Review for Midterm II. Study tips and insights to help you understand the material

Transcription

1 Review for Midterm II Study tips and insights to help you understand the material

2 Exam scope: All of the readings and lectures for weeks 4, 5 and 6. Except: Dr. Boyle s Neural Network lecture

3 Topic 1: Social skills and development Lecture: Dr. Deák (1/29) How do we become socially skilled? Readings: How Babies Think

4 What is kin recognition? - An organism's ability to distinguish between close genetic kin and non-kin. - Also called kin detection - Very important! - Different sensory modalities - E.g. Mother Penguin and ewes use olfactory information to distinguish their kids from others; long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) are capable of discriminating kin and non-kin based on contact calls.

5 How should we study infant minds? - Verbal response? - Response time? Instead - Infants tend to pay more attention to something new, or more favorable. - Indirect measure: the relative amounts of time they pay attention to different events,

6 Can infants do face discrimination? (Layton & Rochat, 2007) - 4 months: no clear evidence of differential response - 8 months: distinguish mom s face from stranger s (still or moving) - Even within a few months we improve at face processing

7 What about Biological Motion?(Bertenthal et al, 1987). Stimulus In both conditions, 3-month-olds look at the scrambled walker longer. It indicates they think it s novel, which means that they CAN understand biological motion! Canonical Scrambled

8 Why do we have longer childhoods? - Precocial species: Mature early and show independent activities at birth. - Altricial species: Mature late. Require help from parents. Rely on learning.

9 What can a baby do? Babies are scientists!

10 What can a baby do? Cont. - They use statistics! - Babies and young children have an extraordinary ability to learn from statistical patterns. - They use statistics to learn sound patterns of language (Saffran et.al 1966). - Babies can even understand the relation between a statistical sample and a population (Xu, 2008). - They understand physics! - Elizabeth Spelke (Harvard) found that infants understand fundamental physical phenomena such as movement trajectories, gravity and containment. Ex: They look longer at a toy car appearing to pass through a solid wall than at events that violate basic principles of everyday physics.

11 What can a baby do? Cont. - They can be more creative than us! - They outperform us at tasks involving unusual possibilities, because they are more open-minded than adults. - e.g. Blicket detector task - Instructions make young children less creative! - Young children who think they are being instructed modify their statistical analysis and may become less creative as a result.

12 Topic 2: Social cognition and Mirror neurons Lectures: - Dr. Boyle (1/31) Introduction to Social Cognition - Dr. Singh (2/9) Mirror Neurons and Schizophrenia Readings: - First direct recording made of mirror neurons in human brain

13 What is embodied cognition? Classical View (or Cognitivism): Treats the brain as an input-output device that uses the internal manipulation of symbols to perform cognitive processes. Word meanings ultimately grounded on abstract symbols Embodied Cognition: Cognition is influenced and biased by states of the body, the environment, and the complex interaction between the two Word meanings are grounded on states of the body Ex: action words

14 What is embodied cognition? Embodied Cognition: Cognition is influenced and biased by states of the body, the environment, and the complex interaction between the two Word meanings are grounded on states of the body Ex: action words

15 What are mirror neurons? Mirror neurons are activated during the... Execution of an action Observation of an action Mirror neurons are multimodal! They become active both when either seeing or hearing an action being performed

16 What are mirror neurons really? Mirror neurons code for an action with a certain intention: Active in both full and occluded conditions Respond to either robotic or human hands Differentiate between different intentions

17 How can we measure mirror neurons? When? Where? EEG MEG TMS fmri

18 How can we measure mirror neurons? When? Where? EEG MEG TMS fmri

19 What is the relationship between mu suppression and mirror neurons? Mu = 8-12 Hz (Alpha-range) wave over M1 and S1 Changed by movement, attention, sleep, and visual tasks In typically developing subjects Suppressed while performing motor actions, observing motor actions, and imagining motor actions Suppression is increased for actions embedded in social context

20 What are mirror neurons for?

21 How does mu suppression differ across populations? Autism: Reduced mu suppression and social abilities in high functioning autistic children compared to typical children. Schizophrenia: Reduced mu suppression and social abilities compared to neurotypical controls. Perhaps, there is a relationship between these two variables. Mu suppression can be altered administration of oxytocin or by using neurofeedback

22 What is social cognition? Theory of Mind (ToM) Those with ToM are mindsighted The ability to attribute others mental states Commonly assessed using false-belief or Sally-Anne tasks Mindblindness The inability to attribute mental states to others Describes many on the autism spectrum

23 Topic 3: Social Cognition and Interaction Lecture: Dr. Rossano (2/14) Interacting like a human being. Reading: The Ultra-Social Animal

24 What is diversity? Diversity is: An assumption A tool Occurs across time (evolutionary or developmental) Occurs across individuals (individual differences are not noise!)

25 Who are the WEIRD? WEIRD people are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic *96% of subjects in psychology experiments are WEIRD - WEIRD people make up 12% of the world population, and 80% of subjects are undergraduates.

26 What does social cognition involve? Intelligibility: how do we see what others see? (social attention) Accountability: taking into consideration how others will perceive, understand, and judge our actions when we act/plan to act Answerability/Responsibility: social norms, fairness and justice, social planning, trust, morality

27 How do humans and other species differ with regards to social interaction and social cognition? Requesting food Stealing food

28 How do humans and other species differ with regards to social interaction and social cognition? Voice Following Voice Following (Domestication vs. Socialization)

29 How do humans and other species differ with regards to social interaction and social cognition? Eye Direction Frontal eyes are good for depth perception and 3D vision, while lateral eyes are useful for peripheral vision. Eye Sclera Humans are the only primate with a white sclera. Why?

30 Topic 4: Animal cognition Lecture: Dr. Johnson (2/7) Animal Intelligence and Alien Minds. Reading: Cetaceans Have Complex Brains

31 How can we know the minds of non-humans? 1. We must appreciate each species sensorimotor constraints a. What a animal can/cannot do

32 What are some examples of sensorimotor constraints? -- Where are they on this spectrum? Vision?

33 What are some examples of sensorimotor constraints? Vision -- Where are they on this spectrum? Infrared Ultraviolet Human Visible Lights No color perception BUT good sensitivity to Motion & Contrast!

34 What are some examples of sensorimotor constraints? -- What do these structures enable? Vision Specialized body parts Primates forward facing eyes: Depth perception For hunting and arboreal activities Opposable thumbs: Grasping and tool manipulation

35 What are some examples of sensorimotor constraints? -- Yet why don t rodents use tools? Vision Specialized body parts Also have opposable thumbs

36 What are some examples of sensorimotor constraints? -- Different animals have different coordinations Vision Specialized body parts Body - eye coordination Primates: Hand-eye coordination Crows: Eye-beak-foot coordination Elephants: Trunk-eye coordination

37 What are some examples of universal principles? Classical example: Pavlov s dog Temporal contiguity: Animals will use Event 1 to predict Event 2 when the events overlap in time BUT EXCEPTION: Taste Aversion Learning: Event Correlations Only learns association between food and illness if the poisonous effect appears with >1 hour delay! Because?

38 What are some examples of universal principles? Win stay /Lose shift If Win (get reward) then Stay (continue same response) If Lose (don t get reward) then Shift (try another strategy) BUT EXCEPTION: What if the animal gets reward from a non-reusable resource, in the natural habitat? Win shift

39 How can we know the minds of non-humans? - Ecological Validity: The degree to which a research setup resembles an animal s real experience. - Is this research taking place in something that approximates an animal s natural environment?

40 What does ecological validity look like?

41 How can we know the minds of non-humans? Keep these principles in mind: -- sensorimotor constraints -- learning principles -- environmental validity

42 Making dolphins do Match to Sample using Color or Contrast as cues bad good good bad Training Pigeons or Hummingbirds using Win stay / lose shift strategy really good Running rats in mazes? Considering: sensorimotor constraints learning principles environmental validity

43 More experiments Know the results!

44 What about a dolphin s brain allows it to be so smart? Large mass Large relative mass with respect to body Regional parcellation with expanded insula and cingulate cortices Large number of layer V spindle neurons High ratio of white matter to gray matter High ratio of glial cells to neurons

45 What are glial cells? Oligodendrocytes: Astrocytes: provide myelination in the Central Nervous System Reason of white matter Predominate in the gray matter Maintain extracellular ion (electrical) balance Nurture nervous tissues and repair traumatic injuries Microglia: Immune cells in the Central Nervous System

46 Dolphins have smart brains, but are they smart? (from Cetacean reading) Declarative knowledge: understand symbolic representations and events Can learn imposed language, including the languages semantics and syntax Procedural knowledge: understand how things work or how to manipulate them Can use simple tools and otherwise interact with the world Social knowledge: understand activities, identities, behaviors of others Understand and provide attention guidance via pointing and head gaze Self knowledge: understand own image, behavior, and body parts Recognize themselves in the mirror So Many of these, Go to your reading!

47 Why are dolphins and humans cognitively similar? (from Cetacean reading) Convergent Evolution!

48 Topic 5: Distributed cognition Lecture: Dr. Scott (2/12) Introduction to Distributed Cognition Reading: Cognition, Distributed

49 How have researchers thought about cognition before? 1. Behaviorism: Concerned with observable behaviors rather than internal mental processes. a. e.g. Pavlov s classical conditioning

50 2. Cognitivism: Concerned less with visible behavior and more with the internal processes of the mind. Treats the brain as an input-output device that uses the internal manipulation of symbols to perform cognitive processes. e.g. The Information Processing Theory is a metaphor that equates the work of the human brain to that of the computer.

51 3. Post-cognitivism! (Combination of embodied, distributed, and other approaches to cognition)

52 What insights about cognition come from the distributed cognition approach? - Brain is important but not enough! - Brain should be seen as the controller for body-world interaction. - Action can reveal underlying cognitive processes - Bidirectional interactions of the brain & body with the material and social world is a form of cognition too. - Entails a broader unit of analysis.

53 What insights about cognition come from the distributed cognition approach? Social requirements/information bottlenecks result in information transfer systems Information needs to transfer across low-traffic boundaries, and symbol systems arise to deal with transferring information across these bottlenecks

54 Where did d-cog come from and how do we apply it? - Cognition in the Wild describes observing human cognition in its natural habitat. - The book describes Cognitive Ethnography which entails: - The scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures. - Accurate records of specific instances of real world human behavior. - Analyze of the cognitive aspects of those instances. Edwin Hutchins

55 What is the BIG problem with cognitive ethnography? Seeing but not seeing problem: Neglecting details but remembering the gist Filling the gaps in visual scenes Neglecting background info e.g. Invisible gorilla Not hearing disfluencies and unimportant words Shared cultural models We need guidelines: Cognito-scope: Slow down and be honest, pay attention to how representations are transformed across time, people, and the environment. Look at the process of the manipulation of cognitive representations with a martian perspective.

56 That s it! Thank you to the other TA/IA s for helping with the slides! Happy to answer your questions!