Cognitive Science.txt

• 1. Studies how we think and understand
• 2. Studies abilities that allow us to think and understand
• 3. Interdisciplinary approach

• 1. Mental Representations exist and can be studies scientifically
• 2. The mind can be modeled as a computer
• 3. Interdisciplinary approach

How we think and understand, and the abilities that allow us to think and understand.

Creates an association between a natural reaction to a stimulus and an arbitrary reaction to a stimulus.

States that human behavior is a series of learned associations. Developed by Watson and Skinner.

States that the mind is like a computer. In a computer there are rules and operations that guide tasks, therefore, the mind can be modeled with computational programming.

States that all knowledge is there from birth. Ex. reflexes

States that knowledge is gained through experience

• Developed by Gardner
• States that there are different intelligences, such as logical, musical, spatial, kinesthetic, etc.
• Drawbacks: Some prized intelligences, Talent or Intelligence?

• "Goal-Oriented Adaptive Behavior"
• States that Intelligence is:
• Things humans are good at
• Ability to create routines
• Ability to deal with new situations
• Categorizing
• Inferring
• Planning

A mental representation of an object or event and relevant knowledge

Class of similar things

• 1. Let's us relate new information to old information
• 2. Allows us to predict and infer
• 3. Let's us communicate and learn for indirect experiences

• States that classification is hierarchical, in trees
• All members share features necessary and sufficient (minimum and required to be included)

• Hierarchical
• Members share features, but not every member must have every trait.
• Family resemblance.
• More traits>more typical, most typical>Prototype
• Superordinate>Basic Level>Subordinate

• States that categories are like scientific method.
• Develop a hypothesis, gather data, revise hypothesis
• Good for explaining ad hoc categories

• Organized knowledge about routine events
• Used to organize events

• Non-Symbolic (Modal):
• -Mental images are like visual perception of real images

• Symbolic (Amodal):
• -Perceptual information is encoded into modality-independent form
• -Easier to write coding

Theory that mental images are processed by changing them into propositions

Ex. x=pineapple, y=platypus, y>x

When a person in a research project attempts to guess the nature of the study and acts accordingly, either to prove or disprove the hypothesis.

• Iconic:
• Coding: Visual
• Capacity: Entire visual field
• Duration: 250-300ms
• Echoic:
• Coding: Auditory
• Capacity: 5 items
• Duration: 2-3sec

• Coding: Multiple formats
• Capacity: 7 items +/- 2
• Duration: Depends on rehearsal

Chuncking allows you to store more items and increase STM capacity

• -Proactive Interference: Earlier information interferes with later information
• -Retroactive interference: Later information interferes with earlier information
• -Primacy effect: Where we remember the first information and not the last
• -Recency effect: Where we remember the last information and not the first information

• Coding: Multiple Formats
• Capacity: Unlimited
• Duration: Indefinite

• -Procedural: Knowing how to do things, like riding a bike
• -Declarative: -Semantic:Knowing facts, Episodic: Personal experiences

• Accessing information stored in memory, relies on cues and associations
• -Encoding: Translated into mental representations
• -Elaboration: Linking information to things already in LTM
• -Encoding Specificity: How something gets encoded depends on information available at the time of encoding. Retrieval easier if the same information is available.

• -Consolidation: Memories become more stable and resistant to interference. Strengthening of associations happens at cellular level.
• State-Dependent Learning: Better performance if mood/chemical state is the same during recall as during encoding

• -Spreading Activation: Exciting one node spreads activation along network to other nodes.
• -Priming: When something is made more active in your memory. (Bread primes butter). Can be measured.

• 3 states of information processing:
• 1. Sensory Inputs
• 2. Sensory Register (Attention)
• 3. Short Term Memory (Rehearsal)
• 4. Long Term Memory

• -Retrograde: When you can't remember anything from before the injury
• -Anterograde: When you can't remember anything after the injury, you can't make memories

Neither affects learned skills

• -Exogenous: Unconscious orientation toward a stimulus, reflexive
• -Endogenous: Conscious or voluntary orientation toward a stimulus
• -Orienting: Directing attention to a location
• -Searching: Evaluation environment to determine location
• -Detecting: Locating stimulus
• -Vigilance: Remaning oriented

• Divided Attention: simultaneous performance of multiple attention-demanding tasks
• Change Blindness: People miss change when it's slow/when distracted
• Visual Neglect: Hemineglect, Damage to Parietal lobe, Problem of consciousness, failure to notice a part of space.

How sounds of a language are produced and which sounds the language has

Where the breaks in words are and which meanings go with which words.

What words mean

Semantic satiation: When words are repeated, they cease to have meaning

How words are put together to form sentences

When you say something, what inferences can be drawn from the saying of it

Prescriptive: Things you should do

Descriptive: What is actually done

Relativity: FACT Language divides up the world differently, encoding different things

Determinism: HYPOTHESIS 1. Determines thought and perception, 2. Exerts some influence

Inability to produce or understand language

• Broca's Aphasia: Dysfluent aphasia
• Wernicke's Aphasia: Fluent aphasia

• Running procedure involves re-running process that's part of process
• Ex. S>NP VP
• NP>N
• VP>NP VP

Intention to change another person's mental state via communicative signal

• Meaningful motion of hands/body/arms
• Emblems: glossable, from convention, not universal
• Co-speech: universal, occur with speech, iconic

Perceived similarity between two things

N/A

Whole brain is involved in mental activity

• Localization
• Difference parts of the brain are involved with different abilities.

• Brain Stem: Life Support
• Limbic System: Hypothalamus and Pituitary-Homeostais
• Amygdala-Survival Emotions
• Hippocampus-Memory
• Cerebellum: Coordinates motion
• Thalmus: Relays sensory information
• Basal Ganglia: Motor control

Frontal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, Occipital Lobe, Parietal Lobe

• Superior (Dorsal), Anterior, Inferior (Ventral), Posterior
• Medial, Lateral

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• Action Potential: Firing, Electrical impulses that pass along axon to terminal buttons
• Causes release of neurotransmitters from terminal buttons