Cognitive Psychology Exam 1

Algorithmic Process IP

"HOW?" (e.g., Cog Psychology) -How the system performs its computations? -What processes are used to build and manipulate the representations?

Physical Makeup IP

"WHAT?" (e.g., Neuroscience) -How the information processing system is physically implemented? -What is it made of?

Computational Function IP

"WHY?" (e.g., Ev Psychology) -What is the system's function? (What problem does it solve?) -Why does it do these things?

Compatiblism

-Are we doomed to determinism? -All phenomena including choice-making are fundamentally physical and causal, but the concept of free will is still useful even if it's not as free as we thought

Brain-Computer Interface

-Artificial limb control - transforms brain signal into mechanical signal -What if we sent this 1 signal to multiple artificial arms, or vice versa... -Cooperation - combines mechanical signals into shared task

Mind/Body Dualism

-Body is mechanical -Mind is immaterial, causal (free will), rational (learn truth through introspection), the "ghost in the machine" (Rene Descartes)

Structuralism

-Bottom-up processing -Can't possibly assemble all available information efficiently

Top-Down Processing

-Building perceptions from pre-existing rules, assumptions, expectations. (e.g., adaptation to fear snakes) -Assumes lots of innate knowledge -Not just limited to perception -Helps filter out non-essential info and fill gaps when essential info is ambiguous or unavailable.

Anatomy of a neuron

-Cell body -Dendrites -Axon -Terminal branches of axon -Myelin sheath -Neural Impulse

Neurotransmitters

-Chemicals that send messages between neurons -Only certain neurotransmitters will work with certain receptors, like a lock and key -Works in 2 ways: excite or inhibit cell

Mechanisms of Reproduction

-DNA-->Gene-->Protein -Protein - molecular machine that performs a particular job (e.g., digestion) -Genes are instructions to build humans -And humans pass on the genes, not themselves -So genes build us as a way to copy themselves!

Bounded Rationality Theory

-Decisions are constrained by adaptive reflexes -Fast, automatic, emotional impulses -Good for uncertain environments -Cognitive rules: "Take calories whenever available!"

Universal Grammar

-Do kids really learn language from reinforcement and punishment? -Chomsky: What about novel sentences? -Some language rules must be determined by inborn (i.e. native) biological program

Neuroplasticity

-Experience can reorganize neural pathways and cognitive functions 1. Developmental Neurogenesis: 3% of the neurons in your hippocampus are replaced every month. 2. Loss of brain cells --> neighboring brain region adopts orphaned function 3. Loss of function --> unused brain region takes on compensatory function (i.e. Blindness --> echolocation)

Mind Reading (Gallant)

-Exposed people to faces in fMRI -Train algorithm to classify activity patterns -Test algorithm's classification accuracy ("Face or non-face?") -Reconstruct perception from test data ("What kind of face is it?") Cognitions that can be measured can be hacked!

Four Lobes of the Brain

-Frontal -Parietal -Occipital -Temporal

Error Management Theory

-Good reasons to be biased when reasoning under uncertainty -Our decision biases are adaptations, not accidents

Cognitive Neuroscience

-How mental processes are implemented in the brain -Penfield's localization of function -Split Brain Research (Sperry & Gazzaniga)

Explanatory Gap

-If dualism were true, how does mind control body? -What causes free will (infinite regress -How do mental states arise from biological tissue? -How is information encoded in the brain?

Feature Detectors

-Individual neurons that detect specific features of the environment. -Help us construct complex perceptions from smaller parts -E.g., Neurons for visually detecting vertical lines only or horizontal lines only or detecting when a light has gone off

What is the mind?

-Information processor -Model builder -Prediction generator -Representation maker All of which leads to behavior

Emotions as adaptations

-Innate -Rule-based -Automatic -Involve attention, memory, knowledge, problem-solving. -Motivate us to behave in ways that solve problems Emotions are a form of cognition, not an exception to it.

Blindsight

-Loss of conscious vision but still able to make accurate discriminations and judgments about blind area -Information can still be processed correctly without conscious awareness

Monism

-Mind and body are of one substance -Idealism: Mental is fundamental (Hegel) -Physicalism: Matter is fundamental (Spinoza)

Behaviorism

-Mind is black box -Can only measure overt behavior -E.g., Associationist theory of learning (i.e., Conditioning) -Animals learn behavior by associating cooccurring stimulus and response. input [stimulus] --> black box --> output [response]

Cognitive Revolution

-Not all behaviors are the result of reinforcement; Universal Grammar (Chomsky) -Advances in cognitive neuroscience; Localization of function (Penfield) -Emergence of computer (Turing); Artificial intelligence and neural nets

The principles of natural selection

-Our minds evolved to solve challenges faced by our ancestors- it solves them by processing information. -But the mind is not a general purpose computer; it's a collection of specific solutions. -These solutions aren't perfect - they're just good enough.

Folk Empiricism

-People are blank slates who learn from their environment. -Nurture

Folk Nativism

-People are equipped with predispositions to learn in certain ways. -Nature

Cognitive Processes

-Perception -Paying attention -Remembering -Categorizing -Visualizing -Understanding and production of language -Problem solving -Reasoning and decision-making -Cognitive processes use rules to guide behavior (Largely subconscious)

Wernicke's Aphasia

-Problems with comprehension and phrasing -Inability to process phrase meaning

Broca's Aphasia

-Problems with production -Inability to form words

Primary Somatosensory Cortex

-Receives information from all senses but smell -Routes to higher brain function -Organized topographically

Conditions for Natural Selection

-Replication -Replication Error (Mutation) -Competition Under these conditions, adaptation may be inevitable. Mutation creates variation, unfavorable mutations selected against, reproduction and mutation occur, favorable mutations more likely to survive and reproduce

Structural Models

-Representations of a physical structure -Mimic the form or appearance of a given object

3 Main Functions of the Nervous System

-Sensing information about external and internal conditions (input) -Integrating information centrally (processing) -Issuing commands to the body's muscles or glands (output) Enables us to perceive, understand, and react to the environment.

Localization of Function

-The idea that different parts of the brain do different things -Neural programs specialize in processing certain types of information and not others

Charles Darwin's Pre-history of Cognitive Psychology

-The mind is not a seat of reason or a ghost in the machine. -The mind is the many operations of the brain. -The brain is an adaptation, which is a system designed by natural selection to solve the reproductive challenges faced by our ancestors (Competition for food, shelter, mates, etc.) -Natural Selection, which is the incremental process by which organisms with traits that enable them to better adapt to their present environment will tend to outbreed their competitors, thus passing those favorable traits to subsequent generations.

Bottom-Up Processing

-The process of constructing interpretations about events in the world from their raw components (think "empirical") -Building perceptions as a sum of its observable parts (e.g., building representation of an apple from integrating shape, color, size, etc.) -Assumes very little innate knowledge

Function of a Neuron

-To process information by amplifying, filtering, and sending electrical signals -A neuron can only do two things: Fire and Not Fire

Perception

-Top-down process -Constructed to resolve conflicts across sensory modalities (McGurk Effect) -Sight overrides hearing (O Fortuna, "ba" or "fa") -We have many pre-existing cognitive rules that shape how we perceive the world. -Perception involves synthesis of distinct abilities -More than just sensation

Gestalt Psychology

-Top-down processing -Light-from-above assumption -Principle of closure -Principle of similarity

Visual Neglect

-Usually caused by damage to right parietal lobe -Vision is not a strictly bottom-up perceptual process -Requires feedback from higher-order attentional and semantic systems

Rational Choice Theory

-We are utility maximizers -Behave in ways to achieve personal goals most efficiently (e.g., weight loss)

Scientific Realism

-We perceive indirect simulation of the real world -Filtered, reconstructed, elaborated

Naive Realism

-We perceive the world as is -Unfiltered, bottom-up process

Executive Control vs Competition Hypothesis

-Who controls the controller? -Where do it's commands come from if not another region? -Competition begets cooperation; chaos begets order (many "robots") -Neurons cooperate and compete to produce behavior.

Brain Measurement

-fMRI (Spatial) -EEG (Temporal) -IEEG, MEG, MRS, PET, SPECT -Passive recording techniques -Correlational, not causal

Two main ways to represent information processing

1. Structural Models 2. Process Models

Demonstrating Causation Experimentally

Active Brain Measurements -Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) -Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) -Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation (TDCS)

Marr's Tri-Level Theory of Information Processing

Computational "WHY?" (e.g., Ev Psychology) Algorithmic "HOW?" (e.g., Cog Psychology) Physical "WHAT?" (e.g., Neuroscience)

Myelin Sheath

Covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed neural impulses

Nativism/Cognitivism

Easier to condition (and harder to extinguish) fear of spiders than electric sockets -Rules are innate -Rules are domain‐specific -We are not blank slates

Neural Impulse

Electric signal traveling down the axon

Associationism

Empiricism/Behaviorism Anything that's reinforced can be learned -Equipotentiality (with equal potential)

Determinism

Everything, including the mind, has traceable causes and conditions, even if we're not always aware of them.

How do lay people learn?

Folk Empiricism vs Folk Nativism False dichotomy: both must interact

Terminal Branches of Axon

Form junctions with other cells

Theories of what causes mental events

Free will VS Determinism

Biological Complexity

How could something so complex (such as the eye) arise from chance processes? -Incremental steps -Reinvented many times

Inside the black box

How does the mind translate stimuli into everyday decision making and behavior

Action Potential

Increase in energy beyond a threshold, leading to an electrical discharge, which propagates signal across the cell

What makes the brain different from any other adaptation?

Information Processing

Neural Circuits

Networks of neurons

Firing Rate

Number of spikes per unit of time (i.e., frequency) -So 1 neuron can use frequency to encode a message

Operant Conditioning

Pairing target behavior with pos/neg consequence Behaviorism (B.F. Skinner)

Classical Conditioning

Pairing unconditioned stimulus (rabbit) in time with conditioned stimulus (noise) Behaviorism (J.B. Watson)

Axon

Passes message away from cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands

Language Processing and Aphasia

Problems in the Broca's area and Wernicke's area result in speech disorders

Deduction

Process of reasoning in which a conclusion can be logically derived from known logical rules. -Rationalism (Plato)

Induction

Process of reasoning in which a conclusion is inferred by particular observations. -Scientific Empiricism (Aristotle)

Reverse Engineering

Rather than finding solutions to problems, often must find problems to solutions

Donders' Decision Processes

Reaction-time (RT) experiments -Simple vs Choice RT = decision time -If mind is non-physical, what should we expect?

Ebbinghaus' memory research

Recall of word lists

Dendrites

Receive messages from other cells

Refractory Period

Recovery period where cell is less sensitive to stimulation

Process Models

Represent the processes that are involved in cognitive mechanisms, with boxes usually representing specific processes and arrows indicating relationships between processes

Information Processing (IP) Approach

The brain converts physical events into symbolic events and back again

Cell Body

The cell's life support center

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The egg "The chicken is only an egg's way for making another egg." -R. Dawkins

Threshold

The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

Cognition

The mental procedures that process information in service of action.

Free Will

The mind is an uncaused, causal agent

Postmodernism

The world is nothing more than our perception