PSY 3051 EXAM 1 UMN QUESTIONS AND ACCURATE
ANSWERS A+ GRADED
Why is introspection not sufficient for understanding cognition? - ANSWER 1. disagreements
between different individuals regarding different aspects of mental capacity (e.g. Visual
perception of gist vs. details)
2. Introspection accesses conscious thoughts (many thought processes occur outside
conscious awareness), which are incomplete and misleading
change blindness - ANSWER when people fail to detect changes to the visual details of a
scene
Neglect Syndrome - ANSWER occurs when damage to the brain causes a change or loss in the
capacity of the spatial dimension of divided attention (e.g. left side of visual field is lost)
Is vision efficient? - ANSWER Gist Vs. Details:
-comprehending gist is easier than remembering the details
-to computers, perhaps the opposite is true
-->SO: Introspection about what is efficient and what is not doesn't apply to all intelligent
systems
rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) Phenomena - ANSWER 150 mS is long enough for
,humans to perceive complex scenes: that's very fast!
Split brain patients - ANSWER people whose corpus callosum has been surgically severed
resulting in an inability to notice (i.e. neglect) L or R hemifield information
Cognition - ANSWER Much of ___________ is Induction (ambiguous solutions). To solve the
ambiguity we must add assumptions (or use heuristics).
Induction - ANSWER Semantic; Begins with specific facts or observations and then draws
general conclusions from them.
e.g. 99 swans have been observed and they're all white, therefore all swans are white.
Deduction - ANSWER Syntactic; begins with a general statement and tries to figure out
specific claims that follow from it.
e.g. all gorillas are apes, all apes are mammals --> all gorillas are mammals
Evidence for induction - ANSWER finite amount of evidence -> induction -->--> many
possible conclusions (conclusion is undetermined by the evidence)
e.g.
, -children's word learning
-heuristics
Childrens word learning - ANSWER -taxonomic assumption
-mutual exclusivity assumption
-whole object assumption
(types of heuristics)
taxonomic assumption - ANSWER Children will extend a new label to something of the same
kind rather than to something which is thematically related to the known object
Mutual exclusivity assumption - ANSWER word names are mutually exclusive. Things that
already have a name don't get another one and since the known object already has a name,
the other object must be the 'new' word
whole object assumption - ANSWER A novel label is associated with an entire object rather
than just part of that object
Criteria for modules - ANSWER 1. domain specific
2. innately specified
3. Hardwired
4. Information encapsulation
ANSWERS A+ GRADED
Why is introspection not sufficient for understanding cognition? - ANSWER 1. disagreements
between different individuals regarding different aspects of mental capacity (e.g. Visual
perception of gist vs. details)
2. Introspection accesses conscious thoughts (many thought processes occur outside
conscious awareness), which are incomplete and misleading
change blindness - ANSWER when people fail to detect changes to the visual details of a
scene
Neglect Syndrome - ANSWER occurs when damage to the brain causes a change or loss in the
capacity of the spatial dimension of divided attention (e.g. left side of visual field is lost)
Is vision efficient? - ANSWER Gist Vs. Details:
-comprehending gist is easier than remembering the details
-to computers, perhaps the opposite is true
-->SO: Introspection about what is efficient and what is not doesn't apply to all intelligent
systems
rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) Phenomena - ANSWER 150 mS is long enough for
,humans to perceive complex scenes: that's very fast!
Split brain patients - ANSWER people whose corpus callosum has been surgically severed
resulting in an inability to notice (i.e. neglect) L or R hemifield information
Cognition - ANSWER Much of ___________ is Induction (ambiguous solutions). To solve the
ambiguity we must add assumptions (or use heuristics).
Induction - ANSWER Semantic; Begins with specific facts or observations and then draws
general conclusions from them.
e.g. 99 swans have been observed and they're all white, therefore all swans are white.
Deduction - ANSWER Syntactic; begins with a general statement and tries to figure out
specific claims that follow from it.
e.g. all gorillas are apes, all apes are mammals --> all gorillas are mammals
Evidence for induction - ANSWER finite amount of evidence -> induction -->--> many
possible conclusions (conclusion is undetermined by the evidence)
e.g.
, -children's word learning
-heuristics
Childrens word learning - ANSWER -taxonomic assumption
-mutual exclusivity assumption
-whole object assumption
(types of heuristics)
taxonomic assumption - ANSWER Children will extend a new label to something of the same
kind rather than to something which is thematically related to the known object
Mutual exclusivity assumption - ANSWER word names are mutually exclusive. Things that
already have a name don't get another one and since the known object already has a name,
the other object must be the 'new' word
whole object assumption - ANSWER A novel label is associated with an entire object rather
than just part of that object
Criteria for modules - ANSWER 1. domain specific
2. innately specified
3. Hardwired
4. Information encapsulation
