Intro to Cognitive Science - Unit 1 Flashcards
What is cognitive psychology?
study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling, and behaving
What was Ebbinghaus’ pioneer experiment?
He compared the time it took to learn a list from scratch to the time it took to relearn/recall a list he had semi-forgotten, thus comparing explicit and implicit memory
explicit memory
as measured in recall
implicit memory
as measured in learning performance
two main schools of early psychological thought
structuralism and functionalism
structuralism
focused on the elements of consciousness such as sensations, feelings, and images
who pioneered structuralism?
Wundt and Titchener
what is the school of structuralism based on?
introspection
what are two problems with structuralism?
inconsistent introspective reports, and sometimes cognition happens without consciousness
how did functionalism arise?
as an alternative to structuralism
pioneers of functionalism
Angell, Thorndyke, etc.
what is functionalism based on?
function over structure of the mind: how the mind mediates between stimuli and reponse
behaviorism
tried to make psychology objective by studying behavior instead of cognition
pioneer of behaviorism
Watson, 1913
what is a well-known example of behaviorism?
Pavlov’s dogs: conditioning
Thorndyke’s law of effect
rewards increase the frequency of behavioral responses to certain stimuli
how did Skinner contribute to operant conditioning?
showed in experiments how rewards or punishments affected the frequency of responses to stimuli
how did cognitive studies come about?
with the arrival of and information provided by computer systems
who are some pioneers of cognitive studies?
Chomsky, Piaget, Miller, Bruner, Broadbent
who came up with the physical symbols hypothesis?
Simon, 1990
what is the physical symbols hypothesis?
a system is only capable of intelligent behavior if it can input, output, store, and modify symbols and carry out actions in relation to those symbols
information-processing approach to cognitive psychology
analogy between mental processes and computing
what provides the focus of human mental life, meaning or information?
meaning (Bruner, 1990)
how can psychologists study the evolutionary development of the mind?
by comparing different species, or by comparing developmental stages of a single species: earlier developing traits are generally accepted to be evolutionarily earlier
On what is the information-processing approach built?
The assumption that an organism’s ability to perceive, comprehend, learn, decide, and act depends on mental representations
Comparison between mental and external representations?
Robins: you might have the song in your head, but a painter’s work doesn’t
What is so AWESOME about mental representations?
They are private and perceived only by their owners and are unique!
Are all mental representations perceived as images?
Not by a long shot: aural, verbal, etc.
What provides the basis for all cognitive abilities? Why?
Mental representations: to perceive your environment at all, you need your own mental representations with which to work cognitively
Who concluded that processes modify mental representations in stages?
Massaro and Cowan, 1993
Basic overview of the cognitive stages of processing?
Perception and encoding, storage, retrieval, output
Stages of processing definition
Steps required to form, modify, and use mental representations in a cognitive task
What is the serial vs parallel processing question?
Whether or not stages of cognition occur simultaneously or in conjunction (CONJUGO!)
Trigram example of series vs parallel processing
PIG vs WAQ: pig can be processed parallel, whereas waq needs to be broken down since it’s unfamiliar
How can one describe the mind through a hierarchical system?
The mind is a hierarchical arrangement of functional components that can be analyzed and studied in isolation (Simon, 1969)
Cognitive architecture
The design and organization of the mind’s info-processing components and systems
module
Set of processes that are automatic, fast, and encapsulated apart from other cognitive systems: often in a localized brain area
Symbolic model
Assumes the mind is like a digital computer: mental representations are serially processed by a set of rules: provides a global perspective of the cognitive architecture and overview of components and links
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s symbolic model of memory
Environmental input > sensory store> pattern recognition into short or long term memory ( > rehearsal and retrieval) > behavioral response
Connectionist model
Assumes the mind is shaped according to the structure of the brain, not a digital computer: based on associations between numerous simple “neurons” (not bio neurons)
What does the connectionist model rely on?
Parallel processing: the mental representation isn’t processed serially, but in multiple regions of the brain in multiple neurons at the same time
What is the advantage of connectionist models over symbolic models?
Provides a more localized analysis and perspective on a cognitive process, not as generalized as symbolic
How do symbolic models explain cognition?
Simulations that operate like computer programs to encode, store, and manipulate symbols
How do connectionist models explain cognition?
Simulations of simple neuron-like units arranged in complex networks
Who were two fundamental researchers of memory stores?
Atkinson and Shiffrin
What did Atkinson and Shiffrin discover in 1971 about short-term memory storage?
Occurs in visual and auditory registers, known now as sensory memory
What are the three main definitions of consciousness?
Self-knowledge, informational access, and sentience
Self-knowledge
Capacity to represent the self mentally in addition to the objects, events, and ideas encountered externally
Informational access
Capacity to be able to report on mental representations and processes that operate on them
sentience
The basic capacity for raw sensations, feelings, or subjective experiences
What has been one long opinion of emotion in the brain? (Ekman 1972)
Certain emotional states are genetically prewired categories of physiological and behavioral patterns, universally expressed and recognized through facial expressions (Ekman 1972)
Example of the dual process theory applied to our understanding of human emotional responses?
Amygdala’s quick response to fearful stimulus, followed by longer, calmer, deliberate appraisal of the situation
What is an alternate opinion of emotions besides the physiological/behavioral?
Based on polar biological scales (pleasure/displeasure, etc.) that may or may not be shared between various emotional states
Cognition is a function of what?
THE BRAIN!
Cerebral cortex
bark of the brain: covering
Other name for cerebral cortex and why?
Neocortex: most recently evolved
What organisms have particularly developed neocortexes?
Humans, primates, cetaceans (dolphins and whales, etc.)
sulci
Furrows of the brain that account for the majority of the brain’s surface area
What is the surface area of the cerebral cortex made of?
Gray matter: densely interconnected, unmyelinated neurons
What is the under-surface area of the cerebral cortex made of?
White matter: fatty myelinated fibers insulating the axons of the neurons
Longitudinal fissure
Separates the right and left lobes of the brain
Frontal lobe
Anterior of brain back to central sulcus
Temporal lobe
Side of the brain, begins below lateral fissure
Parietal lobe
Extends towards rear of brain, begins at central sulcus
Occipital lobe
Rear base of brain
Left hemisphere (Ornstein 1997)
Producing and comprehending language
Right hemisphere (Ornstein 1997)
Spatial relationships, face recognition, etc.
Where is the limbic lobe?
Underneath the lobes of the neocortex; evolutionarily old; “old cortex”
Limbic lobe
Mediates emotionally driven behaviors fundamental to survival: approach, attack, mate, flee
Components of the limbic system
Limbic lobe and subcortical structures: cingulate gyrus, fornix, hippocampus, amygdala, etc.
Why is the limbic system sometimes referred to as the mammalian brain?
Very highly developed in mammals
Primary function of limbic system?
Emotional and motivational regulation
How is the hippocampus critical?
With learning and memory storage and emotion
What are the most primitive parts of the brain?
Brainstem, spinal cord
brainstem
Midbrain and hindbrain
Hindbrain
Includes medulla oblongata, pons, cerebellum
What does the hindbrain do?
Support basic life mechanisms of body such as respiration, heart rate, blood pressure
mammalian vs “reptilian” brains?
Presence/major influence of forebrain as opposed to just mid and hindbrain
How does the brain support parallel processing?
Uses multiple regions to complete the parts of the task: multiple lobes operating all at once to provide various information such as location in conjunction with identification
Example of parallel visual processing?
Identifying an object with temporal lobe, but spatially locating it with parietal lobe
Does the brain also use serial processing in addition to parallel processing?
Of course: can’t complete one step of recognition of a friend, for example, without the other steps
What do typical dependent variables in cognitive psychology measure?
Speed and accuracy of human performance
Speed-accuracy trade off
The faster the reaction time, the higher the proportion of errors: typical
Verbal protocols
Behavioral analysis based on constant verbal stream of thought process: thinking aloud
EEG
Multichannel recording of the brain’s continuous electrical activity
How is EEG measured?
By a recorder that detects voltage changes generated by large numbers of neurons below the electrodes
What does ERP stand for?
Event-related potential/evoked potential
What is an ERP?
And EEG signal that reflects the brain’s response to the onset of a specific stimulus
P300 or P3a ERP?
Positive EEG peak 300 milliseconds after onset of stimulus in frontal lobe
Oddball task
Detecting the infrequent stimulus among frequent stimuli: rare red dots in many green dots series: P300 component for red dots
What demographic display a diminished or absent P3 ERP?
alcoholics
Does alcoholism itself diminish the P3 ERP response?
It might not: even their children show the same lack of response to novel stimuli: may be a genetic predisposition
neuroimaging
Measures the location of neural activation generated during a cognitive task
Name two methods of neuroimaging
PET and fMRI
PET
Positron emission tomography: uses radioactively labeled water injections to detect areas of high metabolic activity
What kind of image does a PET scan allow?
Three-dimensional picture of activated regions
fMRI
Functional magnetic resonance imaging: powerful magnetic field passed through the head to reveal detailed neuronal tissue images and metabolic change
Order from best to worst spatial resolution: PET, fMRI, EEG/ERP
fMRI, PET< EEG/ERP
How does fMRI work?
Detecting changes in concentration of oxygen in brain: BOLD signal
BOLD signal
Blood-oxygenation level-dependent: level of oxygen in the blood, used in fMRI scans
How does PET work?
Detecting increases in blood flow in neuronal vascular network
Which provides better temporal resolution, EEG/ERP or fMRI/PET?
EEG/ERP, because the use of blood flow to monitor changes takes a little while to register/occur
Method of subtraction
Used to isolate properties of a single stage of cognitive processing: assumes that stages of processing used in a simple task are not modified in some way when a choice is added to the task
Assumption of pure insertion
Assumes stages of processing in a simple task aren’t modified when choice is added
What does the default network of the brain allow?
Construction, reliving, and exploration of actual and possible events
Double dissociation
When an independent variable affects Task A but not Task B and a different variable affects Task B but not Task A
How does Pinker define intelligence?
The ability to attain goals in the face of obstacles by means of rational decisions (62)
How do Simon and Newell define intelligence?
Specifying a goal, assessing the current situation to see how it differs from the goal, and applying a set of operations that reduce the difference (62)
What is the crucial aspect of human brain tissue that endows it with intelligence?
Not the physio-chemical, but the patterning (65)
How does Pinker define information?
A correlation between two things produced by a lawful process (65)
What does Pinker list as two qualities of a symbol?
Carries info, causes things to happen (66)
What is it called when something that causes other things to happen produces other things that also contain information?
An information processor/computer
What is an info processor/computer?
When the caused things themselves carry information (67)
What does a Turing machine do?
take in symbols standing for a number or a set of numbers, and print out symbols standing for new numbers that are the corresponding value for any mathematical function that can be solved by a step-by-step sequence of operations (67)
What is a “demon?”
A set of reflexes in a production system that wait around and spring into action at a certain signal (69)
Why can’t meanings in the mind be strings of words in a language?
Because strings of words in a language can have multiple meanings: “Bundy Beats Date With Chair” (70)
What does it mean that the computational model uses “representational and causal” symbols?
That they “simultaneously carry information about something and take part in a chain of physical events” (76)
What is Pinker’s idea of the answer to “What make a system smart?”
what the parts of the machine stand for and how the patterns of changes inside it are designed to mirror truth-preserving relationships (77)
Why doesn’t the homunculus theory continue ad infinitum?
Because it’s not like the homunculus operates the same way the entire system does: he doesn’t have to have a mind giving him instructions to follow (79)
How does a homunculus interact with representations?
Because the representations is “a set of symbols corresponding to aspects of the world… each homunculus is required only to react in a few circumscribed ways to some of the symbols” (79)
Which two figures helped explain homunculi in the text?
Fodor and Dennet (79)
What are the two answers to “who decides the meaning of our symbols?”
1) “a symbol is connected to its referent in the world by our sense organs”; 2) The relationship between the first symbol and its triggered symbol manipulations is a mirror of the relationship between the first symbol’s referent and the triggered symbol manipulations’ referents
causal theory
That symbols’ referents are determined by sensory organ interaction with the external world (80)
inferential-role theory
That triggered symbols’ referents are determined by the relationships between the triggering symbols and their referents (80)
Pinker’s example to support inferential-role theory
Swampman: the command “mother” has the same mother referent due to inferential connections, not because Swampman has a mother to be a referent for “mother” (80)
Pinker’s example to support causal theory
Felix the Cat/Robot: even if cats turned out to be robots and “cat” should now represent robots, but you’re still thinking of cats because of the causal relationship between the symbol “cat” and the referent of what you knew to be a cat (81)
Pinker’s example for the third view of the causal vs inferential-role debate
Both! Causal + inference + natural selection determine a symbol’s meaning (81)
What are the four main major formats of representation?
Visual image, phonological representation, grammatical representation, and mentalese (89-90)
Why does Pinker believe that the distinct formats of representation used by the human mind evolved the way they did?
because they allow simple programs… to compute useful things from them (91)
DeLoache’s definition of a symbol
a symbol is something that someone intends to represent something other than itself (66)
According to DeLoache, what transformed our species’ evolutionary development?
The emergence of symbolic capacity (66)
Example of the transformative nature of symbolization in child development
Nature of interactions after language acquisition (67)
What did Preissler and Carey’s experiment with words and pictures demonstrate?
That children can interpret words and pictures symbolically by 18-24 months old: “whisk” reference (67)
What happens to children’s preference for communicative labels throughout development?
Shifts from amodal to primarily verbal, spoken words (67)
What does DeLoache identify as central to symbolization?
Human intention: being about and being for (67)
What evidence does DeLoache cite for why symbols are intentional?
Children’s balloons vs lollipop drawings: same symbol, different intentions (68)
What is one important function of symbols?
Allowing us to acquire info without direct experience (68)
Is it easier or harder to achieve dual representation with stronger physical saliency?
Harder (69)
What is the trend in ability to achieve dual representation with age, and why?
Increasing ability: maturity and increased experience with symbols (69)
