Cognitive Science Test1

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A priori categories

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innate categories

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behaviorism

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A school of thought operating on the principle that the only appropriate subject matter of psychology is behavior because that is all that can be objectively mearusred. Mental activity not directly observable or measureable is therefore not an appropriate or useful subject of reasearch

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cognitive psychology

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the study of the mental processes engaged in by the human brain including perception learning memory problem solving thinking and imagination

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Descartes

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Renown proponent of the rationalist school

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Determinism

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the idea that something other than ourselves is responsible for our choices it is all predetermined

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Dualism

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the philisophical idea that the mind and the body are two distinct entites

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elementary logical propisitions

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of nature it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be

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Empiricist view

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the school of thought that holds that we derive all knowledge from our senses and our reflection on the sensations they yeild

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epistemology

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the study of nature origin and the limits of knowledge

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Free will

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the idea that each choice we make is determined soley by the individual not any predetermined other sources

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genetic propensity

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the idea that our decisions are influenced by the genes we have. we already are inclined to lean a certain way.

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innate concepts

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concepts one is assumed to have been born with

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Innate mechanicism

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mechaniscsms one is assumed to have been born with

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knowledge

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a notion of something

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Materialism

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A school of thought holding that the world of matter including human beings is composed of tiny indivisable parts and that the form of each material object depends on the attributes of these partstheir size shape location and on their lawful behavior

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mathematical truths

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in accordance with fact and reality where the opposite of truth is falsehood

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Metaphysics

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Originally a branch of philosophy seeking to explain the nature of reality of knowledge of the universe more recently speculative philosophy in general

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mind

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our mental activity that we feel is able to overcome that of the body

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Mind body problem

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the problem of explaining the relation between mental processes and bodily processes or states

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Natural faculties

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Cognitive abilities arising from rel life experience

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objective reality

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how things really are although it is possible to percieve objectively we cannot take in the totality of reality and say anything about it we can only point at some of its characteristics

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psychophysical parallelism

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the position espoused by Leibeniz that the mind and body do not interact but rather function in parallel or the monad explanation

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Rationalist school

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A school of thought a major proponent of which was Rene descartes taking the position that all knowledge is aquired through reasoning and certain innate basic concepts ans elementary logical propisitions

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reality

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the world or state of things as they actually exist as opposed to an idealistic notion of them

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reductionist

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the position that all objects and events can be reduced to the lawful behavior of the elements of which they are constructed

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Ryle's approach

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considered the mind body problem simply a mistake in categorization. It is not one component of the two that make up a person

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Western Philosophy

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philosophy beginning with ancient greece

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abstract universals

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a universal proposition in logic

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artificial intelligence

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the theory of the development of computer systems able to preform tasks that generally require human intelligence

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Autism

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a syndrome categorized by an inability to relate to others, abnormal sensory responses and repetitive movements

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Dissacociative identity disorder

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different personalities manifested in a given individual may appear different in traits that generally categorize different people but do not generally coexist in a single body

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easy problem of conciousness

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conciousness includes the ablity to categorize sleeping and waking that we can report our mental states, things that can be explained by neural mechanisims

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echolocation

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a process of percieving obstacles in ones path by means of hearing

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eliminative materialism

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peoples common sense understanding of the mind is false and certain classes of mental states that people believe in do not exist

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embodied cognition

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Holds that all aspects of the mind rely on interaction of the body with its enviornment

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emergent property

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a property of a system that is realized through the interaction of the component parts of a system

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extended cognition

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the reach of the mind need not end at the body tools insturments and enviormental props can under the right conditions also count as proper parts of our mind.

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Hard problem of conciousness

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the subjective character of experience we do not know how to relate to the world we have around us and our own inner states

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intelligence

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the ability to aquire and apply knowledge and skills

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linguistics

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the study of language

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logical positivist school

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the school of thought concerened with the issue of the nature of truththat holds the verification principle that there are two kinds of cognitively meaningful statements the first are those that are true by virtue of their being empirically verifiable or true because of the meaning of the words.

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mindblindness

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nearly blind to the feelings and needs of others

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performatives

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statements that perform what they state

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phlogiston

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an imagined substance invoked to explain combustion which was thought to occur as the result of a loss of substance to the atmosphere

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Plasticity

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the brains ability to change its structure when confronted with repeated learning

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presuppositions

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statements in which a state of affairs is presumed to obtain in he sentence evan didn't want any more potatoes there is a presupposition that evan already had some potatoes

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reference

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what a word refers to or denotes as opposed to the meaning of the word, like a name refers to a person

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semantics

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the area of language and language study that pertains to the meaning of words and sentences

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sense

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in the context of words the meaning of a particular word as opposed to the entity it denotes

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situated cognition

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cognitive activity takes place in context of a real world enviornment and inherently involves perception and action

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split brain reasearch

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how one heisphere of the brain has no conciousness because it can't use language how conciousness can't exist without language

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synesthasia

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a disorder that causes senses to overlap someones voice was crumbly yellow, studied in S where it allowed him to remember everything but unable to finction because everything reminded him of everything else

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truth value

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the truth or falsity of a proposition

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Categorization

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the organization of concepts into classes it is this capacity that enables us to make sense of a world that would otherwise consist for us as a mass of unrelated perceptions

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Cranial capacity

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the theory that the larger the brain the more intelligent the individual

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ecological dominance/ social competition hypothesis

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social skills a re a result of the need to band together for social purposes to compete against other groups for available resources

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enviornment of evolutionary adaption

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the period posited for the evolution of relevant aspects of the brain pleistone epoch 2mil years ago

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evolutionary psychology

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an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory perception and language from a modern evolutionary perspective

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theory of evolution

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natural selection through the discipline of population genetics

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face recognition module

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the part of the brain that recognizes faces of people we have seen repeatedly

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fear module

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the area of the brain that deals with the emotion of fear

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language aquisition device

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a hypothetical cognitive faculty by means of which one aquires ones first language

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localization of function

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the notion that different cognitive functions of the human brain reside in particular locations in the brain

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memory

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the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information

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modularity

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a model of the memory system in which the permanent structural features of the system are distinguished from the modifiable control process and in which a number of different structural components are hypothesized

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natural selection

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the key process that brings about evolution whereby organisms better adapted to enviormental pressures are better equipped to survive and reproduce offspring with their genotypic qualities

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prosopagnosia

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the loss of ability to categorize or recognize familiar faces

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spandrel

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a phenotypic characteristic that is the by product of some other characteristic rather than a direct product

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triachic theory of intelligence

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formulated by sternberg a mental activity directed twoard purposive adaptation to selection and shaping of real world enviornments relevant to ones life

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anatomy

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the branch of biology dealing with the structure of the body

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aphasia

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partial or total loss of language caused by injury to certain areas of the brain

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Chronograph

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an instrument for recording short durations and rapid changes

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cortex

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the outerlayer of gray matter within which most of the higher functions of cognition are carried out

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cortical functions

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activites if the outer layer of the brains gray matter

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frontal lobe

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the largest of the four lobes of the cerebrum situated under the frontal bone or forehead. it plays an important part in decision making

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general intelligence

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a single capacity that relates to all ofthe abilities involved in tasks of an intellectual nature

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generative transformational grammar

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a grammar developed by Noam Chomsky based on the notion that language is generative or creative allowing speakers to understand and produce a sentence they have never heard. in this account phrase structure rules generate the deep structures of sentences transformational rules convert these to the surface structures that are actually uttered

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hallucinations

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the perceptions of for example sounds images and scents that are not in fact present

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insight

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the grasping of the inner nature of a phenomenon or the solution to a problem by an intuitive process rather than for example by the application of rules

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introspection

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the process of looking inside ones own experience off attending to and being concious of ones own mental state

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Knowledge aquisition components

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those involved in gaining new knowledge part of sternbergs triarchic intelligences

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least noticable difference

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the smallest amount of change in sensory perception that an individual is capable of noticing

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lesion

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an injury or damage to an organ of the body

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mental imagery

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images not currently visible to the eye but present to the mind's eye

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metacomponents

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the executive processes used to plan monitor and evaluate problem solving

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multiple inteligences

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knowledge having various aspects focusing on different abilities or talents gardner

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neurons

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a cell that makes up part of the nervous system a component of a nerve

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neurosurgeons

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a physican whose feild of expertise is the brain

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perception

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interpretation of understanding of sensory events

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perceptual memory

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memory based on how we see the world around us

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Performance processes

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implement the commands of the meta components

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Phrenology

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A 19th century system of attributing character traits to an individual based on the relative prominence of regions on the surface of his or her skull

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physiology

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the branch of biology dealing with essential life processes and functions

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savant syndrome

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Individuals with this syndrome demonstrate less than normal intelligence but are nevertheless endowed with far more than usual of a particular ability

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sense receptors

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specialized nerve cells that respond to sensory stimuli leading to the propagation of nerve impulses

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sensory discrimination

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the ability to discriminate between differing intensities or other qualities of similar stimuli

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spatial relations

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the manner in which entities in space are percieved to relate to one another and to the perciever the sense of which enables an individual to manuver in the world and adjust and readjust perceptions in order to do so efficently

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stream of consciousness

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A process by which one thought or perception leads to another which in turn leads to another ect.

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synapses

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a link from one neuron to another