Cog Sci 1B Midterm Exam-Questions with Correct Answers/Verified
Introduction - ✔✔
Interdisciplinary Study of Cog Sci - ✔✔- More inclusive than Western psychology (WEIRD)
- Neuroscience, psychology, anthropology (inclusive of cultural differences, evolution of
mind), computer science, philosophy (nature of mind), and linguistics
Spatial Resolution - ✔✔A scale of precise measurement (MRI)
Temporal Resolution - ✔✔How closely measured activity corresponds to timing of actual
neuronal activity (EEG)
Who were the first to approach the mind and what did they discover? - ✔✔Ancient Greeks
and method of loci (associations to help boost memory) - described thinking as mechanical
manipulation of variables
Behaviorism - ✔✔- Denies the existence of the mind
- psychologists should only study the relationship between observed stimuli and behavioral
responses
Watson Little Albert Experiment - ✔✔Classical conditioning: trained baby to fear stuffed
animals by associating them with loud noises
Cognitive Mapping - ✔✔- Rat experiment and map-like knowledge of maze
- Proved the existence of learning without reinforcement or punishment--known as latent
learning
- Edward Tolman
Complex Behaviors/Task Analysis - ✔✔- planning and organizing
- breaking down complex tasks into smaller subtasks
,- Subconscious information processing: we are unaware of info processing that turns goals
into actions
- Karl Lashey
Turing Machine - ✔✔- enigma code
- primitive computer
- led to view that cognition involves algorithmic process
Transformational grammar - ✔✔- Noam Chomsky
- Deep structure: underlying meaning of the sentence and how it is conveyed through basic
rules regarding nouns and verbs
- Surface structure: actual organization of words in a sentence derived from deep structure
Magical Number 7 (+ or - 2) - ✔✔- built-in limit of our information processing system: we
can only possess about 7 items at a time
- we can work around these limits by chunking information, etc.
Dichotic listening experiments - ✔✔- Broadbent
- participants failed to notice irrelavant info in unattended ear but were able to pick up
gender of speaker, specific words, and persons name (cocktail party effect)
Filter Model of Attention - ✔✔everything is picked up on some level, but at any given
moment, we are only conscious of a limited amount of what we are experiencing
SQR3 technique for efficient reading - ✔✔survey, question, read, recite, review
Consciousness and Intelligence - ✔✔
Mind-brain/body problem - ✔✔What is the connection between mind and the brain?
, Monism - ✔✔- There is only a mind OR brain
- Idealism: everything including the material world is mind (dream-like state)
- Materialism: everything that exists including the mind is physical (mind is the brain)
Dualism - ✔✔Belief in the existence of both mental and physical experiences (two separate
things)
Functionalism - ✔✔Belief that we can explain mental processes and experiences by their
function--what makes something a thought, desire, or pain is solely their function--each
mental state is related to a neural state
Physical Symbol System (PSS) Hypothesis - ✔✔Intelligent behavior involves transforming
physical symbols according to rules or some sort of algorithm
Newell and Simon's Problem Solver Program - ✔✔Solving problems using means-end-
analysis
- evaluating differences then strategizing how to reduce difference
- working backwards
Hobbits and Orcs Problem - ✔✔-Find a method of transporting all six creatures (3 orcs, 3
hobbits) across the river without the hobbits ever being outnumbered
-Boat can only hold 3
- sometimes necessary to move backwards
John Searle's Chinese Room - ✔✔A person who does not know Chinese is in a room with a
rather large rule book giving directions (in English) on how to respond to Chinese sentences
with appropriate Chinese replies
- PSS is wrong: symbols are manipulated to produce the right outputs, but no genuine
understanding or intelligence
- proved the Turing test wrong
- Rebuttal: Chinese room does not understand Chinese but only because it is disembodied
Introduction - ✔✔
Interdisciplinary Study of Cog Sci - ✔✔- More inclusive than Western psychology (WEIRD)
- Neuroscience, psychology, anthropology (inclusive of cultural differences, evolution of
mind), computer science, philosophy (nature of mind), and linguistics
Spatial Resolution - ✔✔A scale of precise measurement (MRI)
Temporal Resolution - ✔✔How closely measured activity corresponds to timing of actual
neuronal activity (EEG)
Who were the first to approach the mind and what did they discover? - ✔✔Ancient Greeks
and method of loci (associations to help boost memory) - described thinking as mechanical
manipulation of variables
Behaviorism - ✔✔- Denies the existence of the mind
- psychologists should only study the relationship between observed stimuli and behavioral
responses
Watson Little Albert Experiment - ✔✔Classical conditioning: trained baby to fear stuffed
animals by associating them with loud noises
Cognitive Mapping - ✔✔- Rat experiment and map-like knowledge of maze
- Proved the existence of learning without reinforcement or punishment--known as latent
learning
- Edward Tolman
Complex Behaviors/Task Analysis - ✔✔- planning and organizing
- breaking down complex tasks into smaller subtasks
,- Subconscious information processing: we are unaware of info processing that turns goals
into actions
- Karl Lashey
Turing Machine - ✔✔- enigma code
- primitive computer
- led to view that cognition involves algorithmic process
Transformational grammar - ✔✔- Noam Chomsky
- Deep structure: underlying meaning of the sentence and how it is conveyed through basic
rules regarding nouns and verbs
- Surface structure: actual organization of words in a sentence derived from deep structure
Magical Number 7 (+ or - 2) - ✔✔- built-in limit of our information processing system: we
can only possess about 7 items at a time
- we can work around these limits by chunking information, etc.
Dichotic listening experiments - ✔✔- Broadbent
- participants failed to notice irrelavant info in unattended ear but were able to pick up
gender of speaker, specific words, and persons name (cocktail party effect)
Filter Model of Attention - ✔✔everything is picked up on some level, but at any given
moment, we are only conscious of a limited amount of what we are experiencing
SQR3 technique for efficient reading - ✔✔survey, question, read, recite, review
Consciousness and Intelligence - ✔✔
Mind-brain/body problem - ✔✔What is the connection between mind and the brain?
, Monism - ✔✔- There is only a mind OR brain
- Idealism: everything including the material world is mind (dream-like state)
- Materialism: everything that exists including the mind is physical (mind is the brain)
Dualism - ✔✔Belief in the existence of both mental and physical experiences (two separate
things)
Functionalism - ✔✔Belief that we can explain mental processes and experiences by their
function--what makes something a thought, desire, or pain is solely their function--each
mental state is related to a neural state
Physical Symbol System (PSS) Hypothesis - ✔✔Intelligent behavior involves transforming
physical symbols according to rules or some sort of algorithm
Newell and Simon's Problem Solver Program - ✔✔Solving problems using means-end-
analysis
- evaluating differences then strategizing how to reduce difference
- working backwards
Hobbits and Orcs Problem - ✔✔-Find a method of transporting all six creatures (3 orcs, 3
hobbits) across the river without the hobbits ever being outnumbered
-Boat can only hold 3
- sometimes necessary to move backwards
John Searle's Chinese Room - ✔✔A person who does not know Chinese is in a room with a
rather large rule book giving directions (in English) on how to respond to Chinese sentences
with appropriate Chinese replies
- PSS is wrong: symbols are manipulated to produce the right outputs, but no genuine
understanding or intelligence
- proved the Turing test wrong
- Rebuttal: Chinese room does not understand Chinese but only because it is disembodied
