Chapter 1 Science of the mind Flashcards
What is introspection and who used it to study mental processes?
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) they started with the fact that there is no way to experience my thoughts and, or i yours. therefore the only way to study thoughts is through introspection- “looking within,: to observe and record the content of our own mental lives and the sequence of our own experiences.
What are the two main problems with introspection?
they had to acknowledge some thoughts are unconscious, and as it is a tool to measure consciousness it is not useful and we now know that unconscious thought play a huge role in our mental lives.
the other problems for science to proceed, there must be some way to test its claims, otherwise we do not know correct assertions from false ones. with introspection the testability of claims is is often unattainable. people experience things differently.
pg9
Who was the most prominent behaviorist?
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
What sort of data did behaviorists examine?
data around environmental influences, how behaviour changes in response to various stimuli (including rewards and punishments)
What is the main problem with using a behaviorist approach to studying mental processes?
the main problem is that, the ways people act, and the ways they feel, are guided by how they understand and interpret the situation, and not by the objective situation itself.
so.. the behaviorist perspective demands that we not talk about mental entities such as beliefs, memories, and so on, because these things cannot be studied directly and so cannot be studied scientifically. yet is seems that these subjective entities play a pivotal role in guiding behaviour, and so we must consider them if we want to understand behaviour.
12
Explain Kant’s transcendental method and give an example
it is the idea that mental process and observable behaviours are combined. you begin with the observable facts and then work backwards from these observations. you ask how could these observable traits come about? what must be the underlying causes that led to these effects?
we know that we need to study mental processed thats what we learned from behaviorism, but also know that mental process cannot be directly observed. therefore the mental process had to be observed indirectly, the processes themselves are invisible, but have visible concequences; such as measureabe delays in processing, performances that can be assessed for accuracy, errors that can be scrutunized and catagorised.
Explain why the development of computers was important to the cognitive revolution
computers were capable of immensely efficent information storage and retrieval “memory” as well as performance that seemed to involve decision making and problem-solving. they thought the human mind might follow similar processing, and started researching, and explained data in similar terms as a computer. pg17 for more
What do ambiguous or reversible figures (such as the Necker cube) tell us about perception?
that people can perceive things in different ways, neither is wrong and the Necker cube is not an illusion you can just perceive it differently. Your perception goes beyond the information given in the drawing, by specifying an arrangement in depth.
you perception “goes beyond the information given” ( the banana continues in the fruit bowl but you cant actually see it)
Describe the Gestalt approach and the following concepts: figure/ground, similarity, proximity, good continuation, closure, and simplicity
proximity and similarity: if within the visual scene, you see elements that are close to each other, or elements that resemble each other, you assume these elements are parts of the same object. you also tend to assume that contours are smooth, not jagged, and avoid interpretations that involve coincidence.
similarity- we tend to group the dots into rows, grouping dots of similar colour
proximity- we tend to perceive groups, linking dots that are close together.
good continuation- we tend to see a continuous green bar rather than tow smaller rectangles
closure- we tend to perceive an intact triangle, reflecting our bias toward perceiving closed figures rather that incomplete ones
Simplicity- we tent to interpret a form in the simplest way possible. we would see the form on the left as two intersecting rectangles (as shown on the right) rather than as a single 12 sided irregular polygon.
see pg 84 for pictures
Explain how we know that two types of processing occur at the same time: perception of features and an analysis of the object’s configuration
1st you collect information about the stimulus, so that you know (for example) what the corners or angles or curves are in view- is is the visual features contain in the input.
Then once you have gathered the raw data you interpret the information. thats when you go “beyond the information given”
Explain how we know that two types of processing occur at the same time: perception of features and an analysis of the object’s configuration
collect information about the stimulus, so that you know (for example) what the corners or angles or curves are in view- is the visual features contain in the input.
you interpret the information. Thats when you go “beyond the information given”
this happens at the same time, through parallel processing, different brain areas all doing their work at the same time. also different brain areas all influence one another, so that what’s going on in one brain region is shaped by what`s going in elsewhere.
so the brain areas that analyze pattern basic features do their work at the same time as the brain areas that analyze the patterns large-scale configuration, and these brain areas that analyse the pattern large scale configuration, and these brain areas interact so that the perception of the features is the features. so no processing “goes first”, neither has priority as they work together.
Explain unconscious inference
there is an inverse relationship between distance and retinal image size.: If an object doubles its distance from the viewer, the size of the image is reduced by half. These are not conscious calculations, but we are calculating nonetheless- referring to this as unconscious inference.
- Explain how constancy can cause perceptual illusions to occur
so distance, in order to judge size, viewing angle to judge shape, or illumination to judge brightness is crucial for achieving consistency.
different cues can cause you to perceive what you see and you can misinterpret visual information that creates an illusion
Describe bottom-up and top-down processes
Bottom-up processing- influenced by the stimulus itself, the features that are in view.
Top-down- is the influence of one’s knowledge and expectations.
How do visual features contribute to object recognition?
there are specialized cells in the visual system that acts as feature detectors, firing (producing an action potential) whenever the relevant input (ie the appropriate feature) in in view. the visual features, are the vertical lines, curves diagonals etc.
What is the experimental technique used to study word recognition?
They have used technique where they apply a stimulus for 20 or 30 ms and measure how well the stimulus was detected, Usually with words.
How does word frequency affect word recognition?
in the study words that were presented more frequently were recognised better. Recognition was much more likely for words appearing often in front, in comparison to words appearing only rarely- an effect of frequency. 113
How does recency of view affect word recognition?
words that had been viewed recently were more often recognized, an effect of recency that in this case creates a benefit called “repetition priming”.
also if a participant sees a word and then a little later they see the word again, they will recognise the work more readily the second time, the first exposure primes the participant for the second exposure, more specifically, this is a case of repetition priming.
Define the word superiority effect and describe the technique used to establish it
the recognition of a letter depends on its context and so an ambiguous letter is read as an A in one setting but an H in another setting. recognising an entire word is easier than recognizing a single letter, the advantage for preserving letters-in-context is called the word-superiority effect.
performance on in studies is much better if the target letter is shown in context-within an entire word-than if it is shown on its own.
Why are degrees of well-formedness important in word recognition?
the well-formedness of words (how the letter sequence conforms to the usual spelling patterns of English, is a good predictor of word recognition. the more english like the strings are, the easier it will be to recognise that string, and also the greater the context benefit the string will produce.
so it is easier to recognize in well formed sequences, but not if it appears in a random sequences. well -formed strings are, overall, easier to perceive than ill-formed strings, this advantage remains even if the well-formed strings are made-up ones that you’ve never seen before. all of these facts suggest that you somehow are using your knowledge of spelling patterns when you look at and recognize the words you encounter.
Describe the layout of a feature net and explain how word recognition occurs
it is a bottom up process, a network of detector, organized in layers. the bottom player is connected with features, as you work up the network, each layer is concerned with larger scale objects. each detector has an activation level (similar to action potential), this reflects the status of the detector at that moment- when a detector receives some input its activation level increases, a strong input will increase the activation a lot and so will a series of small inputs, once it reaches a threshold it fires and send a signal to the other detectors its connected to.
soeme detectors will be easier to activate them others (some requiring a strong input to make fire and some only need weak). recency and frequency impact the activation. so when the detectors fire the letters and then words can be detected.
pg119
How do bigram detectors account for well-formedness?
the Bigram detectors, find the pairs of letters in words, these are between the letter detectors and the words detectors. Pairs of words that are common like HI or CE have higher activation levels at the start and so they don`t require as much input to reach the threshold. these common pairs are what make up well-formed word sequences that are easier to recognise as they are seen more often.
How do we recover from the confusion that results from briefly presented stimuli?
at the bottom level their is very brief information recieved by the detectors however there are several options the letter could be, at the letter detection area. however when the letters are paired it becomes easier to detect the word as the common letter pairs are more likely then the non common pairs and therefore the words can be worked out. pg 122
How can we explain the word superiority effect using a feature net?
the eg. when at the bigram level the two inputs of letter choose the ones that are most common. so say you briefly see AT but the A could be interpreted as A, F,H and say you saw the T then at the bigram level FT, HT, AT the AT is most common word creation therefore you would be with that.
