week 3

Cognitive Science, Cognitive Psychology, Mind-Brain Basics

Stillings, Chap 1 - Cognitive Science
Some essential concepts:
Cognitive science is itself an interdisciplinary field - different disciplines were asking similar questions about the nature of the human mind (cognitive psychology, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, and cognitive neurology/neuroscience, etc.).

Cognitive is perceiving or knowing

Often will see the simple idea that cognitive science is therefore the science of the mind. [Xeno note: really, in sum cogntive science will turn also to the apparatus that gives the mind it capacity (the brain) so it is really the science of the mind-brain; tangent as required.]

1.1 The Cognitive View takes the perspective that the mind is a complex system that receives, stores, retrieves, transforms and transmits information. Therefore this view is called the computational or information processing perspective. By necessity it is a partial view of the humman being (all perspectives are inherently partial), but yet it provides a unique and rich set of insights into human nature and human potential.

One historical root of cognitive science is deductive reasoning derived by the Greek philosophers; this is the process by which we assume or accept some information to be true and derives further information that follows logically from those assumptions. For example, if you takes the two premises All dogs have fleas and Fido is a dog, one can logically derive the conclusion that Fido has fleas. Aristotle showed that deductively valid logical arguments took one of a small range of general forms. Learning to reason deductively then, can be viewed as learning an information process by which valid forms of argument can be recognized and produced.

Xeno note: argument, or reasoning is a pretty high level cognitive function relying upon many simpler forms of information processing which we will dissect a bit more closely over the weeks and quarter.

1.2 Some Fundamental Concepts

Information processes are contentful and purposeful:
Content: information or stuff, has meanings, significance about the world
Purpose: processes or the responses resulting from the processing serves some purpose, it is adaptive or goal oriented. [Xeno's evolutionary side note: presumably, the processes remained a part of our genetic codes because they were indeed adaptive to the environmental conditions our ancestors found themselves in. Survival of the fittest literally means that those who best the environmental demands will survive to the age of reproduction and pass on the genetic codes for those adaptive features.] [Second tangent - content vs. process, one of my favorites!]

Information processes are representational.
[Xeno: any information is contained in a representation which has meaning (content) AND it has an effect that is, consequences to follow any form of representation or piece of information.]

Back to Stillings:
The info (or content) being processed is represented in some form in the system. The representation is NOT the thing itself. Symbols, like letters or numbers ('5' for example), stand for a 'thing', which is represented. The symbol gets represented too, but it is simply not the same thing as the thing (That is, '5' does NOT equal the number 5, it just stands in for it. Somewhere in the mind-brain, the number get represented... makes sense, eh?). Representations are mental symbols and ALL mental processing are done with/on representations of THREE TYPES: 1) perceptual, 2) conceptual or categorical and 3) linguistic. QUARTER LONG RHETORICAL CHALLENGE: think of a representation, or a form of thought that is NOT one of these three.

Information processes can be studied formally
Yup, and it gets pretty dull too! Algorithms = formal procedure or system, often framed for problem solving. IT is the process - little regard to the content. Sometimes we solves problems informally, or with some holistic or random approach - that is NOT with a formal algorithm or NOT the way the FORMAL PROCESS would suggest. Example of catching something... can solve the problem mathematically or with a holisitic simultaneous visual-spatial-proprioceptive body process.

Cognitive Science is a basic science (pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge). Sometimes some applied directions results. Memory for example.

1.3 Information processes may be studies at multiple levels.
Info. processing is implemented on the physical level - both in human and in
computer models. Set in motion by physical events - processing is a physical process (yes, circularity observed, discussed). Reductionism revisited.

Importance of higher level of analysis - actual level of mental experience. Neurophysiology bears little resemblance to that which it attempts to explain; other mechanical or electronic examples.

Chapter 2: Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychologists are interested in human cognition, such as our capacity for perception, memory, thinking, problem solving and learning. As psychologists, they study behavior under carefully controlled conditions, often in a laboratory and often under experimental conditions. Sometime the ecological validity or generalizability of their findings are limited due to these traditions, but their theories are carefully tested and can be challenged by anyone who chooses to design a study with similar variable. Peer review is a critical feature of whether results are disseminated (published) or not. [Whoa, save this rant for Research Methods in HDEV.]

The NOTION of Cognitive Architecture - how would the whole human experience (or the information processing system) be constructed? What would the parts & pieces be? (Developmental question would be HOW are the parts assembled, or disassembled, over the lifespan?). A given architecture would allow or not allow particular types of processing if the required parts were not built in.

Individual differences - cannot assume the structure of the mind is the same across people. Both genetic and experiential differences could 'build' structures with a great degree of variability. One thing shared across humans is the ability to learn new information AND new skills (CONTENT and PROCESS, here we go again!). So, the nature of our mind-brain structures that allows for this flexibility (or plasticity) is inherently interesting. And yet, we often overlook the differences and focus on a common architecture.

Smallest unit- the representation? (The neuron for physical analysis?)

Modules - a distinct step in a process that operates on certain type of information utilizing a similar form of mental signal or code. May involve a transformation/change in the meaning of the content. (A set of neural circuits?)

Mode - way of thinking; a series of steps of processing a certain tyoe of information. A modality... (a series of neural circuits and pathways connected in sequence).

SENSORY INPUT and PERCEPTUAL PROCESSING
Signal transduction - environmental energy into neural code
Receptor cells - energy specific
Perceptual fields - built up with experience, but also some genetic predispositions (again, think about what would have been adaptive over 1000s of generations of ancestors).

Memory? Perception proves it at very basic level, but not 'memory' as we think of it.
Neuromuscular junction - ok, jumping ahead to the output, but lets see this complete process from input to output as this is the Architecture section.

More Stillings Chapter 2
Schema - a mental (or cognitive) structure, smallish, for conceptualizing or organizing incoming information into sensible content.

Types of schema or schemata:
-propositional (relational)
-conceptual (abstraction of thing)

Also, COMPLEX schemata
-frames (visual frame, context)
-scripts (or activity schema)

Automatic vs. Controlled processes