week 2 - intro Flashcards
what is cognition
anything related to thought and experience
how our mind generates our perceptions of the world and generates thoughts and how we apply those to our perceptions
what is cognitive psychology
an approach that aims to understand human cognition by the study of behaviour
the information processing approach
- what?
“stimulus-response machines”
BOTTOM UP - info comes in through senses
SERIAL PROCESSING - it is processed by a series of modules that change the info in a systematic way
the output is an observable response
the information processing approach
- criticisms
doesn’t allow for parallel processing –> multitasking
oversimplification
–> assumes serial processing
–> typically more than 1 at a time
ignores top-down
–> influences of an individuals prior knowledge/goals
how do we produce the experience of whats in front of us?
top-down and bottom-up combine in complicated ways to produce the experience of whats in front of us
if you have thought about it, it exists in your….
neurons
the brain is millions of cells
- some of these cells produce/represents
- neurons firing create the experience
where do our thoughts and perceptions come from?
our brain
everything you see in the world is represented in the brain
how do neurons represent complex info?
some neurons have preferred stimuli
–> fire more
how do neurons represent complex info?
evidence
2012
electrodes implanted in medial temporal cortex of patients having epilespy surgery
- pic of luke skywalker
particular neurons fire more
another unrelated pic this does not happen
also fires for concepts (yoda)
it is a network of neurons
how do neurons work?
1) rate coding
2) temporal coding
how do neurons work?
rate coding
= greater rate of a neuron response is used to code/represent information
the info that each neuron represents is represented in how FAST it fires
how do neurons work?
temporal coding
= greater synchrony of the response of several neurons is used to code info
multiple neurons firing at the same time
more likely
the binding problem
moving blue ball
dont perceive it as seperate things (ball, moving, blue)
always experience as a whole
this is a challenge (to combine features represented by different neurons)
–> temporal coding can explain this
where does cog psyc fit into the history of pysc
philo approach –> mind, body, problem - dualism - redustionism
scientific approach
- phenology –> failed
- functional specialization –> made was for future development
modern foundations of cog neuroscience lie in info processing approach
