L03-L05 Flashcards
How are the brain and mind/consciousness related?
→ starting 4-5 years, children divide world into mental and physical things
→ major religions are almost all dualist, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism
→ Cartesian Dualism – Mind: non-physical, non-extended (takes up no space); Body: physical, extended
what is the Interaction problem
most philosophers and scientists believe that there is only one kind of reality
Idealists in the interaction problem
mind is fundamental.
Problem: why and how appears a consistent physical world?
Neutral monoists in the interaction problem
mental and physical are two different ways to represent the same reality, which is neutral (neither physical nor mental)
Materialists in the interaction problem
- most popular among scientists – matter is fundamental
→ The Hard Problem
→ How to account for consciousness? How can matter give rise to mind?→ Easy problems: perception, learning, memory, attention
Massimo Pigliucci view of the hard problem
Hard Problem is an illusion
Patricia Churchland view of the hard problem
Impossible to decide in advance what is a hard and an easy problem. Will there be something left for consciousness once we understand the easy problems?
The Hard Problem
THOMAS NAGEL (1974): WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT?
- If it makes sense to ask the question, What is it like to be X, then X is conscious.
- Bats live a very different life compared to humans
- Their conscious awareness will be based on totally different perceptions from humans
- Nagel argues it will be impossible to know what it’s like to be a bat because consciousness is subjective, a private experience (phenomenality)
→ like it is impossible for a dog to understand calculus, it is impossible for us to understand consciousness - Reductionists argue that the careful study of a bat’s brain and perceptual system would make it possible to discover what the experience of a bat is like
What is it like to be tracy? – scenario
- People vary considerably in their ability to discriminate colours
- In one experiment on colour discrimination Tracy is discovered she can see a colour that no other human can see
- For example when looking at ripe tomatoes, we only see red, but Tracy can distinguish two colours, one she calls “Red1”, the other she calls “Red2”
- She tried to teach others to see Red1 and Red2, but realized that humans are Red2 colourblind
- Red1 and Red2 are not two different shades of red, to tracy, Red1 and Red2 are as different as yellow and blue are to all of us
- Neuroscience investigations into Tracy’s ability revealed that her optical system can separate two groups of wavelengths in the red spectrum as acutely as we can sort out yellow from blue
- What kind of experience does Tracy have when she sees Red1 and Red2?
→ No amount of physical information about Tracy’s optical system will help us to find an answer to this question - Knowing all that concerns the physicality of Tracy will not be enough: clearly, knowing all this, is not knowing everything about Tracy
- It follows that reductionists will not be able to discover everything – something is left out
What is consciousness? – Investigating this, we have two options:
- Use consciousness itself to investigate itself
- Take ourselves out of the thing we wish to study
- as neuroscientists, we have to explain how the electrical firing of millions of neurons produces private, subjective, conscious experience
- this leads directly into the familiar territory of the dualistic MIND BODY PROBLEM
what is the mind body problem
In human experiences there are two different things that cannot be brought together: Our own (private) experience vs. The physical world
- Physical world is assumed to exist and we share it with others
- Our own experience of this world is:
→ inner, private, subjective experience of the physical world
→ its quality cannot be shared with anybody
David Chalmers’ view on the Hard Problem
- The Hard Problem is to explain how physical processes in the brain cause subjective experience
- It is the modern version of the mind-body problem
- There is an explanatory gap between the material brain and the subjective world experience
- In contrast to the hard problem, there are easy problems –> ex. perception, learning, memory, attention, sleeping vs. waking, etc.
what are the disagreements with the Hard Problem?
→ some claim that there is no Hard Problem
→ the easy problems are underestimated and the hard problem is an illusion;
→ will there be anything left to explain once we explain the easy problems?
what is qualia
- Philosophers often use the term “qualia” (singular “quale”) to refer to the introspectively accessible, phenomenal, private aspects of our mental lives
- Subject experiences have an ineffable subjective quality:
→ the redness of red
→ indescribable smell of turpentine - Some philosophers however claim that qualia do not exist at all but are an illusion
- Qualia are at the heart of the mind-body problem
quailia and understanding by mimicry:
- The natural sciences and the fine arts are portrayed as pari passu (latin: ranking equally) human faculties united in the quest to understand nature. Working together, they allow the human mind to reach the ultimate form of understanding – imitating nature
- Thus if qualia arise from mental activity, one way to understand what others are experiencing is generating similar activity by mimicry/simulation
IMPAIRING SIMULATION WITH FACIAL GEL MASK REDUCES ACCURACY
- Task is to recognize what facial expression you’ve seen before
- Take a face that can be angry or sad
- It morphs from one expression to another slowly
- Task is to identify the expression you’ve seen before
- In order to understand someone’s emotions, we generate an inner movie program that simulates making that face → simulating allows us to understand one another
- Data supports that understanding the inner reality of someone else “qualia” can be discovered through simulating
what are some of the many definitions of consciousness
- Consciousness is identical to the physical processes we can observe in the brain. Therefore, studying attention, learning, memory, perception, etc. will let us understand consciousness in the end. Consciousness is not an added something to these processes
- Consciousness is an illusion and does not exist
- Consciousness does exist and is an additional quality added to humans, and we have to understand the purpose of it – what does it allow us to do, this consciousness, that we could not do without it
what do Varela & Maturana argue about consciousness?
wherever there is life, there is consciousness. The related Gaia theory argues that our planet itself is a life form and thus endowed with consciousness
what does the integrated information theory of Tononi suggest?
all systems that integrate information have some level of consciousness
→ the level of integration of information can be calculated (Phi score). The more information is integrated, the higher the score, the higher the system’s level of consciousness
→ Humans integrate a lot of information, have a lot of consciousness (Hi-Phi). Ants integrate less information, have less consciousness.
→ Under this perspective AI systems have a form of consciousness, as well as DNA, and the universe itself
in psychology textbooks consciousness is discussed in terms of what?
attention, awareness, circadian rhythms, sleep, dreams, hypnosis, etc.
William James was the first to do what with the idea of consciousness?
describe it as a flow – functionalism opposed structuralism in this way
“Consciousness … does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as ‘chain’ and ‘train’ do not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. It is nothing joined; it flows. A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described.
discuss free will
- Free will is a “cultural and religious artifact” of christian philosophers to explain the primal fall from grace by Adam and Eve. If God is the cause of all things, the fall from grace would have been caused by God. This did not fit with the omnibenevolent view of God.
- Free will as a concept does not exist in Buddhism, which also assumes that the Self is an illusion
What did Freud argue about unconscious processes?
unconscious processes affect a person’s experience and behaviour, even though a person cannot report these. Freud argued that one can find evidence for these unconscious processes.
→ slips of the tongue
→ dreams
→ Rohrschach inkblot test
what is the “Self”?
- Elusive concept – we have an intuitive idea of what “Self” means, but there is no simple and commonly agreed upon definition.
- similar notions
→ Damasio (core and autobiographical self);
→ Gallagher (minimal and narrative self)
what did William James say about the “Self”?
Self can be separated into “I” (the self that experiences) and “me” (the self that extends outwards in space and time and can be perceived as an object, ex. A body, abstract object with beliefs and attitudes)
what is self-awareness?
- refers to the capacity to become the object of one’s own attention
- Self-awareness occurs when an organism focuses not on the external environment, but on the internal milieu;
- It becomes reflective observer, processing self-information
- The organism becomes aware that it is awake and actually experiencing specific mental events, emitting behaviours and possessing unique characters
- A language-competent creature may verbalize “I feel tired,” “I’ve been working for three hours,” or “I am a good-looking, intelligent person.”
what is the self?
- D. Dennett: defined the self as “the center of narrative gravity”. Self center of experience, but also situated in a broader and ongoing narrative
→ like gravity, self is only an abstraction, a concept, useful possible, but without actual existence. Wherever you look into the brain, there is no part one would identify with the self
→ because it is a concept, self is not stable but constructed, generated and dynamic
→ however, there are some arguing that activity of the “default mode network” correlates with the experience of self
The Default Mode Network is comprised mostly of what in the brain?
medical prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, inferior and temporal regions
what are the 8 species that can recognize themselves in the mirror?
- Humans
- Chimpanzees
- Bonobos
- Gorillas
- Orangutang
- Dolphins
- Magpies
- Elephants
what is the relationship of consciousness and the brain?
- It has been known since ancient times that consciousness depends on the brain. A detailed understanding of their relation is absent, but correlations have been described
- Levels of consciousness: levels of alertness or responsiveness are correlated with patterns of electrical activity in the brain (brain waves) recorded by an electroencephalograph (EEG)
- During wide-awake consciousness, the pattern of brain waves consist of rapid irregular waves of low amplitude voltage (irregular alpha and beta waves)
- During sleep, however, when consciousness seems to be minimal, the brain waves are much slower and of greeted amplitude, often coming in periodic bursts of slow waxing and awning amplitudes
what are the measures during waking and sleep?
EEG → measuring activity in the cortex, nothing deep within the brain
Additional measures during sleep EOG, EMG
how many sleep stages are there?
5 stages in 90 minute cycles
what happens during stage 1 of sleep
(5-10 minutes/cycle)
- Transition from alpha waves to theta waves
- Hypnagogic imagery
- Myoclonic jerks
stage 2 of sleep:
(10-30 minutes/cycle)
- Sleep spindles and K-complexes
- As much as 65 percent of total sleep
Stage 3 and 4 of sleep:
(15-30 minutes/cycle)
- Delta waves (slow wave sleep [SWS])
- Crucial to feel rested; suppressed by alcohol
- 40 percent of sleep in children; 25 by percent in adults
Stage 5 of sleep:
(REM – Rapid Eye Movement –sleep; 10-20 minutes/cycle)
- Brain activity similar to wakefulness
- Becomes longer as the night goes on
- Many vivid dreams occur
what happens during Stages 1-4 of sleep?
(Non-REM):
No rapid eye movements, fewer dreams
how much sleep do we need?
Newborns: 16 hours
College students: 9 hours
Most people: 7-10 hours
- People (<1%) with DEC2 mutation → 6 hours or less
unresolved issue of why we sleep in the first place:
- Serves a restorative function → Sleep deficits often linked to cognitive deficits and prolonged sleep deprivation can lead to death - Functions of REM sleep are unclear → possible memory consolidation → possible forgetting → possibly both → possibly insight - Animals that cannot fully sleep (ex. Some fish, dolphins) sleep with one hemisphere at a time
what is the circadian rhythm
- Our circadian rhythms are cyclical changes that concur on roughly a 24-hour basis. Some examples of cyclically changing biological processes are hormone release, body temperature and brain wave activity
- Circadian rhythm is regulated by neurons in the hypothalamus, which triggers our sense of fatigue via increasing melatonin. The nucleus in the hypothalamus most critical for circadian rhythm is the suprachiasmatic nucleus
- Disruptions of circadian rhythms (jet lag, late shifts) can cause numerous health problems
Example of perceptual decoupling:
thinking about something someone said at work while driving home
Cognitive unconscious
the various mental processes that support everyday functioning without conscious awareness or control
Valentino Braitenberg - Excitatory
Excitatory: The stronger the sensor is stimulated the stronger the motor will be stimulated
Valentino Braitenberg - Inhibitory
Inhibitory: sensor makes the motor run slower if the sensor is stronger stimulated
- Speed of motor is controlled by light sensor in a positive linear fashion: the more light, the faster the motor
- Vehicle 1 has one sensor that is directly linked to one motor driving one wheel
the next 2 vehicles: Valentino Braitenberg
- Two sensors and two motors: positive linear relationship between sensor and motor
- Close to the light, vehicle 2a turns away from the light, getting slower the farther it is away
- Vehicle 2b turns towards light, speeding up the closer it gets until it finally runs into the light
- And interpretative psychological term, these behaviours could be labelled fear and aggression
- But we know the inside of these machines: there is no genuine fear or aggression
explain Ockham’s razor
- When trying to understand cognitive or behavioural mechanism, it is useful to consider a simple explanation because very complex behaviour can arise from a small set of simple principles
- William of Ockham (14th century theologian): Proposed the heuristic principle now known as Ockham’s razor (lex parsimoniae, or “law of parsimony”), stating that given several explanations for a phenomenon, the most simple one should be accepted
- The most simple explanations are easier to falsify or to test than more complex ones because in light of contradicting outcomes, more complex theories can generate ad hoc hypothesis to explain away inconsistencies
vehicles 3: Valentino Braitenberg
TRUE LOVE AND ONE NIGHT STANDS
- These vehicles have inhibitory connections: the stronger the sensor is stimulated, the slower the engine will run
- Vehicle 3a approaches the source very fast the farther it is away and slows down to a full stop when it is close, remaining there for eternity, close to the source
- Vehicle 3b approaches equally fast, then turns away, remaining there, and possible attracted by another perturbation hitting the sensors
- The behaviours could be interpreted as showing love (3a) and a tendency to explore (3b)
reductionist approach to psychology
- Reductionists believe the best explanation is the deeper you can go
- A problem for reductionism is emergent behaviour: complex dynamic systems can be described by simple linear functions, but the arising (emergent) behaviour may be unpredictable
- The reductionist approach might miss something; on the other hand, it does not add what cannot be described (“whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”) –> is there fear or not?
- Reductionism as a method/tool: best available method, but complete reductions very rare (Popper). Thus, best is to be a desperate reductionist.
what is rationalism?
- for the most part, psychological questions were framed and pursued within the framework of rationalism – using reason and logical arguments was thought best to find the correct answers about the nature of mind. Rationalism argues that observation not only is unnecessary, but potentially misleading
→ for example, using reason, Aristotle argued that the brain was part of the cooling system of the body
what is empiricism?
- Hypotheses and theories about the nature of mind need to be confirmed or unconfirmed by observation. There are several empirical methods permitting proper observation, descriptive methods as well as experimental methods.
- As an empirical science, psychology has a short history
what is inductivism
Several observations are used to induce theories, which are used to deduce hypotheses, leading to more observations, eventually arriving at laws.
Ex. Observing sufficient white swans might lead to the law that “all swans are white”.
what is falsificationism?
A statement (hypothesis) that is capable of being refuted is deduced from a theory. Tests are designed to refute the predictions (Falsification), not to confirm a theory
→ theories allow for an infinite number of predictions. It is impossible to confirm all of them
→ But if one prediction is falsified, then theory is wrong
→ Therefore, falsificationism allows for a strict testing of theories
→ If a prediction of a theory is falsified, theory can be changed and tested again
scientific method:
observations
ideally unbiased, but it is questionable if there are unprejudiced observations. We usually heaven idea for what we are looking for, and observe using judgements and concepts (prior knowledge) – our observations are therefore not objective, but subjective
scientific method:
status of data
data do not equal facts. They usually are produced by measurements and quantifications. These need to be interpreted within a theory: Facts do not exist objectively, but emerge from a context. Fact = Data + Theory
scientific method:
status of theory
Scientific theories and research reflect biases, prejudices, values, assumptions, history of the individual scientists and of the scientific community, which is embedded in a cultural context. Science is not free of values.
what is the problem of objectivity?
- Doing science is a human behaviour. When psychologists do science, they often engage in behaviours that they are studying – psychologists are often part of what they observe. “Objectivity” is a standard only achievable to a degree.
- All science is a social activity. There are no conventions, traditions, shared assumptions and such things as peer review, which ensures that too controversial positions are moderated and even filter out
- There might not be a “pure” science, and neither a purely “subjective” science. What is scientifically valid and true is a matter of conventions. Striving to adhere to these guarantees integrity of scientific research, but not objectivity.
what is the order of the paradigm shift?
constructivism - the kuhn cycle of revolutions
→ Pre Paradigm period → Normal Science → Anomaly → Crisis → Revolution
what happened in the Pre Paradigm period cycle
- Contending schools
- Random fact-gathering
- No science
what happened in the Normal Science cycle
- Science begins
- One paradigm, no schools
- Puzzle solving research
what happened in the Anomaly cycle
- Important insoluble problem
what happened in the Crisis cycle
- Insecurity
- Loosening of paradigm restrictions
- Contending theories
- Emergence of new paradigm
what happened in the Revolution cycle
- Younger scientists adhere to new paradigm
- Some older scientists switch allegiance
what are the 2 basic approaches to psychology as a science?
rationalism vs. empiricism
what happened in the EXPERIMENTER BIAS: EXAMPLE FROM ANIMAL STUDIES
- Exposure of mice and rats to male but not female experimenters produces pain inhibition
- Driven by testosterone emitted by males
what is the hawthorne effect
Workers boosted productivity when they knew they were being observed → inaccurate results
