15- Rationality

what are the four branches of the Rationality tree?

Rationality, Intuition, Emotion, and Rationality in lower cognition

In the branch of Rationality, why do we study rationality?

we study rationality to understand why the computations that we use carry out an adaptive function.

In rationality, is it epistemic, or instrumental?

rationality can be epistemic or instrumental, and can be measured against several different normative systems

In rationality, why do we depart from normative ideals?

we can depart from normative ideals for several overlapping reasons — bounded rationality, ecological rationality, evolutionary misadaptation, or simply because the normative ideal is itself mistaken

What is intuition?

Intuition: A quick response that effortlessly comes to mind- these are often right, but sometimes they mislead us

inside the branch of Intuition, what is Metacognition?

Metacognition: “Thinking about thinking” — monitoring and controlling thoughts and feelings

inside the branch of Intuition, what is Dual process theory?

Dual process theory: some processes are quick, intuitive, automatic (system 1), while others are slow, reflective and effortful (system 2). Metacognition is an effortful process (system 2 monitoring system 1)

The Cognitive Reflectiveness Test (CRT) measures what?

The CRT measures differences in motivation to question intuitions, such as the ability for System 2 (metacognition) to monitor and override System 1 response (intuition)

Profoundness ratings of pseudoprofound bullshit are negatively associated with what four things? (waterloo cogsci)

cognitive reflectiveness, verbal intelligence, numeracy, susceptibility to various cognitive biases

In the branch of Intuition, what is a Heuristic?

Heuristic: A mental shortcut that solves a problem without carrying a full analysis. They save effort, and might or might not give similar answers to a full analysis. A key part of “bounded rationality” — Finding the best solution subject to limits of time, memory, and information

In the branch of Intuition, what is Bias?

Bias: a systematic error caused by applying a heuristic (a major debate in the field is whether heuristics are consistently error-prone)

Heuristics work as an attribute substition when the target attribute is:

low in evaluability and low in accessibility, which is to say its hard to estimate and doesnt come to mind

murder is the heuristic, suicide is the target

B is the heuristic, A is the target

A is the target attribute, Soar is the heuristic

A is the social heuristic, b is the target

as slide

In the branch of intuition, what are the four sub branches?

-thoughts that effortlessly come to mind ( e.g. in response to a problem)

-often accurate, but can lead astray; metacognition can allow us to monitor our intuitions (system 1) for error and override them with deliberately reasoned solutions (system 2)

-heuristics are mental shortcuts, typically substituting an easy-to-assess attribute for a hard-to-assess attribute

heuristics economize on effort, but sometimes they might be just as accurate as a more complex analysis — an instance of ecological rationality

What is the first function of Emotion?

What is the second function of Emotion?

What is the third function of Emotion?

Emotion: Physiological origins: what is the somatic marker hypothesis?

somatic marker hypothesis: feelings experienced in the body and interpreted by the brain guide decision-making

Emotion: cognitive origins: what is appraisal theory?

Appraisal Theory: Emotions result from cognitive appraisals of a situation, which lead to characteristic action tendencies (fear → flee, anger —> fight, Interest—> gather information)

In the branch of Emotion, what are the five sub-branches?

-Emotions are “irrational” in that they often bypass conscious thought

• but can be rational in the deeper sense of carrying out the programmed agenda of natural selection

• can assist us in making snap judgments, assessing and pursuing value, and regulation social relations.

• have both physiological and cognitive origins

• can be monitored and controlled (like intuitions) via emotion regulation (a metacognitive process)

which direction does the visual system assume light comes from?

What are depth cues in terms of depth perception?

depth cues: sources of information about depth, depending on unconscious assumptions about the structure of the world and our relation to it.

What is the definition of oculomotor?

Oculomotor: Based on the position of our eyes and tension in our eye
muscles

What is the definition of Monocular? what does pictorial mean, what does dynamic mean?

Monocular: Rely only on the visual information available from one eye

Pictorial: work from a static image

Dynamic: depend on movement (of the viewer or the object)

what is the definition of binocular?

binocular: Rely on visual information from both eyes

in terms of depth perception, what is convergence?

convergence :The inward movement of the eyes
when looking at a very close object

In terms of depth perception, what is accomodation?

how the lens changes shape when focusing on near vs distant objects

In terms of pictorial cues inside of depth perception, what is Occlusion?

Objects that are partially
hidden are farther

In terms of pictorial cues inside of depth perception, what is Relative height?

Objects higher in the field
of view are farther

In terms of pictorial cues inside of depth perception, what is Relative size?

Smaller objects of the
same type are farther

In terms of pictorial cues inside of depth perception, what is Perspective convergence?

parallel lines converge with distance

In terms of dynamic cues within depth perception, what is motion parallax?

When we move, nearer objects
appear to move more rapidly

In terms of dynamic cues within depth perception, what is Deletion and accretion?

when we move, father objects are partially covered and uncovered by nearer objects

In terms of depth perception, what is the binocular cue of binocular disparity?

• Your two eyes see
slightly different images
• Views of closer objects
differ more

“Ecologically rational cues fail when we are taken out of the environment for which our problem-solving was adapted” is a description of an

optical illusion

Memory. We are likelier to forget something after a longer delay since practicing it. If we forget something, it is faster to relearn it if we practiced it more times. Is there a sense in which this is a rational way for our memories to work?

Our memory may prioritize information that is likely to be needed again. Information that has been retrieved more often is likely to be needed, and information that has been retrieved more recently is more likely to be needed

In the branch “Rationality in lower cognition”, what are the four sub branches?

• Depth perception would be impossible without making unconscious
assumptions about the environment – which are fallible but usually accurate
• We can think of some depth cues as heuristics (substituting the hard
question about distance for the easy question about, e.g., size on the retina)
• Depth perception can be said to be ecologically rational – subject to error in
unusual situation (optical illusions) but remarkably accurate overall
• There is even an adaptive logic to forgetting – we are least likely to forget
the things that are most likely to be needed again