Cog Sci Midterm 2

Front 1

Single cell recording

Back 1

Hard to examine interactions between brain regions

Best temporally & spatially in terms of resolution

Invasive, electrode inserted into brain

Front 2

EEG

Back 2

Excellent temporal resolution (ms)

poor spatial resolution: localizing the source of signal is hard

Totally non-invasive

Front 3

PET

Back 3

measures local variations in blood flow
Not great temporally or spatially, but better for molecular neuroimaging

Front 4

fMRI

Back 4

Better spatial resolution & better temporal resolution (~1 second, versus minutes) than PET
And non-invasive (no radiation)

Front 5

Neuroeconomics

Back 5

Neuroeconomics combines methods from neuroscience
and economics to better understand how the human brain generates decisions in social and economic contexts

Front 6

Phineus Gage

Back 6

the rod probably went between Phineas’s
frontal lobe and his limbic system
The damage to the frontal lobe and perhaps to the connection between the systems lead to erratic behavior and lack of decision making and planning
abilities

Front 7

Marr's Levels

Back 7

(computational level, algorithmic level, and implementation level)

The levels are assumed to be independent and do not constrain each other.

Front 8

Stroop Test

Back 8

The Stroop test asks a subject to identify the color of a piece of text which is written as an inconsistent color word (such as red or blue). The subject could either be asked to identify the actual color or the color denoted by the inconsistent word.
The test shows that we are always (unconsciously) processing information about the form of a word, as well as its meaning and when there is an inconsistency in the two, we experience a difficulty in interpreting and performing the task.

Front 9

Schultz Experiment

Back 9

The experiment by Wolfram Schultz and coworkers involves single cell recordings of the dopamine producing neurons in monkeys.
They found that there is a spike in activity of these cells at the conditioning stimulus only if there is a predictable reward in the future. If the reward is not given to the animal, there is a negative spike. These cells thus code for the expectation of a future reward and signal if this prediction is in error.

Front 10

Prototypes

Back 10

1.Certain members of a category are prototypical or instantiate the prototype
2.Categories form around prototypes; new members added on basis of resemblance to prototype
3.No requirement that a property or set of properties be shared by all members
4.Features/attributes generally graded
5. Category membership a matter of degree
6. Categories do not have clear boundaries

Front 11

Basic Level Categories

Back 11

Eleanor Rosch
Perception: similar overall perceived shape, single mental image, (gestalt perception), fast identification
Function: general motor program
Communication: shortest, most commonly used, contextually neutral, first to enter the lexicon
Knowledge Organization: most attributes of category
members stored at this level

Front 12

Metaphor

Back 12

Mappings from Concrete to Abstract domains

metaphor is understanding one thing in
terms of another

Front 13

Primary Metaphor

Back 13

metaphors that have an experiential basis

Affection Is Warmth
Important is Big
Categories are Containers

Front 14

Event Structure Metaphor

Back 14

Type of complex metaphor. Combines a number of
primary metaphors

States are Locations
Changes are Movements
Causes are Forces, etc.

Front 15

Simulation Hypothesis

Back 15

We understand utterances by mentally simulating
their content
Simulation exploits some of the same neural structures activated during performance, perception, imagining, memory
Linguistic structure parameterizes the simulation.

Front 16

Temporal Discounting

Back 16

Events or rewards that are not administered today carry less weight than they would today. Punishments and rewards lose extremity in value.

Front 17

Multiple Systems Hypothesis

Back 17

We have multiple brain circuits/systems that process value. One (meso-limbic) system appears to assign value only to immediate rewards, while another (prefrontal-parietal) system appears to value both immediate and delayed rewards. This results in the combined effect of valuing immediate rewards more than delayed rewards.

Front 18

Conditioning

Back 18

The classical definition
of conditioning involves the initiation of an action (such as salivating in the Pavlov experiment) based on a conditional stimulus (such as the bell in
the Pavlov experiment) that appears predictably before the reward (food).

Front 19

Concept

Back 19

Concepts are thoughts and relationships
between thoughts

Front 20

Traditionalist Theory

Back 20

Reason and language are what distinguish human
beings from other animals.
Concepts therefore use only human-specific brain
mechanisms. Reason is separate from perception and action, and does not make direct use of the sensory-motor system.
Concepts must be “disembodied” in this sense
Concepts are defined by necessary and
sufficient conditions

Front 21

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Back 21

categories normally not definable
in terms of necessary and sufficient
features

Front 22

Prototype Effect

Back 22

Cognitive reference point: standards of comparison
Social stereotypes: snap judgments, defines cultural expectations, challengeable
Typical case prototypes: default expectation, often used unconsciously in reasoning
Ideal case / Nightmare case: e.g. ideal vacation,
can be abstract, may be neither typical nor stereotypical
Paragons / Anti-paragons: an individual member that exhibits the ideal
Salient examples (emotional): e.g. 9/11–terrorism act

Front 23

Conflation Hypothesis

Back 23

Children hypothesize an early meaning for
a source domain word that
conflates meanings in both the literal and
metaphorical senses