PSY2040 - Cognitive Psychology

Question 1

Chap 1 - Foundation

Reductionism

Eliminative Materialism

Abstract

Answer 1

**Reductionism: **the notion that we can reduce ideas relating to mental events to a basic physical level.

**Eliminative Materialism. **the viewpoint that once we understand the electro-chemical workings of the brain, we will understand the mind.

Abstract: something that is defined without reference to the material world.

Question 2

Chap 1 - Foundation

Dualism

Behaviuuorism

Principles of Associationism

Answer 2

Dualism: the mind is a mental entity distinct fromt he physical world.

not widley accepted as it is difficult to identify how the physical and mental worlds interact.

**Behaviuuorism: **strives to achieve a description of human behaviour in terms of the *laws of behaviour. *

**​Principles of Associationism: **statements that collectively specify how association formation takes place.

Question 3

Chap 1 - Foundation

Occam’s Razor

Answer 3

The principle that given two competing theories that make the same prediction, the preferred theory is the one that is the simpler.

Question 4

Chap 1 - Foundation

**Central State Identity Theory **

Type Idenitiy

Token Identity

Answer 4

To understand the mind, we must understand the brain. (General theory of all cognitive Theories)

Two versions:

**Type Identity Theory: **each type of mental event maps onto a different type of neurological event. claims feeling pain (mental) and nerve cells firing (physical) are the same thing. One occurs with the other.

Different Brains Problem: Two different brains feeling the same thing may use different nerve cells.

Token Identity Theory: mental events correspond with neurological events, but there is an acceptance that there may well be a variety of neurological events that underlie each mental event.

Question 5

Chap 1 - Foundation:

Function and Functional Role

Answer 5

To understand the full workings of the brain, we need to have

1. a description of the structure of the components
2. a specification of how these are interconnected
3. a complete description of the functional role of each of the components.

Functionalism: it is possible to see how two different neurophysiological (brain) states may underlie the same mental state - as long as the two neurophysiological (brain) states serve the same functional role then they capture the same mental state.

Question 6

Chap 1 - Foundation:

Marr’s Three Levels of Description

Answer 6

1. cumputational theory: what the device does and why
2. representation and algorithm: how states of the world are represented and what the contigent internal processes are
3. **hardware implementation: **how the desiganated representations and processes are implemented physically.

Question 7

Chap 1 - Foundation:

Reductionism

Answer 7

the doctrine that we can reduce all accounts of behavior to a very basic physical level

According to reductionists, understanding the mind reduces to understanding the basic electro-chemical states and processes that characterise behavior of neurons.

Question 8

Chap 2 - Intro

Connectionism

Computational Metaphor

Architectual Characteristics

cognitive Neuropsychology

Answer 8

Connectionism: a discipline that attempts to gernerate computer models of the mind based on brain-like architectures.

Computational Metaphor: mental processes are computational processes

Architectual Characteristics: how the mind might be composed and organised into its constituent components.

Cognitive Neuropsychology: a cognitive approach that concentrates on comparisons between performance of individuals suffering from some form of brain damage with idividuals with intact brains.

Question 9

Chap 2 -

Artificial Intelligence Approach

Answer 9

The aim is to generate a new computer program that mimics the behaviour of the observed program.

the new computer program is considered to be **demonstration proof. **

“developing computer programs”

Question 10

Chap 2 -

Neuroscience Approach

Answer 10

Understanding what areas light up during certain functions

“how brains work”

Question 11

Chap 2 -

Cognitive Approach

Answer 11

generating flow charts on the basis of measuring oberservable behavior

Question 12

Chap 2 -

Information Theory

Answer 12

A methematical account of how a communication system works

This process was adopted to describe the mind.

Human organisms consist of certain sensory systems (eye, ears, nose) which operate as recievers of external inputs; these recievers operate to encode these inputs via sensory encoding or sensory transduction.

Stimulus Representation: how the stimulus is encoded following the operation of the perceptual mechanisms.