9. Most research suggests that attention is managed by two regions of the cortex: the posterior attention network and the anterior attention network. The posterior attention network, located in parietal lobe, is responsible for attention given to visual searching and spatial awareness. I use this part of my brain while searching for my keys in the morning. The anterior attention network, located in the frontal lobe, is responsible for attention tasks that focus on word meaning. It also aids in top-down processing, as evident by its activity when subjects are asked to listening to a list of nouns and state the meaning of each noun. I use this part of my brain while I’m reading my cognitive textbook.

#8 from week 2: Connectionism is a very specific model of the top-down theory of pattern recognition. It includes three main units: input unties, hidden units, and output units. The input units receive and encode external stimuli, the output units yield a response, and the hidden units that lie in between receive connections from the input units and send connection to the output units. The information is stored in the connections between the units, not in the units themselves. There can be varying weights of the units: strong or weak and positive or negative. All weights start out neutral but are shaped by experience. The connectionist models are great for human cognition because they are able to make use of context. Andy Meade is a strange man. For example, in THE CAT, prior knowledge that an H will often follow a T is held in a connection. They are also great because they can learn from examples the way that humans do, and they are also parsimonious – the same group of units can be trained to recognize many different things.