Essay 1

Give short, one paragraph answers to the following questions [5 marks each]:

1. How might people be able think logically, despite the difficulties raised by Wason? What does your answer indicate about the place of logic in cognitive science?

2. What makes cognition nonmonotonic? Use rules for examples.

3. How is language useful in understanding cognition?

4. Are all concepts stereotypes? Why or why not?

5. Mother Goose says "A man of words and not of deeds / Is like a garden full of weeds." Give a multiconstraint description of the analogy underlying this couplet. (Hint: Think of the concept of a garden and do not try to represent the moral.)

6. How do the limitations of the visual buffer affect visual mental imagery?

7. Is the backpropagation learning procedure for neural networks psychologically plausible? Why or why not?

Bonus question [2 marks]: Write a limerick about your favourite cognitive representation or procedure.