unit 3

Phoneme

the simplest unit of sound; vowel or consonant elementary vowel and consonant sounds Relatively few can be arranged n diff ways to produce many words → many phrases + sentences

Anchoring Heuristic

the process of making decisions based on certain ideas or standards held by the decision maker $25 shirt seems expensive, but found out og price is $60 --> maybe should buy it

SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

"autonomic" -dilate pupils -inhibits salivation -relaxes bronchi -accelerates heartbeat -inhibits peristalsis and secretion -stimulates glucose production and release -secretion of adrenaline and noradrenaline -inhibits bladder contraction -stimulates orgasm

Sensorimotor

(years 1-2) Infant interacts with environment to learn Reflexes (e.g., sucking, looking) allow for links to form between things and actions Sensorimotor schemes: provide foundation for acting on objects in the environment (but not thinking about things that aren't) CONSERVATION OF LIQUID TEST Sensorimotor schemes provide foundation for acting on present objs but not absent Birth - 2 yrs old Thought and overt physical action are same Develop classes of schemes for diff categories of objs (sucking, shaking, banging,squeezing, twisting, dropping, etc.)

Formal-operational

(years 11-16) • Abilities: Making and testing hypotheses Considering possibility rather than concrete reality Introspection about own thought processes Abstract thinking formal-operational schemes represent abstract principles that apply to a wide variety of objects, substances, or situations, characterize significant portion of person's thinking Onset of adolescent and continues throughout adulthood Think theoretically and apply principles to actions that cannot be performed; logic World peace, universal religion, changes in legal system; "think about thinking" and extend principles into hypothetical realms that ppl haven't actually experienced Concrete-operational limited to empirical (fact-based) science and arithmetic, formal-operational capable of theoretical (principle-based) science and formal math Most adults don't use formal-operational abilities even tho they can, such thinking rare in cultures where formal schooling is not norm More apt to display thought in areas in which they are more knowledgeable (college students performed best on formal-operational problems in area of expertise)

Preoperational

(years 2-7) • Intelligence becomes more symbolic (language, imagery, mental representations) Thought is: Intuitive, not logical Egocentric (centralized) Preoperational schemes: building upon sensorimotor, children can think beyond here/now Preoperational schemes enable child to think beyond here and now Age 2-7 Symbolize objects and events that are absent, exercise it in play (ex: saucepan = guitar) Do not permit child to think abt reversible consequences of actions Appearances, not principles: conservation of liquid test (tall glass has more liquid) Symbol - external referents for objs and events (photograph of obj is symbolic representation of obj not physically present; magnets in shape of candy bars) Representational insight - knowledge that entity can stand for something other than itself Find toy hidden in room → pointed out hiding place of toy to children using scale model of real room Can retrieve toy from scale model (memory works), but only 3 yr old can retrieve toy in real room Young children had difficult time treating scale model as symbol bc salient and interesting object on its own →no dual representation (treating obj both as symbol and obj itself); can either do one or other not both Young children better able to find toy in real world when photographs were used (less interesting) or by making model less interesting (view thru window) Young children can use one obj to represent another but ability improve w age and shown in certain contexts

Concrete-operational

(years 7-11) • Intelligence becomes both symbolic AND logical Thinking is: Limited to concrete phenomena (things you can see, imagine, know) - not abstract Less egocentric (decentralized) Concrete-operational schemes: reversible actions, cause-effect, rules of physical principles Concrete-operational schemes permit thought about reversible consequences of actions and provide basis for understanding physical principles such as conservation of substance and cause and effect Chain is crucial to bike's movement but not fender (picture consequences of removing) Are concrete bc tied to experiences in world → lack understanding of conservation of substance as general principle that applies regardless of type of substance Age 7-11 Centration - preoperational children's attention focused on most salient aspect of perceptual fields (ex: shortest mom = youngest mom; judge age by height) Decentration - children can separate themselves from specific aspects of perceptual array and attend to and make decisions based on entire perceptual field Young children cannot ignore diff in height for conservation of liquid task but concrete operational children can ignore perceptual difference (decenter) → amt same Egocentricity - young children's intellectual perspective; young children interpet world thru own perspective and generally assume others see world they do → concrete-operational children are better able to take POV of others Influence perceptions, language, social interactions First grader has older brother → assumes all first-grader have older siblings Ppl learn and rmbr info better when it is referenced to themselves → learning advantage

THEORIES OF EMOTION

1. James' Theory of Emotion • Non-emotional physical changes don't necessarily lead to emotional experience • Not enough unique patterns of autonomic activity to code for all emotions 2. Schachter's Cognition-Plus-Feedback Theory 1. Emotionsareactually inferences about what's causing arousal 2. Different cognitive interpretations may cause the same physiological state to be experienced as a different emotion

FUNCTIONS OF EMOTION

1. Biological Fear prepares us to act Joy helps recover from stress Disgust helps avoid things that might be harmful 2. Cognitive Anger and/or fear help focus attention Emotion can influence learning and memory 3. Social Fear alerts those around you to things they should notice Embarrassment guides behavior and informs others Emotions are useful! ...in the short term ...but can be detrimental ...in the long term

GOAL PURSUIT

1. Initiating and sustaining action 2. Setting an intention 3. Task monitoring (paying attention, memory = remember obstructions or how it worked before, making sure u get goal, hold info in working memory and maybe LTM, prefrontal cortex) INTEGRATING SYSTEMS Prefrontal cortex: ventromedial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex Executive Functions, Attention, Memory, Working memroy

prospect theory

1. People are not very rational decision-makers 2. People do a bad job of evaluating what they have/don't have and make decisions based on their current state (reference dependence) -really hungry --> Pay $15 for burger 3. People overestimate low-likelihood events (cancer, lottery) and underestimate high-likelihood events (coronavirus) losses affect humans more than gains do (losses loom larger than gains) --> avoid losing things more than gains (why we get insurance) a behavioral model that shows how people decide between alternatives that involve risk and uncertainty (e.g. % likelihood of gains or losses). It demonstrates that people think in terms of expected utility relative to a reference point (e.g. current wealth) rather than absolute outcomes.

language development

1. attention and listening skills <6 months: • Can distinguish phonemes ~8 months: Coo and babble Preparing the vocal system to begin to mimic native language 2. social interaction and play skills 3. understanding language By 12 months, babies already know the meanings of dozens of words Innate knowledge of grammar; naming; vocabulary development 4. expressive language 10 -12 months: begin to say recognizable words 18 -24 months: combining words using word-order rules Grammatical rules are often overgeneralized (e.g., "goed to the store"; "took off a cloe") 5. speech pronunciation and fluency skills CRITICAL DEVELOPMENTAL PERIOD FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING dec by 12 (see graph) at first are "citizens of world," take statistics on new lang but needs ppl not TV/audio

THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT

3 Theories of Children's Mental Development: Piaget's theory (child's actions on physical world is driving force for cognitive development), Vygostky's sociocultural theory (interactions w other ppl as driving force), information processing perspective (mental development in terms of maturational changes in basic components of mind) PIAGET: A THEORY OF SCIENCE AND STAGES • Children are constantly exploring the world around them - playing with and manipulating things - trying to see how new stuff fits with what they already know • Schemes - mental blueprints: • Assimilation - fit new stuff in • Accommodation - change the scheme to make sure new stuff fits EXPLORATION CHANGES THE BLUEPRINTS Operational schemes - actions can be reversed FOUR T YPES OF SCHEMES AND STAGES 1. Sensorimotor2. Preoperational3. Concrete-operational 4. Formal-operational -- VYGOTSKY: A THEORY OF THE SOCIOCULTURAL ENVIRONMENT Children are a product of the social, cultural, environmental contexts in which they grow up Tools for intellectual development: Language (written, verbal, dialogue) Collaboration to complete tasks SOCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO DEVELOPMENT Development occurs first from social interactions, and then generalizes to the individual The zone of proximal development expands over time Scaffolding: building upon already-attained skills by getting more and more independent with practice and help Critical thinking is a late-developing skill derived from dialogue - hearing, then challenging/extending others' perspectives SUMMING UP PIAGET'S AND VYGOTSKY'S THEORIES Piaget: children learn things in stereotyped stages by acting like little scientists, testing and exploring May underestimate younger children's abilities and overestimate older/adults' Doesn't account for social/cultural contexts Vygotsky: children learn by being around others in their specific environment/cultural millieu• Achievements/perceptions may be different across cultures• Goal of development = function in society

Infants' Knowledge of Core Physical Principles

Assumptions of physical reality: objs exist even when disappear from view, two objects cannot occupy same space at same time, if obj moves it does it along continuous path Infants possess core knowledge about physical world - needing relatively little exp w physical environ to arrive at these insights Infants born w small set of skeletal competencies specialized to make sense of physical world Infants are not born as blank slates but prep by evolution to make sense of physical world so some things are more easily learned than others Selective-looking experiments - look longer at unexpected events than expected ones Violation-of-expectation experiment: habituation phase → baby repeatedly shown physical event until bored w it (reduced time spent looking at it) → test phase: infant shown one of two variations of org event (impossible event = illusion arranged w mirrors/trickery that appears to violate one of the cord physical principles; ex obj placed behind rotating screen fails to prevent screen from rotating all the way back OR possible event that doesn't violate → rotating screen stops and bump into obj) On purely sensory ground possible event differs more from og event habituation event → thus if infants respond simply on basis of sensory novelty would look longest at possible event Infants as young as 3.5 months old looked longer at impossible event than possible → infants have physical principle that solid objs do not normally pass thru and temp obliterate other objs 2.5-3 mo expect obj to appear behind screen where it was og placed not behind diff screen, expect rolling ball at stop at solid barrier rather than pass thru it; expect stationary ball to remain stationary unless pushed Core principles present early on but nuances related to them are acquired w age and experience 4 month olds expected box to fall to ground when released in midair but did not expect it to fall when set on edge of shelf w most of weight hanging off shelf → 6-7 months did Reveal less knowledge in search tasks than selective-looking Object permanence - objects cont to exist when out of view PIaget's simple hiding problem: toy placed under napkin Babies younger than 5 months follow toy w eyes but do not reach for it once it is there → interpreted as evidence that babies lack concept Btwn 6-9 mo age can solve this but not changed-hiding-place (A-not-B) problem Toy hidden under one napkin -->> retrieve it; toy hidden under another napkin → see it but reach toward og napkin Conclude that understanding still fragile and loses against learned motor habit; trust past exp more than perceptions 10-12 mo solve Discrepancy btwn Piaget and selective-looking experiments possibilities Difficulty in PIaget's tests: ability to plan correct arm and hand movement to obtain hidden object (must know location and use knowledge to guide movement) Babies under 5 months of age can reach for objs in full view but may be unable to use mental images of hidden obj to guide reaching 3-4 mo fail to reach hidden obj nevertheless look t location where obj is hidden even after moment's distraction Dramatic improvement in search abilities occur ft learn to crawl 8 mo olds tested in search tasks (changed-hiding-place prob too) One group learned to crawl at least 9 weeks before tests Second group had not learned to crawl but moving around in walkers Third group neither 75% in first two groups succeeded, 13% in third Coordinate vision w muscular movements in new ways to avoid bumping into objs, see objs from new perspectives → exp help them learn to plan effective movements incl retrieving hidden objs

Vygotsky's Theory (Role of Sociocultural Environment in Mental Growth)

Agreed with Piaget that main force for development is child's active interaction with environment, but disagreed w conception of relevant environment (Piaget emphasized physical, latter emphasized social) Thinking inherently sociocultural - affected by values, beliefs, and tools of intellectual adaptation in culture course/content of intellectual growth not "universal" Cognitive development matter of internalizing symbols, knowledge, ideas, and modes of reasoning that have evolved and constitute culture; dependent on biology Tools of intellectual adaptation - provided by culture; number words, alphabets, pencils, books, abacuses, calculators, computers → learn to think Language's ability to represent numbers is responsible for pattern of quantitative thinking Piraha of Brazil have only three number words → cannot keep exact counts like nuts Asian children outperform white ppl in math → effect attributed to diff in how math is taught and partly from diff in lang English + European lang number words do not precisely mirror base-10 number system that is used in all of arithmetic (that is in Chinese, Japanese, Korean); ex eleven and twelve Asian words allow kids to develop implicit grasp of base-10 system Thirty-four plus twelve → no hint as to how to solve it; Chinese words themselves point to sln Asian kids have better implicit understanding of base-10 system even before math training 6 year olds in US France Sweden vs in China Japan Korean White block = ones, purple blocks = tens → lay out sets of blocks to represent specific numbers → Asian children made task easier by using purple blocks correctly 80% of trials, white ppl abt 10% (used all white blocks) Asked to think of diff method to represent numbers → white ppl tried to use purple but made mistakes in half of trials Flynn effect due to greater use of technology Digital natives - ppl who grew up with digital media and take them for granted Computer and smartphone literacy is like first language for ppl under 40, second lang for older Prob affect how ppl learn to think Fewer black/Latinos use Internet vs. white/asian → diff in ability to use modern technology Role of collaboration and dialogue in mental development Development occurs first at social level and then at individual level (converse w words = social activity before think w words = private activity; solve probs w others before alone) Zone of proximal development - realm of activities that a child can do in collaboration with more competent others but cannot yet do alone; development promoted most efficiently thru behavior within their zones (ex: collaboration between adolescents and younger kids in finding shoe → suggestions added structure to thinking; search ore systematically and promoted mental development by suggesting Qs she might ask herself to guide future searches) Scaffolding - experts are sensitive to abilities of novice and provide responses that guide novice to gradually inc understanding of prob Ex teach kid how to assemble puzzle put pieces w matching parts and same color together → reduce amt of support as improves) Critical thinking derives largely from social, collaborative activity of dialogue: states idea, another responds w Q/comment to challenge/extend → og statement clarified/revised/used for larger argument or rejected → develop capacity for internal self-dialogue question and extend own private thoughts and ideas → improve/throw them out Students who engage in covert dialogues w authors as they read or explain ideas they are studying or logic porbs they are working on to toher ppl (real or imagined) acquire more complete understanding of what they are reading/studying Child as apprentice Social world where ppl routinely engage in activities important to culture → children attracted and seek to participate Cognitive development is progression not so much from simple tasks to more complex ones as from smaller roles to larger roles in activities of social world Ppl who grow up in dfif cultures acquire diff cognitive abilities Logic itself is not goal of mental development; goal is to function effectively as adult in society Learn to get along w others, perform economically valuable tasks

Internal and External Supports for Language Development

Anatomical structures in throat (larynx and pharynx) enable us to produce broader range of sounds than other mammals can Brain areas specialized for lang (Broca's and Wernicke's areas) Preference for listening to speech and ability to distinguish among basic speech sounds of any lang Mechanisms that cause use to exercise vocal capacities thru period cooing and babbling

Universal Characteristics of Human Language

At least 6000 separate languages Symbolic, grammatical, particular language children learn to speak varies w culture Hierarchically structured: sentence → phrases → words/morphemes → phonemes Grammar - rules that specify permissible ways to arrange units at 1 level to produce next higher lvl Phonology - how phonemes can be arranged to produce morphemes Morphology - how morphemes can be combined to form words Syntax - how words can be arranged to produce phrases and sentences Diff from language to language, but every lang has them and there are similarities Grammatical rules are usually learned implicitly, not explicitly Grammar learned implicitly w/o conscious effort before formal schooling 4 yr olds can carry on convos w adults, have alr acquired much of essential grammar Can't name or describe rules but use them Encoded in implicit memory Ability to distinguish acceptable from unacceptable sentences (not based on meaning) Can't explain exactly why

Flynn Effect

Avg score keeps rising on IQ tests worldwide over years Researchers periodically modify scoring system and inc difficulty of questions Inc in IQ 9-15 pts every 30 yrs All races and ethnicities and countries Greatest inc are tests geared toward fluid intelligence like Raven's Progressive Matrices (ironic bc originally conceived of as least affected by cultural exp and most indicative of raw reasoning ability) and similarities Changes in modern life: improvements in education, greater use of technology, more ppl engaged in intellectually demanding work → more exp manipulating abstract concepts TV, computers, technology → new ideas, new info, new problems → better fluid IQ TV programs require viewers to keep subplots and fif characters in mind and shift mental set frequently Fast paced video games exercise attention and working memory capacity → fluid intelligence Better at game-like problems on fluid IQ tests, maybe not real-world problems

intelligence testing

Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale - intelligence = collection of various higher-order mental abilities that are only loosely related to one another, nurtured thru interaction w environment → identify children who were not profting as much as they should from schooling in France Test memory, vocab, common knowledge, numbers, time, combine ideas Problems pretested w schoolchildren, results compared w teachers' ratings of child's classroom performance Items kept in test if more of high-rated than low-rated children answered them correctly Stanford-Binet Scale - first commonly used in NOrth America, modification Today: David Wechsler's tests WAIS-IV (Wechsler Adult INtelligence Scale, FOurth Edition) four subtests used to compute full-scale IQ score → see table 10.2 page 380 Verbal comprehension category: verbal abilities → vocab, similarities, information (general knowledge/understanding of social and physical world) Perceptual processing category: spatial and quantitative reasoning → block design (match visual designs), matrix reasoning (infer rule from patterns), visual puzzles (detect and combien visual patterns) Working memory category: digit span (number of randomly presented digits that can be remembered in a row), arithmetic Processing speed category: symbol search, digit-symbol coding (transform digits according rules of code) WISC-IV for children 7 to 16 WPPSI-IV for children 2-7 yrs old Average to comparison group = 100 -> normal distribution (for kids comparison group is same age)

Stereotype threat

Black-white IQ differences are cultural in origin Racial differences are not genetic differences Blacks and whites are not distinct races in biological sense but diff cultural groups: black ppl have detectable black African ancestry (even if 1/4th Afrian and half ENg) Avg genetic diff exist between two groups like skin pigmentation, amt of genetic variation within each group is far greater than average diff between them Researchers who separate effect of black African ancestry from effect of social designation"black" failed to find evidence that genetic ancestry plays role in black-white IQ diff High IQ black children have more European and less African ancestry than blacks w lower IQs → no relationship between ancestry and IQ, so social designation of balck/white IQ tests are biased and based on skills/knowledge deemed important by majority culture not minority Some argue intelligence can only be meaningfully assessed within culture in which child lives, making contrasts of IQ scores of ppl w diff cultural exp inappropriate Hispanic children also score lower (factors associated with SES< education, cultural bias) IQ diff between minority and majority reduced when given "culture fair" tests like nonverbal Raven's Progressive Matrices Test ______ - when people are made aware of negative stereotypes for their particular social group (ex: blacks perform poorly on IQ tests), they tend to confirm them African American students scored significantly lower when they were told they were taking intelligence test than when they were tol test did not assess intelligence (scores did not differ for whites) Although does not account for entirety of diff, presence suggests that IQ tests may also assess ppl's tendency to "choke" under situations in which _ is activated

Obesity

Body mass index (BMI) = assesses person's weight, body weight in kilograms divided by the square of person's height in meters 25+ = overweight, 30+ = obese Doesn't take into account gender, age, muscular/flabby → only general measure Rate of obesity has risen rapidly → rate of diseases like Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer People consume more calories and exercise less than they used to Effects of genes and nutrition on body weight Within culture, obesity depends very much on genes and relatively little on specific home environment Weights of adopted children correlate more strongly w/ weights of biological parents than with adoptive Identical twins usually have similar weights even if diff homes Pairs of biological siblings raised in diff homes are nearly as similar to each other in weight as are pairs raised in same home Environmental conditions that promote obesity are fairly constant within Western cultures, so diff in weight have mostly to do with genetic diff in how individuals respond to those conditions Across cultures, environmental diff have large effect Obesity common among Pima Indians living in Arizona but absent among genetic relatives in Mexico (their culture had grains and vegetables vs. high-calories foods available) Genes that promote obesity in US culture inc person's attraction to high-calorie foods, dec one or another of feedback effects that high food intake or fat level has on hunger mechanisms in hypothalamus, and dec body's ability to burn up excess calories quickly Prevalence of sugars in modern diets Fructose = particularly potent source of calories and major contributor to obesity fmRI: fructose vs. glucose Diff in activation of various areas of hypothalamus as well as striatum subcortical area involved in inhibitory responses) Fullness and satiety aft glucose but not fructose Consumption/exposure to high levels of fructose early in life can alter metabolism, neuroendocrine function, and appetite control → likelihood of later obesity Decrease in physical activities Fewer jobs require physical exertion, sedentary recreational activities (TV and games), less recess and PE and outdoor play Prenatal nutrition Women with poor diets when pregnant are more apt to have overweight kids Infants typically have lower birth weight than infants w better prenatal nutrition → catch up to peers in weight, elevated levels of leptin → "thrifty phenotypes," storing more fat Fetuses sensitive to level of nutrition Good prenatal nutrition → brain circuitry that controls appetite and metabolism develops as if food resources plentiful in future; if poor → circuitry develops diff and cause ppl to hold on to as many calories as they can in anticipation of limited food resources Predictive adaptive responses - respond not for immediate advantage but in anticipation of alter advantage → obesity Problems of dieting Dec food intake activates hunger mechanisms in brain and produce decline in basal metabolism (Rate at which calories are burned while individual is at rest) Lower metabolism makes body convert food to fat more efficiently Avoid high-fat foods and increasing exercise Combo of exercise and diet > just diet Exercise burns up calories immediately and builds muscle which when resting burns calories at higher rate than other tissues

APHASIAS

Broca's ("expressive") aphasia • Non-fluent,effortfulspeech • Comprehension abilities relatively preserved left frontal lobe damage (inferior frontal cortex) Wernicke's ("receptive") aphasia Difficulty comprehending Able to produce fluent output (meaning impaired) left temporal lobe damage (left posterior temporal cortex) How do temporal and frontal regions work together to produce and comprehend complex speech? (see diagram)

development summary

Children do not think like adults (and thus, do not act like adults) They do develop skills in stages ...but perhaps not as stereotyped as Piaget believed Piaget may have underestimated the mental abilities of infants and young children and overestimated those of adolescents and adults Skills tend to build on one another The socio-cultural environment allows for interfacing with others to build skills that allow us to function in society (and in our specific cultures) -- Children learn language largely from interacting with other people; the process is intuitive and innate Critical period for language learning - affects bilingual abilities Auditory cortex has many connections with frontal cortex; dorsal and ventral processing streams likely support complementary cognitive functions Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia patients help us to learn about segregation of language-related functions in the left hemisphere of the brain

COMPLEX LANGUAGE PROCESSING: A DUAL-STREAM MODEL

Dorsal stream = parietal cortex -premotor cortex - dorsal regions of frontal lobe • Motor aspects of speech - translating speech signals to sounds that can be articulated where Ventral stream = anterior temporal lobe - ventral regions of frontal lobe • Maps phonological information onto syntax/semantics what A1; parietal is where, temporal is what

FRONTAL LOBE'S ROLE IN EMOTION

Dr. Antonio Damasio's patient - Elliot: • Frontal lobe tumor the "size of an orange" • Logical reasoning, memory, attention remained intact • Emotional processing: ablated - no feelings regarding his own state • Decision-making: poor - could not assign value to options

Course of Language Development

Early perception of speech sounds Newborns (1-4 days old) could produce sounds by sucking on nipple → sucked more vigorously to produce sound of human voice than others Young infants can hear diff among speech phonemes allow infant to suck on pacifier that triggers playing particular sound each time sucking response occurs → baby bored with sound = reduced rate of sucking → sound is changed and rate of sucking inc (so hears new sound as diff from prev one) 5 months old and older: reward baby with interesting sight for turning head when sound changes → baby soon learns to look to right where visual display appears each time sound changes → can distinguish new sound from old one Babies younger than 6 months old hear diff between any two sounds that are classed as diff phonemes in any of world's languages At 6 mo become relatively better at discriminating btwn sounds that represent diff phonemes in native lang and worse at discriminating between sounds that are classed as same phoneme in native lang Cooing and babbling Birth: vocal signs of distress 2 months: cooing - more speech-like category of sounds, repeated drawn-out vowels (ooh-ooh) 6 months: babbling - repeated consonant and vowel sounds (paa-paa-paa, tooda-tooda) Occur most often when infant is happy; forms of vocal play that help exercise and refine muscle movements needed to produce speech Deaf infants coo and babble at abt same age and in same manner Early bubbles are as likely to contain foreign-langauge sounds as native-language sounds 8 months: babble in ways that mimic rhythm and pitch patterns of lang they what around them 10 months: babble sounds increasingly resemble syllables and words of nnative lang; deaf babies begin to babble w hands (repeat hand movements similar in form and rhythm to sign language seen) → recognizable words appear in vocal/manual babbling Word comprehension precedes word production During babbling phase, infants understand some words/phrases that they what regularly 6 month olds shown videos of parents → looked reliably more at video of anmed parent than at unnamed parent when heard mommy/daddy 9 month olds can respond to number of common words by looking at appropriate obj when it is named and can follow simple verbal commands like get the ball 10-12 months: say first word but may alr know meaning of dozens of words Naming and rapid vocabulary development First words are most often produced in playful spirit → point things out or name them for fun (not to ask for them) New words come slowly at first → 15-20 mo age rate begins to accelerate (word spurt) Between 2-17 yrs, typical person learns about 60,000 words (11 per day) → most of them inferred from context in which others use it (very few explicitly taught) Most of the earliest words learned are nouns that refer to categories of objects in child's environment Shared attention (young children's tendency to look at whatever old person is looking at) heps identify objs that older person is referring to when speaking Infants esp likely to follow adult's gaze when adult is lbealing obj in environment Infants who show most reliable gaze following at 10-11 months show great gains in vocab Have cognitive biases/built-in assumptions that help them narrow down likely referent to new word Mutual exclusivity assumption - Tendency to link new words w objects for which they do not alr know a name; assume new word is not synonym for word they alr know but label for something whose name they didn't know 3-4 yr olds presented w toy animals they could name plus one they couldn't (tapir) → heard novel word gombe in presence of objs → applied it ot novel animal Toddlers begin to manifest this bias (2 yr of life) at same time at which rate of vocab learning begins to inc rapidly By the time they can understand multiword sentences, can use tacit knowledge of grammar to help them infer meaning of new words (nouns, verbs, other parts of speech) Videotaped scene → duck and bunny are biffing → 2 yr olds know implicitly words ending in -ing refer to actions infer that biffing means whatever duck and bunny are both doing "The duck is biffing the bunny" → biffing = whatever duck is doing to bunny "Mommy feeds the ferret" → infer ferret is animal not inanimate obj syntactic bootstrapping Extending words to fit appropriate categories In addition to linking ne word to immediate referent, also learn how to extend it to new referents Applies word to all members of category and not to nonmembers Taxonomic assumption - Infants as young as 12 months behave as though they assume that a newly heard label applies not just to specific obj that has been labeled but also to other objects that are perceptually like original one Biased toward assuming labels are common nouns not proper nouns All men = daddy, useful overall bc vast majority of nouns are common nouns Overextension - use common nouns more broadly than adult usage would allow Results when child implicitly defines new word in terms of just one or a few of prominent features of original referent obj Reason 1: Hears ball → take roundness as defining characteristic → oranges and moons are balls Reason 2: Derive from children's attempts to communicate abt objs that they have not yet learned to name (calls cat doggie but when asked which animals in set of pics are dogs may pick actual dogs and not cats) Usually extend new words appropriately Using grammatical rules 18-24 months begin to put words together → use content words almost exclusively esp nouns and verbs and usually arrange them in grammatically correct sequence for simple, active sentences English: subjects before verbs before objects Billy kick Telegraphic speech - Economical in word choice: using only concrete and high=information words that are most important in conveying meaning (omitting ifs, ands, buts; only high-content words) When children acquire new grammatical rule such as adding -ed → overgeneralize it as first (goed, thinked, swimmed, 3 yo); s → (mouses, sheeps, childs) Overregularization = overgeneralization confirms that children really know rule; don't follow rule only when adults did so not imitation Also shown to use rules with made-up words that they have never heard before → their grammar is based on rules Not taught rules of grammar explicitly; parents rarely correct children's grammar and long-term experiments have shown that deliberate programs of correction grammar have little effect on rule acquisitions Through own devices, children actively and unconsciously infer grammatical rules from examples of rule-based lang spoken

Emotions serve adaptive functions

Darwin proposed that emotions are universal and have species-specific adaptive functions reflected by facial expressions six basic emotions: surprise, anger, sadness, disgust, fear, happiness) Discrete emotion theory - extension of Darwin's functionalist view, belief that basic emotions are innate and associated with distinctive bodily and facial reactions Emotions motivate us to approach objs that can help us and avoid/repel objects that hinder us in efforts to survive and produce → strong emotions focus attention on obj of emotion and lead us to ignore other stuff Engage in emotions and take action baked on emotions in order to fulfill adaptive functions Disgust → keep us away from contamination/illness Shame → behave appropriately and preserve self-esteem Communicate intentions and needs to others → love = faithful mate, fear = submission to attackers and prevent fight, anger = convince objs to change ways) → facial expressions Self-conscious emotions (pride, shame, embarrassment) → successful social life Social situations affect emotions and emotions affect behavior Connect w others, coordinate behavior, gain/retain social acceptance, avoid being exploited Painful feelings → make amends, pride → rewards for behaving effectively Some facial expressions are also part of body's way of dealing with emotion arousing situation Expression of fear = widening of eyes and opening of nasal passages inc field of vision and sensitivity to odors to detect potential threats Disgust - field of ivison and nasal passages narrow → cut off offending sight/odor

FRAMING EFFECT

Decisions are influenced by how the choices are stated (also heuristic); occurs when information is presented in a positive or negative light, influencing consumers to choose between two "equal" options. 600 people are expected to die in a rare-disease outbreak. Which treatment program is the best choice? a) 33% chance that all 600 will be saved; 66% chance no one will be saved. b) 200 people will be saved.x POSITIVE FRAME loss aversion --> rather take smaller gain a) 33% chance that nobody will die; 66% chance that 600 will die. x b) 400 people will die. NEGATIVE FRAME loss aversion --> rather have 33% than ensure loss of 400 ppl - 20% fat, 80% fat free (x) People tend to avoid risk when a positive frame is presented but seek risks when a negative frame is presented.

"CENTRAL-STATE" THEORY

Different drives are governed by distinct neural systems (i.e., one "central drive system" per type) Some overlapping structures between them, e.g., hypothalamus

EMOTION AND THE BRAIN

Direct route: optic structures thalamus amygdala = fast, unconscious processing Indirect route: optic structures thalamus cortical (temporal/frontal) and limbic (amygdala, hippocampus, etc.) = conscious processing

Compulsive Gambling

Euphoric high when gaming/winning; withdrawal symptoms (sweating, restlessness, sleeplessness) Cue in environment associated w gambing elicits urge fMRI show games of chance w/ monetary rewards are powerful activators of nucleus accumbens and other structures known to be part of brains' reward system Payoff never predictable → instance of payoff results in new burst of dopamine release in nucleus accumbens Overrides brain's dopamine-conserving mechanism (usually shuts off response once reward predictable) Brain's primitive reward system behaves as if it constantly trying to learn how to predict and produce reward → repeated reinforcement of associations between payoffs and cues/behaviors → habit Genetics: high lvls of dopamine receptors in brain → high susceptibility to compulsive gambling Same for ppl who take drugs that inc potency of dopamine transmission in brain bc of Parkinson's TLDR: reinforced by dopamine response to unpredicted rewards

Information-Processing Perspective on Mental Development

Explain children's mental development in terms of operational changes in basic components of mental machinery Mind is a system for analyzing info from environment; attention mechanisms for Receiving info, working memory for actively manipulating info, LTM For passively holding info Brains mature and changes in abilities to attend to, remember and use info gleaned thru senses Development of LTM systems Infantile amnesia (inability to rmbr events and exp before 3-4 yrs) is that before this age children do not have well-developed explicit/declarative memory (requires self-awareness and abstract encoding) Implicit memories (affect behavior even when person unable to report them) are available; procedural memories and classical and operant conditioning 2 month old learns to kick w one leg to move mobile, kicks again as soon as mobile appears a day later as much as 4 months later, remembered kicking action if given occasional reminders in which saw mobile but did not have chance to operate it length of time infants can rmbr specific actions on this inc steadily over first 2 yrs of life (by 18 mo infants can rmbr actions for as long as 13 wks) Young children must develop ability to encode exp into words before cna form episodic memories of exp Toddlers remembered novel event only if they had sufficiently sophisticated vocab at time of exp irrespective of lang ability 6 months later when questioned Preverbal infants can form some types of episodic memories when testing is done via deferred imitation of previously observed actions Deferred imitation - reproducing behavior of a model some significant time (hrs/days) after watching model → if can do this, implies have developed mental representation of action that they were able to retrieve some significant time alter when given appropriate context Piaget: required symbolic representation so not until 18-24 months → research has shown at 9 months old will copy actions of model up to 5 weeks later Form of explicit memory: ppl w/ Anterograde amnesia (can't form episodic memories) are also unable to learn new actions via deferred imitation At age 3 children begin to talk abt exp as they exp them → help them make sense of what they are doing, may be essential to formation of episodic memories At first depends on older convo partner who can help child organize exp in coherent way and find appropriate words for it Children correctly recalled items seen at museum that had been commented on jointly by both mom and child in convo (just mom or child not recalled) Preschool children whose moms provide evaluations of children's memory performance and use more elaborate lang when talking abt memory w child → children who rmbr past events better Ability to form detailed long-lasting episodic memories inc gradually throughout years of childhood and reaches plateau in late adolescence or young adulthood; improvement accompanied by maturation of brain in prefrontal lobes (connections between former and other portions of brain crucial to formation and recall of episodic memories) Development of Basic-Level Processes: Executive Function Executive functions (mental processes involved in regulation of thought and behavior) have three related component: working memory (Updating), inhibition, switching (cognitive flexibility) Speed with which can process info is related Amt of either verbal or visual info that person can hold in working memory at any given time inc steadily throughout childhood and reaches adult levels at about age 15; accompanied by improved performance on standard tests of fluid intelligence Inhibition abilities and ability to resist interference improve over childhood Inhibition tasks include Simon Says, tapping task (tap once each time examiner taps twice and tap twice each time examiner taps once), opposites task (pointing to one of two pics an interviewer did not point to) Young children have hard time inhibiting speech → children shown picture book and asked to anime only certain pics on page (like ppl) and not others (animals) -->kindergarten children showed no tendency to inhibit responses and mentioned both sets frequently Sudden changes of topic while talking Can assess by presenting attractive option they are supposed to avoid to see how well they are at resisting temptation dieting) 4 year olds sat at table w bell and two treats → experimenter leaves room If kid waits, can have two treats; if don't want to wait can ring bell and bring back then can only have one treat Some children waited for up to 15 mins, most rang bell/ate single marshmallow rather than waiting to get 2 Reevaluated child subjects again as adolescents and third time in early 30s Longer 4 year olds willing to wait = higher SAT scores and school grades, better able to concentrate and deal w stress, healthier BMIs, higher sense of self worth, less vulnerable to psychosocial maladjustment Predict adult outcomes w respect to physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal behavior based on childhood measures of self-control had similar findings Young children had difficulty shifting from one task or set of rules to another DImensional Card Sorting Task (simplified variant of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test): children shown set of cards w pics drawn on them (cars/flowers in red/blue) Shape game: put cars in oen pile and flowers in other Color game: Red in one and blue in other Three-year-olds can play either game, but if told to switch to other game reminded of rule and can state rule) → continue to sort by old rule 4 year olds succeed Changes in executive function occur at other end of life-span continuum: older adults have declines in all 3 aspects Speed of processing - speed at which elementary information-processing tasks can be carried out, correlated w measures of executive of function Assessed w reaction-time tests that require simple judgment such as where two letters are same or arrowhead left or right Age related improvement in speed up to 15 yrs of age Faster speed = faster mental movement from one item of info to another = improve ability to keep track of/hold number of diff items in working memory at once May result from physical maturation of brain independent of specific exp 9-10 yr old boys judged as physically mature for age (height as % of predicted adult height) exhibited faster reaction times than boys of same age who were less mature Prefrontal cortex plays major role; one of last brain areas to fully develop Performance on executive-function tasks correlated w development of prefrontal cortex from infancy thru adolescence Use fMRI to examine brain activity of subjects between 8 and 30 yrs while performing inhibition tasks → adolescents showed greater neural activity in prefrontal cortex than children/adults Altho task performance inc gradually w age, brain activation in frontal cortex inc sharply btwn childhood and adolescence and dec in adulthood

TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE

General (g) Underlying mental ability Performance on intelligence-related tests If you're good at one, you're likely good at them all Fluid Ability to understand relationships between stimuli Memory span, spatial processing, etc. • • Largely innate Crystallized Abilities derived from previous experience Words, rules, cultural practices, how stuff works Prior-knowledge- based

Chomsky's concept of innate language-learning device

Grammatical rules are fundamental properties of human mind Other psychologists og thought sentences are generated in chain-like fashion (one word trigger next in sequence) → Chomsky emphasized hierarchical structure of sentences Person must have some meaningful representation of whole sentence in mind before uttering it and then must apply grammatical rules to that representation in order to fill out loewe levels of hierarchy Grammatical rules = aspects of human mind that link spoken sentences ultimately to mind's system for representing meanings Universal grammar - altho specific grammatical rules vary from one lang to another they are all based to these certain fundamental principles, innate properties of human mind Account for universal characters of lang Language-acquisition device (LAD) - entire set of innate mental mechanisms that enable child to acquire lang quickly and efficiently Inborn foundations for universal grammar and inborn mechanisms that guide children's learning of rules of culture's lang Support for concept comes from observations of language-learning deficits in ppl who have suffered damage to particular brain areas or have particular genetic disorder specific lang impairment) characterized primarily by difficulty articulating words, distinguishing speech sounds from other sounds, and learning grammatical rules Critical period for learning grammar of first language LAD functions more effectively during first 10 yrs of life Children deprived of opp to hear and interact w lang during first 10 yrs have difficulty learning lang later on and never master grammar (observations of deaf children who were not exposed to true lang until adolescence or hearing person discovered who was deprived of lang thruout childhood) Genie → locked into room until age 13 rescued → grammar showed little improvement aft learning Ppl who learn first lang within critical period can learn second lang reasonably well at any time in life tho not quite as well as earlier (after age 10/11 → speak with accent and do not acquire grammar as fully)

Puberty

Head and brain grow rapidly over first 5-6 yrs and approach adult levels by age 10, lymphoid system (thymus and lymph glands) develop rapidly early in life greatly exceeding adult dimensions by age 12 and dec during adolescence, reproductive system little grow until adolescence, height rapid during infancy and preschool yrs, more gradual and then accelerates in adolescence ___ developmental stage leading up to adolescence when glands associated with reproductive system begin to enlarge, bringing about changes in physical appearance and behavior Inc in hormones (male: androgens esp testosterone; female: estrogens and progesterone) contribute to changes in physical stature (growth spurt, a yr earlier in girls than boys), productive ability (sperm and viable eggs), and emotions + behavior related to sexual attraction Series of related events 4-5 yrs Initial breast development 11 yrs and completed by 15/16 Menstrual period (menarche) at 13 yrs, do not become fertile (conceive kid) until 15/16 bc eggs not produced in first ⅔ yrs of menstrual cycles Girl's growth spurt age 12 → skeletal growth complete between 14-15 yrs of age Testes begin in inc in size between 11-12 yrs, penis inc in size abt 13 yrs First nocturnal emission at 14 and facial hair btwn 15-16 Male voice change begins at 13 → developed adult male voice by 15 Age of menarche has decreased over historical times due to better nutrition (overweight girls attain menarche sooner; diet may be associated w other signs of earlier puberty) → avg age has not changed substantially in last 50 yrs or so (in US 12 yrs old) Avg age of breast development and presence of pubic hair continues to decline (avg age 9 yrs old, some as early as age 3) bc of exposure to passive tobacco smoke, insecticides, arsenic, polybrominated biphenyls (fire retardant), chemicals used in common plastics, and obesity-associated hormonal changes

IQ differences between cultural groups

Heritability coefficients are limited to population that was studied Within-group heritability coefficients can't be applied to between-group differences Height in ppl is more than 90% heritable when measured for given cultural group, but group diff in height are result of environment (Japanese men born in CA 3 in taller than Japanese men born in Japan due to diff in diet during childhoods) Members of two groups did not differ genetically on average Diff Types of Minority Status have diff effects on IQ Ogbu: voluntary minorities and involuntary/castelike minorities Voluntary minorities = groups such as ITalian Americans and Chinese Americans who emigrated in hopes of bettering themselves and see themselves as better off Involuntary minorities = African americans and native americans who became minorities thru being conquered, colonized, enslaved → treated as separate, inferior class Involuntary minorities perform more poorly in school than dominant majority (10-15 pt lower) Buraku = cultural class not racially distinct from other Japanese → implicit perceived as inferior by dominant majority → gap in school achievement and IQ between them and majority group in Japan is same as blacks and whites in US → Gap disappear when Buraku move to US (Japanese Americans) Sense that one is outcast oppresses minorities and depress scholastic achievements and IQ

INTELLIGENCE

Historically: "A loose set of higher-order mental abilities that can be increased by schooling" (Binet) ". . . that facet of mind underlying our capacity to think, to solve novel problems, to reason and to have knowledge of the world." (Anderson) "...a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings — 'catching on,' 'making sense' of things, or 'figuring out' what to do." Verbal Skills: • What is the definition of HAMPER?• In what ways are SIMMER and COOK related? • In what year did the Twin Towers fall? Visuo-Spatial Processing Working Memory 37691 376916 3769168 37691685 376916857 Processing Speed ----- variable capacity that underlies individual differences in reasoning, solving problems, and acquiring new knowledge

Common Currency Signal Tracking

How do we choose between seemingly completely different options, say, 50,000 in cash or a new car? orbitofrontal cortex take option and put them in the same category (neurons light up) they're all $50,000 reward

decision making summary

Humans are notoriously non-objective decision-makers Heuristics and biases can aid in efficiency, but they don't typically result in the most informed decisions (we don't have time and energy) Dual processes, likely mapping onto distinct neural pathways, are often at play

INTEGRATIVE PROCESSES

INTELLIGENCE AND DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES SHARE... Prefrontal Cortex: Ventromedial, orbitofrontal, dorsolateral Executive Function, Attention, Memory, Working Memory

facial feedback theory of emotion

Influence of facial feedback on emotional experience Ekman found that diff basic emotions are associated w diff facial expressions (rapid and automatic though can be inhibited) → sensory feedback from facial exp contributes both to emotional feelings and to production of full-body rxns that accompany emotions Hold pencil between teeth either smiling exp or not → smiling ppl enjoyed funny films more Contract certain facial muscles to mimic fear/anger/sorrow/happiness → exp more of the specific emotions whether or not they were aware that they were mimicking it Move specific facial muscles in ways to mimic each of six basic emotional exp; asked other subj to exp each emotion by mentally reliving event → various indices of physiological arousal recorded Diff patterns of arousal accompanied diff emotions Pattern of given emotion was same whether relive emotion or move muscles Anger → inc in skin temp blood flows into skin); anger and fear → increase HR

ADVANCED ABILITIES

Long-term Memory Episodic is the last memory system to develop Declarative memory comes around age 4 Memory solidified by dialogue with others Tied to development of prefrontal cortex Executive Function • Regulation and processing involved in higher-level functions • Working memory, cognitive inhibition, task- switching all get better up until ~age 15 • Processing speed increases in parallel

Possible basis for g

Mental speed Modest correlation between speed of responding and intelligence Inspection time - minimal time that subjects need to look at or listen to a pair of stimuli to detect diff between them Flash two diff parallel lines on screen → say which one is longer; diff durations (0.3 for fluid, 0.2 for crystallized) → about as strong as untimed IQ tests and timed Executive functions Executive functions - set of relatively basic and g general-purpose info processing mechanisms that help plan, regulate behavior, perform complex cognitive tasks Three components: working memory, switching, inhibition Faster you can process info = more items can maintain in working memory to make mental calculation or decide → high correlation between mental speed and working memory → perhaps why mental speed correlate pos w fluid intelligence Working-memory-span tasks: remember info while performing some work on info (solve probs and recall in order sum of each prob) Better than memory-span (digit span) Age 5 predicted academic performance at age 11 better than IQ Intellectual impairment perform more poorly on executive function tasks, gifted children have higher levels of executive functions Children's ability to self-regulate emotions and behaviors accounted for more than twice as much of individual diff in measures of academic performance as did IQ Sternberg: ppl who perform well on intelligence tests can control mental resources in way that allows for efficiency in prob solving ("slow" thinking system): remain focused, avoid distraction, distinguish between relevant and irrelevant info → skills also involved in IQ tests and subtests (esp fluid) Some consider fluid = executive functions Evolutionary adaptation for novelty Social and emotional competence do not correlate w intelligence G evolved in humans to solve probs that are evolutionarily novel (conditions never regularly faced by evolutionary ancestors) → survival

MEASURING INTELLIGENCE

Most common test = WAIS • Assigns a score by looking at competency in several areasIQ score • Different versions for different ages (e.g., preschool v. adult) • Average IQ score in the population at large is 100 IQ IS NORMALLY DISTRIBUTED IN THE POPULATION Average score for the population at any given time is assigned the value "100"

Effects of Bodily Responses on Emotional Feelings (theories)

Most emotional states are accompanied by peripheral changes in body (all changes in body outside of CNS; HR, blood pressure, diversion of blood from one set of tissues to another, activation of glands, tension in muscles, facial expression) → adaptive bc communicative function/role in helping prep body for action Common-Sense Theory: peripheral changes caused by emotions William James' Peripheral Feedback Theory of Emotion - bodily reactions precede emotions and cause them Evidence came from introspection: emotional feelings were sensations stemming from bodily changes Quickened heart, shallow breathing, gooseflesh, trembling limbs → fear Flushed face, dilated nostrils, clenched teeth → anger Could identify diff constellation of bodily changes for each emotion and if could not feel these changes would not feel emotion Bodily reaction to an emotion-provoking stimulus is automatic, occurring w/o conscious thought or feeling, and that the assessment of one's emotional state follows based on perception of bodily state Evidence: ppl describe emotions in terms of bodily changes and consistent in kinds of changes they associate with each emotion Ppl who are particularly good at detecting changes in own internal condition (ex: heart rate) are more likely than others to detect and report emotional states in themselves Brain imaging studies: certain portion of somatosensory area of cerebral cortex, which becomes active when person is sensing his or her own bodily state, also becomes active when person is consciously assessing his or her own emotional state Schachter's Cognition-Plus-Feedback Theory - feeling of an emotion depends not just on sensory feedback pertaining to body's response but also on person's perceptions and thoughts/cognitions abt environmental event that evoked response Perception and thought abt environment influence type of emotion felt, sensory feedback abt degree of bodily arousal influences intensity of emotion felt Intensity of emotional feeling influences interpretation of stimulus bodily arousal already high → contribute to emotional intensity and perceive bear as more dangerous than otherwise would) Injected ppl with epinephrine (adrenaline - raise HR and high arousal) or placebo → expose to various emotion-eliciting conditions Epinephrine alone did not produce any particular emotions (subjects felt jumpy) but when combined w horror film increased intensity of subject's emotion Emotions depended on external situation, intensity heightened by epi Emotion-enhancing effect occurred only if subjects had no been informed of physiological effects of epinephrine → high physiological arousal inc emotion ONLY when ppl believe arousal caused by external situation Emotions are defined not just by feelings but also by perceived objs of those feelings

emotion summary

Multiple brain circuits play a role in our emotional experiences: Direct/fast = limbic-system-driven Indirect/slow = frontal-lobe-driven Different theories postulate different levels of involvement of cognitive processing Physical manifestations (e.g., facial expressions) can alter our internal states

Piaget's Theory (Role of Child's Own Actions in Mental Growth)

Observations of convos and play, test children w specific tasks to solve and question them abt reasons Mental development derives from child's own actions on physical environment Children in play exploration are figuring out what they can do w various objs schemes - mental blueprints for actions; mental representation of a bodily movement or of something that a person can do w obj or category of objects Earliest are closely tied to specific objs and called forth only by immediate presence → sucking for nipples, grasping for rattles, smiling for faces → develop more abstract ones that are less closely tied to physical actions/immediate environment → schemes for mental actions Develop thru two complementary processes Assimilation - process by which ne wexp are incorporated into existing schemes New exp that are too diff from existing schemes to be mentally digested will not result in mental growth ex calculator given to infant will not contribute to arithmetic skills bc no calculating scheme → assimilate into sucking/banging scheme) Accommodation - assimilation require that existing schemes expand/change to accommodate new obj/event; addition of new info changes somewhat structure of schemes Children behave like little scientists - exploratory play is like experimentation (manipulate objs to see what happens) → drawn to experiences that can be assimilated into existing schemes but not too easily so accommodation is required → maximize mental growth Infant's scheme for stacking objects → place object above open container and object falls → violate stacking scheme that obj placed on top of another will remain on top → spend items dropping various objs in various containers → modify/accommodate his scheme to include notion that if one obj is hollow and open-topped smaller obj placed over top will fall inside; other schemes that include notion that two objs cannot occupy same place at same time also undergo accommodation 4-5 yr olds presented w box that had two levers sticking out of it (one lever =--> toy duck, other is puppet made of drinking straws) One demonstration condition: each lever pressed separately Other condition: pressed simultaneously Children who seen later chose to play much more w box than w new toy (opp for other children) → first group could see what each lever did were no longer interested bc had little more to learn from it, but latter group wanted to try each elver separately Preschool children learned more abt functions of novel toy when allowed to play w it than when they were shown one function of toy → play oriented toward discovery not repetition of alr known effects Operations - reversible actions whose effects can be undone by other actions, promote development Rolling ball of clay into sausage shape → roll back into ball; turn light Gradually develop operational schemes - mental blueprints that allow them to think abt reversibility of their actions → help understand basic physical principles (ex: conservation of substance - amt of clay remain same as clay changes shape; cause and effect - light switch) Four schemes in 4 stages of development Criticisms of PIaget's Theory of Stages (he still had greatest impact on developmental psych tho) Piaget: transitions from stage to stage are gradual, schemes develop slowly Underestimated mental abilities of infants and young children and overestimated those of adolescents and adults Violation-of-expectation experiment show that 3 mo old infants expect objects to continue to exist when out of view → contrary to assertion that infants in sensorimotor stage cannot think of absent objects 4-5 yr olds can pass at least some tests of concrete-operational reasoning if probs presented clearly without distractions and w simple words Have trained concrete-operational children to perform formal-operational tasks

Reward neurons in brain

Olds and Milner: rats can electrically stimulate own brains by pressing lever → keep doing it Work hardest and longest to stimulate tract in brain called medial forebrain bundle -neurons have cell bodies in nuclei in midbrain and synaptic terminals in large nucleus in basal ganglia called nucleus accumbens (connect to large areas of limbic system and cerebral cortex) → crucial center for behavioral effects of rewards Active for all sorts of rewards Damage to either brain structures destroyed motivated behaviors → die unless stomach tube

DECISION MAKING

R ATION AL V. RE AL LIFE RATIONAL CHOICE MODELS FALL SHORT IN THE REAL WORLD (not linear graph = pure logic and statistics)

hunger hormones

Peptide YY (PYY) - appetite-suppressing hormone produced by special endocrine cells in large intestine Food entering intestines stimulates secretion into bloodstream (inc 15 mins after meal is eaten, peak at 60 mins, elevated for as long as 6 hrs) One of the target tissues is arcuate nucleus → excites appetite-suppressing neuron, inhibit other Injection of extra into bloodstream reduces total food consumed (30%) Lean subjects had higher baseline levels of naturally produced hormones than obese, also much greater inc following meal Insufficient production may be contributing cause of obesity Leptin contributes to long-term control of appetite and bodyweight In short term eating provides immediate supply of building blocks like amino acids and energy molecules like glucose to grow, repair, and fuel body Over long term eating adds to amt of fat stored in special fat cells in various tissues of body → extra source of energy that body can call upon when food is not available Too much fat impedes movement and puts stress on organs Fat cells in mammals secrete hormone called leptin at rate directly proportional to amt of fat in cells → taken up into brain and acts on neurons in arcuate nucleus and other parts of hypothalamus to reduce appetite Animals that lack either gene needed to produce leptin or gene to produce receptor sites for leptin in hypothalamus become obese → ppl can be treated with daily injections of leptin Not good anti-obesity drug bc hunger is reduced by increased leptin only upt o certain level Most overweight ppl already have blood concentrations of leptin above level and additional leptin has no effect Many obese ppl feel chronically hungry not bc lack leptin but bc brains are relatively insesntiive to hormone Instead maybe drug that help restore leptin sensitivity

ADDICTION

REINFORCEMENT MECHANISMS Long-Term Potentiation: "Neurons that fire together, wire together" learning mechanism in drug addiction: Drugs cause dopamine release into the nucleus accumbens each time they are taken Leads to super-reinforcement of cues and actions associated with obtaining the drug; hence, addiction -- sex, gambling, food, Reddit limbic system --> emotional and behavioral responses, "reward center" release ntm drugs imitate ntm or change level of ntm -- Drug addiction Cocaine, amphetamine, heroin, opium → action on brain's reward pathways Mimic or promote effects of dopamine and endorphins in nucleus accumbens Rats will self-administer cocaine and other drugs and become addicted but will stop if nucleus accumbens destroyed or chemically blocked Work as hard to administer tiny amts thru cannula into N.A. as larger amts into bloodstream Produce immediate sense of euphoria and strongly activate dopamine-receiving neurons in nucleus accumbens → promote reward-based learning Normal rewards activate neurons only when reward unexpected but drugs activate every time taken → super-learning: each dose of drug causes dopamine response acts to reinforce associations between cues in environment and feelings/behaviors of wanting and taking drug → strong craving and habit Addicts lose "liking" (enjoyment) over time while "wanting" increases Drug-induced changes in brain reduce endorphin-mediated pleasure response Dopamine response not reduced

Functional classification of Mammalian drives (evolutionary function)

Regulatory drives - drives that promote survival by helping to maintain body's homeostasis (hunger and thirst) Safety drives - motivate animal to avoid, escape, or fend off dangers such as precipices, predators, or enemies (fear motivates to flee from danger, anger when fighting to ensure safety, sleep cause dangerous if moving about) Reproductive drives - sexual drive and drive to care for young once they are born; may risk lives to mate and protect offspring (sexual jealousy promotes fidelity of sexual partner) Social drives - cooperation of others to survive (friendship, acceptance and approval by social groups, very powerful) Educative drives - drives to play and ot explore (curiosity); young practice life-sustaining skills thru play and acquire useful info abt environment by exploring

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

Sensory feedback from facial expressions we make leads to emotional experience as well as other full- body reactions that accompany emotions We use around 22 categories - including subtle things like hatred and awe

How Infants Learn about the Environment

Sensory systems all function at birth (vision immature) → turn toward sounds, touch, away from unpleasant odors, suck for sweet than sour, orient eyes toward high-contrast or moving visual stimuli Infants look selectively at novel objects Gaze longer at new stimuli than familiar ones Habituation - when shown pattern look at intently at first and then look at it less and less over mins, decline in attention Dishabituation - if new pattern substituted for old one inc looking time Look at new stimuli bc have more to learn than old stimuli Infants as young as 1 day old perceived diff btwn two checkboards and remembered that diff over seconds → looked longer at new checkerboard Seek to control environments Within few weeks after birth 2 month olds smiled and attend more to mobile that moved in response to their own bodily movement than motor-driven vehicle 4 month olds learned to make particular movement to turn on small array of lights but lost interest and responded only occasionally → when conditions were changed so that diff movement as needed to turn on lights regained interest → new relationship between response and same lights → interested in ability to control lights not lights Infants learned to turn on video and sound by pulling strings showed facial expressions of anger when device was disconnected so could no longer control it → older babies showed both anger and sadness even when recording still came on as often as before but under control of experimenter → loss of control upset infants Explore increasingly with hands and eyes together During 3-4 months: put everything in mouths → test objects' properties 5-6 mo: examining - manipulate and explore objects by holding it in front of their eyes, turn it from side to side, pass it from one hand to other, rub it, squeeze it, etc. Decline dramatically as infant becomes familiar w given object but return when new obj Involves focused mental activity; babies more difficult to distract with bright visual stimuli during examination than at other times Instinctive; do it in every culture whether or not behavior is encouraged (!Kung San group) Use social cues to guide exploration Gaze following - latter half of first year of life, watch eyes of nearby person and move own eyes to look at what that person is looking at If adult's eyes closed/cover, baby does not look in direction adult is facing Attend to objs and events that are of greatest interest to elders → for survival Promote language development (adult name obj = know what adult is naming) → babies who show most reliable gaze following learn language faster See others as Intentional agents - individuals who cause things to happen and whose behavior is designed to achieve some goal; around mo of age Shared attention (joint attention) with another person - three-way interaction between infant, person, object Adult point out objs that both can see 12 mo of age, infants point to alert others to objs they are not attending to 12-18 months: point to direct adult's attention to object adult is searching for Social referencing - look at caregivers' emotional expressions for clues about possible danger of own actions (toward end of first year- can crawl/walk) 12-month-olds don't crawl over slight visual cliff if mom showed facial exp of fear but crawled if joy/interest 12 month olds avoided new toy if mom showed facial exp of disgust toward it

bilinguals

Simultaneous bilinguals: exposed from birth to two languages and are typically equally (or nearly so) fluent in both languages Sequential bilinguals: learn a second language after mastering their first Costs and benefits • Bilingual children have - Smaller vocabularies Greater executive functions Greater chance of success in learning the subtleties of both language if introduced during early life

Flynn effect

THE WAY WE MEASURE IQ IS BIASED IQ goes up about 10-15 points per 30-year period Tests/scoring get adjusted to make up for this (keep avg 100)

HOW BABIES LEARN

THEY LOOK AT STUFF THAT'S INTERESTING Infants look selectivity at things they haven't seen before + things that deviate from a pattern (dishabituation) Paying attention to novelty is adaptive Combination of physical and visual exploration during first 6 months: during months 3-4, they'll put almost anything in their mouths! ...AND THEY LOOK AT US TO GUIDE THEM Social cues help them know what to focus on and what to do • Shared attention (9-12 months): engagement with another person + an object • Social referencing (~11-12 months): using cues from another person to guide behavior INFANTS' KNOWLEDGE OF HOW STUFF WORKS Infants look longer at interesting / attention-grabbing things We can leverage this idea to see the extent to which they know something is novel or interesting Selective-looking experiments: Possible v. impossible events - can distinguish as early as 2-3 months Object permanence develops around 5 months

Behavioral states

slower-changing components of mind, include variations in motivation, emotion, and lvl of arousal

Bilingualism

The earlier children are exposed to a second language the greater the chances that they will become proficient in it; the more similar two lang are to one another the easier it is to learn second lang Simultaneous bilinguals - exposed from birth to two languages and are typically equally (or nearly so) fluent in both languages Sequential bilinguals - learn second lang after mastering first; first lang is usually dominant/most proficient one (retain accent) Ppl who master second lang relatively late in life do so in a diff neurological way than two lang at same time Early bilinguals: same areas of brain "lit up" when speaking sentences in both languages "Late bilinguals" learned second lang in adolescence/adulthood had diff patterns of brain activation depending on speaking first vs. second lang Children's brains are prep early in life for processing lang but w age lose ability → learn second lang later in life is not done as easily and is accomplished using diff but overlapping parts of brain Disadvantages children learning two lang at once typically show delay in syntactic development and have smaller vocabularies in each lang relative to monolingual children (total vocab of both lang are comparable to that of monolingual) Bilinguals are slower at retrieving individual words from LTM Advantages Recognize wider range of phonemes than monolinguals More sensitive toward cultural values of speakers of both languages they have mastered Enchanted executive functions (minimize interference between their languages): greater levels of task switching and inhibition Even in 7 month old infants had better inhibition and switching abilities (judged by looking time in study that required them to look to right or left to see dancing puppet then switching sides where puppet was shown) Postpone decline in executive function that occurs in old age that occurs in old age

MOTIVATION summary

The motivated pursuit of goals is underpinned by multiple concurrent processes (e.g., executive function, working memory, attention) Rewards are processed through liking, wanting, and reinforcement mechanisms, all of which are supported by distinct neural mechanisms Long-term potentiation is one way that the brain changes when learning occurs, such that we will continue to associated certain stimuli with expected reward

prenatal development

Women release one egg/ovum from one of ovaries each month, men release 250 million sperm w each ejaculation → one of them impregnate egg in fallopian tube (connects ovaries to uterus/womb) Three phases: Zygotic (germinal) phase Sperm joins egg, combining 23 nuclear genes from mom with 23 from father → take abt two weeks for zygote to get to uterus Zygote divides many times, eventually implanting in uterine wall 40% of zygotes do not survive this earliest phase of prenatal development ⅓ of implanted are lost in later phases by spontaneous abortions/miscarrriages Embryonic phase Third to eighth week after conception Embryo's major organ systems develop Nutrition from mom's bloodstream via umbilical cord thru placenta (develops inside uterus during pregnancy) Placenta also exchanges O2, antibodies, and wastes between mom and embryo Fetal phase Nine weeks until birth (38 weeks after concept) Growth and refinement of organs and body structure 3 months: fetus s2.5 in long and half oz → six mo later 20 in and 7.5 lbs Fetus also change in proportion: head of fetus at week proportionally large relative to rest of body, dec by time baby is born (still 20% >>> adult head 12% of body) Cephalocaudal development - change in proportions (development progressing from head to foot) 12th week: all organs formed, not functioning well; are in same proportion to each other as full-term newborn just smaller 9th week: external genitalia begin to differentiate between male and females but not fully form until 12 8th week: embryo begins to move → activity inc by 12 week; most moms don't' feel baby move until 4th or 5th month of pregnancy Fetuses are able to perceive some stimuli: suck their thumbs, respond to touch → 6 months: respond to mom's heartbeat and sounds outside womb including language → infants show preference for mom's voices immediately after birth (so auditory system functioning well before birth)

Creole language

Young children invent grammar when it is lacking in speech around them New languages occasionally arise when ppl form many diff lang cultures simultaneously colonize an area and begin to communicate w one another → first-generation colonists communicate thru primitive, grammarless collection o words taken from various native languages Pidgin language = communication system Creole language - pidgin language develops into true language with full range of grammatical rules Some of them were developed within one generation by children of og colonists Children imposed grammatical rules on pidgin they heard and used rules consistently in own speech → children's minds innately predisposed to grammar New sign language among deaf children in NIcaragua Prior to 1977 had little opportunity to meet other deaf ppl (no community or common sign language) → first Nicaraguan school for deaf was founded (did not teach sign language but attempted to teach deaf to speak and lip-read vocal language → fail) Students begin to communicate using hand signs (at first manual pidgin → signs become increasingly reuglarized and efficient → system of grammar) Occurred naturally w no formal teaching Youngest students had most contribution;those who were more than 10 yrs old not only failed to contribute but also learned little of it Became official sign language of NIcaragua; morphemes are elementary hand movements and grammatical rules stipulate how morphemes can be combined Children tacitly assume that lang has grammar and unconsciously read grammar into lang

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence skew recollections to support theory

Fluid intelligence

ability to perceive relationships among stimuli independently of previous specific practice or instruction concerning those relationships Identify similarity/diff between stimulus items never prev experienced or so common that everyone in tested population exp them Fluid abilities are biologically determined and reflected by tests of memory span, speed of processing, and spatial thinking Raven's Progressive Matrices test Verbal analogy problems constructed from common words (if uncommon it would be crystallized)

Theory of mind

ability to understand one's own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as those of others UNDERSTANDING OTHERS' BELIEFS Understanding beliefs (especially false - that people can believe something that isn't "true") doesn't come until age 4 Make-believe acts as a precursor to the belief-reality distinction Even toddlers distinguish between reality and pretense - may serve as a basis for later understanding of false beliefs

Brain Mechanisms of Emotion

amygdala and prefrontal portion of cerebral cortex Amygdala assesses emotional significance of stimuli Amygdala = cluster of nuclei buried underneath cerebral cortex in temporal lobe, part of limbic system Early warning system Receives stimulus input from all sensory systems → continuous, rapid assessments of input → alerts rest of brain and body if judge that some sort of whole-body or behavioral rxn amy be called for Receives sensory input by way of tow routes Rapid subcortical route: analyze info even before info processed by sensory areas of cerebral cortex Slower cortical route: analyze in more detail info that has been processed by cerebral cortex Sends output to many other brain structures → alerts rest of brain to pay attention to stimulus and generates bodily rxn like increased HR and muscle tension Removal amygdala w nearby portion of temporal lobe on both sides of monkey brain → psychic blindness: can still see objects and move in coordinated fashion but indifferent to psychological significant of objects → don't respond fearfully/aggressively to objects that previously did Failed to distinguish in the usual ways between foods and nonfoods and appropriate and inappropriate objs for sexual attention Humans who have suffered partial damage to amygdala show loss in fear/anger Fail to respond emotionally to stimuli like pics of frightening/disgusting scenes Increased neural activity in amygdala correlates w inc in fear/anger/disgust Also activated but less so by stimuli that induce positive emotions Generally involved in processing relevance of stimuli both pos and neg In men left amygdala became active in response to appealing pics (hot women and foods) Ppl even react emotionally stimuli (such as angry words or faces) that are flashed too rapidly for conscious perception → prob occurs via subcortical sensory input Rats with lesions destroying visual and auditory cortex but not amygdala continue to respond emotionally to sights and sounds that had prev been paired with electric shock but rats w/ destroy amygdala did not Ppl who have damage to visual cortex respond emotionally to visual stimuli that can't consciously see Sensory areas of cortex are essential for conscious perception of stimuli but not for unconscious emotional responses to them; subcortical pathways explain why emotions are often irrational and difficult to control thru conscious reasoning Prefrontal cortex is essential for conscious experience of emotion Full conscious experience of emotions and ability to act in deliberate, planned ways based on those feelings Ppl with prefrontal lobotomy (disconnects prefrontal area from rest of brain for severe mental disorders) → relieved emotional feelings but unable to plan and organize lives effectively Receives input from amygdala and somatosensory cortex, info abt amygdala's assessment of stimulus and body's state of arousal Two cortical hemispheres involved in processing diff emotions EEG/fMRI shown greater neural activity in right prefrontal cortex when exp negative emotions (fear and disgust) and greater activity in left prefrontal cortex when exp positive emotions Laterality of neural activity has more to do w neural prep to respond to emotional stimuli than actual exp of emotion Right prefrontal cortex involved w responses that entail withdrawal - moving away from emotional stimulus Left prefrontal cortex involved in responses that involve approach - moving toward emotional stimulus Anger is negative emotion but tends to evok approach (confront/fight) rather than withdrawal → greater activation of left prefrontal cortex than right

Mood

an emotional feeling experienced as free-floating rather than directed at particular object; lasts for sufficiently long period → can color all aspects of thought and behavior Feeling of unhappy, tense, jittery = anxiety mood = fear emotion; sad and upset feeling = depression mood = grief emotion

Nature-nurture debate

are psychological diff among ppl primarily the result of diff in genes or environments?; how do nature and nurture interact to produce a particular pattern of development or of intelligence? It depends on whose IQs you compare Given that genes and environment are both essential for any trait to develop, it's absurd to think that one contributes more than other to trait Reasonable to ask whether differences in trait among individuals result more from diff in genes or diff in environment Heritability does not tell us abt relative roles of genes and environment in development of trait within individual; only informs us abt relative roles in contributing to variability of trait within population Genes always expressed in environ; effect of genes differ depending on environ

Validity of IQ tests

as predictors of achievement Assessed in terms of tests' abilities to predict success in school and careers IQ scores correlate moderately well with grades in school Higher IQ scores more likely to gain employment in intellectual demanding occupations such as medicine, law, science, business management (even in same socioeconomic background) Conclusions limited bc these jobs generally require high education attainment Correlate IQ with on job performance measured by supervisors'/colleagues' ratings/direct observe Moderate positive correlations, strength depends on type of jobs (jobs that require little judgment and reasoning like assembly line → 0.2; scientist, accountant, shop manager → 0.5) for jobs in high-mental-complexity category, IQ tests are better predictors of performance than any other measures that have been developed incl measures aimed at testing specific knowledge and skills related to job Correlate positively to physical and mental health, fewer non-intentional and intentional injuries, lower incidence of late-onset dementia longevity (even for ppl similar in education and socioeconomic status) Better selfcare: IQ scores correlate positively w physical fitness and healthy diets and negatively w alcoholism, smoking, obesity, and traffic accidents

Homeostasis

constancy of internal conditions that body must actively maintain (body temp, O2, minerals, H2O, food molecules) Basic physiological underpinning for some drives is loss → acts on nervous system to induce behaviors Animals eat more/less of food to keep caloric intake constant, eat more salt if a lot lost in urine, kid named D.W. craved salt bc adrenal glands deficient Regulatory drive - helps preserve homeostasis (ex: hunger) Nonregulatory drive - serves some other purpose like sex) --- Human drives that seem not to promote survival or reproduction Art, music, literature (oral stories, poetry); aesthetic drives Natural extensions of drives for play and exploration → exercise perceptual and motor skills, imagination, and creative thinking → useful in future or governing own lives Enhance status in social group and impress members of opp sex OR Tap into many of already existing drives and proclivities: book/movie appeals to drives for sex, love, social esteem, parenting, achievement, aggression Drug addictions and compulsive gambling

Heritability

degree to which variation in particular trait, within a particular population of individuals, stems from genetic differences as opposed to environment differences Heritability coefficient - statistic that ranges from 0 (none of diff in trait attributed to inheritance) to 1, reflect portion of differences in observed trait that is due to genetic variability Does not say anything about how much of any trait is due to genetic factors, only what percentage of diff in trait within specific population can be attributed to inheritance The more variable the environments are between ppl in population, the lower heritability will be → heritability is relative, varying with environmental conditions in which ppl within population live Family studies of heritability of intelligence Related ppl typically share similar environments → don't know if siblings similar in IQ bc of genes or environment → study adoptees and twins instead Correlations generally inc as genetic similarity inc Heritability = (r identical twins - r nonidentical twins) x 2 Assume environment equally similar, so diff in genes reflect heritability Fraternal twins are 50% genetically related, diff between two r assumed to reflect only half diff that would be observed in comparison were between identical twins and unrelated individuals so x2 Or study identical twins adopted into separate homes Assume environments of twins are not similar to each other than environments of any two members of study population chosen at random Correlation coefficient for twins is estimate of heritability coefficient → 0.73 Heritability coefficient is rough estimate bc every procedure involves assumptions Genetic diff account for 30-50% of IQ variance among children and 50%+ among adults Heritability estimates of IQ vary with environment factors for ppl in same population High education group 0.74, low education 0.26 → heritability increases with improved environmental conditions (ex: parental education) Harmful environments have strong impact on development of certain traits vs. avg or above avg environments have little influence beyond that contributed by genetics Fluid and crystallized intelligence are equally heritable Genes can influence curiosity, reading ability, LTM, or any other traits that influence acquisition and recall of facts Short-lived influence of family environment Study adoptive siblings who are genetically unrelated but raised tgt → any correlation greater than 0 in IQs stem from shared environment IQs correlate positively with each other as children but lost by adulthood (0.25 vs -0.01) Greater degree of genetic relationship, smaller decline in IQ correlation Ppl choose own environments and genetic diff influence kinds of environments they choose Effects of personality and life experiences Ppl who score high on personality test measuring openness to exp have higher IQs Curiosity, independence of mind, broad interests Intellectual engagement w world inc intelligence Openness correlate strongly w fluid and crystallized Test of Intellectual flexibility(had subtests similar to IQ tests, correlate strongly w fluid intelligence): men's intellectual flexibility change when job demands changed Jobs that require great deal of info and make complex decision → inc over time Routine jobs that depended more on brawn/tolerance of drudgery → dec over time Engagement in intellectually challenging leisure time activities can inc intellectual flexibility Greater for older adults (58+) than for younger adults

"Delay Discounting"

delay reward $20 today $100 tmr: not much delay $20 today vs $100 in a month: reference dependent $20 today vs $100 in ten years people with high impulsivity will discount later reward more (100 bucks seem less the longer you have to wait); prefer immediate gratification low impulsivity --> won't discount money as much

Central-state theory of drives

diff drives correspond to neural activity in diff sets of neurons in brain Central drive system - set of neurons in which activity constitutes a drive Set of neurons receive and integrate various signals that can raise/lower drive state Hunger: chemicals in blood, presence/absence of food in stomach, sight/smell of food in environment Act on all neural processes that would be involved in carrying out motivated behavior; direct perceptual mechanisms toward stimuli related to goal, cognitive mechanisms toward working out strategies to achieve goal, and motor mechanisms toward producing appropriate movements Top level of hierarchical model of control of action → influence activity of motor systems at lower levels Vary from one another but also may have overlapping components Hunger and sex are diff → neural circuits cannot be same or would lways occur in tandem; share components and produce behavioral effects common to boht like inc alertness Hypothalamus is hub of many central drive systems: interconnected w higher areas, direct connection to nerves from internal organs, more sensitive to hormones than other areas, connect to pituitary gland → release of many hormones Brainstem, limbic system, cerebral cortex, endocrine system

Autism spectrum disorder

disorder characterized by severe deficits in social interaction and language acquisition, a tendency toward repetitive actions, and narrow focus of interest infants : failure to engage in prolonged eye contact, synchronize emotional expressions with those of another person, follow another person's gaze Deficit in language secondary to lack of interest in communication; rarely use gestures as alternative form of communication like deafness → when they do it is almost always for instrumental purposes (get someone to help them reach a cookie) If learn lang, contains peculiarities that reflect lack of sensitivity to other ppl's minds and perspectives Perform poorly on false-belief tests and on tests of ability to either deceive or detect deception Simon Baron-Cohen → primary deficit of these children is inability to read minds (mindblindness) Lack fully developed theory of mind - ability to understand thoughts/feelings/behaviors and those of others Relatively high-functioning children w autism and adolescents whose verbal abilities were equivalent of 6 yrs old were compared w typically developing 4 yr olds on two false-belief tests and false-picture tests (assess understanding that photograph might misrepresent reality: saw photo being taken of obj at one location, obj was moved to new location and child asked where obj would be in photo when it was viewed) Individuals w autism performed much worse than 4 year olds on false-belief tests but much better than they did on false-picture tests Specificity of intellectual impairment in autism Human capacity to understand mental representations (beliefs) is distinct form capacity to understand physical representations (pictures) lack make-believe play; explore real physical properties of objects but do not make one obj stand for another or pretend obj has properties diff from those it actually has Children w developmental disorders such as down syndrome (lower IQs than autism) do engage in pretend play and develop better understanding of false beliefs and deception than children w autism

Sensory-specific satiety

eat a type of food until they are satiated experience renewed appetite when diff food w diff taste is offered; mediated primarily by sense of taste When ppl eat one food at meal rating of taste declines relative to other (lasts for several hrs) Sight and smell of new food can result in renewed activity in appetite-stimulating neurons in hypothalamus after animal has been sated on diff food Animals and people eat more when offered more food choices and become fatter even if nutritional content of various foods is identical --- Roles of sensory stimuli in control of appetite evolution → opportunities with regard to food, hunger inc when food is available so don't pass up opportunities to eat Classical conditioning: any cues that have previously signaled opportunity to eat (sight, smell, sound, clock) can bring on appetite (reflexive physiological responses: secretion of saliva and digestive juices) Taste of food can influence reduction/prolongation of appetite during meal

Teratogens

environmental agents that cause harm during prenatal development Usually in form of substances that get into embryo's or fetus's system from mom thru umbilical cord drug: marijuana, cocaine, heroin; prescription drugs: antibiotics, antidepressants, sex hormones; alochol and tobacco Diseases such as AIDS, rubella (german measles), and herpes simplex Environmental pollutants: mercury, lead, nicotine (secondhand smoke) Teratogen's potential effect depends on when exposure occurs development of organ systems most rapid during embryonic period (3-8 wks after conception) = when agent can most substantially alter course of development Prevent organ from developing properly, fingers and toes from forming Once organ such as kidney/hands/feet have been developed, exposure to potential teratogen will have little/no effect on future development Thalidomide prescribed to women to combat morning sickness If took during first 8 weeks of pregnancy → babies born w deformed limbs and damage to other organ systems; drug interfered w development of limb formation and hands and feet Deformations not found in babies born to women who took drug later in pregnancy aft limbs and appendages alr developed Also respond to other aspects of experience: nutrition and maternal stress Poor diets during epgnancy → low birth-weight infants who grow to become overweight/obese during childhood; developed "thrifty phenotypes," store more fat Prenatally exposed to high levels of stress hormones show higher anxiety and fearfulness, temperamental difficulty, impulsivity, reduced executive functions, imapired attention, higher aggression, and risk tasking Some of these characteristics well suited for children growing up in high-stress environments Fetus use info as "forecast" of environmental conditions it will face aft birth → adjust physiological and behavioral profile to match requirements of world Infancy = 18-24 months after birth, time of most rapid developmental change; human infants are born esp immature tn comparison to other primates bc big brains (if prenatal development longer brain would be too large to fit thru birth canal) → much brain development that occurs prenatal in other primates occurs after birth in humans

Availability Heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common things that come to mind easily or quickly seem more likely to happen (ex shark attacks and winning lottery) Estimating how likely an event is based on how available event is in one's memory tendency to base judgment on ease with which we can bring something to mind

Motivation

factors (internal and external) that cause an individual to exhibit certain behaviors in certain contexts • Driven by incentives • Maintenance of homeostasis: constancy of internal conditions that the body must actively maintain • Regulatory v. nonregulatory drives T YPES OF MOTI VATED DRI VES Regulatory Safety Reproductive Social Educational ---

Affect

feeling associated with emotion, independent of object; vary along two dimensions Degree of pleasantness or unpleasantness of feeling Degree of mental and physical arousal Feelings devoid of objects ;not emotions (emotion depends on object and feeling) Feeling of pleasure → emotion of pride (object = self) or emotion of love (object = someone else)

CIRCUIT FOR FEAR AND SALIENCE

how brain processes fear (HAPPENS AT SAME TIME) // executive processing regiosn of frontal lobe send back to amygdalla // there are two ways through which information is being routed whenever we encounter something that elicits a fear response out in the environment.

Heritability (slides)

iN TELLIGENCE IS HIGHLY HERI TABLE Heritability: degree to which variation in a particular trait, within a particular population of individuals, stems from genetic differences Twin studiesgenetic variation accounts for ~50% of IQ variance in children (more in adults) ...AND THE ENVIRONMENT PLAYS A ROLE TOO Effects of the shared family environment are temporary; they disappear in adulthood Effects of personality and life experiences can alter fluid intelligence in adulthood

Motivational state/drive

internal condition that orients individual toward a specific category of goals and that can change over time in a reversible way (can inc then dec) Hypothetical constructs bc can't be directly observed Inferes existence of state from behavior ex: seeks out and explore → curious) Motivated behavior is directed towards incentives (sought-after objects or ends that exist in external environment); aka reinforcers, rewards, goals Drives and incentives complement one another in control of behavior (if one is weak other must be strong to motivate goal-directed action) Weak incentive = shitty sandwiches, strong hunger drive Also influence each other's strength: strong drive can enhance attractiveness/incentive value and vice versa

Crystallized intelligence

mental ability derived directly from previous experience Tests of knowledge: word meanings, cultural practices, how tools/instruments work Altho ppl may differ in domains of knowledge, still component of g bc one's accumulated knowledge can be applied broadly

TWO SEPARATE NEURAL PROCESSES

one theory system 1: fast, unconscious, automatic, everyday decisions, error-prone • Heuristic- driven Context- dependent Emotion- affected -> impulsivity (want rewards now) EX: ordering food system 2: slow, unconscious, effortful, complex decisions, reliable • Deliberate • Cost-benefit analysis • Evidence- dependent (pro/con list, past experiences, more objective) EX: choosing college Evidence FOR dual systems ((fMRI studies): • Choices involving immediate reward --> activity in limbic system • Choices involving delayed reward --> activity in frontal lobe (prefrontal --> executive functions) • Evidence against • Reward-related regions (ex ventral striatum) track subjective (personal evaluation) value of reward irrespective of delay • Possibilities: working together; pathway link regions together

Theory of mind

person's concept of mental activity; ability to understand one's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and those of others; implies having some causal-explanatory framework tO attribute intention to and to predict behavior of others premack suggested at beginning a early age humans automatically divide world into two classes of entities (those that move on their own and those that don't) and attribute psychological properties to former but not latter 3-5 year olds saw videos of balls moving like billiard balls in response to physical impacts described movements in physical terms; but if balls moving and changing direction on their own regarded balls are presenting ppl/animals and described movements in mental terms Every very young children explain behavior in mental terms 2-3 years of age: explain ppl's behavior in terms of mental constructs esp perceptions, emotions, desires Preverbal 18 month olds will help adult achieve goal based on what they think adult understands; expect others to respond to objs that they can see but not to objs that they cannot see, describe crying person as sad 2 year olds demonstrated understanding that another person's desires could be diff from their own (gave adult broccoli aft learning that adult preferred broccoli even tho own preference was crackers // 14 month olds gave crackers tho) 12 month olds can understand what is it another person's mind: each infant played w two adults and three new toys → one of the two adults left the room while one of the toys was being played → adult asked for it and infants gave adult toy that adult had not played w before, not one of the two toys familiar w → must have known which toy was new to adult even tho it wasn't new to them and known ppl more excited by new things than familiar ones Delay in understanding beliefs, especially false beliefs Three year olds rarely offer explanations in terms of beliefs and dont' understand that beliefs can differ from reality Put candy bar in blue cupboard → mom puts cupboard into red one → 4 yr olds saw kid will look in blue cupboard first but 3 year olds say red cupboard (don't understand that someone can believe something that isn't true) Three year old's denial of false belief apply to own false beliefs: shown crayon box and asked to say what they believed was inside → "crayons" → children got some paper → box has candles → asked what they thought box had in it when they first saw it says "candles" → when asked why they had gotten paper if they thought box contained candles had no plausible explanation Concept hard to grasp bc of inherent contradiction - false beliefs are both false and true at same time (false in reality, true in minds of believers; so diff from make-believe) Make-believe as precursor to belief-reality distinction 2-3 year olds and older engage in pretend play; even 1.5 yr old infants differentiate between make-believe and reality (18 month old turns a cup filled with imaginary water over doll and says oh no dolly all wet) Children's understanding of false beliefs merges from earlier understanding of pretense: both are mental conceptions that depart from reality, only diff is that pretenders know conception does not match reality whereas believers think that theirs does Three yr olds do not fail analogous tests in which they are asked to report what either they or another person had pretended was in crayon box before it opened Piaget: play is expression and exercise of ability to symbolize objects in absence → others suggest that brain mechanisms that enable and motivate pretend play came abt in evolution bc provides foundation for understanding nonliteral mental states (incl false beliefs) Child who understands that pretense differs from reality has foundation for understanding that beliefs can differ from reality and ppl can fool others by manipulating their beliefs Pretense and counterfactual thinking involved in fantasy play, along with imitation, are responsible for emergence of human mind (capacity to generate and reason with novel suppositions and imaginary scenarios → innovation in adulthood) Correlation between false-belief understanding and pretend play: children have engaged in lots of pretend role-play with other children pass false-belief tests at higher rate; same with children who have child-age siblings at home (esp older siblings) bc engage in more role-play than those w/o siblings (potential playmates) Social role-play may be more valuable for development of false-belief understanding than solo bc children must respond appropriately to pretend statements of other child too → get used to idea that other ppl can hold concepts in heads that do not reflect reality

Language-acquisition support system (LASS)

provided by social world into which baby is born Need both LAD and LASS; can't invent lang alone Many adults regularly simplify speech to infants and young children that help children learn words and grammar: enunciate more clearly, use more musical tone of voice with greater pitch variation, short sentences that focus on here and now, repeat and emphasize salient words, use gestures to help convey meaning Aka Motherese/infant-directed speech Help infants distinguish individual words and make connections btwn words and referents Adults also treat early vocalizations as if they were verbal statements → back and forth convo-like exchanges Mothers of deaf infants also use form of infant-directed signing → more rep and exaggerations of movements Parents' speech to infants affects language acquisition Positive correlations between degree to which moms speak to infants using appropriately simplified lang and rate at which infants develop lang → Problem w studies is that correlations might derive more from genetic similarities between mom-child than from differences in lang environments that moms provide (genetically verbal moms may produce genetically verbal kids) Adopted infants' rates of lang development correlated more strongly w biological mom's verbal abilities than w adoptive's but linguistic environment also played role Infants who adoptive moms often responded verbally to early vocalizations developed lang more rapidly Parents trained to engage frequently in back-and-forth verbal play w infants (3-15 months) → children developed language sooner Cross-cultural differences in LASS Children all over world acquire lang at similar rates despite wide variations in degree and manner of adults' verbal interactions w infants Kalikuli: babies hear no motherese, little speech of any kind directed toward them → go everywhere w moms and constantly overheard speech of others, which may compensate for lack of speech directed to them → large variations can occur in LASS w/o impairing abilities to learn lang

Hunger

regulatory drive Hunger mechanisms > satiety mechanisms Feedback control - substance or quality being regulated feeds back upon controlling device and inhibits production of more of that substance/quality when appropriate level is reached Sets of neurons in brain's hypothalamus raise/lower drive, neurons are regulated by body's deficit or surfeit of food Exist in several interconnected portion of hypothalamus Most concentrated in arcuate nucleus - center of lowest portion of hypothalamus close to pituitary gland, "master control center" for appetite and weight regulation; two classes of neurons Appetite-stimulating neurons - connect to various parts of brain and promote all effects associated with increased hunger (craving for food, inc attention to food-related cues, inc exploration for food, heightened enjoyment of taste of food) Appetite-suppressing neurons: opposite Exert effects on other brain areas thru release of slow-acting ntms which can alter neural activity for long periods of time (mins to hours) Many internal signals contribute to short-term regulation of appetite Large meal → physiological changes in body: elevated body temp (heightened rate of metabolism), increased blood level of glucose (sugar molecule derived from breakdown of carbohydrate foods), distention of stomach and intestines (food inside structures), release of hormones produced by endocrine cells in stomach and intestines Changes can either directly or indirectly incite neurons in arcuate nucleus and nearby areas to active hunger-suppressing neurons and inhibit hunger-stimulating neurons Decline in appetite for several hours

Grammar

rules of a language that speakers abide by

Cognitive heuristics

simplifying principles; "rules of thumb"/mental shortcuts Helps to eliminate endless laboring over choices Cuts down on cost/benefit analysis (time constraints) Therefore, faster and more efficient we don't have enough cognitive space to evaluate w logic Looks like a dolphin? Has a dorsal fin Moves like a dolphin? Jumps out of water So...it's a dolphin? Must be a dolphin Availability Heuristic Anchoring Heuristic Confirmation Bias Strategy for solving a problem or coming to a decision that might be efficient, but doesn't guarantee the right decision

Morphemes

smallest meaningful, symbolic units of language symbols in language (entities that represent other entities), smallest meaningful units of language (smallest units that stand for objs, events, ideas, characteristics, relationships) Take form of pronounceable sounds Mostly words or prefixes/suffixes (dog = word and morpheme, -s morpheme but not word, dogs = two morphemes) Arbitrary - no similarity need exist between physical structure and that of obj/concept for which it stands ((in contrast to nonverbal signs that develop from and bear physical resemblance to actions such as fighting/fleeing; communicate intentions to engage in actions that they resemble) New ones can be invented whenever needed to stand for newly discovered objs/ideas/meaning Gives lang great flexibility Discrete - cannot be changed in a graded way to express gradations in meaning (can't change morpheme big, add new morpheme such as -er or replace it with diff morpheme like huge)

reward

something we: Like - derive satisfaction from (endorphins) Want - are motivated to obtain (dopamine) ventral striatum -reinforce cures and actions; nucleus accumbens Reinforce - create pathways in the brain that connect stimuli to rewards to promote learning --- Liking = subjective feeling of pleasure or satisfaction that occurs when one receives reward Some of neurons of medial forebrain bundle that terminate in nucleus accumbens release endorphin (endogenous morphine-like substance, created in body) t0 inhibit sense of pain like opiate drugs, + create pleasurable exp (natural like sex and artifical) Drugs that activate endrophine receptors injected inc facial "liking" reaction to sucrose and amt of immediately present food animal will eat Drugs that dec effectiveness of endorphins in humans dec ppl's perceived enjoyment of rewards Wanting = desire to obtain reward, links to motivation, occurs before reward is received; typically measured by amt of effort individual will exert or pain will bear to obtain reward Many of neurons of medial forebrain bundle that terminate in nucleus accumbens released dopamine as ntm → release before pressing lever but not after reward Dopamine helps motivate animal to obtain reward but not essential for pleasure "liking" Larger expected reward = greater degree of dopamine release in nucleus accumbens Rats treated w drugs that block dopamine continue to eat, ****, explore but don't obtain rewards that are not immediately present → enjoy consumption of rewards but don't want absent rewards Drugs that inc activity of dopamine inc rate at which they work for food but don't inc facial "liking" response to sucrose Reinforcement = effects reward have in promoting learning; attend to stimuli that signal availability of rewards, make responses that bring rewards in presence of those stimuli Reward reinforce memory of stimuli and actions that occur before reward was received → more effective in finding and procuring same type of reward in future Learning component closely related to wanting component Searching for reward = wanting behavioral indicator Release of dopamine into nucleus accumbens → ability to learn to use cues to predict when/where rewards are available Dopamine release promotes LTP Of neural connections within nucleus accumbens, cellular basis for learning Anticipate food each time light comes on → dopamine released even when food not presented Unexpected reward → dopamine release aft reward reinforce association between reward and stimulus/response that precedes it When cues and responses leading to reward have alr been learned → no need for further reinforcement → dopamine release in response to reward (food) ceases → now occurs in response to signal preceding reward (light) bc animal's interest lies in how to predict when signal will appear

Emotion

subjective feeling that is mentally directed toward some object (person, organism/thing, idea/concept, self) Self-conscious emotions - depend on individual's self-awareness (pride, shame, guilt, embarrassment, empathy, envy); aka other-conscious emotions bc related to expectations and opinions of other ppl for one's behavior Several components Begin with behavioral expression → feel disappointed by display another emotion (joy to person who gave gift) like smiling → ability to regulate emotions Recognize by voice or body language Not independent of cognitions; same physiological arousal may represent diff emotions depending on how you interpret situation (inc HR = joy, fear) Characteristic of our advanced cognition; "articulate empathy" -- Debates over actual number of emotions depending on own criteria), but Robert Plutchik identified eight primary emotions (four pairs of opposites) Joy vs. sorrow, anger vs. fear, acceptance vs. disgust, surprise vs. expectancy Identify by analyzing emotion labels common to language → ppl rate pairs of common emotions labels for degree of similarity Can mix with one another in any number of ways → diff emotional exp

Syntax

ways that words are arranged together

Folk psychology

we all continually try to account for ppl's behavior in terms of their minds

General intelligence (g)

underlying ability that contributes to person's performance on all mental tests; Spearman found Positive manifold - ppl who scored high on any one mental test also tended to score high on other tests (moderate correlation - 0.3 to 0.6) Coupled observation with mathematical procedure called factor analysis (analyze patterns of correlation) → some common factor is measured by every mental test (g) every mental test is partly a measure of g and partly a measure of some more specific ability unique to test---> best measures of g are derived from averaging scores → logic behind subtests in IQ tests to determine full-scale IQ score Raymond Cattell proposed that g is divisible into two separate gs: Based theory on factor analysis of scores on diff mental tests → mental tests tend to fall into two clusters: dampened on raw reasoning ability and prev learned info Test scores within each cluster correlate more strongly w one another than w scores in other cluster Measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence change diff w age: fluid peaks at 20-25 and declines gradually after that; crystallized inc until about age 50 or later Within any age group crystallized and fluid intelligence scores correlate positively → ppl with higher fluid intelligence learn and remember more from their exp (crystallized depends on fluid)

CAPGRAS SYNDROME

• Feeling that important people in patient's life have been replaced by imposters • Hirstein & Ramachandran, 1997:"He looks exactly like my father, but he really isn't. He's a nice guy, but he isn't my father...Maybe my father employed him to take care of me." Can't connect emotional response to visual stimuli What pathways might be damaged? Tracts between the occipital cortex, limbic system and/or frontal cortex delusion misidentification of ppl or places; symptom of dementia; fact-based separated from emotional part in LTM

INTELLIGENCE summary

• Modern tests of intelligence use a variety of verbal + nonverbal assessments and decently predict school and job performance • General intelligence (g) is made up of fluid and crystallized intelligence - so it is somewhat subject to change over time • That said, intelligence is affected by both genetic and environmental factors

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

• The study of changes in abilities, disposition, and behaviors as one grows older • Kids and adults don't think or experience the world in the same way • What are we really interested in?• Timeline of behavioral development• How abilities build on one another• The types of clues, cues, and stimuli children use to figure out what to do and when to do it DE VELOPMEN T ISN' T JUS T IN CHILDHOOD • Abnormal development can signal pathology (e.g., autism) or adversity • Developmental challenges (e.g, dyslexia in children; cognitive impairment in older adults) can be understood from both a behavioral psychology and a neuroscience-based perspective