Exam #1 Flashcards
Structuralism
Wundt, attempt to understand structures of mind, introspection, mental elements
Behaviorism
Rejects introspection, 2 kinds: 1. Radical 2. Methodological
Radical behaviorism
- Skinner, explains behaviors by stimulus-response, conditioning and reinforcement
- Gallistel, “observable” measures, opposes structuralism and nativism
Methodological behaviorism
Use behavioral majors to model mind and cognitive processes
Core debate: representation and computability of mind
- Representation: pattern of brain activity arising in specific context, pattern with a causal role
- Materialize how external entities are processes in our mind
Core debate: innateness
- Nativism (Chomsky)
- Empiricism-blank slate
- Nature vs. Nurture
Core debate: mind-brain identity
- Mind=brain?
- Relationship=embodiment
4 major theories of intelligence
- Psychometric theory
- Cognitive theory
- Cognitive contextual theory
- Biological theory
Psychometric theory
- IQ tests
- General factor
- Specific ability
- Spearman
Pros and cons of psychometric theory
- Pros: easy to assess and quantify intelligence through standardized tests
- Cons: underlying mechanisms unknown, doesn’t take emotion and social factors into account
Cognitive theory
- Info processing & SUBSTEPS
- Behavioral tasks (word recall, attention control, recognition)
Pros and cons of cognitive theory
- Pros: accounts for intelligence by examining the cognitive processes
- Cons: bias in clinical populations (ADHD), underlying mechanisms unclear
Cognitive contextual theory
- Context-dependent problem solving skills
- Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence
3 major components of triarchic theory of intelligence
- Analytic (componential/internal): similar to crystallized intelligence
- Creative (experiential): similar to fluid intelligence
- Practical (contextual/external)
Pros and cons of cognitive contextual theory
- Pros: accounts for both internal and external factors
- Cons: is intelligence a separable entity?
Biological theory
- Reductionism
- Biological basis, brain functions, and cognitive processes
- Neuropsychological approaches
Pros and cons of biological theory
- Pros: explains intelligence by bio and neuro terms, accounts for underlying neural mechanisms
- Cons: certain neural network models too abstract or based on symbolic operations
What is needed in secondary memory but not primary?
Conscious retrieval
What does the pure cognitive system account for?
- Internal functioning structure
- Processing of input
- Generation of output
- Can account for some parts of AI
What is missing in the pure cognitive system?
External, social factors, emotion
What constitutes our belief system? (3)
- Knowledge
- Cultural knowledge
- Experience
What is memory composed of? (3)
- Experience
- Knowledge
- Theory of Mind
Superior status of RS over CS
- Biological needs
- Adaptation
- Increased challenge–> increased demand for RS–> enhanced CS
- Account for subconscious aversion of danger
What is behavior?
Cognitive functions + social norms + response to stimuli
What is learning? (3)
Accumulation or restructuring of: 1. Knowledge 2. Mental representations 3. Experience
What is the result of learning? (2)
- Reinforcement
2. Conditioning
What is the major difference between experts and novices?
Timing
Autocuing
Human behavior is not conditioned by environment, lead to lexical invention
Mimesis
Representing the external entities through actions or emotions
Traditional view of cognition
PREDICTIVE, brain as center
Problems with traditional view
- We also get feedback from actions
- Fixed (not adaptive)
- Overemphasizes role of brain in cognition
Embodied cognition
HEURISTICS, brain guides motor control, perceptual and motor systems integral parts of cognition, feedback from environment
Situated cognition
- Context-dependent and task-relevant
- On-line (immediate) vs off-line (careful)
Cognition is time pressured
- Real-time feedback
- Representational bottleneck
Cognition is for action
- Adaptive behavior
- Perception-Action
- Used for future
- Memory reps are dynamic
Off-line cognition is body-based
- Sensorimotor simulations
- Mental imagery
- Memory representations
- Motor cortex activated in memory retrieval
- Verbs encoded before nouns
Off-loading on the environment
- Minimal memory strategy
- Ex: counting on fingers, selective attention, calculations on pen and paper
Environment is part of our cognitive system
- Mental process=function (internal) + stimuli (external)
- Distributed cognition: mind, body, environment
Facultative system
Set of functions designed for a particular situation
Obligate system
Context independent
Simple embodiment
How actions and sensorimotor experience affect mental representation
Radical embodiment
Mental representation not needed; focus on integration of mind, body, and environment AKA replacement hypothesis
What representation is needed in radical embodiment?
Rep. of action but NOT rep. of an object
What is metacognition made up of? (3)
- Memory retrieval 2. Attention 3. Working memory
2 levels of analysis in metacognition
- Meta level-reflection on learning, principles
2. Object level-learning task and learners’ related cognitive activities
Source monitoring
Ability to recall a piece of info along with details about the context in which it was encoded
Processes in executive control (4)
- Selecting
- Maintaining
- Updating
- Rerouting
Selecting task
Stroop
Maintaining task
Working memory tasks (digit span), immediate recall, important to know what info is accessible so we can make adjustments
Updating task
N-back, Verbal fluency, allows you to monitor words you produced, update current responses, prevent repetition
Rerouting task
Correlated with selecting, attention shift and control, dual-tasking and divided attention
