Quiz 1: Lectures 1-6 Flashcards
How do cognitive systems interact with the environment?
Transforms things in the environment to internal representations
Turns desires to act into physical changes in the environment
Cognitive systems in animals
Come from the brain, with senses to take in perception and the body to control for actions
Distributed cognition
The idea that cognition doesn’t end with your brain.
The cognitive system spans multiple entities.
Humans and computers often work together in one system.
Even the brain is a distributed cognitive system (parts for speech, visual, etc)
Give an example of a distributed cognitive system
Construction worker and a map= distributed cognitive system
Materials and house= environment
What is cognition?
Manipulation of representations
What are representations?
Things stored as memory of beliefs in your head, that exist in the real world but not physically
Ex. Thinking of your phone number is forming a representation of your actual number that exists.
Ex. Thinking of your friend. It’s not them, it’s your representation of them.
How are representations stored?
Animals: brain, long term memory, short term memory
Software: databases, symbols
Distributed systems: paper, brain, disk, environment manipulation
Sensory memory
Like a scratch pad (for vision) or a bit of recording tape (for hearing) that can be overwritten with new things.
It’s rewritten every few seconds by new perceptions.
Ex. When someone asks you a question while you’re focused on something, and you don’t “hear” them until seconds later, it was stored in your sensory memory
Short term memory
A temporary storage of your sensory environment and a storage of the thoughts that go through your head.
Some things from it end up becoming long term memories
Ex. Making a mental note to buy a new jacket
Long term memory
Probably stored here forever, though we might have trouble with retrieval.
One reason why old people have trouble accessing long term memories is because there’s so many of them that they get an interference
Semantic memory
Things like facts.
Ex. Your memory that Trudeau is PM
Episodic memory
Things that have happened to you
Ex. Remembering where you parked your car
Declarative memory
Statements, fact, etc that you know to be true
Semantic and episodic
Non-declarative memory
Things that are harder to recall
Implicit and procedural
Implicit memory
Things you know but have a hard time explaining or describing
Ex. What an iPhone looks like
Procedural memory
Things you know how to do but might not be able to explain.
Ex. Tying your shoes
Ex. Knowing your locker combination from doing it in your head, but not being able to say it out loud
Which part of the brain transforms short term memories into long term
The hippocampus.
Uncertain if short term memories are stored here, but if the hippocampus gets damaged, you lose the ability to form new long term memories
Where does procedural memory take place
The cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and the motor cortex.
What is the biological evolutionary function of learning?
Changing memory with the purpose of preparing a system for better action in the future.
Habituation learning
Diminution of a behavioural response with repeated stimulation
Ex. The first time you hear a loud noise you might jump, but the times afterward you stop jumping
Sensitization learning
When a behavioural response is amplified by repeated exposure to a stimulus.
Ex. The more someone pokes you, the more annoying it gets.
Ex. Becoming more sensitive to a phone vibrating in your pocket, to the point where you’re aware of other things vibrating around you
Classical conditioning learning
Learning to associate two previously unrelated stimuli. Typically means that you learn to behave similarly to stimulus B as you do to stimulus A
Ex. A dog learns that when you pick up a leash, a walk is soon to follow
Ex. Trusting a person you barely know because they remind you of someone you already know and trust
Operant conditioning learning
Changing your behaviour according to reward and punishment.
Types: Positive reinforcement Negative reinforcement Positive punishment Negative punishment
Positive reinforcement
Introduction of something pleasant to increase the probability of behaviour
Ex. Smiling at someone every time they open the door for you, they’ll keep doing it
Negative reinforcement
Introducing something pleasant to take a stimulus away
Ex. A baby screams until you give them candy. (NR for you, but the baby is learning PR)
Positive punishment
A bad behaviour is reduced because something unpleasant was introduced
Ex. Reach for Jim’s bubble tea and he slaps your hand
Negative punishment
Stop doing something good to get them to stop behaving badly
Ex. Cutting off allowance for bad grades
Practice learning
Doing something over and over and learning how to do it better. Uses reinforcement and punishment to hone the skill
Ex. Play is a form of practice for future events
Motor skills get easier because of automatization (becomes instinct). Ex. Walking
Imprinting learning
A time sensitive learning in an animal that is insensitive to behavioural outcomes
Ex. A goose learning who it’s mother is happens 13-16 hrs after hatching
Observational learning
Happens by observing another individual do something
Ex. Learning a dance by watching Tiktok videos
Ex. Men learning to stand legs apart, women learn to stand feet together
Testimony learning
Learning by something being communicated by another being
Ex. How to start a web browser
Ex. Orcas are mammals
Mentorship learning
We learn from others and can teach others.
Other learning styles form this (like observation)
Ex. Being taught to cook
Genetic learning
When environments change very slowly
Cultural learning (imitation)
When environments change relatively quickly
Content bias: imitate best idea
Prestige bias: imitate most successful
Conformist bias: imitate most common ways of doing things
What is perception?
The process by which agents interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world
From a cog sci perspective, it means turning information from one form into new, meaningful representations
Typical sensory modalities
Vision Audition Haptics Taste and olfaction(smell) Kinaesthetics/proprioception
Atypical sensory modalities
Senses in the bowel, stomach, pain receptors, heat receptors, etc
Human vision: extramission vs intromission theory
Extramission theory: rays of light emanating from the eye in combination with the light in the world allow us to see (FALSE)
Intromission theory: visual perception is accomplished by rays of light reflected from objects into the eyes (TRUE)
Human eye
Light is reflected into the eye and focused on the retina
Light stimulates the rod and cone receptors
Transduction of light into electricity
Rods (eye)
The most light sensitive photoreceptive cells in the retina (night vision)
100x more sensitive than cones
Information is received by a convergence or pooling from many rod cells resulting in a loss of visual acuity.
Convergence of information makes peripheral vision sensitive to movement
Cone (eye)
Three types: Correspond to
short (blue)
medium (green)
long (red) wavelengths
Depth perception
SPOT FM
Size: we know how big things are
Perceptive: things are smaller in the fovea as they get farther
Occlusion: when one thing is in front of another
Texture/shading/saturation: closer things are more saturated. Texture gradients
Focus
Multiple images: including motion and binocular vision
Dorsal stream (vision)
The “where” pathway
Associated with motion, representation of object locations, and control of the eyes and arms, especially when visual information is used to guide saccades or reaching
Ventral stream (vision)
The “what” pathway
Associated with form recognition and object representation. Also ask with storage of long term memory
Pandemonium model of perception
You have these “demons” that looks for specific features, and once found, they pass on to the next demon that looks for something else.
All these combined tell you what it is that you’re looking at.
(Breaking down everything you see into components)
Template matching perception
Matching what you know as a 3 and overlaying it with what you see, so it must be a 3
(We don’t think animals work like this, it would be more for a computer)
Neural network perception
Pixels activate the input layer, which sends signals to the hidden layer, which sends things to the output layer. The output layer identifies.
(How do they do this? By learning)
How audition (hearing) works
Acoustical energy (sound waves) vibrate the eardrum (in air) or bones (underwater or through your own body, as when you hear your own voice) Localization is done by examining the differences between the sounds in the two ears, somewhat like how depth is done with binocular vision
Echolocation (biosonar)
Send out sound, determine spatial information from sound
Ex. Moving your hand closer to your mouth as you speak, you’ll be able to tell how close it is
Haptics (touch)
Critical for manipulation of objects, particularly in combination with proprioception
Sensors are in the skin
Olfaction (smell)
Detection of chemicals- no clear energy continuum as there is for light and sound waves
Some similar chemicals smell different, some different chemicals smell the same
Much of what we experience as taste is actually smell, which is why food tastes bland when you have a stuffy nose
Smell for animal communication
Territory
Fertility
Ant pheromone traces
Gustation (taste)
Chemical receptors in taste buds last for a week or two then wear out
The tongue detects flavours such as salty, sour, bitter, umami, and sweet
Pain receptors react to spicy food
Kinaesthesia, proprioception, and the vestibular system
Proprioception and kinaesthesia are how you know where your body parts are and how they are moving
Sensors are in the inner ear and in muscles
Phantom limb comes from proprioception
Motion sickness is from the vestibular system
Historic vs contemporary vs secondary fields of cog sci
Historically core: Psychology Philosophy Computer science Linguistics
Contemporary core:
Neuroscience
Secondary:
Education
Anthropology
Psychology subject matter and methods
Sm: neural minds, mostly human. Broadly interested in cognitive functioning
Methods: laboratory experiments, statistical analysis, computer cognitive modeling
Psychology subfields
Cognitive psych: human internal mental processes
Human-computer interaction: how people psychologically interact with artifacts such as software
Evolutionary psych: how evolutionary history has made our minds what they are
Psycholinguistics: studying language with experiments
Comparative psych: comparing animal cognition to humans
Psychology critiques
Not enough model building
Not enough theory
Methodologically limited
Underestimate the complexity of language
Philosophy subject matter and methods
Sm: big questions, what our concepts mean
Methods: thinking and writing, thought experiments, conceptual analysis, argumentation
Philosophy subfields
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of science
Philosophy of language
Philosophy critiques
Don’t pay enough attention to empirical study
Sometimes think the existence of a word implies the existence of its intended referent (ex unicorn)
Too concerned with too many unimportant problems
Computer science subject matter and methods
Sm: how mental processes can work on machines, how humans can interact with computers
Methods: building and testing computer programs
Computer science subfields
Artificial intelligence: building mental processes with computer programs
Human-computer interaction: designing computer interfaces that humans can effectively use
Artificial intelligence critiques
Insufficiently concerned with natural intelligence
Overly optimistic about the future of AI
Linguistics subject matter and methods
Sm: human spoken or signed natural language, not written language
Methods: sound analysis, grammar creation, corpus analysis
Linguistics subfields
Phonology: how sounds are organized and used in language
Morphology: how sound and meaning interact in words
Syntax: how sentences may be put together in a language
Semantics: meaning in language
Pragmatics: how sentences interact with context to change meaning
Linguistics critiques
Build models of language and then don’t know what to do with them
Not familiar with other findings of the mind
Only concern themselves with one part of cognition
Neuroscience subject matter and methods
Sm: how the brain processes information and creates cognitive processes, the biological functions of the mental phenomena
Methods: neuroimagining, single cell recording, anatomical observation, computer modeling, pharmaceutical effects, genetic analysis
Neuroscience critiques
Underestimate the complexity of language and other thought processes
Completely unable to shed light on many of the processes everyone else is interested in
Tend to be dismissive of other approaches
Lean too far toward nature on the nature/nurture debate
Education subject matter and methods
Sm: how people learn and how to design education to help them learn
Methods: naturalistic observation of case studies, empirical studies
Education critiques
Case studies are worthless or close to it
Too applied and not telling us enough about basic cognitive processes
Only deal with one part of cognition
Anthropology subject matter and methods
Sm: social organization, human culture, enculturation, cultural change, shared knowledge, distributed cognition
Methods: field work, ethnographic observation, interviews
Anthropology critiques
Lean too far on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate
Research is too qualitative and expensive
Research does not generalize enough to be useful
Cognitive science subject matter and methods
Sm: study of minds and thinking, especially at the information processing level
Methods: applies methodologies from multiple disciplines to multiple problems from those disciplines
Iconic vs echoic memories
Iconic: memory of what you just saw
Echoic: memory of what you just learned
What are the 3 components of working memory?
1) central executive memory
2) visuospatial sketchpad which is your visual memory representation
3) phonological loop: your interpreter version of whatever you heard
How many hours a week should you spend studying outside of class?
More than 20
The truth about learning styles
The scientific evidence that people have different learning styles is weak.
Never use your perceived learning style as an excuse for not doing well in school
Truth about multitasking
People can’t do it.
What you’re actually doing is called multitask switching, which is a problem because your brain has to catch up every time you switch
Benefits of the half hour schedule method
All your important projects get done each day, so they stay active in your memory Allows for incubation Allows for connections to be made Gets things done before the deadline Allows time if you need help from others
2 things that are really good for retention of information
Take a walk before studying (students recalled 25% more words if they took a walk before)
Sleep (sleeping is when your mind turns short term memories into long term, so you’ll retain more info)
Characteristics of learning disabilities
Average to above average intelligence
A specific academic weakness
A specific cognitive processing weakness
A meaningful relationship between the cognitive deficit and the academic deficit
Types of learning disabilities
Reading
Math
Written language
Oral Lang
Metacognition
The ability to consciously and deliberately monitor and regulate ones knowledge, processes and cognitive and affective states.
