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The Computer Metaphor

The Computer Metaphor. The brain is a computer (an information processing device) The mind is a (collection of) programmes Our perceptions and cognitions are constructed out of the collective activity of these programmes. The ‘Hard Problem’.

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The Computer Metaphor

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  1. The Computer Metaphor • The brain is a computer (an information processing device) • The mind is a (collection of) programmes • Our perceptions and cognitions are constructed out of the collective activity of these programmes

  2. The ‘Hard Problem’ • Why does (some of) the brain’s activity generate ‘subjective experience’? • Having explained everything ‘physical’ about the brain, there is something still left over – experience • e.g. Childbirth • See David Chalmers (1996) book, The Conscious Mind • & your 1st year Consciousness course notes

  3. Cognitive Models • Cognitive models ‘fractionate’ the mind • Initial questions for any cognitive model • How many mechanisms? • What does each mechanism do? • How do the mechanisms work together? - ‘functional architecture’ • How do you find answers to these questions?

  4. Inspiration • Brain anatomy and function? • What happens to cognition after brain damage? • How are cognitive functions carried out by the brain? • Man-made computing devices? • How do computers represent, store and process information? • Introspection?

  5. Look Within? • Generates descriptions of memory ‘phenomena’ • Memories ‘pop’ into mind. • It helps to have a cue to jog the memory. • Sometimes they come back involuntarily • But how? • How does information become conscious? • Where did it come from, where does it go? • How is the target memory found? • How can you be sure you have the right memory? • How do you know the memory contents are accurate

  6. It may depend upon your ‘span of attention’

  7. Hi-fidelity Low fidelity It may depend upon the ‘fidelity’ of episodic encoding

  8. Proprioception

  9. Size Constancy and After Images • After images have a constant retinal size • After images change size if their perceived distance changes (Emmert’s Law). • The visual system somehow combines the constant retinal signal along with distance information to generate the apparent size of the after imge.

  10. A Visual and Proprioceptive Illusion • Subjects were dark adapted for 5 minutes • After image of hand produced by a flash gun positioned above subject’s head • Now in total darkness, hand is moved either towards or away from face • Subject reports any change in size of afterimage, relative to initial size at start point.

  11. What do the Illusions Reveal? • Hidden visual and proprioceptive mechanisms that underlie conscious perception • The constructive nature of our perceptions • The tip of the iceberg?

  12. Summary • A host of processing mechanisms generate our conscious experiences • The nature (i.e. how they work) of these mechanisms is hidden from us • We don’t realise the extent to which our percepts and thoughts are constructed

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