CogSci 180 Midterm Review UPDATED ACTUAL Questions
and CORRECT Answers
Why did people start questioning personal identity? Industrial Revolution allowed for social mobility
- need for individual talent
What disciplines does this course draw from? - philosophy
- neuroscience
- psychology
Early philosophers were either _____ or _____. - idealists
- dualists
Idealists view that everything is mind
Dualists view that mind and body are very different
- Rene Descartes
Which view is more popular in recent years? Idealism, materialism
materialism, or dualism?
Materialism view that mental states are physical
- Ex: behaviorism, mind brain identity theory, functionalism, computational theory
of mind
Plato's Forms higher realm of ideal perfection
- truth, beauty, moral goodness
Mind-Body Problem what is the relationship between the body and the brain?
- distinction between physical and mental properties
Monism there is only one kind of substance in the world
- materialism
Transcendental Idealism idealism + empiricism, emphasizing importance of sensory experience
- Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant stressed importance of observance
Descartes - how can anyone know that they actually exist? how do we know its not just a
dream?
- designed evil genius thought experiment
Brain-in-a-vat Thought Experiment are we brains in a vat being controlled by an evil scientist? you cant rule out the
possibility and if you are a brain in a vat then everything you know is wrong. A
brain in a vat couldn't explain that it's a brain in a vat. Skepticism thought
experiment.
, Behaviorism mind is black box that you can't say anything verifiable about, so mind shouldn't
form a part of any scientific discussion
- we should only study relation between stimuli and behavioral responses
Mind-Brain Identity Theory states and processes of mind are identical to states and processes of the brain
- pain and mental images ARE brain processes, not just correlated with them
- self and free will are epiphenomenal
Functionalism - emphasis on function to understand how things produce their effects
- what makes something a thought, desire, pain is its function
- identity of mental state determined by causal relations to sensory stimulations
- allows high-level understanding
Computational Theory of Mind - materialist view
- human mind is computational system realized by neural activity in the brain
Physical Symbol System Hypothesis - Herbert Simon and Allen Newell
- a physical symbol system has the necessary and sufficient means for general
intelligent action
1. anything capable of intelligent action is a pss
2. pass sufficient for intelligence, machines can be constructed that are intelligent
Chinese Room Argument - tries to show computational theory of mind and pass wrong
- symbols manipulated to produce right outputs, but no genuine understanding
Turing Test - criterion for whether machine is displaying real intelligence
- if you communicate w machine and can't tell difference between it and a human
being, then machine genuinely intelligent
phenomenal consciousness how and why we experience the world as we do
Hard Problem of Consciousness The problem of determining how physiological processes, such as ion flow across
nerve membranes, cause different perceptual experiences.
T/F: Eastern philosophical traditional do not have clear T
distinction between material and spiritual.
Near Death Experience altered state of consciousness reported after close brush with death
- evidence of dualism?
Bohr model became the new theory of what existed at the fundamental level in the 19th
century
- electrons travel in defined circular orbits around the nucleus
Einstein's Theory of Relativity space and time not standard background features of the universe that are
absolutes
- malleable
- transformed by presence of mass and energy
Anterior near or toward the front
and CORRECT Answers
Why did people start questioning personal identity? Industrial Revolution allowed for social mobility
- need for individual talent
What disciplines does this course draw from? - philosophy
- neuroscience
- psychology
Early philosophers were either _____ or _____. - idealists
- dualists
Idealists view that everything is mind
Dualists view that mind and body are very different
- Rene Descartes
Which view is more popular in recent years? Idealism, materialism
materialism, or dualism?
Materialism view that mental states are physical
- Ex: behaviorism, mind brain identity theory, functionalism, computational theory
of mind
Plato's Forms higher realm of ideal perfection
- truth, beauty, moral goodness
Mind-Body Problem what is the relationship between the body and the brain?
- distinction between physical and mental properties
Monism there is only one kind of substance in the world
- materialism
Transcendental Idealism idealism + empiricism, emphasizing importance of sensory experience
- Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant stressed importance of observance
Descartes - how can anyone know that they actually exist? how do we know its not just a
dream?
- designed evil genius thought experiment
Brain-in-a-vat Thought Experiment are we brains in a vat being controlled by an evil scientist? you cant rule out the
possibility and if you are a brain in a vat then everything you know is wrong. A
brain in a vat couldn't explain that it's a brain in a vat. Skepticism thought
experiment.
, Behaviorism mind is black box that you can't say anything verifiable about, so mind shouldn't
form a part of any scientific discussion
- we should only study relation between stimuli and behavioral responses
Mind-Brain Identity Theory states and processes of mind are identical to states and processes of the brain
- pain and mental images ARE brain processes, not just correlated with them
- self and free will are epiphenomenal
Functionalism - emphasis on function to understand how things produce their effects
- what makes something a thought, desire, pain is its function
- identity of mental state determined by causal relations to sensory stimulations
- allows high-level understanding
Computational Theory of Mind - materialist view
- human mind is computational system realized by neural activity in the brain
Physical Symbol System Hypothesis - Herbert Simon and Allen Newell
- a physical symbol system has the necessary and sufficient means for general
intelligent action
1. anything capable of intelligent action is a pss
2. pass sufficient for intelligence, machines can be constructed that are intelligent
Chinese Room Argument - tries to show computational theory of mind and pass wrong
- symbols manipulated to produce right outputs, but no genuine understanding
Turing Test - criterion for whether machine is displaying real intelligence
- if you communicate w machine and can't tell difference between it and a human
being, then machine genuinely intelligent
phenomenal consciousness how and why we experience the world as we do
Hard Problem of Consciousness The problem of determining how physiological processes, such as ion flow across
nerve membranes, cause different perceptual experiences.
T/F: Eastern philosophical traditional do not have clear T
distinction between material and spiritual.
Near Death Experience altered state of consciousness reported after close brush with death
- evidence of dualism?
Bohr model became the new theory of what existed at the fundamental level in the 19th
century
- electrons travel in defined circular orbits around the nucleus
Einstein's Theory of Relativity space and time not standard background features of the universe that are
absolutes
- malleable
- transformed by presence of mass and energy
Anterior near or toward the front
