PSYC2050 QUIZ 3

what is the mind

"The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel"

two types of representation

Analogue representation -> an exact representation of what occurred in real life e.g. a photo
Propositional or allegorical representations, agreeing this equals that and something we agree upon E.g., digital clock,

What are representations?

Representations are ABOUT something
Representations have a REFERENT and a SENSE Referent -> objective object Sense -> the perspective

Imagery - why is it important

Frees us from the present reality
Allows us to practice without moving
Mental maps

Paivio's dual coding hypothesis

Information is represented in a verbal and an imaginal (visual) code It might be coded or stored in either or both systems
Concrete words are remembered better than abstract words concrete words can be stored in both codes while abstract words may only be stored in verbal code Eg. Remember bottle better than justice (you cant visualise justice but you can visualise bottle) you might be better able to access the word bottle as its stored twice

Conceptual-Propositional Hypothesis
Anderson & Bower

The meaning of the event is stored not the specific details
e.g. Sentence the boy kissed the girl is said in study, time passes, p's asked if the sentence the girl kissed the boy is in the study and they say yes, even though thats technically wrong

evidence for Conceptual-Propositional Hypothesis

p's shown o-----o and told its barbells or glasses. then shown a version with a shorter line or longer line. they pick the shorter one if told its glasses and longer if told it's barbells. they remember the term not the specific image

Evidence for analogue effects in mental imagery:

Transformations Turn capital d on the side and add a 4 on top what is it -> boat Shouldn't be possible if propositional
Size effect (Kosslyn) Frog vs elephant, frog vs fly, does the frog have a tail, frog vs fly reaction time is faster As frog is too 'small' to think about in comparison to the big elephant, when the frog is 'bigger' compared to the fly, its easier
Image scanning Study a map of a non-existing island Correlation between the physical distance on the map to reaction time to 'get to an area'

Functional Equivalence Hypothesis (Shepard & Kosslyn)

Mental imagery is not abstract propositional, but it is also not a simple analogue representation of the external world
Relationships between objects in imagery are functionally equivalent to the relationship these objects have in the real world
Perception and imagery use same cognitive mechanisms Imagery is instigated top-down, perception bottom-up
mental rotation

mental rotation study

Participants are shown a stimulus (e.g., 'group of blocks') that is rotated between 0 degrees and 360 degrees and each must decide whether they are the same stimuli or not.
Takes longer if rotating more
-> have to think about it more

Does imagery use the same cognitive resources as visual perception?

Imagery interferes with perception
task 1- auditory detection task (did a tone occur) & task 2- visual detection task (was a line presented on the screen or not?)
Do these tasks whilst imaging 1- a telephone ringing (auditory) or 2-a visual scene
vis-vis -> many errors
aud - aud -> many errors
vis-aud_> few errors
aud-vis-> few errors

evidence for visual perception & imagery

damage to visual areas tends to result in loss of same properties in imagery

Damage to right parietal lobe -> visual neglect syndrome Neglect also in imaginary space

Reduced image size after occipital lobectomy in vision (tunnel vision) and in imagery (tunnel imagery)

Our own private time machine - Mental time travel

We can relive past events (episodic memory) and pre-live future events (episodic foresight) in our imagination
We can reflect on these - e.g. Evaluate their likelihood and desirability
And draw conclusions - e.g., Prepare for them and shape future to our design

memory and foresight

Memory enables simulation of potential future events
past behaviour is best predictor of future behaviour E.g. you went to coles last week, now imagine going to coles

memory and foresight example

Vocabulary for re-combination: we can reassemble basic elements (actors, acts and objects) into novel scenarios Ball has gone over the fence, last time you went over the fence the dog nearly bit you, think about your alternatives -> examples

pros of memory and foresight

Opens door to an entirely new ecological niche We can simulate virtually any event and evaluate it We can prepare for opportunities and threats A fundamental human survival strategy
Gives us enormous behavioural flexibility Pursuing diverse, remote goals with complex plans & if-then strategies; Compare different paths to the future and chose one over another ("free will")
Comes at a price: e.g. Stress, anxiety, depression, greed

'mental time travel' is uniquely human

on the ball drop test
By 4, most kids pass the tests and understand that 2 conditions could happen and plan for both
animals never seem to get this.
they have no foresight to understand they need to cover both

Attentional Blink (AB)

the tendency not to perceive or respond to the second target amid RSVP due to a delay in processing and attention still being occupied by stim 1

What is task switching?

Task switching occurs when individuals incur a time/error cost when they switch from one simple task to another.

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects as attention is directed elsewhere e.g. gorilla example

feature integration theory

2 stages of perception1- preattentive stage individual features of objects are detected automatically without the need for focused attention (eg. colour, size, orientation)2- focussed attention stage: attention is needed to bind the basic features together into a unified perceptual object

endogenous control of attention

involves the intentional allocation of attention to 1 stimuli(eg. wheres wally, tuning out of a boring convo)

episodic memories

context specific
personal
autobiographical-> did you see the giraffe at the zoo last week

semantic memories

non-contextual
abstract
non-autobiographical-> what is a giraffe

Associative learning

Forming new associations between stimuli, behavior, and important situations

Classical conditioning

Learning process associating stimuli to elicit a learned response

Stage 1: Habituation - CS presented alone
Stage 2: Acquisition - CS presented along with US
Stage 3: Extinction - CS presented alone again

Operant conditioning

Operates on a very simple principle:
Consequences lead to change in voluntary behaviours
A behaviour that results in a reward tends to be repeated or become more frequent.
A behaviour that results in a punishment tends to be avoided or become less frequent down

Reinforcement vs punishment

Positive Reinforcement
Adds something to increase a behaviour
Positive Punishment
Adds something to decrease a behaviour
Negative Reinforcement
Removes something to increase a behaviour
Negative Punishment
Removes something to decrease a behaviour

Schedules of reinforcement

Continuous (CRF): Each response still fixed ratio
Receive reinforcement every time
Partial (PRF): Only some
Fixed ratio (FR): Every nth (e.g., newspaper delivery), specific time between
Variable ratio (VR): On average every nth (e.g., gambling)
Fixed interval (FI): First behaviour after N seconds (e.g., waiting for a bus)
Variable interval (VI): On average, first behaviour after n seconds (e.g., checking email)

Superconditioning

Superconditioning= faster learning (of association between the neutral stimulus and the US)
When a neutral stimulus and an inhibitory stimulus (CS-) together are paired with the US
Thus it is not about pairing us and cs it's about surprise

Blocking

Blocking = slower learning (of association between the neutral stimulus and the US
When a neutral stimulus and an excitatory stimulus (CS+) together are paired with the US
The first bit of learning blocks the second bit of learning

historical approaches to comparative cog

Darwin: descended from African apes
Today there is little doubt he was correct Chimpanzees share 99.4% of tested protein coding DNA base pairs But we are not descended from chimpanzees - we merely share a common ancestor

historical approaches to comparative cog - Darwin's Problem

Physical evolution -> Continuity of anatomy, nervous and vascular systems
Evolution of mind -> Continuity of mental capacities

Progress on Darwin's problem

Continuing controversies about gradation What precisely are the mental powers of other primates? What precisely are uniquely human traits?

biases at solving darwins problems

Emphasizing discontinuity to justify personal/religious beliefs about humanity's special status or to justify human treatment of animals
Emphasizing continuity to show that Darwin was right and humans are part of nature or to show that the animal one is working with has a capacity

animal consciousness

To feel If same neuronal equipment to detect damage and shows same behaviour as humans, then likely feels pain much like us
Colpaert et al.: rats prefer sugar water over water containing analgesic. Rats with chronologically inflamed joints prefer water containing pain relief

The principle of Parsimony

the simplest explanation is the best one

Lloyd Morgan's canon

unless there's a good reasoning to go with the more complex explanation, the simple one should be chosen

Clever Hans phenomenon

We may unknowingly give animals cues that will help them complete a required task.

thought hans could do math problems but it turns he was just stomping foot until everyone celebrated

'insight' in apes

trial and error inside your head
Apes use reasoning that is unexplainable to get food rewards in experiments
Ape tool use in the wild Tool production in one place to use at another

The Machiavellian hypothesis of the evolution of intelligence -> why are primates so smart?

It might be social smarts rather than ecological smarts due to complex relationships from group living, grooming each other, social hierarchies, keeping track of third party relations, tactical deception

Cooperation
Imitation
Self-awareness

Mirror Self-Recognition results

Children typically pass the test by around 18 months
Success only in chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans (i.e., the great apes)
evidence of absence of passing this test in smaller apes (gibbons)

language in animals

No evidence of non-human syntactical languages (next week...)

pretence

involves primary representation of reality and secondary representation of pretend world

Two ways animals of different species share a trait

Homology: it evolved in a common ancestor Analogy: converging evolution, birds & bats flying, no common ancestor

Filling the gap: The Hominins

Gradually filling the huge gap between animal and human mind
The gap appears so large because all other hominins have died out (or have been displaced by Homo sapiens)
And we are currently increasing the gap by exterminating the great apes...

explain the special characteristics of human language

There are thought to be 6,000-7,000 languages worldwide
Perhaps most distinctive & important human characteristic
According to Chomsky: uniquely and universally human Universal grammar Critical period

hierarchies of linguistic components

Hierarchical Levels: phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases etc. Combined via grammar rules: phonology, morphology, syntax

explain the McGurk effect

shows the cross-modal influences on speech perception. The lip movements for "ga" paired with the sound "ba" leads to the perception of "da".

What is the Maxim of Quantity in Gricean maxims?

Make your contribution as informative as required, but not more than appropriate

What is the Maxim of Quality in Gricean maxims?

Your contribution should be truthful; say what you believe to be the case

What is the Maxim of Relation in Gricean maxims?

Make your contributions relevant to the aims of the conversation

What is the Maxim of Manner in Gricean maxims?

Avoid obscure expressions, vague utterances, and purposeful obfuscations of your point

name brain areas associated with language

Cerebral asymmetry
Brain damage Broca's area productive aphasia agrammatism
Wernicke's area receptive aphasia

provide reasons for the idea of a language instinct

Growth rather than learning
Critical period
Poverty of the stimulus Impossible to learn language from the information given, therefore must be biologically predisposed
Role of learning Phoneme selection Grammatical parameter setting Words acquired through association

What are morphemes?

The smallest unit of meaning, including root words, prefixes, and suffixes

Give examples of content morphemes.

Stems, prefixes (e.g., after-, anti-, co-), and suffixes (e.g., -able, -age, -ary)

What do functional morphemes do?

Serve grammatical functions with little meaning on their own, such as -s for plural, -ed for past, and -ing for continuity

Syntax

Rules by which words are structured into phrases and phrases into sentences Recursion - To tack clauses into clauses, or embed clauses within clauses, such as this one.

Pragmatics

Refers to how we use language in different settings (e.g., politely, sarcastically)
Often guided by socially understood scripts (e.g., restaurant script)
Cooperative principle - Gricean Maxims