COGS 100 Final Exam Questions And Correct Answers
Enactivism - ANSWER holds that cognition arises from the dynamic interaction of an
acting organism and its environment
Distributed Cognition - ANSWER would be based on the very notion that cognition is
distributed over material, social, and cultural systems in a way that moves the unit of
analysis beyond the individual.
Extending the Mind - ANSWER an investigation into what would be required to extend
human mental capability, what that would involve, and consideration of related needs,
implications and ethics
Early classic cyborg: rat with rose implanted osmotic pump - ANSWER pump injects
chemicals automatically into the rat to create a biotechnological feedback loop which
can then be subjected to unusual environmental stresses - eg living in space
Norbert Weiner - ANSWER Automating anti- aircraft missile system during WW2.
Information and messages are processed via feedback control mechanisms. The
information is separable from the material itself
Claude Shannon - ANSWER Responsible for calculating the signal to noise ratio of
telephone lines to improve their efficiency. Creates a mathematical theory of
information quantified in bits. Worked with Bell Labs on fire control and cryptography
during WW2
Cybernetics via Plato - ANS Plato introduces the word into philosophy Borrowed from
Greek 'kybernetes', meaning steersman or governor Its root word is 'self-governance'
W. Ross Ashby - ANS Feedback mechanisms keeping homeostasis. The Homeostat is
one of the very first machines that could be said to adapt itself to the environment —
1948
,Computationalism/Functionalism - ANSWER Mental states (beliefs, desires, being in
pain, etc.) are constituted solely by their functional role (the causal relations of mental
states to other mental states, sensory inputs, and behavioral outputs)
Cognitivism/Functionalism: puts a computer in our heads + we can put our minds in
computers
Cybernetics = - ANSWER "the scientific study of control and communication in the
animal and the machine."
This is feedback control, which is generally continuous and involves measurement via a
sensor and calculated adjustments to maintain the measured variable within a pre-set
range through a "final control element"
examples of cybernetic human organisms - ANSWER vision-enhancing contact lenses
proprio bionic foot
prosthetic leg
artificial kidney
artificial lung
Embodiment = Post-cognitivist = Enactivist - ANSWER
Six Views of Embodiment - ANSWER 1. Cognition is situated
2. Cognition is time pressured
3. We off-load cognitive work onto the environment
4. The environment is part of the cognitive system
5. Cognition is for action
6. Off-line cognition is body based
,The term 'enactivism' is defined as - ANSWER "the manner in which a subject of
perception creatively matches its actions to the requirements of its situation".
Important elements of enactivism to hold on to. - ANSWER Agency
Sensing
Emergence
Agency: -solution living beings are autonomous agents that actively generate and
maintain themselves
Sensing: -solution the nervous system does not process information in computationalist
sense but creates meaning due to activity
Emergence: -solution Cognition is the exercise of skilful know-how in situated and
embodied action—cognitive structures and processes emerge from recurrent
sensorimotor patterns of perception and action
Embodiment and coupling - ANSWER Remember the brain is not in a vat-it's in your
body!
Causal coupling "locks" us into relations with our immediate environment (usually ones
we've built) The organization of mind is an emergent property of interactions among
internal and external resources
Materials/tools become integrated into the way we think, see, and control-extensions of
our bodies.
We off-load cognitive work onto the environment - ANSWER For example—spatial tasks
e.g. Tetris
Move around a room in order to generate solutions
for where to put furniture
Use gesture to help us think Some of these are epistemic actions
, Offline cognition is body-based - ANSWER When decoupled with the environment, the
cognition is still grounded in mechanisms that evolved for interaction with the
environment—that is, mechanisms of sensory processing and motor control.
e.g. mental representations about things that are remote in time and space
Cognition is situated
Cognition is time pressured - ANSWER Situated cognition takes place in the context of a
real-time environment, and it inherently involves
perception and action.
it needs to include interaction with the things that the cognitive activity is about
coping with time pressure, but sometimes necessarily
We live our lives deeply embedded within material worlds - ANSWER. These dynamic
environments have real time consequences for our embodied selves.
Most of our time is spent living in designed and curated ecological niches.
Where each environment is being directly changed because we are part of it, at the
same time, those environments are enabling and limiting various types of activities
Our practices are contextual regarding our ecologies-ANSWER Cognition is inseparable
from context, activity, people, culture, language, etc.
Types of cognitive acts ways of knowing ways of creating meaning are situational.
Our ecologies are populated by myriad "things" that all have affordances, and those
affordances count.
embodied - ANSWER Emphasizes the significance and implications of having a body.
Most types of cognition are deeply dependent upon characteristics of the physical body
of an agent, especially where sensing and the ability to interact with the world are
concerned
Enactivism - ANSWER holds that cognition arises from the dynamic interaction of an
acting organism and its environment
Distributed Cognition - ANSWER would be based on the very notion that cognition is
distributed over material, social, and cultural systems in a way that moves the unit of
analysis beyond the individual.
Extending the Mind - ANSWER an investigation into what would be required to extend
human mental capability, what that would involve, and consideration of related needs,
implications and ethics
Early classic cyborg: rat with rose implanted osmotic pump - ANSWER pump injects
chemicals automatically into the rat to create a biotechnological feedback loop which
can then be subjected to unusual environmental stresses - eg living in space
Norbert Weiner - ANSWER Automating anti- aircraft missile system during WW2.
Information and messages are processed via feedback control mechanisms. The
information is separable from the material itself
Claude Shannon - ANSWER Responsible for calculating the signal to noise ratio of
telephone lines to improve their efficiency. Creates a mathematical theory of
information quantified in bits. Worked with Bell Labs on fire control and cryptography
during WW2
Cybernetics via Plato - ANS Plato introduces the word into philosophy Borrowed from
Greek 'kybernetes', meaning steersman or governor Its root word is 'self-governance'
W. Ross Ashby - ANS Feedback mechanisms keeping homeostasis. The Homeostat is
one of the very first machines that could be said to adapt itself to the environment —
1948
,Computationalism/Functionalism - ANSWER Mental states (beliefs, desires, being in
pain, etc.) are constituted solely by their functional role (the causal relations of mental
states to other mental states, sensory inputs, and behavioral outputs)
Cognitivism/Functionalism: puts a computer in our heads + we can put our minds in
computers
Cybernetics = - ANSWER "the scientific study of control and communication in the
animal and the machine."
This is feedback control, which is generally continuous and involves measurement via a
sensor and calculated adjustments to maintain the measured variable within a pre-set
range through a "final control element"
examples of cybernetic human organisms - ANSWER vision-enhancing contact lenses
proprio bionic foot
prosthetic leg
artificial kidney
artificial lung
Embodiment = Post-cognitivist = Enactivist - ANSWER
Six Views of Embodiment - ANSWER 1. Cognition is situated
2. Cognition is time pressured
3. We off-load cognitive work onto the environment
4. The environment is part of the cognitive system
5. Cognition is for action
6. Off-line cognition is body based
,The term 'enactivism' is defined as - ANSWER "the manner in which a subject of
perception creatively matches its actions to the requirements of its situation".
Important elements of enactivism to hold on to. - ANSWER Agency
Sensing
Emergence
Agency: -solution living beings are autonomous agents that actively generate and
maintain themselves
Sensing: -solution the nervous system does not process information in computationalist
sense but creates meaning due to activity
Emergence: -solution Cognition is the exercise of skilful know-how in situated and
embodied action—cognitive structures and processes emerge from recurrent
sensorimotor patterns of perception and action
Embodiment and coupling - ANSWER Remember the brain is not in a vat-it's in your
body!
Causal coupling "locks" us into relations with our immediate environment (usually ones
we've built) The organization of mind is an emergent property of interactions among
internal and external resources
Materials/tools become integrated into the way we think, see, and control-extensions of
our bodies.
We off-load cognitive work onto the environment - ANSWER For example—spatial tasks
e.g. Tetris
Move around a room in order to generate solutions
for where to put furniture
Use gesture to help us think Some of these are epistemic actions
, Offline cognition is body-based - ANSWER When decoupled with the environment, the
cognition is still grounded in mechanisms that evolved for interaction with the
environment—that is, mechanisms of sensory processing and motor control.
e.g. mental representations about things that are remote in time and space
Cognition is situated
Cognition is time pressured - ANSWER Situated cognition takes place in the context of a
real-time environment, and it inherently involves
perception and action.
it needs to include interaction with the things that the cognitive activity is about
coping with time pressure, but sometimes necessarily
We live our lives deeply embedded within material worlds - ANSWER. These dynamic
environments have real time consequences for our embodied selves.
Most of our time is spent living in designed and curated ecological niches.
Where each environment is being directly changed because we are part of it, at the
same time, those environments are enabling and limiting various types of activities
Our practices are contextual regarding our ecologies-ANSWER Cognition is inseparable
from context, activity, people, culture, language, etc.
Types of cognitive acts ways of knowing ways of creating meaning are situational.
Our ecologies are populated by myriad "things" that all have affordances, and those
affordances count.
embodied - ANSWER Emphasizes the significance and implications of having a body.
Most types of cognition are deeply dependent upon characteristics of the physical body
of an agent, especially where sensing and the ability to interact with the world are
concerned
