Lecture 8 - Knowledge and problem solving

Question 1

How are learning and memory related?

Answer 1

Learning is the acquisition of skill or knowledge, while memory is the expression of what we’ve acquired.

Question 2

What is a concept?

Answer 2

a mental representation used for a variety of cognitive functions

Question 3

What is conceptual knowledge?

Answer 3

enables us to recognise objects and events and to make inferences about their properties

Question 4

What is categorisation?

Answer 4

the process by which things are placed into groups called categories; Categories are all possible examples of a particular concept

Question 5

Why are categories useful?

Answer 5

Help to understand individual cases not previously encountered.
Provide a wealth of general information about an item.
Allow us to identify the special characteristics of a particular item.

Question 6

What is family resemblance?

Answer 6

items in a category resemble one another in a number of ways

Question 7

What is a prototype?

Answer 7

an average representation of the “typical” member of a category

Question 8

What is high prototypicality?

Answer 8

A category member closely resembles the category prototype.

Question 8

What is the prototype approach?

Answer 8

There is a strong positive relationship between prototypicality and family resemblance.
Items in a category that have a large amount of overlap have high family resemblance.

Question 9

What is the typicality effect?

Answer 9

Prototypical objects are
processed preferentially
processed more rapidly (Smith et al 1974)
named more rapidly (Rosch 1975)
more affected by priming:Hearing “green” primes a highly prototypical “green”

Question 10

What is the exemplar approach?

Answer 10

A concept is represented by multiple examples (rather than a single prototype). Examples are actual category members (not abstract averages).
To categorize, we compare the new item to stored examples.

Question 11

What are semantic networks?

Answer 11

Concepts are arranged in networks that represent the way concepts are organised in the mind (Collins and Quillian, 1969)

Question 12

What is the cognitive economy?

Answer 12

shared properties are only stored at higher-level nodes

exceptions are stored at lower nodes

Question 13

What is semantic dementia?

Answer 13

Progressive neurological disorder in which people lose specific knowledge first and loss of memory follows the hierarchy from specific to general
Gradual disintegration of concepts & categories
Follows opposite direction as in which children acquire knowledge

Question 13

What is the collins and quillian model?

Answer 13

Hierarchical model
Node = category/concept.
Concepts are linked.
Model for how concepts and properties are associated in the mind.
Bridges to computer models of knowledge

Question 14

What is activation?

Answer 14

Activation is the arousal level of a node.
When a node is activated, activity spreads out along all connected links.
Concepts that receive activation are primed and more easily accessed from memory.

Question 15

How do we criticise the collins and quillian model?

Answer 15

cannot explain typicality effects

Question 16

What is the connectionist approach?

Answer 16

Originated in creating computer models for representing cognitive processes.
Uses parallel distributed processing.
Knowledge is represented in the distributed activity of many units.
Knowledge can be activated by external stimuli AND signals from other units in the knowledge system
Weights determine at each connection how strongly an incoming signal will activate next unit

Question 17

Whats the embodied approach?

Answer 17

Learning & conceptualization is based on experience
Knowledge of concepts is based on reactivation of sensory and motor processes that occur when we interact with the object.

Question 18

What are mirror neurons?

Answer 18

Fire when we do a task, or we observe another doing that same task.

Question 19

Whats semantic somatotopy?

Answer 19

Correspondence between words related to specific body parts and the location of brain activation.

Question 20

What is a problem?

Answer 20

An obstacle between a present state and a goal.
Not immediately obvious how to get around the obstacle.
Difficult to solve.
The same problem can be represented differently in the mind.
Changing the problem’s representation often leads to new solutions (restructuring).

Question 21

Are problems solved suddenly or progressively?

Answer 21

Depends on the problem (Metcalfe and Wiebe 1987)
Insight problems such as riddles are solved suddenly.

Non-insight problems such as math solutions are solved gradually.

Question 22

What is fixation?

Answer 22

People’s tendency to focus on one specific characteristic of the problem keeps them from arriving at a solution.

Question 23

What is functional fixedness?

Answer 23

Restricting use of an object to its familiar functions

Question 24

What is a mental set?

Answer 24

A preconceived notion about how to approach a problem based on a person’s experiences with similar problems.

Question 25

What is the Information-Processing Approach?

Answer 25

Newell & Simon’s logic theorist approach: Tower of Hanoi problem
Problem space
Initial state
Intermediate state(s)
Goal state.
Means–end analysis: Reduce differences between initial and goal states.
Subgoals: Create intermediate states closer to goal.

Question 26

What is dunckers radiation problem?

Answer 26

When using a solution to a similar problem guides solution to a new problem = “Analogical problem solving”.

Analogical transfer: The transfer from one problem to another

Source problem to target problem.
1. Noticing relationship.
2. Mapping correspondence between source and target.
3. Applying mapping.

Question 27

What is analogical encoding?

Answer 27

Process by which two problems are compared and similarities between them are determined.

Question 28

What is analogical paradox?

Answer 28

It can be difficult to apply analogies in the laboratory, but people routinely use analogies in real-world setting.

Question 29

How do experts solve problems?

Answer 29

Experts solve problems in their field more quickly and with a higher success rate than beginners.
Experts possess more knowledge about their fields.
Knowledge is organized so it can be accessed when needed for a problem (they can use the knowledge of patterns they already know = schemas)

Question 30

What is creativity?

Answer 30

Innovative thinking
Novel ideas.
New connections between existing ideas.

Question 31

What is Divergent thinking?

Answer 31

Open-ended; large number of potential “solutions”.

Question 32

How do we generate ideas?

Answer 32

Brainstorming
Creative cognition

Question 33

What is creative cognition?

Answer 33

Technique to train people to think creatively by focusing on creation rather than use
Preinventive forms: ideas that precede creation of finished creative product.

Question 34

How to aid creativity?

Answer 34

Creativity is affected by mood (good mood = more ideas)
Healthy habits (Exercise/physical activity, Spending time in nature, Sleep deprivation decreases creativity)

Question 35

How do you test creativity?

Answer 35

Guilford’s alternate uses test
People get objects presented that are associated with a certain use. Task is to come up with as many possible uses in a given time

Question 36

What is latent inhibition?

Answer 36

Capacity to screen out stimuli that are considered irrelevant.

Question 37

What is savant syndrome?

Answer 37

Savant skills may be present in any person but are normally not accessible to conscious awareness. In savants the lack of inhibition unlocks savant skills (Snyder 2009)

Savant syndrome is often linked to damage in anterior temporal lobe (Chi & Snyder 2012)
When using TMS, deactivated left anterior temporal lobe causes people to think “outside the box”
We find problems difficult because our brains are wired to interpret the world in certain ways, based on experience