BCOG Week 8

complexity theory

The study of how efficiently a function can be computed by a particular kind of algorithm is called

computability theory

The study of whether a particular kind of algorithm could ever compute a specific function is called

Turing machine.

Recognizing all legal strings (and only legal strings) of a palindrome language (e.g., ABBA, AA, AABBAA), can only be solved by a

emphases learning as an important component of knowledge.

The Connectionist Theory of Mind is similar to behaviorism in that it

computational theory

The formal study of functions, algorithms, and their capabilities and limitations, is called

it justified the idea of studying thinking as a physical process.

The idea of a Turing machine was important to the study of the mind because

the finite state machine has no memory of what word(s) came before.

The reading noted that a finite state machine is insufficient for knowing what word should follow "dog" in a sentence like "The dog chased the cat". The reason is that:

an algorithm is the set of rules that a machine follows to give the correct output given an input, while a function is a relationship between a set of inputs and outputs

What is the primary difference between a function and an algorithm?

finite state machine

What is the simplest machine that can solve the following problem: Deciding to continue standing still, or walking across the street, depending not the status of the walk /don't walk symbol.

combinational logic, finite state machine, pushdown stack, Turing machine

Which of the following correctly puts the different kinds of computational machines in order in terms of the difficulty of the problems they can solve, from simplest to most complex:

finite state machine has knowledge of its current state, and a combinational logic machine does not.

Which of the following distinguishes a finite state machine from a combinational logic machine?

a finite state machine that is designed to mimic the mind would have too many states to be computationally plausible

Why is it unlikely that the mind is a finite state machine?

pushdown stack automata

a machine that has a set of states, rules for transitions between states, and a memory keeping track of previous states.

pass the Turing test

If a machine generates an output that is indistinguishable from the output that a human could generate, it is said to:

a combinational logic machine

Imagine a machine that decides if something is an orange (the fruit) based on if it is orange (the color), if it is round, if it is greater than 2 inches in diameter, and if it is less than 5 inches in diameter. What is the simplest machine that could be used to make such a decision?

a representation of an external stimulus that is based on a set of many elements.

In the connectionist theory of mind, a distributed representation is

complexity theory

A computer scientist who is interested in which web searching algorithm is most efficient is engaging in:

the Turing test

A few people have argued that, because ChatGPT seems so human in how it uses language, that it might be thinking the same way that humans think. This is most related to:

A Turing machine.

A mathematical model of computation that defines an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules is called

computation

An explicitly stated set of steps or rules that a device follows in order to determine, given a particular input, what the output should be.

algorithm

An explicitly stated set of steps or rules that are followed in order an order is called

finite state machine

is a machine that has a set of states and rules for transitions between states, but no memory or additional information.

Computational Theory

the formal study of functions, algorithms, and their capabilities and limitations

Symbolic Computation Theory

the mind is a system for representing information about the worl din terms of physical symbols that are stored in the computational device, and a set of rules for manipulating those symbols

connectionist theory of mind

the theory that the mind can be explained in terms of neural network models; the connectivity architecture, their weights and activation given certain inputs and the learning algorithms by which they operate.