Possible Questions for Midterm 2

Phil/Psych 256: Introduction to Cognitive Science
Prof. Eliasmith

Six of the following questions will be on the midterm. You will have to answer five of them. Each will be worth 5% of your final grade. You will have 80 minutes to answer them in class.

  1. Name three standard features of connectionist models. What is the difference between localist and distributed representations in connectionism? Name one strength and one weakness of each kind of representation.
  2. Name and describe two theoretical commitments shared by connectionism and symbolicism (i.e. Classic Cognitive Science). Describe of three pairs of theoretical commitments that distinguish connectionism and symbolicism.
  3. What are three critiques of Marr’s theory of vision? Describe both the critique and the aspect of Marr’s theory that is being criticized. For each critique, list at least one piece of psychological or neuroscientific evidence supporting it.
  4. Name and describe the three features of thought that Fodor and Pylyshyn claim cognitive systems have? For each feature, describe how connectionists would reply to show that these features don’t contradict the commitments of connectionism.
  5. Name and describe the three approaches to robotics that we discussed in class. What kind of task is each approach best suited to? Provide an example and explain why. What kind of task is each approach most poorly suited to? Provide an example and explain why.
  6. What is dynamic systems theory? How has it been suggested to relate to the mind?  What approach(es) to robotics is it related to and how? Name two limitations of such an approach to robotics.
  7. What is cognitivism with regard to emotions? Name two problems that arise for this view. Briefly describe Griffiths theory of emotions. How does it solve these two problems?
  8. What is the main neurological evidence that motivates the emotion challenge to cognitive science? Name two ways in which we might expand CRUM to account for emotions. Name one way in which we might supplement CRUM to account for emotions. What kinds of difficulties arise for the proposed ‘supplement’?
  9. How do Crick and Koch try to make consciousness a respectable scientific problem? Name and describe three neurological/psychological phenomena that Crick and Koch think are important for understanding consciousness. What do they conclude based on these kinds of data?