PSYC Lecture Notes PDF

Lecture 1 - Jan 7 ONLY SYLABUS TODAY Rather slow teacher No chapter quizzes or assignments Non-cumulative exams - mostly multiple choice some short answer ​ In person/in class exams PSYC research Skipping chapter 11 ALWAYS JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER; the cover is a very good way to lead you to...

Lecture 1 - Jan 7 ONLY SYLABUS TODAY Rather slow teacher No chapter quizzes or assignments Non-cumulative exams - mostly multiple choice some short answer ​ In person/in class exams PSYC research Skipping chapter 11 ALWAYS JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER; the cover is a very good way to lead you to something that may interest you. PSYCH CH. 8 NOTES Glossary Cognition: any mental activity or processing of information conscious or unconscious Thinking: any conscious mental activity or information processing EX. Reasoning High order cognition: Difficult effortful thinking that requires all aspects of cognition (perception, knowledge, memory, language, reasoning) such as decision making and problem solving Decision Making: process of selecting among a set of alternatives; generally uses system 1 however decisions with large consequences use system 2 Salience: Linguistics: Scientific study of physical, structural, functional, psychological, and social characteristics of human language Acquisition: learning or developing of a skill, habit or quality Homesign: phenomenon wherein many children with hearing loss invent their own signs even without any experience with sign language Sensitive Period: an interval during which people are more receptive to learning and can acquire language more easily (opposed to critical periods) Stroop Effect: demonstrates automaticity of language through using the printed words for colors that contradicts the color of ink used; as reading becomes more advanced they do worse of Stroop test Whole word recognition: reading strategy that involves identifying common words based on their appearance without having to sound them out Phonetic Decomposition: reading strategy that involves sounding out words by drawing correspondences between printed letters and sounds Cognitive Psychology -​ A branch of psychology exploring the operation of mental processes related to perceiving, attending, thinking, language and memory  -​ Aims to understand how these processes influence behavior & interact with each other -​ Empirical psychology (knowledge based on observation/experimentation) -​ Reemerged in the 1950’s A.​ Emphasized unseen knowledge processes rather than the directly observable (John Watson) B.​ Argues that relationship between stimuli and response was complex and mediated -​ There was a dissatisfaction with behaviourism & psychoanalytic view of then mind -​ Influenced by Herbert Simon (pioneer of AI who studied decision making), Jean Piaget (studied how children think as they age), and Noam Chomsky (studied language and criticised behaviorism) William James: associative and true reasoning Dual Process Theory -​ Theory regarding cognition as having differing levels of information processing -​ Proposes there are two thinking systems: -​ System 1: Unconscious, quick thinking that uses mental shortcuts and rules of thumb. Relied on most of (90%) but is less precise (more fallible) -​ System 2: Intention, calculated thinking that requires effort and burns more calories. Is a slower process but is much more accurate (less fallible) Cognitive Economy - Fiske & Taylor -​ Cognitive economy is the process by which individuals operate to conserve resources (such as calories) -​ Produces cognitive misers: people who invest as little mental energy as possible unless it is absolutely necessary -​ Can lead to oversimplification -​ Gigerenzer called this fast and frugal thinking System 1 Thinking - Methods of energy conservation/cognitive economy Heuristics -​ Mental shortcuts that allow the brain to make quick decisions with limited effort -​ Availability Heuristic: judging the likelihood of something based on the ease which examples of it come to mind -​ Representative Heuristic: judging categories based on its similarity to a mental prototype -​ Problem is that we don’t consider the prevalence of the category overall; are poor at considering base rate -​ Advantage lies in efficiency -​ Gosling: after briefly viewing FB pages, participants accurately guess person's personality  -​ Ambady & Rosenthal: After watching short clip of instructor participants fill out evaluations which matched student feedback at the end of the course Cognitive Bias -​ People's judgements and decisions are influenced by subjective factors: Expectations, Emotions, & Motivations -​ Systematic patterns of deviation from rationality or logical thinking -​ Confirmation Bias: seek info that supports preconceptions and dismisses info that contradicts them -​ Hindsight Bias: Overestimating the predictability of past events now that we are aware of the outcomes -​ Ingroup Bias: Favor individuals that belong to the same group -​ Outgroup Homogeneity Bias: there's less variance in outgroups that ingroups -​ Advantage lies in the typical correctness and efficiency/easiness -​ Disadvantage is that it can lead to irrational or incorrect judgments Attention -​ Finite resource and the brain has a limited capacity to focus on multiple things at once -​ Division of attention leads to biases judgements or incomplete thinking -​ As such you only attend to what is most relevant -​ Thin slicing (Ambady & Rosenthal): ability to extract useful information from small bits of behavior Top Down Processing -​ Filling in of gaps of information using previous experience and background knowledge -​ Concepts & Schemas allow less cognitive effort over basic knowledge -​ Concepts: knowledge/ideas about objects, actions, & characteristics which share core properties; enables us to have all general knowledge about something and apply it to another thing with the same core properties -​ Schemas: concepts stored in memory about how things relate to each other; enable use to know what to expect when we encounter something new System 2 Thinking -​ Deliberate conscious and analytics mode of thinking which requires effort and attention -​ Used when a situation is A.​ Unfamiliar B.​ Consequential C.​ Cognitively Manageable/Low load: -​ Requires cognitive resources and control -​ Involves breaking down problems, assessing evidence, and logical reasoning -​ Impeded through: A.​ Mental Sets: B.​ Salience of Surface similarities: Decision Making -​ Decisions regarding emotional preferences should be done by system 1, as using system 2 can result in paralysis of analysis -​ In high stakes decisions thinking with system 2 results in better outcomes  -​ Influenced by multiple factors: EX. Framing: how a question or statement is formulated that can influence the decision making process Problem Solving -​ Generating a cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal -​ Approaches A.​ Algorithms: step by step learned procedure used to solve problems; handy when problem requires same basic steps every time but are inflexible B.​ Subproblems: Breaking down of a problem in smaller sections; allows for a quicker and easier solution C.​ Analogies: reasoning from related examples allowing use to solve problems that have similar structures -​ Obstacles to: A.​ Salience of Surface similarities: tendency to focus of surface-level properties of a problem and solve it the same as another problem with surface similarities; is superficial and neglects the underlying reason B.​ Mental Sets: phenomenon of becoming stuck in a specific problem-solving strategy; inhibits ability to generate alternatives and think outside the box C.​ Functional Fixedness: Difficulty conceptualizing that an object typically used for one purpose can be used in another way (fixation on conventional use) EX. Candle experiment by Duncker Language -​ Method of communicating (written or oral) by using words in a structured and conventional way to transmit information -​ Tends to be arbitrary -​ Empiricist Theory (B.F. Skinner): Children are born as blank slates and acquire language through imitation & reinforcement/operant conditioning (positive/negative) -​ Nativist Theory (Noam Chomsky): acquisition of language is natural to human beings, until age 7 we have natural inclination to learn language -​ Language Acquisition Device: inherited capacity to learn language from linguistic data supplied from parents & others which explains competence in language despite deprived input -​ Critical Periods: windows of time when people must learn language specifically syntax and pronunciation (0-7); evidence from examination of children with very limited language exposure -​ Interactionist theories: biology (nature) and experience (nurture) both make important contributions to language acquisition -​ Social Pragmatics account: proposes children infer what words and sentences meaning from context and social interactions Morphemes -​ Smallest units of meaning in language created through stringing together phonemes -​ Convey information about semantics (meaning from words/sentences)  -​ Also includes strings of sounds that aren’t words but still modify the meaning of words (EX. -ish) Phonemes -​ Categories of sound produced by vocal apparatus -​ There are roughly 100 distinct phonemes but are used in varying amounts for each language EX. R/L distinction Syntax -​ Set of rules, principles, and structures that govern the arrangement of words/phrases in a sentence that makes it grammatically correct -​ Focuses solely on sentence structure and word order -​ Morphological markers: grammatical elements that modify words by adding sounds that change meaning (EX. -ing) -​ Real-world language rarely follows syntactic rules perfectly Semantics -​ Branch of linguistics concerned with meaning of words, phrases, sentences, and texts -​ Focuses on how meaning is interpreted and understood, regardless of grammatical structure Extralinguistic Information -​ non-verbal elements that accompany or support verbal communication, providing additional context or meaning -​ Allows us to interpret language -​ Includes facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice Dialects -​ Variations of the same language used by groups of people from specific areas, social groups, or ethnic backgrounds -​ Employ slight variations in pronunciations, vocab, and syntax -​ Use consistent syntactic rules even if they differ from the mainstream dialect but if used systematically they are using an equally valid form of communication Language Development -​ Initial infant vocalizations are similar across languages -​ Repetitive babbling (vocalizations with no meaning), phonemes (sounds of language), and morphemes (smallest speech units) -​ At 6 months babbling resembles language & takes on conversational tone -​ First word similar across cultures (1 year) -​ By 2 can produce about 100 words -​ By 5 produce about 1000 words -​ Children learn to recognize and interpret words before they can produce them -​ Have tendency to overextend (ex. All flyings things are birds) and underextend (Ex. word cat only applies to their pet cat) words -​ Researchers attempt to teach animals language but they lack vocal apparatus so tried ASL -​ Gardner: taught chimpanzee to use ASL; he developed vocabulary (160 words) but did not understand syntax  -​ Savage-Rumbaugh: trained bonobo chimps with lexigram (geometric symbols) and was more successful but syntax was still missing -​ Ultimately, language is uniquely human due to complexity, structure, and ability to convey abstract concepts Language Origins -​ Believed to have evolved in homo sapiens over a long period for survival -​ Likely provides survival advantages in communication/collaboration, mating, offspring care, and competition -​ Expansion of neocortex, specifically Broca's (speech production) and Wernicke’s (language comprehension) enabled complex language processing -​ Enhanced neural activity supported abstract thought, memory, and syntax. -​ Evolved vocal tract (EX. lower larynx) and fine motor control enables diverse and articulate speech -​ Sound symbolism: fact that certain speech sound seem to be associated with particular meanings -​ Possibility that connections between auditory and other sensory systems in the brain influenced how language evolved