Themes, Methods, Brain

Question 1

Cognitive psychology

Answer 1

Study of intelligent behav

Question 2

Mind-Body problem

Answer 2

Mind seen as connected to a soul, which isn’t physical. How do they relate when they’re different forms?

Question 3

How many neurons and connections are in the brain?

Answer 3

86 billion neurons
Each w/ 7000 connections

Question 4

How does the brain behave within multiple contexts?

Answer 4

Brain functions within body, which provides it w/ sensory info and ability to move

Body is embedded within an enviro/society, which determines what the inputs/outputs of the body are

Local society of person is embedded in larger structures of the world, which determines broader context of which ppl may receive info and act

Question 5

Dualism

Answer 5

Mind and body are made of different properties
(Solution to Mind-Body problem)

Question 6

Types of Monism

Answer 6

Physicalism / Materialism: Only kind of reality is physical (Mental states explained thru brain processes)

Idealism: Only kind of reality is mental (Brain is mental construct)

Neutral monism: Mind and body are same element that isn’t physical/mental

Question 7

Wilhelm Wundt
Structuralism
Introspection

Answer 7

Investigated elements of immediate experience w/ analytic introspection to understand mind

Introspection: Practitioners trained to consider/describe own internal conscious exp in terms of fundamental “elements” of consciousness

Question 8

Problems with introspection

Answer 8

Data can inly be seen by one individual and can’t be verified by others
- Not good for replication

We can only access mental activity that’s available to our conscious awareness

Question 9

Think-aloud protocol

Answer 9

Similar to introspection
Asks participants to report their thought processes as they perform a task

Question 10

Cortical blindness
Blindsight

Answer 10

Can respond to visual stimuli but damage in stage of processing leading to conscious perception

Can identify where visual stimuli is but claim they saw nothing due to cortical damage

Both report blindness
Both show why introspection not reliable

Question 11

William James
Functionalism

Answer 11

Study of purpose of thought rather than elements

Focused more on thought experiments
- Interested in prediction and control through direct observation

Question 12

4 key principles of the scientific method

Answer 12

Empiricism: We can observe something and learn from it

Determinism: Things have a cause

Testability: Be able to create theory and test it

Parsimony: Go w: simplest until empiricism proves there’s something more complicated

Question 13

John Watson
Behaviorism

Answer 13

Concerned w/ behaviour as a set of stimuli and responses
Brain processes unimportant, only input/output important

Question 14

Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning

Answer 14

Involuntary behav paired with stimulus, eventually leading to that behav being triggered by the stimulus
- Ivan Pavlov

Reinforcement of certain behave through rewards and punishments
- B. F. Skinner

Question 15

E. C. Tolman
Latent learning

Answer 15

Showed flaw in behaviourist approach
- Cognition is flexible enough to generate new behavs that haven’t been observed or performed

Latent learning: Learning w/out conditioning (no rewards/punishments)

Question 16

Noam Chomsky
Poverty of stimulus argument

Answer 16

Didn’t believe language is result of stimulus and response

Children can speak by 2 yrs old w/out lots of input to learn language
Children tend to say things they’ve never heard before (“I goed to the park”)

Question 17

Alan Turing
Algorithm

Answer 17

Proposed Turing Machine: Goal was to carry out what human mind can do using algorithms

Set of operations that produces the input/output mapping of a function

Question 18

Newell and Simon
Logic Theorist

Answer 18

First “thinking machine” that could show proofs better than humans

Source of idea where psychologists could propose models to explain unobservable mental functions, then make predictions and test them using computers to see if you get same output as humans

Question 19

Representationalism
Computation
Biological perspective
Embodied cognition

Answer 19

Describes how unobservable mind can act on real world

Assumes mind is an info processor

Info is represented as patters of activity between neurons in a way similar to brain (Interconnected neurons determine thought)

Study of cognition as we interact w/ world (How mind and body interact w/ world)

Question 20

Aboutness
(Representationalism)

Answer 20

Aboutness of mental processes - Representations that stand for what the processes are about in real world
- Perceptions and thoughts represent objects and situations in real world but aren’t physical

Question 21

Marr
(Computation)

Answer 21

If computers process info and info processing is what characterizes minds, then maybe mind is computational
- Goal is to find function that allows progression from input to output

Question 22

Symbol systems (Newell and Simon)
(Computation)

Answer 22

Representational (Stand for something in real world)
Computational (Can be manipulated according to rules)

Newell and Simon were first to suggest that mind is a symbol system

Question 23

Connectionism
(Biological perspective)

Answer 23

Alternate theory of computing
Info is carried in connected neuron-like units
- Info represented by patterns of activation spread across units instead of by symbols

Question 24

Grounding problem
Embodied cognition
(Embodiment)

Answer 24

Problem with symbol systems
- How can the symbol be linked to the physical object?

Info is given by perceptual, motor and emotional activity by the body in the real world (no need for representations)

Question 25

Case studies
Correlational studies
Experiments
Computer simulations

Answer 25

One individual (w/ condition) studied intensely

How 2 variables go together when variable can’t be manipulated (Can’t use causation)

Manipulate independent and dependent variables (Can use causation)

Program what you think is going on into computer and see if you get same outcome as human

Question 26

Most common dependent variables by cognitive psychologists

Answer 26

Accuracy
Reaction time

Question 27

Confounding variables

Answer 27

Variables that influence dependent variable but weren’t manipulated by experimenter

Question 28

Can involuntary responses (e.g. emotional) affect cognitive processes (like decision making)?

Answer 28

Yes

Question 29

Encephalization quotients (EQ)

Answer 29

Measure of actual brain size relative to body size
Correlated w/ intelligence

Question 30

Functional localization

Answer 30

Certain cognitive functions reside in specific regions of the cerebral cortex

Question 31

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Answer 31

Measures electrical activity of brain
Good temporal resolution

Question 32

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Answer 32

Measures indirect brain activity through ratio of oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood

Often used in subtraction method: Measure brain activity when engaging in studied task and compare to when doing diff task or no task

Better spatial resolution than EEG
Poor temporal resolution

Question 33

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

Answer 33

Uses brief magnetic pulses that disrupt electrical activity of brain
- To test what effect disrupting specific portions of cortex has on behav

High spatial and temporal resolution

Question 34

3 layers of artificial neural networks (ANNs)

Answer 34

Input: What you want to know something about (like sensory info)
Hidden layer: Internal computation of input
Output: Best guess of what you want to know

Each node in single layer as activation level

Question 35

Training set
Error or loss
Backpropagation

(Artificial neural network)

Answer 35

Dataset used to train neural network

Diff between observed output and correct output - Used to tell how wrong ANN is

Technique for gradually changing weights of neural network to reduce error