lecture 1 Flashcards
how many main levels can the brain be studied at?
7: molecules, synapses, neurons, networks, maps, systems and CNS.
what is cartesian dualism?
mind and brain separate but linked. “I think therefore I am”.
what is behaviourism?
materialist approach: no independent significance of the mind, all behavior is determined by different forces e.g. environment, genetics, association/reinforcement. SKINNER
what is Occams Razor?
A logical principle; keep assumptions to the minimum, simplest explanation is the best.
Explain materialism
The only thing that can exist is matter, everything is composed of matter thereforeeeeeeeeee;The mind is a product of the brain.
What does Dennet believe?
The brain is a virtual machine in which neurons generate a sense of self.
What is Monism?
The opposite of Dualism; Mind= matter in an absolute sense.
explain the cartesian gap.
There is NO mechanism between mind (non physical) and brain (physical) function.
what is functionalism?
A form of property dualism; mental life can be explained by higher-level functions. Linking processess & interactions.
info occurs at the software then implemented at the hardware.
what did Coltheart (2004) believe?
That there was no point in studying the brain because; no facts about the activity of the brain could be used to confirm/refuse some info-processing model of cognition.
Even consciousness can be implemented in any computer. what approach thinks this?
Functionalism.
What does the Turing test question? and what is it?
Turing, 1950s
Main Q: can a machine have the same attributes as a person?
The Turing test; Artificial intelligence test- The imitation game, a person (interrogator) converses ‘virtually’ with another person and a computer but they dont know which is which… the machine tries to convince the interrogator that the machine is the other person.
Searle proposed a Thought Experiment based on the Turing test, what was this?
The Chinese Room; person applies rules without necessarily understanding them.. concluding computers dont understand semantics. You cannot assume a computer is concious.
Neurophilosophy challenges functionalism, why?
Because unlike functionalism, it believes the mind and brain are the same (Monist view) explaining the mind in terms of observable evidence from the physical world -using scientific methods.
What is reductionism?
complex phenomena can be explained in terms of INTERACTIONS between simpler phenomena. (Macro to Micro)
Main aspect of neurophilosophy.
who supported Reductionism?
Churchland
“we are deceived at every level of our introspections” - what is this describing ?
Eliminative Materialsim (Crick, 1979).
What is Folk Theory?
functional psychology is actually Folk psychology - Churchland.
That notions of mind are based on our commonsense everyday subjective understanding of mental life.
What is Folk psychology based on?
concepts based on language- beliefs and desires.
what is inter-theoretic reduction?
Process that explains the relationship between two theories at diff levels by explaining a high level theory in terms of a fundamental low level theory.
explain eliminative materialism.
the claim that common sense of the mind is WRONG- has no reality. There are no mental states only brain states.
What did Sperry do?
Sperry experiment: The divided self: used P’s with epilepsy which underwent a callosal transection, results revealed 2 independent streams of consciousness (1 in each hemisphere). therefore consciousness has multiple streams… is our idenity of ourself wrong?
SPLIT BRAINS.
what is a callosal transection?
Were the corpus callosum is severed surgically.
give 3 examples of Inter-theoretic reduction…
- Laws of Mendelian inheritance reduce to Genetics.
- Classical Optics reduces to Quantum Optics.
- Learning reduced to neural information processing.
Define Emergence.
The WHOLE may be greater than the SUM of its parts. complex behavior can arise from the interactions of many simple units.
what is an example of Emergence?
Ant Colony which can be related to neurons.
what is weak emergence?
high level phenomena emerge from low level domain BUT truths from the phenomena are UNEXPECTED.- you wouldnt expect it, however it can be predicted from the lower level domains.
What is an example of weak emergence?
water molecules creating waves.
What is strong emergence?
high level phenomena emerge from low level domain BUT gives radical results, something totally new and surprising!
what is the main example of strong emergence?
Consciousness.
What does Jackson’s thought experiment (the neuroscientist in the room) supposedly demonstrate?
Psychological processes cannot be reduced to neuroscience.
What is the autonomy ideology?
The idea that neuroscience and psychology should be considerated as separated from each other.
