The knowledge illusion (Sloman & Fernbach, 2017). Universitat de Vic, Thought and language by Llorenç Comajoan

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:02:41 UTC

Select 2 experiments from this chapter and do them with your friends or classmates (you can do it in pairs). After that, answer the following questions:

1. What 2 experiments did you do? Describe them.

2. What were the results? Were they in agreement with the results mentioned in the book?

3. What conclusions can you reach from the results in the two experiments that are related to the main ideas of the chapter?

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:03:12 UTC

1. Why do the authors claim that hyperthymesia is not a great power?

What good is a brain?
2. What is the most fundamental difference between plants and animals?

The discerning brain
3. How do humans recognize faces in different situations? Do we take a picture of the people's faces and retrieve them or do we store abstract information about their faces? How does this relate to abstract information?

4. Identify 5 NEW words you want to remember and write a sentence with each of them.

Fune’s curse
(no specific question)

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:03:47 UTC

Chapter 3. How we think

Human reasoning is causal
4. What is causal reasoning? What are some examples?
5. Are people good at causal reasoning?

Stop at “Reasoning forward and backward”
6. Write two facts or ideas that you want to remember from Chapters 2 and 3.

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:04:32 UTC

Introduction
1. The introduction to the book begins with some historical facts about the Castle Bravo nuclear testing program. Look for some information about the accident. What does the story about these facts illustrate according to the authors of the book
Thinking as collective action

2. Is the human mind like a computer? What do bees have to do with this question?

Ignorance and illusion
3. How are toilets related to an “illusion of understanding”?

What thinking is for
4. What is thinking for?
5. Why do individuals have so little knowledge about how the world Works (e.g., toilets)?

The community of knowledge
6. All our knowledge is inside our heads. True or false? Why?

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:05:52 UTC

7. What is the illusion of explanatory depth?

How much do we know?
8. Give some examples of the complexity of our world.

The allure of illusion
9. What is the “illusion of understanding”?
10. Was reading these two chapters difficult? Why? Did you find the information and the arguments interesting? What was the thing that you found most interesting?

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:08:08 UTC

Write one true-false statement for each section and bring it to class for your classmates so that you can test them. Have the anwers ready.

Thinking with our bodies and the world, p. 85-90
Embodied intelligence
How humans are designed
The world is your computer
The brain is in the mind

Video on hyperthymesia

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:09:58 UTC

Face recognition 1

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:10:48 UTC

Face recognition 2

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:11:51 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2HFzAYRwSM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU0YKlsScno

How do toilets work?

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:12:56 UTC

Heider & Simmel video

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:24:07 UTC

Horseshoe crabs

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:36:11 UTC

Complexity: How do planes fly?

lcomajoa — 2019-10-27 09:47:40 UTC

lcomajoa — 2019-10-28 08:17:29 UTC

lcomajoa — 2019-10-28 08:20:03 UTC

Michael Tomasello

lcomajoa — 2019-10-28 08:22:56 UTC

Start watching at minute 6:39

lcomajoa — 2019-10-28 08:23:42 UTC

lcomajoa — 2019-10-28 08:27:49 UTC

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2019-10-28 08:28:15 UTC

Relate the images (team, brains, bees, and castle) and the conference (Tomasello, start at minute 6:39) below to the contents of the chapter and particularly the section on "braininess". What is the connection? Write a paragraph and bring it to class.
What are the benefits and the DANGERS of collaboration according to the chapter? Relate them to experiments mentioned in the chapter. What do you think about it?

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2019-10-28 08:30:36 UTC

Read the chapter and comment on at least 2 of the following excerpts.
In your commentary, first mention what the authors of the book say and then include your view. Write it down and bring it to class.

"The concern is that the existence of successful artificial intelligence (AI) will feed on itself."j p. 132.
"Confusing how much you know and how much the Internet knows does make sense in a perverse way." p. 137
A GPS cannot yet read your intentions.
"Crowdsourcing is actually a primitive method of employing the community of knowledge compared to whats' on the horizon." p. 149
"We'll be lost." p. 152

Optic flow in birds

lcomajoa — 2019-10-28 15:05:27 UTC

lcomajoa — 2019-11-22 08:12:53 UTC

Write one question for your classmates. The question needs to be based on the chapter you have been assigned. Think of a question that will make us THINK about the contents of the book. Prepare the answer.

lcomajoa — 2019-11-22 08:13:11 UTC

Connections.

lcomajoa — 2019-11-28 09:19:38 UTC

Select 5 words, images, or concepts from the chapter and connect them. Bring the words, images or concepts to class. You will ask your classmates to connect them and you will answer if their connections make sense or not. You can do it in PAIRS.

Nudge (Richard Thaler)

lcomajoa — 2019-12-04 11:08:51 UTC

Lessons on how to make smarter decisions

lcomajoa — 2019-12-04 11:09:55 UTC

1. Read pages 250-253. Can you think of any decisions you have had to make in which you applied or could apply one of the lessons? Which one?
2. Watch the video Nudge (Richard Thaler) and write down 2 facts that you found interesting and say why.

1. Read the conclusion of the book.

lcomajoa — 2019-12-04 13:19:50 UTC

2. Select a paragraph from the conclusion and bring it to class. Why did you choose this paragraph?

Sloman & Fernbach (2017)

lcomajoa — 2019-12-05 08:14:07 UTC

Philip Fernbach

lcomajoa — 2019-12-05 08:22:41 UTC

Steven Sloman

lcomajoa — 2019-12-05 08:23:30 UTC

How do planes fly? (2)

lcomajoa — 2022-10-05 09:41:38 UTC

Chapter 9.

lcomajoa — 2022-11-24 11:56:25 UTC

Answer the following questions:

1. Why do people have such passion about issues they know so little about?
2. In the case of moral reasoning, can you shatter the knowledge illusion?
3. What do you think are the implications of what we learn in this chapter?

Discussion for class

lcomajoa — 2024-11-26 11:12:30 UTC

Write 4 true/false statements (sentences) about the contents of the chapter. Make sure the statements are easy to understand and are about ideas that are central in the chapter.
Prepare your answers with a clear justification (refer to experiments, if possible).