PSYCH1010 Midterm II Notes PDF

**CHAPTER 5: VARIATIONS IN CONSCIOUSNESS** **Consciousness**: the awareness of internal and external stimuli. - Contents of consciousness are continually changing **Structure of consciousness (from the lecture, the 'iceberg'):** A. **Consciousness**: controlled & sequential. Thoughts about ex...

**CHAPTER 5: VARIATIONS IN CONSCIOUSNESS** **Consciousness**: the awareness of internal and external stimuli. - Contents of consciousness are continually changing **Structure of consciousness (from the lecture, the 'iceberg'):** A. **Consciousness**: controlled & sequential. Thoughts about external things, internal things, thoughts about ourselves. - **Meta-awareness:** awareness of your thoughts - **Metacognitive skills**: skills around the control of your thoughts B. **Preconscious**: easily retrieved stored knowledge. C. **Subconscious**: Simultaneous, automatic processing of sights, sounds, sensations. Rapid & without awareness. D. **Freud\'s Unconscious**: Repressed memories, impulses. Difficult to retrieve, accessible in dreams. E. **Non-conscious**: Physiological processes not available to awareness. Can possibly be influenced through conscious intent (ex: controlling your blood pressure). **Variations in Awareness and Control** - Attention and consciousness are related but not identical. - **Mind wandering**: experience of task-unrelated thoughts that aren't relevant to the present - **Benefits to mind-wandering**: the potential to facilitate future planning, to produce creative thoughts, and to relieve boredom **EVERYDAY CHANGES IN CONSCIOUSNESS**  **Biological rhythms:** periodic fluctuations in physiological functioning. **Circadian Rhythms:** the 24-hour biological cycles found in humans and other species - Largely influential for sleep, and other physical functions - Alertness drops in the night, as does temperature, but growth hormones increase during the night  - Light and dark affects the biological rhythm **Ignoring Circadian Rhythms** - Sleeping at an unusual time = less quality sleep, leading to potential physical/psychological health problems (ex: jet lag, rotating shifts) - Examples of consequences: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. **Realigning Circadian Rhythms**  - small doses of melatonin: regulate the human biological clock  - carefully timed exposure to bright light  **SLEEP AND WAKING CYCLE** *The electroencephalograph (EEG):* a device that monitors the electrical activity of the brain over time. Human brain-wave activity is usually divided into four principal bands: delta (lowest frequency, high amplitude), theta, alpha, beta (highest frequency, lowest amplitude). - Beta: Normal waking thought, alert problem solving - Alpha: Deep relaxation, mind blank - Theta: Light sleep - Delta: Deep sleep **Five Stages of Sleep** - **Stages 1-3:** It takes people an average of 25 minutes to fall asleep, but this depends on factors (age, caffeine, light, etc.) - **Stage 1:** Light sleep, which lasts 1-7 minutes and has Theta waves (slower waves). **Hypnic jerks** happen here (brief muscular contractions that occur as people fall asleep). - **Stage 2**: 10-25 minutes of proper sleep. Appearance of **sleep spindles**: bursts of higher frequency brain waves. May involve some dreaming. - **Stages 3 & 4**: Slow-wave sleep (delta waves). Stage when sleepwalking and night terrors (not nightmares) occur. **REM Sleep:** After stage 4, the cycle reverses itself and the sleeper gradually moves back upward through the lighter stage. When sleepers reach what should be stage 1 once again, they usually go into the fifth stage of sleep, which is most widely known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. - - **Paradoxical:** Despite REM sleep being a deep sleep, brain activity shows beta waves, similar to the waves of someone who is awake and alert. This explains why dreams are more vivid and frequent during REM sleep **Repeating the Cycle** - During the night, people usually repeat the sleep cycle about four times. - REM periods get progressively longer, NREM intervals tend to get shorter **Age Trends in Sleep**  - Babies sleep the most, and 50% of their sleep is in the REM stage in the first few months - The older you are, the less sleep or quality sleep you get. - Growing older, by itself, does not appear to lead to poor sleep if elderly people remain healthy. **Culture and Sleep**  - Psychological and physiological experience of sleep does not appear to vary much across cultures **The Neural and Evolutionary Bases of Sleep** - The reticular formation (midbrain), the pons, and the hypothalamus are important for sleep. - What is the evolutionary significance of sleep? It has considerable adaptive value, but we don\'t know how. 3 Hypothesis: - Sleep evolved to conserve organisms\' energy. - Sleep educes exposure to predators and the consumption of precious resources. - Sleep helps restore bodily resources depleted by waking activities. **Doing Without: Sleep Deprivation** - Sleep deprivation is a global problem, and common due to people trying to juggle conflicting life schedules - **Serious effects:** Negatively affects attention, reaction time, motor coordination, decision making, endocrine and immune system. (ex: drowsy driving leading to accidents) - Special type of partial sleep deprivation: selective deprivation. (Example: REM deprivation leads to more frequent shifts into REM sleep, with little impact on daytime functioning. Similar results occur with other stages.) - Why do we need REM and slow-wave sleep? - They contribute to memory consolidation: firming up learning that takes place during the day. - Sleep improved performance in learning and problem solving. **Sleep Loss, Health & Disorders** - Sleep restriction triggers hormonal changes that increase hunger (link between obesity and short sleep duration), and impaired immune system functioning. - Those who sleep less than eight hours and much more than eight hours have a higher mortality rate - **Insomnia**: Chronic problems in getting adequate sleep that results in daytime fatigue and impaired functioning. Most common sleep disorder. - Associated with reduced productivity, elevated risk for accidents, anxiety, depression, etc. - Increases with age, more common in women. - Sedatives can become problematic (abuse, overdose, side effects residual, etc.). They can increase mortality. - **Narcolepsy:** Disease marked by sudden and irresistible onsets of sleep during normal waking periods. Uncommon, potentially dangerous. - **Sleep Apnea**: involves frequent, reflexive gasping for air that awakens a person and disrupts sleep. - More common in men, older adults, obese people. Increases mortality rate and declines of cognitive functioning. - **Night terrors**: Abrupt awakenings from NREM sleep, accompanied by intense feelings of panic, - No memory of sleep terror the next day. Common in children, often temporary. - **Somnambulism**: Sleepwalking. Occurs when a person arises and wanders while remaining asleep. - Rare, but more common in children than adults. - **REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder (RBD): **potentially troublesome dream enactments during REM periods. Those affected can physically act out while sleeping (yelling, gesturing, leaping, etc).  - Majority go on to develop neurodegenerative disorders (ex: Parkinson\'s) - **Nightmares**: Anxiety-arousing dreams that lead to awakening, usually from REM sleep.   - Can measure an individual\'s well-being. Common in PTSD. More common in children.   **Tips for Sleep Success** (LECTURE ONLY) 1. **Develop a consistent bedtime routine**  - - - - 2. a. b. c. d. e. **THE CONTENT OF DREAMS** - Most dreams are mundane. Almost always experienced in first person. - College students often dream about sex, aggression, misfortune, and traumatic events. - People dream mostly about themselves. - Common dreams: being chased/pursued, sexual experiences, falling **Links Between Dreams and Waking life** - What people dream about is affected by what is going on in their lives  - Ordinary/trivial/routine things do not show up in dreams. It\'s more of major personal concerns, interests, and long-standing issues (ex: financial problems, career future, romantic conflict).  - In Western cultures, dreams are seen as insignificant to waking life. In non-Western cultures, dreams are viewed as important sources of oneself, the future, or the spiritual world. **Culture and Dreams** - In Western cultures, dreams are seen as insignificant to waking life. In non-Western cultures, dreams are viewed as important sources of oneself, the future, or the spiritual world. **Theories of Dreaming** - **Sigmund Freud "Wish Fulfillment"** - People fulfill their unfulfilled needs through wishful thinking in dreams. - **Manifest content:** The plot of a dream at the surface level - **Latent content**: Hidden or disguised meaning of the events in the plot - **Problem solving view**: Dreams provide an opportunity to work through everyday problems.  - **Activation-synthesis model**: Dreams are simply a by-product of bursts of activity from areas of the brain. **HYPNOSIS** - **Hypnosis** is a systematic procedure that typically produces a heightened state of suggestibility. - Hypnotism can be used as a clinical tool and has value in medical treatment, but it can also be used for entertainment, making it mythical and uncertain. - It can alleviate pain, cause sensory distortions, treat hypertension/migraines/allergies. - It cannot can age regression (remembering memories at 3, for example), and it cannot make people act against their will. - People differ in how well they respond to hypnotic induction (15% are exceptionally good hypnotic participants, the other end of the 15% doesn\'t respond well at all) Some more hypnotic phenomena include: - **Anesthesia**: Hypnosis can be effective in the treatment of both acute and chronic pain. - **Sensory distortions and hallucinations**: Hypnotized participants may be led to experience auditory or visual hallucinations - **Disinhibition**: Hypnosis can restrictions that would normally prevent participants from acting in certain ways. - **Posthypnotic suggestions and amnesia**: Suggestions made during hypnosis may influence a participant's later behaviour. **Theories of Hypnosis** - **Social-cognitive theory of hypnosis:** Hypnosis as roleplaying. The participant behaves as they think hypnotized people are supposed to. - **Hypnosis as an altered state of consciousness:** Hypnosis creates a dissociation in consciousness. - **Dissociation:** Splitting off of mental processes in two separate streams of awareness. (divided consciousness) - Roleplaying cannot explain all hypnotic phenomena, and research shows a change in brain activity for hypnotized patients. **MEDITATION** - **Meditation **refers to a family of practices that train attention to heighten awareness and bring mental processes under greater voluntary control. It involves a deliberate effort to alter consciousness. **Types of Meditation** - **Focused attention:** Attention is concentrated on a specific object, image, sound or bodily sensation. The intent is to clear the mind of its clutter. - **Open monitoring:** Attention is directed to the contents of one\'s moment-to-moment experience in a nonjudgmental and nonreactive way. - **Loving-kindness meditation:** Incorporates elements of both focused attention and open monitoring approaches. First, developing love and compassion for oneself and then broadening this love to all others. **The disciplines with the most research are...** - **Transcendental meditation (TM)**: focused attention approach with roots in Hinduism. - **Mindfulness Meditation:** open monitoring approach with roots in Zen Buddhism. **Benefits** - Emotional: reduction in stress, anxiety, depression, pain. - Cognitive: improvements in attention, memory, problem solving. - Physical: sleep, overall health, and potentially the tolerance of pain. **DRUGS** Drugs are commonly used to alter consciousness. - Worldwide, alcohol is the drug that causes the most harm. - After alcohol, the most utilized drug in the world is cannabis. **Principal abused drugs and their effects** **Psychoactive drugs:** chemical substances that modify mental, emotional, or behavioural functioning. Used recreationally, with preferences for elevating moods or other pleasurable alterations. **Opioids**: Natural or synthetic substances that are capable of relieving pain. Derived from the opium poppy (opiates).  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - **Factors Influencing Drug Effects** - **Multifactorial causation & subjectivity of experience**: Influencing factors include age, mood, quantity, frequency, personality, body weight, etc... the effects vary from person to person. - **Tolerance**: a progressive decrease in a person's responsiveness to a drug, which leaders to larger doses to attain the desired effect. **Factors in Drug abuse (**LECTURE NOTES**)** - How rewarding the drug is. - There is a reward pathway in the brain (which goes to the frontal lobe, a part of the brain that continues to want the good feeling regardless of consequences). - Biological predisposition (genetic factors, predictions) - Psychological factors - Depression/anxiety sufferers - Social factors - Peer pressure & poor family background **Drug Dependence** - **Physical dependence **exists when a person must continue to take a drug to avoid withdrawal illness. The symptoms of withdrawal illness depend on the specific drug. - **Psychological dependence** exists when a person must continue to take a drug to satisfy intense mental and emotional craving for the drug. - Both types of dependence are established gradually with repeated use of a drug. **Drugs, Health, and Overdose** Recreational drug use can negatively affect users by triggering an over-dose and by producing various direct and indirect effects. - Example: Snorting cocaine could damage nasal membranes or alter cardiovascular function, which could result in a heart attack or stroke. - Example 2: Following the ingestion of either alcohol or marijuana, the chance of a vehicle crash drastically increases. - Drugs that are central nervous system depressants (sedatives, opioids, and alcohol) carry the greatest risk of overdose. **PERSONAL APPLICATION** **Questions about sleep**  - **How much sleep do people need?**  - Depends on the age. The further the sleep time deviates from the norm, the higher the mortality rate.   - **Can short naps be refreshing**?  - Some naps are beneficial some art not: it varies from person to person.  - You often wake up before getting into the deep stages of sleep, and overly long naps can disrupt night-time sleep.  - **What is the significance of snoring?**  - Common phenomenon, occurs in men more, and in those who are overweight.   - Factors such as colds, allergies, smoking and drugs, can contribute to snoring.   - **What can be done to avoid sleep problems?**  - Developing daytime habits that won\'t interfere with sleep (ex: exercising during the day leads to quicker sleep)  - Minimize consumption of stimulants  **Common Questions about Dreams**  - **Does everyone dream?**  - Yes, some people just don\'t remember dreaming.   - **Why don\'t some people remember their dreams?**  - It\'s very normal and natural, people forget most of the dreams, and they only recall the most recent dream.  - **Do dreams require interpretation?**  - Interpretation may not be as difficult as generally assumed. Dreams require some interpretation simply because they are more visual than verbal.  **CRITICAL THINKING** **Is alcoholism a disease? The power of definitions**  - *Consequences of calling alcoholism a disease: *alcoholics should be treated like diabetics, heart patients, or victims of other physical illness (viewed with sympathy, given medical/therapeutic interventions, covered by medical insurance). The stigmas would decrease.   - *Consequences of using \'personal failure\'/\'moral weakness\' for alcoholism: *Alcoholics are less likely to be viewed with sympathy and compassion. Responses would be by the legal system, not the health system, and available interventions would not be covered by health insurance, leading to financial troubles.   - There is no conclusive way to determine whether alcoholism is a disease. The disease model has been the dominant view in North America.  **Definitions, Labels, and Circular reasoning**  *Nominal fallacy*: naming something does not equal it having an explanation  **CHAPTER 6: CONDITIONING.** **Classical Conditioning (Pavlov, Watson):** two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response (learning through association). - Classically conditioned responses could be involuntary reflexes or non-reflexive responding. **Pavlov's Demonstration:** - Pavlov found that a dog would salivate before meat/food was presented, so he paired the presentation of the meat with stimulus such as a bell. The dog would soon salivate at the sound of the bell without the meat being presented. **Terminology and Procedures:** - **Unconditioned stimulus (UCS):** a stimulus that leads to an automatic response (without conditioning) - **Unconditioned response (UCR):** an original response that occurs naturally (without conditioning) - **Conditioned Stimulus (CS):** a learned stimulus that can eventually trigger a conditioned response - **Conditioned Response (CR):** a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus - **Trial**: consists of any presentation of a stimulus or a pair of stimuli. How many trials are required to establish a conditioned bond?   - **Elicit: **drawn forth, automatic and non-voluntary **Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life** - **Conditioned fear and anxiety** - Classical conditioning often plays a key role in shaping emotional responses such as fears and anxiety (ex: phobias). - Example: A girl who grew a phobia of bridges for 40 years due to bad jokes from her father - **Lecture Notes: Two-process theory of phobic reactions** - *Classical* conditioning of fear (neutral stimuli associated with fear) - *Operant* conditioning of avoidance (reward or reduction in anxiety for avoiding public stimulus) (explains the maintenance of phobia) (escapes from uncomfortable situations) - **Other conditioned responses** - Classical conditioning can affect both overt behaviours and physiological processes. Example: the functioning of the immune system can be influenced by conditioning (tested on rats) - Extra: drug addiction can be influenced by classical conditioning (ex: being in a location where you have done drugs can trigger a CS) **Evaluative conditioning of attitudes** - Conditioning can influence attitudes - **Evaluative conditioning**: forming or changing the attitude for an object by pairing it with stimuli that naturally evoke positive or negative emotions. - Ex: Pairing funny cartoons with energy drinks increased the liking of the drinks. - Advertising campaigns usually use evaluating conditioning. They pair their products with UCS that elicit pleasant emotions (ex: clothing products with attractive people) **Basic Processes in Classical Conditioning** - **Acquisition:** the initial stage of learning something - **Extinction**: the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency. - **Spontaneous recovery:** the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of non-exposure to the conditioned stimulus. - **Renewal effect:** if a response is extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear if the animal is returned to the original environment where acquisition took place. - This suggests that extinction suppresses a CR rather than erasing it. It doesn\'t lead to \'unlearning\'. **Stimulus generalization** - After conditioning has occurred, organisms often show a tendency to respond not only to the exact CS used but also to other, similar stimuli.   - **Stimulus generalization**: when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus.  **Little Albert:** - A prime example of generalization of conditioned feared.   - Albert was initially unafraid of a live white rat. Then the rat was paired with a loud, startling sound. Albert did show fear in response to the loud noise. After seven pairings of the rat and the gong, the rat was established as a CS eliciting a fear response.  - Later exposure to other stimuli that were white and furry elicited the CR **Stimulus Discrimination**: Occurs when an organism has learned a response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus (the opposite of stimulus generalization). **Higher-Order Conditioning**: a neutral stimulus paired with a conditioned stimulus slowly becomes a second conditioned stimulus. **Cognition and Classical Conditioning**  - Some stimuli are better signals than others - **Signal relations**: CS-UCS relations that influence whether a CS is a good signal.  - A "good" signal is one that allows accurate prediction of the UCS. **Evolutionary and Biological Effects on Conditioning**  - It was once believed that the fundamental laws of conditioning could be applied to a wide range of species. However, it has been proven that there are limits to the generality of conditioning principles, imposed by an organism\'s biological/evolutionary heritage.  **Conditioned Taste Aversion: The "Sauce Bearnaise Syndrome"** - sauce béarnaise syndrome: an aversion to food that have been followed by nausea from illness (a result of classical conditioning) **Preparedness and phobias** - **Preparedness:** species-specific predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways and not others. a key concept in evolutionary views of conditioning. - Common phobic objects (snakes, spiders, heights) were once genuine threats to our ancestors, so fear responses to such objects has survival value for our species. **OPERANT CONDITIONING** **Operant conditioning (Skinner): **form of learning in which responses are voluntary and influenced by their consequences. - **Thorndike's law of effect**: when satisfaction follows a response, it is more likely to be repeated. - **Reinforcement**: a response is strengthened because it leads to rewarding consequences **Terminology and Procedures**: - **Skinner box/operant chamber: **a small enclosure where an animal can make a specific response that is recorded while the consequences of the responses are systematically controlled.  - Because operant responses tend to be voluntary, they are *emitted *rather than *elicited*.  - **Emit =** send forth.  - **Primary reinforcers: **events that are reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs (food, water, warmth, sex, etc).  - **Secondary/conditioned reinforcers: **events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers. (dependent on species. Examples for humans: money, good grades, attention, praise, etc.) **Basic Processes in Operant Conditioning**  - **Acquisition and shaping**  - *Acquisition *refers to the initial stage of learning some new pattern of responding.  - *Shaping *consists of gradually reinforcing behaviors that closer to the target behavior. - **Extinction** - Refers to the gradual weakening and disappearance of a response tendency because the response is no longer followed by a reinforcer.   - **Resistance to extinction **occurs when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforcer has been terminated.  - **Renewal effect: **Seen in both classical and operant conditioning.   - **Discriminative stimuli:** the cue (stimulus) that generates a particular response (ex: birds hunting for worms after rain) **Reinforcement and Superstitious Behaviour** - Reinforcement key to the development of superstitious behaviour. The behaviour has no real impact on the probability of receiving a reward, but the behaviour continues **Schedule of reinforcement: **determines which occurrences of a specific response result in the presentation of a reinforcer.   - **Continuous reinforcement**: every instance of a designated response is reinforced (common in labs)  - **Intermittent/partial reinforcement** occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time   - *Intermittent reinforcement makes a response more resistant to extinction than continuous reinforcement does.* - **Ratio schedules: **require the organism to make the designated response a certain number of times to gain each reinforcer  - **Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule**: the reinforcer is given after a fixed number of nonreinforced responses.   - **Variable-ratio (VR) schedule**: the reinforcer is given after a variable number of nonreinforced responses. **Positive Reinforcement vs Negative Reinforcement**  - **Positive reinforcement: **a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus - The rat gets food when pressing the lever  - **Negative reinforcement**: a response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an unpleasant stimulus  - The shock turns off when the rat presses the lever - Negative reinforcement plays a key role in both escape and avoidance learning.  - **Escape learning**: an organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive (unpleasant) stimulation.  - **Avoidance learning: **an organism acquires a response that prevents some aversive (unpleasant) stimulation from occurring. - Example: In escape learning, an animal will escape from an electrified floor to another room (with the light turned on). In avoidance learning, the animal learns that the turned-on light means that it will be shocked, so it leaves as soon as the light comes on.  **Punishment: Consequences That Weaken Responses**  - Reinforcement *increases *an organism\'s tendency to make a certain response. **Punishment **decreases an organism\'s tendency to make a particular response.   - **Punishment **occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response.  - **Positive punishment **involved the presentation of an aversive stimulus (ex: hurting a child for misbehaving)   - **Negative punishment **involves the removal of a rewarding stimulus (ex: taking away a child\'s phone). **Side Effects of Physical Punishment** - Corporal punishment is associated with elevated aggression, delinquency, and behavioural problems in youngsters. - In the long term, it\'s also associated with slowed cognitive development, increases in criminal behaviour, and a wide range of mental health problems. - Corporal punishment is not very effective in ensuring children's obedience. **Latent learning**: the subconscious retention/learning of information. **Evolutionary and Biological Effects on conditioning**  - **Instinctive drift: **an animal\'s innate response tendencies interfere with conditioning processes. - The basic mechanisms of learning are similar across species but these mechanisms have sometimes been modified in the course of evolution  **OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING** **Observational learning** occurs when an organism\'s response is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models. **Four Key Processes crucial in Observational Learning (ARRM):**  - **Attention** - **Retention**. - **Reproduction**. - **Motivation**. **Observational Learning and the Media Violence Controversy**  - Children are very impressionable, and extensive evidence indicates that they pick up many responses from viewing models on TV and other screens. There is a concern for the amount of violence on television.  **Bobo Doll experiments:**  -  Children would imitate aggressive behaviour directed toward a Bobo doll by an adult model. - All of the children behaved aggressively with the doll if they were offered a reward for imitating the model\'s behaviour.  - This early research connected the violence children saw on television to their own aggression. Future studies would consistently demonstrate that exposure to violent content from any media increases the likelihood of all types of aggression.   - Exposure to media violence appears to desensitize people to the effects of aggression in the real world.  - It is accurate to say that the effects of media violence on aggression are relatively weak. Aggression is influenced by a lot of factors. **Observational Learning and the Brain: Mirror Neurons** **Mirror neurons**: neurons that are activated by performing an action or by seeing another organism perform the same action. - Mirror neurons may help our ability to understand others and help empathize, setting a stage for social behaviour  **PERSONAL APPLICATION**  **Behaviour modification **is a systematic approach to changing behaviour through the application of the principles of conditioning.   **1. Specifying Your Target Behaviour **  - Specify the target behaviour(s) that you want to change.  - Vague statements about traits need to be translated into precise descriptions of specific target behaviours.  - You need to ponder past behaviour or closely observe future behaviour and list specific examples of responses that lead to the trait description.   **2. Gathering Baseline Data**  - Systematically observe your target behaviour for a period of time before you work out the details of your program.   - You need to monitor 3 things:  - Determine the initial response level of your target behaviour (keep track of frequency)  - Monitor the antecedents of your target behaviour (*antecedents *are events that typically precede the target response)  - Monitor the typical consequences of your target behaviour  **3. Decreasing Response Strength**  - **Reinforcement **through reinforcing yourself for not emitting a response, or for emitting it less, and thereby decrease a response through reinforcement.  - **Control of Antecedents**. Identify antecedents and avoid exposure to them.  - **Punishment: **Use punishment in conjunction with positive reinforcement and use a mild punishment so that it is administrable.  **4. Executing Your Program**  - Continuously record the frequency of your target behaviour to evaluate progress  5. - **CRITICAL THINKING: **  **MANIPULATING EMOTIONS: PAVLOV AND PERSUASION**.  **Classical Conditioning in Advertising**  - Advertisers consistently pair the products they are peddling with stimuli that seem likely to elicit positive emotional responses, such as products with sexual imagery. - In some cases, advertisers try to make specific associations. For example: vehicles sold mainly to men are paired with tough looking men in a rugged setting to create an association with masculinity. Vehicles that are mainly marketed to women are paired with images that evoke feelings of femininity.  **Classical Conditioning in Business Negotiations**  - - - **Classical Conditioning in the World of Politics**  - - - **CHAPTER 7: HUMAN MEMORY** How does information get *into* memory? - **Encoding:** involves forming a memory code (requires attention). Such as when you look at a word and emphasize how it looks, how it sounds, or what it means. How is information *maintained* in memory? - **Storage:** involves maintaining encoded information overtime How is information pulled *back out* of memory? - **Retrieval:** involves recovering information from memory stores. **Encoding: Getting Information to Memory** - **The Role of Attention** - **Attention** involves focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events. - The 'filter of attention' is both during sensory input and after the brain has processed it (flexible rather than fixed) - Multitasking results in divided attention, and it's linked to poor performance for students. **Levels of Processing** - **Shallow processing** - **Structural encoding**: emphasizes the physical structure of the stimulus (word) - **Intermediate processing** - **Phonemic encoding:** emphasizes what the stimulus (word) sounds like. - **Deep processing** - **Semantic encoding:** emphasizes the meaning of the stimulus (word). **Enriching Encoding**  - **Elaboration**: linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding  - **Visual imagery:** the creation of visual images to represent the words to be remembered.   - Some words are easier to create images than others (ex: juggler vs truth). It depends on a concrete object vs an abstract concept.   - **Dual-coding theory**: memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either can lead to recall.   - **Self-referent encoding **involves deciding how or whether information is personally relevant. **Storage: Maintaining Information in Memory** - **Sensory memory: **preserves information in its original sensory form for a fraction of a second.   - The sensation lingers for a moment after the stimulation is over.  - The brief memory for visual information is *iconic *memory.  - The brief memory for acoustic information (auditory) is *echoic *memory. - **Short-term memory (STM)** is a limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to about 20 seconds.   - How to maintain information in your short-term store?   - **Rehearsal: **the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information.  - **Maintenance rehearsal: **maintaining information in consciousness  - **Elaborative rehearsal: **increasing the probability that you will retain the information in the future (ex: focusing on the meaning of the words in a list you\'re trying to remember)  - Without rehearsal, information in short-term memory is lost in less than 20 seconds - **Capacity of storage:** small and limited - **Magical Number 7 (+/- 2): **people could recall only *about *seven items in tasks that required them to remember unfamiliar material.   - The capacity of short-term memory may even be less than widely assumed (4 +/- 1). Researchers failed to take steps in preventing *chunking *by participants.  - **Chunking**: grouping familiar stimuli into a single unit (ex: phone numbers) **Short-Term Memory as \"Working Memory\"**  - **Working memory**: The limited capacity of holding temporary information.   - Model of working memory regarding four components:  - - - - - **Working Memory capacity (WMC):** one\'s ability to hold and manipulate memory information in conscious attention. - **Long Term Memory:** an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time. - **Flashbulb memories:** unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events. - Research shows that flashbulb memories aren\'t as accurate nor as special as once believed. They become less detailed, complete and accurate with time. **How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory?** - **Clustering:** the tendency to remember similar or related items in groups - **Conceptual hierarchy:** a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items - **Schema**: an organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with it (classing typical features to something using pre-existing experiences/ideas) - **Semantic network**: depicts how concepts are related to one another and illustrates how they interconnect - **Spreading activation:** when thinking of a word, thoughts naturally go to other words **Retrieval: Getting Information Out of Memory** - **Availability** and **accessibility** of information in memory. You might not be able to remember something because the information is unavailable (no longer present in the memory system), or because it is not accessible (present in the system but not accessible to you at the moment). - **Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon:** the temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that it\'s just out of reach. - **Retrieval cues:** stimuli that help gain access to memories. - **Context cues** often facilitate the retrieval of information. - Example: when returning after years to a familiar place, people are flooded with memories. **Reconstructing Memories** - All memories are reconstructions of the past that may be distorted and may include details that did not actually occur. - **Misinformation effect**: occurs when participants\' recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post-event information. **Source Monitoring: **the processes of distinguishing the origins of memory.   - It contributes to the many mistakes that people make in reconstructing their experiences. - People have to make decisions at the time of retrieval about where the memories came from (ex: \"Did I do this here or there?\")  - **A Source-Monitoring Error **occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed from another source.    **FORGETTING: When Memory Lapses** - Our memory declines with time (memory decay and interference are time related)  - Forgetting is seen as a failure, weakness, or deficiency. Some argue that it\'s adaptive. (ex: we need to forget information that is no longer relevant). **How Quickly We Forget: Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve** - After inventing nonsense syllables (syllables without meaning), Ebbinghaus tested his memory of them and graphed his test. - **Forgetting curve:** graphs retention and forgetting over time. - Ebbinghaus\' curve showed a steep drop in retention after the first few hours of memorization. - He concluded that most forgetting occurs very rapidly after learning something - Research showed that Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve was unusually steep. A problem was that he was working with meaningless material **Measures of Forgetting**  - **Retention: **the proportion of the material retained (remembered).  - The three principal methods used to measure retention/forgetting: - **Recall**: requires participants to reproduce information on their own without any cues.   - **Recognition: **requires participants to select previously learned information from an array of options.  - **Relearning**: requires a participant to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having learned it before. **Why We Forget**  - **Ineffective Coding**: Information may have never been inserted into memory in the first place (since you can\'t forget information you didn\'t learn, it\'s called *pseudoforgetting*). - **Decay theory: **forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time. - **Interference theory**: people forget information because of competition from other material. - **Retrieval Failure**: A great deal of forgetting may be due to breakdowns in the process of retrieval. - **Motivated forgetting:** The tendency to forget things one doesn't want to think about **Seven Sings of Memory: How Memory Goes Wrong** - **Seven Sins of Memory:** summarization of how memory fails  - Sins of omission, in which we cannot bring the memory to mind  - **Transcience: **weakening of a memory overtime  - **Absentmindedness**: failure to pay attention due to other preoccupations  - **Blocking**: temporary problem that occurs when we fail to retrieve an item of information (tip-of-the-tongue)  - Sins of commission, where memory is present but incorrect or unwanted  - **Misattribution: **assign a memory to the wrong source  - **Suggestibility**: our memory is distorted due to the misinformation effect  - **Bias**: inaccuracies due to the effect of our current knowledge on our reconstruction of the past (edit or rewrite previous experiences).   - **Persistence: **unwanted memories or recollections that cannot be forgotten (that haunt you).   **The Physiology of Memory** - alterations in synaptic transmission at specific sites (specific memories depend on biochemical changes that occur at specific synapses) - **Long-term potentiation (LTP):** a long-lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway. - Neurogenesis supports learning and memory, but potentially also forgetting **The Anatomy of Memory**  - **Organic amnesia**: extensive memory loss due to head injury  - **Retrograde amnesia**: loss of memories for events that occurred prior to the amnesia  - **Anterograde amnesia**: loss of memories for events that occur after amnesia  - H.M, the man without a hippocampus, could not form new long-term memories. He had *anterograde amnesia*. - *Other *nearby structures, other than the hippocampus, were also removed from H.M. This broader memory complex is sometimes referred to as the *medial temporal lobe memory system*  - **Consolidation: **a hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of new, unstable memories into stable, durable memory codes stored in long-term memory. **Systems and Types of Memory** **Implicit vs Explicit Memory**  - **Implicit memory**: when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering.  - Implicit is very durable, often lasting longer than our explicit memories, unaffected by amnesia, age, etc. - **Explicit memories: **intentional recollection of previous events.  - **Differences**: They differ in the types of knowledge stored. Implicit memory = perceptual and motor skills. Explicit memory = facts and events. **Declarative vs Nondeclarative Memory**  - **Declarative memory system:** handles factual information (events, concepts, ideas, definitions, etc.)  - **Episodic memory**: Personal facts, personal experiences. \'autobiography\'. (Includes information about when you did things, saw them, or heard them) - **Semantic memory**: General facts, general knowledge, \'encyclopedia\'. Is not tied to the time when the information was learned. - **Nondeclarative/procedural memory system**: houses memory for actions, skills, operations, and conditioned responses. (Riding a bike, typing, tying a shoe).  **Prospective vs Retrospective Memory**  - **Prospective memory**: remembering to perform actions in the future - There is a decline in prospective memory due to the use of smartphones to handle it.   - **Retrospective memory**: remembering events from the past or previously learned information  **PERSONAL APPLICATION: IMPROVING MEMORY** - **Mnemonic devices:** Methods used to increase the recall of information or to make abstract material meaningful. - **Link method**: forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together - **Method of Loci**: taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations - Acronyms & Acrostics (the opposite of acronyms, ex: EGBDF in music) - **Rehearsal:** Practice leads to improved retention. Rehearsal helps to transfer information into long-term memory. - *Testing effect/test-enhanced learning*: testing enhances retention. - **Serial-position effect**: participants show better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list than for items in the middle. **Schedule Distributed Practice and Minimize Interference**  - **Massed practice: **studying or retention training in one mass period  - **Distributed practice: **distributing the time of retention period. Retention tends to be greater here than in massed practice.  **CRITICAL THINKING: Understanding the Fallibility of Eyewitness** Eye testimony witness is not as reliable or as accurate as widely assumed.   - Memory is a reconstructive process that can be distorted by schemas  - Witnesses sometimes make source-monitoring errors  - Witnesses\' recall of events is routinely distorted by information introduced after the event (by police officers)  - Fueled by hindsight bias and overconfidence effects  **The Contribution of Hindsight Bias**  - **Hindsight bias: **tendency to mold our interpretation of the past to fit how events actually turned out   - \"I knew it all along\" when explaining events that would have been difficult to foresee  **The Contribution of Overconfidence**  - The tendency to be overconfident about the reliability of memory  - Many convictions of innocent people have been attributed to the impact of testimony from highly confident but mistaken eyewitnesses  **CHAPTER 8: PROBLEM SOLVING & DECISION MAKING** - **Problem solving: **refers to active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable  - **Insight**: The sudden discovery of the correct solution following trial and error - There are several schools of thought on the cognitive processes that lead to insight: - Special process view: insight arises from sudden restructuring of problems that occur at an unconscious level - Business-as-usual view: normal, step-by-step, conscious analytical thinking - Both can contribute to the emergence of insights **Barriers to Effective Problem Solving**  - **Irrelevant Information**: People often incorrectly assume that all of the information in a problem is necessary to solve it. - **Functional Fixedness**: the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use. - **Mental set**: when people persist in using problem-solving strategies that have worked in the past. - **Unnecessary constraints:** The belief that there are constraints when there might be none. **Approaches to problem solving**  - **Trial and error heuristics: **trying possible solutions and discarding those that are in error until one works - **Forming subgoals**: Forming immediate steps towards a solution (step 1, step 2, step 3, etc.) - **Analogies:** a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification. - **Representation of a problem**: whether you solve a problem often hinges on how you envision it---your representation of the problem.  - Ex: in math, you might represent a problem with a list, a table, an equation, a graph, etc. - **Incubation effect: **occurs when new solutions surface from a previously unsolved problem after a period of not consciously thinking about the problem. **Culture, Cognitive Style, and Problem Solving** - People from Eastern Asian culture display a *holistic cognitive* style that focuses on context and relationships (big picture) - People from Western cultures have an analytic *cognitive style* that focuses on objects and their properties rather than context (small picture) **DECISION MAKING: Choices and chances** **Decision making** involves evaluating alternatives and making choices among them. - Most people try to be systematic and rational, but this rational approach can be shaped and derailed by a variety of factors. **Making Choices about Preferences** - **Choice overload:** when people feel overwhelmed by decisions involving a large array of options (ex: food) - **Choice Mindset:** The belief that everything in our lives happens because of choices **Factors Weight in Risky Decisions** - **Risky decision making**: involves making choices under conditions of uncertainty (not knowing what will happen or knowing only a probability).  - To make a choice in a risky decision, you\'d want to figure out the ***expected value** *(the true worth or consequence of the decision). - **Subjective utility: **represents what an outcome is personally worth to an individual (ex: buying a few lottery tickets for the dream of being wealthy). Varies from one person to another.   - **Subjective probability: **not knowing the actual probabilities and relying on personal estimates.   **Heuristics in Judging Probabilities** Heuristics = mental short cuts (that people use in grappling with probabilities).  - **Availability heuristic:** a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to mind. (Quick knowledge) - **Representativeness heuristic**: basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event. (association) **The Tendency to Ignore Base Rates**  - **Base-rate fallacy:** The tendency to ignore base-rate information and focus on specific information  - **Base-rate information:** frequency of a phenomenon in a population - Ex: If Steve is shy, is he a sales person or a librarian? Because he is shy, we assume librarian. However, base rates say that there are more sales people than librarians, so it\'s probably a sales person.  **Conjunction fallacy:** occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening **Sunk costs fallacy:** individuals continue a behaviour because they have already invested time, money, and energy in the action or decision, not because the continuation of the behaviour itself is rational **Behavioural Economics**  - **Behavioural economics: **a field of study that examines the effects of humans' actual (not idealized) decision-making processes on economic decisions.  - **Theory of Bounded Reality:** using simple strategies and picking the satisfying option rather than optimal option. - **Framing**: how decision issues are posed or how choices are structures.  - **Alternative Outcomes Effect (LECTURE)**: Perceived likelihood of a certain outcome is influenced by the distribution of alternative outcomes. **Evolutionary Analyses of Fast and Frugal Heuristics** - **Fast & frugal heuristics**: having to make fast decisions under demanding circumstances with limited information - Organisms use quick-and-dirty heuristics that are less than perfect but work well enough most of the time to be adaptive in the real world - **Recognition heuristic:** If one of two alternatives is recognized and the other is not, assume that the recognized alternative has the higher value. **Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow: Two Systems of Thought**  - **Dual-process theories**: People depend on two different modes of thinking when making decisions.  - System 1 (thinking fast) & System 2 (thinking slow).   - System 1 is reading words, detecting sounds, answering simple questions. System 2 is the thinking of choice, deliberation, concentration, etc. **PERSONAL APPLICATION: Pitfalls in Reasoning about Decisions** - **The Gambler\'s Fallacy**: the belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn\'t occurred recently (which isn't always the case). - **The Law of Small Numbers: The** likelihood of misleading results is much greater in a small sample than in a large one. - For example, in flipping a fair coin, the odds of getting all heads in a sample of five coin flips dwarfs the odds of getting all heads in a sample of 100 coin flips - **Confirmation bias**: the tendency to seek information that supports one\'s decisions and beliefs while ignoring disconfirming information. - **Belief Perseverance**: the tendency to hang on to beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence. - **Loss Aversion**: Losses seem larger than gains of equal size. (the negative impact of losing \$1000 is greater than the positive impact of winning \$1000). **Critical Thinking Application: Shaping Thought With Language**  - **Linguistic relativity hypothesis**: people\'s language determines how they think about things (carefully chosen words and exert subtle influences on feelings about various issues). - Ex: Politicians, advertisers\...  - **Semantic slanting: **refers to deliberately choosing words to create specific emotional responses.  - Ex: Pro-life instead of anti-choice, pro-choice instead of anti-life.  - **Name-calling: **  - The tendency to label and categorize others through name-calling (ex: radical feminist, religious zealots, etc)  - Sometimes, there is an implied threat that if you make an unpopular decision, a negative label will be applied to you. (ex: only a moron would believe that). It can influence your attitude on an issue.   **CHAPTER 9: INTELLIGENCE** **Origins of Modern Intelligence Testing**  - The breakthrough for the measurement of mental ability came in 1904, by Alfred Binet, who devised a test to identify mentally subnormal children.   - The **Binet-Simon** scale expressed a child\'s score in terms of \"mental level\" or \"mental age\"  - **Mental age**: displaying the mental ability typical of a person/child of that age.  Next breakthrough: Intelligence Quotient. Stanford-Binet Intelligence scale.  - **Intelligence Quotient (IQ)**: a child\'s mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100.   **The Debate about the Structure of Intelligence**  - **Factor analysis: **correlations among many variables are analyzed to identify closely related clusters of variables.  - Explained: if a number of variables correlate highly with one another, the assumption is that a single factor if influencing all of them, and factor analysis attempts to identify these factors.  - Spearman: all cognitive abilities share an important core factor. This factor was labelled ***g *for *general *mental ability.** - L.L Thurstone developed a test that evolved into the SAT test, concluding that intelligence involves multiple abilities. He carved intelligence into seven independent factors called *primary mental abilities:*  - - In the 1980s, the development of IQ tests moved from a focus on a single indicator of IQ to multiple indicators.  - **Fluid intelligence**: reasoning ability, memory capacity, and speed of information processing.  - **Crystallized intelligence**: ability to apply acquired knowledge and skills in problem solving.  **Broadening the Concept of Intelligence**  - **Exploring Biological correlates of intelligence**  - Larger brains are associated with greater intelligence (the association is modest).  - Smarter people tend to be healthier and live longer lives than others (IQ scores measured in childhood correlate with physical health and longevity decades later)  - **Investigating Cognitive Processes in Intelligent Behaviour**  - **Testing perspective**: emphasizes measuring the *amount *of intelligence people have, and why some have more than others.  - **Cognitive perspective**: focuses on how people *use *their intelligence.   - **Three aspects/facets of intelligence:**  - **Analytical intelligence: **abstract reasoning, evaluation, and judgment. Crucial to schoolwork, assessed by IQ tests.  - **Creative intelligence**: ability to generate new ideas and to be inventive.   - **Practical intelligence**: ability to deal effectively with the kinds of problems people encounter in everyday life (jobs or home).  - **Multiple Intelligences**  - *Gardner\'s Eight human intelligences: *logical-mathematical, linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, inter-personal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.   - Some argue his intelligence is so broad that it encompasses virtually any valued humanity ability, making the term meaningless.  - **Measuring Emotional Intelligence**  - **Emotional intelligence: **the ability to perceive and express emotion, to understand, reason and regulate it.  - EQ sometimes predicts grades and success better than IQ. - **Basic Issues in Intelligence Testing** **What do modern IQ scores mean?**  - **Normal distribution: **symmetric, bell-shaped curve where most values cluster in the middle of the range and the rest taper off toward either extreme. - *One standard deviation is +/- 15 points. It\'s a significant deviation from the average.*  - **Percentile score**: the percentage of people who score at or below the score one has obtained.  - From 85-115 you\'re around the normal, but 100 is the mean. Around 85 or 115, you begin looking different. **Do Intelligence Tests have Adequate Reliability?**  - *Yes.*  - Low motivation and high anxiety can produce misleading scores.  **Do Intelligence Tests have Adequate Validity?**  - *Yes*.  - The continued principal purpose of IQ tests is to predict school performances, and there are positive correlations between IQ scores and school grades.  - **Fixed mind-set: **belief in a fixed amount of intelligence that is unchangeable  - **Growth mind-set: **intelligence can be enhanced through hard work. (fosters greater academic success)  **Layperson\'s concept** - **Verbal intelligence **(articulate, good expression, creative writers, etc)  - **Practical intelligence **(sees all aspects of a problem, makes good decisions, poses problems in an optimal way)  - **Social intelligence **(thinks before speaking, sensitive to other people\'s needs and desires, accepts others for what they are, etc)  **Do Intelligence Tests Predict Vocational (occupational) Success?**  - People who score high on IQ tests are more likely than those who score low to end up in high-status jobs.  - There are still exceptions to the general trend (low IQ can still achieve vocational success).  **Are IQ Tests Widely used in Other Cultures?**  - In other Western Cultures with European roots, yes. In Non-Western cultures, \'very little\'.  - Different cultures have different conceptions and values of intelligence.   **Extremes of Intelligence** **Intellectual disability**: general mental ability accompanied by deficiencies in adaptive skills, originating before age 18. (Scoring below 100)  - **Levels of Intellectual Disability**  - Majority (85%) of people with intellectual disability fall into the *mild *category. 10% fall into the *moderate *range, and 5% fall into the *severe *range.   - Individuals with mild intellectual disability are not easily distinguished from the rest of the population. - **Origins**  - Many organic conditions can cause intellectual disability (ex: Down Syndrome) - The cases of unknown origin tend to involve milder forms of intellectual disability.   - **Savants**  - A savant is a person with remarkable talent in one or more domains while having an intellectual disability (disproving the myth that those with intellectual disabilities do not have superior abilities or show no excellence in domains)  **Giftedness**  - **Identifying Gifted Children**  - The minimum IQ score for gifted programs usually falls somewhere around 130.  - **Personal Qualities of the Gifted**  - Gifted children were found to be above average in height, weight, strength, physical health, emotional adjustment, mental health, and social maturity. This continued into adulthood.  - Elevated rates of mental illness - **Giftedness and Achievement in Life**  - The concept of giftedness is applied in two different groups:  1. High-IQ children in school  2. Eminent adults who make enduring contributions in their field  - The accomplishments of the latter group involve a much higher level of giftedness. Most gifted children do not achieve eminence as adults.  **Hereditary and Environment in Intelligence** - Both hereditary and environment influence intelligence. Theorists argue which is more important.  **Evidence of Hereditary Influence**  - **Twin Studies **(the best evidence regarding the role of genetic factors in intelligence)  - Correlational data shows that identical twins are similar in intelligence, which supports the notion that IQ is inherited to a certain degree.  - **Adoption Studies**  - There is more than chance similarity between adopted children and their biological parents (supporting the genetic hypothesis)  - **Heritability estimates**  - **Heritability ratio: **how much variation in traits is caused by variation in genes. **Evidence for Environmental Influence**  - **Adoption studies**  - adopted children show some resemblance to their adoptive parents in IQ (adopted parents shape environment).   - siblings reared together are more similar in IQ than siblings reared apart.   - **Environmental Deprivation and Enrichment**  - cumulative deprivation hypothesis: environmental deprivation leads to erosion in IQ scores.  - IQ scores gradually increase if children are removed from deprived environment and placed in enriched environments  - **Generational Changes: The Flynn Effect**  - Performance on IQ tests has steadily increased over the generations (120 IQ in 1930 is about 100 today).  - This has to be attributed to environmental factors: reductions in malnutrition, improvements in health, increased and more challenging schooling, new technology, etc.    **The Interaction of Heredity and Environment**  - **Reaction Range**: heredity may set certain limits on intelligence and that environmental factors determine where individuals fall within these limits **Cultural Differences in IQ Scores**  - The average IQ for many of the larger minority groups in the USA is somewhat lower than the average for white people  - Why are these differences found?  - **Heritability as an Explanation**  - Early in time, because of the belief that intelligence is largely genetic in origin, they were believed to be the cause of ethnic differences in intelligence.   - Criticisms: the heritability of intelligence appears to be lower in the lower socioeconomic classes as opposed to higher socioeconomic classes. Group average IQ could still be caused entirely by environmental factors.   - **Socioeconomic Disadvantages as an Explanation**  - Minority children tend to grow up in deprived environments that create a disadvantage in school and on IQ tests (lack of resources and access) - *Stereotype vulnerability: *derogatory stereotypes on groups\' intellectual capabilities undermine group members\' performance on tests.  - **Cultural Bias on IQ Tests as an Explanation**  - Critics argue that because IQ tests are constructed by White, middle-class psychologists, they draw on experience and knowledge typical of White, middle-class lifestyles, language, and vocabulary.    **PERSONAL APPLICATION: Understanding Creativity** **Creativity**: involves the generation of ideas that are original, novel and useful.  **Does Creativity Occur in a Burst of Insight?**  - Creative bursts of insight do occur, but major creative achievements generally are logical extensions of existing ideas (involving hard work and small steps forward).  **Does Creativity Depend on Divergent Thinking**?  - **Convergent thinking**: narrow down a list of alternatives to converge on a single correct answer.  - **Divergent thinking**: expanding the range of alternatives by generating many possible solutions.   - Divergent thinking contributes to creativity, but it does not represent the essence of creativity.  **How do Psychological Tests Measure Creativity?**  - Creativity tests assess divergent thinking by giving respondents starting points and letting them generate possibilities.  - Participants\' scores on the tests depend on the number, originality, and usefulness of the alternatives.  **How Well Do tests Predict Creative productivity?**  - Creativity tests are mediocre predictors of creative achievement in the real world.  - They test creativity as a general trait, though creativity is often specific to particular domains (creative people usually excel in a single field).  **Is There a Creative Personality?**  - Highly creative people tend to be more independent, nonconforming, introverted, open to new experiences, ambitious, persistent, etc.  - Living abroad correlates positively with measures of creativity  **Are Creativity and Intelligence Related?**  - Correlations between creativity and intelligence are weak in some findings (0.17), stronger in others (0.40)  **Is There a Connection between Creativity and Mental Illness?**  - There is a correlation between creativity and mental illness, particularly mood disorders such as depression.     **CRITICAL THINKING APPLICATION: Intelligence Debate** - **Fallacy: **mistake or error in the process of reasoning  - **Appeal to ignorance: **Misusing the general lack of knowledge or information on an issue to support an argument.  - - - - -