psych111 exam 2

banduras' four key components to observational learning

1) attention: be aware of another's behavior and consequences 2) retention: have the capacity to store/retrieve what you have observed 3) reproduction: behaviorally imitate what has been stored in memory 4) motivation: determined by a belief that the behavior will bring about a desired response

social cognitive theories of learning

1) observational learning: believe there is a higher-level cognitive process to how we learn, impacts attitudes, beliefs, and expectations (seeing others go through something and learning from it consciously) 2) diffusion chain: individuals learn a behavior through observation and then become models from which others learn the behavior

stages in language development

crying cooing: vowel like noises babbling: consonant/vowel like baba or dada first words: convey meaning (babbling doesn't count) holophrases: simple word conveys meaning (ex. Shoe! for put shoe on, contextual) telegraphic speech: content word sentences (ex. Shoe on!) grammatic speech: mommy put the shoe on! by age 8 learn avg 15 words/day, vocab of 8k-14k words around this age children acquire metalinguistic awareness: the capacity to assess the different uses of language (jokes, homonyms like read/red)

flashbulb memories

dramatic positive or negative memories ex. you can't normally recall your dinner last tuesday, but you might if someone punched you at that dinner memories for traumatic events are more vivid than ordinary events main aspects of trauma remembered can distort details accuracy fades over time there are significant cohort connections: remembering where you were at the challenger explosion, 9/11, when covid shut the world down the distortion is a risk in eyewitness testimony reliability

deductive reasoning

draw conclusions from a set of assumptions, the conclusion is true if the premise is true (if x then y) syllogism: form of deductive reasoning consisting of 2 premises and a conclusion (premise all A are B + premise C is an A = therefore C is a B) belief bias: research on syllogisms has noted that people are more likely to accept conclusions if they are believable as opposed to whether the argument is logical

learning theory and language

Behaviorist theory: Language is based only on modeling, imitation, exposure and reinforcement Flaws with this notion: Children acquire language with ease, not broad variations, Adult speech is often sloppy; children acquire basic rules/structures anyways, Children's speech is not a mechanical play back of adult speech Nativist theory of language development: humans are neurologically prewired to learn language Interactionist theory of language development: both biology and experience make important contributions to language development

bilingualism

Bilingualism: Some question whether learning a second language interferes with acquisition, but we often see similar cumulative vocabulary Most research does not show cognitive limitations when learning two languages in the developmental period and it has been associated with greater flexibility in executive functioning in some studies (code switching) A second language is learned best when younger. fMRI research shows that acquiring a second language between the years of 1-5 results in different representation of that language in the brain then for those that acquire it later (9+)(in Schacter et al., 2023)

structure of language

phonemes: the smallest units of sound which can be distinguished in language, changes in them can alter meaning, initial phonemes and middle phonemes, hard-wired to sort input from 20-80 phonemes, los ability to distinguish by 10-12 mos if not exposed, usually don't carry meaning by themselves morphemes: smallest units of meaning in a language, affixes like suffixes/prefixes/infixes semantics: understanding the meaning of words/word combos syntax: the structure of a lang, underlying rules of order/function for how words can be combined to form phrases/sentences, Gleason Wug test - language rules are generative

forgetting

Ebbinghaus's speed of forgetting curve for nonsensical syllables: steep but not generalizable for all forgetting (we don't forget everything that fast) because... ineffective encoding: we don't remember stuff in the first place, aka shallow processing didn't keep it decay theories: memories fade with time new memories for old: most recent version is saved (info is updated and old is tossed to make room for new) retroactive inference: new info interferes w/ old proactive inference: old info interferes w/ new motivated forgetting: painful memories are blocked from consciousness (Freud, repression) forgetting is lessened by... retrieval cues: external info helps memory encoding specificity: a cue can help as a reminder when it recreates the specific way the info/memory was encoded. It is state dependent and context dependent (aka mental and physical states can enhance memory) like going back to the scene of a crime or that scene where keke palmer jump ropes to remember in the spelling bee

intelligence theories 3

Emotional Intelligence (Mayer and Salovey): the ability to reason about emotions and to use emotions to enhance reasoning ability to motivate oneself and control impulses, ability to persist in the face of frustration, ability to keep distress from overwhelming the ability to think Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (8/9): logical-mathematical, linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, existential **

chase and simon chess player research

point: expert knowledge helps memory of relevant but not irrelevant info three levels of chess players (novice, intermediate, and expert) were shown a chess board for 5 sec then challenged to set up the board as it was independent variable: some boards had meaningful layouts, and some were random ability increased as skill level increased, but all 3 levels remembered the random boards way less than the meaningful

intelligence theories

Spearman: 2-factor theory of intelligence that every task requires a combination of general abilities (g factor) and skills specific to particular tasks (s factor) Thurston: less a "general ability", but some stable and independent mental abilities (e.g. perceptual, numerical, verbal) that serve as "primary" abilities currently intelligence seen as a 3-level hierarchy (general intelligence split into memory, reasoning, and verbal and split further from there)

learning in the classroom

practice testing (generation effect) distributed practice judgements of learning see slides from first lecture

the flynn effect

James Flynn found that from one generation to the next there have been steady gains in IQ scores cross culturally hypotheses: more time in school, better educated parents, better nutrition, broader exposure through media lead to higher scores Schacter (2023) includes Dutton et al's (2016) research showing the Flynn effect may have stabilized Schacter also discusses additional factors that may impact IQ scores such as sleep, emotional state, poverty, and education.

theories of emotion

James-Lange Theory: feelings are the perception of one's specific physiological response to a stimulus (stimulus->response->emotion) (problems: you can have the same phys response to different stimuli, phys responses associate with multiple/overlapping emotions, people unable to experience these responses still have emotions) Canon-Bard Theory: stimulus triggers the ANS (autonomic nervous system) and emotional experience in the brain at the same time Schacter's Two-Factor Theory: stimuli trigger a general state of physiological arousal which is then interpreted as a specific emotion. People use 2 factors to interpret: physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation. The experience is labelled according to interpretation based on context. Allows for the problems with JL theory

factors that impact eating behaviors

biological factors: genetically influenced metabolism, bodily sensations (ex. stomach growling), chemical signals to the body, ghrelin (stimulates hunger, ghrelin makes the growl), leptin (hormone that regulates hunger, some are leptin resistance meaning they don't respond to the chemical message to turn hunger off) social factors: environmental influences on eating behaviors, complex and multiply determined, we eat more in groups (may be evolutionary, perceived scarcity supply phenomenon, distracted eating), the impact of expectation and memory (knowledge of time and day, ex. eating lunch at lunchtime though you aren't truly hungry psychological factors: thinking about food's meaning (ex. family tradition), learned food habits/preferences (familial/cultural), palatability (eating it not bc you're hungry but bc it will taste good), memories (emotional associations) with food, belief and feelings regarding body image (culturally varied: ex. robust meaning rich or skinny meaning rich) how we "think" about food

behavioral

characteristic overt expression of emotion body language and facial expressions six basic emotions generally able to identify: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust current research is exploring contempt new guinea study found that yes, facial expressions are pretty much universal universality hypothesis: the theory that all emotional expressions mean the same thing to all people in all places at all times facial feedback hypothesis proponents: belief that facial expressions themselves can control emotion

punishment

presentation or removal of a stimulus decreases the likelihood of a response positive punishment: something occurs (a stimulus is presented) to decrease a behavior (ex. spanked, mouth washed w/ soap) negative punishment: something is removed to decrease a behavior (no tv, no dessert)

reinforcement

primary reinforcers: satisfy biological needs like food, water, and sex. Presentation increases the likelihood of repeating the behavior secondary reinforcers: satisfy through association with primary reinforcers like money, praise, and grades. Presentation increases the likelihood of repeating the behavior

range of emotions

Schacter reports that human observers can identify at least 20 distinct facial expressions of emotion the 6 emotions are not monoliths: they overlap and mingle to create new emotions like awed and sadly surprised

how we "think" about food

Tang et al. showed participants photos of 50 foods and measured their estimates of each food's calorie content, the amount they were willing to pay for each food item, and fMRI measurement of brain activity while staring at each food item findings: inability to differentiate calorie-rich and calorie-poor food, willingness to pay more for opportunity to eat calorie rich food, brains responded positively to calorie-rich food even if it was not identified as such obesity: rates are currently based on outdated/flawed BMI (25-29.9 is overweight adult, 30+ is obese adult) obesity health concerns: coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon), hypertension (hbp), stroke, sleep apnea and respiratory problems 3 reasons we overeat: biochemical abnormalities (ex. leptin-resistance), we can eat when we aren't hungry bc we simply crave energy, evolutionary mismatch (we are designed to over-eat/bulk but that is no longer adaptive/necessary additional factors associated w/ obesity rates: quantity availability (high accessibility of junk food, increased portion size), increasingly sedentary lifestyle, external cues (ex. dish and glass characteristics) difficulty losing weight: overeating leads to increase in size/# of fat cells, losing weight means a shrinkage of fats cells not # of them, dieting affects our metabolism (our body adapts to less calories by trying to convert the food we do consume into fat), set point (natural stability in body weight) eds: BED (binging and shame), bulimia (binging and compensatory behavior), anorexia (fear of weight gain and extreme restriction)

anticipatory nausea and vomiting

classically conditioned response to chemotherapy chemotherapy - US nausea - UR treatment room/needles - CS nausea in response to the room - CR ANV patients don't respond to anti-nausea drugs though there is some response to behavioral treatments (garcia - there may be different reactions to classical conditioning by sense, taste more sensitive to it) garcias findings may be explained by biological preparedness: a propensity for learning particular associations over others (things more important for survival, like tasting bad food)

decision models

compensatory decision models: allows attractive attributes to compensate for unattractive attributes (ex. paying a little more for a flight with advantaging qualities) noncompensatory decision models: do not allow some attributes to compensate for the other, bottom line decision making (ex. paying for the cheapest flight without considering its sucky qualities) additive model: rating the attributes of each alternative and selecting the one which has the highest sum (pro/con list) elimination by aspects model: gradually eliminate options whose attributes fail to satisfy a minimum criteria

shaping

concept of operant conditioning, reinforcing behavioral tendencies in a desired direction using successive approximation - aka reinforcing responses that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior helps form more complex behavior ex. Skinners pigeon trained by a light/food to turn in a circle in increasing amounts

nonverbal communication

Vocal intonation: stress, pitch & volume Body language: crossed arms, sitting up Gestures Physical Distance Facial Expressions Touch

Weschler Intelligence Scale

Wechsler's view of intelligence: "The global capacity of a person to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his/her environment." WAIS identifies a full-scale IQ and 4 primary index scales FSIQ based on 10 subtests Index scales: verbal comprehension scale, perceptual reasoning scale, working memory scale, processing speed scale

intellectual disability/intellectual developmental disorder

a disorder with onset during the developmental period that includes both intellectual and adaptive functioning deficits in conceptual, social, and practical domains Assessment of Adaptive Behavior Conceptual Skills: language and literacy, money, time and number concepts Social Skills: interpersonal skills, social responsibility, self-esteem, gullibility, naivete (i.e.wariness), social problem solving, and the ability to follow rules/obey laws and to avoid being victimized Practical Skills: activities of daily living (personal care), occupational skills, healthcare, travel/transportation, schedules/routines, safety there are multiple causes of intellectual disability Organic: over 100 single genetic traits can result in intellectual disabilities Environmental: teratogens (fetal alcohol syndrome; poor nutrition, disease)

conditioning

a kind of learning that involves associations between environmental stimuli and responses types: classical conditioning, second-order (highest order) conditioning, operant conditioning/instrumental learning

concepts + concept theories

a mental representation of a category, we often recognize an object as a member of a particular group how we do this 1) resemblance theory: identifying members of a category based on characteristic features -- but this attribute may not be shared by all (ex. furry = animal though there are things that are furry that aren't animals) 2) exemplar theory: we categorize by comparing the image to other instances stored in our memory of members within the category and make a judgment about inclusion (compare ALL category members) 3) prototype theory: we categorize by looking at a prototype and comparing the object to this specific mental representation of the group rosch

definition of language

a system of symbols that convey meaning with rules of combination that allow for communication

emotion

a temporary state that includes the subjective experiences and physiological activity, and that prepares people for action valence: how positive the feeling is arousal: how energetic the feeling is dot chart of valence v arousal appraisals: conscious or unconscious evaluations and interpretations of the emotion-relevant aspects of a stimulus or event (ex. i feel nervous for this class presentation) action tendencies: readiness to engage in a specific set of emotion-relevant behaviors (anger-->approach; disgust-->avoidance) cognitive: subjective conscious experience, includes appraisal of the situation physiological: bodily arousal accompanies feeling states, fight or flight (autonomic nervous system), some research looks at evaluation physiological emotional responses with GSR/polygraph tests

memory problems

amnesia: refers to memory deficits retrograde amnesia: deficit in recalling events that happened before the onset of amnesia anterograde amnesia: deficit in learning after the onset of the disorder Clive Wearing: extreme example of anterograde amnesia one thing I learned from Clive's story: musical retention even w/ no memory, amnesia can stem from viral illness, primal emotions (love for wife) and attachment can be conserved

thought

an extension of perception and memory mental representations are formed, recalled, and manipulated

animal research

animal speech production is limited, there are challenges designing tests to assess comprehension, animals do show the capacity for empathy/understanding others/altruism, research explores the capacity to learn language concepts and understand grammar while controlling for imitation began with ASL as a tool to see if animals could communicate with humans Schacter describes the capacities that chimpanzees(apes) demonstrate with this kind of research, but also note the limitations that appear Strengths: Acquire sizeable vocabularies, string words together to form short sentences, process sentences that are grammatically complex Limitations: Limited vocabularies, limited conceptual repertoire, limited grammatical complexity Animal research also demonstrates ability to apply concepts/categories (parrot answering Qs about novel objects) dog learning toy names by process of elimination (complex logic)

learning

any relative permanent change in behavior that occurs because of experience ex. tripping over a cord and remembering to watch out for it next time

decision-making fallacies/tricks

conjunction fallacy: basic flawed assumption that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event gambler's fallacy: the belief that the odds of an event increase if the event has not occurred recently (in reality, the odds are the odds always) fast and frugal heuristics: shortcuts that guide us in decision making about probabilities, can be useful and more successful than expected research shows common heuristic biases availability heuristic: decision making based on the fact that things which are easily recalled seem to be typical/common (ex. recent plane crash deterring people from flying) representative heuristic: decision making based on the similarity to the typical prototype of the event or circumstance (ex. judging based on appearance)

learning schedules for operant conditioning

employed in many contexts continuous schedules: reward/punishment occurs each time the behavior occurs intermittent schedules: reward/punishment occurs when a response occurs only some of the time different timing schedules ratio schedules: deliver reinforcement after a certain number of responses (ex. press 5x to get a candy) interval schedules: reinforcement after a certain amount of time has passed and the desired behavior has occurred (ex. press and then after 5 min you will get the reward) fixed ratio schedules: reinforcement after a fixed number of responses (like 4x) variable ratio schedules: reinforcement after some average number of responses (avg 7x) fixed interval: reinforcement occurs after a fixed amount of time has passed since the past reinforcer (5 min) variable interval: reinforcement occurs if a variable amount of time has passed since the previous reinforcer (on avg 5 min, could be 3-7 min) general concepts intermittent reinforcement effect: behaviors maintained under intermittent schedules resist extinction better than those under continuous reinforcement (maybe i'll get it this time...maybe this time...maybe etc)

decision making

evaluating alternatives and making choices among them theory of bounded rationality: people rely on a simple set of possible solutions leading to less ideal or "irrational" decisions (ex. buying the cheapest every time even though it breaks fast)

eyewitness testimony

ex. school scenario where students descriptions of the purse snatcher all varied, some aligning w/ false info planted by the experimenter people's memories are highly suggestible people tend to fill in missing information how one words things can impact memories (ex. presupposition questions in Hock) errors are greater when the ethnicity of the subjects is different from the witness we can implant false memories w/ digitally altered photographs (ex. hot air balloon ride)

childhood language development

expressive (productive) language: the ability to produce language receptive language: the ability to comprehend, process, and integrate the meaning of language children usually develop reception faster/have a grater capacity for it than expression as they are acquiring language

intelligence theories 2

fluid intelligence: the ability to see abstract relationships and draw logical inferences; solve novel problems; the "processing part" of the brain; reasoning ability, memory capacity and speed of processing crystallized intelligence: the ability to retain and apply knowledge that was acquired through experience to problem solving Sternberg's three facets of intelligence: 1) practical intelligence: finding solutions encountered for problems confronted in every day life 2) analytical intelligence: abstract reasoning, good test taking skills 3) creative intelligence: generate new ideas, solutions

second-order (highest order) conditioning

followed from pavlov's initial discovery pairing a NS w/ the US will create another CS although a weaker CR that is more likely to show extinction ex. food --> bell, bell --> light, dog will salivate to the light bc it is associated with the bell that is associated with the food extinction: repeating the CS w/out the US will cause the CR to eventually disappear spontaneous recovery: after a response has become extinct it may spontaneously reappear after the passage of time with new exposure to the CS stimulus generalization: after a stimulus becomes a CS for some response, other similar stimuli may produce the same reaction (ex. other furry things for little albert) stimulus discrimination: one learns to realize the differences between similar stimuli and the CS so the same reaction is not produced (ex. learning to hear the difference between a wake up alarm and a smoke alarm)

giftedness

generally believed to be those with an IQ of > 130 (Upper 2-3% of the population) characteristics: precocious, master things earlier, teachers may not identify them correctly, distinction between gifted and "profoundly gifted", may have exceptional potential in visual/performing arts, leadership traits or empathy, acceleration is not the current recommendation Winner notes 3 components of giftedness: precocity (master acts earlier), march to own drummer (learn in qualitatively different ways), passion to master (driven to understand a domain) he also notes that this is different from the profoundly gifted who may be more introverted/socially isolated

heredity and intelligence

heritability coefficient: the statistic that describes the proportion of the difference between people's IQ scores that can be explained by differences in their genes current estimates are around 50% for intelligence reaction range: heritability sets the limits on one's intellectual potential while the quality of the environment influences where the scores fall within the range

biological needs/motivations

homeostasis: tendency for the body to want to maintain a state of constancy, also related to our food intake hunger/food: energy is necessary for maintenance and growth, we search for a balanced diet hypothalamus: primary structure of the brain which signals hunger and satiation (fullness) orexigenic means switching on the experience of hunger the lateral hypothalamus turns hunger on, stimulation yields increased eating, a lesion can cause starvation (lateral lesions makes you lean) anorexigenic means switching off the experience of hunger the ventromedial hypothalamus is the hunger off, stimulation stops eating, lesion or damage can cause voracious eating (lesion ventromedial makes you voluptuous) further research suggests that the arcturate and paraventricular areas may be more critical in hunger regulation, overall the process is more complex than originally believed

lessons from lassie (sparkin et al 1975)

how observational learning can have prosocial benefits children exposed to altruistic behavior were more likely to get help for animals they believed to be in distress, even when it meant less reward for them

self-fulfilling prophecy

if we expect something to occur in a certain way our expectations will make it more likely to happen Rosenthal and Jacobson study with teacher expectancy and student performance described results: for the entire school the children for whom the teachers expected greater intellectual growth averaged significantly greater improvement than did the control children, especially for grades 1 and 2 possible explanations for greater change in the younger grades: younger children are easier to change, younger students have less developed reputations, younger children may be more susceptible, teachers of children in lower grades may be different

drives

internal state of tension that propels one to a certain activity/behavior to lessen the feeling. drive reduction theory similar to homeostasis: tendency for a system to take actions to maintain a steady state this theory doesn't explain people doing things when they don't need to so other theories... incentives: external goals that promote a behavior less a focus of contemporary psych hedonic principle: people are motivated to experience pleasure and avoid pain some things are simply... intrinsic motivation: a motivation to take actions that are themselves rewarding extrinsic motivation: a motivation to take actions that are not themselves rewarding, but that lead to reward delay of gratification: the ability to engage in behaviors that are currently unrewarding for greater rewards later. associated w/ better grades, social competence, emotional intelligence, achievement motivation, higher SAT (ex. marshmallow test) need for affiliation achievement motivation

the role of the amygdala in emotion

it is a threat detector makes the appraisal fast (thalamus-->amygdala) and slow (thalamus-->cortex-->amygdala) pathways of fear in the brain because the amygdala receives info from the thalamus before it receives info from the cortex, a person be afraid of something before they know what it is

linguistic relativity vs universal grammar

linguistic relativity Benjamin Whorf theory that one's language determines one's thoughts, data provides some support for this (ex. Inuit snow terms), done away with now is a little back with caveats universal grammar Chomsky humans possess an inborn language mechanism that facilitates language learning, if appropriately exposed to the necessary input

Terman

long term study of gifted individuals (longest running study- since 1921). 1500 youngsters (average IQ=150) found to be above average in height, weight, strength, physical health, emotional stability and social satisfaction throughout adulthood.

operant conditioning/instrumental learning

main premise: behavior is dependent on its consequences Thorndike: studied cats escaping cages to understand learning behaviors, his work showed the Law of Effect: a satisfying result strengthens or increases a behavior (when the cats successfully escaped and got the food, they repeated that behavior, but when they failed, they tried something different) B.F. Skinner: all behavior is explained by looking outside the individual. People (and animals) tend to repeat behaviors which have positive consequences and decrease behaviors which have negative consequences There are three types of consequences: neutral (not more or less likely to see behavior patterns change), reinforcement (anything that will make a response more likely to occur), and punishment (anything that will make a response less likely to occur) reinforcements/punishments that occur immediately after a behavior have the strongest effect in general, reinforcement is more effective because it increases the behavior one wants to occur superstition: people/animals may changes their behaviors/responses based on rewards that initially occurred accidentally (ex. my lucky testing socks)

ways to assist memory

maintenance rehearsal: helps retaining in short term memory, repeating something until you can record it in some way elaborative rehearsal: more long term, knowing something then reviewing it and practicing it to give it meaning (ex. active studying) visual imagery: creating visual images to represent words/concepts method of loci: matching up existing visual images with concepts (ex. pairing study terms to objects in your room) mnemonics: systemic strategies for remembering info (ex. ROY G BIV for colors of the rainbow, singing the song to remember the reindeer names, rhymes) dual-coding theory: memory is enhanced by using both semantic and visual codes since either can lead to recall (ex. associating the word liberty with the liberty bell)

evolutionary theory

motivation plays a significant role in adaptation; social need to affiliate, share resources, provide protection, procreate; motivation to try new things (ie adapt) has kept populations alive

Inside Out

movie that represented 5 of the 6 major emotions left out surprise because it is hard to distinguish from fear criticism in Schacter because it showed memory as partially unchangeable and encapsulated, not as an active reconstruction though there is nuance here because the emotional experience of the memories changing was an integral part of the movie plot

display rules

norms that regulate the appropriate expression of emotions, culturally determined intensification: exaggerating the expression of an emotion deintensification: muting the expression of an emotion masking: expressing one emotion while feeling another neutralizing: showing no expression of emotion you are feeling

childhood language quirks that support ug/language generativity

overregularizations - grammatical rules incorrectly generalized to "exception" cases, ex. he goed to the park and bringed the cake fast-mapping: children may add words to their vocabularies after one exposure overextensions: one word is over applied to a broader range of objects or actions, ex. all animals are called doggie underextensions: one word is incorrectly believed to apply to only one member of a group or classification, ex. sissy is the only sister to exist

classical conditioning

pavlov an organism learns to associate 2 stimuli, 1 then producing a response that was originally only produced by the other dog/bell saliva example unconditioned stimulus (US): elicits the unconditioned response before learning, naturally, instinctive (food) unconditioned response (UR): response which is originally automatically produced (salivation) conditioned stimulus (CS): originally neutral (no effect) stimulus that elicits a behavior only after being paired w/ a US (bell/metronome) conditioned response (CR): response elicited by the CS (salivate to bell/metronome) acquisition: the phase of classical conditioning when the US and CS are paired together

Maslow's theory of motivation

people are motivated to fill a hierarchy of needs some needs are more pressing than others more basic needs need to be satisfied before less-pressing needs historically portrayed as a pyramid but it's really more like a ladder: you can climb up and down and have hands and feet on different rungs at the same time hierarchy: 1. physiological needs (ex. hunger, thirst) 2. safety (ex. shelter, money) 3. love and belonging (ex. group membership, friendship) 4. self confidence and respect (ex. competition) 5. self-actualization (relax, no more pressure)

problem-solving

problems vary from well-defined to ill-defined framing: how a problem is posed may change the decision-making tasks and the solutions (ex. presupposition in eye-witness testimony questioning, high c fruit juice 10% real) prospect theory/loss aversion: the risk we are willing to take depends on whether it is to avoid a loss or achieve a gain, for us it is more important to avoid losses than achieve even equal gains algorithm: well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem hypothesis testing: make and test an educated guess about a problem/solution mental simulation: mental rehearsal of the steps needed to solve a problem (ex. mapping in your head the route to a place)

being thoughtful memory consumers

reality monitoring: deciding whether memories are based on external or internal sources (ex. did i say that or did i think that?) source memory (monitoring): recall of when, where, and how info was acquired (ex. did i hear that from x or read it from y?) source monitoring error/memory misattribution: assigning a memory to the wrong source

ways to measure memory

recall: the ability to retrieve information which has been learned earlier (ex. list Rudolph's 8 reindeer friends) recognition: the ability to identify previously encountered information (ex. which on this list are Rudolph's 8 reindeer friends) relearning: the effort saved in having learned something before (aka it's easier to learn something after learning it once before, like studying)

polygraph tests

record autonomic fluctuations hypotheses: when subjects lie, notable changes in physiology occur telling lies affects both verbal and nonverbal behavior (slower speech, longer response time, fewer details, less fluent and engaging, less certain, tenser, etc) BUT polygraphs aren't always accurate: they are sensitive to people who are simply high-anxiety and less likely to detect those who lie w/out discomfort SO brain imaging technology could help, but there are ethical questions

memory quirks

serial position effect: you are more likely to remember the first (primacy effect) and last (recency effect) terms in a sequence than the middle frequency: numerous mentions increase memory distinctiveness: a term being different in some way from other terms in a sequence increases likelihood of its remembrance chunking: terms grouped together in some way increases memory reconstructed memory: reflects how schemas can effect our memories, sometimes we put related terms/ideas in a memory even if they weren't there originally just because they are related

sexuality

sex is a biological motivation research started w/ the Kinsey study, a survey identifying sexual behaviors/preferences but it has problems: self reported data can have bias issues and limited validity (what people do and what they say could be different) then in the 1960's Masters and Johnson came around to study sex with direct systematic observations/measures in order to understand actual sexual responses they originally studied prostitutes but they aren't generalizable so recruited the public, 382 men and 312 women, ages 18-92 they took physiological measurements, and they created new instruments for the study findings: the 4 stage sexual response cycle for men and women - excitement, plateau, orgasm, resolution men experience a refractory period (recent research says women may too) rates of orgasm vary for men and women, women may experience multiple but report says they reach at all less than men size doesn't matter

decision making and the brain

significant involvement in the prefrontal cortex related to our judgment damage to this part of the brain can lead to riskier decisions: people with prefrontal lobe damage do not show emotional reactions during risky decision making, insensitivity to future consequences, greater activation of prefrontal lobe in healthy individuals when decision making, similar effects in substance-dependent individuals potential important implications: road safety, gambling, binge eating

inductive reasoning

taking specific observations and applying it to a general rule ex: what comes next in the series? when the problem suddenly changes to letters and not math, we are stumped because mental set: tendency to stick to solutions which have worked in the past functional fixedness: our tendency to rely on the primary function for an object and ignore other possible uses (classic problem solving task: string and weights where weighting the string so it swings is an out of the box solution) other reasons we are stumped confirmation bias: we seek to confirm what we already believe (ex. not catching errors in our own writing) distraction by irrelevant info: people get side tracked which deters effective problem solving (ex. math majors question when the sequence problem was actually alphabetical)

intelligence

the ability to direct one's thinking, adapt to one's circumstances and learn from one's experiences (Gotfredson, 1997) historically defined by how we "measure" it Alfred Binet: developed intelligence tests (IQ tests) to identify slow learners to develop remedial programs these tested ability (the capacity to learn/gain proficiency in an area) and achievement (the amount of info a person has acquired) mental age: based on common content knowledge and ability compared to avgs at certain ages, not your physical chronological age, used to calculate IQ but IQ is flawed/inconsistent so newer tests developed: Standford-Binet and Wechsler tests

memory

the capacity to retain and retrieve information

information processing model of memory

the memory and mind are like a computer - info is encoded (encoding: how to put info in, retain, store, and retrieve it; like a keyboard) --> stored (encoded info is maintained over time; like a hard disk) --> and retrieved (info is recovered from storage; like displaying data on the monitor) levels of processing = different levels of processing impact encoding (shallow processing-structural encoding | intermediate processing-phonemic encoding | deep processing-semantic encoding)

need for affiliation

the need to be connected/related to others that can be a motivator Hill's 4 propositions as to why we strive to affiliate 1) to obtain positive stimulation in our lives 2) to receive emotional support 3) to gain attention 4) to permit social comparison need for affiliation varies by individual but positive social relationships have personal/evolutionary benefits for everyone there is an increased need to affiliate in fear situations

down syndrome

trisomy 21 (extra genetic material on or duplication of on the 21st chromosome) physical features: small stature, low muscle tone, upward slant of the eyes people with Down Syndrome are at increased risk for congenital heart defects, respiratory and hearing problems, and thyroid conditions. It is important to note the individual strengths and challenges of any person with a diagnosed intellectual disability.

the 9-dot line test

unnecessary constraints: we put restrictions on our problem solving which don't actually exist no one said we can draw outside the box (literally) insight: the sudden discovery of the correct solution following incorrect events based primarily on trial and error (the AHA moment)

motivation

vigor and persistence of goal-directed behavior, helps move us towards our goals (ex. how we get ourselves to class in the morning)

three box model of memory

we have a sensory memory, a short term memory, and a long term memory sensory = retains for 1-2 seconds, acts as a holding bin, decides if stimuli is worth processing, divided into 2 pts (iconic memory - fast-decaying store of visual info | echoic memory - fast-decaying store of auditory info, lasts a little longer than iconic) if stimuli is deemed important it goes to... short term = holds limited amounts of info for 20-30 sec (magic number is how much we can hold here its around 7 chunks +/- 2 or closer to 4, digit span test, chunking), "working memory", contributes to pattern recog by comparing stimuli to info already in our LTM if stimuli is deemed important enough it goes to... long term = longer storage for minutes-decades, organized by schemas and semantic networks (tastes w/ tastes and smells w/ smells), two parts (explicit memory - the act of consciously or intentionally retrieving past experiences | implicit memory - past experiences influence later behavior/performance but people aren't consciously aware that they are remembering) explicit and implicit are further divided... explicit: semantic memory (facts and general knowledge) and episodic memory (personally experienced events) implicit: procedural memory (motor and cognitive skills) and priming (enhanced identification of objects or words because of recent exposure to other stimuli)

achievement motivation

what drives us to seek and reach goals, knowing there is a basic human motive to achieve motivation by success (approach motivation): thrill at mastery and sense of achievement motivation by fear of failure (avoidance motivation): fear of performing badly, increases anxiety, tends to be stronger but there are individual differences yerkes/dodson: researched optimal levels of anxiety for performance there is a connection between achievement motivation and emotional intelligence: capacity to overcome obstacles or successfully fail, seeing failure as a learning opportunity assessment of achievement motivation: TAT test thematic apperception test (TAT) = projective test mcclelland used to look at themes of achievement, high achievers tend to work harder/more persistently, are more future oriented, and are able to delay gratification for long term goals