COGSCI 200 Midterm Exam 1 UPDATED
Exam Questions and CORRECT
Answers
Marr's Three levels of Explanation - CORRECT ANSWER - Functional--Problem the
capacity is supposed to solve
Ex:
Language-- mapping sounds to meaning
Face recognition-- mapping face to names
Perception-- inverse optics
Algorithmic--Procedures that enable the problem to be solved
Ex:
Language-- phrase structure grammars
Face recognition-- features on face
Perception-- Baye's Rule
Physical-- The neural/chemical substrates in which the procedures are implemented
Ex:
Language-- different brain regions
Face recognition-- different brain regions
Perception-- eye/sight pathway
Associanistic views
What's in the head that explains language?
,How did that stuff get in there? - CORRECT ANSWER - If you regularly experience A's
followed by B's, then form an association between A's and B's
"Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything" -Skinner
What is "in the head" that explains language?:
A bunch of associations between specific verbal actions and specific situations
How did that stuff in the head get there?:
Associanistic learning, in particular instrumental conditioning
Problems with the Associanistic Account - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. Stimulus
Independence
People routinely utter sentences in contexts that are independent of the contexts in which the
sentences were learned; for associanistic, the context must be identical
2. Novelty
Many of the sentences that a person knows have never been encountered before (male octopus
sentence)
3. Productivity
A language is productive if there is no upper bound on the # of sentences it can express
4. Systematicity
A language is systematic when the following is the case: A person who knows the language
reliably knows "groups" of expressions at a time (If paul knows "Cat is on the mat" he also
knows "Mat is on the cat")
Cognitive Views - CORRECT ANSWER - Language each person acquires is a rich and
complex construction undetermined -Chomsky
,Chomsky focused on syntactic processing, and proposed it could be understood in terms of
phrase structure grammar
Phrase Structure Grammars
Hierarchical
Combinatoric
Recusrive
What's "in the head" that explains language?
How did that stuff in the head get there? - CORRECT ANSWER - Particular kind of
grammar that have been highly influential in linguistics
Hierarchical-- A sentence is broken down into abstract constituents, which are in turn broken
down into further constituents
Combinatoric--The rules are defined over elements that can be recombined in open-ended ways
Recursive-- Allows for repeated application of certain rules allowing for sentences of potentially
unbounded length
What's "in the head" that explains language?
Abstract combinatoric rules
How did that stuff in the head get there?
Most of it is innate (Part of 'Universal Grammar')
Syntax vs Semantics
"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" - CORRECT ANSWER - Syntax: the processing of
sentence structure
, Semantics: the processing of sentence meaning
Syntactically well formed but semantically meaningless
Can Cognitive account Explain the four problems of the Associanistic view? - CORRECT
ANSWER - Novelty
Phrase structures help explain why we can create novel sentences
Systematicity
Person can know groups of expressions at a time
Productivity
No upper bound on the # of sentences it can express (recursive phrase structure rules)
Stimulus independence
Uttering sentences independent of the context they were learned is possible
Two critical observations of language - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. Language has a unique
pattern of universality
Present in all human species/ same complexity everywhere
(supports theory of innateness)
2. Rules of language are combinatoric and formulated using highly abstract categories
Phrase structure rules
Babies are able to formulate complex grammatical sentences
(Supports innateness bc Poverty of Stimulus Argument)
Exam Questions and CORRECT
Answers
Marr's Three levels of Explanation - CORRECT ANSWER - Functional--Problem the
capacity is supposed to solve
Ex:
Language-- mapping sounds to meaning
Face recognition-- mapping face to names
Perception-- inverse optics
Algorithmic--Procedures that enable the problem to be solved
Ex:
Language-- phrase structure grammars
Face recognition-- features on face
Perception-- Baye's Rule
Physical-- The neural/chemical substrates in which the procedures are implemented
Ex:
Language-- different brain regions
Face recognition-- different brain regions
Perception-- eye/sight pathway
Associanistic views
What's in the head that explains language?
,How did that stuff get in there? - CORRECT ANSWER - If you regularly experience A's
followed by B's, then form an association between A's and B's
"Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything" -Skinner
What is "in the head" that explains language?:
A bunch of associations between specific verbal actions and specific situations
How did that stuff in the head get there?:
Associanistic learning, in particular instrumental conditioning
Problems with the Associanistic Account - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. Stimulus
Independence
People routinely utter sentences in contexts that are independent of the contexts in which the
sentences were learned; for associanistic, the context must be identical
2. Novelty
Many of the sentences that a person knows have never been encountered before (male octopus
sentence)
3. Productivity
A language is productive if there is no upper bound on the # of sentences it can express
4. Systematicity
A language is systematic when the following is the case: A person who knows the language
reliably knows "groups" of expressions at a time (If paul knows "Cat is on the mat" he also
knows "Mat is on the cat")
Cognitive Views - CORRECT ANSWER - Language each person acquires is a rich and
complex construction undetermined -Chomsky
,Chomsky focused on syntactic processing, and proposed it could be understood in terms of
phrase structure grammar
Phrase Structure Grammars
Hierarchical
Combinatoric
Recusrive
What's "in the head" that explains language?
How did that stuff in the head get there? - CORRECT ANSWER - Particular kind of
grammar that have been highly influential in linguistics
Hierarchical-- A sentence is broken down into abstract constituents, which are in turn broken
down into further constituents
Combinatoric--The rules are defined over elements that can be recombined in open-ended ways
Recursive-- Allows for repeated application of certain rules allowing for sentences of potentially
unbounded length
What's "in the head" that explains language?
Abstract combinatoric rules
How did that stuff in the head get there?
Most of it is innate (Part of 'Universal Grammar')
Syntax vs Semantics
"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" - CORRECT ANSWER - Syntax: the processing of
sentence structure
, Semantics: the processing of sentence meaning
Syntactically well formed but semantically meaningless
Can Cognitive account Explain the four problems of the Associanistic view? - CORRECT
ANSWER - Novelty
Phrase structures help explain why we can create novel sentences
Systematicity
Person can know groups of expressions at a time
Productivity
No upper bound on the # of sentences it can express (recursive phrase structure rules)
Stimulus independence
Uttering sentences independent of the context they were learned is possible
Two critical observations of language - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. Language has a unique
pattern of universality
Present in all human species/ same complexity everywhere
(supports theory of innateness)
2. Rules of language are combinatoric and formulated using highly abstract categories
Phrase structure rules
Babies are able to formulate complex grammatical sentences
(Supports innateness bc Poverty of Stimulus Argument)
