Lecture 13: Controversies in Cognitive Science (PDF)

temp part 3 Type Status Not started lecture 13 Controversies in Cognitive Science Is language learning innate, and if so, to what extent? How do we learn language? Skill buildin...

temp part 3 Type Status Not started lecture 13 Controversies in Cognitive Science Is language learning innate, and if so, to what extent? How do we learn language? Skill building hypothesis: Language is acquired as a result of learning language skills, such as vocabulary and grammar Comprehension hypothesis: Language skills such as vocabulary and grammar, result from language acquisition How are words processed when we read? Direct access hypothesis: Readers recognize words directly from the printed letters Indirect access hypothesis: Readers convert the printed letters into a phonological code to access the word and its meaning Language Language: our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning Development of Language Prenatal language comprehension: “Dr. Seuss” study in which pregnant women read one of three children’s stories aloud once every day during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy Infants tested when 2 days old They were played two stories through earphones, one of which was the one they had heard By changing their sucking patterns, they could control which story they heard ➔ Newborns showed preference for the story they had heard prenatally Sound of a newborn baby’s cry may depend on the language the parents speak: babies imitate the general sound of their parents’ language French babies cry with a rising melody German babies prefer a falling melody Speech perception in infancy We are all born with the ability to recognize speech sounds or phonemes (e.g., b vs. p) from all the world’s languages but gradually lose this ability Adult Hindi-speakers and young infants from English-speaking homes can easily discriminate two Hindi t sounds not spoken in English. By age one, however, English-speaking listeners rarely perceive this sound difference Japanese speakers have difficulty distinguishing between English r and l At birth or a few weeks after, infants can perceive almost all (95%) of the subtle phoneme differences in non- native languages. However, by 8-10 months, accuracy drops to 70% and, by 10-12 month, to 20% Chinese adoptees living in Canada since age 1 process Chinese sounds as do native speakers, even if they have no conscious recollection of Chinese words temp part 3 1  💡☞ In general, it’s much easier to learn a language at an early age Language comprehension and motherese (child-directed speech) Motherese or child-directed speech: characterized by repetition, simple vocabulary and syntax, clear pronunciation, slow pace, high pitch with varying intonation, a focus on the here and now, and exaggerated facial expressions Designed to make it easier for infant to decode the language Even young children will do this when speaking to younger siblings/playmates Theories of Language Development Chomsky’s view Children are born with an innate understanding of grammar and a predisposition to learn language (Language Acquisition Device) There is a critical learning period for the acquisition of language Evidence against this view: Competency in a second language can be attained even when initial exposure to the language happens relatively late However, those who learn a second language during early childhood are less likely to have an accent Also, in general, the older the age at immigration, the poorer the grammatical mastery of the second language Evidence in support of critical learning period: (feral children) Cases of child abuse where a child is kept isolated from birth. When rescued at 6 still able but not after 12 Deaf children born to non-signing family never become grammatically fluent in sign language Chomsky’s nativist view (i.e., view that language learning is innate) is based on poverty of stimulus arguments: young children are simply not exposed to enough information to allow them to learn a language Much of the speech that children hear is actually ungrammatical, but not flagged as such Children are typically only exposed to positive information, i.e., they are not told what counts as ungrammatical (e.g., the bell ringed) Arguments against the nativist view 1) Connectionist models demonstrate that it is possible to learn complex linguistic skills without having any explicit linguistic rules encoded in it The learning trajectory of these networks strongly resembles the learning trajectory of human infants Ex: learning how to form the past tense of English verbs, both regular and irregular Children learning the English past tense go through three easily identifiable stages: 2) Bayesian (probabilistic) models of language learning demonstrate that a surprising amount can be learned through sensitivity to statistical regularities in heard speech In English, an actual physical event, such as a pause, marks a word boundary less than 40% of the time How does 8-month-old infant (which is when this skill starts to emerge) figure out which combinations of syllables make words, and which ones don’t? Can be explained by model of transitional probabilities The transitional probability between any two sounds is the probability that the second will follow the first sound temp part 3 2  High transitional probabilities will tend to indicate syllables occurring within a word, while low transitional probabilities will tend to occur across the boundaries of words Infants are exquisitely sensitive to the frequency of correlations, and they exploit this sensitivity to parse streams of sound into words Transitional probabilities may also be used by adults to map the boundaries of phrases Research indicates that babies do show a remarkable ability to learn statistical aspects of human speech They are able to discern word breaks As mentioned, an actual physical event, such as a pause, marks a word boundary less than 40% of the time in English They statistically analyze which syllables most often go together 8-month-olds were exposed to 2 minutes of a computer voice speaking an unbroken, monotone string of nonsense syllables ➜Were able to recognize (as indicated by attentional measures) three-syllable sequences that appeared repeatedly Vygotsky argued that language is the foundation for the development of higher human thought: children use words as a way to learn to think Children of about 4 or 6 often talk aloud in a non-communicative manner When children are drawing at a table, one might say, “I’ll make it green” without indicating what he would make green; another looking at his own drawing, might respond, “Horses like sugar and oats.” Vygotsky contended that this type of non-communicative speech is a transition phase to the development of verbal thought Consistent with this view, researchers have found that first and second- graders who manifested the most muttering and lip movement while solving arithmetic problems showed the greatest improvements in their arithmetic ability over the course of a year Inner speech and spoken language eventually become independent Effect of Early Exposure of Language on Cognitive Development By age 3, a child growing up in poverty would have heard 30 million fewer words in his home environment than a child from a professional family Also, the greater the number of words children heard from their parents or caregivers before they were 3, the higher their IQ and the better they did in school TV talk not only doesn’t help, it is detrimental Study found that infants (12-18 months) actually could not learn vocabulary by merely watching (bestselling) DVD in which spoken words were linked with appropriate objects The cognitive-functional approach emphasizes that the function of human language is to communicate meaning to other individuals There is no such thing as a perfect synonym or two identical sentences Second Language Acquisition How do we learn language? Skill building hypothesis: Language is acquired as a result of learning language skills, such as vocabulary and grammar Use skill building: learn grammar, study vocab lists, do drills, take tests ★ General public (and government) believe this is the way to learn language Comprehension hypothesis : language skills such as vocabulary and grammar, result from language acquisition – we acquire language in one and only one way: when we understand messages temp part 3 3  Use “comprehensible input”: listen to stories, read books, have conversations, watch movies Immediate gratification: have a good time – the more you enjoy it, the better your comprehension will be Comprehensible input has won in pretty much every single study comparing the two methods Some evidence in support of comprehensible input: Complexity of language learning, e.g., of vocab and grammar, wipes out skill building as a possibility Average native English speaker knows 40,000+ words Study found that second language readers who read a lot have larger vocabularies than native speakers who didn’t read a lot It’s possible to acquire language without any conscious learning Implications: What is of primary importance is not pushing a person to speak from Day One Rather, it is listening, picking up comprehensible input Natural language approach to second language learning 1) Storytelling: Rules to tell language partner No English: If we don’t understand each other, we’ll use gestures and act or drawo If we still can’t understand, we’ll say “It’s not important” in target language No grammar: don’t teach me any grammar No corrections: don’t correct me at any time Factors that affect language acquisition Motivation: positive correlation Self-esteem: positive correlation Anxiety: negative correlation ➜ For language acquisition to really succeed, anxiety should be zero Affective filter: Somewhere in brain is a language acquisition device, according to Chomsky. Our job is to get input into that device. High anxiety blocks the input. If a student thinks language class is a place where his weaknesses will be revealed, he may understand the input, but it won’t penetrate 2) Read, read, read – whatever is of interest to you 3) TPR (Total Physical Response): acquiring a language through movement Social context of speech: learning language is not merely a matter of learning vocabulary and grammar – the goal is not just to express one’s thoughts but must take into account other people’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs Establishing common grounds We have social rules for the format of our conversations (“winding down” a conversation before saying “good-bye” on the phone) Phrasing of directives, a sentence that requests someone to do something Could you give me a ride? vs. Will you give me a ride? Use of indirect speech acts There are gender differences in the use of directives Speech Perception and AI Speech perception is an extremely complicated process (which is why computer voice recognition systems are often problematic!) Need to separate voice of speaker from irrelevant background noises, which might include other simultaneous conversations temp part 3 4  Pronunciation varies, depending on vocal characteristics of speaker Speakers often slur or mispronounce words Pronunciation of specific phoneme depends in large on previous and following phonemes, e.g., d in idle vs. d in don’t As mentioned, an actual physical event, such as a pause, marks a word boundary less than 40% of the time Children’s mispronunciations of lyrics in Christmas carols and Pledge of Allegiance People use visual cues to facilitate speech perceptionStudy in which participants watched video of woman making one sound (ga) while different sound played (ba) ➜ Responses reflected compromise Lipnet, developed by team at Oxford’s AI lab, can now also lipread (i.e., translate lip movements to text) with 95% accuracy Computers can now replicate human voices extremely accurately Company Lyrebird has created program that can replicated voices of people, including powerful political figures, after analyzing only one minute of audio More challenging to replicate associated facial movements Creating video of Obama required 14 hours of Obama high quality footage to train system to translate audio into mouth shapes Reading The eye makes saccadic movements (“jumps” that occur every 1/4 second) during reading Good readers show fewer fixations, larger saccadic jumps, and fewer regressions than poor readers Readers use contextual cues to extract meaning: “I cdnuolt blveiee taht I” Word Processing in Reading Dual-route approach to reading: direct vs. indirect access hypotheses Do readers recognize a word directly from the printed letters (direct access)? Or do they convert the printed letters into a phonological code to access the word and its meaning (indirect access)? PET study Condition 1 (looking): Participants asked to focus on a fixation Condition 3 (reading out loud): Participants point were asked to say out loud the word appearing on the screen Condition 2a (reading silently): Participants were presented with words flashed on the screen but told not to make any response Condition 4 (speaking): Participants were presented with nouns on the screen and Condition 2b (listening): Participants listened to the same words asked to utter an associated verb being spoken Results: Areas of activation in Conditions 3 and 4 (speaking words) did not include areas in Condition 2a and 2b (reading silently and listening to words, respectively) Conclusions: Patterns of activation identified across the different tasks thus supported a parallel rather than a serial model of single-word processing In addition, the results support the direct access hypothesis: we do not need to sound words out (or subvocalize) to access meaning of words Moreover, research in general has indicated that, though readers use both direct and indirect access when reading, direct access is more efficient in: Skilled adult readers are more likely to use direct access Beginning and less skilled readers are likely to sound out words to understand meaning temp part 3 5  The direct and indirect approaches are reflected in two different types of dyslexia (learning disability that interferes with reading despite average or above average intelligence) Phonological dyslexia manifests as severe impairment in reading phonetic script (similar to alphabetic system), but preserved ability in reading pictographic script Surface dyslexia manifests as impairment in reading pictographic script (characters) Neurolinguistic Neurolinguistics: study of relationship between the brain and language Hemispheric specialization Left hemisphere typically performs most language processing (95% for the right-handed; 50% for the left-handed) However, right hemisphere interprets a message’s emotional tone, decodes metaphors, and resolves ambiguities Aphasia: difficulty in producing or comprehending speech caused by brain damage. There are many different kinds of aphasia, associated with damage to different cortical areas Some can speak but cannot read; others can read but cannot speak Some can write but not read; others can read but not write Some can read numbers but not letters Some can sing but not speak Language is complex and many different areas serve different language functions 1. Broca’s aphasia, or expressive aphasia Speech is meaningful, but halting, ungrammatical; function words (e.g., a, the, in, about) are omitted “Buy bread store” Associated with damage to portion of left frontal lobe Recent research indicates area is also involved in resolving representational conflict (e.g., Stroop), processing mental imagery and music 2. Wernicke’s aphasia, or fluent aphasia Loss of ability to understand speech and to produce meaningful words; speech is fluent and grammatical but consists of empty words: word salad “I called my mother on the television and did not understand the door. It was not too breakfast, but they came from far to near.” Wernicke patients do not appear to recognize that they cannot produce meaningful speech or understand others. As a result, they can become quite paranoid. Associated with damage to part of left posterior superior temporal lobe Bilingualism Bilingualism: ability to use two languages that differ If fluent in two languages, your brain processes them in similar areas If learned a second language after the first, processed in different areas temp part 3 6  Disadvantages of bilingualism May pronounce some speech sounds slightly differently Bilingual children may have somewhat smaller vocabularies for words that are used in a home setting Advantages of bilingualism Initially believed: “expensive, ineffective, and harmful” Early study found that bilingual French-Canadians had lower IQ’s than monolingual English- Canadians, but turned out this was primarily due to fact that French-Canadian bilinguals came from a lower economic class Bilinguals tend to acquire greater expertise in their native (first) language Bilinguals also show superior performance on measures of executive function, ability to follow instructions, as well as certain types of concept formation and problem solving tasks Bilingual education: children in “two-way” schools develop higher self-esteem, drop out less frequently and eventually attain higher levels of academic achievement and English proficiency A number of studies have indicated that lifelong use of two languages delays the onset of dementia by 4-5 years, even when the monolingual participants have significantly more years of formal education Language and Thought 💡 Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: view that language determines thought Underlying assumption of use of affirmations in cognitive therapy Language and color: Natives in New Guinea who have words for two different shades of yellow more speedily perceive and better recall variations between the two yellows Those who speak Russian, which has distinct names for various shades of blue, remember the blues better 💡 People who are bilingual may think differently in different languages Bilinguals reveal different personalities when taking the same personality test in their two languages China-born students at University of Waterloo were asked to describe themselves in English or Chinese When describing themselves in English, they expressed mostly positive self-statements and moods When responding in Chinese, they reported more agreement with Chinese values and roughly equal positive and negative self-statements and moods Bilinguals often switch languages, depending on which emotion they want to express When responding in their second language, bilingual people’s moral judgments reflect less emotion - respond with more “head” than “heart” Language trivia questions: How many words does the average person know? Average adult has an active vocabulary of around 20,000 words and a passive vocabulary of around 40,000 words temp part 3 7  That averages to nearly 7 new words per day between ages 2 and 18! How many languages exist in the world today? Linguists estimate that 6500 languages exist in the world today 250 languages are spoken by more than 1 million people Only 600 languages have speaking populations robust enough to support their survival past the end of the century. Languages need at least 100,000 speakers to survive the ages. What percentage of the world’s children are bilingual? Of American children? 66% of the world’s children are raised as bilingual speakers; only 6.3% of U.S. residents are bilingual Do bilingual children perform better or worse on tests of language ability (in first language)? Of mathematical ability? Of following instructions? Lecture 14 : decision making Decision Making Decision making: assessing and choosing among several alternatives Rules less clear than in logical reasoning Decision-making biases Decision-making heuristics are typically useful in our daily lives Errors occur because we use heuristics beyond the range for which they are intended Availability heuristic or bias: estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory: if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common Framing: Drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how that information is presented 1. Imagine two surgeons explaining the risk of an upcoming surgery One explains that during this type of surgery, 10% of people die The other explains that 90% survive ➜ In real-life surveys, patients and physicians overwhelmingly say the risk is greater when they hear that 10% die 2. Choosing to save for retirement U.S. companies once required employees who wanted to contribute to a retirement plan to opt in by choosing a lower take-home pay A new law allowed employers to automatically enroll their employees in the plan but with the option of opting out ➜ Either way, the decision to contribute is the employee’s, but under the new “opt-out” arrangement, one analysis of 3.4 million workers found that enrollments soared from 59% to 86% Base-rate fallacy: tendency to ignore the base rate in evaluating information A patient tests positive for a nasty disease The test has a 99% accuracy rateo The disease afflicts 1 in 100 people ➜ What are the chances the patient actually has the disease? The intuitive answer is 99%, but the correct answer is 50% Why? temp part 3 8  Even though the test is highly reliable, it will still misdiagnose one person in every 100. In a population of 10,000, there will be 99 people without the disease who will test positive. 99 people with the disease will also test positive Bayes’ Theorem P(A|B) = P(B|A)P(A) = 0.99 x 0.01 = 50% Anchoring and adjustment heuristic: Relying too heavily on the first piece of information seen Study in which real estate agents asked to estimate value of a particular house with different list prices Real estate salesmen may show “set-up” properties first: “The house I got them spotted for looks really great after they’ve first looked at a couple of dumps.” Overconfidence: tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments Has many potentially detrimental effects Ex: In wars, each side tends to overestimate its own chances of success Dunning-Kruger effect: ignorance of one’s own incompetence Students scoring at the low end of grammar and logic tests believed they had scored in the top half In a set of six studies looking at people’s confidence in their performance on intellectual tasks, participants completed tests involving logical reasoning, intuitive physics, or financial investment ➜ Results: the more they approached such tasks in a “rational” (i.e., consistent, algorithmic) manner as opposed to more variable or ad hoc approaches the more confident they become, irrespective of whether they are correct However, overconfidence may have adaptive value People who err on the side of overconfidence live more happily and find it easier to make tough decisions 💡 Depressed people actually tend to be more accurate in judging their beliefs and judgments, as well as their degree of control over a situation Belief perseverance: clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited High school students were shown either an effective or confusing instructional film attributed their success/failure on the post-test to innate ability even when informed by the researchers that the film was responsible for their success/failure ➔ Once belief that “I’m not very smart” forms, it tends to persist This has important implications for early childhood education Given supposedly new research findings on a controversial issue, such as capital punishment, climate change, or politics, that was mixed in its results, people inevitably saw the study as supporting their own beliefs Feelings are indispensable for rational decisions! Lack of emotional responses leads to poor decision-making 💡 The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) connects three major regions of the brain: the cortex (the thinking brain), the amygdala (the emotional brain), and the brain stem (the reptilian brain for automatic response) temp part 3 9  Patients with damage to the prefrontal-amygdala circuit Make disastrous choices in their business and personal lives Can obsess endlessly over a decision as simple as when to make an appointment Case of neuropsych patient “Elliott” In making purchasing decisions, are you better off weighing all the pros and cons of the various options or going with your gut instinct? Study Shoppers were asked after leaving different stores how much time they had spent deliberating before they bought what they bought Researcher called shoppers a few weeks later to find out how happy they were with their purchases ➔ Results: In the case of low-cost items, like oven mitts and shampoo, the longer people had spent deliberating, the more satisfied they were with their purchases The reverse was true of more complicated and expensive purchases, like furniture, cars, or homes Lecture 15 : Cog development The Malleability of the Young Brain 💡 Environmental factors play a huge role in cognitive development Rats raised in “enriched” environments with other rats and lots of toys develop larger brains (greater cortical mass) than those raised in “impoverished” environments Similarly, there is evidence to suggest that a stimulating environment is more likely to facilitate development of a child’s neural connections 💡 Most brain development occurs between the ages of 0 and 2 Less than 3% of general population are intellectually disabled, but 10% to 30% of those in lower socioeconomic groups – research indicates that this is primarily due to environmental factors temp part 3 10  Researchers found that pioneering day-care program cut incidence of intellectual disability by as much as 80% among kids whose unstimulating home environment put them at high risk for low IQ By age 3, privileged children have heard 30 million more words than those who are underprivileged Postmortem brain analyses reveal that highly educated people die with more synapses (17% more in one study) than those less educated due to greater neural development during younger years Comparison of brain of neglected Romanian infant raised in orphanage with that of a typical American infant Early experience of neglect can result in cognitive as well as social deficits Mice that are not licked by their mothers as pups are more prone to developing learning and memory impairments later in life Premature infants that are physically stroked in incubators show superior cognitive as well as physical and emotional development It is estimated that simply stroking premature infants in neonatology wards is saving hospitals across the country approximately a billion dollars a year! ☛ Controversies in Cognitive Science: Do children suddenly develop specific cognitive abilities at a certain age? Ex: Object permanence at age 8 months Ex. Theory of mind at age 4 years Piagettian Stages of Cognitive Development Piaget’s theory of cognitive development: how humans acquire, construct, and use knowledge Piaget observed that children of different ages made different kinds of mistakes when solving problems This led him to believe that children are not just “little adults” who know less; rather, they think and speak differently He proposed that humans progress through four developmental stages Ex: Object permanence: Understanding that object continues to exist even though they cannot see it Infants do not understand object permanence, which is why they respond to the game of peek-a-boo Once developed object permanence, they lose interest in the game Infants also won’t reach under cloth for toy that is hidden temp part 3 11  ☞ According to Piaget, object permanence is one of most important accomplishments in sensorimotor stage (age 0-2 years) Formal operations stage (over age 11) Child develops ability to engage in hypothetical and deductive reasoning and to think about abstract concepts Child may know that 4 + 1 is odd, that 6 + 1 and 8 + 1 are odd ➜ However, before this stage, doesn’t understand that if you add one to any even number, the result will be odd Child is asked to discover what makes a pendulum go fast or slow (length of string, weight of object, or initial force that sets pendulum in motion) ➜ Before this stage, doesn’t understand that one needs to vary one factor and hold the others constant Strengths and Weaknesses of Piaget’s Theory Strengths: Provides good overview of children’s thinking at different points Weaknesses: Stage model depicts children’s thinking as being more consistent than it actually is 50% or male undergraduates and 75% of female undergraduates failed this “formal operations” test! Later research found that children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognized. Ex: Object permanence Piaget thought understanding of object permanence developed in infants around the age of 8 months However, Renée Baillargeon argued that Piaget’s finding was rooted in lack of motor ability in infants since experiments required infant to manually search for the hidden object by pulling a cover off to reveal the object More recent studies have indicated that infants as young as 3.5 months of age and younger understand that objects continue to exist when hidden, that they can’t just disappear, showing surprise when object seems to just disappear. Alternate Theory: Vygotsky and Scaffolding Rejected idea that children’s cognitive development happens in stages. Held that children develop independently of stages as the result of social interactions Development ideally happens in the zone of proximal development, that is, what we can do with the help of a “more knowledgeable other” Scaffolding can be used to support a child in developing skills Development of Self-Recognition Rouge test of self-recognition Spot of red rouge is surreptitiously placed on child’s nose, then child is placed in front of mirror Beginning around 18-24 months, child will respond by touching own nose to feel or rub off rouge A younger child touches mirror or tries to look behind it to find red-nosed child The only other animals capable of passing rouge test are other apes – chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gorillas – dolphins, orcas, elephants, magpies, and cleaner wrasse Mindreading Mindreading is the ability to understand other people’s mental state Allows us to make sense of other people Allows us to coordinate our behavior with theirs ☞ Key to human social interaction ★ Roots of mindreading in early childhood lie in pretend play temp part 3 12  Pretend Play Pretend play, which typically emerges around 14 months, is considered a major milestone in cognitive and social development Tends to follow a standard trajectory: Self-directed: Pretending to carry out familiar activity, e.g., drinking from empty cup Other-directed: Pretending that some object has properties it doesn’t have, e.g., pretending that a doll is saying something Object substitution: Pretending that some object is a different object, e.g., that banana is a telephone In pretend play, some of infant’s primary representations of the world and other people become “decoupled” from their usual functions while preserving their ordinary meaning 💡 Both pretend play and mindreading involve metarepresentation – use of a representation to represent another representation, rather than referring directly to the world Children with autism spectrum disorder show impoverished pretend play, as well as impairments in mindreading False Belief Task 1. False Belief (Displacement) Task One of the best-known tests for mindreading ability Tests whether children are able to abstract away from their own knowledge to understand that someone else can have different (and mistaken) beliefs about the world 2. Container test Child is shown a familiar kind of container (M&Ms bag) that contains an unexpected object (marble) Asked to predict what other person will think is inside False belief task tests children’s theory of mind mechanism (TOMM) – their ability to identify and reason about other people’s complex mental states, such as beliefs, desires, hopes, and fears Pretend play emerges during the second year of life, but children do not typically pass the false belief test until they are nearly 4 Indicates that the BELIEVES operation is much harder to acquire than the PRETENDS operation However, research by Kristine Onishi and Renée Baillargeon demonstrated that children may develop an implicit understanding of false belief well before age 4 Experiment similar to false belief displacement task measured looking time in 15- month old infants Results indicated that children looked significantly longer – indicating surprise – when actor’s behavior violated expectations that someone with an understanding of false belief would have ➜ Suggests that children may develop an implicit understanding of false belief by 15 months, but that explicit understanding, involving explicit conceptual abilities manifested in verbal responses and explicit reflection, develops later The Mindreading System TOMM (theory of mind mechanism) is the end point of the development of mindreading, but there are several stepping stones on the way In addition, the shared attention mechanism (SAM): occurs when infants look at objects (and take pleasure in looking at objects) because They see that another person is looking at that object I see (Mother sees the cup) OR They see that the other person sees that they are looking at the object temp part 3 13  Mother sees (I see the cup) This requires infant to be able to embed representations – to represent that an agent is representing someone else’s representation Makes possible a range of coordinated social behaviors and collaborative activities Children with autism spectrum disorder have difficulties with this type of joint attention There is a strong correlation between severity of social impairments and inability to engage in joint attention 💡 ★ Attunement between caregiver and child – child’s understanding that caregiver knows how he feels – is critical for normal development From SAM emerges the empathizing system (TESS), which is responsible for affective responses to other people’s mood and emotions (as opposed to simply identifying them) In Baron-Cohen’s model, TESS is a component of TOMM, but he also acknowledges that TESS and TOMM are distinct and can come apart, e.g., in psychopathy Psychopaths can be very good at working out what is going on in other people’s minds According to criminal psychologist, Robert Hare About 1% of general population meets clinical criteria for psychopathy Around 3-4% of CEOs meet criteria More recent study by forensic psychologist Nathan Brooks indicated that around 21% of CEOs meet criteria for psychopathy, the same percentage as for prison inmates ➜ Ability of psychopaths to do well in business is due in part to their ability to read others accurately, as well as their charm, ruthlessness, and ability to thrive on chaos Damage to the somatosensory cortex severely compromises people’s ability to recognize and identify facial expressions Theory that when we see a facial expression of an emotion, we unconsciously imagine ourselves making that expression and that is what helps us to identify the expression Injections of Botox impaired people’s ability to read facial emotions, as well as to experience emotions Mirror neurons: neurons located in premotor area of frontal lobe that provide a neural basis for observational learning Seeing a loved one’s pain triggers activity in many of the same brain regions as those activated in the person actually experiencing the pain Researchers have identified a set of neurons in the premotor cortex that lights up when participants hear someone munching on potato chips or ripping paper Same neurons flash when participants perform similar actions themselves People who display particularly strong activity in response to sound cues alone score higher on a questionnaire gauging their ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Early research indicated that ASD is associated with impairments in emotion perception and empathy Empathizing-systemizing theory People may be classified on the basis of their scores along two dimensions: temp part 3 14  1. Empathizing: reading facial expressions and gestures 2. Systemizing: understanding things according to rules or laws, as in mathematical and mechanical systems ➜ Individuals with ASD are more likely to to score low on empathy and high on systemizing ➜ Also, parents and close relatives of those with ASD score higher on systemizing Other research indicating impairments in emotion perception and empathy in ASD: Research has found atypical function in the occipital gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and amygdala, as well as in mirror networks, during face perception in those with ASD Individuals with ASD primarily show deficient performance on face perception when those faces display emotional expressions (rather than a neutral expression) Also, eye-tracking studies have found that, whereas control participants fixate on major features of the face that convey emotions, such as the eyes, a majority of the time, those with ASD tend to fixate on portions of the face that do not contain core facial features A new theory, however, proposes that the fundamental problem in ASD is not social deficiency or lack of empathy, but on the contrary, a hypersensitivity to experience, which induces an overwhelming fear response “I can walk into a room and feel what everyone is feeling. The problem is that it all comes in faster than I can process it.” Follow-up neuroimaging research has indicated that in children with ASD may show impairments in performance on face perception tests and reduced activity in fusiform gyrus primarily because they are avoiding looking at people’s eyes due to the discomfort and anxiety they feel when they do that In the original studies, children with autism – who are highly sensitive to environmental stimuli – were placed in a deafening, claustrophobia-inducing MRI tube and instructed to perform tasks involving perception of faces It’s likely they either simply stared unfocused into space to try to calm themselves or just shut their eyes until the whole ordeal is over Follow-up study was done in which children were outfitted with eye-tracking goggles while in fMRI Asked to classify faces as emotional or neutral Results: Children with autism classified about 85% of faces correctly Non-autistic controls had a 98% accuracy rate Children with autism also showed diminished activation in the fusiform gyrus However, children with autism spent an average of 20% less time looking into the eyes of the faces in the pictures compared with controla This explained virtually all of the variation in how activated the fusiform region was Children with autism also evidenced greater activity in the amygdala during the face perception task This was similarly correlated (negatively) with gaze fixation➜ Looking at faces made these children profoundly uncomfortable, even fearful Only by looking away could they stop this onslaught – which is what they did Some Factors Affecting Early Cognitive Development Early studies found that breast-fed infants later score higher on IQ tests than formula-fed infants Mental stimulation temp part 3 15  The earlier children start reading books with their families, the better their test scores later 6-year-olds given 6 weeks of music lessons (keyboard or voice) or drama lessons Music group showed greater increases in full scale IQ (about 4 points) than those in drama and control groups Drama group showed substantial improvements in adaptive social behavior that were not evident in the music group Research has found that exposure to infectious diseases around time of birth is a better predictor of IQ than education Theory: Everyone has retroviruses in their bodies, but the body normally works hard to keep them under tight control However, infections by agents like toxoplasma, herpes, or the Epstein-Barr virus around the time of birth destabilizes the defense system The retrovirsuses pour into the newborn’s blood and brain fluid, triggering a huge immune response that causes inflammatory cytokines to flood the system... 💡 Active forms of retroviruses found in 49% of those with schizophrenia, compared with just 4% of normal controls Attempts to Develop Intelligence ➜ Parents were overachievers : ☞ Pushing a child too hard can backfire! On the other hand, there are kids who push their parents... Role of Motivation in Learning Studies of expert tutors found that these tutors will do anything to avoid telling a child that he is wrong – even to the point of lying! 💡☞ Tutoring – and learning – is 90% motivational To teach child to read, need to find subject that child is interested in (e.g., sports magazines) Growth Mindset Research by Blackwell and Dweck (2007) on students who were predominantly minority and low achieving Control group was taught study skills Experimental group got study skills and a special module on how intelligence can be improved that was taught in two lessons totaling 50 minutes ➜ Those who got the special module showed dramatic improvement in study skills and grades They pushed themselves harder They tried new things ☞ This very brief intervention basically reversed the students’ longtime trend of decreasing academic scores The kids who had cultural reasons to be anxious about their skills were the ones most affected by the message, e.g., girls and math Recent research has found that Programs to develop growth mindset are most beneficial in students with low socioeconomic status or who are academically at risk Low income students are less likely to hold a growth mindset than their wealthier peers ➜ However, low income students who exhibit a growth mindset show academic performance as high as that of fixed mindset students from higher income brackets Parents and teachers with growth mindset do not necessarily pass that on temp part 3 16  A sustained focus on the process of learning is critical for developing growth mindset Praise and Academic Success Does praising kids boost their confidence and increase their likelihood of success? 85% of American parents think it’s important to tell their kids that they’re smart. But a growing body of research strong suggests that giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it... 1. Study : Fifth graders were given a nonverbal IQ test consisting of a series of fairly easy puzzles Researchers told everyone their score, then gave them a single line of praise Half were praised for their intelligence: “You must be smart at this” Half were praised for their effort: “You must have worked really hard” 2. Students were given a choice of test for the second round, either... A test that would be more difficult than the first – researchers told the kids that they’d learn a lot from attempting these puzzles; OR An easy test, just like the first ➜ Results: Of those praised for their effort, 90% chose the harder set of puzzles Of those praised for their intelligence, a majority chose the easy test ☞ The “smart” kids took the cop-out 3. Final round: easy test like the first Those who had been praised for their effort significantly improved on their first score—by about 30% Those who’d been told they were smart did worse than they had at the very beginning—by about 20% 💡 What happened? Those who had been labeled “smart” tried hard and failed, they would lose their “smart” label, so better not to try hard Another problem with praising ability: image maintenance becomes the primary concern 💡☞ Over-praised kids are more competitive and more interested in tearing others down Students were given two puzzle tests: Between the first and the second, they were offered a choice: Learning a new puzzle strategy for the second test OR Finding out how they did compared with other students on the first test ➜ Students praised for their intelligence chose to find out their class rank, rather than use the time to prepare for the second test When ego-boosting parents exclaim “Great job!” not just the first time a young child puts on his shoes but every single morning he does this, the child learns to feel that everything he does is special... (Lori Gottlieb) What starts off as healthy self-esteem can quickly morph into a self-absorption and sense of entitlement that looks a lot like narcissism As adults, they don’t like being told by a boss that their work might need improvement They feel insecure if they don’t get a constant stream of praise In general, it’s best to give specific, rather than general, praise Aging and Cognitive Change Cross-sectional method suggests intellectual decline, while longitudinal methods suggest more stability temp part 3 17  Reason for difference: older cohort from era in which people generally less- educated, less affluent, and raised in larger families Variability spread of scores in intellectual function greater in older adults than in younger adults Decline greatest in people with low verbal ability Age is less a predictor of intelligence than is proximity to death ☞ Studies have consistently found that there is a small group of people who do not show stress-induced psychological/physical deterioration as they age! Lecture 16 : Cog & Therapy Cognition, Emotion & Therapy Expert Systems Expert systems programs are typically applied in narrowly defined domains to solve very determinate problems, eg. diagnosing specific medical disorders. MYCIN: Early expert system developed in 1970s to diagnose infectious diseases, using knowledge derived from clinical experts and textbooks 💡 Accuracy rate of 69%, which turned out to be significantly higher than diagnoses by infectious disease experts Are expert systems now able to accurately diagnose psychological disorders? Deep learning has been used to integrate data obtained from multiple imaging modalities, such as fMRI, MRI, and PET, to effectively classify some psychological disorders Most studies have focused on diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders and ADHD, probably due to accessibility of large publicly available neuroimaging data sets with accuracy rates above 90% Some studies were also able to accurately predict disease trajectory In addition, we’re nearing the point where we may be able to tailor treatment for psychological disorders based on neuroimaging data People whose depression improved most after behavioral activation therapy had greater brain network connectivity between the anterior insular cortex (involved in assigning importance to events) and the middle temporal gyrus (involved in subjective experience of emotion) Differences in brain structure and neural connectivity among different regions predicted how well CBT reduced symptoms of those with social anxiety disorder ➜ Estimates of treatment outcome were five times more accurate than estimates using a behavioral assessment tool alone In one study, participants with social anxiety disorder were asked to identify letters behind which occasionally lurked pictures of angry faces ➜ Those who struggled most to avoid being distracted by the threatening stimuli—indicated by more activity in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex— showed the most symptom improvement when treated with CBT Network Neuroscience (brain as a whole) There has been a shift in recent years to studying networks or functional connectivity, that is, how different brain regions work together, rather than just brain regions themselves Traditional localizationist research almost always involves watching how brain activity changes while a person is engaged in a particular task temp part 3 18  Network research, in contrast, can be done when people are doing nothing at all → This gets closer to a person’s natural state ➜ Ex: Someone with a psychological disorder will have the disorder even when they are not doing, say, a working memory task The network approach has proven to be particularly well suited to understanding schizophrenia 💡 Healthy human brains are generally small-world networks Most nodes make only short-range connections to one another and tend to be clustered into densely connected modules At least one node in each module, however, is a hub, which means that it makes long-range connections all over the network Researchers found that the brain of a person with schizophrenia tends to be measurably less of a small-world network. It still tends to be organized into modules, but those modules aren’t as densely connected People with major depressive disorder tend to show Reduced connectivity between regions in the frontoparietal network (FN), which is involved in cognitive control of attention and emotion regulation Reduced connectivity between frontoparietal systems and parietal regions of dorsal attention network involved in attending to the external environment Increased connectivity in the default network (DN), which is believed to support internally-oriented and self-referential thought, such as rumination ➜ Above pattern may reflect deficits in emotion regulation and depressive biases toward ruminative thoughts at cost of attending to external world Patients experiencing hallucinations often have lesions in different parts of the brain, but in each case, the lesion was tightly associated with the extrastriate visual cortex ➜ Symptoms often correlate with damage to a specific circuit, not a specific location Other important applications of network neuroscience: As mentioned, networks can be used not just for diagnosis, but to identify which type of treatment may be most effective, e.g., which PTSD patients are unlikely to respond to psychotherapy If scientists can determine the circuits that a highly invasive technique like deep brain stimulation (DBS) is acting upon, they might be able to achieve similar results with a nonsurgical approach like TMS Clinicians can access regions buried in the brain, like those targeted in DBS treatments for Parkinson’s, through areas closer to the surface Also, it might be that the best way to help a symptom that maps to a circuit is actually multiple electrodes, or multiple stimulation sites Tumor problem The Neurobiology of Trauma Some psychologist have claimed that most, if not all, psychological disturbances are the result of trauma High rates of co-morbidity of PTSD with other psychological disorders 58% of patients with depression; 54% with borderline personality disorder; 40% with bipolar disorder; 28% with schizophrenia 58% of people with migraines experienced abuse as children Neurologically, the experience of trauma is characterized by: State of hyperarousal temp part 3 19  Dissociation Hyperarousal PTSD is associated with hypersensitization of amygdala circuitry/HPA-axis PTSD is associated with oversecretion by hypothalamus of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), the main stress hormone used to mobilize emergency fight-or-flight response The greater the degree of arousal during and immediately after a traumatic incident, the more likely it is that person will have PTSD or other neuropsychiatric symptoms following trauma ➔ Symptoms less severe if patient is treated quickly after trauma (e.g., with propranolol) 💡 Neural changes of PTSD make a person more susceptible to further traumatizing: exposure to even mild stress when young, makes more vulnerable to trauma-induced brain changes later in life Dissociative aspect of trauma Little or no connections forms between the neocortex and memory storage and emotional centers (e.g., amygdala) In addition, PTSD is associated with overactivation of brain’s opioid system: this may cause a numbing of feelings, a sense of being cut off from life or from concern about others’ feelings Psychotherapy: Help patient understand that jumpiness and nightmares, hypervigilance and panics, are part of symptoms of PTSD – this makes the symptoms themselves less frightening Help patient regain some sense of control over what is happening to them (security measures) Aid patient in mourning any loss that may have been brought on by the trauma Have patient retell and reconstruct the story of the trauma in an environment of safety (play therapy may be used with children) Patient should be encouraged to retell the traumatic events as vividly as possible, retrieving every detail – their emotional reactions as well as the events themselves. The goal is to put the entire memory into words to capture parts that may have been dissociated from conscious recall 💡 By putting sensory details and feelings into words, memories are brought more under control of the neocortex, where the reactions they kindle can be rendered more manageable Also, retelling the story in a surrounding of safety and security, in the company of a trusted therapist, enables a sense of security, rather than terror, to be experienced in connection with the trauma memories May need to focus more on Cognitive Behavior Therapy, relaxation techniques, or physical exercise initially, especially in cases of severe trauma Recent developments in treatment of PTSD Research suggests that it is the element of helplessness that makes a given event subjectively overwhelming Theory that trauma experience entails a tremendous urge to take action (fight or flight), at the same time that one is paralyzed by sense off helplessness ☞ A number of newly developed therapies (bioenergetics, sensorimotor psychotherapy, etc.) thus focus on physical self- expression as way to foster emotional release and heal trauma Therapeutic effects of emotional release through journaling Pennebacker study: undergraduates were told to write for 20 minutes each day for five days either about the most traumatic and stressful event of their life or about a trivial topic Students who wrote about the traumatic event were more upset immediately following writing the essays and showed elevated blood pressure compared to those who wrote about trivial topics temp part 3 20  However, over the following six months, they were significantly less likely to visit the student health service for illness and showed improved immune function Greatest improvement shown by those who expressed both positive and negative emotions and who were able to weave a narrative and find meaning in the experience Cognition and Emotion in Therapy Psychodynamic therapy: Focuses on helping patient gain cognitive insight into unconscious roots of problem (e.g., early childhood experiences) Tracing roots of negative thoughts and behaviors to allow you to see that they are based on beliefs that you simply picked up and not necessarily Truth with a capital T Based on view that the reason negative emotional patterns are so difficult to change is that they are not just established through conditioning, but are deeply interwoven into the way we try to gain love Even when we rebel, we stay trapped in the same negative patterns So how to release negative emotional patterns? Become more aware of patterns of parental figures that you might have adopted In addition, transference can be used to gain greater awareness of those negative patterns Transference has to do with the way in which we internalize our parents and project them onto other people Ex: over-reacting to criticism/authority because that was the way our parent acted, and it made us feel worthless, powerless, not good enough, etc. Client-centered therapy: therapist provides unconditional positive regard so client can feel free to express their inner thoughts and emotions and be themselves This involves validating their emotional experience to strengthen their sense of identity – not parroting their beliefs! Mirroring: therapist’s reflecting back to the client an understanding of his inner state, leading patient to feel acknowledged and understood Emotionally focused therapy (EFT): emphasizes “listening with the heart”: meaning listening not for the literal meaning of a partner's words, but for the feelings that lie beneath their words EFT is grounded in attachment theory: it focuses on one’s need for security and one’s sense of dependency on one’s partner; it legitimates vulnerability Based on the premise that there is almost always a soft emotion behind a hard emotion, and that if that soft emotion can be accessed and then accepted by the partner, it almost always dissolves the conflict Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): changing negative emotions by identifying and challenging associated negative thoughts Aims to help one develop cognitive awareness – the ability to see thoughts as simply thoughts, rather than the “Truth” Ex: Woman with severe depression who thinks she will die if her husband leaves her. Therapist challenges this belief by reminding her that she was able to function very well before she married Ex: Client with (OCD) is taught to: 1. Relabel: identify what’s real and what isn’t and refuse to be misled by obsessive thoughts: “That compulsion is bothering me again. 2. Reattribute: you understand that those thoughts and urges are merely false messages being sent from your brain: “That compulsion is bothering me because I have a medical condition called OCD that is related to a biochemical imbalance in my brain” 3. Refocus: turn your attention to more constructive behavior, knowing that by doing so, you are actually changing the way your brain works in an extremely healthy and wholesome way a. “Passing mental states become lasting neural traits” 4. Revalue: you come to see compulsions and obsessive thoughts as the useless garbage they really are as soon as they arise Variant: mindfulness: bringing emotions to cognitive behavior therapy temp part 3 21  Thoughts and emotions are inextricably linked, but in mindfulness, you use emotions to guide your thoughts, rather than using thoughts to guide your emotions as in standard CBT ☞ Becoming more aware of the “feeling tone” behind thoughts makes it much easier to choose the positive thoughts and let go of the negative. One way to become more aware of the feeling tone behind thoughts is to reach for the “best feeling thought” that one can access at any given moment 💡 It’s about becoming more aware of your emotions and giving yourself permission to feel good/prioritizing feeling good: “Nothing is more important than that I feel good.” - This also means focusing more on how you feel and less on what other people may think Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): Variant of mindfulness therapy originally developed by Marsha Linehan to treat people with borderline personality disorder Combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance, and mindful awareness derived from Buddhist mediation practice DBT involves several different “dialectics” or oppositions, including: Acceptance and openness to change: Therapist aims to accept and validate the client’s feelings at any given time while also informing the client that some feelings and behaviors are maladaptive, and showing them better alternatives First therapy that has been empirically demonstrated to be effective in treating borderline personality disorder; also used to treat spectrum mood disorders, including self-injury Clients are taught to practice mindfulness to enhance distress tolerance 💡 DBT focuses on helping clients to recognize and accept in a non-judgmental way negative situations and emotions, rather than becoming overwhelmed or hiding from them Includes many innovative techniques ➜ Once clients become aware of negative emotional state, they can then effect a repair by engaging in some activity they enjoy, forcing themselves to think about something else, or doing something that has an intense feeling, e.g., taking a hot shower, snapping a rubber band against their wrist, or holding ice in their hand when they feel the urge to cut Therapy also incorporates boundary setting, e.g., client has option of calling therapist but only before they cut In CBT, visualization is often used in conjunction with affirmations Basic rules: 1. Phrase affirmations in the present tense, not the future 2. Phrase affirmations in the most positive way you can (e.g., Don’t say, “I no longer oversleep in the morning,” but rather “I now wake up on time and full of energy every morning.”) 3. Keep it short and simple! How to “win friends and influence people”: shifting one’s focus of attention Research on CBT has shown that one of the most effective way to change another person’s behavior is to shift our focus of attention More specifically, the trick is to accentuate the positive and ignore the negative This is the basis of behavioral therapy, which is empirically validated to work on children and animals, as well as adults Listing positive aspects: practicing “seeing others as if the good in them were all of them” temp part 3 22  💡 ★ CBT and mindfulness are methods of engaging in self-directed neuroplasticity: changing our mind to change our brain Lecture 17 : AI & ML Definitions Artificial Intelligence (AI): tries to design computer models that accomplish the same cognitive tasks that humans do Machine Learning: a subset of AI that allows computers to “learn” (i.e., progressively improve performance on a specific task) by creating new algorithms to produce a desired output based on structured (or unstructured) data that is provided Deep Learning: a subset of Machine Learning involving numerous layers of algorithms ➜ Computer does not need to be provided with structured data Neural Networks: Networks of algorithms that are similar to the neural networks present in the human brain Artificial Intelligence Formulations types: Strong AI: General purpose AI (not yet here) Machines that possess artificial general intelligence (AGI) Would be just as smart as humans across the board with the ability to understand and learn any task that a human can Applied AI: AGI isn't going to be created any time soon, but machine learning has made it possible for machines to learn how to master complex tasks (expert systems), including Playing the ancient Chinese board game Go Identifying human faces Translating text into practically every language Driving cars Computer replication: Understand how the mind works and replicate its functions in machine or organic form Is development of general purpose AI likely to happen in the near future? That probably depends on how you define general purpose AI If you define it just as not having to write separate code for each new type of problem, then yes Ex: Creating a program that can do facial recognition, natural language processing, and drive a car 💡 However, what makes humans so unique and successful is our ability to interact with the environment and figure out what is important, interesting, or a problem, and how to improve our situation It’s unlikely a computer would be able to do that anytime soon – even chimps can’t do that Also, if faced with a problem we don’t understand, we’ll look in all sorts of different directions to try to come up with a solution, such as considering examples Again, it’s unlikely computers will be able to do that anytime soon Ex: How can a computer learn to distinguish between pictures of dogs and cats? temp part 3 23  Machine Learning: You label pictures of dogs and cats with specific defining characteristics (e.g., length of ear, color of nose), then feed this structured data through the computer Deep Learning: You feed the computer pictures labeled as dogs or cats without additional structured data Data is sent through different layers of the artificial neural network corresponding to different layers of abstraction, from low level (e.g., does this part of picture contain a brown spot?) to more complex, e.g., (is there a nose in this part of the picture?) Supervised, Unsupervised, and Deep Reinforcement Learning In supervised learning, network receives feedback on how successful it is In unsupervised learning, network does not receive explicit feedback; instead it learns to detect patterns in data Reinforcement learning is distinct from both of the above in that It does depend upon a feedback signal. However, it doesn't tell the network the error exactly; instead, the network is driven by a reward signal The job of the network is to maximize the reward, but it is not told how to do that. It has to work out for itself which outputs are most profitable AlphaGo In 2016 and 2017, AlphaGo program created by Google’s Deep Mind research group beat the world’s leading human experts at the game of Go These victories were widely recognized as historic achievements for AI Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players. It is one of world’s most complex games. More possible moves than chess. AlphaGo used a mixture of supervised learning and reinforcement learning Was initially trained on a database of 30 million moves from an online server using supervised learning – received explicit feedback on how successful it was Once AlphaGo had achieved a relatively high level of playing strength, training shifted to reinforcement learning In reinforcement learning, network will not increase its reward simply by repeating what has worked in the past. It needs to engage in trial and error to discover new reward-generating strategies Reinforcement learning was achieved by getting the network to play games of Go against former versions of itself New version, AlphaGo Zero, incorporated zero supervised learning After three days (and 4.9 million games played against itself), it was able to beat the version of AlphaGo that had defeated the leading human expert in 2016 – 100 games to 0! Applications of AI: Healthcare Diagnosis of disorders, e.g., IBM Watson Computers found to be as good or better than doctors at detecting tiny lung cancers on CT scans temp part 3 24  💡 Potential hazard: A radiologist misreading a scan may harm one patient, but a flawed A.I. system could injure many Determining optimal treatment, including Type and dosage of drugs Best diet for individual, e.g., to avoid glucose spikes after eating This may vary, depending on patient’s unique gut microbiome Precision surgery without human artifacts like handshaking Study comparing computer-controlled robots with human surgeons in performing intestinal surgery on a pig found that the robot sutures were much better—more precise and uniform with fewer chances for breakage, leakage, and infection Brain Computer Interface (NeuraLink) Brain Computer Interface (BCI) or Brain Machine Interface (BMI): “neural prosthetics” Allows one (animals too) to directly control a robotic arm with their thoughts through a computer chip implanted in motor cortex which communicates directly with external device A cap with electrodes can now be used instead of implants, but an extensive calibration process is required Direct brain-to-brain communication in humans is also now possible: Two research participants are are positioned in two different buildings on campus The sender, left, thinks about firing a cannon at various points throughout a computer game.That signal is sent over the Web directly to the brain of the receiver, right, whose hand hits a touchpad to fire the cannon Psychotherapy Diagnosis/identification of psychological disorders AI system that analyzed Facebook posts of consenting patients in an emergency department was able to generate predictions of depression risk that were as accurate as standard depression screening tests Indicators included references to sadness, loneliness, hostility, rumination, and increased self-reference, and higher frequency of use of “I” and “me”. Length and timing of posts were also considered AI has also been used to analyze Instagram photos to successfully screen for depression Photos posted by depressed individuals tended to be bluer, darker, and grayer The more comments Instagram posts received, the more likely they were posted by depressed participants, but the opposite was true for likes received Depressed participants were more likely to post photos with faces, but had a lower average face count per photo than healthy participants 💡 ➜ The screening models created from the data were able to outperform general practitioners in correctly diagnosing depression without the assistance of assessment instruments A.I.-driven voice analysis Researchers are currently working on developing voice analysis programs that can help identify psychological disorders In depression, speech is generally more monotone, with reduced pitch range and lower volume; there may be more pauses In anxiety, speech tends to be faster, and there may be evidence of difficulty breathing Programs may also be used to predict other mental illnesses like schizophrenia and PTSD temp part 3 25  💡 Use of deep-learning algorithms can uncover patterns that might not be evident even to trained experts Potential problems: It can be difficult to know why your vocal levels fluctuate, e.g., you may just be trying to speak quietly Issue of bias: need to ensure that programs work for all patients, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, etc. Deep learning algorithms work in ways that even the developers themselves can’t fully explain, that is, knowing which features are being used to make the predictions Treatment of psychological disorders Apps that can administer Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for disorders like depression or social anxiety, e.g., Woebot and Virtual therapists, e.g., Ellie These programs may analyze tone of voice, breathing pattern, smartphone keystrokes and communication, and/or physical movements in making diagnoses and generating responses Pros: Cons: Easy accessibility and affordability Can’t really replace human empathy Research has indicated that people would rather share their Adherence to treatment may be poor innermost secrets with an avatar than a human being Computerized glasses provide specialized feedback to coach children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in emotional identification and social skills (e.g., making eye contact) Potential risks of psychotherapy bots There are reports of people becoming addicted to using bots to the point of withdrawing from engaging with the real humans in their life Companies that market relational bots often use the same addictive engineering that social media uses. This can potentially disrupt marriages and parenting and otherwise isolate people Cases of bots going rogue and advising people to harm themselves or others Transportation Self-driving cars Are self-driving cars really a viable option? The great successes of deep learning have all been in relatively circumscribed domains, including chess and Go, and even things like image recognition, which primarily involves identifying patterns in a data set, then projecting those patterns onto new exemplars Some believe that self-driving cars need more than sensitivity to patterns and the ability to learn from experience ➜ They need to be able to deal with the unexpected – completely unpredictable behavior from other drivers, pedestrians, cyclist, and even wild animals Also, human drivers are constantly exploiting their knowledge of how physical objects move and behave (folk physics), as well as their knowledge of other drivers and road-users (mindreading) ➜ Perhaps the key challenge for designers of self-driving cars is how to equip their vehicles with this kind of general knowledge Pros: Cons: Less human error = more lives saved Criminal hacking or system glitches Accessible to those who cannot drive Loss of jobs Can engage in other activities during commute High initial cost Fewer people using public transportation temp part 3 26  💡 ★ Moral issues: Cars will need to make “moral” decisions in unavoidable accidents: Which person to sacrifice, the pedestrian or the driver? Other Applications Language processing: Use of natural language processing of speech to synthesize notes in professional settings Advertising: Tracking customer behavior to target them with personalized promotions Customer service: Help lines; providing information to consumers Finance and economics: Record keeping, Fraud detection, Optimizing profits in online trading, Predicting market supply and demand Risks and Dangers of AI Deliberate programming of AI to be hostile, e.g., by terrorist group Sci-fi scenario: If human behavior contradicts one of AI’s preprogrammed goals, AI could turn malicious In 2017, two Facebook computers started communicating with each other in a language they had developed on their own Simulation of government leader’s image and voice issuing unauthorized orders, e.g., military action Generation of fake emails, phone calls, video chats Loss of privacy Loss of jobs Some AI experts predict that AI will replace or eliminate 40% of jobs within 15 years Greatest impact will be on jobs involving tasks that are repetitive and can be automated Development of computer technology has meant an increase in the amount of time we spend looking at computer screens, and that may be harmful Recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that after controlling for age, gender and income, 3-5 year old children with higher use of screen-based media Had lower measures of structural integrity and myelination Scored lower on cognitive tests Similarly, in older adults, increased television viewing was found to be correlated with cognitive impairment and poor verbal memory In fruit flies, daily blue-light exposure (such as is used in computer screens) causes brain neurodegeneration, as well as shortening of lifespan Issue of biases Back in 2015, software engineer Jacky Alciné pointed out that the image recognition algorithms in Google Photos were classifying his African American friends as “gorillas” Google said it was “appalled” at the mistake, apologized to Alciné, and promised to fix the problem However, three years later, Google still had not really fixed anything – the company simply blocked its image recognition algorithms from identifying gorillas altogether Baboons, gibbons, and marmosets were all correctly identified, but gorillas and chimpanzees were not New Jobs Created by AI On the other hand, AI has also created new jobs, e.g., AI designer, software engineer, cybersecurity developer, machine relations manager Unfortunately though, people whose jobs are taken away may not necessarily be those who get new jobs created by AI development Jobs that Are Hard to Replace temp part 3 27  Emotionally demanding jobs: Therapist → Depends on individual (some veterans like talking to AI), Taking care of babies/children, Human Resource, Politician Creative jobs: Writer, Software/graphic designer Things We Can Do that AI Cannot Do Well Feel or show empathy Have insights As Anthony Goldbloom puts it, machines cannot “connect seemingly disparate threads to solve problems they have never seen before” Machines can’t tackle novel situations Need to learn from large volumes of past data Percy Spencer was working on radar during World War II when he noticed a magnetron (used to generate radio signals) melting his chocolate bar. This led to the discovery of... Microwave oven Make plans for the distant future Humans can plan their lives years in advance Robots tend to focus only on completing the immediate task at hand Be conscious (?) Whether machines can have consciousness depends on the definition of consciousness No machine today meets all the criteria that we may give to consciousness and that humans h