A well written summary for the Introduction to Cognitive Science course at the TiU. It is based on the Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Study of Mind 3rd Edition book. All chapters are written in blocks which helps studying the topic you need to know.
Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Study of Mind 3rd Edition
ISBN: 1483347419 / ISBN-13: 9781483347417 / Jay D Friedenberg, Gordon W Silverman
Chapter 1 / Lecture 1: Overview of Cognitive Science
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What is cognitive science?
• Cognitive science can be roughly summed up as the scientific interdisciplinary study of the mind.
• Each field of cognitive science brings with it a unique set of tools and perspectives.
(Philosophy, psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, robotics and neuroscience)
• Cognitive scientists view the mind as an information processor.
Representation (fundamental for cs)
• Four categories:
o Concept: single object, group or whole (word)
o Proposition: statement about the world (sentences) (consists of concepts)
o Rule: specify relations between propositions
o Analogy: comparing between two situations
*
• Four crucial aspects of any representation:
o Representation bearer: human or a computer must realize a representation
o Representation content: Stands for one or more objects (called referents)
o Representation grounded: Some way in which represen. & referent be related
o Representation interpretable: represen. Bearer him/herself or somebody else
• Mental representations are semantic:
o Intentionality = relationship between repre. and reference define the meaning
(Think about your brother then the thought is directed toward him no other object)
o Two properties: Isomorphism = one can map different aspects of a represen.
Appropriate causal: relationship between input and output
o Digital representation = symbolic representation which is coded in discrete way
o Analog representations = represents information in a continuous way
o Dual coding hypothesis: using both digital/symbolic as representations
o Propositional representations = take the form of abstract sentence like structures
• Tri-level hypothesis: Three levels of describing information processing
o Computational level:
▪ Clear description of the problem and why that process is unravelling here
o Algorithmic level:
▪ How information processing is actually done (about form of represen)
o Implementation level:
▪ What is information processor? (hardware: brain, neurons)
• All is needed (not only implement..) because algorithmic level tells us how a particular system perform a calculation
and not all computational systems solve it the same way
Summary
Made by: A.Azzam
,Interdisciplinary perspective
• 1.Philosophical Approach (primary method: reasoning, non-scientific)
o Deductive: through the application of logical rules to statements around the world.
o Inductive: observations on specific things in the world → similarities and conclusions
• 2.Psychological Approach (mental phenomena/behaviour investigated scientific)
Sub disciplines:
o Voluntarists and Structuralism: Mind made up of elements that react with each other (test tube)
o Functionalist: Focused on what the mind could do
o Gestalt: Interactions of particles that build a new whole through interaction
o Psychoanalytic psychology: Conceives mind as a collecting of competing entities
o Behaviourism: Sees it as a device that maps stimuli onto behaviours
• 3.Cognitive Approach (focus more on comparisons with computers)
o Countermovement stemming from behaviourists
o Important: modules are independent units that:
▪ Receive inputs from other inputs – Process information – Send modified information to other modules
o Used techniques: experimental methods and computational modelling
• 4.Neuroscience Approach (study of the brain and endocrine system)
o Cognitive neuroscience: describing cognitive processes using brain mechanisms
o Neuroscientists: investigate mental events at the implementation level (are intertwined)
o Neuroscience machines to measure performance of brain:
▪ PET scanners: Position emission tomography
▪ CAT scanners: Computerized axial tomography
▪ MRI machines: Magnetic resonance imaging
• 5. Network approach (Collection of computing units influencing each other by their own activity)
Has two parts:
o Construction of artificial neural networks: ANN are computer software simulations (perform arithmetic, learn concepts)
o Semantic networks this happens because nodes (concepts) are connected to other nodes and if one node fires
the other also fires (tells something about how information is organized)
• 6. The evolutionary Approach(natural selection)
o Evolutionary psychologists: Apply this to mental processes
• 7.The linguistics Approach (questions in language and the ability of language)
o Difficulty: Language itself is very difficult to grasp
o Researchers employ experiments and computer models & Study brain damaged patients
• 8.The Artificial Intelligence Approach (understanding human cognition through creating it in computers)
• 9.Robotic Approach (Make machines that do psychical thing in real world)
o Build machines that must act and think
o Hierarchical paradigm: TOP DOWN perspective – Robot is programmed with knowledge about the world.
o Reactive paradigm: BOTTOM UP perspective – Robots respond in a simple way to environmental stimuli.
Summary
Made by: A.Azzam
, Chapter 2 / Lecture 2: Philosophical approach
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What is philosophy?
• Search for wisdom and knowledge
o Metaphysics: Examine the nature of reality
o Epistemology: study of knowledge itself
The mind-body problem
• Addresses how mental properties are related to physical ones
o Say the mind is nonphysical and consists of something like a soul or spirit
• Monism
o Name: Idealism or Solipsism → Physical universe: None → Causal direction: No → Mental universe: Mind
o Name: Physicalism → Physical universe: Body → Causal direction: No → Mental universe: None
• Dualism
o Name: Classical Dualism / Physical universe: Body / Causal direction: Mind->Body / Mental universe: Mind
o Name: Parallelism / Physical universe: Body / Causal direction: No / Mental universe: Mind
o Name: Epiphenomenalism / Physical universe: Body / Causal direction: Body->Mind / Mental universe: Mind
o Name: Interactionism / Physical universe: Body / Causal direction: Body<->Mind / Mental universe: Mind
Flavors of Monism
• Idealism: George Berkeley / There is only a mental realm / Not scientific
• Solipsism: Category: mental / Universe exists only in mind / Each person own world / not experimental
• Physicalism or materialism: Democritus believed this / Everything that exists is physical not spiritual
• Reductive physicalism: Reductionism /
• Non Reductive physicalists: physical processes can give rise to emergent/irreducible mental phenomena
Flavors of dualism
• Classic Dualism: Rene Descartes / Mind controls body not vice versa / Thoughts control our sections
• Parallelism: Mind and body are distinct / Isolation from each other
• Epiphenomenalism: Body causes the mental not vice versa / ex.: Exhaust coming out of a car
• Interactionism: Causality ravels both ways / body affect mind and vice versa /
Functionalism
• Mental states are not only physical states but also the functioning / operation of those physical states.
• Physical kind: Are identified by their material composition only
o Mind as physical kind: Minds same things as brains / minds cannot exist apart from physical brains
• Functional kind: Are distinguished by their actions or tendencies / ex.: cars functional same thing
o Mind as functional kind: Sorts of process they carry out rather then what they made off
An additional problem with functionalism is that it cannot account for the felt or experienced character of mental states –
a phenomenon known as qualia (quale, singular): what its like to feel “hungry” to be”angry” or to see the colour “red”.
A machine programmed to “see” the colour red, but not have same experience of what it’s like to see red.
Colour perception: Participants looking at the same colour would describe it differently.
Summary
Made by: A.Azzam
, The Free Will-Determinism Debate (Debate about whether these behaviours are within our control)
• Determinism
o View that all physical events are caused by sum of all prior events
▪ Ex.: get up to grab snack → getting up caused by another physical event (stomach pan or advertisement)
o David Hume: suggest we conceive of deterministic universe in terms of billiard balls
o 1.Determinism: Ball B’s completely determined by forces in preceding moment (ball A)
o 2.Replication: Strike ball A again → all balls move once more in exactly same way
o 3.Prediction: We know the position & conditions of balls → know ahead of time what all balls will do
• Free will
o Not the product of a cause → it is its own cause
o Ayn Rand: Entity model of causation that underlies free will
o Entities with specific identities are the cause of actions
o Entity = as an object capable of independent action (ex.: a person)
o decide to think: consciously control our actions / fail to think: at the whim of our minds subconscious associational processes
A problem with free will is that it violates one key assumption of causality, which is that all events must have a cause.
Cognitive science view: A decision itself is a mental process. Like other such processes it should have:
Informational inputs-->performing computation --> Corresponding information/behaver outputs
• Compatibilism (allow both to be true): free will & determinism can be reconciled/compatible with each other
• Incompatibilism (allow NOT both to be true): free will & determinism as irreconcilable = they are not both true.
• Libertarians: group of incompatibilities = libertarians believes we have free will - No determinism purely free will
• Pessimists or no freedom theorist: Argue that moral free will is impossible to prove.
o Say there are circumstances which we can be free agents – those circumstances occur when we are unconstrained
The knowledge acquisition problem (How do we acquire knowledge?)
• Nature –nurture debate
o centres on the relative contributions of biology and experience in determining any particular capacity
• Theories
o Nativism significant body of knowledge is innate or built into an organism / nature over nurture
o Rationalism: also believe in the existence of innate ideas / We have knowledge just obtain it
o Empiricism : knowledge acquired through experience / it is learned / nurture over nature
o John Locke: Founder of empiricist / Simple ideas & Complex Ideas
▪ Simple ideas: derived through sensory input or simple processes of reflection (look cherry: idea = red)
▪ Complex ideas: formed from the active mental combination of simple ideas (natural clustered)
The mystery of Consciousness
• Consciousness : complex concept / no single agreed upon definition / subjective quality of experience
(Chalmers)
o Thought of as our individual subjective awareness of mental states: Sensation, perception, visual images, emotions
o other types of consciousness: begin unconscious, asleep, in a drug inducted state, hypnotised or meditating.
• Chalmers distinction between: Phenomenal & Psychological
o Phenomenal concept of mind: idea of mind as a conscious experience / Mental states explain how they feel
▪ Example: Biting in candybar → explain why you experience the mental states of sweetness and perceive them differently
o Psychological concept of mind: mental states in terms of how they cause & explain behaviour/mind is characterized
▪ Example: Biting in candybar → concern itself with the neural circuits that become activated during the bite / represented
computationally
Summary
Made by: A.Azzam
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