PSY-111-01 Learning Objectives
*Evaluate popular techniques marketed to enhance learning.* (LO 6.5a, from 6.5: Learning Fads: Do They Work?)
Proponents of sleep-assisted learning claim that individuals can learn new material while asleep. Nevertheless, early reports of successful learning during sleep appear attributable to a failure to carefully monitor subjects' EEGs to ensure that they were asleep. Studies of accelerated learning techniques also show few or no positive effects, and positive results appear attributable to placebo effects and other artifacts. Although popular in science education, discovery learning approaches are often less effective and efficient than direct instruction. Some educational psychologists claim to be able to boost learning by matching individuals' learning styles with different teaching methods, but studies that have matched learning styles with teaching methods have typically yielded negative results.
*Describe psychological pseudoscience and distinguish it from psychological science.* (LO 1.2a, from 1.2: Psychological Pseudoscience: Imposters of Science)
Pseudoscientific claims appear scientific but don't play by the rules of science. In particular, pseudoscience lacks the safeguards against confirmation bias and belief perseverance that characterize science.
*Describe how psychological research affects our daily lives.* (LO 1.4d, from 1.4: Psychology's Past and Present: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been)
Psychological research has shown how psychology can be applied to such diverse fields as advertising, public safety, the criminal justice system, and education.
*Explain how biological predispositions can facilitate learning of some associations.* (LO 6.4a, from 6.4: Biological Influences on Learning)
Psychologists have increasingly recognized that our genetic endowment influences learning. Conditioned taste aversions refer to the phenomenon whereby classical conditioning can lead us to develop avoidance reactions to the taste of food. John Garcia and his colleagues showed that conditioned taste aversions violate the principle of equipotentiality, because they demonstrate that certain CSs are more easily conditioned than others to certain UCSs. Research on preparedness suggests that we are evolutionarily predisposed to learn to fear some stimuli more easily than others.
*Explain three major modern theories of dreaming.* (LO 5.2b, from 5.2: Dreams)
According to activation-synthesis theory, the forebrain attempts to interpret meaningless signals from the brain stem (specifically, the pons). Another theory of dreaming suggests that reduction of activity in the prefrontal cortex results in vivid and emotional, but logically disjointed, dreams. Neurocognitive theories hold that our dreams depend in large part on our cognitive and visuospatial abilities.
*Explain the major principles and terminology associated with classical conditioning.* (LO 6.1b, from 6.1: Classical Conditioning)
Acquisition is the process by which we gradually learn the CR. Extinction is the process whereby following repeated presentation of the CS alone, the CR decreases in magnitude and eventually disappears. Extinction appears to involve an "overwriting" of the CR by new information rather than a forgetting of this information.
*Describe both sides of the debate on the use of animals as research subjects.* (LO 2.3b, from 2.3: Ethical Issues in Research Design)
Animal research has led to clear benefits in our understanding of human learning, brain physiology, and psychological treatment, to mention only a few advances. To answer many critical psychological questions, there are simply no good alternatives to using animals. Nevertheless, many critics have raised useful questions about the treatment of laboratory animals and emphasized the need for adequate housing and feeding conditions. Many protest the large number of laboratory animals killed each year and question whether animal research offers sufficient external validity to justify its use.
*Explain the ethical obligations of researchers toward their research participants.* (LO 2.3a, from 2.3: Ethical Issues in Research Design)
Concerns about ethical treatment of research participants have led research facilities, such as colleges and universities, to establish institutional review boards. IRBs review all research involving human participants and require informed consent by participants. In some cases, they may also require a full debriefing at the conclusion of the research session.
*Explain the importance of science as a set of safeguards against biases.* (LO 1.1b, from 1.1: What Is Psychology? Science Versus Intuition)
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that doesn't. Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling to our beliefs despite contrary evidence. Scientific methodology consists of a set of safeguards against these two errors.
*Distinguish myths from realities concerning hypnosis.* (LO 5.3b, from 5.3: Other Alterations of Consciousness and Unusual Experiences)
Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis isn't a sleeplike state, participants generally don't report having been in a "trance," people are aware of their surroundings and don't forget what happened during hypnosis, the type of induction has little impact, and hypnosis doesn't improve memory. In fact, hypnosis can lead to more false memories that are held with confidence, regardless of their accuracy. According to the sociocognitive model of hypnosis, the often dramatic effects associated with hypnosis may be attributable largely to pre-existing expectations and beliefs about hypnosis. The dissociation model is another influential explanation for hypnosis. This model emphasizes divisions of consciousness during hypnosis or the automatic triggering of responses by hypnotic suggestion.
*Describe the role of correlational designs and distinguish correlation from causation.* (LO 2.2b, from 2.2: Scientific Methodology: A Toolbox of Skills)
Correlational studies allow us to establish the relations among two or more measures but do not allow for causal conclusions. Illusory correlation occurs when we mistakenly perceive a statistical association in its absence; correlational designs help to compensate for this error.
*Identify the different brain-stimulating, recording, and imaging techniques.* (LO 3.4a, from 3.4: Mapping the Mind: The Brain in Action)
Electrical stimulation of the brain can elicit vivid imagery or movement. Methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) enable researchers to record brain activity. Imaging techniques provide a way to see the brain's structure or function. The first imaging techniques included computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Imaging techniques that allow us to see how the brain's activity changes in response to psychological stimuli include positron emission tomography (PET) and functional MRI (fMRI).
*Distinguish different types of amnesia and the relevance of amnesia to the brain's organization of memory.* (LO 7.3b, from 7.3: The Biology of Memory)
Evidence from studies of patients with amnesia demonstrates that there are distinct memory systems, because people with amnesia for declarative memory often still form new procedural memories. Retrograde amnesia causes forgetting of past experiences, whereas anterograde amnesia prevents us from forming memories of new experiences.
*Identify the components of an experiment, the potential pitfalls that can lead to faulty conclusions, and how psychologists control for these pitfalls.* (LO 2.2c, from 2.2: Scientific Methodology: A Toolbox of Skills)
Experimental designs involve random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable, and when conducted properly, permit us to draw conclusions about the causes of a psychological intervention. Placebo effects and experimenter expectancy effects are examples of pitfalls in experimental designs that can lead us to draw false conclusions.
*Differentiate the subtypes of long-term memory.* (LO 7.1c, from 7.1: How Memory Operates: The Memory Assembly Line)
Explicit memory subtypes include semantic and episodic memory. Implicit memory types include procedural and priming memory.
*Identify the major theoretical frameworks of psychology.* (LO 1.4a, from 1.4: Psychology's Past and Present: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been)
Five major theoretical orientations have played key roles in shaping the field. Structuralism aimed to identify the basic elements of experience through the method of introspection. Functionalism hoped to understand the adaptive purposes of behavior. Behaviorism grew out of the belief that psychological science must be completely objective and derived from laws of learning. The cognitive view emphasized the importance of mental processes in understanding behavior. Psychoanalysis focused on unconscious processes and urges as causes of behavior.
*Identify factors that influence people's susceptibility to false memories and memory errors.* (LO 7.5a, from 7.5: False Memories: When Good Memory Goes Bad)
Flashbulb memories for highly significant events seem more crisp and vivid than do other memories but may be just as vulnerable to errors as other kinds of memory. One source of memory errors is source monitoring difficulty; we can't always remember where or from whom we learned something or whether it was a figment of our imaginations, sometimes resulting in cryptomnesia. Our memories for events are easily influenced by suggestions from others that the events happened differently than our observations suggested.
*Describe Freud's theory of dreams.* (LO 5.2a, from 5.2: Dreams)
Freud theorized that dreams represent disguised wishes. However, many dreams involve unpleasant or undesirable experiences, and many involve uninteresting reviews of routine daily events. Thus, Freud's dream theory hasn't received much empirical support.
*Describe genes and how they influence psychological traits.* (LO 3.5a, from 3.5: Nature and Nurture: Did Your Genes—or Parents—Make You Do It?)
Genes are composed of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which is arranged on chromosomes. We inherit this genetic material from our parents. Each gene carries a code to manufacture a specific protein. These proteins influence our observable physical and psychological traits.
*Identify flaws in research designs and how to correct for them.* (LO 2.5a, from 2.5: Evaluating Psychological Research)
Good experimental design requires not only random assignment and manipulation of an independent variable but also inclusion of an appropriate control condition to rule out placebo effects. Most important, it requires careful attention to the possibility of alternative explanations of observed effects.
*Determine how scientists explain unusual and seemingly "mystical" alterations in consciousness.* (LO 5.3a, from 5.3: Other Alterations of Consciousness and Unusual Experiences)
Hallucinations and mystical experiences are associated with fasting, sensory deprivation, hallucinogenic drugs, prayer, and like near-death experiences, vary considerably in content across cultures. During out of body experiences, people's consciousness doesn't actually exit their bodies, and some NDEs are experienced by people who aren't near death. Déjà vu experiences don't represent a memory from a past life, but may be triggered by small seizures in the temporal lobe or when a present experience resembles an earlier one that's forgotten.
*Explain the concept of heritability and the misconceptions surrounding it.* (LO 3.5a, from 3.5: Nature and Nurture: Did Your Genes—or Parents—Make You Do It?)
Heritability refers to how differences in a trait across people are influenced by the genes as opposed to their environments. The heritability of traits can sometimes change within individuals and over time within a population.
*Explain how complex behaviors can results from classical conditioning and how they emerge in our daily lives.* (LO 6.1c, from 6.1: Classical Conditioning)
Higher-order conditioning occurs when organisms develop classically conditioned responses to CSs associated with the original CS. Such conditioning allows us to expand our learning to a host of different, but related, stimuli in everyday life.
*Describe what hormones are and how they affect behavior.* (LO 3.3a, from 3.3: The Endocrine System)
Hormones are chemicals released into the bloodstream that trigger specific effects in the body. Activation of the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the release of adrenaline and cortisol by the adrenal glands, which energize our bodies. Sex hormones control sexual responses.
*Describe Pavlov's model of classical conditioning and discriminate conditioned stimuli and responses from unconditioned stimuli and responses.* (LO 6.1a, from 6.1: Classical Conditioning)
In classical conditioning, animals come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that had been paired with another stimulus (the CS) that elicits a reflexive, automatic response. After repeated pairings with the UCS, which elicits an automatic, reflexive response (the UCR) from the organism, the CS comes to elicit a conditioned response (CR).
*Identify the different stages of sleep and the neural activity and dreaming behaviors that occur in each.* (LO 5.1b, from 5.1: The Biology of Sleep)
In the 1950s, researchers identified five stages of sleep that include periods of dreaming in which participants' eyes move rapidly back and forth (rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep). Although vivid, bizarre, and emotional dreams are most likely to occur in REM sleep, dreams occur in non-REM sleep as well. In stage 1 sleep, we feel drowsy and quickly transition to stage 2 sleep, during which our brain waves slow down, heart rate slows, body temperature decreases, and muscles relax. In stages 3 and 4 sleep ("deep sleep"), large amplitude delta waves (one to two cycles/second) become more frequent. In stage 5, REM sleep, the brain is activated much as it is during waking life.
*Identify two modes of thinking and their applications controversial to scientific reasoning.* (LO 2.1a, from 2.1: The Beauty and Necessity of Good Research Design)
Increasing evidence suggests that there are two major modes of thinking. System 1 thinking, or "intuitive thinking," tends to be rapid and to rely on gut hunches, whereas System 2 thinking, or "analytical thinking," tends to be slow and to rely on a thoughtful examination of issues. Research designs make use of analytical thinking because scientific reasoning often requires us to question and at times override our intuitions about the world.
*Describe how the relation between encoding and retrieval conditions influences remembering.* (LO 7.2d, from 7.2: The Three Processes of Memory)
Individuals tend to remember better if they're tested under the same physical and emotional conditions as when they encoded the information.
*Identify how children's memory abilities change with age.* (LO 7.4a, from 7.4: The Development of Memory: Acquiring a Personal History)
Infants display implicit memory for events; both infants' and children's memories are influenced by some of the same factors as adults' memory. Children's memory improves in part because of maturational changes in the brain that extend the span of memory. Over time, children become better able to use mnemonic and rehearsal strategies and become more aware of their memory limitations.
*Explain how inferential statistics can help us to determine whether we can generalize from our sample to the full population.* (LO 2.4b, from 2.4: Statistics: The Language of Psychological Research)
Inferential statistics allow us to determine how much we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population. Not all statistically significant findings are large enough in magnitude to make a real-world difference, so we must also consider practical significance when evaluating the implications of our results.
*Identify the features and causes of sleep disorders.* (LO 5.1c, from 5.1: The Biology of Sleep)
Insomnia (problems falling asleep, waking in the night, or waking early) is the most common sleep disorder and is costly to society in terms of fatigue, missed work, and accidents. Episodes of narcolepsy, which can last as long as an hour, are marked by the rapid onset of sleep. Sleep apnea is also related to daytime fatigue and is caused by a blockage of the airways during sleep. Night terrors and sleepwalking, both associated with deep sleep, are typically harmless and are not recalled by the person on awakening.
*Identify evidence of insight learning.* (LO 6.3b, from 6.3: Cognitive Models of Learning)
Köhler's work suggested that apes can learn through insight, and later work with humans suggests the same conclusion. This research calls into question Thorndike's conclusion that all learning occurs through trial and error.
*Identify the ways that memories do and don't accurately reflect experiences.* (LO 7.1a, from 71: How Memory Operates: The Memory Assembly Line)
Memories can be surprisingly accurate over very long periods of time, but tend to be reconstructive rather than reproductive.
*Identify methods for connecting new information to existing knowledge.* (LO 7.2a, from 7.2: The Three Processes of Memory)
Mnemonics are memory aids that link new information to more familiar knowledge. There are many kinds of mnemonics; they take effort to use but can assist recall.
*Describe the role of long-term potentiation in memory.* (LO 7.3a, from 7.3: The Biology of Memory)
Most scientists believe that long-term potentiation—a gradual strengthening of the connections among neurons from repetitive stimulation—plays a key role in the formation of memories and memory storage.
*Describe the advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic observation, case studies, self-report measures, and surveys.* (LO 2.2a, from 2:2: Scientific Methodology: A Toolbox of Skills)
Naturalistic observation, case studies, self-report measures, and surveys are all important research designs. Naturalistic observation involves recording behaviors in real-world settings but is often not carefully controlled. Case studies involve examining one or a few individuals over longs periods of time; these designs are often useful in generating hypotheses but are typically limited in testing them rigorously. Self-report measures and surveys ask people about themselves; they can provide a wealth of useful information, but have certain disadvantages, especially response sets.
*Describe the electrical responses of neurons and what makes them possible.* (LO 3.1b, from 3.1: Nerve Cells: Communication Portals)
Neurons exhibit excitatory and inhibitory responses to inputs from other neurons. When excitation is strong enough, the neuron generates an action potential, which travels all the way down the axon to the axon terminal. Charged particles crossing the neuronal membrane are responsible for these events.
*Explain how neurons use neurotransmitters to communicate with each other.* (LO 3.1c, from 3.1: Nerve Cells: Communication Portals)
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers neurons use to communicate with each other or to cause muscle contraction. The axon terminal releases neurotransmitters at the synapse. This process produces excitatory or inhibitory responses in the receiving neuron.
*Describe some applications of operant conditioning.* (LO 6.2e, from 6.2: Operant Conditioning)
Operant conditioning has a number of applications to everyday life, including shaping—which is a fundamental technique of animal training—and overcoming procrastination. Psychologists have also harnessed operant conditioning principles to develop token economies and other therapeutically useful applications. Operant conditioning principles probably also help to explain certain irrational behaviors in everyday life, including superstitions.
*Distinguish operant conditioning from classical conditioning.* (LO 6.2a, from 6.2: Operant Conditioning)
Operant conditioning is learning controlled by its consequences. Operant conditioning involves many of the same processes, including acquisition and extinction, as does classical conditioning. Nevertheless, in operant conditioning, responses are emitted rather than elicited, the reinforcement is contingent on behavior, and responses mostly involve skeletal (voluntary) muscles rather than the autonomic nervous system.
*Explain why psychology is more than just common sense.* (LO 1.1a, from 1.1: What Is Psychology? Science Versus Intuition)
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. Although we often rely on our common sense to understand the psychological world, our intuitive understanding of ourselves and others is frequently mistaken. Naive realism is the error of believing that we see the world precisely as it is. It can lead us to frequently embrace false beliefs about ourselves and our world, such as believing that our perceptions and memories are always accurate.
*Distinguish ways of measuring memory.* (LO 7.2c, from 7.2: The Three Processes of Memory)
Recall requires generating previously encountered information on our own, whereas recognition simply requires selecting the correct information from an array of choices. How quickly we relearn material previously learned and forgotten provides another measure of memory.
*Describe reinforcement and its effects on behavior and distinguish negative reinforcement from punishment.* (LO 6.2c, from 6.2: Operant Conditioning)
Reinforcement can be either positive (presentation of an outcome) or negative (withdrawal of an outcome). Negative reinforcement increases the rate of a behavior, whereas punishment decreases it. One disadvantage of punishment is that it tells the organism only what NOT to do, not what TO do.
*Show how statistics can be misused for purposes of persuasion.* (LO 2.4c, from 2.4: Statistics: The Language of Psychological Research)
Reporting measures of central tendency that are nonrepresentative of most participants, creating visual representations that exaggerate effects, and failing to take base rates into account are all frequent methods of manipulating statistics for the purposes of persuasion.
*Outline the evidence that supports latent learning and observational learning.* (LO 6.3a, from 6.3: Cognitive Models of Learning)
S-O-R psychologists believe that the organism's interpretation of stimuli plays a central role in learning. Tolman's work on latent learning, which showed that animals can learn without reinforcement, challenged the radical behaviorists' view of learning. Research suggests that individuals can acquire aggressive behavior by observational learning. Correlational studies, longitudinal studies, laboratory studies, and field studies suggest that media violence contributes to aggression, although questions regarding the strength of this relationship remain.
*Identify the role that schemas play in the storage of memories.* (LO 7.2b, from 7.2: The Three Processes of Memory)
Schemas equip us with frames of references for interpreting new situations. Nevertheless, they can sometimes lead to memory errors.
*Identify the key features of scientific skepticism.* (LO 1.3a, from 1.3: Scientific Thinking: Distinguishing Fact From Fiction)
Scientific skepticism requires us to evaluate all claims with an open mind but to insist on compelling evidence before accepting them. Scientific skeptics evaluate claims on their own merits and are unwilling to accept them on the basis of authority alone.
*Explain the function, span, and duration of each of the three memory systems.* (LO 7.1b, from 7.1: How Memory Operates: The Memory Assembly Line)
Sensory memory, short'term memory, and long-term memory are stages of information processing that vary in how much information they hold and for how long they retain it. Short-term memory has a limited span of seven plus or minus two items than can be extended by grouping things into larger, meaningful units called chunks.
*Identify and explain the text's six principles of scientific thinking.* (LO 1.3b, from 1.3: Scientific Thinking: Distinguishing Fact From Fiction)
Six key scientific thinking principles are ruling out rival hypotheses, correlation versus causation, falsifiability, replicability, extraordinary claims, and Occam's Razor. Replicability has assumed particular importance over the past decade in light of the realization that certain psychological findings are challenging for independent investigators to produce.
*Evaluate results demonstrating the brain's localization of function.* (LO 3.4b, from 3.4: Mapping the Mind: The Brain in Action)
Stimulating, recording, and imaging techniques have shown that specific brain areas correspond to specific functions. Although these results provide valuable insight into how our brains delegate the many tasks we perform, many parts of the brain contribute to each specific task. Because individual brain areas participate in multiple functions, many cognitive functions cannot be neatly localized.
*Identify possible influences on substance use.* (LO 5.4a, from 5.4: Drugs and Consciousness)
Substance use disorder is associated with recurrent problems related to the drug and may be associated with symptoms of tolerance and withdrawal. Cultures that prohibit drinking, such as Muslim cultures, generally exhibit low rates of alcoholism. Many people take drugs and alcohol in part to reduce tension and anxiety.
*Explain the role of the circadian rhythm and how our bodies react to a disruption in our biological clocks.* (LO 5.1a, from 5.1: The Biology of Sleep)
The book did not have an answer for this LO; probably a typo.
*Describe how the brain changes as a result of development, learning, and injury.* (LO 3.1d, from 3.1: Nerve Cells: Communication Portals)
The brain changes the most before birth and during early development. Throughout the life span the brain demonstrates some degree of plasticity, which plays a role in learning and memory. Later in life, healthy brain plasticity decreases and neurons can show signs of degeneration.
*Identify what roles different parts of the central nervous system play in behavior.* (LO 3.2a, from 3.2: The Brain-Behavior Network)
The cerebral cortex consists of the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. Cortex involved with vision lies in the occipital lobe, cortex involved with hearing in the temporal lobe, and cortex involved with touch in the parietal lobe. Association areas throughout the cortex analyze and reanalyze sensory inputs to build up our perceptions. The motor cortex in the frontal lobe, the basal ganglia, and the spinal cord work together with the somatic nervous system to bring about movement and action. The somatic nervous system has a sensory as well as a motor component, which enable touch and feedback from the muscles to guide our actions.
*Distinguish different types of drugs and their effects on consciousness.* (LO 5.4b, from 5.4: Drugs and Consciousness)
The effects of drugs are associated with the dose of the drug, as well as with users' expectancies, personality, and culture. Nicotine, a powerful stimulant, is responsible for the effects of tobacco on consciousness. Smokers often report feeling stimulated as well as tranquil, relaxed, and alert. Cocaine is the most powerful natural stimulant, with effects similar to those of amphetamines. Cocaine is highly addictive. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, like sedative-hypnotic drugs such as Valium. Sedative-hypnotic drugs reduce anxiety at low doses and induce sleep at moderate doses. Expectancies influence how people react to alcohol. Heroin and other opiates are highly addictive. Heroin withdrawal symptoms range from mild to severe. The effects of marijuana, sometimes classified as a mild hallucinogen, include mood changes, alterations in perception, and disturbances in short-term memory. LSD is a potent hallucinogen. Although flashbacks are rare, LSD can elicit a wide range of positive and negative reactions.
*Describe some of the real-world implications of false memories and memory errors.* (LO 7.5b, from 7.5: False Memories: When Good Memory Goes Bad)
The fact that we're receptive to suggestions about whether and how events took place bears important implications for children's memory and eyewitness testimony. Many scientists have argued that apparent "recovered memories" of early trauma may actually be due to the tendency of suggestive therapeutic procedures to induce false recollections.
*Identify the key impairments of Alzheimer's disease.* (LO 7.3, from 7.3: The Biology of Memory)
The memory loss of patients with Alzheimer's disease begins with that of recent events, with memories of events of the distant past typically being the last to go. Alzheimer's disease is marked by loss of synapses and and acetylcholine neurons.
*Distinguish the parts of neurons and what they do.* (LO 3.1a, from 3.1: Nerve Cells: Communication Portals)
The neuron has a cell body, which contains a nucleus, where proteins that make up our cells are manufactured. Neurons have dendrites, long extensions that receive messages from other neurons and an axon, which extends from the cell body of each neuron and is responsible for sending messages.
*Clarify how the somatic and autonomic nervous systems work in emergency and everyday situations.* (LO 3.2b, from 3.2: The Brain-Behavior Network)
The somatic nervous system carries messages from the central nervous to the body's muscles. The autonomic nervous system consists of the parasympathetic and sympathetic divisions. Whereas the parasympathetic nervous system is active during rest and digestion, the sympathetic division propels the body into action during an emergency or crisis. Sympathetic arousal also occurs in response to everyday stressors.
*Identify the four schedules of reinforcement and the response pattern associated with each.* (LO 6.2d, from 6.2: Operant Conditioning)
There are four major schedules of reinforcement: fixed ratio, fixed interval, variable ratio, and variable interval. These four schedules differ along two dimensions: consistency of administering reinforcement (fixed or variable) and the basis of administering reinforcement (ratio or interval).
*Describe different types of psychologists and identify what each of them does.* (LO 1.4b, from 1.4: Psychology's Past and Present: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been)
There are many types of psychologists. Clinical and counseling psychologists often conduct therapy. School psychologists develop intervention programs for children in school settings. Industrial/organizational psychologists often work in companies and business and are involved in maximizing employee performance. Many forensic psychologists work in prisons or court settings. Many other psychologists conduct research. For example, developmental psychologists study systematic change in individuals over time. Experimental psychologists study learning and thinking, and biological psychologists study the biological bases of behavior.
*Describe Thorndike's law of effect.* (LO 6.2b, from 6.2: Operant Conditioning)
Thorndike's law of effect tells us that if a response, in the presence of a stimulus, is followed by a reward, it's likely to be repeated, resulting in the gradual "stamping in" of S-R (stimulus-response) connections.
*Identify uses of various measures of central tendency and variability.* (LO 2.4a, from 2.4: Statistics: The Language of Psychological Research)
Three measures of central tendency are the mean, median, and mode. The mean is the average of all scores. The median is the middle score. The mode is the most frequent score. The mean is the most widely used measure but is the most sensitive to extreme scores. Two measures of variability are the range and standard deviation. The range is a more intuitive measure of variability, but it can yield a deceptive picture of how spread out individual scores are. The standard deviation is a better measure of variability, although it's more difficult to calculate.
*Identify skills for evaluating psychological claims in the popular media.* (LO 2.5b, from 2.5: Evaluating Psychological Research)
To evaluate psychological claims in the news and elsewhere in the popular media, we should bear in mind that few reporters have formal psychological training. When considering media claims, we should consider the source, beware of excessive sharpening and leveling, and be on the lookout for pseudosymmetry.
*Describe two great debates that have shaped the field of psychology.* (LO 1.4c, from 1.4: Psychology's Past and Present: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been)
Two great debates are the nature-nurture debate, which asks whether our behaviors are attributable mostly to our genes (nature) or our rearing environments (nurture), and the free will-determinism debate, which asks to what extent our behaviors are freely selected rather than caused by factors outside our control. Both debates continue to shape the field of psychology.
*Identify reasons we are drawn to pseudoscience.* (LO 1.2b, from 1.2: Psychological Pseudoscience: Imposters of Science)
We're drawn to pseudoscientific beliefs because the human mind tends to perceive sense in nonsense and order in disorder. Although generally adaptive, this tendency can lead us to see patterns when they don't exist. Pseudoscientific claims can result in opportunity costs and direct harm as a result of dangerous treatments. They can also lead us to think less scientifically about other important domains of modern life.
