Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition 001 Flashcards
Describe the concept of a Turing machine!
A Turing machine is an abstract “machine” that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules.
The machine operates on an infinite memory tape divided into cells. The machine positions its head over a cell and scans the symbol there. Then per the symbol and its present place in a finite table of user-specified instructions the machine
(i) writes a symbol (e.g. a digit or a letter from a finite alphabet) in the cell (some models allowing symbol erasure and/or no writing), then
(ii) either moves the tape one cell left or right (some models allow no motion, some models move the head), then
(iii) (as determined by the observed symbol and the machine’s place in the table) either proceeds to a subsequent instruction or halts the computation.
Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can simulate the logic of any computer algorithm.
Describe the terms nomothetic vs. idiographic!
Nomothetic is based on a tendency to generalize, and is typical for the natural sciences. It describes the effort to derive laws that explain objective phenomena in general.
Idiographic is based on a tendency to specify, and is typical for the humanities. It describes the effort to understand the meaning of contingent, unique, and often subjective phenomena.
Explain the concept of a “homunculi-headed robot”!
Suppose a billion people were recruited to take part in a giant experiment. Each individual is given a very small task to perform—for example, to press a certain button when a certain light comes on. In doing so, each of them plays the causal role of an individual neuron, with the communications between them mirroring the synaptic connections among the neurons. Now suppose that signals from this network of people are appropriately connected to a robot body, so that the signals from the network cause the robot to move, talk, etc. If the network were set up in the right way, then it seems in principle possible that it could be functionally equivalent to a human brain.
This idea was brought up by Ned Block as a challenge for functionalism:
Intuitively speaking, it seems very odd to attribute qualia to the robot. Though it might be in a state functionally equivalent to the state you are in when you have a pain in your right toe, it seems implausible to suppose that the robot is feeling pain. In fact, it seems implausible to suppose that the robot could have any phenomenal experience whatsoever. Thus, if the absent qualia objection is right, we can have functional equivalence without qualitative equivalence, so qualia escape functional explanation.
What is the main claim of enactivism?
Enactivism argues that cognition arises through a dynamic interaction between an acting organism and its environment.
What is the main claim of computationalism?
The mind is a computation that arises from the brain acting as a computing machine
What is the main claim of Cartesian dualism?
Mind and body are made of different substances. The body is a physical entity while
What are the ‘4 Es’ in cognitive science?
Embodied, Embedded, Extended, Enacted Cognition
Emphasizes the interaction of mind, body and environment, seeing them as inseparably intertwined in mental processes.
What is the main claim of connectionism?
Mental or behavioral phenomena are the emergent processes of interconnected networks of simple units
What is the main claim of phenomenalism?
Physical objects cannot justifiably be said to exist in themselves, but only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli situated in time and in space (‘bundles of sense-data’).
What is the core claim of evolutionary epistemology?
The structure and reflexes of an organism embody knowledge about its environment
State the core claim of the ‘radical enactive cognition’ view!
There is no way to distinguish neural activity that is imagined to be genuinely content involving (and thus truly mental or cognitive) from other non-neural activity that merely plays a supporting role in making mind possible.
What is cultural psychology?
Cultural psychology is the study of how psychological and behavioral tendencies are rooted in and embodied in culture.
Mind and culture are inseparable and mutually constitutive, meaning that people are shaped by their culture and their culture is also shaped by them.
What is the core claim of situated cognition?
Knowing is inseparable from doing. All knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts.
What is meant by the term ‘embodied cognition’?
Cognition is embodied when it is deeply dependent upon features of the physical body of an agent. Aspects of the agent’s body play a causal or physically constitutive role in cognitive processing.
What is embedded cognition?
Intelligent behaviour emerges from the interplay between brain, body and world. The world is not just the ‘play-ground’ on which the brain is acting. Rather, brain, body and world are equally important factors in the explanation of how particular intelligent behaviours come about in practice.
