Ch 2

Ch. 2. Thinking Machines

1. The Twilight Zone: "The Lonely" Corry falls in love with Alicia (robot) who is shot "All you leave behind is loneliness."
2. Search for intelligent life in the universe
1. sci-fi, alien > rational & goalseeker
2. def for intelligence = ability to attain goals in the face of obstacles by means of decisions based on rational (truth-obeying) rules
   

Ch 1

Ch. 1. Standard Equipment

1. robot vs human; in a well designed system the components are black boxes

• the robot challenge: 1) visual system light/dark > shapes > objects, 3D>2D, rotation etc... reverse optics is ill posed, impossible yet we do it all the time IN REAL TIME! constant deadlines
• 2) movement: reverse kinematics and reverse dynamics; no animal has evolved to have wheels; legs; 6 legs > 4 legs still stable but 2 legs! unstable !!! yet we do it
• cannot treat everything as unique > categories; e.g. "bachelor"
  
• common sense is very hard to code into a machine
• Isaac Asimov's Fundamental Rules of Robotics: must program the machine to sustain itself
• emotions: self protection, care, love, agression must all be programmed
• visual areas of the brain can be damaged resulting in different perception 1) paying attention to only half of the visual field 2) everything grey and dim 3) see objects but not movement 4) cannot identify objects or faces
• identical twins reared apart: 1) entering the water backwards! 2) leaving little love notes for their wives ! etc.. 3) sneezing loudly in crowded elevators for fun !!! 4) flush the toilet before and after use !
• reverse engineering the psyche: AGENDA OF THE BOOK = The mind is a system of organs of computation, designed by natural selection to solve the kinds of problems our ancestors faced in their foraging way of life, in particular, understanding and outmaneuvering objects, animals, plants and other people.

• >>>computational theory of mind
• >>>evolutionary psychology
  
• Tooby and Cosmides < has been opposed, the mind should not be treated as evolutionary development but rather as culture
  
• >>> the common is really uncommon
• >>> brain is evolutionary != cultural development
• pregnancy sickness evidence that it is selected for > protects the embrio
• nature vs nurture debate is quite meaningless
  
• evolutionary doesn't mean human = ape or whale = cow, we do want to get to the differences
• behavior did not evolve, the mind did!
• Psychological correctness
• Standard Social Science Model SSSM > bad, except maybe that allowed some bad moral judgments to be eradicated; SSSM = fundamental division between biology and culture
• must separate science from morals
• 3 implications of innate human nature:
1. innate human nature implies innate human differences
1. Gloria Steinem: "There are really not many jobs that actually require a penis or a vagina, and all the other occupations should be open to everyone."
   
2. naturalistic fallacy: natural > good (even war, crimes etc)
3. genes control behavior: no responsibility for our actions

• confusion between goals of genes' (spreading themselves) and our goals (whatever our minds dictate: health, love, friends, work, maybe children)
  

Sc B-62 Section 3

Quiz:

My favorite image collection for parts: http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/intro/ibank/set1.htm

• part; location; function
• neocortex; outside of brain stem/limbic system; higher thinking, perception, motor, emotion etc...
  
• frontal lobe; front part of neocortex between central fissure and lateral fissure; short term memory, social intelligence, decision making, impulse control, "workhorse" or higher thought (Richard), Brocha's area (grammatical functions), includes the motor cortex
  
• brainstem; coming from spine into mid brain;
  
• hippocampus; inside the temporal lobe; part of the limbic system (together with thalamus, hypothalamus and amigdila), Alzheimer's attacks this, responsible for encoding new memories (Alzheimer's supposedly cannot gain new memories but they can learn new motor skills if that part is not damaged, e.g. learn to play a new instrument (but then how do they remember what melody to play?!?!?!)), Parkinson's attacks basel ganglia hurting fine motor movements, London taxi drivers study showed that their right hippocampus was larger than normal, and the longer they have been driving the larger it was > spacial memory and direction
  
• right hemisphere; right half of brain; creative side, because more white matter, intonation, music, rote memory, faces, creativity correlates with depression > more -ve than left hemisphere
  
• pons; above thalamus, below mid brain (?); balance, heart rate, breathing, closely related to cerebellum
  
• visual cortex; very back of head, on the occipial lobe; vision
  
• sylvian fissure = lateral fissure
• left hemisphere
• cerebellum
• synapse
• hypothalamus
• striatum
• axon fibers
• grey matter
• white matter
• temporal lobe
• forebrain
• central fissure
• spinal cord
• parietal
• medulla oblongata
• lobe-limbic microelectrodes

Apparition of Jesus: habituation/fatigue from firing
Border effect: lateral inhibition

SC B-62 Section 1

First section
Richard Griffin: griffin3@fas

1. What is Freud's theory about why some people are excessively orderly and rule-bound? Is it testable? If so, how?
• they were potty trained too early
• according to Freud the time for each person is different - even for identical twins (fudge factor)
  
• large sample size (all different influences would equal out to ze, pre-natal commitment, identical twins, train them at different times
  
• not falsifiable
  
2. Why would skinner object to the claim that students study hard because they want to get good grades? What would he say instead?
• reinforcers (=reward)
• bad word: want
• re
  
3. The image of the world on the retina is upside-down. Why don't people see the world upside-down?
• consistent mapping
• there is no need
• goggle experiments - get habituated
  
4. If a psychologist flashes a word in the left half of your visual field, could you read it? Why or why not?
• yes
• left visual field maps to the right side of the retina > right hemisphere of the brain
  
• the corpus colossum will transfer the info to the left hemisphere
• even if the cc is cut, one could read it, but not speak about it (read the word "pan" then he was able to draw it)
• right hemisphere can recognize words - maybe not full sentences
  
5. How do cognitive psychologists know that it takes about a half a second to retrieve the name of a printed letter?
• discrimination of {a,A,b,B}
  
• shape or meaning
• response time was 400-600 ms
  

Sc B-62 Wk 2

Tuesday, February 5 & Thursday, February 7: Major Approaches.
Psychoanalysis (Freud); Behaviorism (Skinner). Components of the modern
approach: Cognition; computation; neuroscience; evolution.
Gray: Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 15, pp. 558-563; Chapter 3, pp. 59-62;
Chapter 17, pp. 632-637, 649-653; Chapter 4, pp. 91-117, 124-131.
(HTMW: Chapter 1, pp. 21-44; 2, pp. 59-69.)
*First mini-assignment will be handed out on Thursday.

Gray: Chapter 1;

Chapter 2;

• e.g. 1. Clever Hans, horse answering questions
  
• e.g. 2. Alberto DiMascio, treatments for depression
• e.g. 3. Diana Baumrind: correlational method of the rel btw parents' disciplinary styles and childrens' development
  
• Research Designs (Descriptive studies, correlational studies, and experiments)
• Research Settings (field, laboratory)
• Data-Collection Methods (self-report, observation)
• the above three combine to 3 x 2 x 2 = 12 kinds of studies
  

Chapter 15, pp. 558-563;


Chapter 3, pp. 59-62;


Chapter 17, pp. 632-637, 649-653;


Chapter 4, pp. 91-117, 124-131.

(HTMW: Chapter 1, pp. 21-44; 2, pp. 59-69.)


*First mini-assignment will be handed out on Thursday.