Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

SEM 1 Intro to Cognition > Intro to Cognition > Flashcards

Intro to Cognition Flashcards

1
Q

What is Cognition?

A
  • Scientifically study internal mental behaviour or mediational process
  • A response to Behaviourism
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Name a well-known/primary behaviourist

A

BF Skinner

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Who wrote a book called Verbal Behaviour and suggested that language can be learned by reinforcement learning principles?

A

BF Skinner

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Name the 4 most important factors of cognition

A
  • Language learning
  • Internal Representation
  • Value changes perception
  • Magic number 7 +/- 2
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Who introduced Language Learning theory?

A

Noam Chomsky

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What did Chomsky’s theory suggest?

A
  • Language is inherently generative
  • Language is Learned
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Who introduced Internal Representation theory?

A

Edward Tolman

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What did Tolman’s theory suggest?

A
  • Behaviour is goal-directed
  • We can represent external world using internal mental representations
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Who performed an experiment on rats to see whether they are able to learn the format of a maze without reinforcement

A

Edward Tolman

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Who introduced Value changes Perception theory?

A

Jerome Bruner

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What did Bruner’s theory suggest?

A
  • One’s experience/expectation/knowledge can influence perception
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Name and explain the experiment Bruner conducted to test his theory

A
  • Rich-and-poor-children coin estimate test
  • Kids were told to estimate the size of a coin
  • Poor kids overestimated the coin size as coins meant more to the poor
  • The poor’s “need” for money inflates their perception of the coin size
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What is behaviourism?

A
  • Studying only observable or external behaviour/response
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Who introduced the Magic Number 7 +/- 2 memory theory?

A

George A. Miller

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What did Miller’s theory suggest?

A
  • Healthy adults with enough sleep generally can remember 7 things presented to them, plus-minus 2 things
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What’s going on in the black box?

A
  • Turing test
  • Chinese room
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Who proposed the Turing Test?

A

Alan Turing

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Describe the Turing Test

A
  • AI test which imitates human cognition
  • Measures a computer’s intelligence
  • A computer is considered intelligent if someone “conversing” with it could not tell whether they’re “conversing” with a computer or human
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Who proposed the Chinese Room?

A

John Searle

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Describe the Chinese Room

A
  • A non-Chinese speaker sits in a room with Chinese characters and instructions on how to construct Chinese sentences
  • Outside the room, a native Chinese speaker passes messages to the non-Chinese speaker in the room through a pigeon whole
  • The non-Chinese speaker must reply to the message
  • The non-Chinese speaker may follow the instructions provided to them to construct a message with the characters
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What did the Chinese Room theory argue?

A
  • Despite not having any prior knowledge of something, individuals are able to produce the correct answer/action by only referring to instructions given
  • Even though computers can mimic human activities, they are unable to understand what exactly they are mimicking (lack human traits such as motivation)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What are the 4 ways we can study cognition?

A
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuropsychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Computational Cognitive Science
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

What is the aim of Cognitive Psychology?

A
  • Understand human cognition by observing the behaviour of people whilst performing cognitive tasks
  • Uses behavioural evidence such as response times
24
Q

Which study of cognition only measures behaviour?

A

Cognitive Psychology

25
Q

What is Top-Down processing?

A

Processing driven by intention, expectation, experiences and knowledge

26
Q

What is bottom-up processing?

A

Processing driven by environmental stimulus

27
Q

Explain interactions

A

Interactions between different cognitive systems occur in parallel

28
Q

Name 2 strengths of Cognitive Psychology

A
  • It is the 1st systematic approach to study cognition and provided a foundation for other approaches
  • Diverse and Flexible
29
Q

Name 5 weaknesses of Cognitive Psychology

A
  • Low ecological validity
  • Behavioural evidence only provide indirect evidence about internal mental processes
  • Theories/models are often too general, no clear prediction
  • Findings can be paradigm specific (narrow in applicability)
  • No unifying model
30
Q

What is the aim of Cognitive Neuropsychology

A
  • Study patients with brain damage or neurological disease to understand how these affect cognition and to understand normal human cognition
31
Q

Who are the 2 well-known patients in Cognitive Neuropsychology?

A
  • Phineas Gage
  • HM
32
Q

What happened to Phineas Gage?

A
  • Had a metal rod pierced through his skull and his personality changed from a nice person to a rough and aggressive person
33
Q

What happened to HM?

A
  • Had his hippocampus removed to cure his seizures
  • Experienced long-term memory loss after hippocampus removal
34
Q

Name 3 strengths of Cognitive Neuropsychology

A
  • Double dissociations; evidence for modularity (Different parts of the brain specialise in different things)
  • Causal links between damage and cognitive function
  • Reveal surprising complexities in cognition
35
Q

Name 2 weaknesses of Cognitive Neuropsychology

A
  • Don’t typically know what patients were like before brain damage
  • Patients’ brains can develop compensatory strategies to make up for the brain damage
  • Sometimes rely on single-case studies
36
Q

What is the aim of Cognitive Neuroscience?

A

Use info/conveying evidence from behaviour and the brain to understand human cognition

37
Q

How are brain and behaviour both measured?

A
  • Single cell recording to measure single neuron activity
  • ERP to measure the pattern of electrical brain activity
  • PET to measure positrons
  • fMRI to observe which parts of the brain are most active
  • MEG to measure magnetic fields produced by brain activity
  • TMS which creates temporary brain damage
38
Q

What does single-cell recording measure?

A

Measure single neuron activity

39
Q

What does ERP measure?

A

Measure the pattern of electrical brain activity

40
Q

What does PET measure?

A

Measure positrons

41
Q

What does fMRI measure?

A

Observe which parts of the brain are most active

42
Q

What does MEG measure?

A

Measure magnetic fields produced by brain activity

43
Q

What does TMS create?

A

Creates temporary brain damage

44
Q

Name the advantages of fMRI + ERP + TMS

A
  • fMRI + ERP + TMS includes a range of spatial and temporal resolution (accuracy in discriminating between different brain regions and speed of detecting changes in brain activity), study functional specialisation
  • TMS allows for causal inferences and is more flexible than Cog. NeuroPsych
45
Q

Name 3 disadvantages of fMRI + ERP + TMS

A
  • fMRI + ERP + TMS produce correlational data and not causal
  • Over-interpretation of data
  • Difficulty relating brain activity to psychological processes
46
Q

What is spatial resolution?

A

Accuracy in discriminating between different brain regions

47
Q

What is temporal resolution?

A

Speed of detecting changes in brain activity

48
Q

What is the aim of Computational Cognitive Science?

A

To develop computational models to understand human cognition (not the same as AI)

49
Q

What makes Comp. Cog. Science different from other studies of cognition?

A
  • Stimulates/imitates human processing activities through computational models (program computers to imitate human cognition)
  • Connectionist models/neural networks (math structures that “learn”)
50
Q

List 2 strengths of Computational Cognitive Science

A
  • Clear and precise theories and assumptions (requires detail and thinking)
  • Used to model effects of brain damage
51
Q

List 3 limitations of Computational Cognitive Science

A
  • No prediction is common
  • Hard to falsify
  • Difficult to emphasise human traits such as motivation and emotion with a computer
52
Q

Which prominent researcher was critical of the idea that behaviourist principles were sufficient to explain how children learn language?

A

Noam Chomsky

53
Q

The thought experiment that can be used to argue that a computer does not have a mind of its own is known as?

A

The Chinese room

54
Q

Which of the following can be considered a limitation of the Cognitive Psychology approach to studying Cognition?

A

Findings can be paradigm specific and not generalise to other tasks which aim to measure the same processes

55
Q

Computational models of human cognition

1) Involve programming computers to mimic human cognitive processes
2) Aim to work in the same way as humans do, just not produce the same outcome
3) To be successful, one should succeed and fail the same way humans do
4) All of the above

A

4) All of the above

SEM 1 Intro to Cognition (10 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions