Psyc 426 Study Guide Questions Flashcards
What is cognitive science? What does it involve, entail, and aim to explore?
Cognitive science is the scientific study of cognitive systems, biological organisms and or machines that act and interact with a dynamic environment.
Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field-what are some of the disciplines involved?
1.) Philosophy
2.) Pscychology
3.) Computer Science
4.) Neuroscience
5.) Anthropology
6.) Linguistics
What are some of the methods used to explore research questions in cognitive science?
1.) Neuroimaging
2.) Psychometrics
3.) eye tracking
4.) general behavior experiments
What is mental representation? Why is it important?
Mental representation is something that stands for something else, meaning it is symbolic. Representations are important since they used a symbol to represent a mental process.
What are some different ways to categorize/conceptualized mental representation? Give examples.
Digital( such as language) Analog (visual images), Propositional ( Jane push sally, logical relationships between elements)
Are both representation and computation necessary for cognition? Why?
Yes, because it’s not only important to understand having the concept of something such as money which is representation, but how or why these mental mechanisms operate such as calculation of a tip, to make sense of the world.
Describe the emergence of cognitive science as a field in the 1950s. What precipitated it? Who were some of the key players involved?
Name and describe Marr’s (1987) levels of analysis.
1.) Computational: identifying the function of the computation. Noting what input/output. What is the goal? What’s the theory?
2.) Algorithm: how the computation can be solved; determining the algorithmic solution. What’s the solution
3.) Implementation: Determine how the cognitive system could implement this solution. How can the solution be implemented physically in the system.
What are the 3 main schools of thought that emerged within cognitive science? Name and describe each. Compare and contrast their tenets.
Classical Cognition: Information processing occurs through rules, which govern how different symbols are manipulated. A problem is posed, rules and representations allow a solution to be searched for, and a solution is subsequently found/implemented. Works great for well-posed problems → added to understanding of language and basic problem-solving.
Connectionist Cognition: Classical models for information processing fail to account for the properties of the brain → this structure and associated phenomena underlie cognition. The brain isn’t just a computer. No distinction between structure and process → the structure is the process! Model cognition using artificial neural networks. These networks are both structure and process; they store information and modify it at the same time.
Information processing isn’t just about doing logic and recognizing symbols somehow, within a “black box.” No centralized controller that accesses information from a separate memory. The architecture of the brain (i.e. system) enables it to be a dynamic recognizer of statistical patterns, which constitute cognition.
Embodied Cogntion: Classic and connectionist models both fail to account for the rest of the body and the outside environment. Cognitive systems are linked to their environments. Mind doesn’t beget action from perception; the mind coordinates ongoing relations between perception and action.
Agent cannot be separated from its environment in terms of information processing. Evidence supporting relevance of surrounding environment: Mirror neurons Off-loading memory storage (e.g., using a planner) Gesturing to facilitate language processing. Joint-action research.
What is the brain? What are the primary anatomical structures involved?
An organ comprised of neurons that have higher-order functions/controlled everything else.
The cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem.
Describe the relation between brain weight/blood supply/energy consumption vs. body weight/blood supply/energy consumption.
The human brain makes up 2% of total body weight, uses 10% of the blood circulation, and accounts for 20% of all energy consumption. Thus, a piece of brain tissue requires 12.25x more energy than the (averaged) rest of the body. Other non-primate vertebrates: 2% to 8% of all energy consumption goes to the brain. The human brain consumes a lot of energy!
Explain scaling laws as they apply to the human brain. Why isn’t an elephant “smarter” than a human if its brain is bigger? What makes humans “smarter” than other primates?
Primate brains have more efficient neuron scaling. However, our brain is the largest out of all the primates since we have more neurons we are more intelligent out of all the primates being that our brain is larger
Name and describe 4 different ways to define cortical areas.
There are four lobes in the cortex, the
frontal lobe: higher-order thoughts, emotions, decision making, take information from other lobes and turn it into meaningful things,
The parietal lobe governs attention and spatial processing:
temporal lobe: auditory processing, pattern recognition, and language comprehension,
occipital lobe: vision information more processing.
Define attention in the context of cognition. What is it and what does it involve?
Selectively enhancing focus on specific information in the environment, at the expense of everything else. Need to have what it involves
What is overt attention? What is covert attention?
Overt attention is Directing sensory organs (e.g., eyes) toward a specific stimulus. I.e. directly attending to something using our body machinery. While covert attention is Directing the “mind’s eye“toward a stimulus. Not observable. The fixation point of the eye stays constant.
