Quiz 2 The Cognitive Level Flashcards
Learning at the Sociological Level
Cultural Taboos - culture learned vs factual reason ie in Western culture dogs/cats are pets but in China culture dogs/cats are food
Learning at the Cognitive level
Conscious thinking/thoughts that equal productions. Cognitive level deals with information and how it is processed - information processing
Learning at the Biological level
Synaptic changes - brain is made up of neurons that fire together, are wired together. How associations are learned ie chocolate tastes good with peanuts. Synapses are spaces between neurons where communication happens. Synapses get more efficient with repeated use - neural connections are made (Herb Theory)
Learning at the Chemical Level
Synaptic changes (adaptations) in taste receptors ie kids don’t like coffee - taste receptors adapt - synaptic changes as adult loves coffee
Dopamine is associated with reinforcement and addiction. Serotonin releases anxiety.
Learning at the Physical (Physics) level
Bottom level of science. Cognitive scientists do not believe that consciousness is made up of quantum effects.
How to know if level is legit - Ontology
A set of things said to exist - if level can make casual predictions using ontology of that level it an be said to exist
Reductionism
Scientists are dismissive of levels above one they are at
Why do we need the Sociological level
Sociological level is needed as it explains certain group phenomena that are difficult to explain with individual level psychology.
Why is Psychological level needed
Psychological level is needed as it explains behaviours born in vs sociological behaviours learned in addition to cognitive level, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning.
Why is cognitive level needed?
Cognitive level is needed in addition to psychological level because it explains behaviours without the language of information processing which is too vague. In addition to biological level because mental states and processes are defined functionally not anatomically.
Why is Biological level needed?
Biological level is needed in addition to cognitive level as sometimes the biological structure influences behaviour in ways that the information processing perspective cannot explain ie how language is learned at infancy
We need it in addition to chemical level because certain brain structures appear to be used for specific things ie the Hippocampus and short term memory
Why is chemical level needed?
We need the chemical level because chemicals can effect/affect behaviour ie drugs. We need to explain chemical reactions. We need it in addition to the physical level as physics doesn’t tell us much about human behaviour although it does tell us many other things.
Proximate and ultimate descriptions not in cognitive science
Proximate explanation - we eat because it tastes good and we are hungry
Ultimate explanation - we need nutrition to stay alive
The cognitive level is the information processing level
Cognitive Science prefers descriptions of information and how it is represented and changed ie. CogSci Theory - individual memories have activation levels that determine how easily it can be retrieved eg Duck on bank - is it river bank or Scotiabank
We accept idea of activation level if it helps predict behaviour
The mind is a computer program not computer - brain is computer
CogSci attempt to describe the mind at a level so detailed that a computer could complete the task in the same way
Programs are information processing instructions and computers have all kinds of components that are unrelated to the mind. The nature of the hardware changes over time and across computers
Functionalism
Mental states and processes are determined by functional properties (by what they do) rather than:
Physical properties (anatomy)
Other people
Other animals
Computer programs
Distributed cognitive systems
