Cog sci

What are ways people make moral judgments

 by getting a moral feeling or by reasoning from principles

What are the 2 ways a cognitive system interact with the environment in general

1. Perception: takes information in from the cognitive system in the form of energy (light (eyes) kinetic (hands), acoustic (ears) and transforms it in some representation in the cognitive system

2. Action: from cognitive system to environment. Affect environment in anyway (speaking, moving)

How does cognitive system interact with environment in humans/animals

1. Perception: takes information in from the environment (world) in the form of energy (light (eyes) kinetic (hands), acoustic (ears), senses) and transforms it in some representation in the brain

2. Action: from cognitive system (body) to environment (world). Affect environment in anyway (speaking, moving)

How does cognitive system interact with environment in robots

1. Perception: takes information in from the environment (world) in the form of energy that get picked up by sensors (camera, sonar) and transforms it in some representation in the brain

2. Action: from cognitive system (actuators (arms, wheels, light) to environment (world). Affect environment in anyway (speaking, moving)

How does cognitive system interact with environment in disembodied softwares (its body doesn’t matter) like Amazon

1. Perception: takes information in from the environment (user input/webpage) and transforms it in some representation by updating database in the cognitive system (recommender system)

2. Action: from cognitive system (recommender system) to environment (user input). Affect environment by using displays on screen

What is the general goal of all cognitive sciences

What are the representations and how are they manipulated

How does cognitive system interact with environment in distributed cognition

1. Perception: takes information in from the environment (world) and transforms it in some representation with sensors and sensory organs in the cognitive system (people and artifacts)

2. Action: from cognitive system (people and artifacts) to environment (world). Affect environment by using actuators, software, body

What is a distributed cognitive

Controversial. The cognitive system is not on organism or software but is distributed across several things. No one entity has all the information. Combination of all people involved and objects they are using

Which is a description of a distributed cognitive system and it’s environment

A construction worker using a blueprint to make a house/ the materials and the house

What is a cognition

A manipulation of representations

Old Brain vs. New Brain (Morality)

Old Brain: Intuitive, emotional, causes emotional reactions. 

New Brain: Slower, conscious, rational, uses rule-based/cool reasoning and utilitarian calculus

Utilitarianism vs. Deontology

Utilitarianism is the public-good view, contrasted with deontology, which is the rights-based approach

Moral limit of non-human animals

cannot show moral consideration toward individuals they have not met. They lack the capacity to keep track of abstract social relationships for large groups.

Animal morality/cooperation

display cooperation and morality among those they know (e.g., chimps exhibit fairness, reciprocity, and friendship)

Are Declarative and Procedural memory stored in the same place

Recent brain scanning studies indicate that the precise area where declarative memories are stored is different from where procedural memories are stored

What is Procedural memory

Memory of skills, such as riding a bike

Where is Procedural memory stored

The cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and the motor cortex

What is Declarative memory

Memory of facts and perceptions

Hippocampus function

Important for transforming short-term memories into long-term memories

Proximate explanation (for eating)

We eat because it satisfies our hunger and the food tastes good

Ultimate explanation (for eating)

We eat because we need nutrition to stay alive

Brain activity during mind-wandering

The cognitive control system gets less active. strongly associated with the default mode network

Brain area for cognitive control

The executive areas of the brain, normally associated with the prefrontal cortex (frontal areas)

Factors diminishing cognitive control

Not getting enough rest/sleep (being sleepy) and old age

Age-related decline in cognition

Getting older is associated with difficulty remembering the past, imagining the future, and a decrease in the vividness of mental imagery. S

When does spatial reasoning start declining

after age 20

What is Focusing Illusion

When imagining a future scenario (like moving), people base their response on the most obvious difference (the salient factor), which magnifies its importance and ignores other information

What is Confirmation Bias

You accept, seek out, remember, and interpret things that support your views

Define Bandwagon Effect / Herd Instinct

Believing things because everyone around you believes the same thing, often to avoid social conflict

What is Availability Heuristic

Assuming that things that are most easily brought to memory are more common or probable. Vivid and emotional things are easier to recall

what is Negativity Bias

People pay more attention to negative information

what is Omission Bias

Thinking that doing harm is worse than not doing something that causes equal harm

Define Outcome Bias

Judging a decision based on what ended up happening (the outcome) rather than the information available at the time the decision was made.

Define Base Rate Neglect

Ignoring the underlying statistical probability or commonness of an event when calculating specific probabilities

What is Belief Bias

A logical conclusion's validity is judged by whether the conclusion itself is believable

What is Conjunction Fallacy

Assuming that the co-occurrence of two specific conditions is more probable than a single general condition

Gambler’s Fallacy

The belief that past independent outcomes influence the probability of future independent outcomes

What are different ways we see patterns where none actually exist

Pareidolia, Clustering Illusion, Illusory Correlation

Primacy and Recency Effects

We remember the beginnings and endings better than the middle parts of things.

Just World Phenomenon

If you think the world is just, you tend to blame victims of inexplicable injustices

Actor-Observer Bias

Explaining others' behavior based on stable traits, but explaining one's own actions based on reactions to the situation

what is Psychology

Studies natural human minds and is interested in cognitive functioning. uses laboratory experimentation, statistical analysis, and computer cognitive modelling

What are the subfields of psychology

1. cognitive psychology: Basic research in human internal mental processes

2. Human computer interactions: how people psychologically interact with artifacts

3. evolutionary psychology: how evolutionary histrory made our minds the way they are

4. psycholinguistics: studying language with experiemnts

5. comparative psychology

Four historical core fields of Cognitive Science

1. Psychology

2. philosophy

3. linguistics

4. computer science

What is the contemporary core field and secondary fields of cognitive science

• contemporary field: neuroscience

• secondary field: education and anthropology

what is the foucus of sociology

Most concerned about how groups interact. Necessary to explain group behavior phenomena

Hebbian Theory

When two neurons fire simultaneously, they will be more likely to fire simultaneously in the future

what can help you pay attention in a boring lecture

doodling

is it better to take notes by hand or computer

by hand because:

1. Computers have the internet in front of you, easy to change tabs when distracted

2. Computers allow you to write too much/dictating and not understanding what the teacher says

3. handwriting forces students to process and summarize, leading to deeper processing, because writing by computer tends to make one write too much

what is a good tool for memorization and why

flashcards because even guessing the answer (even when wrong) can help with learning than just reading notes (testing yourself is a great way to learn)

which is better for memory retention? Multitasking vs. Doodling

Multitasking generally causes a drop in performance. However, doodling (an undemanding task) prevents boredom and distraction, leading to better memory retention.

Benefit of studying at night

Sleep helps encode long-term memory

Neural network input layer

In a perception system, each pixel in an image might correspond to units in the input layer

what is Audition

In a perception system, each pixel in an image might correspond to units in the input layer

define Colour Constancy

The perception that colors are the same in different lighting conditions, a top-down effect

what is the Peripheral vision retina composed of

Mostly composed of Rods

Location of vision in the brain

primarily in the back of the brain, where visual area one (V1) is located

What is Habituation

The diminution of a behavioral response with repeated stimulation

what is Actuator

The component that handles action and turns desires to act into physical changes in the environment (e.g., smartphone vibration).

Define Phonetics

The investigation of speech sounds

Valid vs. Sound Argument

An argument is valid if the conclusion follows logically from the premises, but not sound if the premises are false (e.g., All cats are lizards)

Define Imagination Inflation

When vividly imagining things can lead to false memories, possibly mistaking the imagined event for something that actually happened

What is Anchoring

The "anchor" is the item you compare to when you evaluate

Contrast Effect / Context Effect

Focusing more on differences when evaluating two things simultaneously

Distinction Bias

Things appear more different when viewed simultaneously

Hostile Media Effect

The tendency to think the news is hostile to your political views when watching it.

Endowment Effect / Loss Aversion

People demand more to give up an object than they would pay to get it; once owned, an object is considered more valuable

Temporal Discounting

We value things in the future less than things now. Empirical studies show people are hyperbolic

Planning Fallacy

Underestimating how long tasks will take; happens because we don't expect unexpected things to occur.

Moral Credential Effect (Self-Licensing)

Thinking of yourself as having acted morally allows you to let yourself behave badly afterward, aiming for moral equilibrium.

What is Risk compensation

the theory that individuals adjust their behavior in response to a perceived level of risk, becoming less cautious when they feel protected and more cautious when they perceive greater risk

Compelling Experiences

Experiences that draw and hold attention, create positive associations, and make us desire to repeat them

If a fact is compelling...

We are more likely to believe it for non-rational reasons.

What are the Compellingness Foundation

1. We are interested in social status and our place in it. We are wired to think socially. (narrative, gossip, news, sports

2. We are compelled to believe things we particularly hope or fear are true.

3. We are attracted to patterns.

4. We are drawn to achieve goals, solve puzzles, and resolve contradictions.

5. Our biological natures and psychological biases introduce a host of constraints on what we find compelling.

What is the sweet spot in patterns and incongruity

the balance between pattern (too much bores) and incongruity (too much is incomprehensible). This tantalizes by hinting at hidden patterns

how does humour relate to incongruity

Humor often relies on Benign Violation (making immoral behavior funny)

how do quotations relate to Incongruity

we love quotations with apparent contradictions ( art is the lie that reveals the truuth)

how do sports relate to Incongruity

 We don’t want a game that is too predictable. We prefer close scores.

Define Incongruity

the quality of being out of place, inappropriate, or not in harmony with its surroundings or other elements. It refers to something that seems strange or illogical because it clashes with or is inconsistent with its context

Creature Consciousness

Whether a creature has the ability to have mental-state consciousness, or if that creature is conscious at a given moment

Mental-State Consciousness

Whether a specific, particular mental state is conscious or not

is it possible to be concious while not being awake

yes only in the Mental-State Consciousness

Automatization

As skills improve (e.g., driving), they become easier and faster, and we become less conscious of the activity

Are babies more consious than adults

yes

Intuition

Perceiving or deciding without having a notion of how the idea came about. Can be caused by automatization.

what are the 2 types of intuition

1. genetic

2. learned

Consciousness as an Iceberg

• Much of what the mind does is not available to consciousness or does not require it. only a small part of the ind is avalible to control

• another possibility: the rest of the brain is concious but not avaliabke to us (split-brain patient)

Define Qualia

The "qualities" of consciousness; "what it is like" to see, hear, or feel (e.g., what the color red looks like)

What are some weird conciousness disorders

• Blindsight: Ability to guess above chance aspects of visual stimuli in absence of perception. (awareness)

• Hemisphere neglect: Damage to the brain causing deficit of awareness of one side of space.

• Thought alienation: believing that the thoughts in your head are not your own.

• Severed corpus callosum (split-brain or commissurotomy)

What are the 2 types of zombies

• Behavioural Zombie: behaves just like a human. E.g. Chinese room.

• Neurological Zombie: A behavioural zombie, the brain states of which are indistinguishable from a human.

What is Dualism

The belief that there is some kind of mental substance that is not physical

Higher-Order Thought Models

Functional theories that claim things are conscious when involved with abstract or high-level thought - have problems with qualia

Baars’s Global Workspace Model

Consciousness highlights parts of memory that are viewable by other processes (similar to a blackboard architecture in AI)

Dennett’s Multiple Drafts Model

Multiple processes interpret events and compete for control, with no set point at which something becomes conscious

Integrated Information Theory (IIT)

Claims consciousness exists if a bunch of elements can be in a state and can change each other (the more elements, the more conscious).

Clive Wearing case

Had whole-brain encephalitis that damaged his hippocampus. Has a 30-second memory but retains procedural learning

When can dreaming occur

in both REM and non-REM (NREM) states.

What is NREM

Accounts for 75% of sleep. Dreams tend to be short, dull, and undreamlike. Sleepwalking (semnombulism) occurs here.

What is REM

Rapid Eye Movement, muscle atonia (paralysis), and often dreaming

What is muscle Atonia

temporary loss of muscle tone in REM. causedby parts of the brain called pons