Task 6-Dynamic systems, nonlinearity, discontinuity, cusp catastrophe, attractors, self-organization

Question 1

Dynamic systems:

Answer 1

A system whose changes depend on the previous values of involved variables
The problem with cognitive science: Assumption of proportionality and unimodality. Behaviors are not always smooth functions of their causes.
Unimodality = only 1 outcome without disturbances

Non-Iinear: a big change can occur suddenly
Bimodal: two initial states can lead to one outcome
Both felxible and stable
Behavior is constant and fluid
Explains real life mind well and stuff like sleep and mood

Question 2

Butterfly effect

Answer 2

Butterfly effect: a small change somewhere might have a big impact somewhere else

Question 3

Attractors

Answer 3

stable states that the system settles to (soft assembly to attractor states)

Question 4

Phase Transition:

Answer 4

change from one attractor to another due to multiple attractors

Question 5

Chaos

Answer 5

very small difference in values of variables can produce big different outcomes: abrupt unpredictable changes. = CATASTROPHE THEORY

Question 6

Can be seen as a supplement to CRUM theory (T1) and simulated annealing (T2))

Answer 6

Global minimum is the ultimate goal state!

Question 7

Cusp catastrophe

Answer 7

Sudden change in performance due to change in X,Y,Z

Control surface (top): Determines e.g. performance

Bimodal system: In the bifurication set bimodality occurs; various outcomes possible.
= Sudden change in behavior=Catastrophic jumps

Question 8

catastrophe models characteristics

Answer 8

Hysteresis: „Sticking tendency“ (prior conformity = consistency)
Divergence: Different effects of splitting factor (depending on individual)
Splitting factor: outside influence (social pressure)

Self-organization without any executive agent

Nested timescales: behavior change occurs over different timescales that interact with each other

Question 9

bifurcation set

Answer 9

that area of bimodlaity

Question 10

bimodality

Answer 10

one combination of independent variables can have multiple dependant variables

Question 11

divergence

Answer 11

different effect of splitting factor on behaviour in catastrophe theory

Question 12

hysteresis

Answer 12

tendency to stick

Question 13

nonlinearity

Answer 13

changes do not happen gradually , but in a discontinuous nonlinear way that includes destabilisation
have very erratic behavior, jumping from one point in state space to another in short period of time

 Example: weather can change dramatically within couple of hours

Question 14

state space

Answer 14

all different combinations of values or variables of a system a system can be in
set of states the system can be in as determined by the variables that are used to measure it

 Example: weather model keeps track of temperature, humidity and air pressure at five locations has a total of 15 variables, so all different combinations of values of these variables can constitute state space

Question 15

self organization

Answer 15

a structure / pattern emerges without specification from teh outside world / environment

Question 16

dynamics system 2

Answer 16

system – a system whose changes over time can be characterized by set of equations that show how current values of variables depend mathematically on previous values of those variables

 Example: weather (variables like temperature, humidity, air pressure)

• Many phenomena in physics, biology, and even economics can usefully be understood in terms of dynamic systems ideas such as state space, attractors, phase transitions, and chaos

Question 17

Dynamic systems challenge cognitive systems

Answer 17

instead of understanding human thinking in computational-representation terms, we should think of mind as dynamic system

we should follow the successful example of physics and biology and try to develop equations that describe how the mind changes over time

Question 18

Responses to Dynamic Systems Challenge

Answer 18

• Denial
 Dynamic system is very limited in its application to human thinking
 Connectionist models have been more precise, but connectionism is part of CRUM, not an alternative to it; so dynamic systems theory is best seen as just an adjunct to connectionism rather than as an alternative to CRUM
• Expand and supplement CRUM
 Dynamic system embodies several aspects that are neglected in CRUM
 Deals more gracefully with time than CRUM
 CRUM (connectionist version) seems open to expansion and supplementation with dynamic systems ideas
 approach might be useful for explaining nonrepresentational aspects of human behavior
 mind is a dynamic system is not yet a credible alternative to CRUM, since there is so much about problem solving, learning, and language that is explainable with CRUM and that proponents of the dynamic systems approach have not even addressed  Nevertheless, a full account of the nature of mind that incorporates human biology and interactions with the world may find it useful to draw on dynamic systems explanations

Question 19

conflict attractors

Answer 19

states/patterns that unfold overtime in situations of conflict which resist change or which resume after changes have been initiated
 People can have many different types of conflict attractors and move between them during progression of conflict
 Conflict attractors are psychological, social and cultural patterns people display overtime in conflicts and to which they return after temporary changes occur

Question 20

high resilience

Answer 20

high level of stability

Question 21

Support for a complex systems perspective on psychopathology (foresee levels

Answer 21

• Sudden shifts in symptoms are observed in patients (abrupt symptom changes are quite common which is in line with the expectations from complex system theory)
• Verbal descriptions of patients suggest that sudden and discontinuous changes in their symptom experience may occur in the absence of an obvious, temporally proximal cause or reason
 in line with complex system theory which predicts that when resilience becomes very low (can be due to distant causes) even minor disturbances can tip over the system to an alternative state
• Elements within complex systems are in a continuous and complex interplay with each other
 in many complex systems reinforcing feedbacks are present that, if strong enough can push the system to another alternative state
 such feedback loops are also likely to occur between mental states
 people with higher levels of psychopathology have more pronounced feedback loops
• Transitions in symptom levels can be anticipated by directly assessing changes in the stability of the system
 it is known that these changes in stability can be observed using certain “EWS”
 if psychopathology also behaves as a complex system we may be able to find EWS that we can use to foresee important shifts in symptoms in an earlier phase and in a personalized manner

Question 22

bridge system

Answer 22

symptoms that connect across boundaries
• Since bridge symptoms facilitate most of the communication between the clusters (syndromes) changes in the states of these bridge symptoms may be particularly good candidates for the prediction of the direction of phase transitions in psychopathology networks
 specific patterns of connections between symptoms (like the EWS) may provide us with clues regarding the likelihood of a transition to a particular set of symptoms

Question 23

development as dynamic system

Answer 23

multi causality (a not b error)
nestled timescale
Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions

Question 24

• Characteristics of self-organization

Answer 24

 readiness to exhibit:
1. multiple stable states that can change suddenly from one to another when a parameter value crosses a critical threshold
2. cyclical state changes
3. the structural coupling of component processes
4. temporal, spatial, and behavioral organization
5. localized instabilities that can lead one part of the system to organize itself differently from another part of the system
6. the ability of one unit to cause other units to oscillate at a harmonically related frequency (entrainment), and
7. behavior that can sometimes be modeled by a system of nonlinear equations
 Psychological systems lack the precise temporal or spatial symmetry seen in physical systems and instead involve complex neurological structures and behaviors
 some self-organizing properties can only be found in living things

Question 25

hysteria (kim)

Answer 25

– impact of previous demand conditions on current demand conditions

Question 26

hysteria (catastrophe model cusp)

Answer 26

The dependence of the state of a system on its history and the same set of current circumstances can produce very different behaviors
 A change in behavior is not always reversible and a “sticking” tendency is known as hysteresis in physics
 For example, if love and behavior start out low, there is a tendency for the behavior to remain low even though love has increased substantially

Question 27

divergence

Answer 27

refers to differing effects of the splitting factor on behavior
 Sometimes increases in the splitting factor increase the behavior and sometimes they decrease behavior
 This is explained by conformity, that is conforming to the social pressure, or reactance to it
 In the example above the splitting factor is social pressure

Question 28

• The Newborn Stepping Reflex is an example of multiple systems in motor development:

Answer 28

 Newborn infants, when held upright with their feet on a support surface, perform alternating step-like movements
 Within a few months, these movements “disappear” and infants do not step again until late in the first year, when they intentionally step prior to walking
 The traditional explanation of the stepping response was single-causal, but the insight that kicking and stepping had the same movement pattern refuted this view
 According to the new view, movement arises from a confluence of processes + constraints in the organism and the environment
 A change in posture is a change in the relationship between the mass of the body and the gravitational field and it requires more strength to lift a leg
 Therefore, as infants’ limbs get heavier but not necessarily stronger, the reflex disappears by the confluence of increasingly heavy legs and a demanding posture

ome patterns are preferred under certain circumstances and act as Attractor States in that the system “wants” to perform them
 Developmental change can be seen in dynamic terms as a series of states of stability, instability and phase shifts in the attractor landscape