User talk:Atcovi/Spring2024/Psyc 410 Human Cognition/Ch. 1

1 - Intro

 * Cognition = "the way our mind encodes, stores, and uses information". How does our mind process information and how do we use this information to impact our world?
 * Encoded and stored information (a structure) relating to the environment, is mental representation.

Cognition at Multiple Levels


 * 1) Computational - what are you trying to do? why?
 * 2) Algorithmic - figure out the rules, ways, or representations.
 * 3) Implementational - neuroscience/nerdy/brain specific

2 - History

 * John Watson, behaviorism, classical vs. operant conditioning ("drooling dog bell stimulus vs. beating your child") --> behavioral neuroscience
 * Weber & Fechner, Weber observed the difference of perceptible sensation, whilst Fechner added a mathematical portion to Weber's law, stating that the our sensations are in a logarithmic relationship with the increase in energy.
 * Helmholtz, mind is always engaged in unconscious inferences + measurement of speed of nerve impulse.
 * Donders, measuring speed of higher mental processes = speed of nerve transmission. Donder's subtraction method between stimulus and reaction time, assumes that cognitive processes are serial and tasks are taken one at a time.

Structuralism

 * Wundt with structuralism and restricted introspection.
 * Ebbinghaus, believed you can measure memory through experimenting (forgetting curve).

Nope, we want Gestalt!

 * We want every individual part, not just the sum = conscious experience. No insight on nature of conscious experience, though :-(
 * William James, focus on the functions of the mind. He worked on functionalism, NOT behaviorism.

3 - Cognitive Revolution
Away from what? Behaviorism/subjective introspection

Why?


 * Findings that cannot be explained by Behaviorism
 * New views that focused on information processing itself
 * Computer science/artificial intelligence on the rise

When? mid 1900s/1960s

Scientists

 * Chomsky vs Skinner - Languages: information processing vs. reinforcement
 * Tolman & His Rats - Rats can make their own maps without any reinforcements/punishments.
 * Shannon & Not Reading the Room - We can process information without actually knowing the message. Alan Turing furthered this using his machine of conceivable calculations.
 * Simon, Newell & AI - Gave us insight to computational modeling, we can figure out more ways how our brain works.

4 - Information-Processing Approach
Soared in the 1950s


 * Bruner & Neisser were pretty emotional with their approach to perception. They believed meaning was meaningful, toxic research settings can provide a bad reputation, and the lab vs. real world argument.
 * George Miller, 7 +/-2, relation to memory retention of a list (ex.).
 * Donald Broadbent, filter model, shows how unattended messages can be lost in the selection process (encoding). This could be based on loudness or pitch (for example).

Symposium on Information Theory - a symphony of perspecties

5 - Cognitive Psychology in Relation to Other Areas

 * Kahneman on judgment/decisions made concerning economic moves. 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
 * Somatic marker [feelings in the body] hypothesis - Damasio, emotions can guide behavior (heart beating around girl --> i like her --> i want to impress her --> i will ask her out).

Limits

 * No relevance of cognition in daily life + we need subjective experiences too.

Google Doc
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YrCZVTxSDAl2HTxVOx5GWNiQ4raZGibvorx33tC-0ZE/edit (not my work) —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 16:31, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

Zoom Review

 * OPERANT CONDITIONING: Reinforcement.
 * Sematic marker hypothesis: Emotionally regulated, NO reinforcement. From physiological responses --> actions.
 * Introspection: Process of looking into oneself and their mental experiences. Sort of like self-reflection.
 * Automatic unconscius inference: guessing
 * Where did human cognition studies first form? Greece (Plato, Socrates).
 * Mental representations: How information is encoded/stored from environments.
 * Cognitive maps: mental representation of ones' environment.

—Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 15:18, 16 February 2024 (UTC)