MIdterm 1 Flashcards
What is a Percept?
representation before something is known
What is a Concept?
representation after something is known
How does the brain fulfill its beneficial functions?
it builds models of reality and acts on them
it interprets then organizes to produce meaningful representations.
Why did the brain evolve?
for adaptive benefit
Mental maps of concepts are not…?
100% accurate, it is meant to help us understand reality better and gives explanatory power.
What is a theory?
scientific theories are explanations of aspects of the natural world that have been proved through experiments and testing
Greek philosophers believed?
observations could be accounted for by natural explanations rather than supernatural
Who was the first philosopher and what did he believe?
Thales, he believed that causes of nature are natural and not supernatural
Theories of what caused physical realm of disease used to be?
demons, witches and curses
Theories of what caused psychological realm of disease used to be?
demons and spirits.
What is natural causality
A belief that all events can be traced to natural causes that we can comprehend (natural causality).
What is Cognitivism
the belief of thinking of living things as storing and processing information rather than as responding mechanically to stimuli. “We are information processing machines”
What is Aristotelian Philosophy
We should observe reality and reason according to it. Universe’s design was orderly and that rational design had a rational function. Should change thoughts if evidence suggests otherwise
He also believed the brain functioned as a radiator to cool “warm hearts”
What is Logic
The study of how to evaluate arguments and reasoning
What is Mathematical Logic
It was pioneered by philosopher mathematicians that were inspired by Aristotle/Leibniz’s dream of a universal concept language
Why is Philosophy important to Comp Sci
It teaches you how to analyze complex concepts and interconnections between them and how to express concepts elegantly and precisely in written form
Who was George Boole
George Boole created boolean logic which provided general symbolic methods of logical inference. His goal was to investigate fundamental laws and operations of the human mind
Who invented the concept of the algorithm
Al-Khwarismi
Who started formal logic
Medhatithi Gautama, formal logic started in India
Who was Leibniz
Believed human reasoning could be reduced to calculations. Enunciated the principal properties of logical operations
Who was Gottlob Frege
Considered to be father of analytic philosophy, invented axiomatic predicate logic and quantified variables.
What was the Renaissance
Catholic church burnt down places of knowledge causing Europe to go into dark ages. Books of knowledge were translated into European languages and with this ideas began to grow in Europe once more
What is Cartesian Dualism
View that the mind and brain are 2 distinct types of substance
What is introspection:
looking within ourselves to observe the content of our major lives
What are psychology’s roots in?
Philosophy and Physiology
What is Operant Conditioning?
Making behaviour more or les likely to happen
Problems with Behaviourism?
Understanding mental entities are essential to understanding and predicting behaviour
What is Psychological theory
-It describes behaviour
-makes predictions of future behaviours
-must have evidence to support ideas
-must be testable
What is Empiricism
it is the theory that knowledge that asserts knowledge is gained through experience
if it is real it will react with reality…?
lawfully, reliably, and predictably
What is the Burden of Proof?
It is when you stand on the default that something is false until proven true, responsibility of person making the claim is to prove it, all claims require evidence.
What is the Null Hypothesis?
it is the default position that there is no relationship between 2 variables.
What is Declarative Knowledge?
“Knowledge what?”
eg. bike = transport
What is Procedural Knowledge?
“Knowledge how?”
eg. if bike - then pedal
How did Skinner view how children learnt language?
-Children learn by reinforcement
-Correct utterances are positively reinforced
Chomsky believed this was wrong, and that stimulus was not enough to explain it
What is the Poverty of Stimulus?
information required to learn language in is not present in the environment and that it must be an innate mechanism in human brain.
rules of language are too rich to learn by imitation from environment.
What is the Language Acquisition Device?
it is an intrinsic mental capacity that enables to acquire and produce language, humans are born with innate facility for acquiring language
What is a paradigm shift?
Fundamental change in basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline.
Happens when old/dominant paradigm are not compatible with new phenomena
What is the Computational Theory of Mind
it is the theory that states that the mind is like a computer, a turing machine, where the core mental processes are like computations.
The mind inputs data, stores within internal memory, transforms information by rules and produces intelligent outputs
What is Multiple Realizability?
The idea that the same mental states can be implemented by different physical properties
(It is not necessarily a transfer of consciousness but a copy of consciousness)
What are internal representations?
Can be anything such as thoughts, beliefs, desires perceptions, etc.
Representations can refer to mental models of reality
information processing depends on internal representations.
What are Newell’s Level
-Knowledge Level (Representations)/ Top level: Concepts that represent properties of a system
Declarative Knowledge is here
-Computational Level (Operations)/ Middle Level: Computational operations that carry out a task
Procedural Knowledge is here
-Neural level (Hardware)/ Bottom Level: Physical hardware responsible for processing information
What is a Turing Machine?
an abstract device intended to help investigate the principles of computation and limitations of what could be computed
What is the Content/Vehicle Distinction?
All representations are a vehicle and the meaning it represents its content. Mental representations have content. Symbols act as vehicles that contain meaningful content
What is Intentionality
It is the distinguishinmg feature of mental phenomena, mental entities are not for themselves , they stand for something else (aboutness)
What is a Symbol
A pattern that denotes something humans can interpret
What is the Physical Symbol System Hypothesis and what are its 4 basic ideas?
it is a theory of how symbols work
1. Symbols are patterns
2. Symbols can be combined with one another
3. Physical symbol systems contain processes for manipulating complex symbol structures
4. These processes cam be represented by symbols and symbol structures within the systems
What is a discrete state machine?
machine that is in an one of a finite state at a given time
what is the Classical Computational Theory of Mind
The belief that the nature of the mind is computational in nature, Neurons generate computations that produce intelligence
What is No Relevant Difference
in order to justify treating two entities morally differently, there has to be a relevant difference between those two entities.
What does Philosophy contribute to cognitive science?
- Generates testable hypothesis
- integrates a wide range of empirical results into a broad theoretical picture
- contributes to conceptual clarity
- can provide thought experiments
2 important features of functional states are?
- Mental states can be realized in multiple ways
- Are characterized relationally in terms of the role they play in a wider system
what is an algorithm?
finite set if unambiguous rules that can be applied to an object to transform it in a finite amount of times
Type 2 processes are?
Slow, conscious, controlled
knowledge is retrieved into working memory and directs procedural knowledge on how to act
Type 1 processes are?
fast, unconscious, automatica feeling is help in working memory and causes procedural knowledge to act it out
Connectionism is?
neurons transmit signals to one another and fire when limit exceedes threshold
brain involves networks of individual neurons with synaptic connections between them that send electrical signals of varying strengths
If input is excitatory then?
units move towards activity
if input is inhibitory then?
units move away from activity
Hebbian Network is?
When 2 neurons fire together the weight between them increases and decreases when they activate seperately
What is the Violation of the Laws of Coservation
It is when mental events can cause physical events since there is an increase of energy when there is no decrease
What is the Mind-Brain Identity Theory
Every type of mental state exists is identical to a type of brain state
“The mind is what the brain does”
How do we know brain generates the mind
brain injuries impact function
What kind of brain activity can we measure?
-EEG (electroencephalography): electrical activity frim neurochemical messaging (action potentials)
-BOLD(blood-oxygenation level dependant): where blood has metabolized in brain
What is modularity of the mind?
The theory states human minds consist iof specialized mental modules. each module is responsible for processing specific types of info and cognitive functions. Modules operate independently
What is information encapsulation?
The fact that modules cannot access info elsewhere other than it’s own system
what is the representational theory of the mind
Psychological explanations express relations among mental states (thoughts, beliefs, desires, and action).
What are symbols?
Symbols are physical objects with semantic (meaningful) properties
What is the difference between the RTM and the CTM
RTM: states mental states are representations of external and internal reality, emphasizing the content of mental representations
CTM: focuses on processes that manipulate mental representations, highlighting computational operations and algorithms underlyinf congitive functions
What does procedural knowledge not have?
Semantic Memory
How are symbols possible in a connectionist system?
Training gives rise to new representations called clusters in a state space (distributed representations)
