Midterm

Question 1

Cybernetics

Answer 1

study of loops (“control and communication”) in a system

Question 2

Cyborg

Answer 2

Organism + artifact that operates one system.

Question 3

Centrifugal / watts governor

Answer 3

Regulates the speed of a steam engine. Balls go high and stop steam from entering. It then slows down and balls go low allowing steam in.

Question 4

Homeostasis

Answer 4

A state of equilibrium that is maintained in a system. Maintaining a constant internal state.

Question 5

Enactivism

Answer 5

Theory which believes cognition is for action. Learning is based on perception and action.

Question 6

White’s view on symbols and signs

Answer 6

A symbol can be anything while a sign is a symbol that has become transparent (single meaning). White believes humans can only understand symbols and manipulate symbols.

Question 7

Transparency

Answer 7

Symbols with a single meaning.

Question 8

Behaviorism

Answer 8

The mind is seen as a black box based on input/output. Classical Conditioning. Stimulus-response.

Question 9

The symbol and the Cognitive Revolution

Answer 9

The turning point is when we see behavior caused by underlying behavior instead of input/output. The symbol became a unit of mental processing unique to humans.

Question 10

Computationalism/functionalism

Answer 10

Believes the cognitive process is a computational process. Functionalism believes the mental state comes from the role it plays in a system.

Question 11

Multiple realizability

Answer 11

A mental state or information process that can be implemented in many physical forms.

Question 12

Cognitivism

Answer 12

A cognitive theory that studies cognition as a distinct set of processes from outward behavior.

Question 13

Information Processing

Answer 13

Storing, manipulating, and retrieving information. Our fundamental function of cognition.

Question 14

Newell and Simon’s General Problem Solver

Answer 14

A theoretical model of how humans solve problems meant to be used to implement artificial intelligence.

Question 15

Mental Representations

Answer 15

Depends on who you ask. A cognitive symbol that represents something in reality. Our mental capacity can support them.

Question 16

Representationalism

Answer 16

Our brain only perceives mental images. We create the perception that we experience.

Question 17

Symbolic Ai

Answer 17

AI research focuses on symbolic manipulation based on rules. Artificial agents use this to solve problems.

Question 18

Cognitive Simulation

Answer 18

Tried breaking down human tasks into a model and giving rules. However, it had difficulty understanding input when outside range.

Question 19

Physical Symbol Systems Hypothesis

Answer 19

Believed feeding the computer with enough symbols (facts and rules) would allow them to solve any problem. However, they learned it’s impossible as infinite rules and facts exist.

Question 20

The Symbol Grounding Problem

Answer 20

We don’t understand symbols as abstract ideas but through our bodily senses. What gives symbol meaning?

Question 21

The Chinese Room (J Searle)

Answer 21

It fights the idea of functionalism and believes acting identically means it’s a recreation. The Chinese room shows you can imitate but you aren’t recreating/understanding behavior.

Question 22

How Embodied cognition answers the Symbol Grounding Problem

Answer 22

We don’t understand symbols as abstract ideas but through our bodily senses. An example of Embodied Cognition.

Question 23

Central tenet of Embodied cognition

Answer 23

Cognition requires a body because they evolved together.

Question 24

The outfielder problem

Answer 24

Instead of excessive internal schema, we use the world to simplify it to a feedback loop. An example of Embedded Cognition.

Question 25

The perception/action loop

Answer 25

A feedback loop between acting in the world and perceiving the effect of that action in the world.

Question 26

The input/output picture

Answer 26

Sense-Think-Act. Relationship between mind and world going in a single direction: world is a stimulus that is processed, which leads to outward behavior.

Question 27

Enactive Perception

Answer 27

The action plays a fundamental role in the perception

Question 28

How does enactive differ from the input/output picture?

Answer 28

Action and perception are seen as nonlinear and instead bidirection. Mind and the world connection via the body.

Question 29

Experiential blindness

Answer 29

People have working input systems, but are functionally blind as they cannot understand input.

Question 30

Held & Hein 1963

Answer 30

Two cats are in a closed environment where one can't move and only see. Without personal agency, normal cognition fails to develop. Example of Enactive Cognition.

Question 31

Cognitive scaffolding

Answer 31

Using external tools to do cognitive work.

Question 32

Niche construction

Answer 32

Changing(constructing) our environment(society) to help manage cognitive tasks for us. An example of Situated Cognition.

Question 33

Principle of ecological assembly

Answer 33

Our brains are not only a processor but also a manager. We use external resources to help us solve it on the spot.

Question 34

Thinking bottleneck

Answer 34

Real-life processes are too fast and the amount of info is too large for a full model. Dawson believes we leverage inherent dynamics between body and world to make faster decisions.

Question 35

Affordances

Answer 35

Abilities and action that can be taken based on object capabilities

Question 36

Inverse projection problem

Answer 36

A given stimulus has many possible interpretations. We reduce this with an inference technique informed by world experience.

Question 37

Ecological approach

Answer 37

Changing our behaviors based on the environment.

Question 38

Situated cognition

Answer 38

Cognition is based on the situation you are in.

Question 39

Embedded cognition

Answer 39

Cognition is based on the feedback between us and the world.