Core Study Conclusions

Question 1

Dement & Kleitman (sleep & dreams)

Answer 1

• Dreaming is reported from REM but not nREM sleep,
• REM patterns relate to dream content.
• Measurement of eye movements and brain waves has shown that dreams progress in ‘real time’ and that this is a more objective way to study dreaming than using subjective recall of dreams alone, which can also be affected by forgetting.

Question 2

Hassett et al. (monkey toy preference)

Answer 2

• sex typed toy preferences in humans may result from biological sex differences, as their observations suggests that rhesus monkeys show similar preferences to human infants, even without clear gender differences in socialization.
• human toy preferences, as with the monkeys, reflect hormonally influenced behavior and cognitive biases which interacts with learning experiences within the social environment.

Question 3

Hölzel et al. (mindfulness & brain scans)

Answer 3

• Concentration of grey matter increases in regions in the hippocampus, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), left temporoparietal junction (TPJ), and cerebellum in those who practice an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course.

Question 4

Andrade (doodling)

Answer 4

• Doodling helps concentration on a primary task.
• By stopping our minds from straying we should be better able to focus on the primary task.

Question 5

Baron-Cohen et al. (eyes test)

Answer 5

• persons with AS or HFA have a deficit in a cognitive process that allows a person to identify emotions in other individuals (lacking Theory of Mind).
• evidence of a sex differences in undiagnosed persons, with males showing more autistic traits and performing worse on the Eyes Test than females.
• the revised Eyes Test used in this study was a more sensitive measure of adult social intelligence than that used in previous studies.

Question 6

Pozzulo et al. (line-ups)

Answer 6

• since children were able to identify the cartoon characters with almost 100 percent accuracy in target-present line-ups. cognitive factors were not responsible for the lower success rate in correctly rejecting the foils in the target-absent line-ups.
• children are less accurate than adults when faced with unfamiliar human actors and generally more prone to giving false positive responses (incorrect identification).
• young children’s false positive responses in target-absent lineups may be more influenced by social factors than cognitive ones
• Differences seen between adults and children in their rejection for human faces, which resembles the cartoon faces, can also be explained by social demands.

Question 6

Bandura et al. (aggression)

Answer 6

• results strongly suggest that observation and imitation can account for the learning of specific acts without reinforcement of either the model or observer.
• Observed aggressive behaviors are imitated: children who see aggressive models are likely to be more aggressive than those seeing a non-aggressive model or no model.
• Observed non-aggressive behaviors are imitated: children seeing non-aggressive models will be less aggressive than those seeing no model.
• Children are more likely to copy a same-sex model, although this may depend on the extent to which this behavior is sex-typed.
• Boys are more likely to copy aggression than girls.

Question 7

Fagen et al. (elephant learning)

Answer 7

• juvenile, free-contact, traditionally trained elephants can be trained to participate in a trunk wash using only SPR training techniques, and this training can be carried out with the voluntary participation of elephants, avoiding punishment, to produce reliable results.

Question 8

Saavedra and Silverman (button phobia)

Answer 8

• emotions and cognitions relating to disgust are important when learning new responses to phobic stimuli.
• imagery exposure can have a long-term effect on reducing the distress associated with specific phobias as it tackles negative evaluations.

Question 9

Milgram (obedience)

Answer 9

• Individuals are much more obedient to authority than we might reasonably expect. This seems to be true for the majority of people.
• Despite high levels of obedience, people find the experience of carrying out destructive acts under the orders of authority figures triggers feelings of stress. This is due to a conflict between two important social phenomena: the need to obey those in authority and the need to avoid harming other people.
• Milgram’s study supports the idea of a situational explanation for obedience.

Question 10

Perry et al. (personal space)

Answer 10

• The administration of OTC enhances social cues in opposite ways for individuals with different empathetic abilities, supporting the idea of social salience.
  People with low empathetic ability respond to OT with a preference for increased personal distance and
  those with high empathetic ability respond to OT with a preference for decreased personal distance.
• The results also confirmed the findings of previous personal space research that people need less distance between themselves and their close friends then they need with strangers.

Question 11

Piliavin et al. (subway Samaritanism)

Answer 11

• in a natural setting, many people would offer spontaneous help to a stranger, even in a group situation.
• this study found no evidence of diffusion of responsibility, but did identify several factors which may determine decisions to help:
  the type of victim (someone using a cane will be helped more than a drunk person)
  the gender of the helper (men are more likely to help than women)
  people may be more likely to help members of their own race, especially if the victim is drunk.