psyc exam 3 study guide

conceptual network; long-term memory: conceptual/associative network and spreading activation

-Knowledge is organized in memory as a network of related concepts -When one concept is activated (e.g., "Bear"), the activation will spread to linked concepts (e.g., "Fur")

intelligence: left-brained/right-brained people myth

-There are some differences between the left and right hemispheres that can be seen in laboratory experiments or in people with brain damage, but these effects have been blown out of proportion by the media -corpus callosum: band of axons connecting the left and right hemispheres -the two hemispheres work together in most real-world tasks. the corpus callosum connects the left and right hemispheres, and these connections keep the two hemispheres working together in everyday life. -reality: no evidence for stable differences across people in left-right balance of activation

long-term memory: levels of processing

-describes memory recall of stimuli as a function of the depth of mental processing -deeper levels of analysis produce more elaborate, longer-lasting, and stronger memory traces than shallow levels of analysis

attachment theory (from textbook): attachment styles- insecure/avoidant

-do not get upset or cry at all when the caregiver leaves, and they may prefer to play with the stranger rather than the parent during their time in the playroom -child is not distressed when the attachment figure leaves -child avoids the attachment figure when he or she returns

long-term memory: mnemonics (from textbook)

-learning aids or strategies that use retrieval cues to improve recall -people often find them helpful for remembering items in long lists, for example -e.x. LEO goes GER - lose electrons oxidation, gain electrons reduction

causes of memory errors (from textbook)

-may be due to certain cognitive factors, such as spreading activation, or to physiological factors, including brain damage, age or emotional factors -Seven Sins of Memory: forgetting (transience/memory decay, absent mindedness/encoding failure, blocking/retrieval failure), distortion (misattribution, suggestibility, bias), intrusion/remembering (persistence)

attachment theory (from textbook): attachment styles- insecure/ambivalent

-sometimes called anxious/resistant -may cry a great deal when the caregiver leaves the room but then be inconsolable when the caregiver tries to calm them down upon return -child is inconsolably upset when the attachment figure leaves -child will both seek and reject caring contact

Which of the following are true differences between minds and computers? [Select all that are correct.] A) Human minds have awareness, but computers do not (as far as we can tell) B) Human minds have emotions, but computers do not (as far as we can tell) C) Human minds sometimes operates in a random manner, but computers do not (as far as we can tell) D) Human minds sometimes use heuristics, but computers do not (as far as we can tell)

A) Human minds have awareness, but computers do not (as far as we can tell) B) Human minds have emotions, but computers do not (as far as we can tell)

According to cognitive psychologists, your knowledge of the world is organized as _________. A) A list of concepts and their meanings B) A list of concepts and schemas C) A network of schemas that are linked by specific relationships D) A network of concepts that are linked by specific relationships

D) A network of concepts that are linked by specific relationships

Manny read The Handmaid's Tale the night before going to his English Literature class, and he found that he could remember the first few chapters and the last chapter really well, but the middle of the book was a big blur. This would be an example of a _______ effect. A. Levels of processing B. Primacy C. Recency D. Serial position E. False memory

D. Serial position

sensory memory

-We have sensory memory systems that retain information very briefly, often for less than a second. -There is one sensory memory system for *visual* information, called iconic memory, and a separate sensory memory system for *auditory* memory, called echoic memory.

attachment theory (from textbook): ainsworth's "strange situation" test

-created to study the attachment behaviors in humans -researchers observe the test through a one-way mirror in the laboratory -on the other side of the mirror is a playroom -there, the child, the caregiver, and a friendly but unfamiliar adult engage in a series of eight semi-structured episodes -the crux of the procedure is a standard sequence of separations and reunions between the child and each adult -over the course of the eight episodes, the child experiences increasing distress and a greater need for caregiver proximity -the extent to which the child copes with distress and the strategies he or she uses to do so indicate the quality of the child's attachment to the caregiver -the researchers record the child's activity level and actions such as crying, playing, and paying attention to the mother and the stranger -using this test, ainsworth identified infant/caregiver pairs that appeared secure as well as those that appeared insecure, or anxious

memory systems: prospective (from textbook)

-enables us to remember to do things in the future -can be both automatic (implicit) and controlled (leaving a reminder to perform a future task)

memory systems: implicit

-memories that can influence your behavior, but you can't consciously describe -knowing how to ride a bike is implicit knowledge. you might be able to describe it explicitly in general terms, but the actual ability to balance and steer is not something you can consciously access. sometimes people call this "muscle memory," but the memory isn't really stored in the muscles. it's stored in the brain, but it feels as if your muscles just know what to do

memory systems: implicit (procedural)

-memory for how to do something -riding a bike, driving, etc: in each of these cases, you could describe episodes where you engaged in the activity, and you could try to describe how you do them, but the descriptions don't really capture exactly how you do it

IQ is ________, and intelligence is ________. A) A measure of ability on a specific set of tests/the ability to understand things and figure out what to do B) A measure of all aspects of mental ability/the same thing as IQ C) A single mental ability/a broad set of mental abilities D) Strongly predictive of performance in school and work/Weakly predictive of performance in school and work

A) A measure of ability on a specific set of tests/the ability to understand things and figure out what to do

sensory memory (echoic)

auditory

heuristics

- a sequence of operations that usually reaches a correct solution but sometimes fails -typically much faster than algorithms, and this is why we use them even though they sometimes fail -sometimes they're called "quick and dirty" solutions because they're fast but not perfectly accurate -using a schema to draw inferences is also an example of this. and using schema-based ones like this can lead to problems such as gender discrimination in the workplace -computers can be programmed to use this

Menella et al. (2001) study of flavor preferences -results and conclusions

-Conclusion: The mother's diet can impact an infant's flavor preferences; babies exposed to carrot liked carrot flavor more; babies exposed to water liked water flavor more

intelligence: crystallized intelligence versus fluid intelligence (from textbook)

-Distinguishing between fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence is somewhat analogous to distinguishing between working memory (which is more like fluid intelligence) and long-term memory (which is more like crystallized intelligence). As would be expected because both types of intelligence are components of g, people who score highly on one factor also tend to score highly on the other. -This finding suggests that a strong crystallized intelligence is likely aided by a strong fluid intelligence. -Crystallized intelligence grows steadily throughout the adult years, while fluid intelligence declines steadily.

mechanisms of development: nature and nurture- Secret of the Wild Child movie: Genie, language development (evidence of nature, evidence of nurture), ethical concerns

-Genie was placed in extreme social isolation by her abusive dad for 13 years of her life with just a crib and a potty trainer in the room; mother looked for help after escaping her abusive husband, foster care and scientists at the children's hospital took her in -didn't learn how to talk, didn't learn how to walk properly, basic things an average human being would've learned if they weren't in social isolation; she was interacting with things in her own kind of way, she would feel things with her hands to get to know the object more, like she was blind even though she wasn't (her mother was blind though) -Genie was able to form social relationships, learn how to speak a bit of English from their daily practices but she could not talk in proper, grammatical sentences; she also learned a bit of sign language -some law people thought the scientists were experimenting on her too much rather than caring for her health -we don't know if she could have been born with brain damage/other kinds of developmental delays or not

deficit in explicit but not implicit memory; no deficit in working memory (short-term memory) or procedural memory (motor learning)

-H.M. had a deficit in long-term memory -He could keep information active in short-term memory as long as he kept attending to it -He often forgot something after only a couple minutes, but this was due to a failure to store the information in long-term memory -H.M. did not have a short-term memory deficit

HM

-HM had epilepsy when he was young, and by the time he was in his mid 20s, he was having so many seizures that he could no longer live a normal life. His seizures were originating in an area called the medial temporal lobes, which is the middle part of the temporal lobes. -Previous research with monkeys indicated that you could remove the medial temporal lobes without too much disruption of normal mental activity, so they decided to try removing HM's medial temporal lobes. They performed the surgery in 1953, when HM was 27 years old. -The surgeons were successful at removing HM's medial temporal lobes, and they were also successful in dramatically reducing his seizures. He went from having one or more major seizures per week to only about one per year. -From the time of the surgery until he died, he didn't know where he lived. He didn't know the names of the people who took care of him. He had no idea what he had eaten for the last meal, or yesterday, or the day before. He didn't know what day of the week it was, he didn't know how old he was. He was basically stuck at that sort of age of 27 or so. Every time he looked in the mirror, at age 50 or 60 or 70, he would be surprised to see his own face, because it's not the face that he remembered himself having. (temporally graded retrograde amnesia) -The medial temporal lobes contain a small almond-shape structure called the amygdala, which plays a major role in fear and anger, and this structure was also removed in HM. Probably as a result of this, HM was very mellow and placid after the surgery. He wasn't constantly upset, and his day-to-day life was not so bad.

the role of medial temporal lobes

-HM, and other patients with damage to this, exhibit normal motor skill learning -crucial for creating new memories but less important for accessing old memories

depth of processing

-Hypothesis: DEEP processing enhances retention -Subjects are shown a series of words -Condition 1: capitalized? -Condition 2: rhymes with...? -Condition 3: Fits in sentences? -Tested on recall immediately (unexpected) -(Shallow) Case: Visual: what the word looks like -(in the middle) Rhyme: Acoustic: how the word sounds -(Deep) Sentence: Semantic: what the word means -The more deeply the material is processed, the better it is remembered

Menella et al. (2001) study of flavor preferences -design (experiment with random assignment, CW, WC, WW)

-Hypothesis: Flavors that are present in a mother's diet can impact an infant's flavor preferences -Pathway 1: Amniotic Fluid -Pathway 2: Breast MIlk -Group CW: Carrot beverage consumed by mother during last trimester of pregnancy, water consumed by mother during first months of lactation, infant preference tests: time of weaning- carrot-flavored vs plain cereal -Group WC: Water consumed by mother during last trimester of pregnancy, Carrot beverage consumed by mother during first months of lactation, infant preference tests: time of weaning- carrot-flavored vs plain cereal -Group WW: Water consumed by mother during last trimester of pregnancy, water consumed by mother during first months of lactation, infant preference tests: time of weaning- carrot-flavored vs plain cereal -Prediction: CW and WC groups will show greater carrot preference than will WW group -2 testing sessions (carrot-flavored vs. plain cereal) ~4 weeks later introduction of solid food (counterbalanced to avoid "order confounds")

intelligence: The Mozart Effect versus the effect of learning to play an instrument

-Myth: "Playing Mozart to babies will make them smarter." based on an actual scientific study, but it had nothing to do with babies -College students were tested on spatial reasoning tasks that are sometimes included in IQ tests, and the ones who listened to Mozart had higher scores than the ones with relaxation instructions and silence, but this effect lasted less than 15 minutes -Learning to play a musical instrument during childhood is associated with increased scores on tests of cognitive ability. Many studies of this are correlational, simply showing that people who played a musical instrument as a child have a higher IQ score on average than people who didn't play a musical instrument as a child. -In a correlational study, it's difficult to know whether musical instruction actually caused the increased IQ scores or whether there were preexisting differences in cognitive abilities between children who were taught to play an instrument and those who weren't. For example, maybe parents of smart children are more likely to have them learn to play an instrument. -However, there are some studies that used true experiments, in which children were randomly assigned to groups that either did or did not receive musical training, and these studies also find that musical training increases cognitive abilities. Because these were true experiments, we can conclude that the musical training was the cause of the increased cognitive abilities. -Reality: no evidence that listening to Mozart makes babies smarter *playing a musical instrument as a child does seem to make a child smarter though

Menella et al. (2001) study of flavor preferences -measures (facial expression, maternal ratings, intake)

-Proportional Response = carrot / (carrot + water) Example: -3 negative facial expressions when eating carrot-flavored cereal -5 negative facial expressions when eating water-flavored cereal -Proportional Response = 3 / (3 + 5) = 3 / 8 = 0.375 -A. Negative faces (rated from videos by trained coders who were unaware of the group assignments): CW & WC more proportional response for water, WW more proportional response for carrot (p<.05) -B. Mothers' Perception (blind rating?): CW & WC more proportional response for carrot, WW more proportional response for water (p<.05) -C. Intake: CW & WC more proportional response for carrot, WW little proportional response for carrot (p>.05; absence of evidence for an effect)

intelligence: the 10% myth: we only use 10% of our brains

-This is ridiculous because this would mean that we could get by with a brain that was only 10% as big. If that were true, we would have evolved smaller brains, which would have made childbirth much less dangerous and decreased the number of calories people would need to consume to survive. -The only inactive regions are the ventricles, which are filled with cerebrospinal fluid and do not contain any neurons -As far as we can tell by recording brain activity, virtually every neuron in your brain is used at least some of the time. One person's brain may operate more efficiently than another's, but there is not some massive untapped potential that we could unleash if only we knew how to access it -Reality: we use 100% of our brains, not 10%

intelligence: IQ- what it means, how it's defined and assessed, how it's related to intelligence

-a measure of someone's ability to do well on a specific set of tests -an IQ test would have several other types of tests, looking at things like spatial abilities, verbal abilities, memory, etc. -a person's performance on all these individual tests gets combined into single IQ score -IQ does not equal intelligence

algorithms

-a sequence of operations that is guaranteed to reach a correct solution -long division is a good example: if you follow the rules, you're guaranteed to reach the correct answer

attachment theory (from textbook): attachment styles- secure

-applies to approximately 60-65% of children -child is happy to play alone and is friendly to the stranger as long as the attachment figure is present -child is distressed when the attachment figure leaves and is quickly comforted when the attachment figure returns

attachment theory (from textbook): attachment styles- insecure (in general)

-applies to the remaining 35-40% of children -can take many forms, from an infant's completely avoiding contact with the caregiver during the strange-situation test to the infant's actively hitting or exhibiting angry facial expressions toward the caregiver -have learned that their caregiver is not available to soothe them when distressed or is only inconsistently available -these children may be emotionally neglected or actively rejected by their attachment figures -caregivers of these infants typically have rejecting or inconsistently responsive parenting styles

memory systems: explicit

-both semantic and episodic memories are explicit because you're consciously aware of them when i ask you about them -most semantic memories actually started as episodic memories (like your memory for the idea that water is H2O) -we call a memory explicit when you are aware that you are accessing the memory and can describe the memory in words

piaget: formal operational (12-adult)

-children can think critically and draw conclusions about abstract or hypothetical information -"final" adult stage of cognitive development -can reason about both concrete and abstract ideas -hallmarked by ability to think critically and problem solve -Pendulum problem: Which items would you use to determine how speed of swing changes depending on: --String length? Keep weight constant and change string lengths --Weight? Keep string length constant and change weights

piaget: concrete operational (7-12 years)

-children can think logically, but only with concrete information, and have difficult abstracting -can reason and think logically about concrete information -difficulty thinking about abstract and hypothetical situations -example: counterfactuals (thinking about things that are not true) --kane (age 11)- throws scissors, narrowly missing his dad --dad- "you shouldn't throw scissors! what if you had hit me? --kane- "but i didn't hit you!" -Algebra requires more abstraction than arithmetic, which is why most children are not ready to learn algebra until around age 13. -Example: translate the following into an algebraic expression relating S (the number of students) to P (the number of professors) --"There are 23 times as many students as professors at this university" --Did you come up with 23S = P? --Answer S=23P (to compute the # of students, you need to multiply the # of professors by 23)

piaget: preoperational (2-7 years)

-children can think symbolically but struggle to keep multiple concepts in mind at once -can think symbolically (e.g., language) -difficulty taking on other's perspectives (egocentrism) --Three mountains task (have a child with a doll, what can the child see and what can the doll see, child that is egocentric: the mountain has nothing, another has a house, and another has a tree, and the doll sees the same thing (in reality, the doll doesn't see the same thing)) -difficulty keeping multiple rules/concepts in mind at once (centration) --conservation tasks

mechanisms of development: dynamic systems theory, developmental cascades

-development is multidetermined --multiple systems interact to produce change -development is self-organizing, rather than predetermined --interaction produces change without a "plan" -development is continuous, rather than discrete -the unique spiral pattern of a hurricane: --is the result of interactions between conditions in many different locations in the atmosphere (multidetermined) --develops without any plan or central control (self-organizing) -changes gradually from a noncyclical tropical storm into a cyclical hurricane (continuous) -Development of walking: the onset of walking seems like a new "stage" that appears suddenly over a period of a few weeks, but it: --is the result of interactions between multiple factors (multidetermined) ---pattern generation for stepping ---strength and balance ---social/motivational factors --develops without any plan or central control (self-organizing) ---you don't need to explicitly teach a child to walk --reflects gradual changes in the underlying factors (continuous), even though the actual walking appears to onset suddenly -language acquisition: -- is the result of interactions between multiple factors (multidetermined) ---physical development (control of larynx, tongue, etc.) ---cognitive development (memory, semantic network) ---social development (joint attention, attachment) --develops without any plan or central control (self-organizing) ---children learn language with no explicit instruction --reflects gradual changes in the underlying factors (continuous), even though some components (e.g., speech) appear to onset suddenly

improving memory: massed versus distributed learning (including experimental evidence)

-e.x. of massed learning: (Day 1) X minutes of studying -e.x. of distributed learning: (Day 1) X divided by 3 minutes of studying, (Day 2) X divided by 3 minutes of studying, (Day 3) X divided by 3 minutes of studying -finding: equal performance with an immediate test, but distributed learning produces better performance with a delayed test -almost any way of dividing up the learning into discrete episodes with significant delay between them will be more effective at creating long-lasting memories than an equivalent amount of time in one big chunk -Students were given a set of 20 French words and their corresponding English translations. Both groups were then given an immediate test of their knowledge of the words. They were tested again 4 days later. When tested immediately, both groups remembered an average of about 16 definitions. However, when tested 4 days later, the distributed learning group remembered almost as many words as before, whereas the massed learning group did significantly worse. Even though both groups spent a total of 30 minutes studying the words, the group who spread it out into three 10-minute episodes remembered the material better.

working memory/short-term memory

-holds information while we're actively working on it -the information is more abstract, but there are separate subsystems for spatial information, nonspatial features like color, verbal information like words and digits, and conceptual information like the ideas of poverty and freedom -It can be confusing to call it short-term memory, because you could keep something active in this memory system for a long time if you continued to focus your attention on it. Consequently, this type of memory is usually called working memory to reflect that it's a memory system that holds information that the mind is currently working on

memory systems: implicit (conditioning)

-in most cases, someone who has been in a conditioning experiment has an explicit memory for the stimuli and the responses, but the explicit memory is not responsible for the responses to the stimuli -the memory that makes you have a skin conductance response, a color that was associated with a shock, is not conscious -the memory that causes you to keep feeding money into a slot machine, even though you know it's a bad idea, is not conscious. it's possible to show that conditioning can occur even if someone isn't conscious of it

piaget: sensorimotor (0-2 years)

-infants develop knowledge through direct sensory and motor exploration, and think in the present -explores the world through sensory and motor systems -initially responds with reflexes alone -lacks the ability to think symbolically (e.g., using language) -remains "in the present" -no understanding (during the first ~half of this stage) -(they don't have) object permanence- objects exist even if you can't see them

improving memory: active construction of memory- encoding specificity (including experimental evidence)

-just as perception is an active process by which a person constructs an interpretation of the sensory input, learning is an active process by which a person creates a set of ideas and links between ideas -phase 1: encoding- meaning task- does this sentence make sense? The eagle had a silver engine; rhyme task- do these words rhyme with each other? Eagle Legal -phase 2: memory test- recognition memory task- did you see this word in Phase 1? Eagle -result: participants exhibited better recognition memory if they had learned with the meaning task than when they had learned with the rhyme task -It's not just that people have better memory when they focus on meaning; we remember whatever it is that we're focused on while we're learning. In the meaning task, they had to read a sentence and indicate whether it made sense. In the rhyme task, they were shown two words and indicated whether they rhymed. -phase 2: memory test- rhyme memory task- did you see a word that rhymes with this in phase 1? Regal -result: participants exhibited better rhyme memory if they had learned with the rhyme task than when they had learned with the meaning task -If you focus on the way a word looks or sounds, you'll be able to access what it looks like or sounds like. But if you focus on what a word means, you'll be able to access it based on the underlying concept. -encoding specificity: the way someone encodes a piece of information determines what is stored in memory and how it can be retrieved

intelligence: IQ- its ability to predict success

-myth: IQ determines success, countermyth: IQ is unrelated to success, reality: IQ and SAT scores are related to success, but only weakly in most fields -a higher IQ is associated with better college grades on average, and a higher IQ is associated with greater success in some professions, on average. however, the relation between IQ and college grades is pretty modest and varies across different types of careers. the SAT test is very much like an IQ test, and SAT scores are strongly correlated with IQ scores, so it's a good bet that the relation between SAT scores and college performance is very similar to the relation between IQ and college performance -most studies find that students with higher SAT scores get higher grades, on average, than students with lower SAT scores. however, the relationship is not very strong. although there's a trend for the GPA to be higher in students with higher SAT scores, there isn't a simple one-to-one relation. SAT scores (and presumably IQ scores) only weakly predict college grades. self-discipline is a better predictor of college performance than SAT scores. the same basic effect has also been found in 8th-graders. -IQ is related to better grades, but self-discipline is a better predictor than IQ

intelligence: stability/changeability of intelligence

-myth: intelligence cannot change; that's simply not true. many studies have shown that people can be trained to increase the cognitive skills that together determine intelligence -countermyth: intelligence can be dramatically increased -reality: intelligence can increase, but only modestly in typical people; it's a myth that intelligence is determined from birth and will never change, but it's also a myth that you can somehow take a typical person and massively increase that person's intelligence

intelligence: IQ- mean IQ= 100; standard deviation= 15

-myth: intelligence is decreasing, countermyth: intelligence is increasing; the evidence indicates that we're getting smarter, at least in terms of the aspects of intelligence that are measured by IQ tests. scores on IQ tests have actually gotten higher and higher over the last 100 years, not lower -probability of having a given IQ score: average IQ= 100, 50% of people have a lower score, 50% of people have a higher score -IQ scores are computed by taking someone's raw %correct on the test and comparing it to the scores of the rest of the population. if your %correct on the test is right at the average %correct, we say that you have an IQ of 100 -if we took the %correct of somebody in 1910 who had an IQ of 100 by 1910 standards, that %correct would correspond to an IQ of only about 70 today. and if we took the %correct of somebody who had an IQ of 100 by today's standards, that %correct would have been an IQ of about 130 by 1910 standards -normal or typical IQ between 85 and 115 -if everyone's raw test score goes up, the average IQ is still considered to be 100 -reality: over time, the U.S. population is getting higher scores on IQ tests (but average IQ remains 100 by definition) -in terms of IQ, it seems as if we're getting smarter. however, if we think about what intelligence really means, the increase in IQ doesn't actually mean that we're getting smarter

intelligence: genetic influences and the heritability of IQ- effect of environmental variability on estimates of heritability

-myth: intelligence is genetic, countermyth: intelligence is not genetic -these are both myths because intelligence, like anything else, reflects the interplay of genes and environment. the myth that intelligence is entirely genetic comes from real data, but what these data mean is often misunderstood -Identical twins (monozygotic) are genetically identical -Monozygotic (identical) twins: the fact that they have nearly identical IQ scores could be because they have identical genes. however, it could also be because they grew up in the same household. or it might just be a fluke; most studies that do this find that if one twin has a high IQ, so does the other. and if one has a low IQ, so does the other. in other words, the IQ scores of the twins within a pair are strongly correlated, and it's not a fluke. -monozygotic (identical) twins reared apart: studies of twins raised apart find that the correlation is a little lower than for twins raised together, but the correlation is still quite high. two identical twins raised in different families still tend to have very similar IQ scores. you could say that the fact that they have similar IQs is a result of their identical genes, whereas the slight difference between them is a result of their different environments. maybe the one with an IQ of 125 went to better schools. again, they both have identical genes, and maybe their IQs are so similar because, even though they were adopted, they happen to be growing up in very similar families -the problem with studies like these is that most of them have looked at twins who were raised in a relatively homogeneous set of family environments. even if two twins were raised in different families, the families were never really all that different. it's very likely that this twin (one living in poverty) would have a much lower IQ than the other twin, who grew up in a middle-class household. and if we really had a lot of big differences in the environments of all the twins, we would see a much lower correlation in IQ scores across the twins in a pair -We all live in similar environments, so genes are the main thing that differ among us. If everybody in a given population lives in a very similar environment, with good access to nutrition, education, and other forms of intellectual stimulation, then genes are about the only thing that will have an opportunity to make one person have a different IQ from another person -We live in very different environments, so both genes and environment differ among us. There's just no way to make a general statement about the percentage of IQ that's due to genes and the percentage that's due to experience. It always depends on the range of environmental variation that's present in the population -Reality: genes and environment work together to determine intelligence. it's a myth that intelligence in general or IQ in particular is largely genetic. it's also a myth that genes don't play a role and that experience is everything. genes and environment always work together

decision making and problem solving: anchoring effects (from textbook)

-occurs when, in making judgements, people rely on the first piece of information they encounter or on information that comes most quickly to mind (e.x., suppose people are asked to estimate how many residents Chicago has. Their answers depend on how the question is phrased. If they are asked if the population is more or less than 200,000, they provide a smaller number of residents than if they are asked if the population is more or less than 5 million) -After making an initial judgment based on this, people compare subsequent information to that and adjust away from it until they reach a point where the information seems reasonable. People often adjust insufficiently, leading to erroneous judgments

mechanisms of development: gene x environment interactions (e.g., phenylketonuria) (from textbook)

-phenylketonuria- an inborn error of metabolism that results in decreased metabolism of the amino acid phenylalanine -the brain organizes itself in response to its environmental experiences, preserving connections it needs in order to function in a given context and pruning out others- synaptic pruning -nutrition affects aspects of brain development, such as myelination, beginning in the womb and extending through childhood. malnourished children might also lack the energy to interact with objects and people. this lack of stimulation would further undermine brain development. when a child's environment does not stimulate her or his brain, such as in the case of Genie, very few synaptic connections will be made. The brain will be less sophisticated and less able to process complex information, solve problems, or allow the child to develop advanced language skills. -the living conditions that tend to come with poverty (e.g., stress, poor nutrition, exposure to toxins and violence) are bad for the development of human brains. ... thus, although genes provide instructions for the maturing brain, how the brain changes during infancy and early childhood is also very much affected by environment -no newborn talks immediately, nor does any baby walk before it can sit up. but most humans make eye contact quickly after they are born, display a first social smile at around 6 weeks, and learn to roll over, to sit up, to crawl, to stand, to walk, and to talk, in that order. ... meanwhile, each person's environment influences what happens throughout that individual's development. for example, infants often achieve developmental milestones at different paces, depending on the cultures in which they are raised

mechanisms of development: stages, continuity/discontinuity, qualitative vs quantitative change

-piaget theory: qualitatively different (discontinuous) stages; stage theory: children's thinking develops in a stage-like manner -dynamic systems theory: a set of gradual (quantitative), continuous changes

improving memory: focusing on relationships

-relationships stimulate our brains -having meaningful friendships and a strong support system are vital to brain health

experimental design

-researcher manipulates one variable (the independent variable) and measures the effect on another variable (the dependent variable) -allows conclusions about causality because only one factor varies systematically (rather than randomly) between groups

correlational design

-researcher measures both variables in each person, taking advantage of pre-existing variation -does not allow conclusions about causality

conceptual networks: schemas and scripts, including role in stereotypes and discrimination

-schema: part of your overall conceptual network that applies to a specific domain (e.g., cars) -gender schema: even though gender schemas may lead to correct inferences in many cases, they sometimes lead to incorrect inferences (e.g., Andrea as a boy's name); gender schemas may play a role in gender discrimination because someone might incorrectly draw an inference that a specific person is not well suited for a particular job if that job is not typical for a person of that gender -script: special kind of schema; a mental representation for a common sequence of actions and events, usually of a social nature; e.x. restaurant script- by having a mental representation of this script, you know what to do and when to do it when you go to a restaurant. it can also help you draw inferences

challenges to piaget's theory

-some of piaget's work holds up today, and some do not: --there is a large variability in whether adults reach "formal operational" thinking --many abilities emerge much earlier than piaget thought -when asked which group has more marbles, a 3 year old will pick the one on the left (left: 6 but spaced out, right: 6 but close together) -when asked which group of M&Ms she wants to eat, a 3 year old will pick the one on the right (left: 4 but spaced out, right: 6 but close together) -piaget got researchers thinking about development in a new way --how do infants and children think? --how does thinking change across development? --what mechanisms drive these changes? --his tasks have been used to investigate development in thousands of studies

long-term memory

-store information for minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years -the first major division in long-term memory is between explicit and implicit memories. explicit memory stores information that you are aware of and can describe. implicit memory stores information that can impact your behavior whether or not you are aware of it

language: results of Dr. Kuhl's study -what it means that language learning has a critical/sensitive period

-the critical period hypothesis (CPH) states that the first few years of life constitute the time during which language develops readily and after which (sometime between age 5 and puberty) language acquisition is much more difficult and ultimately less successful -critical period in first 12 months to differentiate sounds, sensitive period after the 12 months

improving memory: the testing effect

-the finding that long-term memory is often increased when some of the learning period is devoted to retrieving the to-be-remembered information Studying Tips: •Elaboration is important -Make it meaningful! •Think of examples •Make diagrams •Relate it back to your life •Ask questions •Post to Discussions tool •Distribute your studying -Don't cram! •Do a little every day •Make a schedule, start early •Study throughout the week •Work on multiple courses on the same day rather than focusing on a single course each day

decision making and problem solving: framing effects (from textbook)

-the tendency to emphasize the potential losses or potential gains from at least one alternative in decision making (e.x., The way information is presented can alter how people perceive their choices. Would you rather take a course where you have a 70 percent chance of passing or one where you have a 30 percent chance of failing? Even though the chances of passing (or failing) are identical, many students would choose the first course.) -Research on this indicates that when people make choices, they may weigh losses and gains differently. They are generally much more concerned with costs than with benefits, an emphasis known as loss aversion.

intelligence: multiple intelligences (from textbook)

-three types of intelligence: analytic, creative, and practical -analytical intelligence: similar to that measured by psychometric tests- being good at problem solving, completing analogies, figuring out puzzles, and other academic challenges -creative intelligence: involves the ability to gain insight and solve novel problems- to think in new and interesting ways -practical intelligence: refers to dealing with everyday tasks, such as knowing whether a parking space is large enough for your vehicle, being a good judge of people, being an effective leader, and so on -emotional intelligence- consists of four abilities: managing one's emotions, using one's own emotions to guide thoughts and actions, recognizing other people's emotions, and understanding emotional language; people high in EI recognize emotional experiences in themselves and others, then respond to those emotions productively, correlated with the quality of social relationships

working memory/short-term memory: limited capacity (digit span task)

-used to assess the limited storage capacity of verbal working memory -can be given visually by displaying a series of numbers and then asking the person taking the test to verbally state the numbers back

intelligence

-very difficult to define the term and even more difficult to measure it -isn't a single thing, a person can be very intelligent in some ways and not so intelligent in other ways -consensus definition from 52 leading experts: A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper and capability for comprehending our surroundings-- "catching on," "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do. -used for understanding things and figuring out what to do -allows us to adapt to a complex world and do amazing things like compose symphonies and design computers

sensory memory (iconic)

-visual -e.x., (with graph) the green region represents the picture that the subject is looking at. It comes on suddenly, remains visible for 100 milliseconds, and then turns off suddenly. However, you perceive that the image comes on suddenly, but it appears to fade away gradually over a period of about half a second. -another e.x., at full speed, your sensory memory fills in the light where the sparkler was a moment before, making it appear as if the whole circle is lit at one time

language: results of Dr. Kuhl's study -development of infants' abilities to discriminate phonemes in their non-native language

-what are three different techniques that can be used to study infants? sucking pattern, looking time, head-turn technique -can newborns tell the difference between "ba" and "da"? "da" and "dha"? yes -when do infants lose the ability to differentiate sounds that they have never heard before? about 12 months

confounds

-when more than one factor varies systematically between conditions -a problem with the design of a study -are likely (and difficult to rule out) in correlational studies -experiments eliminate these

memory systems: implicit (word stem completion task)

-you show the participant a few letters and ask the participant to come up with the first word that comes to mind that begins with that word stem -this is a case of implicit memory because the participant is not trying to come up with a word that was heard recently; the participant is just saying the first word that comes to mind -people with damage to the medial temporal lobes, like patient HM, typically show normal performance on implicit memory tasks like mirror learning, classical conditioning, and word stem completion. however, they're impaired if you ask them to consciously describe the episodes where they did these tasks

Brianna and Kamila are monozygotic (identical) twins who were raised by different families. If they both grew up in similar suburban middle-class homes, we would expect that: A) They will probably have similar IQ scores, because there was not much opportunity for environmental factors to differentially impact their IQ scores B) They will probably have similar IQ scores, because genes have a much stronger impact than the environment C) They will probably have dissimilar IQ scores, because genes don't have much impact on IQ scores D) They will probably have dissimilar IQ scores, because the environment doesn't have much impact on IQ scores

A) They will probably have similar IQ scores, because there was not much opportunity for environmental factors to differentially impact their IQ scores

Dr. Kuhl's studies involve 2 groups of randomly selected 6-8 month old infants in 2 countries (e.g. USA and Japan). Each group gets the same stimuli ("ra" and "la"), and their phoneme discrimination is inferred from their head turning. This is a: A. Correlational study B. Descriptive study C. Experimental study

A. Correlational study

When you add together 4+7+6, you might first add the 4 and 7 together to get 11, and then add the 11 and the 6 to get 17. In this example, the number 11 is an example of ________. A) A cognitive representation B) An intermediate representation C) An illusory representation D) A computer representation

B) An intermediate representation

IQ scores do not change over the decades because an IQ score reflects ____________. A) Mental abilities that do not change over time B) Where someone's test performance ranks compares to other people tested in the same general time period C) The score on a test rather than true intelligence D) Contributions from both genes and the environment

B) Where someone's test performance ranks compares to other people tested in the same general time period

Which of the following approaches to studying leads to the best exam performance for most types of courses? A. Focusing on a single course each day B. Spending time on multiple courses each day

B. Spending time on multiple courses each day

Which of the following would be examples of schemas? [Select all that are correct.] A) The mental representation of an object while you are mentally rotating it B) All of the interconnected concepts in the mind of a little girl named Nerissa C) Your knowledge of the steps involved in registering for classes D) The process you use to do long division E) The interconnected concepts that represent your knowledge of coffee

C) Your knowledge of the steps involved in registering for classes E) The interconnected concepts that represent your knowledge of coffee

Say Dr. Kuhl is also interested on how the gender of the speaker affects phoneme discrimination. To look into this, she recruits infants in 2 countries (USA and Japan), and separates them into 2 groups. One group has a male voice reading syllables, while the other has a female voice. Like before, their phoneme discrimination is inferred from their head turning. This is a: A. Correlational study B. Descriptive study C. Experimental study

C. Experimental study

Which of the following ways of studying for an exam will lead to the best memory at the time of the test (especially if you study one day and take the test the next day)? A. Recopying the lecture notes B. Rereading the textbook and your notes C. Rephrasing the information in your own words D. Highlighting or underlining key sections of the textbook and lecture notes

C. Rephrasing the information in your own words

Which of the following is NOT a myth? A) Playing Mozart to babies will make them smarter B) People use only 10% of their brains C) Some people are left-brained whereas others are right-brained D) The left and right hemispheres are strongly interconnected

D) The left and right hemispheres are strongly interconnected

Cognitive psychologists use the term "information processing" to describe thinking because: A) People are aware of the information they are processing when they think B) Thinking in the human mind is identical to information processing in typical computers C) People represent information as concepts and relationships between the concepts D) Thinking often consists of taking mental representations of information and transforming them into new representations

D) Thinking often consists of taking mental representations of information and transforming them into new representations

English speaking adults: FAD and FED= sound different MIT and MEAT= sound different Spanish-speaking adults: FAD and FED= sound different MIT and MEAT= sound same Imagine that Dr. Kuhl studied English- and Spanish- speaking 12-month-old infants instead. Which of the following is/are true? A. English-speaking infants can differentiate "ad" and "ed" and "it" and "eat" B. Spanish-speaking infants can differentiate "ad" and "ed" C. Spanish-speaking infants can differentiate "it" and "eat" D. A and B are true, but not C E. A, B, and C are all true

D. A and B are true, but not C

Which of the following is NOT a myth? A) IQ is the main factor that determines whether someone will succeed in college B) IQ is unrelated to success in college C) Intelligence can be radically changed by experience D) Intelligence cannot be changed by experience E) All of these are myths

E) All of these are myths

English speaking adults: FAD and FED= sound different MIT and MEAT= sound different Spanish-speaking adults: FAD and FED= sound different MIT and MEAT= sound same Imagine that Dr. Kuhl studied English- and Spanish- speaking 7-month-old infants. Which of the following is/are true? A. English-speaking infants can differentiate "ad" and "ed" and "it" and "eat" B. Spanish-speaking infants can differentiate "ad" and "ed" C. Spanish-speaking infants can differentiate "it" and "eat" D. A and B are true, but not C E. A, B, and C are all true

E. A, B, and C are all true

Imagine that you make a shopping list with the following items: cheese, mayonnaise, sliced turkey, peanut butter, jelly However, you forget to bring the list with you when you go shopping. At the store, you write out a new list from memory, and you include "bread" even though it wasn't on the original list. This would be an example of: A. Levels of processing B. Primacy C. Recency D. Serial position E. False memory

E. False memory

conceptual networks: use in drawing inferences

Together, all of the things that you know are linked together into a "network of concepts." You can use your network of concepts to draw inferences. Thinking is like computation. You have some data in your network of concepts, and you engage in a sequence of logical operations to produce some output. You might not be aware of the individual steps you go through in drawing the inference, but your brain is clearly engaged in a type of computation when you do this sort of thing. And many of these computations make use of the data represented in your network of concepts.

intelligence: G (general intelligence)

a factor that contributes to performance on any intellectual task

Emma was reading the textbook for her Economics class and was trying to relate the material to her own experiences. According to the depth-of-processing account of memory, this would be considered _______. a) Deep processing b) Shallow processing c) Primacy d) Recency

a) Deep processing

A researcher wants to know whether caffeine helps or hurts the learning ability of students who regularly drink coffee. The researcher surveys all students in PSYC031 and finds those who drink at least 2 cups of coffee per day. The researcher recruits 100 of these students and randomly divides them into 2 groups, both of which read a chapter from a book about the history of Malaysia while drinking coffee and then take a test to see what they remember. The coffee is caffeinated in one group and decaffeinated in the other group. The researcher finds that average test performance is higher in the caffeinated group than in the decaffeinated group (p< .05) and concludes that caffeine is actually helpful for people who actually drink coffee. Can the researcher conclude that the caffeine actually caused the difference in memory performance? a)Yes b)No. The researcher can conclude that caffeine is associated with higher performance but not that it causes higher performance. c)No. Some other factor may have differed between the two groups and caused the difference in performance.

a)Yes In a true experiment with random assignment, only one factor differs systematically between groups, and statistical significance means that random differences were unlikely to be responsible for the results, so we can draw conclusions about causation.

differences between correlational and experimental designs

ability to conclude causation from experiments

mental representations: symbolic representations (from textbook)

abstract mental representations that do not correspond to the physical features of objects or ideas; usually words, numbers, or ideas; do not have relationships to physical qualities of objects in the world; e.x., the word violin stands for a musical instrument, there are no correspondences between what a violin looks like, what it sounds like, and the letters or sounds that make up the word violin

piaget: assimilation

add to existing scheme (e.x., see a zebra- never seen before- put it into category of horse)

long-term memory: state dependency

applies to the individual's internal conditions (such as one's caffeination level)

Imagine that we conducted a similar experiment but used the following instructions: Left side: "Does this word rhyme with PARK?" Right side: "Is this something that can be purchased at a store?" Which group would we expect to remember more words based on depth-of-processing accounts of memory? a) left side b) right side

b) right side

Baby Avi learns that banging a toy makes a funny sound. He then tries banging a block and finds that it also makes a funny sound. Then he bangs an egg and finds that it breaks instead of making a funny sound. The next time he has an egg, he bangs it to see if it will make a funny sound. This would be an example of: a)Using assimilation when assimilation was appropriate b)Using assimilation when accommodation would have been better c)Using accommodation when accommodation was appropriate d)Using accommodation when assimilation would have been better

b)Using assimilation when accommodation would have been better

intelligence: fluid intelligence (from textbook)

being able to understand abstract relationships and think logically without prior knowledge; involves information processing, especially in novel or complex circumstances, such as reasoning, drawing analogies, and thinking quickly and flexibly

A researcher puts two equal sized balls of dough in front of a 3-year-old child, and then rolls one of them into a log shape while the child watches. The researcher then asks the child which of the two pieces contains more dough. Which of the following responses would be an example of centration? a)"The log, because it's longer" b)"The ball, because it's fatter" c)Both (a) and (b) d)Neither (a) nor (b)

c)Both (a) and (b)

Which of the following is true of Menella et al. (2001)? a)The video-based coding of facial expressions was subjective rather than objective (Subjective: ur thoughts, Objective: based on facts) b)The study was correlational rather than experimental c)We can conclude that prenatal exposure to carrot juice causes a change in infants' negative facial expressions when they are later fed cereal flavored with carrot juice rather than water d)If there were more low-income mothers in the WW group than in the CW and WC groups (by chance), this would have been a confound even though the study used random assignment

c)We can conclude that prenatal exposure to carrot juice causes a change in infants' negative facial expressions when they are later fed cereal flavored with carrot juice rather than water In a true experiment with random assignment, only one factor differs systematically between groups, and statistical significance means that random differences were unlikely to be responsible for the results, so we can draw conclusions about causation.

piaget: accomodation

develop a new scheme (e.x., see a zebra- never seen before- put it into its own category)

epigenetics

gene expression can be turned on or off by experience -A gene by itself just sits there in the DNA, doing nothing. To have an effect, the gene needs to be turned on so that it leads to protein synthesis, and gene expression is controlled by the cell's environment. but the environment can't do anything without the right genes

long-term memory: context dependency

involves an individual's external environment and conditions (such as the room used for studying and the room used to take the test)

memory systems: implicit (priming)

involves briefly presenting a stimulus, like a word or a picture, and seeing how that influences the processing of the same stimulus or related stimuli a few seconds or minutes later

intelligence: crystallized intelligence (from textbook)

involves knowledge acquired through experience, such as vocabulary and cultural information, and the ability to use this knowledge to solve problems

memory systems: explicit (semantic)

knowing that something is true (even if you can't remember when and where you learned it)

mental representations: intermediate representations

mechanism for temporarily storing information that you currently need access to

false memories

memories for events that never happened, but were suggested by someone or something -e.x. if you hear several words related to "sleep," the "sleep" concept will become activated, so you may think you heard that word

mental representations: analogical representations (from textbook)

mental representations that have some of the physical characteristics of objects; they are analogous to the objects; usually images; e.x., maps are analogical representations that correspond to geographical layouts, a clock corresponds to the passage of time, family trees depict relationships between relatives, a realistic drawing of a violin is an attempt to show that musical instrument from a particular perspective

temporally graded retrograde amnesia

no memory for the period immediately prior to the surgery, but intact memory for his youth

anterograde amnesia

no new memories for events after the surgery

schema

part of your overall conceptual network that applies to a specific domain (e.g., cars)

serial position effect

probability of remembering the beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of a list is more likely than in the middle of the list

primacy effect

probability of remembering the beginning of a list is more likely than in the middle of the list

recency effect

probability of remembering the end of a list is more likely than in the middle of the list

memory systems: explicit (episodic)

remembering a specific event in your life

memory systems

sensory memory, working memory/short-term memory, long-term memory

script

special kind of schema; a mental representation for a common sequence of actions and events, usually of a social nature; e.x. restaurant script- by having a mental representation of this script, you know what to do and when to do it when you go to a restaurant. it can also help you draw inferences

language: phoneme definition

the different sounds in a language BED, COOK, SHOE PITCH, PEACH BED, BAD

long-term memory: encoding specificity

the way someone encodes a piece of information determines what is stored in memory and how it can be retrieved