Lecture 01 Introduction to Cognition

Question 1

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 1

The operation of mental processes related to perceiving, attending, thinking, language, and memory, mainly through inferences from behavior

Question 2

Aristotle

Answer 2

Laws of association
- Contiguity
- Similarity
- Contrast

Question 3

Contiguity

Answer 3

The SEQUENTIAL occurrence or PROXIMITY of stimulus and response, causing their association in the mind.

Question 4

von Helmholtz

Answer 4

Physiology of sensation

Question 5

Fechner

Answer 5

Psychophysic
- how physical stimuli relate to mental intensity

Question 6

Ebbinghaus

Answer 6

Memory process using “nonsense syllable”

Question 7

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 7

Conscious experience
- Sensation
- Feeling

Question 8

Early studies in psychology

Answer 8

• Introspection
• Self-report

Question 9

Dominance of Behaviorism

Answer 9

• Use of EXPERIMENTAL method and controlled observation
• Focus on STIMULUS-RESPONSE association in animal research

Question 10

Resurgence of Cognition

Answer 10

• Information-processing approach
• Criticism of behaviorist approach

Question 11

Information-processing approaches

Answer 11

• Information theory
• The model of human problem solving

Question 12

Criticism of Behaviorist Approach

Answer 12

• Skinner: Language learning through conditioning processes.
• Chomsky: Children produce language that has never been produced or reinforced
  “Language learning is rule-based”

Question 13

Legacy of behaviorism

Answer 13

• Logical positivism
• Operationism
• Focus on experimentation

Question 14

Information-Processing Model

Answer 14

• Cognitive process = software
• Brain = hardware
• A study of cognition is a study of how information is perceived, stored, transformed, retrieved, and utilized

Question 15

Father of Cognitive Psychology

Answer 15

Ulric Neisser
- Integrate topics on memory, perception, attention, concept formation, language, and thinking

Question 16

Current Approaches in Cognition

Answer 16

1. Representationalism
2. Embodied Cognition
3. Biological Perspective

Question 17

Representationalism

Answer 17

• Information from the world is represented in the mind.
• Ways to represent
  1) Exemplar
  2) Concepts with features
• Cognitive processes “operate” on the representations.

Question 18

Representational Models

Answer 18

1. Symbolic
2. Hierarchical Network
3. Distributed Network

Question 19

Symbolic

Answer 19

Information is stored as symbols
- Operated in the way of MATHEMATICAL symbols
- Cognitive processes as symbolic operations.
- E.g., perceptual system with feature detection (line, curves, etc.)

Question 20

Perceptual System with Feature Detection

Answer 20

• Detect an object with curve
• Rule out representations with linear edges
• Identify object based on representation of object with curve

Question 21

Hierarchical Network

Answer 21

Concept network like neurons
- Concepts are node
- Relationship are edges.
- Relationship between nodes have weights.
- Concepts are stored in hierarchy.
- Activation of a node will also spread to related nodes

Question 22

Distributed Network

Answer 22

• Concepts are not represented within a single node, but distributed across many node
• Concepts are represented in pattern of activations

Question 23

Examples of Embodied Cognition

Answer 23

• Production effect of reading
• People who were exhausted judge the distance to be further than those who were not

Question 23

Embodied Cognition

Answer 23

• Cognition embodied in human body
• Perception, action, cognition are tightly knitted

Question 24

Biological Perspective

Answer 24

- Cognition from how the brain works - Specialized modules rather than general purpose device - Neurocomputational model - Neurophysiological studies - EDA, EEG, fMRI, Eye-tracking - Brain damage studies