Current List of Exam Questions
Instructor: Rick Grush
Course: Philosophy of the Cognitive and Neural Sciences (Phil
1455)
Room: CL 116
Time: 3:00 - 4:15
Instructor: Rick Grush (grush+@pitt.edu)
Office: CL 1028J
Office Hours: MW 1:30 - 2:30
Office Phone 624-5790
Note: Email is BY FAR the easiest way to reach me.
This syllabus is subject to change. Alterations will be announced in class. An up-to-date version of the syllabus will be maintained at my website (http://www.pitt.edu/~grush).
Texts:
Damasio, Antonio (1994). Descartes' Error.
Churchland and Grush (ms). Neurophilosophy: First Footing.
In addition to this text (which we will finish in about a week), we will read a number of articles and book chapters. All such material will be on reserve in Hillman, and will also be available on the web in HTML from my website.
Class Organization:
In this class, we will explore three topics that have been of interest to philosophers as well as researchers in psychology and neuroscience. After reading Damasio's book, we will look more carefully at i) our ideas and representation of ourselves (self-knowledge and self-awareness); ii) the nature or representation, especially neural representation; and iii) language.
Schedule:
The schedule is somewhat flexible, but to a first approximation it will be as follows. The material listed under readings should be read before the class session in question. We will be discussing it in class. If you do not fully understand the material when you read it, don't worry. That's what the class sessions are for. But make sure that you read it beforehand, and try to make as much sense of it as you can. If it becomes apparent that students are not doing the readings before class sessions, I will start instituting short quizzes at the beginning of class.
Session 01 (08/30): Intro to course, intro to the brain
Session 02 (09/01): Damasio
Session 03 (09/08): Damasio
Session 04 (09/13): Dennett
Session 05 (09/15): Dennett
Session 06 (09/20): Flanagan
Session 07 (09/22): Grush: Self-world and Space (read only up to, but not including, Section 2.0)
Session 08 (09/27): Continuing discussion of Grush paper.
Session 09 (09/29): Material on IEM from Evans.
Session 10 (10/04): First Midterm
Session 11 (10/06): Dretske
Session 12 (10/11): Newell and Simon
Session 13 (10/13):
Session 14 (10/18): Brooks
Session 15 (10/20): Haugeland
Session 16 (10/25): van Gelder & Port -- Beer
Session 17 (10/27): Grush
Session 18 (11/01): Bartlett Mel, -- Lynn Stein
Session 19 (11/03): Wexler, Kosslyn & Berthoz
Session 20 (11/08): Second Midterm
Session 21 (11/10): Formal Syntax Intro (Lecture)
Session 22 (11/15): Formal Syntax Intro (Lecture): Notes on Truth-functional semantics.
Session 23 (11/17): Langacker: Intro
Session 24 (11/22): Langacker: Nouns and Verbs
Session 25 (11/29): (continuing discussion of Langacker)
Session 26 (12/01): Garrod: In and On
Session 27 (12/06): Goldberg: Caused-motion construction
Session 28 (12/08): Third Midterm
Homework:
There is no homework except for the readings.
Quizzes:
There will be a small number of quizzes on the readings at the beginning of some of the class sessions (chosen randomly). The quizzes will be very short, and will not require that you have understood all the material, only that you have read it and tried to understand it. An example question would be:
Phineas gage had a rod blast through his:
a) Frontal lobes.
b) Temporal Lobes.
c) Occipital lobes.
d) Hippocampus.
e) (a), (b), and (d).
f) (a) and (b).
g) (a) - (d).
Anyone who has read the first few chapters of the Damasio book will know immediately that the answer is (a).
The quizzes will have 5 questions such as this, and you will have only 3 - 5 minutes to complete the exam.
NOTE: I don't want to make and administer these quizzes any more than you want to take them, so as long as it is clear that everyone is doing the reading before class, we will be able to dispense with them.
Exams:
There will be 3 midterm exams, and no final exam. Each midterm will focus on the topic covered in that section of the class, though the 2nd and 3rd midterms will to some extent require a comparison of the ideas of the featured topic to previous topics. All exams are in-class.
The format of the exams is as follows: During lecture, I will from time to time point out that a certain phrase or issue may appear on the exam. At that time, I will make clear what the question will consist of. There will be 2 kinds of question: sort answer/definition, and essay questions. The exam that I will hand out in class for the midterm will consist of some subset of these questions. I don't have the exact numbers worked out yet, but it will be something not too far from this:
During each 5 week period, I will point out in lecture something like 15 - 20 potential short answer/definitions, and something like 4 - 6 potential essay questions. For the actual midterm, I will select about 7 short questions, and of these, students will be required to answer 5 of their own choosing from those 7. I will also select 3 essay questions, and students will be required to answer any 2 of those 3. There will not be any questions on the exam there are not explicitly flagged as such during the lectures, so there should be no surprises, provided you attend all class sessions.
An example of a short answer question would be: Briefly describe the main changes in Gage's character after his construction accident.
An example of an essay question would be: In his book, Damasio describes what he calls an 'as-if loop'. Explain what this loop is and the brain areas involved. Also describe what it is supposed to explain, and how it does so.
Class Participation:
Students are required to attend class, and join in the discussion to some extent. If you have read the material carefully beforehand, then you shouldn't worry at all about asking a 'stupid' question -- the only questions that bother me are the ones that make it clear that you have not read the material. But much of this material is difficult and obscure, and so I expect may student that have read it to still have questions on even the basic aspects of it. Also, students are welcome to email questions or points of discussion (even answers to questions raised in previous classes) to me, and I will bring them up in class, anonymously if you prefer. For students who are uncomfortable joining in the discussion verbally in class, using email is my recommendation for making sure that you do well on the 'class participation' component of the class.
Though class participation is not officially part of the grade component, in practice the amount of sympathy I have when it comes to making judgement calls on borderline grades is a function of attendance and participation.
Grades:
Grades will be based on the 3 exams and any quizzes. Each will count for roughly 33% of the final grade.
Make-up exams:
Make-up exams are offered only with a very good excuse, such as a doctor's note. Make-up exams will also consist of a selection of short-answer and essay questions, but a different selection that those given for the normal exam. Also, since students taking a make-up exam will have had more time to prepare, in order to be fair to the students who took the regular exam the make-up will be a bit longer -- 2 additional short-answer questions per week delay.
Recommendations:
1. Be sure to read the assigned material before class. This will help to insure that our class time is quality time, and not wasted with me and some of the students reiterating the material to those who haven't read it. Again, if it becomes clear that students are not reading the material before class, I will institute quizzes at the beginning of class.
2. While you are reading the material, before class, make notes about the reading, and especially any parts that do not make sense to you.
3. During class, make sure that your questions get answered. This may require you to actually raise the question yourself. But this is fine, and what I want. Don't be shy.
4. The idea is that 3 things will happen during class. You will gain a better understanding of the material, your questions will be answered, and you will learn about some of the questions that may appear on the exam.
5. After class, re-read the material for the session, paying special attention to the questions that you had before. Hopefully the material will make much more sense to you now.
6. As you are re-reading, keep the possible midterm questions in mind, so that you can nail the answers. In fact, you might want to write out the answers for each question at this point. If you do, then before the midterm, you will have all the answers to all the questions already in your notes, and studying for the exam will be easy.
Email Distribution List
There is an email distribution list for this course, and I highly recommend you subscribe to it immediately. I will make periodic announcements on this list concerning changes to the syllabus, readings, exam dates, etc.
To subscribe, send an email to
listserv@mind.philosophy.pitt.edu
with a blank subject line, and the body of the message consisting of the command
SUBSCRIBE 1455 FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
Where the placeholders 'FIRSTNAME' and 'LASTNAME' are replaced by your real first and last names. For example
SUBSCRIBE 1455 Brandi Chastain
This is an OPEN DISCUSSION LIST, meaning that anyone can send email to 1455@grush.philosophy.pitt.edu and the message will be distributed to everyone on the list. And so you can use it to pose questions to the class as a whole -- that is, if you think of a question after class is over, the list is an appropriate forum for continuing the discussion after hours. Provided this does not get out of hand (i.e. people flaming eachother on the list) I will keep it as an open discussion list. If it does get out of hand, I will restrict the posting to me only.
Exam Questions:
Below are listed the questions for each midterm exam. The list grows as each 5 week segment of the course proceeds, and hence won't be complete until the day of the lecture that preceeds the exam.
Midterm 3: 12.08.99 (this list is now complete)
Questions for Exam 3:
Short Answer:
1. Truth-functional semantics
2. Cognitive Semantics
3. X-bar phrase structure
4. Lexicon
5. Syntax
6. Argument-structure construction
7. Mass vs. count noun
8. Perfective vs. imperfective process
9. Profile vs. base
10. Explicit performatives
11. Encyclopedic vs. Dictionary lexical semantics
12. Reflexive
13. c-command
14. Explain the difference between functional and geometric influences in prepositional semantics.
15. Empty singular term
16. Intentional and modal contexts.
Essay Questions:
1. Consider the sentence "Frank kicked the ball into the house." Briefly describe how a generative (Chomskian) linguist would analyze the syntactic and semantic features of this sentence. Specifically, what are the relevant lexical features of the verb, and how are these features expressed syntactically (via determining certain things about the phrase structure of the sentence) and semantically. How would an account based on a Langacker and Goldberg-style analysis differ? What sorts of evidence might they offer for their alternate analysis?
2. Explain truth-functional semantics, and describe two major problems it faces.
3. Langacker has argued that there is a similarity between the count/mass distinction for nouns, and the perfective/imperfective distinction for verbs. Explain this similarity. (Detail and completeness count.)
4. In English, perfective verbs must be in the progressive construction in order to be expressed in the present tense (ignore performatives for purposes of this question). What is Langacker's explanation of this fact? Your answer should include discussion of the relevant semantic features of i) perfective verbs, ii) present tense, iii) 'be', and iv) '-ing'.
5. Explain why, on Goldberg's account, the (1) sentences are bad but the similar (2) sentences are OK.
1a. *His cane helped him into the car.
1b. *Sam encouraged Bob into the room.
1c. *Karen pleaded Joan into the house.
1d. *Bob impacted the gopher into the cage.2a. The wind helped him over the hill.
2b. Sam coaxed Bob into the room.
2c. Karen invited Joan into the house.
2d. Bob pushed the gopher into the cage.
6. Garrod et al. reach the conclusion that
an accurate account of the semantics of 'in' requires attention
to both 'geometric' and 'functional' considerations. Explain what
this means, and how they reach this conclusion.
Midterm 2: 11.08.99 (this list is now complete)
Short Answer Questions:
1. Symbol (a la Dretske)
2. Teleosemantics (aka biosemantics)
3. Physical Symbol System
4. Heuristic Search
5. Subsumption architecture
6. Language of Thought
7. Natural sign
8. Feed-forward control
9. Emulation theory of representation
10. Inverse vs. Forward Mapping
11. State space
12. Shepard task
13. Murphy
14. MetaToto
Essay Questions:
1. Haugeland has argued that the brain cannot be considered a component, separable from the body and environment. Grush has argued that Haugeland's criteria for componentiality are inadequate, and that in fact additional criteria allows for the brain, or parts of it, to be seen as separable components. Explain Haugeland's position and Grush's response.
2. Formal symbol systems are subject to the alternate interpretations problem. What is this problem, and how does Dretske's account of semantics attempt to solve it?
3. Newell and Simon claimed that representations, in the form of symbols, are necesary for intelligence. Brooks claims to have built systems that employ no representations, but that are nevertheless intelligent. Discuss. How might Newell and Simon respond? Who do you think is right and why?
4. According to Dretske, natural signs still require an interpreter to assign a representational function. Explain what natural signs are, and Dretske's argument.
5. Explain the point and result of the Shepard rotation task. (What hypotheses was it an attempt to decide between, and how did it attempt to do so? With what result?)
6. Explain the design and execution of the Wexler at al. study. Why would one expect motor processes to play a role in imagery? (One should give a better explaination here than the one Wexler et al. give themselves.)
Midterm 1: 9.29.99
Short Answer Questions:
1. What are the four large cortical areas (lobes)? Sketch their rough locations.
2. Amygdala.
3. Limbic System
4. Gambling Task
5. Somatic Marker Hypothesis
6. Narrative Theory of Self
7. Multiple vs. Multiplex Selves
8. Posterior Parietal Cortex
9. Point of View
10. Sensory substitution device
11. Manifold
12. Egocentric space
13. IEM
14. 'Use as object' vs. 'Use as subject'
15. Receptive Field
Essay Questions:
1. Damasio has argued that one's mind -- what one experiences as one's self -- results from the intimate interaction of brain and body, so much so that without the close linkage between the body and the brain there would be very little left of the mind or the self (see especially his discussion in Chapter 10.)
Dennett, on the other hand, implies that the body and even brain are inessential to the mind, or self. Briefly explain why each takes the position he does. Then explain your own take on the matter. Do you agree with one of them? If so, explain why you do, and why you don't find the other's considerations compelling. Do you agree with neither? Then explain why, and what your own position is. Do you agree with both of them? If so, explain how two positions that seem so inconsistent might be compatible.
2. Damasio has argued that our experience of emotions depends crucially on our ability to sense our bodies' reactions. He has also argued that an 'as-if' loop within the brain itself can supply some of this information without going through the body. Explain both of these claims.
3. Flanagan has applied Dennett's narrative theory of self to try to understand personality development and MPD (multiple personality disorder). Explain Flanagan's account of the difference between multiplex selves and multiple selves. What implications does Flanagan draw concerning the goals of treating MPD?
4. Grush has argued that even if there is something to the Dennettian narrative theory of self, it depends on a more fundamental notion of a point of view that supplies a first-person perspective. What does Grush mean and why does he think this?
5. You wake up one morning in a room you don't recognize, and when you look in the mirror you discover that you look exactly like well-known transvestite and entertainer RuPaul. You see an official-looking letter on a table that says the following: "Dear RuPaul: Sorry, but because of a top secret government project, we drugged you in the middle of the night, and using cutting-edge microsurgical surgical techniques, altered the connectivity of the neurons in your hippocampus in such a way as to give you false memories of being an unimportant, non-descript university student of mediocre physical attractiveness, and minimal financial worth. Hope you don't mind. If you want, call this phone number, and we'll give you your original memories back."
You also see a newspaper on the floor, and on the front page is a picture of what you remember being yourself, being carted away in a body bag, with the headline "Pitt student dies in freak gerbil-related mishap: body exploded into 5,000 pieces, witnesses say. Body parts incinerated to prevent diseases from spreading". Since you have (or at least you remember having) recently thought a lot about personal identity because of a philosophy class you seem to remember attending, you frame the following hypotheses: i) I am [insert your name here], but I am now in RuPaul's body, including (what used to be) RuPaul's brain; or, ii) I am RuPaul, but I don't remember anything about myself, and someone has been tampering with my memories, making remember a bunch of stuff that never really happened to me.
You realize that (i) would be counterintuitive to many people because neither [insert you name here]'s body nor brain is functioning any more, which would imply that the self is something other than the brain or body (seems kind of like a spooky soul thing, doesn't it?). On the other hand, if (ii) is right, then you ought to have these current memories removed (and lost), and your own (RuPaul's) memories restored. This would effectively remove any doubt as to whether or not [insert your name here] is still around (no body, no memories, no nothing).
Which hypothesis do you think is correct? (If
you have another hypothesis, you can explain and defend that one,
if you like.) What will you do? (Try to live the life of the Pitt
student? Have RuPaul's memories restored? Give up on both and
do something else entirely?
6. Evans argues that the phenomenon of immunity to error through misidentification depends on 'special ways' we have of gaining information about ourselves. Explain IEM, and its connection to ways of gaining information.
7. Grush has
argued that the self's apparent location, the 'point of view',
is best understood as the 'implicit nexus of sensorimotor efficacy.'
Explain what this means.
Exam Statistics
Below are the average scores for each part of each exam (rounded to 2 decimal places).
For purposes of determining grades, I typically use a combination of curve and straight scale. To start with, I typically make the average score a B-, and usually give a total of at most 15-20% As (A+s, As, and A-s total). I then judge whether or not this curve reflects what I think is fair (for instance, I might think about a particular student whose point total was average, and decide if I think a B- is a fair grade, or too low or high -- and I might give more or fewer As if I think that thsi is deserved). But a good indication is that avaerage is a B- (so at this point, 86 is average, and so this would be a B-, probably.