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Question 1

What is Cognitive Science?

Answer 1

1) The study of cognitive processes involved in the acquisition, representation and use
of human knowledge.

2) The scientific study of the mind, the brain, and intelligent behavior, whether in humans, animals, machines or the abstract.

3) A discipline perpetually in the process of construction.

Question 2

What is the primary goal of cognitive science?

Answer 2

The primary goal of cognitive science is to seek to understand the mind.

Question 3

Why is it important to trace the history of cognitive science?

Answer 3

It is important to trace the history of cognitive science because it helps us understand how foundational questions about the mind evolved and how cognitive science came to its current state.

Question 4

What were the key philosophical influences on cognitive science from Ancient Greece?

Answer 4

Key influences include Plato, who believed learning is a process of recollection (innate knowledge), and Aristotle, who introduced laws of psychology such as the law of association and contrast.

Question 5

What was René Descartes’ contribution to cognitive science?

Answer 5

Descartes proposed that thinking is proof of existence and that the mind and body are separate substances. His revolutionary ideas helped lay the foundation for cognitive science.

Question 6

What was Immanuel Kant’s view on knowledge?

Answer 6

Kant believed that knowledge is a combination of experience and innate structures, highlighting the interplay between the two.

Question 7

What was Franciscus Donder’s contribution to studying the mind?

Answer 7

Donder studied reaction time (RT) as a way to infer mental responses from behavior.

Question 8

What is a simple reaction time (RT) task?

Answer 8

In a simple RT task, the participant quickly pushes a button after seeing a light.

Question 9

What is a choice reaction time (RT) task?

Answer 9

In a choice RT task, the participant pushes one button if the light is on the right side and another if it is on the left side.

Question 10

What was Wilhelm Wundt’s contribution to psychology?

Answer 10

Wundt established the first scientific psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and developed the structuralism approach, which posits that overall experience is determined by combining sensations.

Question 11

What method did Wilhelm Wundt use to study mental processes?

Answer 11

Wundt used the method of analytic introspection, which involved carefully trained individuals observing their conscious experience.

Question 12

What were William James’ contributions to psychology?

Answer 12

William James was the first to teach a psychology course and wrote a textbook presenting themes such as perception, attention, and reasoning. He based his observations on the function of his own mind and contributed theories on memory, proposing two types of memory.

Question 13

How did John Watson attempt to study the mind more objectively?

Answer 13

John Watson attempted to replace the “subjective” data from introspection with “objective” data in order to study the mind more scientifically.

Question 14

What is the main focus of behaviorism in psychology?

Answer 14

Behaviorism focuses on directly observable behaviors and emphasizes animal research, suggesting that our responses are products of conditioning.

Question 15

What is classical (Pavlovian) conditioning?

Answer 15

Classical conditioning is a form of associative learning between two previously unrelated stimuli that results in a learned response.

Question 16

How does classical conditioning work?

Answer 16

Classical conditioning depends on the association between a stimulus (S) and a response (R). Some responses are innate (e.g., salivation when food is presented) but can be elicited by other stimuli through conditioning.

Question 17

What is a stimulus (S) in classical conditioning?

Answer 17

A stimulus (S) is an object, situation, or event likely to provoke a response (R), which is the reaction of the organism.

Question 18

What happens before conditioning in classical conditioning?

Answer 18

Before conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (US) such as food naturally triggers an unconditioned response (R), like salivation. The conditioned stimulus (CS), such as a bell, does not trigger a response on its own.

Question 19

What happens during conditioning in classical conditioning?

Answer 19

During conditioning, the conditioned stimulus (CS) (bell) is presented just before the unconditioned stimulus (US) (food) to create an association between the two.

Question 20

What happens after conditioning in classical conditioning?

Answer 20

After conditioning, the conditioned stimulus (CS) (bell) alone elicits a conditioned response (R), such as salivation, even without the unconditioned stimulus (food).

Question 21

What did B.F. Skinner contribute to behaviorism?

Answer 21

B.F. Skinner took Watson’s ideas and introduced the concepts of reinforcement and punishment to modify behavior.

Question 22

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 22

Operant conditioning is a form of associative learning where behavior is modified depending on its consequences, such as rewards (e.g., food) or unpleasant outcomes (e.g., isolation).

Question 23

How do organisms behave in operant conditioning?

Answer 23

In operant conditioning, organisms engage in behaviors that lead to rewarding or unpleasant consequences.

Question 24

What is an operant conditioning box (Skinner box)?

Answer 24

An operant conditioning box is a controlled environment with a lever or button that an animal can manipulate. If the animal manipulates it a specific number of times, it receives reinforcement (e.g., food).

Question 25

What does the timeline of early experiments in the 1800s and the rise of behaviorism in the 1900s show?

Answer 25

The timeline highlights the transition from early mind studies, such as those by Wundt and James, to the rise of behaviorism in the 1900s, marked by figures like Watson, Pavlov, and Skinner, who emphasized observable behavior over introspection.

Question 26

What did Edwards Tolman believe about learning?

Answer 26

Edwards Tolman believed that learning was more abstract and that organisms build cognitive maps of the environment as they learn.

Question 27

What was Tolman’s experiment with rats and mazes?

Answer 27

Tolman placed rats in a maze for 10 days to explore. Later, when food was introduced, the rats could always locate the food, regardless of where they were placed in the maze, demonstrating that they had learned the layout through cognitive maps.

Question 28

What is a cognitive map according to Tolman?

Answer 28

A cognitive map is an internal representation of the environment that organisms build up as they learn, which can’t be directly observed but must be inferred from behavior.

Question 29

What is latent learning?

Answer 29

Latent learning refers to learning that occurs without immediate demonstration, which is only shown when there is motivation or a reason to display it.

Question 30

What was Tolman’s latent learning experiment with rats in a T-maze?

Answer 30

Tolman used three groups of rats in a 14-unit “T-maze”: 1) Regular reinforcement from day 1 Reinforcement after 11 days 2) No reinforcement 3) The rats in the second and third groups demonstrated latent learning when reinforcement was introduced later.

Question 31

What sort of knowledge must the Reinforcement day 11 group have acquired during the free exploration period in Tolman's latent learning experiment?

Answer 31

The Reinforcement day 11 group likely acquired a cognitive map of the maze during the free exploration period. This knowledge was not immediately shown but became evident once reinforcement was introduced on the 11th day, leading to a sudden improvement in performance.

Question 32

What was Noam Chomsky’s critique of Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour?

Answer 32

Chomsky critiqued Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour by arguing that children do not learn language solely through imitation and reinforcement, as Skinner suggested.

Question 33

What evidence did Chomsky provide to support his argument that language learning is not solely based on imitation and reinforcement?

Answer 33

Chomsky pointed out that children say things they have never heard before and things that are incorrect and unrewarded, which cannot be explained by imitation or reinforcement alone.

Question 34

What did Chomsky argue about children's ability to produce grammatical sentences?

Answer 34

Chomsky argued that children can produce grammatical sentences even if they don’t "know" grammar or syntax, suggesting that language acquisition is not entirely learned through experience.

Question 35

What is Chomsky’s theory on language acquisition?

Answer 35

Chomsky proposed that language is innate and that the human brain contains a "language acquisition device" that allows children to learn language.

Question 36

What is Chomsky’s proposal about how infants learn language?

Answer 36

Chomsky proposed that infants are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD), an unconscious process in the child’s mind that is used exclusively for learning language.

Question 37

What role does the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) play in language learning?

Answer 37

The LAD provides some innate knowledge about how human languages work, helping children use language input more effectively by noticing specific patterns and forming hypotheses about language structure.

Question 38

How does the LAD help children learn language even if they make errors like “goed” instead of “went”?

Answer 38

The LAD helps children apply rules they learn, such as adding "-ed" for past tense, even when it leads to errors like “goed” because it guides them toward recognizing patterns in language.

Question 39

What is an example of how children produce sentences they have never heard before?

Answer 39

Children can produce novel sentences like “He hitted,” “I hidded,” “No eat cake,” or “It’s raining. Where is the underbrella?” showing they use innate language structures rather than simple imitation.

Question 40

How did Chomsky’s critique of Skinner revolutionize the fields of cognitive psychology?

Answer 40

Chomsky’s refutation of Skinner’s views on language shifted the focus of psychology toward understanding behavior in terms of the mind, revolutionizing cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.

Question 41

What is the Information-Processing Approach in the context of the Cognitive Revolution?

Answer 41

The Information-Processing Approach is a way to study the mind based on insights from digital computers, suggesting that the operation of the mind occurs in stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

Question 42

What are the three stages of information processing according to the Information-Processing Approach?

Answer 42

The three stages are: 1) Encoding: Entering information into the memory system 2) Storage: Maintaining the information over time 3) Retrieval: Finding and accessing stored information

Question 43

Who developed one of the first models of attention, and what did it show?

Answer 43

Broadbent developed one of the first models of attention, using a flow diagram to show what occurs when a person directs attention to a specific stimulus.

Question 44

What is the Akinson & Shiffin model of memory?

Answer 44

Akinson & Shiffin’s (1968) model of memory suggests that information we remember is brought from long-term memory to short-term memory for processing.

Question 45

What event marked the beginning of the cognitive revolution in the field of artificial intelligence?

Answer 45

The first Artificial Intelligence Conference held at Dartmouth in 1956 is considered a key event marking the beginning of the cognitive revolution in AI.

Question 46

Who presented the seminal paper "Steps toward Artificial Intelligence" at the Dartmouth conference, and what was its focus?

Answer 46

Marvin Minsky presented the paper, emphasizing the importance of representing knowledge in a machine so it can "think" and solve problems.

Question 47

What does a computer program need to describe knowledge structures and solve problems according to Minsky?

Answer 47

According to Minsky, a computer program needs terms for relations (e.g., inside, to the left of), and a way to specify the hierarchical level at which these relations are described (e.g., inside (triangle, oval), inside (circle, triangle)).

Question 48

What challenges did Minsky identify in making computers solve complex problems?

Answer 48

Minsky identified several challenges, including complex problem-solving, knowledge representation, perception and vision, language, and communication.