General Psychology Notes Fall 2024 PDF

UNIT 1 Psychological Sciences 8/30/24 What kind of assertion/claim are they making? - They're all making definite/ sure claims that what they're saying is 100% true - Cause and effect claims - Only one person testimony/ one personal experience Why shouldn't they make this kind...

UNIT 1 Psychological Sciences 8/30/24 What kind of assertion/claim are they making? - They're all making definite/ sure claims that what they're saying is 100% true - Cause and effect claims - Only one person testimony/ one personal experience Why shouldn't they make this kind of claim? - They're not leaving room for exceptions - They’re ruling out other possible reasons for the cause - They're also not telling us how they are so sure and guarantee these results. How did the multivitamin make her husband happier? How did the course make these students score higher? How did the vaccine cause autism? Etc. Experimental designs are the only designs that allow you to make claims about causation. 9/4/24 The Scientific Method in Psychology Key: Examine how humans work (our behavior, decision-making, brain function, attitudes, sensations/ perceptions, etc.) in a systematic way in order to understand: - WHAT is happening - WHY it happens Scientific Method Relies On… A process of understanding how the world works: Why people do what they do. Theory ○ Model about how 2 or more things are causally related to one another.  Ex from text: Bats navigate by using sound. Hypothesis ○ Specific, falsifiable prediction about what should happen. Ex from text: Deaf bats should not be able to navigate. Collecting Data ○ Systematic and careful collection of objective information in order to test the above Variables are those things in the world that can be observed or manipulated–the concepts that you are interested in. ○ Example: source of comfort, a food source; pride, perseverance Operational Definition is the PRECISE definition of a variable. That is, it specifies HOW one is measuring/ creating the variable so that another researcher could replicate the study if he/she wanted to. ○ Example: Mother as food source defined as wire mother and mother as comfort source defined as terry-cloth mother. Importance of each to the baby is defined as time spent with each mother. Validity generally refers to how well the data you collected actually reflects the question you were asking. ○ Example: Math aptitude measured as geometry test or free throw shots. Reliability refers to how consistent your measure is over time. The data should not fluctuate because of wiggle room in the measuring device. ○ Example: reaction time measured by an observer watching and using a stopwatch or reactions administered on a computer. 9/6/24 Different Ways to Design Studies EXPERIMENTS: What are they? Maximal CONTROL over the situation. Variables are MANIPULATED–you as the experimenter create them. One variable is manipulated in order to see how it affects another variable. ○ Synchrony example: Coordinated action and its impact on liking, compassion and willingness to help Tapping in unison or out of sync–the researcher created this, manipulated it then watched what happened…. The independent variable is that which is manipulated.  The dependent variable is what is observed/ or measured. You want to see how it is affected by varying levels of the independent variable. It is the outcome. Conditions refer to the different groups that participate are assigned to, it refers to the varying levels of the independent variable. At least 2 so you can compare results. Importance of random assignment. Participants are randomly assigned to one of the conditions. Why is this useful? ○ Groups are the same on average on any individual/ personality dimension there is. Because of these (manipulation of independent variables, control groups and random assignment) experiments provide you with CONTROL such that the only average difference across conditions will be due to your independent variable! Thus, you can say something about CAUSE. Your IV caused the outcomes you find in the DV. Experiments: Pros and Cons Pros: They allow a researcher to study the CAUSAL relationship between variables. Why? (Manipulation of variables, control groups and random assignment to conditions!) ○ Does feeling proud make you work harder on difficult tasks? ○ Does sugar make you hyperactive? Cons: External validity may suffer. External Validity refers to how well a study's findings relate to the real world. That is, is the relationship found in the lab likely to reflect what happens outside of it? Correlation Studies: What are they? Often cannot manipulate the variables of interest (e.g., loneliness levels) so must observe them as they naturally occur. You look at how variables are related to one another. ○ For example: Measure people's differences in how lonely they may say they are and their ailments/ trips to the doctor's office. Measure happiness in marriage and quality of their listening skills. Correlation Studies: Pros and Cons Pros: Sometimes a psychological question cannot be studied in an experiment because it is unfeasible (socioeconomic status, personality types) or unethical (drug use, depression). Correlational Studies allow data to be collected on these important topics. Cons: Correlations DO NOT tell us about causation because of: directionality problem and third variable issue.  ○ Is it x → y OR y → x? Do people who feel more jealousy cause bad relationship outcomes OR does a bad relationship increase jealous feelings? ○ Could also be that a third variable is causing BOTH a and y, thus they appear to move together but it's really z. Ice cream sales go up and city violence goes up. Those two things are correlated in time. But did one cause the other? Clearly not. High temperatures (a third variable) are argued to drive each one. Correlations ONLY point to a possible relationship between two variables, or simply allow you to predict one from the other, but not which caused the other as experiments can do. Descriptive Studies: What are they? Descriptive –single variable, no IV or DV, descriptive/ categorical/ classification rather than explanation. ○ Examples: 56% of Gonzaga undergraduates study abroad 32% of American employees feel engaged at work 26% of American employees want to leave their job Data Collection In self-report measures participants provide the researcher with information about themselves (e.g., questionnaires). ○ Examples: Likert scales, open ended format How joyful do you feel right now? 1 (not at all joyful) 2 3 4 5 (very joyful) What stands out to you about your high school experience? ___ Socially desirable responding refers to the problem of participants adapting their self-report answers because they know what looks good/bad. Example: How prejudiced are you? Behavioral Measures: refers to measuring how a person responds to an actual task of some sort. The participant actually has to engage in some behavior that is measured. ○ Examples: Measuring reaction time, examining how close a participant sits to a confederate, willingness to help someone. Physiological/Biological Measures: Changes in the body and the brain can be measured with numerous instruments today: fMRI, psychophysiological assessments, etc. ○ Examples: Emotions are known to change blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, hormonal secretions, etc.  As a critical consumer of information… Operational Definitions—are they legitimate? How many people were sampled? Who are they? Are they making claims about cause—that one thing causes another? Personality 9/9/24 WHAT THE HECK IS A PERSONALITY? ○ Pattern of characteristics, emotional responses, thoughts, behaviors that are consistent and distinct. Habitual ways of responding. ○ We carry it with us. Not social situations, norms, pressures from outside. ○ Do you think your friends and family know who you are? See you in the same way? ○ Do you think someone could have an accurate send of you within 5 seconds of watching you?! ○ Where do our personalities come from? Different Approaches: Modern and Historical We are going to look at different approaches to understanding human personalities. It helps to contrast several of these theories with each other. Look for the following: ○ Negative or positive in its view of humans? ○ Trying to find categories, meaningful differences across people that predict behavior or something else? ○ Data or simply theory? ○ Deterministic or individuals help to construct their personalities? Trait Approach to Personality: Modern Trait approach looks for core descriptive labels/ categories by which to understand people and predict their likely behavior in a situation. This is a data driven approach. It provides a sketch of people that we probably ascertain about each other very quickly. This approach recognizes that people behave consistently over time and differently from one another.  Traits are general dimensions and fairly stable–a basic set of adjectives that describe human differences. How have scientists found what are considered “core” traits that we use to describe each other? That is, a basic set that defines human individuality. ○ Began, in the 50s & 60s, by collecting all the adjectives in our language that describe people and then factor analyzing them to see how they create separate, distinct categories. ○ It sorts adjectives into a smaller set of underlying dimensions. So, “cries easily”, “sensitive to feedback” and “quick to anger” all indicate “moody” which is a component of the trait “neuroticism”. The Big Five has become well respected in the last 2 decades as providing a meaningful sketch of people. Big Five Model Extraversion: Trait related to how people orient themselves toward others (high: social, fun-loving, outgoing; low: retiring, quiet, reserved) Neuroticism: Tendency to be upset, distressed, worried (high: worried, insecure, self-pitying; low: calm, secure, self-satisfied) Conscientiousness: Centers on hard-working, self disciplined, responsible (high: organized, careful, self-disciplines; low: disorganized, careless, weak-willed) Agreeableness: Interpersonally warm, understanding, cooperative (high: softhearted, trusting, helpful; low: ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative) Openness: Imaginative, likes variety (high: imaginative, variety, independent; low: down-to-earth, routine, conforming) Seems that the Big Five are found across cultures, in children, and whether self or other make the ratings. Social-Cognitive Approach: Filling in the Sketch. Also Modern. Cognitive approaches to personality expect that one's understanding of self and expectations about how others will treat and react to oneself are important. People differ in what they expect from the world. This is also data-driven and regularly used by current scientists. ○ Example: ○ Pessimistic Explanatory Style: explain failures as pervasive and permanent. They are going to happen all the time and in many domains of my life. ○ Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Sigmund Freud: Historical Perspective  Freud believed that early childhood was very important for forming one’s personality. His is a deterministic view of how our personality forms. We work through different stages of pursuing satisfaction/pleasure: ○ Psychosexual stages (e.g., oral stage) Becoming fixated at one stage leads to differences in personality (e.g., needy; more likely to smoke) Different Theoretical Approaches Freud’s theory also put great emphasis on our unconscious-- it houses desires, anxieties, and concerns. These are not easily accessible to a person in order to prevent him/her from pain. But our unconscious wishes and motives can influence behavior and we spend a lot of time in unconscious conflict. He thought we couldn’t handle true understanding of ourselves, thus we had many: Defense mechanisms: These refer to the unconscious mental strategies that one’s ego uses to deal with the stress of mediating the Id (animalistic) and Superego (learned moral and social rules). ○ Example: Denial, Projection Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory What do we think of Freud now? ○ CON: He had no valid data to support these assertions. Humanistic Approach to Personality 1950s, opposed to deterministic theories (such as Freud’s) Humanists see self-actualization (the motive we have to pursue knowledge, give back, find peace, etc.) as a major piece of our personalities. People seek to fulfill their potential, individual experience helps to shape each person. Views people as inherently good. Humanistic Approach Carl Rogers is a big name in this field. Person-centered approach to personality (and therapy). ○ Not a lot of data gathered to flesh out this approach to personality. ○ Important point for us is that the Humanistic Approach disagreed with the deterministic and negative view of personality.  9/11/24 How do we study/ measure personality? Objective Personality Measures use assessments such as self-report questionnaires or observer ratings. ○ Examples: Using the NEO Personality Inventory to measure The Big Five; California Q-sort Projective Personality Measures try to access unconscious aspects of one’s personality. People will project their personal mental content (even if they don’t know they are doing so) onto ambiguous stimuli. ○ Example: Thematic Apperception Test ○ These are much contested in terms of both validity and reliability, as the scoring is open to great interpretation. Do you think your friends and family know you pretty well? How well would they do if asked to assess your personality? ○ Close others seem to know us pretty well. ○ Research suggests that close acquaintances have a high degree of accuracy (that is, agree with each other and with you) for trait judgements. ○ There are discrepancies. When? Self-enhancement Nalani Ambady’s thin slices Using 2-30 second video clips with the sound off. Raters agreed with students that had known teachers for a semester or more! ○ Caveats? Biological Bases of Personality Much research points to a genetic component to personality, at least in terms of basic traits. Genetic makeup predisposes one towards certain behavioral, emotional, cognitive characteristics. Evidence in Twin and Adoption studies: ○ pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins both raised together or raised apart. Monozygotic have much more similar personalities than dizygotic, even when raised apart. Roughly 40% of the variability in personality traits across people is explained by genetics.  Can Personality change? Rank ordering remains very stable in a sample of 50,000 followed for at least one year. Strong correlation across the lifespan for traits. Our goals and focus and choice to work on aspects of our personalities (like our pessimistic explanatory style) can change. The Brain 9/13/24 Historically (up until about the 1860s) believed the brain worked as a single mass to carry out tasks. Now we know that the brain is highly specialized. Specific areas are necessary for certain abilities and connected to other areas to carry out complex psychological functions. What are some of the methods by which we know which brain structures do what? ○ Neuroscientists study people who have had a disease or damage in their brain who consent to being studied ○ Brain scans (MRIs, CAT scans) ○ Animal labs Overview of brain structures you should be familiar with Hindbrain (simpler basic life functions) Forebrain (more complex functions) Corpus callosum ○ Limbic system (subcortical region) ○ Cerebral cortex Corpus callosum Basic Brain Structures: What do they do? Hindbrain—coordinating info coming from spinal cord, “old” brain.  Medulla - located at the base of the skull, an extension of the spinal cord into the brain. Produces basic functions of survival (i.e., breathing, heart rate). Reticular formation - network of neurons in the brainstem that affects wakefulness, general arousal. Many general anesthetics reduce activity in this area temporarily. Cerebellum - Connected to the back of the brainstem, behind the medulla. Essential for coordinated motor function, such as balance and walking/running. Limbic System (subcortical region) Limbic system – lies above the hindbrain, underneath the cortex. In general, it is important for motivation, emotion, and learning. ○ Thalamus – gateway to the cortex. Most incoming sensory information must go through thalamus before reaching the cortex. A “hub” for incoming signals. ○ Hypothalamus – master regulatory structure for things like body temperature, blood pressure, glucose levels, and related, our motivations for eating, sleeping, aggression. Hippocampus - important for storing new explicit memories/information. Explicit memory - declarative, semantic knowledge. ○ Clive Wearing ○ Jimmie G. (from Oliver Sacks “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) Mirror Dr. Sacks introducing himself Implicit memory - sort of in the back of the head subconscious knowledge Amygdala - learning to associate items in our world with emotional information (i.e., love for a parents, fear for a nasty dog) The Cerebral Cortex The cerebral cortex is the site of the COMPLEX stuff that makes us distinctly human: thoughts, detailed perceptions, consciousness, planning. The “new,” “higher” brain. ○ It is much larger than our skull would suggest, folded in against itself with bumps (gyri) and grooves (sulci). ○ 4 distinct lobes: Occipital, parietal, temporal and frontal.  The Occipital Lobe Almost exclusively devoted to vision. Each hemisphere receives half of the visual information. Left hemisphere gets info from the right visual field and the right hemisphere gets info from the left visual field. Parietal Lobe Involved in 1) our sense of touch and 2) the spatial relationship between ourselves and objects in the world. As with the occipital lobe, the left hemisphere receives info from the right side of the body and vice versa. Information represented on the parietal lobe in a body map. ○ 1. Sensations from toes near those from feet, and so on. ○ 2. More sensitive body areas or areas that require more precision have larger space on the lobe devoted to them. Hemineglect – results from damage to the right parietal lobe (such as from a stroke). It is the failure to pay attention to anything on the left side of one’s world. ○ Seems to be ignoring sensory input from the left side of one’s world. Not an issue of vision.  Temporal Lobe Does many things but is greatly involved in hearing, language, and memory for objects—including for faces. ○ Prosopagnosia: inability to recognize faces. ○ Dr. Oliver Sacks (neurologist) suffered from this. 9/16/24 Frontal Lobe This is the IMPORTANT location with specializations in planning, directing and maintaining attention, social decision-making, emotions, impulse control and movement. Very integral to making us who we are as individuals. An executive. ○ Phineas Gage and the prefrontal cortex A yard long and an inch thick rod. Healed physically, knowledge, ability on tasks and movement were not impacted. But his personality, his emotions were very different–angry, swearing, impatient, rude, unable to control impulses. Others found him to be an entirely different person. Imaging and neuroscience advancements led us to realize that this area of the brain is essential for social navigation, empathy and emotions. The plasticity of our brains Our brains are continually changing. As we grow up, after injury, and throughout the acquisition of knowledge, our brain makes adjustments - known as plasticity. How does this work? Plasticity 1) USE - PRACTICE Learning leads to strengthening of neural connections. When neurons fire together, (i.e., communicate) they will be more likely to do so in the future. If a particular ability or activity is repeatedly activated, it will lead to an increase in  brain area (more neural connections) devoted to that behavior/ sensation/ mental process. ○ Examples: Musicians with more somatosensory cortical space (parietal lobe) devoted to their fingers, experiences London taxi-cab drivers with more brain space related to memorizing street names and places (hippocampus) 2) UNDER USE After injury (ex. amputation), neurons may reorganize themselves, form new connections that were not there before. ○ Touching the cheek of a person who lost an arm. (more sensory there now). ○ No signals coming to the brain from that arm now, brain areas do not simply lay dormant or quiet. Will begin to respond to areas adjacent to the body. Divided Brain Our brain is divided into two hemispheres with the corpus callosum providing a bridge of between the two hemispheres. So many organisms are asymmetrical (L and R hemispheres), not only humans. Split brain patients (those who have had their corpus callosum cut) have taught us about how the 2 halves work together. What sort of findings has this led us to? The divided brain Hemispheres are specialized. ○ L hemisphere more competent at language production ○ L is very good at details, function-utility, doesn't get metaphor, literal/ granular, “it's a bit hot in here”(thinks about temperature, very literal), ○ R more competent at spatial relations, big picture, the whole, master view, connotations, imagery, understands humor, “it's a bit hot in here” (actually means could we open a window-turn the heat down), full body awareness. Biological Foundations 9/18/24 Nervous System Our nervous system is made up of billions of specialized cells (neurons) that take in our world, analyze it, and produce reactions to it.  ○ This includes our central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and our ○ Peripheral nervous system (relaying info between limbs, skin, organs, glands and CNS) What is a neuron? Neurons are the specialized cells in our nervous system. They receive, integrate and transmit information. What they look like: How do neurons communicate? Works both electrically and chemically. Resting Membrane Potential—when not actively communicating, inside and outside of a neuron differ in their electrical charge. Inside is more negative. ○ Because of the balance of ions (charged atoms like Potassium and Sodium). Dendrites receive chemical signals from other neurons—all the time, by the thousands. These signals work by influencing the neuron’s electrical state—by depolarizing or hyperpolarizing the neuron What does that mean? Depolarizing causes a change in the permeability of the cell membrane, causing the inside to become slightly more positively charged. Sodium channels are opened and allow positively charged Sodium in. This can lead to an action potential (neuron firing). Hyperpolarization means that the neuron becomes even more resistant, therefore, making it harder to create an action potential. Sodium channels resistant to opening. An action potential refers to a neuron actually firing, sending an electrical signal down its axon, to its terminal buttons, thus communicating with other neurons.  ○ Due to the change in charge in one place, if it passes the required depolarization threshold, it impacts the electrical charge in the cell membrane near it and the ion channels open down the axon, like dominoes. Action Potentials These depolarizing and hyperpolarizing signals are received by a neuron; if the total amount of depolarization exceeds the neurons’ required threshold, an action potential is generated. This is an all or none process. Myelin sheath is a fatty insulating material that encompasses the axon and allows for rapid movement of the electrical impulse. MS disease. What about the chemical part of communication? Neurons do not touch one another. Separated by a synaptic cleft or the space between the terminal button of one neuron and dendrite of another. Neurotransmitters (a generic term) are the chemical substances that carry signals across the synaptic cleft. Receptors are specialized protein molecules waiting to receive the neurotransmitters. When a neurotransmitter binds to a receptor, it leads to either depolarization or hyperpolarization of the cell.  UNIT 2: Sensation and Perception 9/25/24 How does the stuff “out there” get in our head? How do our experiences with the world “transform” into information our brain can make sense of? Sensation refers to how or sense organs (nose, ears, eyes, etc.) respond to external stimuli (odors, air vibrations, light waves). Perception refers to how our brain further processes the information from our sense organs to create coherent representations and meaning. Why do we separate these two? ○ Hemineglect wasn't an eyeball problem. ○ Prosopagnosia wasn't an eyeball problem. Outline for our S and P knowledge General understanding of how we sense our world and some basic definitions. Basic sensory processes (i.e., smell, taste, touch, hear, see). Basic perceptual processes and some examples. How does our attention (or lack of it) affect our perceptions? Some basic definitions: Transduction Must be initial coding og outside world information. Physical signals from our environment (molecules in the air or dissolves in saliva, reflected light) in some ways that can be transformed into neural communication as we learned about in the last section. Transduction refers to the process whereby special neurons (known as receptors) in the sensing organs review (respond to) their specific sort of physical or chemical situation and then communicate with other neurons as we learned in our last section. Sensory Processes (from the world to our sensory organs) Taste: ○ Chemical substances from food dissolve in our saliva. ○ Our taste buds have microvilli (microscopic, hair-like structures on the tip of our taste buds). The microvilli are an extension (the tip) of the receptor cells, about 50 receptor cells per taste bud.  ○ Our saliva comes in contact with the microvilli projection of our receptor cells. The receptor cells then respond to the chemical substances in our saliva. ○ Passing information into the thalamus and then cortex. ○ Individual differences (ex. Bitterness in some green vegetables) and age differences. ○ Couple cool things about FLAVOR–a combination of taste and: Sense of touch Sense of smell Smell Chemical substances in odors come into contact with the olfactory epithelium (thin membrane embedded with receptor cells) in our noses and back of our throats. The chemicals dissolve in the solution surrounding the epithelium, binding to specific receipts that then cause signals to be sent to the olfactory bulb (the brain center for smell). From there, the signals travel to other brain areas directly, bypassing the thalamus (unlike all other senses). Other brain areas include: frontal lobe, hippocampus, and amygdala. Smell is known to be strongly associated with memories and emotional content. Touch This includes feelings of pain, temperature, pressure. Our skin, muscles, tendons, joints house these sensory receptors. Touch, pain or temperature stimulate the skin receptors which then communicate with other neurons and travel to our somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobe. More of the parietal lobe is devoted to more sensitive areas of our skin, like our fingertips. (EX: two points felt on your fingertip or on your calf). Some of the receptors are at the base of hair follicles–so if you just brush the hair on your arms, you'll feel that. Other receptors are specialized for hot or cold sensations. Others respond to pressure on the skin surface. And others to pain. Would it be nice to never feel pain? Why might that be a problem? Pain and the Gate-Control Theory Pain is our body's way of signaling that something is not right and should be taken care of immediately. Our skin, muscles, organs, membranes around bone and joints have neurons that can sense pain. Gate-Control Theory assumes that once pain receptors are activated and the communication moves toward the spinal cord, the neural transmission may be stopped  for several reasons. If it is stopped, we will not experience the sensation of pain at that moment. Pain and the Gate-Control Theory What stops the neural communication? ○ Stimulate other touch receptors, which overwhelm the signals from the pain receptors. (why rubbing an aching muscles feels better or scratching an itch is satisfying). ○ Under stress because of more pressing concerns. Endorphins trigger a process that stops the communication. (Why athletes can continue to play with a serious injury). ○ Painkillers (e.g. morphine) work by stimulating the brain to send signals to block the gate. 9/30/24 Hearing Parts of the ear transduce sound waves (spreading changes in air pressure) into neural signals. Sound waves travel down the auditory canal to the eardrum (membrane stretched tightly across the canal). The eardrum vibrates and sends signals to ossicles. From ossicles to the cochlea. Cochlea is fluid filled tube curls in a snail like shape. The vibrations coming from the ossicles create pressure waves into the fluid cochlea. The basilar membrane runs through the center of cochlea. Hair cells on the surface of the basilar membrane are the auditory receptors. When they are stimulated they send action potentials onto other neurons. What is happening when we have hearing loss? ○ 1. “Mechanical” the ossicles or eardrum are damaged so not conducting the sound waves. Hearing aids or surgery can be helpful here. ○ 2. Damage to the cochlea/ receptor neurons. Sound exposure, aging, infection. Sensitivity to sound decreases and acuity decreases (sounds blur together). Hearing aids can help with sensitivity–by amplifying–but not acuity. ○ Tinnitus (ringing in your ears) https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/why-do-our-ears-ring-after -we-listen-to-loud-music  Vision Half of our cerebral cortex goes to work when we open our eyes and take in our world. Very little of seeing takes place through the eyeball, most comes from active construction processes that occur later in the brain. But how does the eyeball take in our world and pass onto the brain? Like a camera. Focusing light to form an image on the retina. Light passes through the cornea which is shaped to send it through the pupil. (Cornea transparent outer layer). The iris is the muscle that controls our pupil size and gives our eyes their color. The lens (which is behind the iris) then focuses the light to form an image on the retina. The lens is adjustable. Muscles allow the lens to flatten or thicken depending on how far away objects are. Vision: Rods and Cones Retina has two types of receptor cells: rods and cones. Rods respond at low levels of illumination, dusk, a dark room, night. Not for color or fine details. So this is why we see grays at night. Cones are for color vision and detail, and respond under high illumination. Rods and cones have light sensitive chemicals in them that respond to light and then begin communication with other neurons. Vision cont. After light transduced into neural information by rods and cones,information passed onto ganglion cells in the eye. The axons of the ganglion cells form the optic nerve which exits the eye at the back of each retina. Each optic nerve carries information to the brain. The optic nerves cross at the back of the eye and this leads to the hemispheric differences talked about in the last section. The R hemisphere gets L visual field info and vice versa. Psychophysics: Measuring sensation and our perception of it Our sensory organs are constantly receiving information, much of which we do not notice. Absolute threshold refers to the minimum intensity of a stimulus necessary for us to experience it. Sensitivity. ○ Ex: How loudly must someone talk before we hear it from across the room? A candle flame 30 miles away on a dark, clear night. A clock’s tick 20 feet away when it's a quiet room.  Difference threshold refers to the just noticeable difference between two stimuli for us to notice the change. Acuity. ○ Ex: Change in roommate’s music volume for you to notice that it is louder. ○ Weber's law states that this just noticeable difference is based on the starting amount of the stimuli rather than some fixed difference. In other words getting 6 out of 10 answers correct on a quiz is very different from getting 96 out of 100. Percentage change. Binder clip and a 1 oz letter versus a 5 lb package Psychophysics Sensory adaptation refers to our ability to discontinue noticing constant stimuli. ○ Ex: After your roommate’s music has been playing for awhile you are less likely to notice it than when theft first turned the music on. Basic Perceptual Processes Our perceptual system refers to our brain taking the information from our senses and then making millions of calculations, organizing and interpreting, (in milliseconds) in order to produce a coherent experience of the world around us. We've seen so far how sensory stimuli are transduced into neural impulses and head toward the brain via nerves. All sensory information, except smell, travels to the thalamus. From the thalamus, information goes to its specific area of the cerebral cortex (i.e., occipital, parietal, and temporal). The story of “M” and the unbearable itch… ○ The “naïve view”: we perceive things in the world directly ○ The “brain’s best guess view”: infer from incomplete pieces of information New Yorker article by Atul Gawande Perceptual Processes: Some Examples Using Vision Being capable of perceiving an object requires construction on the brain’s part. We know that early in the vision process parts of a scene are coded separately (color, certain angles, certain lines, and so on). These then have to be integrated into one meaningful image. Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization suggest a few laws for how we group objects together to form a coherent scene. ○ Proximity: closer objects are to each other, more likely we are to see them as a meaningful whole.  ○ Similarity: more similar objects are seen as going together as a meaningful whole. ○ Closure: the tendency to complete figures that have gaps in them. 10/2/24 Role of Attention in Perception Attention is the process whereby we select which sensory stimuli to pass along to higher brain regions and which to ignore. Experience of talking to someone who has food in their teeth? It is distracting and hard to pay attention to what they are saying. At any given moment we are attending to (conscious of) a very limited number of phenomena compared to all that is actually happening. Your attention is finite, and is limited. What are some of the ramifications (positive and negative) of our attention working in this way? Role of Attention in Perception HARD to do two tasks at same time, particularly if they require the same processing ability. (Attention is resistant to division.) ○ EX: Can listen to your friend at the table with you or listen to an interesting conversation at the next table. NOT do both well. ○ EX: Divided attention tasks, our performance is terrible! When participants did a reading comprehension task while listening to music with lyrics, they did more poorly than when listening to classical music or no music. Self-relevant info can capture our attention. What we attend to is constantly fluctuating. Self-relevant info can capture our attention. ○ The Cocktail Party phenomenon illustrates both of these points–if someone were to say your name at another table during a busy party—you are likely to notice that. It pulls your attention away because it is self-relevant. Role of Attention in Perception If we are attending to a particular thing does it really “filter out” everything else?  Filter theory: screen incoming sensory information (auditory, visual) so pay attention to information you want to/need to. ○ Early selection assumes that we decide ahead of time which stimuli to attend to and tune out the rest, so we don't get passed onto later brain structures for processing. ○ Late selection assumes that we take in sensory information, process it, and then decide what to consciously attend to and what to ignore. Heard: “They threw stones at the bank yesterday.” ○ While also hearing “river” OR “money” in the other ear. ○ Could not recall correctly (consciously) what other word had been played but understood the sentence differently! Principles of Learning 10/2/24 Nurse in the war The sound of a helicopter. The smell of cooking meat. Learning: A long-lasting change in our reactions/ responses due to experiences with our environment. Our learning is both passive (like these examples) and active (like studying for an exam). There are some gems in this section that you'll want to remember. The Tabula Rasa approach John B. Watson, influenced by Ivan Pavlov Founder of School of Behaviorism. ○ Scorned what Frued and psychoanalysts were doing. ○ Wanted to study only that which could be directly observed: overt behaviors and the obvious events that preceded them. Not that which people claim to think and feel. John B. Watson, “Give me a dozen healthy infants…and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist...regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies......I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years. ” If we do this, then this happens. We can watch that unfold.  B.F. Skinner Influenced by Watson B.F. Skinner noted that Pavlov and Watson studied learning that took place in a cage or lab room in which the animal was passive. Skinner noted that animals must also ACT ON their worlds, actively participate. Operate in the world in order to seek rewards. ○ Any behavior rewarded will be repeated, if not rewarded, won’t repeat it. ○ Walden Two Choice, free will is an illusion. Behavior is the sum of its consequences. Ivan Pavlov Pavlov’s consequent experiments found that a neutral stimulus (harness), when paired with an innately evocative stimulus (food), can lead to the same outcome (salivation). Unconditioned response (UR) – does not have to be learned. Like a reflex (salivating, startle response) or emotional responses. Unconditioned stimulus (US) – the thing that elicits the response with no prior learning (food). Conditioned stimulus (CS) – the thing that will elicit a response only after learning has taken place. Conditioned response (CR) – the response that has been learned—same as the UR.  Classical conditioning Classical conditioning ○ A learned behavioral response, reaction ○ Happens when a neutral object is paired with one that already produces some reaction in us ○ The neutral object ceases to be neutral 10/4/24 Classical conditioning Lets try another one with people in mind: ○ A person experienced bullying during middle school and, consequently, often felt anxious and nauseated at school. Upon seeing a photo of their middle school building they feel sick to their stomach. Explain the US, UR, CS, and CR here. US is the act of bullying and UR is the response for being sick to their stomach. The photo of the school is the CS and being sick to the stomach is the CR. ○ Watson’s “Little Albert”—Watson showed a white rat to Albert. Albert was curious and reached out to touch it. When he did this, Watson clanged a metal bar with a hammer making a horrible noise. Little Albert was startled and cried. After doing this a few times (showing Albert the rat and then clanging the bar), Little Albert cringed away from the white rat. Explain the US, UR, CS, CR. US: loud clanging noise UR: startle, cry & CS: white rate CR: startle, cry  More about classical conditioning Acquisition—the time when you are making the association between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus, the learning phase. Extinction—when the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the response. Over time, if the conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by the unconditioned stimulus, we can learn that it is no longer a good predictor. (Unlearn the association.) ○ Ex: If the harness is put on (bell sounds) but no food follows and this happens many times, the salivary response will extinguish (will stop). Second order conditioning - other elements can become second order CS because of their association with the first CS. ○ So harness (CS) now leads to salivating (CR). ○ Pair the harness with a tone, tone ceases to be neutral and now elicits salivating. ○ EX: US = watching currently favorite TV show UR = happiness, interest CS = actors in the show CR = happiness, interest 2nd order CS = ad for bottled water with the actors in it 2nd order CR = happiness, interest Will any pairing of US-CS work? Short answer is NO. Some are easier to learn than others. ○ EX: Food aversions. Animals who have received poisoning in their food show a long lasting association with tastes and smells related to the original stimulus (but not sounds or light when they got sick). ○ Animals (including humans) are innately prepared to learn some associations. Easier to condition a monkey to fear snakes than to fear flowers. Cognition (what is going on in your mind) matters. ○ Expectations–why didn't Albert fear Watson or the dogs salivate when Pavlov came in? Because they observed them doing other things as well, not just this. ○ The conditioned stimulus (CS) should be predictive. B.F. Skinner and Operant Conditioning First, how are Classical and Operant conditioning different from one another? ○ CC is a fairly passive process, reactive, involuntary–objects in our world become associated with one another via already occurring responses to them (e.g., fear, salivating). Two events or things become paired.  ○ OC accounts for our actions on our world. Our behaviors that are reinforced are likely to happen again, those that are not, are not likely to be repeated. We act on our world and the results determine whether or not we will try that action again. Our behavior and an outcome become paired. Skinner and Operant Conditioning Skinner wanted to avoid any terms like (satisfying, positive outcome, joy, unpleasant) so simply stated that anything that encouraged an animal (human) to repeat a behavior would be known as a reinforcer. Anything that discourages a behavior is a punisher. There are primary reinforcers - those things that are necessary to our survival (food, water, social companionship). And there are secondary reinforcers - anything else that can encourage a behavior, be rewarding for us (money, A on a paper, flashing police light). ○ How does something become a secondary reinforcer? Skinner One of Skinner’s major means of research was using the now famous “Skinner box” in which animals are placed and have to learn to press a lever in order to receive food/ drink or avoid shocks. Shaping involves reinforcing behaviors as they become more and more like what you want. ○ EX: Parents potty training a child, learning to hit a ball with a bat, the dolphins in the water park. Start encouraging initial attempts. Categories of Reinforcement and Punishment Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior by giving a positive stimulus. ○ Praise Negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior by removing a negative stimulus. ○ Parents allowing more freedoms (taking away restrictions), pain medication taking away pain Positive punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior by giving a negative stimulus. ○ Reprimanding a child, assigning more chores Negative punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior by taking away a positive stimulus. ○ Grounding  10/7/24 Categories of Reinforcement and Punishment What is a parent taking away a teen’s car keys? ○ Punishment ○ Taking away a good so its a negative. ○ Decreases the likelihood of a behavior by taking away a positive stimulus, like grounding ○ So Negative Punishment When is Punishment Effective? It must be reasonable, unpleasant (but not too unpleasant), and applied immediately. ○ Do not want confusion about why being punished. ○ If unreasonable may lead to fear and anxiety which then becomes associated with the punisher. ○ Punishment may not be enough to offset positives of desired behavior, may just push it into secrecy. ○ Punishment does not teach what a child/animal/us SHOULD do. Importance of When Receive the Reinforcement Patterns of reinforcement produce different timing and amounts of behaviors…. Ratio and Interval Schedules: Reinforcement comes either after the number of behaviors performed (ratio) or after a certain amount of time (interval). WHAT. Fixed and Variable Schedules: Reinforcement comes either after a set number of behaviors or set amount of time (fixed) or at different rates for different times (variable). WHEN. Persistence: ○ In general, ratio elicits more of the behavior (higher rates of responding) than interval. ○ Greater resistance to extinction with variable ratio–like a slot machine. Not sure when it will be reinforced but know it is contingent on your action. As opposed to fixed, regular reinforcement (like vending machines). Fixed, continuous ratio indicates clearly when extinction is taking place. Was Skinner Right? Can all behavior be explained by these conditioning principles? Short answer, NO. For example:  ○ Animals cannot learn some associations that run counter to their evolved abilities/ tendencies. ○ Trust game experiment. Participants keep $1 or give away for $3 to others who could share half. Play the game, learn as you go–is this someone trustworthy or not? But if first given a description of the person that seems to carry more weight than what they DO. ○ Deci and Ryan’s work on self-determination. Need for autonomy, sense of control. School: candy as reward versus sense of accomplishment or self-choice in an activity. Candy may be a failure even though it is a “reward”. Albert Bandura and Learning through Observation Observational learning—behaviors acquired because we watched and imitated someone else. ○ And this is a problem for the severe behaviorist view. Bandura’s Bobo doll studies. What happened? ○ Children either watch an adult behave violently or not. All the ways we imitate others (learn what to do from watching)– sports, dance, art, math formulas, fashion decisions, social choices. Modeling (the act of imitating someone else) is more likely to occur when the model is seen as similar to us or as high status or an authority. At neural level A model of learning at neural level. Researchers found that much electrical stimulation of one neuron can make it easier to create an action potential in other neurons that it communicates with. This is known as long-term potentiation. In the future, when that neuron fires, the others it communicates with depolarize very easily.  Human Memory 10/9/24 Basic Stages of Memory Sensory “memory” - our sensory organs pick up information. This information leaves a momentary, relatively perfect trace (sounds, smalls, images) on our nervous system for a split second. If not attending to at some level, lose the information. It is a sensory buffer. Information that we do ATTEND to, passes from our sensory memory system into our short term memory system. Basic Stages of Memory: STM Our short term memory (STM)(or Working Memory) is ○ Where we actively process, where we hold information in awareness Have about 20 seconds if we are not actively engaging with new information Has limited space (7 plus or minus 2 chunks of information) Let’s try! Professor read out numbers and they got increasingly longer and after she read them we had to try and write them down from memory: 6418 18732 292516 938(0)471 5(4X)3219361 919…436 676236…. ○ Chunking makes a BIG difference in how much you can remember.  Limited to 7, but 7 units can be concepts as well as simple words or numbers. Meaningful units are easier to recall than nonsense ones. So… Short Term or Working memory: this is the portion of our memory system in which we access stored or engage with newly acquired information in order to problem solve, reason, comprehend. Basic Stages of Memory: LTM Our Long term memory (LTM) is different from our short term memory in two important ways. What are they? ○ Duration ○ Capacity Different types of memories: ○ Explicit memories: memories that we retrieve consciously and can declare as knowledge. Episodic memory: our own personal past experiences, what we have done. Semantic memory: one's knowledge of facts. Evidence that these are distinct processes comes from patients. Children with damage showed inability to remember themselves learning (as well as doing most anything), but they have normal IQs, no problems with learning facts. ○ Implicit memories: influence of past experiences on our behavior and decision-making even though we are not aware of it. Don't realize “remembering”. Examples… Repeated exposure (something is familiar) leads to increased liking, but we don't realize that is why we like one product or word (for instance) over another that is less familiar. Jimmy and Where’s Waldo. Procedural memory: Employing motor skills to move toward a goal without having to think about it. Gradual acquisition of skills through practice riding a bike, walking, making a free throw). How does stuff get into LTM? ○ Encoding: Sensory experiences transformed into some kind of meaningful representation. We are engaging (perceiving, constructing meaning) at some level with our world. ○ Storage: This encoded information is “housed” in neural networks. It corresponds to some change in the nervous system. ○ Retrieval: recalling, remembering the stored information in order to make use of it.  (Does it have to be conscious? Do you have to be aware that you are remembering something?) NO! Basic Stages of Memory: Encoding Type of encoding makes a difference. The level at which you process information makes a difference in how well it is stored and consequently retrieved. ○ Maintenance rehearsal: simply repeating the item over and over again. ○ Semantic encoding: making meaningful connections with information already in LTM. Schemas: the way information in our LTM is categorized, connected with other information. Coherent configurations, related info is stored together. Retrieval Cues Anything that helps us access information in LTM is known as a retrieval cue. ○ Encoding specificity principle: any stimulus that was encoded with an event is capable of triggering the memory for that event. Context dependent memory: easier to remember information if the setting in which you are recalling is same/ similar to the one in which you learned. Same classroom effects–studies 80 words. Remember 49 on average if in the same room for recall. Remember 35 if in a different room. State dependent memory: easier to remember information if you are in the same internal state that you were when you learned the information. EX: Emotion effects–feeling sad leads to remembering more sad events. Feeling joyful leads to remembering more joyful events. 10/11/24 The “curse” of forgetfulness For any 1 of 7 different, common reasons our memories can fail us. While this is annoying, it is argued to be the by-products of an adaptive system. For instance, ○ Losing information that we don’t use over time, allows us to retrieve relevant information when making current decisions. ○ Having some information, though stored, impeded during recall, is a generally useful system. We don’t want a mad rush of information to spill forward every time we think. We want a filtered retrieval system.  The 7 “sins” of memory (Sin 1 a type of forgetting) Transience: common pattern of forgetting as time goes by. Loss of or change in stored memories. ○ Competing information interferes with information we are trying to remember. Like trying to remember an old password that you haven’t used in awhile. Current passwords are interfering. ○ Over time details tend to fade and we rely more on generalities, on our general sense of how things work or how situations usually are. (Sin 2 a type of forgetting) Absent-Mindedness: Forgetting because information was not well or not completely encoded to begin with. ○ Studies found that when attention is divided during time of encoding, subsequent memory is poor for target items. ○ “Change blindness”: failure to notice that parts of objects or a scene have changed, are not consistent. May be related to us encoding certain details but not others, enough to get us by in an interaction. And this is probably shaped by our schemas. An example.... “Change blindness”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkrrVozZR2c ○ College students’ failure to notice when “construction worker” asking for instructions as opposed to another college student asking. ○ Problem for eye-witnessing (Sin 3 a type of forgetting) Blocking: Information is temporarily inaccessible. A problem of retrieval. ○ Tip-of-the-Tongue phenomenon—have a powerful feeling that you know information, remembering bits and pieces but not entirety. Other information is competing—similar but incorrect information (“ugly step-sisters”, undesirable and dominating) (Sin 4 type of distortion) Missastribution: Form of memory is present but is incorrectly attributed to time, place, or person. Where did the memory come from, is off. ○ Source misattribution: remember an item or fact but attribute it to the wrong person or place or time. One problem with eyewitness testimonies: transferring one person you have seen to an event incorrectly. 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The man who rented the van to McVeigh remembered a second man being with him. This was incorrect. It was a day later. ○ Have no subject experience of memory as a memory!  EX: Attribute some thought to yourself because you cannot remember you read it elsewhere. (Sin 5 type of distortion) Suggestibility: Incorporate new (incorrect) information into a memory because it was provided by others, as leading questions. ○ Elizabeth Loftus’ research on misleading information. Show events and then ask specific questions about it. Create memories that never happened. ○ “How fast were the cars going when they (smashed or bumped) into each other?” ○ Eyewitnesses who are wrong about details feel just as confident as those who are right. Confidence is not an indicator of accuracy. (Sin 6 a type of distortion) Bias: Present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings distort past memories. ○ We tend to exaggerate the consistency between our present and past attitude, beliefs and feelings. EX: The current state of our romantic relationship influences how we remember feeling about it months ago. (Sin 7 inability to forget) Persistence: Remembering a fact or event that one really wants to forget. ○ EX: Certain details of a highly emotional event may be better remembered than non-emotional events. More vivid, at least the central details. Amygdala plays a role in this. Those with amygdala damage dont show general memory deficits but do not remember emotional events better than non emotional ones. We may also rehearse these emotional events more–talk about them, relive them. Understanding Intelligence 10/14/24 What the Heck is Intelligence? Intelligence: “…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 capability for comprehending our surroundings– “catching-on”, “making sense” of things, or “figuring out” what to do.” from our textbook. Acquire and apply learning  g or multiple factors? Does intelligence reflect one, basic factor or several different types of intelligence? ○ Charles Spearman (1904) found that people who were good at one type of intelligence test question tended to be good at the others as well. ○ Thus suggesting that there was one, general intelligence which he labeled g. Primary mental abilities Louis Thurstone (1938) argued that there are distinct abilities, not one g. ○ These included, according to him, abilities such as memory, reasoning, numerical and verbal comprehension. ○ These were largely independent abilities he argued, not parts of a single g. Howard Gardner (1983) also thought there were multiple intelligences, not just one. ○ EX: Savants have an exceptional skill in one domain and are severely below average in all others. ○ EX: Prodigies have exceptional skill in one domain and are normal in other domains. Another view of multiple intelligences Robert Sternberg (1999) suggested that there are 3 types of intelligence. ○ Analytical: What is mostly measured by intelligence tests. Good at problem solving and other academic endeavors. ○ Creative: Gain insight, solve novel problems, see things in new and interesting ways. ○ Practical: Navigating social interactions, “street smarts”. More ways to think about intelligence Peter Salovey and John Mayer developed the concept of and a test for assessing emotional intelligence. ○ Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and regulate your own emotions and to perceive, understand and navigate others’ emotions. ○ Why would this be important enough to warrant its own “intelligence” category? EI is linked to success at school and in the workplace, better romantic relationships, judged by others as more competent in their interactions, and more friends. Programs have been built to teach in the school system. Depending on the measure, EI may predict success at work/school equally or better than IQ.  Intelligence Tests Psychometric testing has been the dominant approach to understanding an individual's intelligence for decades now. ○ Achievement tests mandated for 1st-12th grade students examine how much a student has absorbed, AP tests ○ SAT is meant to be an aptitude test—predict how well students will do in the future. ○ “If we use a test to measure current mastery of a culturally valued ability, it is an achievement test. If we use a test to explain or forecast mastery of a culturally valued ability, it is an aptitude test.” Alfred Binet (around 1900 in France) was the first to develop a method of testing predicted school performance (aptitude for learning was the argument). Looking for a way to detect children who were going to struggle in school. ○ How? Like Galton before him, created questions that kids who were doing well in school answered correctly and kids doing poorly in school did not answer correctly. Sort of circular…. This may indicate who will have trouble in school but it doesn’t tell you WHY. Allows discrimination between groups. ○ It doesn’t necessarily mean “intelligence”…. Validity of these tests? IQ scores are predictive of certain outcomes—such as success in the workplace, other test scores. ○ They can explain about 25% of the difference in academic or job outcomes. ○ Grit—perseverance and passion for long-term goals. ○ Self-control—ability to delay instant gratification for long term goals ○ Emotional Intelligence ○ Achievement Tests How Do We USE these tests? One Example. Some really interesting debates about one American test of intelligence—SAT. ○ Bias—in favor of those who can pay for preparatory classes. ○ May not be a valid test of academic ability. Other things are as good or better predictors of success. Indeed, SAT’s might predict about 1/6 of the variance in college GPA and they might not even predict that…. ○ Former President of UC schools (Dr. Richard Atkinson) took SATs to task about 20 years ago. ○ Dr. Perelman from MIT also criticizes the SAT.  Dr. Atkinson’s Problems with the SATs In 2001 Atkinson was disturbed to find his 12 year old granddaughter practicing for the SATs at her private school. As a psychologist, he then conducted research to assess the predictive power of the test. Found that high school grades and scores on tests of class material (achievement tests, like AP tests) were better predictors of first year college grades than the SATs. Indeed, the SAT, his team suggested, predicted almost nothing after controlling for parent income…. This was not the case for grades. Socioeconomic bias concerns.