Re: Questions 3, 6, 15, 22 & 27 Challenged

From: Harnad, Stevan (harnad@cogsci.soton.ac.uk)
Date: Wed May 21 1997 - 17:35:27 BST


> From: Taylor, Karl <krt196@soton.ac.uk>
>
> > (3) Syntactic rules are based on:
> >
> > a. What symbols mean
> > b. what symbol sound like
> > c. what symbols look like
> > d. a and b
> > e. ***b and c
>
> In my notes (which may or may not be right) under "The
> Structure of Sentences" I've got that the symbol rules used
> to structure symbols in a symbol system are syntactic rules.
>
> But these symbols don't sound like anything, so I thought
> the answer was just c.

The "shape" of the symbols is completely arbitrary. They can be visual,
auditory, tactile. It doesn't matter. The rules operate on these
arbitrary "shapes" -- whether they are visible, audible, or touchable.

That's why symbol manipulation rules are like a recipe. They may say:
"when you get three symbols that look like this "1 + 1 ="
then write a "2."

Here this was based on what the symbols looked like; but other shapes
could have been used; and the symbols could be heard or touched instead
of seen.

The one thing that syntactic rules are NOT based on is exactly what
distinguishes syntax from semantics: Syntactic rules do not and cannot
operate on what the symbols MEAN. Meaning, semantics, is not the same as
syntax.

> > (6) "Would you mind getting off my foot?" is a
> >
> > a. ***directive
> > b. proposition
> > c. statement
> > d. premise
> > e. question
>
> I'm not anon. but I thought that the answer to question
> was e. for the same reason.
>
> I know that the sentance meaning is a question and speaker
> meaning is a directive. It just seemed more natural to
> interpret the written sentance as sentance (not speaker)
> meaning.

You're right. Both answers will be accepted for this question.

> > (15) According to Sperber & Wilson's relevance theory, >
> which would be most relevant to you now:
> >
> > a. a statement that gives you the answer to question 15?
> > b. an explanation of how to compute the answers to all 36
> > questions in 18 minutes of calculation?
> > c. an explanation of how to compute the answers to 18 of >
> > the questionsin 9 minutes of calculation?
> > d. a list of the answers to 6 of the 36 questions?
> > e. ***a list of the answers to all 36 of last year's >
> > questions?
>
> Hey! I knew this one and I got it right. But it's being
> dropped - does that mean I lose my mark?

How about if I count this question for those who got it right, and drop
it for those who didn't? It's a very hard question, so I don't want to
handicap the whole class with it. But I don't want to deny the very few
who did understand it the reward for their knowledge.

So this will raise your mark relative to the others, but it will not
lower most people's mark overall.

> > (22) What is evidence that a child has a "theory of mind"?
> >
> > a. the child is afraid when you scowl
> > b. the child remembers you were angry when you left the room
> > c. the child tries to make you change your mind
> > d. the child changes his mind
> > e. ***none of the above
>
> Could you please explain what IS evidence that a child has a
> theory of mind?

The child can pass the false belief test: A puppet sees some candy
hidden away, leaves the room, and another puppet comes in and hides
the candy somewhere else. When the first puppet comes back, the child is
asked where he will look for the candy. Below a certain age, the
children say the puppet will look in the right place. When older they
say the puppet will look in the original, wrong place. To know what the
puppet would or would not know under these conditions requires a "theory
of mind."

> > (27) Which of the following is NOT an example of >
> declarative memory:
> >
> > a. ***short-term memory
> > b. remembering the answer to this quiz question
> > c. remembering when you learned the question's answer
> > d. remembering what long-term memory is
> > e. remembering what procedural memory is
>
> I thought that it was c. because that was episodic memory.
>
> I thought it would be alright to say that short-term memory
> IS an example of declarative memory because all long-term
> memory (declarative, episodic, procedural) must first be
> short-term memory. (And therefore, short-term memory can
> consist of all these types of memory).

See Page 290. Episodic memory is classified as declarative memory;
the only nondeclarative long-term memory is procedural memory.
Presumably all long-term memories originate from short-term memories,
but that does not sort the declarative from the nondeclarative.

Here's the relevant part of the lecture notes:

   Two Kinds of Memory: STM & LTM
    
   First, there are two kinds of memory: short term memory and long term
   memory.
    
   Two Kinds of Long-term Memory: Declarative & Procedural
    
   Then there are two kinds of long-term memory: "declarative" and
   "procedural" memory.
    
   Procedural memory is memory for HOW to do something. Your memory for
   riding a bike is procedural: You know HOW to do it, but you're not
   very good in EXPLAINING (or "declaring") how you do it.
    
   Declarative memories are the ones you can "declare." Declarative
   memory is memory THAT something is the case. (I know that Tony Blair is
   the new Prime Minister. I remember seeing the announcement of
   the last poll.)
    
   Two kinds of Declarative long-term Memory: Episodic and Semantic.
    
   Episodic declarative memory is memory for the episode, the experience.
   My memory for the moment of the election announcement is episodic.
   I know where I was, what I saw, etc. at the time.
    
   Semantic declarative is memory for facts: You can usually describe
   semantic memory as a proposition: I know ( = I remember) that
   Tony Blair is Prime Minister. I also know (remember) that Bill
   Clinton is President, but I can't remember the episode of when I first
   learned that. There are many things we know, hence remember, without
   remembering when and where we learned it; without remembering the
   episode



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