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Thinking!. Psychology 2606. Some introductory thoughts. We are clearly the most cognitively complex animals on this planet We can think about objects that are not present We can think about abstract ideas We use symbolic and syntactic language We plan and string events together.
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Thinking! Psychology 2606
Some introductory thoughts • We are clearly the most cognitively complex animals on this planet • We can think about objects that are not present • We can think about abstract ideas • We use symbolic and syntactic language • We plan and string events together
So, how is thought encoded in the brain? • Monkeys, dots, motion and V5 • So, individual cortical neurons were detecting motion and making decisions • Hebb’s idea of the cell assembly • The association cortex is key in thought • Anything not primary is association (that is most of the cortex) • Receives input from the thalamus, but from areas that themselves get input from primary sensory areas
Spatial cognition • Our ability to deal with spatial stimuli may have helped us evolve ‘consciousness’ • That and the standing up and big heart thing • We seem to have specialized sub systems to deal with different types of information • Modules if you will
A Purely Geometric Module in Human Spatial Representation? David R. Brodbeck 1 Andrea E. Pike 2 Cory Spracklin 1 Department of Psychology 1-Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NL 2-Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL
Introduction • Cheng (1986) got the ball rolling • Or the cocoa puff, as the case may be… • Basically, he found that rats would use geometric information to locate food in a rectangular arena • Most of their errors were to rotations of the originally baited location
Cheng (1986) • He then applied featural information • walls • corners • The rats still made errors, though most of these were rotational errors • He concluded that the rats were responding to the geometry of the box.
Hermer and Spelke (1994) • Tried the Cheng task with toddlers and adults • Disoriented the subjects • Using a cue • Toddlers are not unlike rats • Adults are different, seem to follow the cue • Same in Pike (2001)
Method • We decided to rotate the object • A rectangle on a computer monitor • Subjects (or participants, or whatever..) were shown a red dot on a black rectangle • The rectangle was spun about the middle • Dot faded • Where was the dot?
So what? • Well, it seems that whenever they can, people will use geometry in this task • Even if there is a reliable cue • What if we made geometry useless? • A square
What does it all mean? • Evidence of a feature independent geometric module • People will use features, if forced • Under certain circumstances • Rotational errors disappear when geometry is useless • Errors then become based on the feature
So, What Does It All Mean? • Clear evidence (we think) of a feature independent, geometric module in human spatial processing • Perhaps if we slowed the rotation we would find better performance, and fewer rotational errors in the cued condition • (Rotation was titrated until we found errors reliably)
Future Directions • Does Length : Width follow Weber’s Law? • What if the dot was put closer to the centre of the stimulus? • Touch screen • Hmmm what about pigeons?
So we have a spatial module • It may be the case that input from this spatial module, or cell assemblies on top of cell assemblies comes together in associative areas • These modules can be isolated WITHOUT wet neurophysiology • So, ‘the dot is here’ could be considered a ‘thought’
Putting it together • In the cortex there are columns, individual bunches of cells that go across layers of the cortex that seem to for circuits together • Is this the unit of thought? • Well, it might have something to do with it • But still, we put all of our sensory and memorial thoughts together to form an experience
We started philosophically, why not end that way • So, how are all of these things put together into an experience? • The Binding Problem • This, and the engram may be the holy grails of neuroscience and psychology