On test day, you will be asked to answer 2 questions one from each group below. THE QUESTIONS WILL BE RANDOMLY SELECTED. This means you should prepare an answer to each question below. The test will be closed book, closed notes. You will have 90 minutes to finish, so plan to spend approximately 30 minutes on each question, leaving the remainder for multiple choice/short answer.
Group 1.
1. Clark writes: ÒIn the real worldÉ the distinctions among task, algorithm, and implementation are not always crystal clear. More importantly, the process of discovering good computational or information processing models of natural cognition can and should be deeply informed by neuroscientific understanding. Indeed the two forms of understanding should ideally coevolve in a richly interanimated style.Ó (85)
Explain why one might think that details of implementation do not matter to understanding cognition, and explain why Clark thinks this is mistaken. Assess which position is correct.
2. Clark writes: ÒWe have seen how details of bodily mechanics (synergies of tendons, etc.) and embodied action taking (moving, visual saccades, etc.) can radically transform the shape of the computational problems faced by a real-world agent. This fact alone puts pressure on the practical value of [MarrÕs] three-level schema.Ó (96)
Explain MarrÕs schema. Explain why Clark thinks details of mechanics and action call into question its practical value. Assess whether Clark is right.
3. Explain what Clark thinks the robot cricket reveals about cognition, and critically assess his account.
Group 2.
4. State, explain, and critically assess the Òradical embodied cognition thesis.Ó
5. Clark writes that ÒExperience with external tags and labels thus enables the brain itself Ð by representing those tags and labels Ð to solve problems whose level of complexity and abstraction would otherwise leave us baffledÓ (145). What does Clark mean? Assess the significance of this idea for understanding cognition.
6. Evolutionary psychologists defend the claim that the mind is full of adaptive, special purpose mechanisms. They furthermore endorse the hypothesis of Òmassive modularity.Ó Explain this hypothesis and its significance for understanding cognition. Critically assess its prospects as a tool for understanding the mind.
Study questions for multiple choice/short answer:
1. What is a classical view of the mind,
and how does it differ from a connectionist view?
2. Understand some key techniques of
localizing function in the brain.
3. What does HutchinsÕs work on pilotage
show us about the mind?
4. What is an emergent property?
5. Be familiar with the research paradigms Clark discusses (e.g. the robot cricket) and what they are supposed to illustrate about the mind.
6. What is Ôdual systemsÕ theory?
7. What is a ÔmoduleÕ?
8. What is cognitive incrementalism?