfrocement, primary and secondary

Question 11

latent learning in rats? by whom

Answer 11

Learning without reward, Tolman & Honzik 1930 - the idea of information pick up & storage

Question 12

rats and maps by whom?

Answer 12

TOLMAN, RITCHIE & KALISH (1946)

Question 13

rats n maps, group 1

Answer 13

Reward always at the same end point (eg East), Requires a different turn (left if starting at North”, “Right if starting at South”, Requires place learning. You need a cognitive map to tell you where you are in relation to the food.

Question 14

rats n maps group 2

Answer 14

Reward was always at a right turn for the rat, regardless of the starting point. All you need to do is remember “Turn right”, Requires response learning.

Question 15

place learning

Answer 15

idea of information specifically about the environment (rather than the organism’s own movements)

Question 16

compared to behaviourism, cognition is interested in…

Answer 16

what happens in between the stimulus and the response, and how it influences our behaviour

Question 17

Key components in computation

Answer 17

o 1. External stimulus (or input, instructions)
o 2. Some physical internal state
o 3. Some kind of output

Question 18

Computation idea based upon

Answer 18

• Information-based accounts of cognitive activity (e.g. cognitive maps in rats)
• Information-processing models of cognitive abilities (e.g. Broadbent’s filter model of attention

Question 19

Information theory centres on

Answer 19

the concept of information channel, and studies how messages are encoded into signal and then transmitted to a receiver
o Primarily concerned with information gain (defined probabilistically in terms of reduction of uncertainty)

Question 20

Cognitive science interested in

Answer 20

o More concerned with how information is transformed (processed) than how it is transmitted
o Information understood in terms of representations
o Major concern is how information-processing is physically implemented in particular mental architectures

Question 21

Psychophysics

Answer 21

the study between the external world (stimuli) and the internal percept (measured by a response)

Question 22

Absolute judgement

Answer 22

Task is to judge the absolute weight in kg, or the absolute length in cm, etc

Question 23

Miller’s 7+- 2 proposition

Answer 23

perceptual systems are information channels with built-in limits.
- Can only handle 7±2 items at a time
- Information processing bottleneck Channel capacity is ~2.5 bits
This is the same for many absolute judgement tasks: pitch, loudness, saline concentration, position of points on a line