Modularity of the Mind

Interactionist and Modularist

The idea that the processes in the brain interact with each other

The ideas that systems of the brain are in modules that are not connected and have limited interactions

This is the idea that stimulus you are perceiving doesn’t have much information compared to the response

Perception is smart due to the poverty of the stimulus since it needs to somewhat interact with other processes to know some things to some extent, but not to any great extent. But Perception is also dumb because even when you know how an illusion works the illusion still persists since it doesn’t have access to all the processes of the brain

It has to be encapsulated, meaning limited information will flow into a module Limited central accessibility, meaning limited information flow out of a module Fixed neural architecture (location in the brain) Characteristic and specific breakdown patterns Characteristic developmental pace and sequencing Domain specific referring to their input

Modular processes are fast since you don’t have to deliberate with the other processes Modular processes are automatic Modules are robust, when you damage one, it doesn’t damage all of them Modules are evolvable

The idea that perception is modular, while cognition is generally not modular Perception is modular since even when we know the trick of illusions, we still fall for the illusions But with cognition other beliefs are affected by what we know.

It is damage to the frontal lobe (Broca’s area) leading to having problem speaking grammatically

it is damage to the temporal lobe (Wernicke’s aphasia), leading to problem with sentence meaning, Speech is grammatically correct but doesn’t make sense

Perception vs judgment - the studies supposedly proving top down effects think they are testing perception but in reality it has to do with judgment Demand and response bias