What is Cognition? Flashcards
Learn key terms/theories about cognition
what did Turing focus on when aiming to determine if machines have minds?
their linguistic competence. If machines could satisfy humans of their linguistic competence, he proposed that this would indicate that the machine had a mind
what are the two usages of the term cognition?
cognition as a process and a product
how would one define cognition as a process?
something that humans (and animals) do
how would one define cognition as a product?
mental representations of what we perceive, know, reason… our mental images.
what is the overarching definition of cognition?
the activity of acquiring, organising and using information to enable adaptive and intelligent behaviour.
what 5 criterion need to be present to deem something a cogniser?
in summary, what do they do?
- sense and act on environment
- construct mental models to represent the structure of their environment
- ability to adapt mental models in response to feedback
- uses mental models to guide future behaviour
- ability to form inferences to make sense of experiences
- mentally represent their world
what 3 elements make up mental representations?
- sensorimotor representations
- mental images
- symbolic representations
sensorimotor representations include…
sense of embodiment, movement, sensory experiences
mental images (in mental representations) include…
visuo-spatial representations, auditory memories, olfactory
symbolic representations include.. .
logical, linguistic, semantic, narrative, schemas, frames
what do mental representations actually refer to? Why are they so central to the cog. psych?
it is so vital because it refers to the format in which information is encoded, stored and reconstructed in our minds.
what characterises explicit knowledge?
having the knowledge that we know something
what characterises implicit knowledge?
things we just know… we may not know how or why we know it. In some cases, we may not even be aware that we do know it at all
Ulrie Nesser’s diagram explains
how cognitive agents operate.. how their schemas are developed
what is a schema?
an abstract frame for representing a concept or idea
How would a schema be used to allow someone to understand what a lecture is?
you conjure up a schema of how you think a lecture is run based on your perceptual exploration. one then engages with it in the actual world, modifying their schema of a lecture which modifies their understanding or conceptual map of a lecture
what are the steps of Nesser’s diagram and the formulation of a schema?
Locomotion and action (perceptual exploration)
Samples the
Actual world (actual present environment)
Modifies the
Cognitive map of the world and its possibilities (schema of present environment)
Directs the…
what is mentalese?
the language of thought
according to the classical computation theory of cognition, natural languages do what ?
translate inner mental language to a publicly expressible format
according to the classical computation theory of cognition, what do mental tokens do?
they “stand in” (represent) the things and events that are not immediately available as environmental inputs
how is the language of thought (mentalese) proposed to work?
symbols (which represent our knowledge of things and events) are manipulated according to syntactic rules, which allows cognisers to understand how symbols and concepts relate to one another
what are examples of symbols in the classical approach to cognition?
give examples and what type of symbol they are
words and numerals
Dog (concept)
“in”, “has”, “not”… (properties and relationships)
what is a propositional representation?
a symbolic code which expresses the meanings of concepts and the relationships between concepts
what is the basic propositional representation of the sentence “the cat is under the table”?
Under (Cat, Table)
what is the basic structure of a propositional representation ?
[Relationship between elements] ([subject elements], [object element])
what is the main benefit of the propositional representations approach?
it represents the relationship between semantic elements, independently of specificities (written sentence, utterance
or perceptual details) around the event
what is the propositional representation approach meant to provide an approximation to ?
the language of thought itself
what is a predicate? what does it express?
it is a component of a propositional representation. it expresses the relationship between the elements or the property of the elements
what are the three names of the alternatives to the classical approach to cognition?
dynamic, embodied and situated
what is an analogue representation?
the representations is analogous (similar) to the physical manipulation of objects in space (Shepard Metzler rotation)
what are the two main types of representations?
symbolic (digital clock) and analogous (analogue clock)
what is the dynamic approach to cognition?
spivey and dale mouse tracking, that cognition should be studied as continuous, dynamic bio process not a staccato series of abstract computer like symbols
what is the embodied and situated approach to cognition?
that symbols and abstract knowledge must be grounded in sensory perceptual and emotional representations
