Week 1 Doing Psych

Question 1

2 main groups of methods

Answer 1

quan and qualitative

Question 2

features of quan methods

Answer 2

development + test of specific theories
theories –> mathematical predictions can be tested by collecting data + stat analysis

Question 3

features of qualitative

Answer 3

dev of verbal theories
open-ended/explanatory

Question 4

what is a theory + specifications

Answer 4

principles that explain a system
specifies relations
explain existing + predict new data

Question 5

what is NOT a theory

Answer 5

description
set of data
diagram

Question 6

3 levels of analysis theory of mind

Answer 6

computational
representation and algorithm
physical implementation

Question 7

2 main model types in psych

Answer 7

mathematical
process: symbolic, connectionist

Question 8

computational theory

Answer 8

• what problem is it solving (and why)?
• constraints on its solution?
• nature of the problem / the function being computed?

Question 9

representation and algorithm

Answer 9

• what info does the system represent + how
• what it does with the info
• what algorithm is used to extract useful info
• what is the input to the system, what is its output + stages in between?

Question 10

physical implementation

Answer 10

how are representations and algorithms realized in the hardware of the device itself
(e.g., in the neurons of the brain, the silicon of the computer, etc.)

Question 11

what is a symbolic process model

Answer 11

represents knowledge as symbolic data structures
manipulate data with variable-ised rules

Question 12

what is a connectionist process model

Answer 12

knowledge as nodes in a network
processing carried out by passing activation between nodes

Question 13

what are representations of symbolic models

Answer 13

basic - atomic elements
rules - composing complex structure i.e. a language

Question 14

what are processes of symbolic models

Answer 14

operations on data structures
applications of symbolic rules

Question 15

what are production systems + how many components

Answer 15

prototypical symbolic model
3

Question 16

3 components of production systems

Answer 16

base of known facts
set of inference rules
executive control structure

Question 17

5 stages involved in operation of production system

Answer 17

current state - known facts
state space - all possible states
goal state - state want the data base to be in
state transition - moving from one state to another
search - algorithm for traversing state space

Question 18

3 advantages of symbolic models

Answer 18

computational power
can define variablized rules
represent = reason

Question 19

5 disadvantages of symbolic models

Answer 19

• rules too rigid for human behaviour
• new representations = combos of existing ones
• how are rules learned
• no graceful degradation with damage
• no obvious neural implementation

Question 20

what are connectionist models

Answer 20

models composed of networks of interconnected nodes

Question 21

what are nodes

Answer 21

simple processors that mimic neurons / populations of neurons

Question 22

what are connections in a connectionist model

Answer 22

weights between nodes

Question 23

what are representations in a connectionist model

Answer 23

patterns of activation on nodes

Question 24

what occurs during the processing of connectionist models

Answer 24

nodes pass activation over weighted connections
pos weights are excitatory connections

Question 25

advantages of connectionist models

Answer 25

• flexible processing (parallel contraints)
• flexible representations: distributed reps capture semantic content + permit auto generalization
• graceful deg with damage
• transparent neural implementation

Question 26

what are the disadvantages of connectionist models

Answer 26

1. not symbolic
2. ability to generalize depends on similarity of examples
3. cannot represent/use variable-ised rules
4. even children generalize to utterly dissimilar examples

Question 27

7 different vulnerable group categories

Answer 27

marginalized
socially excluded
limited opps
suffer abuse
hardship
prejudice
discrim

Question 28

8 vulnerable groups defined by SVG ACT 2006

Answer 28

lone parents
disabled
elderly
children
ethnic min
mentally ill
homeless
refugees