pysc100 exam 1

Who was Clever Hans and why is his story a good example of why scientists who study animal intelligence have to be so careful with their methodology?

Clever hans was a horse who communicated by stomping his hoof. people can unconsciously communicate information to others by subtle movements and that some animals can perceive these unconscious movements which is why scientists need to be careful with their methodology.

Tulving's Encoding Specificity Hypothesis- If you are trying to remember a fact that you have learned, what is happening in your memory?

Contextual information (where you are, how you feel) becomes encoded as part of the schema you have about the fact. During recall, that context can acts as a prime and increase the accessibility of the schema, making it easier to recall.

What are the criticisms of Gardner's theory? How does his theory relate to the concept of learning styles?

Critics also point out that the list could go on forever if we consider every way in which we might be different from each other. Students' multiple learning preferences can be addressed when instruction includes a range of meaningful and appropriate methods, activities, and assessments. Although Gardner comments that our intelligences influence our learning preference the concept was never intended to (nor does it) provide any scientific evidence that people truly have different learning styles

describe a social psychologist

Interested in how interpersonal relationships and interactions with other people shape behavior

self-report

Participants are asked to provide information or responses to questions on a survey or structure assessment

describe a developmental psychologist

Studies the development of a human throughout the lifespan

What is the evidence that laptops and cellphones can interfere with your learning?

Testing the idea that laptops can create a cone of distraction, Sana et al. (2013) found that those sitting behind other distracted students scored 17 percentage points worse than those who were not distracted.

longitudinal study

This approach is to recruit a sample of participants and track them for an extended period of time.

describe social skills

Those with strong social skills are typically team players. Rather than focus on their own success first, they help others develop and shine. They can manage disputes, are excellent communicators, and are masters at building and maintaining relationships

what are procedural memories?

a sequence of cognitive-behavioral actions that are stored in a more subconscious form. For example, once you have learned how to do it, you can tie your shoes without thinking about it.

describe a fixed mindset

people who think that their level of intelligence remains consistent over their lifetime

What is confirmation bias and how might it influence you?

we tend to look for information that supports what we already believe to be true

ego orientation

while others feel successful when they are praised or their performance makes them feel like they are a good and desirable person

what is the recency effect?

works because there is less time for it to decay in your mind.

What is the research evidence that controlled processes can become automatic processes?

(W. Schneider & R. Shiffrin. 1977) Under one condition, the target letters changed after about 100 sets of letters. Because the observer had to keep changing which letters to look for, this task required conscious attention throughout testing and therefore used controlled processing. If a second task requiring controlled processing was done at the same time, performance on both declined. In the second general condition for this task, the target letters remained the same throughout testing, which lasted for several thousand trials. Because the target letters remained the same, processing eventually became automatic. detecting the target became much faster, and observers reported that the target seemed to jump out from among the other letters.

What are the three categories of test anxiety symptoms?

-physical (Headache, nausea, diarrhea, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, light-headedness and feeling faint) -emotional ( Feelings of anger, fear, helplessness and disappointment) -behavioral (Difficulty concentrating, thinking negatively and comparing yourself to others)

What are the different intelligences Gardner proposes? For each one, who would you say is a good example of someone who is high in that particular form of intelligence?

1. Verbal-linguistic intelligence (well-developed verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds, meanings and rhythms of words) 2. Logical-mathematical intelligence (ability to think conceptually and abstractly, and capacity to discern logical and numerical patterns) 3. Spatial-visual intelligence (capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly) 4. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (ability to control one's body movements and to handle objects skillfully) 5. Musical intelligences (ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber) 6. Interpersonal intelligence (capacity to detect and respond appropriately to the moods, motivations and desires of others) 7. Intrapersonal (capacity to be self-aware and in tune with inner feelings, values, beliefs and thinking processes) 8. Naturalist intelligence (ability to recognize and categorize plants, animals and other objects in nature) 9. Existential intelligence (sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence such as, What is the meaning of life? Why do we die? How did we get here?

naturalistic observaiton

A researcher unobtrusively collects information without the participant's awareness

What is the difference between Automatic and Controlled cognition?

A task that is very well practiced becomes automatic, require little or no mental resources, so that they can be done at the same time as other tasks. If you do two things at the same time that both require conscious, controlled processing, you will do them less well than when you did only one at a time.

What is amnesia? Distinguish the difference between: Retrograde amnesia Anterograde amnesia

Amnesia is a condition where there is a loss of memory. -Retrograde amnesia refers to the inability to remember things prior to the onset of memory loss but is perfectly able to form new memories. -Anterograde amnesia refers to an inability to form new memories, even though memories from the past remain intact.

What is long-term memory (LTM)?

Everything else that we need to save for later goes to long term memory. the duration is apparently unlimited.

Why would a moderate amount of exercise improve academic performance?

Exercise is known to have beneficial effects on mental performance, both for the short-term oxygen boost it provides to the brain, and for the important role it plays in maintaining a healthy and efficient blood supply to the brain

describe a neuropsychologists.

Explore the relationships between the brain and behavior how thought and behavior can be explained by activity in the brain

describe counseling.

Help people to recognize their strengths and resources to be able to cope with everyday problems challenges

what is the method of loci?

Imagine placing the items you want to remember in specific locations in a room with which you are familiar.

What are the three processes of memory? That is, what has to happen in order to store and use information?

In order for memory to help us it needs to encode information into long-term memory, store it for later use, and retrieve it when we need it later.

How did Dweck demonstrate that changing our mindsets can change our performance?

In the second study, Dweck & Blackwell selected 100 seventh graders and randomly assigned them to attend one of two kinds of study skill workshops. told some students that they get smarter over time because everything new that you learn creates new connections between the cells in your brain. One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than the other group.

What is the duration of echoic memory

Information is stored for 3 to 4 seconds

What is the duration of Iconic memory

Information is stored for a duration of 0.2 to 0.4 seconds

What is stereotype threat? Why would it detract from performance in some courses?

People are concerned that their performance might confirm negative beliefs about their group. stereotype prevents people from trying their best.

How does what you eat influence what you learn?

Provides fuel that gives essential nutrients needed for a wide range of brain functions

describe an engineering psychologist

Research how people work best with machines

archival

Researchers can examine data that has already been collected for other purposes.

cross sectional

Researchers can gather participants of different ages and look for differences between the groups.

Structured Observation

Researchers can set up a situation and observe that participant's behavior

task orientation

Some people seem to be particularly motivated to learn new things and feel successful when they make progress towards a personal goal

describe self-regulation

The ability to keep calm when in a emotional discussion.

describe motivation

The ability to pass up short-term pleasure for rewards in the long-term.

describe empathy

The ability to read and understand other people's thoughts and emotions.

What is cognitive load and how does it explain why we cannot truly multitask?

The extent to which our mind is engaged in controlled processing is known as cognitive load

What is null hypothesis testing?

The null hypothesis is the default position that the effect you are looking for does not exist

What is the difference between a research population and a research sample?

The population is the group of people that we want to generate knowledge about and the sample is the group of people that participate in our study.

What causes information to be transferred from sensory memory to short-term memory?

The process of transferring information from STM to LTM involves the encoding or consolidation of information

How did Kruglanski et al. (2002) demonstrate that seemingly objective judgments could be influenced by motivations subconsciously?

Their motivation to associate with, or distance themselves from, the campus identity subconsciously biased what they thought were honest, objective and rational judgments. Participants rated the quality of fabric samples, Participants were unaware that their ratings were biased by other motivations

How is Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences different from g?

These intelligences (or competencies) relate to a person's unique aptitude set of capabilities and ways they might prefer to demonstrate intellectual abilities.

describe self-awareness

They understand their emotions, and because of this, they don't let their feelings rule them

Why would people use self-handicapping to protect their ego? What research evidence is there that this occurs?

To maintain self-esteem, we consistently try to protect our self-image. However, some people protect their self-esteem by insuring failure. The original experiment on self-handicapping took place in 1978. Subjects - who had previously succeeded in a task - were offered the choice of either a performance-hindering drug or a performance-helping drug. Those who did not expect that success on the task would occur again took the opportunity to protect themselves - "self-esteem"- by taking the performance-hindering drug. By taking the drug, the subjects manipulated the situation.

What is the difference between Type I and Type II error?

Type I error= Falsely rejecting the null hypothesis. In other words, the effect you are looking for does not exist in reality, but the conclusion of your study is that the effect is real. This is a false scientific claim. Type II error=Falsely accepting the null hypothesis. In other words, the effect you are looking for is real, but the outcome of your research is that there is no effect. This is a missed scientific discovery.

Psychophysiological

We can also use technological devices to measure what is taking place in the body (e.g., heart rate, levels of hormones, areas of brain activity).

What is the advantage of being able to allocate cognitive resources to different tasks?

We have limited cognitive resources so we need to use them on what is most important to us at the time

How is the cocktail party effect an example of motivation determining allocation?

We subconsciously detect things that we think might be important to pay conscious attention to

What is the evidence that planning to teach can help you learn?

When compared to learners expecting a test, learners expecting to teach recalled more material correctly, they organized their recall more effectively and they had better memory for especially important information

When would we need to use random sampling in order to answer our research question?

When our research question is attempting to describe the characteristics or experiences of an entire population

What is inattentional blindness?

When we focus our attention on one thing and in turn fail to notice everything else that's going on

What is the difference between probability and convenience sampling?

When you have a sample that is made up of individuals who happen to be available, it is called a convenience sample. A study where participants are randomly sampled from the entire population (and therefore every single person has the opportunity to be included) is using a probability sample.

what are the ABC's of psychology?

a-affect (feelings) b-behavior c-cognition (mental processes)

What are some of the best strategies for reducing test anxiety?

be prepared, develop good test-taking skills, maintain a positve attitude, stay focused, practice relaxation techniques, stay healthy, visit the counseling center.

Why does being tested help me learn? What is the research evidence that supports the Testing Effect?

being tested on information helps you remember it for longer because it is all about training your brain to access the information and use it research by Roediger & Karpicke.

what do psychologists traditionally study?

both normal and abnormal functioning and treat individuals with mental and emotional problems.

What causes us to forget?

decay, interference, insufficient priming, disorganization

What is ego depletion and how does it affect decisions and behavior?

draining your cognitive resources is known as ego depletion. As consumers make choices, they experience Ego Depletion and subsequently have a harder time exercising their self-control. Taking a break can influence judicial decisions, You can replenish cognitive resources by eating food, People have more self-control early in the day

What are the three causes of test anxiety?

fear of failure, lack of preparation, poor test history.

What have psychologists discovered as some of the other benefits of using these strategies?

fewer symptoms of general anxiety disorder

describe Bio-social, social-biological, evolutionary

fittest survive and reproduce. people do what they do to survive and reproduce. thoughts and behaviors can be inherited.

What do psychologists mean when they theorize about g? What is IQ and how is it measured? How does an IQ score relate to the concept of g?

g=your overall intellectual ability. IQ attempts to measure g. modern IQ tests are measured by the number of correctly answered questions compared to the average number answered correctly by other people his or her age

describe sociocultural

group norm guides thoughts and behaviors.

What is a schema? What is the advantage of storing information this way?

groups of information that are linked together because they are somehow related. helpful because when one thing in the schema is activated the whole schema is activated

Which common studying techniques were found to be the least effective for students?

highlighting, rereading notes, underlining key phrases, writing a summary of the main ideas

what is cognition?

how you process information/ mental processes

what is the primacy effect?

in a list you tend to remember things at the beginning of the list because there is no interference

what is elaborative rehearsal?

involves forming associations with other meaningful things. The more associations you form when you encode the information, the more likely you are to encode, store, and retrieve the information later

what is state-dependent memory?

is that if you experience an event in one physiological state (e.g., drunk), your memory for the event is likely to be impaired if you later try to remember it in another physiological state (e.g., sober).

what is disorganization?

it is also possible that the information is stored, but that you cannot find it due to some error in the manner the information was organized in storage. So it might not be gone, it might just be hard to access

what is decay?

it is possible that the information has dissolved over time and is lost forever. Much like the information in our sensory information decays rapidly, information we do not access frequently might be lost permanently.

What are some ways in which confirmation bias can have harmful consequences?

just because something has worked in the past does not mean it will continue to work in the future.

What is the relationship between sleep and learning?

lack of sleep causes a whole range of cognitive problems, suggesting it fulfills an important role in maintaining the mind and brain at their peak. things learned shortly before sleep are remembered better than those learned earlier in the day

what is the representative heuristic?

making judgments about what category things belong in based on sterotypes

what are heuristics?

mental shortcuts for making decisions

what is sensory memory?

no capacity to what you remember, however you can only remember for a couple of seconds.

What is short-term memory (STM)?

often referred to as working memory. Is limited by a capacity of about 7 +/- 2 items at one time for a duration of 30 seconds

What is the difference between a one-tailed and two-tailed test?

one-tailed=The hypothesis has an implied direction. two-tailed=The hypothesis does not imply a direction

describe social learning, learning theory, behaviorism

organisms desire to seek pleasure (biological/ psychological need) and avoid pain (something detrimental to well-being). behaviors are determined by experience with an outcome. not about planning ahead. always random and learn from experience.

What is the stroop task? How does it relate to controlled vs. automatic processes?

presented with a series of color words, which appear in different colored ink and asked to identify the color in which the word is written in. for many of us, the act of reading the word has become an automatic process that is hard to suppress. As you can see in this case, an automatic process interferes with a controlled process

what is priming?

prime - a stimulus that activates a related concept. when 1 thing is the schema is primed the whole schema is primed

How is psychology similar to, and different from other disciplines

psychology, individual sociology, larger groups

what is recall?

recalling information from the past, ie-drawing something. easier when from scratch, but harder when recalling however it is more accurate.

what is recognition?

recognizing something, picking something out of a group. it is easy to do this out of a diverse group but difficult when the group is similar

What is chunking and why does it increase the amount of information you can store in STM?

remembering things in chunks in order to remember things better. Chunk things together into meaningful units can help you encode and store information.

What is maintenance rehearsal?

repeating things over and over again

what is interference?

sometimes it is hard to encode information correctly or to recall it efficiently because our brain is processing something else at the same time. One thing interferes with the other

what are declarative memories?

specific facts you can consciously recall. Within this type of memory there are two sub-types: Semantic memories - discrete facts (e.g., word meanings, state capitals) Episodic memories - specific events (e.g., the last concert you went to)

What is emotional intelligence?

the extent to which you are aware of and can effectively adjust to your emotions and those of others.

What does it mean for a result to be statistically significant?

the goal of hypothesis testing is not to see if there is any difference between sets of measurements (there almost always will be), but rather to see if the differences are unlikely to be due to random variation. If so, we can say that our result is statistically significant.

what does motivation determines allocation mean?

the importance of information (sensory, like touch, or factual, like a set of statistics) determines what proportion of your available resources will be consumed about it

what is insufficient priming?

the memory might be stored correctly, but you may not have enough activation to locate it and move it from long term to short term memory.

what is meta-cognition?

thinking about thinking

describe a growth mindset

those who think they can always develop new abilities with practice

describe social cognitive

thought and behavior are guided by beliefs(facts) attitudes (evaluations of objects), expectations, goals, and memories. seen as more of a plan. we do what we do based on these beliefs and goals.

Why is distributed practice more effective than "studying a lot" for a test?

to get good at something you have to practice it regularly. The same is true for learning -- you are training your brain to hold and use information.

what is the availability heuristic?

you tend to remember what you see most often and how easily examples of a certain event come to mind