Lecture 1: What is cognition?

Question 1

Define cognition in two ways.

Answer 1

1. The act of knowing (process)

2. That which is known (product)

Question 2

Information = detectable change sin the environment enabling us to _________ entities and events, and ______ the relationship between them.

Answer 2

categorise, infer

Question 3

List 5 capacities of a cognitive agent

Answer 3

1. sense and act from environment (detect changes, gain information)
2. construct mental models to represent
3. adapt mental models in response to feedback
4. use models to guide future behaviour
5. form inferences to make sense of experience

Question 4

List 3 types of mental representation.

Answer 4

1. sensorimotor (e.g. embodiment)
2. mental images (e.g. visuo-spatial)
3. symbolic (e.g. logical, linguistic)

Question 5

What is the main tenet of the classical computational theory of cognition?

Answer 5

That thought processes are mental manipulations of symbols according to syntactic rules.

Question 6

What is ‘mentalese’?

Answer 6

The language of thought.

Theory proposes that it underlies all the natural languages.

Question 7

What are propositional representations?

Answer 7

Symbolic code to express meaning of concepts and relationships between the.

Question 8

What form do propositions take?

Answer 8

Predicate-argument schema

predicate(argument, argument, argument)

Question 9

What is a key feature of propositions?

Answer 9

The same abstract propositional frame can express different surface forms.

Question 10

What constitutes evidence against classical theory by way of analogue representations?

Answer 10

Shepard and Metzler figures.

Analogue representations could be directly manipulated in mind.

Question 11

What constitutes evidence against classical theory by way of dynamic cognition?

Answer 11

Mouse-moving over time is messy and dynamic - reflects underlying cognitive process. (Spivey and Dale 2006)

‘Cognition is best analysed as a continuously dynamic biological process, not as a staccato series of abstract computer-like symbols.’

Question 12

What constitutes evidence against classical theory by way of ‘embodied and situated’?

Answer 12

Brooks’ ‘mobots’ - explores novel environments to develop cognition from bottom-up. Cognition as an emergent property of exploration in space.

Question 13

What constitutes evidence against classical theory by way of cognition built on social interactions?

Answer 13

MIT’s Leonardo. Expressive and emotional object appraisal. Mirrors handler.

Question 14

What is symbol grounding?

Answer 14

Abstract conceptual knowledge must be grounded in our perceptions and interactions with the world.

Question 15

What is the problem with classical theory?

Answer 15

Provides no explanation for how symbols are learned.

Question 16

What happens to symbolic representation over time?

Answer 16

Become increasingly independent of the referent environmental stimuli.