Psychology Unit 1 Test

Frontal lobe

"DOING" Higher level, moving Motor strip location, impulsivity, short term memory, emotion, voluntary movement, social functioning, creativity, expressive language.

Temporal lobe

"MEANING" Hearing, memory, understanding speech Understanding speech analysis of speech, monitoring speech, reading & writing, verbal memory, letter recognition, decoding nonverbal patterns, visual decoding, Interpreting and remembering visual information.

Cerebellum

"OPTIMIZATION" Balance, motor coordination, ability to judge distance, muscle tone including the muscles required for speech. Little brain Enables the optimization of complex motor movements via the Motor Cortex. These longer-lasting improvements require practice. Reacting optimally to emotional stimuli, doing backflip, dancing with precision Combines Sensory Input with Action ("Does what I am sensing line up with what I am doing?") Adjust the timing so that it does. Unconscious Information Processing Language Sensation Emotion Bottom Up AND Top Down Information Bottom: low level information (basic) Top: Executive control over the behavior

Ocipital lobe

"SEEING" Vision, object recognition, visual recognition, reading numbers and letters, memory for written information, attending to left visual field.

Parietal lobe

"SENSING" Spatial smooth speech, writing skills, understanding math, reading skills, naming of objects, verbal memory, drawing skills

Empiricism

(England) Refers to the idea that human knowledge and thought derive ultimately from sensory experience (vision, hearing, touch, and so forth); senses allow us to acquire knowledge of the world around us, allowing us to think about the world and behave adaptively within it John Locke: tabula rasa - mind is a blank slate and experience fills it in; children are born with no dispositions to make some types of learning either than others Association by contiguity - most basic operating principle of the mind's machinery (originally proposed by Aristotle); if a person experiences 2 enviro events (stimuli or sensations) at the same time or one right after the other (contiguously), those 2 events will become associated (bound together) in the person's mind such that the thought of 1 event will, in the future, tend to elicit the thought of the other Aristotle's philosophical empiricism - idea that all knowledge is acquired through experience All thought and knowledge rooted in sensory experience Used law of association of contiguity to explain how sensory experiences can combine to form complex thoughts

Nativism

(Germany; Plato) The opposite of empiricism View that the most basic forms of human knowledge and the basic characteristics of the mind, which provide the foundation for human nature, are native to the human mind - that is, are inborn and do not have to be acquired from experience Certain kinds of knowledge are inborn or innate Immanuel Kant, wrote Critique of Pure Reason and distinguished between a priori knowledge (built into human brain and doesn't have to be learned) and a posteriori knowledge (one gains from experience in the environment) Some knowledge is innate and that such knowledge provides the foundation for human nature, including the human abilities to learn

Dualism

(Until the eighteenth century, philosophy was tightly bound to and constrained by religion) Church maintained that each human being consists of 2 distinct but intimately conjoined entities, a material body (part of natural world) and an immaterial soul (operates according to its own free will; lives on after body dies) Soul is responsible for the body's heat, its ability to move, for life itself

Homunculi

1 for motor; 1 for sensory

3 Fundamental Psych Ideas

1. Behavior and mental experiences have physical causes that can be studied scientifically 2. The way people behave, think, and feel is modified over time time by their experiences in their environment 3. The body's machinery, which produces behavior and mental experiences, is a product of evolution by natural selection

3 Mistaken beliefs about evolution

1. Evolution is a mystical force working toward a predetermined end 2. Present-day organisms can be ranked according to the distance they have moved along a set evolutionary route toward some planned end 3. Natural selection is a moral force, that its operation and its products are in some sense right or good (naturalistic fallacy -G.E. Moore)

3 specific lessons about scientific research

1. The value of skepticism; Pfugnst learned the truth partly because he was highly skeptical of such claims 2. The value of careful observations under controlled conditions 3. The problem of observer-expectancy effects; observer may unintentionally communicate to subjects their expectations on how they "should" behave, and the subjects, intentionally or not, may respond by doing just what the researchers expect

Darwin's core concepts of natural selection

1. There is overproduction of offspring in each generation 2. There is variation in features or traits within members of a generation 3. Individual differences are inherited from 1 generation to the next 4. Individuals with collections of traits that fit well with the local environment are more apt to survive and have more offspring than individuals whose traits do not fit as well with the local environment ~reproduction of the fittest~

Genes come in pairs

2 (paired) genes that occupy same locus (plural = loci) on a pair of chromosomes are sometimes identical to each other and sometimes not; identical = homozygous; when not identical they are heterozygous at that locus; different genes that can occupy the same locus, and thus can potentially pair with each other = alleles Dominant gene/allele = one that will produce its observable effects in either the homozygous or the heterozygous condition Recessive gene/allele = one that will produce its effects in the homozygous condition only Gene variations that can occupy the same locus are called alleles

Conditioned compensatory reaction to drugs

2 effects of drugs: direct effect and compensatory reaction (tends to restore the normal bodily state) Only compensatory can be conditioned With some drugs, repeated pairing with a CS causes that stimulus to elicit the same type of response as the drug With some other drugs, the CS elicits a response that is opposite to the drug response. Such conditioned compensatory reactions contribute to drug tolerance and drug relapse

Partial reinforcement

A particular response only sometimes produces a reinforcer Once an animal is trained it will continue to perform for partial reinforcement 4 schedules

Level of analysis

A person's behavior or mental experience can be examined at these levels: ~Focuses on biological processes; biological causal explanations Neural (brain as cause) Physiological (internal chemicals, such as hormones, as cause) Genetic (genes as cause) Evolutionary (natural selection as cause) ~Based on environmental experiences, knowledge, development Learning (the individual's prior experiences with the environment as cause) Cognitive (the individual's knowledge or beliefs as cause) Social (the influence of other people as cause) Cultural (the culture in which the person develops as cause) Developmental (age-related changes as cause) Some subfields of psychology are defined primarily by level of analysis; others are defined more by the topics studied

Experiments

A procedure in which a researcher systematically manipulates (varies) 1 or more independent variables and looks for change in 1 or more dependent variables while keeping all other variables constant Most direct and conclusive approach to testing a hypothesis about a cause-and-effect relationship between 2 variables (simply anything that can vary); powerful; clean design Independent variable - the variable that is hypothesized to cause some effect on another variable (gets manipulated) Dependent variable - the variable that is hypothesized to be affected (stays the same across the study) Within-subject experiments / repeated-measure experiments: each subject is tested in different in each of the different conditions of the IV; usually multiple subjects but can be a single subject; same subject will be given multiple variations/conditions across time Between-group experiments / between-subject experiments: there is a separate group of subjects for each different condition of the IV; uses random assignment (subjects are not assigned in a way that could bias their results); manipulations differ across groups; ALWAYS more than a single subject Can test hypotheses by manipulating the independent variable(s) and looking for corresponding differences in the dependent variable(s) while keeping all other variables constant

Fixed-ratio schedule

A reinforcer occurs after every nth response, where n is some whole number greater than 1 i.e. fixed-ration 5 schedule means every fifth response is reinforced Stickers for chores High, Steady Responding Small Post-Reinforcement Pause Not Very Resistant to Extinction

Conditioned sexual arousal

A signal that reliably precedes the presentation of the female becomes a conditioned stimulus for a set of responses that help prepare the male for courtship and mating; biologically adaptive (increases number of offspring the animal produces) i.e. blue gourami fish - males conditioned to predict arrival of female when a signal light came on, after conditioning the fish responded by shifting from normal mode of behavior (aggressive) courtship mode

Correlational studies

A study in which the researcher does not manipulate any variable, but observes or measures 2 or more already existing relationships between them; can identify relationships between variables, allows us to make predictions about 1 variable based on knowledge of another, no cause-and-effect (don't know who causes what i.e. do differing parenting styles cause differences in children's behavior or other way around); much less conclusive than experimental design but still useful; no manipulation of variables, rather it's observation of already existing variables "Correlation does not imply causality" Correlation coefficient Ex. Hours spent studying is positively correlated with GPA, but negatively correlated with hours spent playing Xbox. CORRELATION DOES NOT INFER CAUSATION!!!! Measures 2 or more variables to see if there are systematic relationships among them

Fluid intelligence

Ability to perceive relationships among stimuli independently of previous specific practice or instruction concerning those relationships Fluid abilities are biologically predetermined and reflected by tests of memory span, speed of processing and spatial thinking Peaks at about age 20-25

S-R theory of classical conditioning

Acquisition is the initial learning of stimulus-response relationship Conditioning produces a direct bond between the CS and the response (US and CS produce response) Supported by early behaviorists Link between CS and response is learned

Speed at which an action potential moves down an axon

Affected by axon's diameter (large-diameter axons present less resistance to spread of electric currents and therefore conduct action potentials faster than thin ones) Myelin sheath speeds up rate of conduction Thickest most myelinated axons in nervous system can conduct action potentials at a velocity of 100 m/s - slow = 1 to 2 m/s

Martin Seligman

All associations between events and behavior are not equally learnable; rather, there is a continuum of preparedness, such that animals, (including people) are prepared by natural selection to make some associations and unprepared, or even contraprepared, for others Prepared behaviors include the association between food ingestion and nausea, as well as learned behaviors that are vital to an organism's survival (i.e. imprinting) Unprepared behaviors are those acquired through the normal processes of operant conditioning and usually take repeated trials to acquire Contraprepared behaviors, in contrast, are those that are impossible or difficult to learn despite extensive training, such as the association between nausea and patterns of light and sounds in rats There are some biological constraints on learning shaped over the course of evolution, that make some associations more easily acquired than others

Learning explanation/psychology

All forms of human behavior and mental experience are modifiable by learning (prior experiences) Sexual jealousy differences derive partly from differences in past experiences; jealous reactions that proved to be effective in the past and obtain rewards (i.e. repel competitors or renewed affection from mate) encourage behavior Experience in the environment leads to change in behavior; relate learning experiences directly to behavioral changes and are relatively unconcerned with the mental processes that mediate such relationships

Observational methods

All procedures by which researchers observe and record the behavior of interest rather than relying on subjects' self-reports (i.e. tests - problems, tasks, or situations to which the subject responds; naturalistic observation - researcher avoids interfering with subject's behavior) Hawthorne effect: phenomenon in which subjects in behavioral studies change their performance in response to being observed; can be minimized through habituation (decline in response when a stimulus is repeatedly or continuously present) Require researcher to observe and record the subjects' behavior through naturalistic observation or some form of test

Expectancy theory

All responses like tail wagging, food begging, salivation done due to expectation of food Conditioning occurs best when the CS is a reliable predictor of the US

Action potentials

All-or-none impulses that neurons exert their influences on other neurons and muscle cells by Triggered at junction between cell body and axon in motor neurons and interneurons and they travel rapidly down the axon to axon terminals Triggered at dendritic end of axon and travel through or past cell body to axon terminas for sensory neurons Neuron can vary intensity but is all-or-none meaning they either occur or don't occur, same strength Initiated by change of structure of the cell membrane at one end of the axon: thousands of tiny channels that permit sodium ions to pass through open up; enough sodium moves inward to cause the electrical charge across the membrane to reverse itself and momentarily become positive inside relative to outside (depolarization); polarized at first meaning neuron has a negative membrane potential Channels that permitted sodium to pass through close, but the channels that permit potassium to pass through remain open; enough positively charged potassium ions move out of the cell to reestablish the existing resting potential (repolarization) Sodium-potassium pump continuously moves sodium out of the cell and potassium into it Brief reversal of polarization across the cell membrane, followed by a return to the resting state Neuron's rate of action potentials varies, but not in strength

Aristotle

Along with many other ancient Greeks - who were among the first to try to figure out what the various parts of the body are for - weren't impressed by brain (thought main function was to cool blood); proposed heart and blood are source of feelings, thought, and all else that we today call psychological Hippocrates argued that brain was much more interesting

Theory

An idea, or conceptual model, that is designed to explain existing facts and make predictions about new facts that might be discovered

Goal enhancement

An increased drive to obtain rewards similar to what the observed individual is receiving

Discrimination training

Animal can be trained to make an operant response to a stimulus more specific than the entire inside of a Skinner box I.e. Trainer alternates between reinforcement periods with the tone on (during which the animal gets food pellets for responding) and extinction periods with the tone off. Rat will begin to pressing the lever as soon as the tone comes on and stop as soon as it goes off (tone = discriminative stimulus) If reinforcement is available only when a specific stimulus is present, that stimulus becomes a discriminative stimulus. Subjects learn to respond only when it is presented Learners generalize to stimuli that they perceive as similar to the discriminative stimulus, but can be trained to discriminate

Imitation

Animal must observe, remember, and reproduce the specific pattern of movements that were produced by the model; to reproduce the movements, the learner must map the observed actions onto is own movement control system Real imitation does not occur in mammals other than primates (or only humans)

Ethics for animals

Animals must be well cared for and not suffer unnecessary pain; must have suffering balanced against potential value of knowledge gained Benefits gained are primary ethical justification; can apply to humans

Exploration

Animals of all ages keep track of significant changes in their environment Leaning about (information learning) Often mixed with degree of fear Elicited by novel stimuli, and novel stimuli often induce fear until they are fully explored Determine whether or not an unfamiliar object or place is safe Rat in novel test arena takes few steps out of corner then dashes back, then ventures a bit further and dashes back again; once thoroughly familiar it will reduce its movements but continue periodically to tour the arena as if looking to see if anything has changed (patrolling) Edward Tolman and C.H. Honzik showed that rats can learn about the pathways in a maze even if no food or other such reward is provided for doing so; rewards affect what animals do more than what they learn; latent learning - learning that is not immediately demonstrated in the animal's behavior More primitive than play, occurring in many more species and at all ages Promotes learning about the environment Curiosity motivates exploration of novel objects and places, but is balanced by fear Latent learning experiments show that exploration alone, without external reward, produces useful knowledge

Generalization

Animals will respond to new stimuli that they perceive as similar to the discriminative stimulus after operant discrimination training Richard Herrnstein's bird experiment - pigeon receives grain for pecking key whenever photo of tree was shown, and nothing when a "no tree" photo was shown Pigeons then shown new photos that they had never seen before, pecked at much higher rate when a new photo contained a tree than when it did not Based responses on concept (a rule for categorizing stimuli into groups) of trees

Helping

Any behavior that increases the survival chance or reproductive capacity of another individual 2 categories - cooperation and altruism Promoting another's survival or reproduction

Hypothesis

Any prediction about new facts that is made from a theory called a hypothesis To test, scientists control the conditions in which they make observations so as to rule out alternative explanations

Reinforcement

Any process that increases the likelihood that a particular response will occur

Learning

Any process through which experience at one time can alter an individual's behavior at a future time Experience refers to any effects of the environment that are mediated by the individual's sensory systems (vision, hearing, touch, and so on) Behavior at a future time refers to any subsequent behavior that is not part of the individual's immediate response to sensory stimulation during the learning experience A change in behavior due to experience Associative learning - linking 2 events/stimuli that occur together in time

Field study

Any research study conducted in a setting in which the researcher does not have control over the experiences that a subject has Less control More naturalistic observation of behavior Can use either self-report or observational data collection "Real life" settings Have opposite advantages and disadvantages, offering less control but perhaps more natural behavior

Laboratory study

Any research study in which the subjects are brought up to a specially designated area that has been set up to facilitate the researcher's collection of data or control over environmental conditions Collects data under more uniform, controlled conditions (experimental control, eliminate confounding variables) Sacrifices natural setting/behavior; Hawthorne effect (know you're being watched) Strangeness/artificiality of lab may induce behaviors that obscure those that the researcher wants to study Can use either self-report or observational data collection Allow researchers the greatest control over variables, but they may interfere with the behavior being studied by virtue of being unfamiliar or artificial

Homology

Any similarity that exists because of the different species' common ancestry (humans share common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos) Useful for research on physiological mechanisms of behavior (how the brain and other biological structures operate ti produce the behavior being studied) Useful for inferring the pathways along which species-typical behaviors evolved Darwin used homologies to understand the origins of species-typical emotional expressions in humans (observed zoo monkeys' smiles); people smile when genuinely happy (smile with mouth and eyes - relaxed open-mouth display) and when wishing to show another person that they are favorably disposed to that person (smile with mouth alone; smiled bared-teeth display) Studying underlying mechanisms and for tracing the evolutionary course of species-typical behaviors, exemplified by research on the greeting smile and happy smile in humans

Analogy

Any similarity that stems not from common ancestry but rather from convergent evolution (occurs when different species, because of some similarity in their habitats or lifestyles, independently evolve a common characteristic) i.e. flying among birds, some insects, some mammals (bats) Useful for making inferences about the distal functions of species-typical behaviors Due to convergent evolution (independent evolution of similar traits); useful for inferring distal functions

Deterministic fallacy

Assumption that genetic influences on our behavior take the form of genetic control of our behavior, which we can do nothing about (short of modifying our genes); assume genes influence behavior directly, rather than through the indirect mean of working with the environment to build or modify biological structures that then, in interplay with the environment, produce behavior Genes control behavior in ways that cannot be altered by environmental experiences or conscious decisions

Selective cell death (apoptosis)

Begins before birth and continues well into the teen years Synaptic pruning and selective death of neurons begins prenatally and continues after birth

Agression

Behavior intended to harm another member of the same species Much animal aggression centers on mating Male primates generally more violent than female primates Female aggression typically aimed towards obtaining resources and defending their young Males use aggression to kill infants fathered by others, fight others to gain access to particular female, or violent toward females to force copulation or prevent mating with other males In humans, male-male killings much more common than female-female Male violence, homocide and murder underlied by sexual jealousy Male violence, including men, are generally more violent than are females of their species Most aggression and violence in male primates relate directly or indirectly to sex Genes that promote violence are passed to offspring tot the degree that they increase reproduction

Social explanation/psychology

Behavior is strongly influenced by our perceptions of others Identify how mental experiences and behaviors are influenced by one's beliefs about other people Social pressure - influences such as conformity to social norm, or obedience to authority, or living up to others' expectations How sexual jealousy is perceived by others (acceptable to flirt with someone else, get revenge, etc.)

Kin selection theory

Behavior that seems to be altruistic came about through natural selection because it preferentially helps close relatives, who are genetically most similar to the helper Individual's genes survive over evolutionary time

Conditioned stimulus

Bell sound A previously neutral stimulus (NS) that is paired with the US and as a result, triggers a conditioned response (CR)

Genes

Biological units of heredity that provide the codes for building the entire body, including the brain; are associated not "for" particular behavioral traits; provide codes for proteins Structural proteins = class of proteins that forms the structure of every cell of the body Enzymes = larger class of proteins that control the rate of every chemical reaction in every cell Components of extremely long molecules of a substance called DNA (exist in egg and sperm cells that join to form a new individual, and they replicate themselves during each cell division in the course of the body's growth and development) Each protein molecule consists of long chain of smaller molecules called amino acids (several hundreds to many thousands per molecules; 20 distinct ones in every form of life on earth) Humans and chimpanzees and mice have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes Segment of DNA molecule that contains the code that dictates the particular sequence of amino acids for a single type of protein 80% OF DNA serves some function, such as regulating the activity of coding DNA Coding genes - code for unique protein molecules Regulatory genes - work through various biological means to help activate or suppress specific coding genes and thereby influence the body's development Effects of genes entwined with effects of environment (refers to every aspect of an individual and his or her surroundings except the genes themselves) e.g. food supplies genes with amino acids needed to manufacture proteins, effects may turn genes "on" or "off" like physical exercise modifying the chemical environment or muscle cells in a way that activates genes to promote further growth Turtles, alligators, crocodiles - differences at which the eggs are incubated determines sex Through their influence on protein synthesis, genes affect bodily structures and behavior Genes act in concert with environment, not in isolation i.e. environmental cues can activate genes that make rats or mice nurturant to newborns

Specialized place-learning abilities

Birds that hide food in many locations have special abilities to remember where Pacific salmon return to streams where they hatched years before, using memory of the stream's smell

Central nervous system

Brain and spinal cord (which extends from the brain down through the bones of the spinal column)

Charles Spearman

British psychologist and mathematician Positive manifold - scores always correlated positively with one another if sample was large enough (for members of same culture) Factor analysis - mathematical procedure invented for analyzing patterns of correlation G, or general intelligence, is common factor measured, more or less well, by every mental test / contributes to all types of mental performance; underlying ability that contributes to a person's performance on all mental tests Raymon Cattel proposed 2 types of g intelligence (fluid and crystallized) Galton's idea that some basic cognitive abilities may underlie g (inspection time - minimal time subjects need to look at or listen to a pair of stimuli to detect the difference between them) -modern measures of mental quickness and executive functions correlate significantly with IQ G intelligence sometimes equated with a general ability to cope adaptively with one's environment; g intelligence evolved in humans as a means of solving problems that are evolutionary novel Modern measures of mental quickness and executive functions correlate significantly with IQ G intelligence may have been selected for in human evolution because it helps us deal with novel problems

Neuron

Bundle of many neurons; bundle consisting of the axons of many neurons- within the peripheral system

Motor neurons

Bundled into nerves, carry messages out from the central nervous to operate muscles and glands Few million

Sensory neurons

Bundled together to form nerves, carry information from sensory organs (including eyes, nose, tongue, and skin) into the central nervous system Few million

Conditioning depends on the predictive value of the CS

CS must precede US; most effective; conditioning doesn't occur if CS comes either simultaneously with or just after the US CS must signal heightened probability of occurrence of the US Conditioning is ineffective when the animal already has a good predictor (blocking effect - already conditioned stimulus blocks conditioning to the new stimulus that has been paired with it) CS trigger responses that help prepare that individual for a biologically signifcant event

Extinction

CS without US leads to less and less of a response and then to none at all If a CS is repeatedly presented without US, the conditioned response stops occurring CR is not unlearned in extinction; it is merely suppressed, as show by spontaneous recovery Discrimination (reduced generalization) results fro repeatedly presenting the US followed by the CS and the similar stimulus followed by nothing

Food-preference learning

Can associate a taste with a subsequent improvement in health and thereafter prefer that food Rats, and possibly humans, can learn to prefer foods with health improvement or nutritional gain

Myelin sheath

Casing surrounding axons of some neurons Myelin is fatty substance produced by glial cells (supportive brain cells) Helps to speed up movement of neural impulses along the axon

Rene Descartes

Challenged traditional belief of dualism in Treatise of Man and The Passions of the Soul Mind and body are 2 different things that work together Regarded body as an intricate, complex machine that generates its own heat and is capable of moving, even without the influence of the soul Resembles modern understanding of reflexes (involuntary responses to stimuli) Called a "thread" and a "small conduit" what we today call nerves Complex behaviors can occur through purely mechanical means, without involvement of the soul Believed soul is housed in pineal gland Nonhuman animals do not have souls Ascribed just one function to the soul: thought (conscious deliberation and judgement) Opened door for a science of psychology Theory still popular because it acknowledges the roles of sense organs, nerves, and muscles in behavior without violating people's religious beliefs or intuitive feelings that conscious thought occurs on a nonphysical plane However, set strict limits and stumbled across ? of how nonmaterial entity (soul) can have a material effect (movement of body) Placed more emphasis on the role of the body than had previous versions of dualism

Evaluative conditioning

Changes in the strength in of liking or disliking of a stimulus as a result of being paired with another positive or negative stimulus

Polygenic characteristics

Characteristics that vary in a continuous way and are generally affected by many genes Influenced by many gene pairs - are continuous and often fit a normal distribution Through selective breeding, a trait can be strengthened or weakened gradually over generations i.e. Tryon; Russian program of breeding foxes for tameness

Resting potential

Charge across the membrane of an inactive neuron Source of electrical energy that makes an action potential possible Inside negative relative to outside Electrical imbalance that exists across the neural cell membrane when the neuron is not firing

Learning from others what to eat

Children more willing to eat what we see adults eat Rats sniff near others' mouths to see what they have eaten Observation of what other eat influences food choice Some tastes can be acquired before birth

Cognitive explanation/psychology

Cognition refers to information in the mind (thoughts, beliefs, and all forms of memories) Experience in environment leads to change in knowledge or beliefs Defines jealousy first and foremost as a set of beliefs; may ask people to recall an experience of sexual jealousy and how they felt

Founding of psychology

Commonly dated back to 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt (founder of psychology) opened the first university-based psych lab in Leipzig, Germany Authored first psych text book and began mentoring first official psych grad students around the same time; used scientific methods to study psych; performed first psych experiment Experimental methods should be used to study mental processes Roots of psych predate Wundt Started with philosophy, biology, and then physiology (type of biology that studies parts and functions of living organisms)

Robert Tyron

Conducted first long-term, systematic study of selective breeding (in 1920s) Wanted to demonstrate that a type of behavior frequently studied by psychologists could be strongly influenced by variation in genes Mated "maze bright" together and "maze dull" together By 7th generation, almost all bright rats made fewer errors in the maze than even the best dull rats Later studies proved dull rats were as good as bright ones, and sometimes even better, at other learning tasks

Threshold

Critical value causing an action potential

Selfish gene theory

DNA is a self-replication machine Genes that are better at self-replicating will increase in frequency each generation -That is natural selection! So, genes "want" to be good at self-replicating Genes are really good at self-replication within an individual organism (mitosis) However, eventually an individual will die. Selfish" genes' long-term self-replication depends on reproduction A gene's "goal" is to maximize: 1.Chances of reproduction 2.Chances of offspring reproducing Done by altruism (parents pay for college to increase likelihood of offspring reproducing), risk taking, pro-social behaviors 1.Competition -how an animal secures access to mates2.Sexual behavior -how an animal attracts potential mates3.Mate choice -what makes an animal attracted to others...or not4.Parental behavior -how an animal interacts with its offspring (behaviors relevant to reproduction)

Natural selection

Darwin Selective breeding in nature Dictated not by needs and whims of humans but by the obstacles to reproduction that are imposed by the natural environment (predators, limited food supplies, extreme temperatures, difficulty in finding and attracting mates for sexual reproduction) Thought evolution was slow and steady process (but can occur rapidly, slowly, or not at all) Genes become more frequent over generations; that enhance survival and reproduction

Facial expressions

Darwin argued that specific facial expressions accompany emotional states in humans and that these expressions are universal, occurring in people throughout the world and even in people who were born blind and thus could not have learned them through observation Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen developed an atlas that describes and depicts the exact facial-muscle movements that make up each of 6 basic emotional expressions in people: surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness, and sadness Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt - documented cross-cultural universality of many nonverbal signals, including eyebrow flash (momentary raising of the eyebrows lasting about 1/6 of a second, usually accompanied by a smile and an upward nod of the head; universal sign of greeting among friends and surprise; large cultural differences exist in the use of eyebrow flash, despite its cross-cultural similarity) Can identify each emotion more accurately and easily in own culture rather than different one

Artifical selection

Darwin's term for human-controlled selective breeding

Drug tolerance

Decline in physiological and behavioral effects that occur with some drugs when they are taken repeatedly People who regularly take drug have to increase their doses over time to continue to achieve the original effects many "overdose" cases are actually in which addicts took their usual drug doses in unusual environments

Habituation

Decline in the magnitude of a reflexive response when the stimulus is repeated several times in succession; not all reflexes undergo this

Biological preparedness

Degree deals with the difference between behaviors that we call instinctive, or species-typical, and those we do not so label Come into the world biologically prepared to learn to walk on 2 legs - strong hind limbs with feet, weaker forearms without feet, an upwardly tilted pelvis, and a short, stiff neck have neural systems in brain and spinal cord that enable us to move our legs correctly for coordinated 2 legged walking and with neural structures that enable us to practice this behavior at the appropriate stage in our development

Reliability/replicability

Degree that a measure yields similar results each time it is used with a particular subject under a particular set of conditions Interobserver reliability: the same behavior seen by 1 observer is also seen by a second observer Operational definition: specifying exactly what constitutes an example of your dependent measure, defining something in terms of the operations by which it could be observed and measured Able to yield similar results with repeated use on the same subjects in the same conditions Unreliable measurement produces random variability that makes it more difficult to establish statistical significance

Generalization

Demonstrate CR not just to US but also to new stimuli that resemble that stimulus

Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning

Described and studied most extensively by Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and recipient of the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work on digestive reflexes in dogs before he turned his attention to learning Pavlov learned dogs produce different salivary secretions in response to different foods; dogs began to salivate before they received any food had they been given it on previous occasions From evolutionary perspective it's a process by which individuals learn to prepare themselves, reflexively, for biologically significant events that are about to happen Begins with UR (food-> salivation); during conditioning, a neutral stimulus (bell sound) is presented just before the US (food); after sufficient pairings, the neutral stimulus becomes a CS which by itself elicits a CR (bell->salivation) Pavlov: Studied the digestive system for 20 yrs; Nobel Prize for Physiology in 190; Accidentally discovered classical conditioning

Descriptive study

Describes behavior of a individual or set of individuals without assessing relationships between different variables; describes how things are; useful but weaker; doesn't answer question Only to characterize and record what is observed

Douglas Spalding

Discovered imprinting - very sudden and apparently irreversible nature of the learning process involved Critical period - optimal time for imprinting Timing (critical period), stimulus features (characteristics typical of a mother bird of the species) and the behavioral response (following) are all genetically prepared - in interaction with the environment - in ways that promote its specific adaptive function - staying near the mother Ducklings and goslings follow the first moving object they see within a critical period, and continue to follow it Young of these species will learn to identify and follow their own mothers Ducklings will approach the maternal call of their species shortly after hatching, and auditory experience while still in the egg is critical for this adaptive behavior to develop

Sickle-cell anemia

Disease that interferes with the transport of oxygen in the blood Sickle, crescent moon shaped blood cells instead of disk-shaped Genes originated in areas of the globe where malaria was common, chiefly in Africa Caused by single pair of recessive genes Benefits: less likely to die of malaria because their red blood cells are poor at supporting the growth of the malaria parasite; people who have one recessive gene (carriers) living in these areas are thus more likely to live and reproduce than noncarriers, keeping the recessive gene and potentially deadly gene in the gene pool

How genes affect behavior

Do NOT produce or control behavior directly•Directly contribute to the development of various brain systems via their ability to create various proteins•Always an interaction between Genes and Environment•Ex. Songbirds•Genes + Season (environment) = Growth in Memory Area Galapagos turtles - temperature dependent - change sex of animal warm females; cold males females thrive in warmth because need more resources to survive -> reproduce (best time to take advantage of resources)

Rules for learning what to eat

Eat what your elders eat because it's likely safe & remember a food's taste and smell when you eat a new food because if it's followed by improved health continue eating it but if you feel sick then avoid it

Thorndike's puzzle-box procedure

Edward Lee Thorndike Puzzle box (small cage that could be opened from inside by some relatively simple act, i.e. pulling a loop or pressing a lever) Thorndike's cats unlike Pavlov's dogs had some control over their environment and produced learning by altering the consequences of some aspect of the animal's behavior

Robert Sternberg

Efficiency of mental self-government accounts for individual differences in intelligence Proposed that efficiency of mental self-government accounts for individual differences in intelligence

Species-typical behaviors

Every animal's certain characteristic ways of behaving Like "instincts" but avoid this term due to implication that "no experience necessary" associated with genetic determinism (belief genes determine behavior independent of experience) and not easily defined Products of evolution Affected by learning (i.e. walking and talking require practice; white-crowed sparrows develop singing ability only if they are permitted to hear it during their first summer after hatching) Is a relative concept (Experience from environment and biological capabilities both needed) i.e. cats meowing; humans walking upright May be influenced by learning or even require learning

Epigenetics

Examines "gene-regulating activity that does not involve changes to the DNA code and that can persist through 1 or more generations" Methylathion influences whether the genes will produce proteins at all (of plants and invertebrates) Traits that are heritable but not necessarily caused by changes in the DNA sequence Experiences of the individual can cause biochemical changes that affect the activation of genes, and these activation "signals" can be transmitted to children and grandchildren without any changes in the genes themselves

Interneurons

Exist entirely within the central nervous system and carry messages from one set of neurons to another Collect, organize and integrate messages from various sources; vastly outnumber other types 100 billion Make sense of the input that comes from 1 set of neurons to another

Subject-expectancy effects

Expectations may account for observed differences in how subjects respond

Evolutionary explanation

Explain how or why human characteristics came about in the course of evolution Interested in identifying the evolutionary functions - survival or reproductive benefits - of the types of behaviors and mental experiences that they study Sexual jealousy promotes long-term mating (most basic form of sexual behavior) bonds

Distal explanations

Explanations at the evolutionary level; statements of the role that the behavior has played in the animal's survival and reproduction over evolutionary time; how behavior helped the individual's ancestors' genes make it into the next generation Evolutionary Level, Ultimate Causation Functional explanations, stating the role that specific behaviors play in survival and reproduction

Proximate explanation

Explanations that deal not with function but with mechanism; they are statements of the immediate conditions, both inside and outside the animal, that bring on the behavior Explanations that deal with specific mechanism Complementary to distal explanations; concerned with mechanisms that bring about behavior

B.F. Skinner

Extended an popularized law of effect; behaviorist; believed that principles of learning are the most fundamental principles in psychology, and he wanted to study and describe learning in ways that do not entail references to mental events Skinner box (operant-conditioning chamber) - cage with lever or another mechanism in it that the animal can operate to produce some effect, such as delivery of a pellet of food or a drop of water; animal remains in box and free to respond again after completing a response and its experiencing effect Operant response - any behavioral act that has some effect on the environment Operant conditioning - process by which the effect of an operant response changes the likelihood of the response's reoccurence Reinforcer - a stimulus change that follows a (operant) response and increases the subsequent frequency of that response Conditioned reinforcer - stimuli that have reinforcing value only because of previous learning (i.e. money) In operant conditioning, the individual emits, or generates, a behavior that has some effect on the environment; in classical conditioning, a stimulus elicits a response from the organism Selectionist theory (like Darwin's)

Peripheral nervous system

Extensions from the central nervous system, called nerves, make this up Entire set of nerves which connect the brain and spinal cord to the sensory organs, muscles, and glands

Sensory receptors

Far apart on back/forearm; close on fingertips

Stanford-Binet Scale

First intelligence test commonly used in North America (1916)

Fixed-interval schedule

Fixed period of time must elapse between one reinforced response and the next; any response occurring before that time elapses is not reinforced i.e. in fixed-interval 30 second schedule the first response that occurs at least 30 seconds after the last reinforcer is reinforced i.e. paycheck Slower Learning Post-Reinforcement Pause Not Resistant to Extinction

Discrimination training

Generalization between 2 stimuli can be abolished if the response to 1 is reinforced while the response to the other is extinguished

Genes & environment -> protein -> sensory, motor, neural structures -> behavior

Genes & environment -> protein -> sensory, motor, neural structures -> behavior

Genetic explanation

Genes = units of heredity that provide the codes for building the entire body, including the brain; are associated not "for" particular behavioral traits; provide codes for proteins Explain psychological differences among individuals in terms of differences in their genes Compare DNA or whether close genetic relatives are more similar in the trait than distant relatives Study twins (i.e. if sexual jealousy is much more similar in identical twins than fraternal, variation among people in sexual jealousy is caused by variation in genes)

Mutations

Genetic variability on which natural selection acts has 2 main sources: the reshuffling of genes that occurs in sexual reproduction and mutations (errors that occasionally and unpredictably occur during DNA replication, causing the replica to be not quire identical to the original; ultimate source of all genetic variation in the long run of evolution) Jean-Baptise Lamarck (epigenetics) - prior to modern understanding of genes, many people believed that changes in an individual that stem from practice or experience could be inherited and therefore provide a basis for evolution; giraffes extended necks to reach leaves, passed elongated necks to offspring; inheritance of acquired characteristics Mutations and reshuffling of genes in sexual reproduction provide genetic diversity on which natural selection operates Complex changes, requiring many mutations, require a long time to evolve

Mendelian pattern of heredity

Gregor Mandel, Australian monk, cross-polinated a strain of pea plants that regularly produced round seeds (dominant) with a strain that regularly produced wrinkled seeds (recessive) Purebread strains are homozygous for all traits F1 (first filial) - RR crossed with Rr F2 - Rr crossed with Rr -> 3:1 ratio (1/4 of F2 generation will be wrinkled, 3/4 round) Mendel's work was first step toward our modern knowledge of genes Mendel's discovery of cross-pollinated strains of peas led to the gene concept and to the concepts of dominance and recessiveness

Inferential statistics

Help researchers decide how confident they can be judging that the results observed are not due to chance; determine likelihood of a study's outcome being due to chance or to real differences; depends on the population (a complete set of something: people, nonhuman animals, objects, events) and sample (a subset of the population) of the subject under study Calculate p for probability or the level of significance; probability that a difference as great or greater than that observed would occur by chance if, in the larger population, there were no difference between the 2 means Results are statistically significant if the p value is less than .05 (5%) (5% or lower probability that the results are due to chance) Type 1 inferential error - erroneously conclude that study results are significant (i.e. pregnancy test positive; the data from a lie detector test indicate that a suspect is lying when he is actually telling the truth Type 2 inferential error - failing to find a significant effect that does in fact exist (i.e. the data from a lie detector test indicate that a suspect is telling the truth when he is actually lying) Help assess likelihood that relationships observed are real and repeatable or due mainly to chance Statistically significant results are those in which the observed relationships are very unlikely to be merely the result of chance p takes into account the size of the observed effect, the number of subjects or observations, and the variability of data within each group Draw conclusions about population based on sample of data Representative samples are better than biased samples

IQ differences between cultural groups

Heritability coefficients for IQ within groups cannot be legitimately used to explain the source of average IQ differences between groups Social designation of black or white, not biological ancestry, is most likely the critical value in determining black-white IQ differences (IQ tests may be biased) Stereotype threat - when people are made aware of negative stereotypes for their particular social group, such as the stereotypical belief that blacks perform poorly on tests of intelligence, they tend to confirm them John Ogbu - voluntary minorities (groups who emigrated in hopes of bettering themselves; Italian Americans or Chinese Americans) v.s. castelike minorities (groups like African Americans and Native Americans who became minorities through being conquered, colonized, or enslaved)

First memory study (nonsense syllables)

Hermann Ebbinghaus - route memorization (repeating something over and over until you memorize it); not elaborative encoding Rote memorization strategy First official scientific research program

Human ethics

Human's right to privacy - informed consent - must be protected Possibility of discomfort or harm - risk must be minimal and outweighed by human benefits of the study; must advise subjects that they are free to quit at any time The use of deception - common and controversial Protect subjects by informed consent, letting subjects know they can quit at any time, ensuring anonymity in results, and debriefing subjects about deception after the study ends

Method of Loci (Greece 500 BC)

Humans can long distance run and throw better than anyone This shaped the way our biology works because it gave us heightened spiritual awareness Simonides discovered Method of Loci/Memory Palace - organize notes in a way that you can remember (i.e. make up story out of vocab words around the house) Use of familiar locations as cues to recall items that have been associated with them

Observer-expectancy effects

Humans inevitably have wishes and expectations that can affect how they behave and what they observe when recording data Autism - disorder characterized by a deficit in the ability to form emotional bonds and communicate with other people; typically manifests before age 3 Hand movements made unconsciously by facilitators guided the finger of the person with autism to the keys

Nineteenth-Century Physiology

Idea that body, including the brain, is a machine helped to promote the study of physiology (the study of the body's machinery) Marked by an increased understanding of reflexes Francois Magendie, French physiologist, demonstrated in 1822 that nerves entering the spinal cord contain 2 separate pathways: 1 for carrying messages into the central nervous system from the skin's sensory receptors and 1 for carrying messages out to operate muscles Reflexology (Russian physiologist I.M. Sechenov - monograph Reflexes of the Brain): all human behavior occurs through reflexes - that even so-called voluntary actions are actually complex reflexes involving higher parts of the brain; all human actions are initiated by stimuli in the environment; inspired by understanding of nervous system Localization of function: specific parts of the brain serve specific functions in the production of mental experience and behavior; Johannes Muller; established idea that the mind can be studied scientifically; Pierre Flourens showed damage to different brain parts produce different kinds of deficits; Paul Broca showed people who suffer injuries to left side of brain lose ability to speak but not other mental abilities Phrenology (Franz Joseph Galt): all aspects of thought, emotion, and personality can be located in the brain Physiological studies of reflexes and localization of function in the brain demonstrated the applicability of science to mental processes and behavior

Biased sample

If the members of a particular group are initially different from those of another group in some systematic way, or are different from the larger population that the researcher is interested in

Primary motor cortex

In frontal lobe Controls skeletal muscle movement

Mirror neurons

In humans and at least some nonhuman primates Well designed to make imitation easy and natural Help us behave in ways that mirror (mimic) what we see May facilitate social learning in primates Helps humans learn from one another Found in cortex of monkeys and humans and are active both when a subject engages in a behavior and when it observes someone else perform a similar action May be the neurological basis for imitation and social learning

Somatosensory motor cortex

In parietal lobe Registers and processes body sensations

Stimulus enhancement

Increase in the salience or attractiveness of the object that the observed individual is acting upon

Neutral stimulus

Initially does not elicit a response; after several trials with an unconditioned stimulus, however, it becomes a conditioned stimulus and does elicit a response A stimulus that has not been paired with the US and elicits no response

Middle Ages: Christian Monks

Integral part of the education system Used Method of Loci to remember religious texts and scriptures Used rhymes and bizarre imagery Study methods: turn terms into emotiona story (i.e. sad, gross, funny) because our brain recognizes strong emotions; add new info to neural network that you already have

Flynn effect

James Flynn Increase in IQ has occurred at a rather steady rate of about 9-15 points every 30 years, depending on the type of test - Flynn effect Has occurred for people of all races and ethnicities in various countries Greatest increased geared towards fluid intelligence (i.e. Raven's Progressive Matrices) Changes in modern life (improvements in education, greater use in technology, and more people being engaged in intellectually demanding work has lead to a greater proportion of people with experience manipulating abstract concepts than was the case in decades past, and this, in turn, is responsible for elevated IQ scores for people of all ages)

Little Albert experiment

John B Watson was first to show that the emotion of fear can be conditioned in human beings Conditioned baby to fear laboratory rats alongside of Rosalie Rayner Struck steel bar with hammer to produce loud sound just after the rat was placed in front of Albert

Single-gene (Mendelian) influence

John Paul Scott and John Fuller studied behavior of basenji hounds, cocker spaniels, and mixed-breed offspring. Basenjis are timid dogs (fear people until gentler handling); cockers show little fear under normal rearing conditions; all basenjis yelp/run away from strange person; when cross bred the offspring (F10 were all like banerjis; when they mated allele from F1 (Ff) with purebread cockers (ff), results were 50/50 Fear is not, in all of its various forms, controlled by just one gene; just demonstrates that the only difference between cockers and banerjis in a particular test of fear is controlled by a singular gene; does not diminish role of environmental influences Single-gene traits (controlled by one pair of genes) are categorical (all or none) in nature Mendelian patterns of inheritance indicate single-gene control Examples are breed differences in fearfulness in dogs and the human hereditary disorder PKU

Human mating patterns

Largely monogamous, partly polygynous Mothers provide most of direct physical care, but fathers still share some degree in care to their offspring Size between men and women are greater than monogomous but no where near highly polygynous Had white blood cell types between those of monogomous (few) and polygynous (a lot of types)

Prepared fear-related learning

Learn to fear objects that posed threats to our evolutionary ancestors - i.e. snakes, spiders, rts, angry faces Innately biased to learn to fear objects or situations that were threatening in the species' evolutionary past Monkeys learned to fear real and toy snakes, but not flowers or toy rabbits, by observing others' fearful reactions Infants and toddlers more attentive to snakes when they hear a fearful rather than happy voice

Physiological adaptations

Loss of tailbone, webbed feet, humans taller over generations, fur, scales, claws, human appendix

Brain

Makes up 2% of average person's body weight but consumes 20% of person's metabolic energy Most complex and compact computing machine in the universe Contains roughly 80 to 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons (each itself is a complex decision-making machine; single cell of nervous system), and 100 trillion points of connection, or synapses, between neurons; all more or less constantly active and their collective activity monitors our internal and external environments, creates all of our mental experiences, and controls all of our behavior

Conditioned reactions as causes of drug relapse after withdrawal

Many addicts withdraw from drugs during a stay at a residential treatment center that is quite unlike their home environment When they return home, they are once again surrounded by many cues that, for them, are associated with drug use -> compensatory drug reactions which feel like withdrawal symptoms and elicit a strongly felt need for the drug

Validity

Measures or predicts what it is intended to measure or predict Face validity - if common sense tells us that a measurement procedure assesses the intended characteristic Criterion: direct index of the characteristic that we wish to predict; criterion validity; measure that correlate significantly with another, more direct measure of the variable Invalid measures are sources of bias

Psychometrics

Measuring the mind Observable truths; unobservable truths aka revealed truths

Promiscuity

Members of a group consisting of more than one male and more than one female mate with one another High investment in the group I.e. chimpanzees and bonobos Evolved because it permits a group of adult males and females to live together in relative harmony, without too much fighting about who mates with whom Related advantage for females is paternity confusion - instead of males killing young that are not their own, they protect and care for group as whole because they don't know who the father is (Lion pride leader kills all kids not his) More fully developed in bonobos than in chimps

Crystallized intelligence

Mental ability derived directly from previous experience Continues to increase with age until about age 50 or even later

Examples of behavioral adaptation

Migration, hibernation, hunting strategy, technology, disgust, caring about cute things, social tendencies / selective pressures, altruism

Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale

Modern intelligence tests have their ancestry in this test; rooted in Binet's approach and use a variety of verbal and nonverbal subtests Developed in France in 1905 by Alfred Binet Binet believed that intelligence is best understood as a collection of various higher-order mental abilities that are only loosely related to one another; regarded intelligence as a loose set of higher-order mental abilities that can be increased by schooling Intelligence in nurtured through interaction with the environment and the proper goal of schooling is to increase intelligence (identified children who were not profiting as much as they should from their schooling so they might be given special attention) Oriented towards skills required for schoolwork; allows comparison of children who had different teachers or no formal schooling at all Widely used in French schools by 1908

David Wechsler

Most commonly used intelligence tests today are variations of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, WAIS-IV, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WISC-IV, and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-IV) WAIS-V categories: verbal comprehension, perceptual processing, working memory, processing speed Intelligence Quotient distributed in the population according to normal distribution

Expression of genetic disorders

Most of the behaviorally relevant traits in humans derive from alteration at a single gene locus are brain disorders caused by relatively rare, mutants, malfunctioning genes that are passed from generation to generation; same fro some single-gene metabolic disorders Phenylketonuria (PKU) infants receive 2 recessive genes involved in the processing of the amino acid phenylalanine; only has effects if person consumes foods that contain phenylalamime (i.e. artificial sweetners) Genes and environment interact

Teaching

Most sophisticated form of social learning Humans do readily but is rare (though not nonexistent) in other animals

Extracellular fluid

Neuron bathed on the outside by another solution of water and dissolved chemicals

Intracellular fluid

Neuron filled with a solution of water and dissolved chemicals

Bias

Nonrandom (directed) effects caused by some factor or factors extraneous to the research hypothesis Unless subjects in a between-groups experiment are assigned to groups randomly, an observed difference may be caused by systematic a priori differences between the groups rather than by the independent variable Can occur if the subjects are not representative of the group to which the researcher wants to generalize the results Use scientific method to get rid of as many biases as we can

Biological predispositions

Not all associations can be learned equally We're biologically predisposed to learn certain associates but not others i.e. food aversion - adaptive because we're omnivorous -> eat variety of food as opposed to cow who just eats grass

Variable- ratio schedule

Number of responses required before reinforcement varies unpredictably around some average i.e. in a variable-ratio 5 schedule reinforcement might come after 7 responses on 1 trial, after 3 on another, and so on, in a random manner, but the average number of responses would be 5 Difficult to extinguish i.e. gambling High Response Rate Very Resistant to Extinction

Fact/observation

Objective statement, usually based on observation, that reasonable observers agree is true Usually particular behaviors, or reliable patterns of behavior, of persons of animals Hans gave appearance that he was answering questions correctly Objective observations about behavior (facts) lead psychologists to create conceptual models or explanations (theories), which make specific, testable predictions (hypotheses)

Emulation

Observing another individual achieve some goal, then reaching that same goal by their own means (Chimp followed opaque puzzle box's 3 action but 1 was irrelevant -> only did 2 relevant actions) Exception - enculturated chimpanzees

Social learning

Occurring in a situation in which 1 individual comes to behave similarly to another; usually done by observational learning (watching others)

Altruism

Occurs when an individual helps another while decreasing its own survival chance or reproductive capacity i.e. female ground squirrels emit loud, distinctive call when predators approach; attracts predator's attention to caller but warns others 2 theories: kin selection theory and reciprocity theory Helping others at a net cost to oneself

Cooperation

Occurs when an individual helps another while helping itself Most of the advantages of social living lie in cooperation i.e. wolves hunting together

Positive reinforcement

Occurs when the arrival of some stimulus following a response makes the response more likely to recur Stimulus = positive reinforcer (i.e. food pellets, words of praise, money, and anything else that organisms will work to obtain can be used as positive reinforcers)

Negative reinforcement

Occurs when the removal of some stimulus following a response makes the response more likely to recur Stimulus = negative reinforcer (i.e. electric shocks, loud noises, unpleasant company, scoldings, and everything else that organisms will work to get away from can be used as negative reinforcers)

Token economies

Often used with people with intellectual impairment (mainly autism) Teachers or therapists deliver a series of tokens, or artificial reinforcers (i.e. a gold coin) when a target behavior is performed; tokens then used to buy products or privileges Ivar Lovaas first to develop behavioral (analysis) techniques for dealing with children with severe autism

Polyandry

One female mates with more than one male High male and low female parental investment Primary mating pattern for some species of fishes and birds, none for any species of mammal More likely to involve egg-laying species because a smaller proportion of an egg layer's reproductive cycle is tied to female's body Usually comes about when female can produce more eggs during a single breeding season that either she alone or she and one male can care for -> best strategy to mate with multiple males and leaving each batch of fertilized eggs with the father, who becomes main or soul caretaker Females are more aggressive courters -> evolved to be larger, stronger, and in some cases more brightly colored than males i.e. female spotted sandpiper stakes out territory where they actively court males and drive out other females

Polygyny

One male mates with more than one female High female and low male parental investment Most species are polygynous Females can produce limited offspring in a breeding season or offspring due to females investing a great deal in the offspring she bears Males' investment with offspring is at minimum simply the production of sperm cells and the act of copulation (require little time and energy, just needs fertile females to mate with) Males compete with one another (one-on-one battles, which the larger and stronger combatant more often wins) -> selective advantage for increased size and strength in males, up to some maximum beyond which the size advantage in obtaining mates is outweighed by disadvantages, such as difficulty in finding sufficient food to support such large size Females have less evolutionary incentive than the male to mate with many individuals, she has more incentive to be discriminating in her choice of mate (advantage to mate with winner of battles; male victor's genes increase the chance that female's sons will win battles in future and produce many young themselves)

Monogamy

One male mates with one female Equivalent male and female investment Most likely to come about when conditions make it impossible for a single adult to raise the young but quite possible for 2 to raise them (if either parent leaves, the young fail to survive) Little or no natural selection for sex differences in size and strength (males and females are nearly identical in these characteristics) i.e. many bird species (90%), foxes, coyotes, some rodents, South American monkeys Social monogamy (the faithful pairing of female and male for raising young) does not necessarily imply sexual monogamy (fidelity in copulation between that female and male) Extra-mate copulation due to female's evolutionary perspective of mating with a male that is genetically superior to her own mate results in genetically superior young and increases chance that all of her eggs will be fertilized by viable sperm; male perspective - drives neighboring males away from his own mate whenever possible and copulate eith neighboring females whenever possible

Humans

Only beings that contemplate themselves; always had potential and curiosity about how world works; brain largely unchanged since prehistoric times

Identical/monozygotic twins

Only people genetically identical to each other; formed when 2 bundles of cells separate from each other during the early mitotic divisions following the formation of a zygote

Operant (instrumental) responses

Operate on the world to produce some effect Action that produces an effect

Punishment

Opposite of reinforcement Process through which the consequence of a response decreases the likelihood that the response will recur

Unconditioned response

Original response Salivation to food A naturally occurring response to the US

Unconditioned stimulus

Original stimulus Food placed in mouth Stimulus that naturally triggers a response

Fraternal/dizygotic twins

Originate from 2 zygotes, each formed from different egg and sperm cells;

Neurotransmitter

Packets of chemical substance released by axon terminal during action potential

S-S theory of classical conditioning

Pavlov Conditioning produces a bond between the CS and a mental representation of the US, which, in turn, produces the response (CS->mental representation of US->response) Support - weakening the US after conditioning also weakens the CS Link between CS and US is learned Implies expectancy; supported by Rescorla's experiment

John Garcia

Pioneered study of food aversion learning Argued that such learning is quire different from standard cases of classical conditioning Typically US follows immediately after CS, but food aversion learning has been demonstrated even when X-rays were administered as much as 24 hours after the animals had eaten the food; fails to occur if gap is less than a few minutes Almost any kind of detectable stimulus can serve in classical conditioning, but in food-aversion learning the stimulus must be a distinctive taste or smell

Cell membrane

Porous "skin" that permits certain chemicals to flow into and out of the cell, while blocking others

Self-report methods

Procedures in which people are asked to rate or describe their own behavior or mental state in some way (i.e. questionnaire, interview) Introspection: one form of self-report; personal observations of one's thoughts, perceptions, and feelings ; used by Wundt Require the people being studied to rate or describe themselves, usually in questionnaires or interviews

Mitosis

Process by which cells divide to produce cells other than egg or sperm cells; each chromosome precisely replicates itself and then the cell divides, with 1 copy of each chromosome moving into each of the 2 cell nuclei formed Differences among different cells in your body (i.e. muscle cells and skin cells) arise from differential activation of their genes, not from different gene content

Meiosis

Process by which cells divide to produce egg or sperm cells, resulting in cells that are not genetically alike Chromosomes replicate themselves and remain attached to their replica, line up next to each other and exchange genetic material through a process called crossing over; cell then divides twice, resulting in 4 sperm cells each with just one member of each pair of chromosomes Results in egg and sperm cells that are genetically unique and contain only half the full number of chromosomes Involves random assortment of paired genes Genetic diversity produced by sexual reproduction promotes genes' survival by reducing the chance that all offspring will die

Neurogenesis

Process of creating new neurons Occurs during first 20 weeks after conception, peaking in the 3rd and 4th months of gestation Peaks in third and fourth months of gestation - generates several hundred thousand neurons each minute Continues into adulthood, particularly in hippocampus (memory) Last stage of development of neurons - differentiation - neurons migrate to their permanent position in the brain, grow in size, increase the number of their dendrites, axon terminals, and synapses that they form Synapse formation most rapid in months immediately following birth, but peak varies for different different parts of the brain (i.e. visual cortex - 4 to 12 months - vs prefrontal cortex (25 months) Begins prenatally, and newborns have more neurons in their brains than adults

Myelinattion

Process of developing myelin Begins before a child is born but is not complete until some time in adulthood, during the third decade or beyond Neurons in sensory system are first to be myelinated, with most sensory structures being completely myelinated before a child's first birthday _> myelinate neurons in motor area -> myelinate associative areas in frontal cortex - "thinking cortex" - until early adulthood

Reciprocity theory

Provides an account of how acts of apparent altruism can arise even among non kin Behaviors that seem to be altruistic are actually forms of long-term cooperation Helping another is selfish because it increases the chance of receiving help from that other in the future i.e. vampire bats share food with unrelated members of their species that have shared food with them in the past Humans are by far the greatest reciprocal helpers

Developmental explanation/psychology

Psychological specialty that documents and describes the typical age differences that occur in ways that people think, feel, and act Early forms of jealousy (i.e. play partners)

Cultural explanation/psychology

Psychological specialty that explains mental experiences and behavior in terms of the culture in which the person developed Characterize entire cultures in terms of the typical ways that people feel, act, and think Explain values, norms, and habits of culture's people by referring to unique history, economy, and religious or philosophical traditions Point to significant cultural differences in romantic and sexual mores

New schools of psych

Psychology redefined as scientific study of observable behavior Psychoanalysis (Freud) - there is an unconscious part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness, and that determines our behavior and personality; unconscious mental processes shape feelings, thoughts, and behaviors Behaviorism (Watson, Skinner) - change definition of psychology to study of observable behavior; focus on things we can observe (behavior) instead of things we can't (mind) Humanistic psychology (Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow) - using psych to make people happier and reach potential (free will); positive potential of human beings in assumed; emphasis on self-determination, free will, and the importance of choice; a reaction to negative implications of Freudian and emphasis on external influences of the behaviorist school Cognitive psychology - scientific study of mind / how perception, thought, memory and reasoning are processed; psych returns to emphasis on mental process and how they influence behavior Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)discovers conditioned reflexes. John Watson (1878-1958) extends approach to human behavior. B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) further experiments on behavior, learning, and conditioning.

Charles Darwin

Published The Origin of Species; The evolution of the Emotions in Man and Animals Can be thought of as first evolutionary psychologist Fundamental idea: living things evolve gradually, over generations, by a process of natural selection. Those individuals whose inherited characteristics are well adapted to their local environment are more likely to survive and reproduce than other, less well-adapted individuals;studied functions of behavior - the ways in which an organism's behavior helps it survive and reproduce Evolutionary behavior can contribute to a scientific understanding of human behavior Provided psych with a scientific way of thinking about all the inborn universal tendencies that constitute human nature Proposed that natural selection underlies the evolution of behavioral tendencies (along with anatomical characteristics) that promote survival and reproduction Led to focus on the functions of behavior Natural selection offered a scientific foundation for nativist views of the mind

Mastery

Rapid, well-coordinated movements Neural reorganization of motor maps Cerebellum

Adaptation

Refers to modification as a result of changed life circumstances

Phenotype

Refers to observable properties of the body and behavioral traits; which of those genes get expressed

Genotype

Refers to set of genes that the individual inherits; what genes are specific to you

Gaze following

Reflexive action of our eyes moving automatically, reflexively, in the same direction that another person's eyes move; helps humans learn from one another (what other person is thinking about and, in conversations, helps us to know what he or she is talking about

Heritability

Relative Degree to which variation in a particular trait, within a particular population of individuals, stems from genetic differences as opposed to environmental differences Quantified by a statistic - heritability coefficient, ranging from 0 (none of the differences in a trait are attributed to inheritance) to 1.0 (100% of the differences in a trait are attributed to inheritance) The more variable environments are between people in a population, the lower the heriability will be Heritability - (r identical twins - r nonidentical twins) x 2 (r is correlation) Estimated heritability for IQ is .73

Generalizing from samples

Representative samples are better than biased samples Less-variable observations are more reliable than those that are more variable More cases are better than fewer Look for statistical significance The difference between observations is probably not due to chance variation between the samples

Continuous reinforcement

Response is always reinforced Most efficient in initial training

Thorndike's law of effect

Responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation Stimulus situation initially elicits many responses, some more strongly than others, but the satisfying consequence of the successful response causes it to be more strongly elicited on successive trials

Overjustification effect

Reward presumably provides an unneeded extra justification for engaging in some behavior Drop in performance following a period of reward (initially enjoyed for own sake and the reward is given in such a manner that it seems to be designed deliberately to motivate the participants to engage in the task) Regard task as something that they do for an external reward rather than for its own sake i.e. rewarding children for reading Previously reinforced behavior declines because the reward presumably provides an unneeded extra justification for engaging in the behavior

Parental investment

Robert Trivers Roughly as time, energy, and risk to survival that are involved in feeding, producing, and otherwise caring for each offspring Loss of future reproductive capacity that results from the adult's production and nurturance of any given offspring For species in which parental investment is unequal, the more parentally invested sex will be more vigorously competed for than the other and more discriminating than the other when choosing mates Theorized that sex differences in parental investment (time, energy, risk in bearing and raising young) explain mating patters and sex differences in size, aggressiveness, competition for mates, and selectivity in choosing mates

Emotions in human mating systems

Romantic love & sexual jealousy Chimps and bonbos can engage in open promiscuous sex with little emotional consequence because they have not evolved strong emotions of sexual love and jealousy (humans and birds cannot) Lust tends to motivate both men and women to engage surreptitously in sex outside of such bonds Some forms of polyandry do exist (i.e. partible paternity - South American hunter-gatherer belief that a child possesses some of the characteristics of any man the mother has sex with

Conditioned response

Salivation to bell A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus (NS), but now a conditioned stimulus (CS)

Behaviorism

Science avoids terms to mental entities (thoughts, emotions, motives) but focuses on the relationship between observable events in the environment (stimuli) and observable behavioral reactions to those events (responses) Founded by John B. Watson Mental processes too obscure to be studied scientifically Person's behavior at any given time is determined by the person's past experiences with the environment

Psychology

Science of behavior and the mind Behavior refers to observable actions of a person or an animal Mind refers to individual's sensations, memories, thoughts, dreams, motives, emotions, perceptions emotions, and other subjective experiences; also refers to all of the unconscious knowledge and operating rules that are built into or stored in the brain and that provide the foundation for organizing behavior and conscious experience Science refers to all attempts to answer questions through the systematic collection and logical analysis of objectively observable data Ancient philosophers asked questions about human existence Applies across disciplines; natural sciences, social sciences, or humanities (strong connections with each class of disciplines) Academic psychologists, who teach and do research Practicing psychologists, apply psychological knowledge and principles to real-world issues Work in various settings - universities, clinical settings, and businesses - typically hold advanced degrees

Central suculus

Separates frontal lobe from parietal lobe

Lateral suculus/fissure

Separates parietal lobe from temporal lobe

Synaptic cleft

Separates the axon terminal from the membrane of the cell that it influences Presynaptic membrane - membrane of axon terminals that abuts the cleft Postsynaptic membrane - on other side of cleft Each axon terminal contains hundreds of globe-like vesicles, each of which contains several thousand molecules of a chemical neurotransmitter

Fast learning

Short term muscle memory Motor cortex

Reflex

Simple, relatively automatic, stimulus-response sequence mediated by the nervous system (can be modified by experience)

Components of a test of statistical significance

Size of observed effect - larger effect is more likely to be statistically significant than a smaller one Number of individuals in a study - the more subjects in a study the more likely results are to be statistically significant The variability of the data within each group - the less variability within each group the more likely results are to be statistically significant

Importance of skepticism

Skeptics seem to disprove claims Scientific theory becomes more believable as repeated, genuine attempts to disprove it fail

Slow learning

Slow simple movements Cerebellum engaged Recruitment of other cortical areas

Axon terminals

Small swellings on the end of each branch that forms from cell body on axons Release chemical transmitter molecules onto other neurons, or, in the case of motor neurons, onto muscle cells or glandular cells

Albert Bandura

Social-learning theory - children learn important social behaviors from observing others through a process of vicarious reinforcement (ability to learn from the consequences of others' actions) Key cognitive capabilities (symbolization, forethought, self-regulation, self-selection, vicarious reinforcement)

Distributed chemicals

Soluble protein molecules (A-) which have negative charges and only exist in intracellular) Potassium ions (K+) which are more concentrated in the intracellular than extracellular Sodium ions (Na+) and chloride ions (Cl-) which are more concentrated in extracellular than intracellular More negatively charged particles exist inside the cell than outside (some potassium ions diffuse out, resulting in a surplus of positive charges outside of the cell and a deficit of positive charges inside) Inside about -70 millivolts (mV)

Observing

Some animals acquire useful information through observing the behavior of other of their kind

Reasons why a particular trait behavior may not be functional

Some traits are vestigial; vestigial characteristics - remnants of our past; some traits evolved because they served the needs of our ancestors are no longer functional today, yet they remain (i.e. infant grasping reflex used to be for infant monkeys and apes who clung tightly to their mother's fur while she swung through trees / went about usual business; desire for sugar which was once a rare, valuable commodity) Some traits are side effects of natural selection for other traits (i.e. navel or belly button which serves no function related to survival or reproduction but is a remnant left from umbilical cord, which conveyed nutrients from mother to developing fetus) Some traits result simply from chance (i.e. different shaped noses may be results of mutations that didn't matter or temperature differences; genetic drift) Evolved mechanisms cannot deal effectively with every situation (i.e. guilt developed to preserve our relationships with people whose help we need for survival and reproduction, but not every manifestation serves that function ... could be crippling, exploited at our own expense by others)

Mr. von Osten

Spent 4 years tutoring Hans, a horse Shook head up and down for yes and back and forth for no Was able to answer any question, including other languages Oskar Pfungst unveiled method; Hans knows answers by responding to visual signs inadvertently produced by the questioner or other observers Drew testable hypotheses from his theory that Hans was guided by visual cues from onlookers

Peter and Rosemary Grant

Studied medium ground finch Found that members differ somewhat in thickness of their beaks, that variation is inheritable, and that environmental changes can result in rapid evolution toward either thicker or thinner beaks Drought -> thicker beaks - powerful enough to crack open the large, harder-shelled seeds that remained after the smaller seeds had been eaten Large ground finches came and were much better adapted for eating large seeds, but less well adapted for eating the smaller seeds -> average beak thickness of medium ground finches decline considerably The rate and nature of environmental change affect the rate and course of evolution

Physiological or biopsychology

Study the ways that hormones and drugs act on the brain to alter behavior and experience, either in humans or nonhuman animals Estradiol hormone related to intesity of jealousy

Shaping

Successively closer approximations to the desired response are reinforced until the desired response finally occurs and can be reinforced i.e. want to shape lever-press response in rat whose initial rate of lever pressing is 0: present reinforcer (i.e. pellet of food) whenever the rat goes anywhere near lever, then withhold reinforcer until rat touches the lever, then wait for full lever press

Descriptive statistics

Summarize sets of data All numerical methods for summarizing a set of data Measure of Central Tendency - single number that presents information about the "center" of a frequency distribution. Mode = the most frequently occurring score in the distribution Mean = arithmetic average Median = center score Variability = refers to the degree to which the numbers in a set of data from one another and from their mean; information about the spread of scores in a distribution Range-the highest score in the distribution minus the lowest score, a simple measure of variability Standard deviation = common measure of variability; the further most individual scores are from the mean, the greater is the standard deviation; the square root of the sum of the squared deviations from the mean divided by the number of scores in the distribution. Correlation coefficient = measure the strength and direction of a correlational experiment can be assessed by this statistic; ranges from -1.00 to +1.00; sign indicates direction; positive correlation = an increase in one variable coincides with the tendency for the other variable to increase; negative correlation = an increase in 1 variable coincides with a tendency for the other variable to decrease; close to zero (0) means the 2 variable are statistically unrelated - knowing the value of 1 variable doesn't help you predict the value of the other Mathematical methods used to organize and summarize, or describe data Can use frequency distribution - positive skew (more success at lower end of scale) v.s. negative skew (more scores at higher end of scale) Frequency distribution - a summary of how often various scores occur in a sample of scores. Score values are arranged in order of magnitude, and the number of occurrences is recorded.The simplest representation of a frequency distribution is a table Frequency polygon - a graphic representation of frequency distribution using points connected by straight lines. It is also known as a line graph. Histogram - graphic representation of frequency distribution using vertical bars. It is also known as a bar chart. Normal curve - theoretical distribution that is symmetrical with the mean, median, and mode all falling at the exact middle of the distribution; sometimes called a "bell curve" or a standard normal curve/distribution; most scores fall near middle of range and the frequency tapers off towards the 2 extremes (i.e. aggressiveness of rats, maze learning of rats, and conscientiousness in people) Helps summarize sets of data Standard deviation is measure of variability, extent to which scores in a set of data differ from mean Correlation coefficients represent the strength and direction of a relationship between 2 numerical variables

Appetizer effect

Taste of a small morsel of food, dinner bell, clock indicating dinner time, any other signal that reliably precedes a meal can rather quickly cause us to feel much hungrier than we were feeling just before the signal

Higher-order conditioning

The CS in one experience is paired with a different NS to create a second CS

Extinction

The absence of reinforcement of the response and the consequent decline in response rate are both referred to as extinction Response is never reinforced Passage of time can lead to spontaneous recovery, and a single reinforced response following extinction can lead the individual to respond again at a rapid rate Decline in response rate that occurs when an operant response is no longer reinforced

Positive punishment

The arrival of a stimulus, such as electric shock for a rat or scolding for a person, decreases the likelihood that the response will recur again

Functionalism

The attempt to explain behavior in terms of what it accomplishes for the behaving individual; an explanation of behavior in terms of what it accomplishes for an individual Focuses on usefulness of a particular behavior to the individual engaging in it

Brain facts

The brain has ~100 billion neurons No limits to the amount of information that can be stored Estimated to out-process best man-made supercomputers by 100x Still don't know what all parts do Evolution has shaped our brain into taking shortcuts (i.e. drive home without remembering how you got there, automatic mental process/shortcut; parents still believe vaccines can cause autism...autism starts occurring around age 2 when vaccines start...brain connects) One shortcut is our tendency to connect 2 unrelated things We are not natural statisticians - brain weights personal experiences more heavily even if something doesn't happen a lot (inherent biases...why we need science) Social compliance has higher success rate

Chromosomes

The genetic material (strands of DNA) exists in each cell in structures called chromosomes , which are usually dispersed throughout the cell; normal human cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes; 22 identical pairs, 1 remaining is made up of sex chromosomes (large chromosome X small chromosome Y; females have two X, males have an X and a Y)

Synapse

The junction between each axon terminal and the cell body or dendrite of the receiving neuron is referred to as synapse Neurotransmitter molecules released from an axon terminal cross the synaptic cleft to affect another neuron, a gland, or a muscle cell Most have brief, immediate effects - either excitatory or inhibitory - on the post synaptic neuron

Evolution

The long-term adaptive process, spanning generations, that equips each species for life in its ever-changing natural habitat

Spontaneous recovery

The mere passage of time following extinction can partially renew the CR Single pairing of CS with US can fully renew the conditioned response, which can be extinguished again only by another series of trails with the CS presented without the US

Variable-interval schedule

The period that must elapse before a response will be reinforced varies unpredictably around some average i.e. in a 30-second schedule the average period required before the next response will be reinforced is 30 seconds Difficult to extinguish i.e. trying to reach a previously busy telephone number that goes straight to voicemail i.e. checking email throughout day Slow Steady Rates of Response No Post-Reinforcement Pause Very Resistant to Extinction

Operant (instrumental) conditioning

The process by which people or other animals learn to make operant responses Learning process by which the effect, or consequence, of a response influences the future rate of production of that response Operant responses that produce effects that are favorable to the animal increase in rate, and those that produce effects that are unfavorable to the animal decrease in rate

Negative punishment

The removal of a stimulus, such as taking food away from a hungry rat or money away from a person, decreases the likelihood that the response will recur again

Reproduction strategy

The suite of reproduction-related behaviors typically exhibited by a species r-selection: high reproductive rate, little to no investment; ideal strategy for unstable environments (rodents, spiders, fish, amphibians, flowers) K-selection: low reproductive rate, larger investment; ideal strategy for stable environment (primates, elephants, cetaceans, trees)

Intelligence

The variable capacity that underlies individual differences in reasoning, solving problems, and acquiring new knowledge First applied psychologists - practictioners who try to solve real-world problems using insights from psychology - were intelligence testers Sir Francis Galton in England investigated the relation between intellectual achievement and a range of basic sensory and cognitive abilities

Axon

Thin, tube-like extension from the cell body ' Carries messages (neuron's output) to other neurons, or, in the case of motor neurons, to muscle cells

Dendrites

Thin, tube-like extensions that branch extensively and function to receive input for the neuron; form bush-like structures by extending directly off of cell body for motor and inter-neurons; extend off of one end of the axon of sensory neurons

Materialism

Thomas Hobbes - authored Leviathan and also authored Human Nature Spirit, or soul, is a meaningless concept and nothing exists but matter and energy All human behavior, including the seemingly voluntary choices we make, can in theory be understood in terms of physical processes in the body, especially the brain Conscious thought is product of brain's machinery and therefore subject to natural law No limit on what psychologists might study scientifically Helped inspire empiricism Behavior is completely a product of the body and thus physically caused

Selective breeding

To the degree that individuals within a species differ in any measurable characteristics because of differences in their genes, that characteristic can be modified over generations through selective breeding Mating of individuals that lie toward the same extreme on the measure in question Single-gene characteristics - effects of selective breeding are immediate; polygenic characteristics - effects are gradual and cumulative over generations Researchers have used selective breeding to produce many behaviorally specialized strains of animals under controlled lab conditions, usually for the purpose of understanding better the biological foundations of the behaviors in question

Inhibitory synapse

Transmitter opens either chloride channels or potassium channels Slight hyperpolarization

Excitatory synapse

Transmitter opens sodium channels in the postsynaptic membrane Slight depolarization

Behavioral neuroscience (Neural)

Understanding of how the nervous system produces the specific type of experience or behavior being studied Might study individual neurons, small groups of neurons, or larger brain regions/pathways that are directly involved in particular categories of behavior or experience Sexual jealousy showed greater activation in the left frontal cortex as measured by EEG

Blind

Uninformed about those aspects of study's design that could led him or her to form potentially biasing expectations Double-blind experiment = any experiment in which both the observer and the subjects are kept blind Placebo = inactive substance that looks like a drug

Zygote

United sperm and egg cell; contains full complement of 23 paired chromosomes, 1 member of each of these pairs comes from each parent

Behavior analysis

Uses principles of operant conditioning to predict behavior When applied scientifically to modify problem behaviors, especially as part of a learning or treatment process, it's referred to as applied behavior analysis First thing is to define some socially significant behaviors that are in need of changing; then implement schedule of reinforcement Teachers use behavioral techniques as a way of managing their classrooms

IQ validity

Validity - measures what it is intended to measure Assess validity in terms of tests' abilities to predict success in school and careers Correlates moderately well with school grades and job performance; commonly used as indicies of IQ validity

Types of research strategies

Varying along following 3 dimensions: 1. Research design - experiments, correlational studies, descriptive studies 2. The setting in which the study is conducted, of which there are 2 basic types - field and laboratory 3. The data-collection method of which there are 2 basic types - self-report and observation

Motor learning

Very lateralized Mastery requires large neural recruitment 1st Person Visualization can greatly enhance/replace physical practice. Integration of motor control processes through practice and experience

Statistics

We use statistics both to describe data and as a basis for inferring information from data.

Parsimony / Occam's razor

When there are 2 or more explanations that are equally able to account for a phenomenon, the simplest explanation is usually preferred

Cell body

Widest part of the neuron Contains the cell nucleus and other basic machinery common to all bodily cells

Early schools of psych

Wilhelm Wundt Structuralism: Edward Tichner; student of Wundt broke the mind/consciousness down into smaller elemental parts or structures Functionalism (William James and Charles Darwin) - why we behave the way we do; how behaviors allow people and animals to adapt to their environment Mary Calkins: functionalist, studied from James, first woman president of APA

Play

Young animals learn how to control their own behavior in effective ways Species-typical; no one teaches, animals just do it Has costs - uses energy, which must be made up for in additional food, and it is sometimes directly dangerous Karl Groos, German philosopher and naturalist, was first theorist to write about play from an evolutionary perspective; primary purpose of play is to provide a means for young animals to practice their instincts - their species-typical behaviors; animals, especially mammals, must learn to use their instincts; wrote The Play of Animals, The Play of Man Evidence for Groos's theory: young animals play more than do adults of their species (young have more to learn); species of animals that have the most to learn play the most (primates or monkeys and apes are the most flexible and adaptable order among mammals, and the most dependent on learning; also most playful of all species); young animals play most at those skills that they most need to learn (carnivores play at chasing, stalking, and pouncing; herbivores play at fleeing and dodging skills; mammals play at fighting...more males than females which may engage in playful care for infants); play involves much repetition (young animals try out a different way of preying, chasing, or swinging at each time; i.e. monkeys playing at swinging from branch to branch in a tree sometimes swing repeatedly between the same 2 branches); play is challenging (i.e. monkeys practice swinging from branch to branch, they commonly choose branches that are at such a distance that they often can't make it, but low enough that a fall doesn't hurt) Humans have less rigid, more modifiable by experience species-typical behaviors; we are the only true cultural (set of learned skills, knowledge, beliefs, and values that characterize a group of interconnected individuals and are passed along from generation to generation); basic mammalian drive to play includes a heavy component of imitation; motivated to play not just at those activities that people everywhere do in pretty much the same way (i.e. walking and running), but also to play at the very species activities that we see are crucial to success in the particular culture in which we are growing up (i.e. rough-and-tumble play provides opportunities for vigorous exercise that is important for skeletal and muscle development) Learning to do (skill learning) Young animals appear to play in ways that help them to develop crucial survival skills Most frequent in those species that have the most to learn Human children play not just at skills that are crucial to people everywhere, but also at those unique skills that are crucial to the culture in which they develop Costs of play - young are vulnerable, risk of injury, takes lots of energy Wrestling preps self-defense, hunting, competing for mates, figure out social dominance