Unit 6 - Chapter 19 - Cognitive Psychology

Question 1

a) Describe the early influences on cognitive psychology.

b) Summarize the work of Frederic Bartlett and his research on memory

Answer 1

a) - mills mental chemistry theory
- fechner showed that cognitive events could be studied experimentally.
- james Principle of Psychology.

b) - bartlett found consistent patterns in memory degradation and details became unconsciously reconstructed to preserve overall meaning.

Question 2

a) Define cybernetics.

b) How did the field of cybernetics influence cognitive psychology?

Answer 2

a) cybernetics: the study of the structure and function of information processing systems.

b) purposive behaviour could be explained in mechanical terms, so study doesnt have to be subjective.

Question 3

Summarize the contributions of Noam Chomsky, George Miller, and Jerome Bruner to the emergence of cognitive psychology in the 1950s.

Answer 3

Chomsky
- said human brain is genetically programmed to generate language.

Miller
- 7 (+/-) 2 rule for memory.
- said ppl can discriminate only 7 dif aspects of something.

Bruner
- stressed active utilization of cognitive strategies.
- proposed constructivism.
- aim to create autonomous learners.

Question 4

Why is social psychology so important as an influence?

Answer 4

helped to bring psychology away from the radical psychologists & increase interest into the unique ways that humans behave.

Question 5

a) Discuss the cognitive revolution as described by Hebb in his APA presidential address?

b) What were some of the major events that reflected the influence of cognitive psychology?

Answer 5

a) Hebb said only one phase of American revolution in psych had taken place.

• urged that 2nd phase use scientific methods by behaviourists to study cognitive processes.

b) Neisser’s textbook on cognitive psychology.
- Center for cognitive studies (Miller & Bruner)

Question 6

What is artificial intelligence?

Answer 6

the capability of machines to manifest processes such as perception, cognition, and learning as humans do.

Question 7

Who is Alan Turing and what is the Turing test?

Answer 7

Turing founded field of AI.

Turing test
- ask questions to a human and to a computer.

• computer answers as if they were human.
• if interrogater cannot consistently identify human, computer passes the turing test.

Question 8

What is the difference between strong AI and weak AI?

Answer 8

strong AI = can duplicate human cognitive processes.

weak AI = can stimulate human cognitive processes but can not duplicate them.

Question 9

Describe Searle’s Chinese room example and what it represents.

Answer 9

Chinese Room Example;

• in a room with boxes of Chinese characters you can’t understand and a book of instructions.
• Chinese speaker outside the room passes messages under the door.
• follow instructions from the book to select an appropriate response.

Represents
1) computers can manipulate symbols (syntax) but attach no meaning to them (semantics).

2) strong AI is false.

Question 10

Of the different schools of psychology, who would be most opposed to AI research and why?

Answer 10

Existentialists and humanists

• they claim that human attributes are so unique that machine stimulation is far-fetched.

Question 11

What is information-processing psychology?

Answer 11

1) studies cognition in the tradition of faculty psychology and methodological behaviourism.

2) employs computer as the model for human info processing.

Question 12

Describe the paper by Newell, Shaw, and Simon and how it influenced information-processing psychology.

Answer 12

paper claimed that the computer programs they developed solved problems the same way humans do.

influence
- note similarities between humans and computers; both receive & process input, have a memory, and produce output.

Question 13

a) Describe the return of faculty psychology, as incorporated within cognitive science.

b) What is cognitive science?

Answer 13

a) discovery that the brain is organized into “modules” each associated with some specific function marked a return to faculty psychology.

b) cognitive science: interdisciplinary field that examines questions about the mind.

Question 14

What is connectionism and how is it related to associationism?

Answer 14

connectionism
- the most recent type of AI that utilizes neural networks.

• related because Hebb’s rule says neurons within the brain that are simultaneously or successively active become associated.

Question 15

What are neural networks?

Answer 15

capable of learning if the mathematical weights among the units are systematically modified either according to Hebb’s rule or by back-propagation

• 3 types of neurons: input, output & hidden

Question 16

What is GOFAI and how is it different from neural networks?

Answer 16

gofai = good old-fashioned AI.

difference
1) process symbolic info according to rules.

2) any disruption in the system causes it to fail.

3) reasons about info that is given.

3) representation of schema constructed by programmers.

4) not capable of learning.

Question 17

What is a back-propagation system and how is it different from Hebb’s rule?

Answer 17

programmed to learn by;
- systematically reducing the discrepancy between their output and desired output.

• learn by corrective feedback instead of applying Hebb’s rule.