Lecture 1: learning, Memory and Representation Flashcards
What is a cognitive system feedback loop?
We take in information from the environment in the form of perception (matter, energy) and turns into an internal representation or memory. Likewise, we can affect the environment through our actions. It works in a similar way for animals and robots (they have sensors for perception and actuators)
What is cognition?
Manipulation (creating them, combining them, using them for reasoning) of representations (a picture of an eye is a representation of an eye it is different from a real eye)
Where are representations stored?
Animals: Brain, long/short term memory
Software: Databases, symbols
Distributed system: Paper, brain, disk, environment manipulation
What is sensory memory?
is like a scratch pad (for vision) or a bit of a recording (for hearing) that can be overwritten with new things. it is rewritten every few seconds by new perceptions.
What is short term memory?
Short term memory is a temporary storage some things end up becoming long term memories
What is long term memory?
Likely stored here forever, though we might have trouble with retrieval
What are the two types of declarative memory?
Episodic memory: memories of things that have happened to you
Semantic memories
What is implicit memory?
Includes procedural knowledge: how to do things. Best understood by how we do things with our body. and Implicit knowledge: knowing things like whether something is grammatically correct but not knowing why you know that or making associations with something else
Where do we suspect declarative and implicit long term memories are stored?
The hippocampus appears to be important for transforming short term memories into long term memories.Procedural memory appears to happen in the cerebellum, the basal ganglia
What is software memory?
Hash tables, schemata, frames, scripts, logical sentences, bitmaps, activation patterns, weights in links. This is interesting to cognitive scientists
What is computer memory?
Disk, flash memory. Usually less important, because this description is not at the cognitive level
What are some examples of memories in distributed systems?
Books, Brain, Fingers, Notes, Arrows and signs
What is learning?
Learning is changing memory with the purpose of preparing a system for better action in the future
Learning has 2 aspects: changing memories & changing memories for the purpose of being effective in the future
What is habituation?
Diminution of a behavioural response with repeated stimulation (E.g., the first time you hear a loud noise, you might jump but afterward you stop jumping (the response/reaction is getting lessened)
What is sensitization?
When a behavioural response is amplified by repeated exposure to a stimulus (E.g., at first you can barely feel a vibrating phone in your pocket, but eventually, you become very sensitive to it)
What is classical conditioning?
Learning to associate two previously unrelated stimuli. Typically, this means that you learn to behave similarly to stimulus B as you do to stimulus A. E.g., the dog learns that when you pick up the leash, a walk is soon to follow. Also, Pavlov’s salivating dogs.
What is positive reinforcement?
Someone smiles at you when you hold the door for him/her, more likely to open a door again.Introducing something into the environment
What is negative reinforcement?
Encouraging behaviour by taking away something negative in response to a behaviour
What is positive punishment?
You get burned by touching the hood of a car in the sun. less likely to do this again
what is negative punishment?
Your parents cut off your allowance because you lied. Took away something you liked
What is operant conditioning?
Making a behaviour more or less likely to happen in the presence of a stimulus depending on reward, punishment, or taking away a reward or aversive stimulus
What is practice?
Practice involves doing something over and over and learning how to do it better. It uses reinforcement and punishment to hone the skill.
What is theorized to be a form of practice for future events?
Playing (e.g., chasing, fighting, caretaking, manipulating objects etc.)
Why do motor skills get easier over time?
gets easier because of automatization. It becomes instinctive, fast, unconscious, and automatic.
What is imprinting?
A time sensitive learning in an animal that is insensitive to behavioural outcomes
What is observational learning?
Learning that happens by observing another individual do something. Much of cultural learning (called “enculturation”) is observational, but some is explicitly taught (The way men stand vs. women)
What is testimony?
When someone tells you something. E.g., how to start a web browser, or orcas are mammals. It can read or heard aloud
We also get facts by figuring them out, but this is better described as “reasoning” or inference rather than learning
How was genetic information learned over human history?
When environments change very slowly
How did cultural learning take place over human history?
Through imitation. When environments change relatively quickly. Content bias (Imitate the best idea) Prestige bias( Imitate the most successful) and Conformist bias (Imitate the most common ways of doing things)
What is individual learning?
Figuring things out for yourself (perhaps influenced by the baldwin effect). When environment change very rapidly there is reduced cultural transmission
What is your ‘Iconic Memory?’
Memory of what you just saw.
What is Echoic Memory?
The memory of what you just heard.
