Chapter 14 HISTORY & SYSTEMS

Bit

amount of information that can be conveyed by the open or closed status of a single binary switch (one or zero)

Connectionist processing

computer programming strategy that detects patterns of activity that go on throughout the whole system, rather than symbols in specified locations

Determinism

doctrine that acts are determined by past events

Reductionism

doctrine that explains phenomena on one level in terms of phenomena on another level

Cognitive Revolution

dramatic turning of psychology's primary focus to cognitive matters

Founding of Cognitive Psychology

-long processes, not overnight or with one publication -mirrored the evolution of digital technology -mirrored the evolution of digital technology -no single charismatic leader -interest with pragmatic: simply getting on with the work of redefining psychology -impacts more areas of psychology -shares one commonality with behaviorism: use of experimental method

Spirit of Mechanism

-machines put to daily use -machines freed industry from dependence on human brawn

Claude Shannon

American electrical engineer; theorized that patterns of relay circuits in "off" or "on" positions could be used to represent information in binary code

Noam Chomsky

American linguist; proposed that an innate "universal grammar" is hard-wried in the human brain and whose views on language influenced George Miller

John Searle

American philosopher; created the Chinese room thought experiment of strong artificial intelligence, the idea that computer can have human-like intelligence

George A. Miller

American psychologist; conducted research showing the capacity of short-term memory is approximately seven items

Jerome S. Bruner

American psychologist; founded Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard University and demonstrated what became known as the "new look" in preception

Difference engine

Babbage; calculating machine that could compute sums and differences of complex sequences of squared numbers

Analytical engine

Babbge; "universal machine" capable of performing virtually any type of calculation; the prototype for a programmable computer

Symbolic logic

Boole; concept that holds that traditional mathematics may be thought of as just one of many possible forms of systematic symbol manipulation

Boolean algebra

Boole; system integrating logical calculation with classical mathematics, which became the foundation of modern symbolic logic

Sir Frederic Bartlett

British psychologist; demonstrated how memory is not "objectively" reproductive, but rather is powerful shaped by culturally and socially established predispositions he called schemata

Means-End Analysis

heuristic technique to limited search options that was used by the GPS, in which the most desirable end state for a problem is regularly compared to its actual current state and distance (difference) between the two is analyzed and measured

Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies

independent founded by Bruner and Miller to pursue broad interdisciplinary projects

Serialist (symbolic) processing

COmputer programming in which specified sequences of operations are perfumed on specified sets of symbols, both of which have been stored in specific memory locations

Automata

machines capable of performing feats with precision and regularity; applied to human beings

Herbert Simon & Allen Newell

Computer scientists and developers of early AI programs, Logic Theorist (LT) and General Problem Solver (GPS)

Artificial intelligence

machines display artificial intelligence and process information similarly to the way people do; the capacity of a mechanical device to perform operations that replicate or imitate human thought processes and other intelligent behaviors

Charles Babbage

English mathematician; helped reform English mathematics by introducing Leibnizean calculus and who designed the difference engine and the analytical engine

George Boole

English mathematician; invented Boolean algebra

Alan Turing

English mathematician; invention of the Turing machine and Turing Test influenced development of the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence

Blaise Pascal

French mathematician, inventor, philosopher; developed the Pascaline, one of the first mechanical calculators; believed machines could reproduce rational but not emotional human processes

Cognition

mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding

Impossibilist creativity

one of two forms of creativity identified by British psychologist Margaret Boden; involves changing the preset rules, and this effecting a "transformation of conceptual space"

Improbabalist creativity

one of two forms of creativity identified by British psychologist Margaret Boden; involves putting already familiar ideas or components together in new and useful or interesting combinations, according to rules that have already ben established

Ada Lovelace

promoted Babbage's analytical machine and foresaw many of its potential uses; introduced the Lovelace objection

TOTE Unit

proposed as a new central concept in the analysis of thinking and reasoning; Test, Operate, Test, Exit; based on the idea that problem solving typically begins with a first test. followed by an operation to reduce the difference, then another test

Ulric Neisser

psychologist; textbook Cognitive Psychology regarded as the launching event for that new sub discipline; conducted research focusing on information processing, cognition, intelligence and memory

Binary arithmetic

representation of all numbers by just ones and zeroes

Lovelace objection

Lovelace; notion that the analytical engine could follow only predetermined and precisely defined rules that it was not capable of genuine creativity

Magical number seven, plus or minus two

Miller; work documenting the capacity of short-term memory suggests that it is approximately seven items, plus or minus two, after which accuracy falls off markedly

Flashbulb memory

Neisser; vividly recalled image of exactly where one was and what one was doing when some particularly momentous event occurred

Logic Theorist (LT)

Newell & Simon; computer program that reproduced proofs for some of the basic theorems at the heart of the symbolic logic

General Problem Solver (GPS)

Newell & Simon; used heuristics intended to be capable of solving a broad range of types of problems

Strong AI

Searle; ability of computer intelligence to be distinguishable in all respects from human intelligence

Weak AI

Searle; notion that computer processes might resemble, and may serve as models for, certain aspects of human thinking, but without accompanying attributes of a human mind, such as intentionality and subjective consciousness

Chinese room

Searle; thought experiment that compares a native speaker of Chinese with a speaker who responds but "mechanically," with the aid of a complete book rules

Information theory

Shannon; based on the idea that any communication of signal can be analyzed in terms of a fundamental unit call the bit

Turing machine

Turing; hypothetical computer that could perform any kind of calculation on any set of symbols capable of being manipulated in the Boolean sense, according to some set of formally specifiable and self-consistent rules

Turing test

Turing; test to assess the "intelligence" of a machine according to its ability to perform some complex task and requiring genuinely intelligent behavior, in a manner outwardly indistinguishable from that of a person; persuading a subject that the computer with which he or she is communicating is really another person, not a machine

Binary switches

simple switches that may be in "or" or "off" states

Cognitive psychology

subdiscipline focused on the study of the important mental processes that intervene between an activation stimulus and a final response; field incorporate topics such as perception, attention, language development and use, memory and problem solving-all of which are are typically analyzed in terms of information processing; "return" to the study of the mind

Heuristic

technique for problem solving that limits search space and relying on best guesses and short cuts

Mechanism

the image of the universe as a great machine -originated in physics -originally called "natural philosophy" -introduced by Galilei and Newton -every physical effect follows from a direct cause -physical wold like a clock: predictable, smooth, orderly

"New look" in perception

understanding of perception that emphasizes how a variety of nonobjective factors can systemically influence the process of perception