Chapter 1: Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards
(100 cards)
Cognition
The set of processes (cognitive functions) that allow humans and
many other animals to:
perceive external stimuli
extract key information and hold it in memory
generate thoughts and actions that help reach desired goals.
Many important aspects of cognition and behavior occur without
conscious experience because…
- They happen too fast to be processed -> keeper bij voetbal
- They occur automatically in the background of current processing
When and why did behaviourism rise
Beginning of 20th century, because of dissatisfaction with the lack of systemic process in the studies of mental processes. Thats why people started to perform experiments that matched objective external stimuli to measurable behavior.
Two most famous behaviourists
John Watson and B.F. Skinner
What did Watson and Skinner essentially do?
They examined how changes in stimulus presentation (e.g., food rewards to a hungry experimental animal) could shape how individuals adapt their behavior to the demands of the environment.
How do we use the work of Skinner and Watson to today?
In education, treatment of addiction, and criminal rehabilitation (stimulus-response learning!)
What caused the downfall of behaviourism?
The fact that they did not look at any other cognitive processes, only at reward learning: The focus of behaviorists on learning
from rewards led them to ignore other cognitive functions. Although they did not deny the existence of mental states and the cognitive functions that those states implied, behaviorists dismissed those states as inappropriate topics for scientific study, arguing that psychological concepts could be discussed only in terms of the experimental manipulations that evoked them (a view sometimes called “operationism”). Ignoring complex mental states made experiments more tractable but needlessly reduced the scope of psychology by excluding the study of cognitive functions other than learning.
natural philosophy and early psychology 2 personen
Wundt and Hemholtz
Name 1 factor that caused the cognitive science rise
Information processing theory of the brain
Miller: working memory can only display 7 items at one time, + complex cognitive processes need to be divided into smaller units.
Chomsky view
Behaviourism cannot show the mechanism of complex mental functions, explained this via language. Due to him: more research in humans (instead of animals)
Behaviourism definitie
Behaviourism tries to explain behaviour using only stimuli and responses, not concerning any of the underlying metal processes (they did not deny the existence of internal mental states, but argued that these mantal states could not be defined independently of experimental operations).
Cognitism definitie
Cognitive scientists try to explain the information processes that intervenes between stimuli and behaviour. They assume that the cognitive functions act upon stored information, transforming this information in the service of adaptive behaviour.
cognitive models should…
- make processes generalizable
- provide insight into common research results
- explain complex cognitive processes
the elements that make up these models are…
psychological constructs
who figured out that brain damage has an effect on cognition
Galen
Cognition….
- aquire information
- store and retreive information in memory
- generate and use information to reach a goal
Wilhelm Wundt
experimental psychology: used introspection to experimentally investigae cognitive processes
Behaviourism
Objective experimental approach: objective external stimuli are mathced to measurable behaviour. All mental activity can be reduced to behavioural activity, due to a certain stimulus.
What raised interest in cognitive science
the finding that rats can learn without rewarding stimuli (tolman).
rise of computers and technology
Psychological states affect responses to stimuli
wat denkt cognitivism over memory
memory is niet passief retrieven van sensory stimuli, maar meer actieve recoding van verschillende pieces of information
Cognitive models function
predict how sensory stimuli lead to behavioral responses
are model components related to physical processes in the brain?
no, not necessarily
What do cognitive models use?
psychological constructs
Gall findings
cognitive functions and traits are related to different parts of the cerebral cortex. mapping bumps on the skull can show different traits.
