0HV60 – Thinking and deciding lecture notes
Contents
Lecture 1 – Cognition and technology...................................................................................................4
Introduction to the course.................................................................................................................4
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology (chapter 1 - Cognition, Matlin)...............................................4
Lecture 2 – Perception: recognizing visual and auditory stimuli (chapter 2,3 - Cognition, Matlin)........6
Lecture 3 – Attention and consciousness (Chapter 3 – Cognition, Matlin)............................................8
Attention and consciousness.............................................................................................................8
Selective attention.............................................................................................................................8
Eye movements.................................................................................................................................9
Neuroscience research on attention..................................................................................................9
Attentional-resource theories (divided attention).............................................................................9
Lecture 4 – Working memory (chapter 4) and long-term memory (chapter 5 – Cognition, Matlin)....10
Traditional model of memory (bit of pre-knowledge).....................................................................10
Working memory.............................................................................................................................10
Long-term memory: encoding and retrieval....................................................................................11
Encoding information..................................................................................................................12
Information retrieval...................................................................................................................12
Lecture 5 – Rationality, judgment & decision-making (Part 1 – Thinking fast and slow, Kahneman). .14
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................14
Decision-making..............................................................................................................................14
Good decision-making.....................................................................................................................15
Lecture 6 – Heuristics and biases (Chapter 10-16 – Thinking fast and slow part 2, Kahneman)..........17
The law of small numbers (Chapter 10, Kahneman)........................................................................17
Anchoring and adjustment (Chapter 11, Kahneman).......................................................................18
Availability (Chapter 12 & 13, Kahneman).......................................................................................18
Representativeness (chapter 14-16, Kahneman).............................................................................19
Causes of trump stats (chapter 16)..................................................................................................19
Lecture 7 - Memory strategies and mental imagery (Chapter 6-7 – Cognition, Matlin)......................20
Memory strategies (chapter 6)........................................................................................................20
Rehearsal and practice:................................................................................................................20
Mnemonics: tricks to remember more........................................................................................20
Prospective memory....................................................................................................................20
Metacognition.............................................................................................................................21
Mental imagery (chapter 7).............................................................................................................21
, Auditory imagery.........................................................................................................................22
Cognitive maps............................................................................................................................22
Lecture 8 – Regression towards the mean and overconfidence (Chapter 17-18 + 19-22 + 24 –
Thinking fast and slow, Kahneman).....................................................................................................23
Regression towards the mean (Part 2: chapter 17-18)....................................................................23
Taming intuitive predictions (chapter 18)....................................................................................23
Overconfidence (Part 3: 19-22 + 24)................................................................................................24
Illusions of understanding (chapter 19).......................................................................................24
Illusions of validity (chapter 20)...................................................................................................24
Intuitions versus formulas (chapter 21).......................................................................................24
Expert intuition (chapter 22)........................................................................................................25
Overconfidence (chapter 24).......................................................................................................25
Lecture 9 – Knowledge representation (Chapter 8 – Cognition, Matlin)..............................................26
Category membership models.........................................................................................................26
Relational models............................................................................................................................27
Network models..........................................................................................................................27
Parallel distributed models..........................................................................................................28
Schemas...........................................................................................................................................29
Lecture 10 – Comprehending and producing language (chapter 9 & 10 – Cognition, Matlin).............30
Understanding language (chapter 9)...............................................................................................30
Language......................................................................................................................................30
Sentence comprehension............................................................................................................31
Reading processes.......................................................................................................................32
Producing language (chapter 10).....................................................................................................32
Writing.........................................................................................................................................33
Bilingualism..................................................................................................................................33
Lecture 11 – Prospect theory and framing (Chapter 25, 26, 29-31, 34 – Thinking fast and slow,
Kahneman)..........................................................................................................................................34
Prospect theory: decision-making under risk and uncertainty (chapter 25, 26, 29)........................34
Gambling paradigm (chapter 25).................................................................................................34
Prospect theory (chapter 29).......................................................................................................35
Perceptions of probabilities (chapter 30, 31)...................................................................................36
Narrow and broad framing (chapter 31)......................................................................................36
Prospect theory and framing (chapter 34).......................................................................................36
Lecture 12 – Problem solving (chapter 11) and deductive reasoning (chapter 12 – Cognition, Matlin)
.............................................................................................................................................................36
, Problem solving (chapter 11)...........................................................................................................36
Deductive reasoning (chapter 12)....................................................................................................39
Lecture 13 – Choices, description invariance and defaults/ nudges (chapter 27, 28, 32, 34 – Thinking
fast and slow, Kahneman)....................................................................................................................40
Description invariance.....................................................................................................................40
Defaults (chapter 34).......................................................................................................................42
Lecture 14 – Procedure invariance (chapter 33) and Future events (chapter 33-35 – Thinking fast and
slow, Kahneman).................................................................................................................................43
Procedure invariance.......................................................................................................................43
Preference reversals (violations of procedure invariance)...........................................................43
Compatibility................................................................................................................................44
Evaluability...................................................................................................................................44
Future events...................................................................................................................................45
Temporal aspects of decision making: time discounting (not in the books)................................45
Temporal and experiential decisions...........................................................................................45
Lecture 15 – Decision strategies and recommender systems..............................................................47
Decisions and preference elicitation................................................................................................47
Rational choice theory and MAUT...............................................................................................47
Decision tasks..............................................................................................................................47
Context effects: adding options and justifications.......................................................................49
Cognitive processes.....................................................................................................................49
How are strategies used in real-life applications?.......................................................................50
Decision aids: a simple energy recommender system using MAUT (by Martijn himself).............50
Lab on connectionism..........................................................................................................................51
,Lecture 1 – Cognition and technology
Introduction to the course
Course logistics
- Topics:
o Cognitive psychology
o Decision making
o Technology
- Organization
o Lectures (4 hours a week)
Canvas conferences
Some additional videos will be provided on Canvas
o Workshops/ debates on Tuesday
Every other week a lab takes place
The other weeks a debate takes place. The 4 debates (on Tuesdays) count
for 15% of the total mark
Also include PRV reflection and PRV Writing
Submit discussion point on the Saturday before (individual)
Submit summary the Monday after (with the group)
Summaries will be reviewed for PRV Reflection
o Weekly quizzes
During lectures, count for 15% as well
7 MC quizzes
Always at 9.45 on Tuesdays
6 best ones count
o Final exam
50% online MC exam
Material
o Cognition (9th edition) by Matlin and Farmer, accounting for
the cognition part of the course
Note: 8th edition is fine as well
o Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman, accounting for
the decision making part of the course
20% final assignment at last lecture week
Also includes PRV Writing
Minimum mark = 5.0
Applications
- Understanding cognition and decision making enables:
o Making systems that do not require extensive learning, but support the cognitive
system as it is
o Create recommendation systems
o Create systems to overcome handicaps or produce new skill abilities
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology (chapter 1 - Cognition, Matlin)
Cognition: mental activity, containing many processes such as
, - Perception
- Attention
- Memory
- Knowledge
- Language
- Reasoning
- Problem solving
- Decision-making
These different processes are discussed in the different chapters of Cognition and lectures of this
course.
Cognitive psychology: cognitive approach of research
- Different from behaviorism and psychodynamics
History of cognitive psychology:
- Plato: dualist
o Mind and brain are not the same
o Advocated rationalism: gaining knowledge through good thinking
o Nativism: nature of the mind to gain knowledge and remember
- Aristotle: empiricism
o Rejected dualism
o Advocated empiricism (observations and researched)
o Nurture view: the mind ‘grows’ into learning (not by nature)
- Wilhelm Wundt: structuralism
o Only physiological psychology could be studied
o Using introspection
o Higher order processes not possible to be studied scientifically
- Ebbinghaus:
o Thought you could study higher order processes
o Studied his own mind
- Calkins
o Discovered recency effect
o Thought mind should be researched in real life instead of in controlled atmospheres
- William James: functionalism
o Agreed with Calkins on the real life approach
o Aimed to understand functional relationships
o Rejected introspection
- Behaviorism (end 19th century, in USA)
o Watson: father of behaviorism
o Skinner: radical behaviorism
Operant conditioning
o Influenced by functionalism
o Studying association between stimulus and responses
o Influenced by Darwin’s view
o Rejecting introspection
o Explains learning of simple behaviors
, - Gestalt psychology (end 19th century, in Europe)
o Whole is not the same as the sum of parts
o Top-down processing is thought to play a big role
- Cognitive psychology (after WWII)
o Lead to by both Gestalt theory and behaviorism, and computer science
o Linguistics (Chomsky) and memory research shows learning is more than
behaviorism
o Developmental psychology emerged: learning by children (Piaget)
Current issues of cognitive psychology:
- Artificial Intelligence
o Pure AI/ Strong AI: self-learning, non-humanlike computations
o Weak AI: computer simulation/ modelling, acts like human beings
- Computer metaphor
o Human mind can be seen as a processor
o Information-processing approach
Computational processing
Series of stages of processing
o Information processing model (Atkinson and Shiffrin)
Helped to understand cognition, but does not explain everything
o Connectionist approach: parallel distributed processing approach
Connectionism
Neural networks
Based on parallel processing lead to AI and Deep Learning
o Cognitive neuroscience
Different techniques are applied to measure the brain
Can be invasive or non-invasive
Different temporal and spatial resolutions for each method, and
different costs trade-offs
Lecture 2 – Perception: recognizing visual and auditory
stimuli (chapter 2,3 - Cognition, Matlin)
Note: in this course (as opposed to the 0HV20 course) perception is mainly treated as input for our
system considering cognition
Recognition is very good: even possible if stimuli is only presented partly or very short. This is
enabled by iconic memory.
Visual perception:
- Brain regions that enable recognition:
o Primary visual cortex (for objects)
o Inferior temporal cortex (for faces)
- Influences of visual perception:
o Gestalt psychology
o Top-down vs bottom-up processing
- Theories of visual object recognition
o Template-matching theory
, View: stimulus is compared to the template until a match is found
Problems: inflexible, only works for known, isolated objects
o Feature-analysis theory
View: stimulus is recognized based on its distinctive features; objects are
decomposed into features which can be detected
Supported by Gibson’s research
Problems: doesn’t account for the relationship between objects, and doesn’t
explain recognition of complex objects
o Recognition-by-components theory
View: stimulus is recognized based on its decomposed 3D shapes
Geons: simple 3D shapes]
Evaluated from feature-analysis theory
Problems: similar to feature-analysis
o Top-down processing
View: top-down processing enables recognition when stimuli are incomplete
or ambiguous, or only presented very briefly
Crucial for perception
Explains:
Inattentional blindness
Change blindness
Special cases of perception:
- Face perception
o Different from object perception
o More holistic/ Gestalt based recognized as a whole
o Neuroscience evidence:
Prosopagnosia: face blindness people cannot recognize faces
Visual agnosia: object blind cannot recognize any object, except faces
These agnosia types are separate, suggesting the separate recognition of
faces and objects
o Face perception is merely accurate for familiar faces, quite inaccurate for unfamiliar
faces
- Speech perception
o Well developed
o Speech consists of phonemes
Phoneme boundaries overlap within words
Word boundaries overlap
o Top-down processing and context is crucial for speech recognition
Speech segmentation: the boundary of words can be recognized due to
context
Phonemic restoration: if a phoneme misses, the correct phoneme is filled in
when in context
o Visual cues dominate over the auditory system
McGurk effect
o Speech perception requires top-down and bottom-up processes
o Difficult to establish whether speech perception is as separate as face perception
