Mid-term #2

Question 1

Two Main Stages of Sleep

Answer 1

1) Slow Wave Sleep (SWS)
- Deep sleep stage for memory consolidation
2) Rapid Eye Sleep (REM)

Question 2

3 Theories of Why We Sleep

Answer 2

1) Restoration: immune system, tissue repair, clearing of ‘brain junk’
- Interstitial space between neurons and support cells in the brain increases, allowing cerebrospinal fluid to flow better and clear our metabolic ‘waste’ products.
2) Adaptive Inactivity: we sleep to save energy and avoid predation
3) Learning & Memory: sleep supports learning and strengthens memory

Question 3

2 Study Tips

Answer 3

1) Don’t CRAM
- Spread out study sessions boosts long-term retention.
2) Test yourself!
- Retrieving information is more effective than just studying it.

Question 4

‘Memory Replay’ in the Hippocampus During Sleep

Answer 4

• Hippocampal ‘place cells’ fire as a rat runs around in a circular cage.
• A similar pattern of cells firing is seen while the rat is asleep.
  –> It’s almost like his hippocampus is ‘replaying’ his journey.

Question 5

Piaget’s Stages

Answer 5

1) Sensorimotor
2) Pre-Operational
3) Concrete-Operational
4) Formal-Operational

Question 6

Object Permanence

Answer 6

• The understanding that an object or person continues to exist even when it’s out of sight.

Piaget: Object permanence as a major milestone in the sensorimotor stage.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) showed that object permanence is associated with an increase in hemoglobin concentration in the frontal cortex.

Question 7

Theory Given by Modern ‘Looking’ Time Techniques

Answer 7

Evolution has given us basic cognitive tools that are ready to go at birth.
- Key methodological advance: ‘Looking Time’
–> Babies will look longer at things that surprise them!

Question 8

Three Examples of Core Knowledge (& Experiments)

Answer 8

1) Core knowledge of physics
- Babies show surprise (increased looking time) when ‘impossible’ physical events happen.

2) Core knowledge of other ‘agents’
- Event between a ball and a teddy bear. Baby observes someone reaching for a ball on the left side.
New Location Event: Reaching for the ball in a different position.
New Object Event: Reaching for the teddy bear.
Longer-looking time during the new object event – baby is habituated to the hand wanting the ball.

3) Core knowledge of numbers
- Two jars with balls in them, with obvious probability distribution.
An improbable sample of the distribution resulted in high-looking times.

Question 9

Perceptual Narrowing

Answer 9

We only bother learning what we need to know…

• Adults and children are better at human face recognition tasks.
  However, babies are better at discriminating monkey faces.
  At this age, babies have not figured out what is important.
• Babies only bother learning the sounds relevant to their own language

Question 10

“Statistical Learning”

Answer 10

The ability of humans and other animals to extract statistical regularites from the world around them to learn about the environment.

Question 11

Statistical Learning of Words in Preverbal Infants

Answer 11

Experiment: Play a stream of ‘novel’ syllables to a baby with headphones.

Key Idea: Babies will passively learn the fake ‘words’ because some syllables predictably follow each other.

Baby listens/looks longer at ‘surprising’ test words.

Baby statistical learning relies on the hippocampus.
- Visual task w/ objects, and showed neural encoding of statistical regularities.

Question 12

Critical Period for Language Learning

Answer 12

Language learning gets harder as we age.

The critical period for first language acquisition is considered to be the first few years of life.
The critical period for second language acquisition is estimated to be between 2 and 13 years of age.

Question 13

Egocentric Bias

Answer 13

‘my thoughts are everyone’s reality’

• A theory of mind failure.
• Toddlers are jackasses!

Question 14

Theory of Mind

Answer 14

The ability to understand that other agents by ascribing personal beliefs and mental states to them.

• This develops around age 4.
  –> 4-year-olds w/ autism do not pass this task as well as their neurotypical counterparts.

Question 15

Sally Anne Task

Answer 15

Sally has a basket. Anne has a box.

Sally has a marble. She puts the marble into her basket. Sally goes for a walk.

Anne takes the marble and puts it into the box.

Where will Sally look for her marble?
- Most adults would say that Sally will look in her basket.
- Most 3 year olds would say Sally would look in the box.

Question 16

Secure Attachment

Answer 16

Insecure Avoidant:
Baby: Unconcerned by mother’s absence. Unresponsive on return.
Mother: Unresponsive. Child feels unloved and rejected.

Secure:
Baby: Upset, subdues when mother leaves. Happy on reunion.
Mother: Sensitive and responsive. Child feels positive and loved.

Insecure Resistant:
Baby: Intense distress on separation. Clingy and rejecting on return.
Mother: Inconsistent. Child feels angry and confused.

Question 17

‘Strange Situation Experiment’

Answer 17

The child is observed playing for 20 minutes while caregivers and strangers enter and leave the room, recreating the flow of the familiar and unfamiliar presence in most children’s lives.

Baby’s reactions reflect their attachment style.

Question 18

Four Behavioral Trends in Adolescents

Answer 18

1) Increased sensation-seeking and risk-taking behaviors
2) Changes in self-regulation and control
3) Identity formation
4) Large role of peer influence

Question 19

Adolescence and PFC development

Answer 19

Adolescence is a critical state of development when the environment and activities of teenagers may guide selective synapse elimination (synaptic pruning), especially in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) but also in other key circuits!
- PFC is involved in self control, planning, inhibiting inappropriate actions, problem solving, multi-tasking, decision-making, self-awareness, social interaction… does an immature PFC explain some adolescent behaviors?

Question 20

Spotlight Effect

Answer 20

People tend to believe that the social spotlight shines more brightly on them than it really does.

Question 21

“Thin Slices”

Answer 21

Information gleaned from an instant impression can be as powerful as information gleaned by getting to know a person over a longer period of time.

Question 22

Self-Enhancement Biases

Answer 22

We tend to believe we are ‘better-than-average.’

Question 23

The “Illusion of Transparency”

Answer 23

A tendency for people to overestimate the extent to which others can discern their internal states.

Question 24

The “Fundamental Attribution Error”

Answer 24

A tendency to believe that a behavior is due to a person’s disposition rather than the situation in which the person finds themselves.

Question 25

The Big 5 Model of Personality

Answer 25

1) Openness – A person’s orientation toward novelty, change, and uncertainty.

2) Conscientiousness – The extent to which a person is focused, organized, and persistent in the pursuit of his or her goals.

3) Extraversion – A person’s level of arousal and preference for stimulation.

4) Agreeableness – A person’s orientation toward and style of interacting with others.

5) Neuroticism – A person’s propensity to experience negative emotions.

Question 26

Genetic Influences on Personality

Answer 26

Genes may account for ⅓ of your personality.

The other 66% is accounted for by other factors.

Question 27

Social Learning and Bobo Doll Experiment

Answer 27

Humans are ‘supercharged’ social learners.

The ‘Bobo Doll’ Experiment: children are able to learn social behaviors, such as aggression, through observational learning (without obvious reinforcement).

Question 28

Three Features of Emotion

Answer 28

1) Physiological Responses – heart rate, perspiration, etc.
2) Overt Behaviors – flinching, freezing, running, etc.
3) Feelings – fear

Question 29

The Two Dimensions of Emotion

Answer 29

1) Arousal – how physiologically activating/energetic an emotion is
2) Valence – how positive or negative an emotion is

Question 30

Three Major Theories of Emotional Processing

Answer 30

1) The James-Lange Theory
- Do we run from a bear out of fear, or does fear come from running away?
- Evidence: Heart rate changes due to simply making different facial expressions.
Note: There are replication issues!

2) The Cannon-Bard Theory
- Two parallel systems; Emotionally relevant stimulus goes to a physiological response and a conscious feeling.
- Evidence: Remove the cortex of cats… and they still elicit ‘rage’

3) The Two-Factor Theory
- Emotionally relevant stimulus goes to a physiological response and a cognitive appraisal. The strength and label of an emotion leads to a conscious feeling.
- Evidence: Physiologically aroused in presence of something you think should scare you – label arousal as fear
- Having same bodily response in presence of something you think should delight you – label arousal as excitement

Question 31

The Universality of Emotional Facial Expressions

Answer 31

The universality of facial expressions may be overstated.

We overemphasize how much information we get from faces. We also get information from body language.

Question 32

Amygdala Damage and Effects on Fear/Anxiety

Answer 32

Amygdala is a collection of subcortical nuclei found deep within the temporal lobe.
- It’s a key region for forming engrams of conditioned emotional responses.

There is reduced fear learning and reduced ‘fear feelings’ after amygdala damage.

Question 33

Two Pathways to the Amygdala for Fear

Answer 33

Low Road
Emotional Stimulus → Thalamus → Amygdala → Emotional Responses

High Road
Emotional Stimulus → Thalamus → Cortex → Amygdala → Emotional Responses

Low road – Direct & drives intense emotional responses
High Road – Stimulating the prefrontal cortex can dampen amygdala responses.

Question 34

“Needs” versus “Drives”

Answer 34

A need is a deficiency or lack that motivates a person to act, while a drive is a physiological tension that arises from an unmet need.

Need→Drive→Behavior

We need food, our drive is hunger, so we eat.

Question 35

Kant, Hume, and Mill Basic Ideas about Morality

Answer 35

Kant – universal moral law: the morality of actions can only be defined using reason to create general moral laws
- Act in accordance with universal moral law.

Hume – sentimentalism: ‘morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.’
- Trust your gut.

Mill – utilitarianism – the morally right action is the action that produces the most good
- Do the math.

Question 36

The Trolley Problem

Answer 36

Would you throw the switch to divert the train?

Deontological ethics – what makes a choice right is its conformity with a moral norm.
–> Do not throw the switch!

Consequentialist ethics – whether an act is morally right depends only on consequences.
–> Throw the switch!

People with damage to the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) are more consequentialist during moral reasoning about the trolley problem.
Damage to emotional systems leads to a more reasoning-focused judgement that in the ‘push’ condition, one should still push the guy onto the tracks.

Question 37

Haidt’s 5 Moral Foundations

Answer 37

1) Harm/care: related to ability to feel others’ pain
2) Fairness/reciprocity: equality, justice
3) Authority/respect: deference to authority, traditions
4) Ingroup/loyalty: patriotism, self-sacrifice for group
5) Purity/sanctity: strong disgust norms

Question 38

Moral Dumbfounding

Answer 38

When a person makes a moral judgment but cannot defend on that judgment with reasons and arguments.

Question 39

Mechanisms of Cooperation

Answer 39

Evolutionary
- Kin Selection: the unit of reproduction is not the individual but rather the gene, so… you should favor your relatives
- Group Selection & Spatial Proximity: individuals with the same social strategies (e.g., cooperation) cluster together, then, the chance of new strategies arriving (e.g., defection) is reduced

Experiential
- Reputation: your own reputation, and the reputation of others, whether learned directly or indirectly (e.g., via gossip), leads us to use cooperation to signal that we would be good partners
- Reciprocity: I help you, you help me, You don’t help me? Fuck off.

Question 40

The Prisoner’s Dilemma, and “tit-for-tat”

Answer 40

Two prisoners are suspected of a crime but must decide whether to confess or remain silent. The best outcome for both prisoners is to remain silent, but the possibility that the other will confess leads them both to confess.

In real life, we have repeated interaction with others in our family, nation, etc.

Best strategy when you assume future interaction with other people?
–> In repeated interactions, best strategy is tit-for-tat!
- Cooperate the first time, and then imitate your opponents’ last action.

Question 41

Present Bias

Answer 41

People query their current mood to answer questions about happiness.

Weather can affect mood, thus affecting how people rate happiness.

Question 42

Affective Forecasting

Answer 42

We are not good at predicting future happiness!

Recall Harvard dormitory assignment survey.

Question 43

Impact Bias

Answer 43

We are also not good at recalling past happiness!

• People often overestimate the impact future events will have on their happiness. People may also show a retrospective impact bias, overestimating the impact of past events on their happiness.

Question 44

Adaptation to ‘Set Points’

Answer 44

Individuals react to events but quickly adapt back to baseline levels (‘set points’) of subjective well-being.

Lottery winners were not happier than controls and took significantly less pleasure from a series of mundane events.

Question 45

Income and Happiness Debate

Answer 45

Money has some relationship to subjective well-being, but the exact relationship is still under debate.

Result: Beyond ~$75,000 (in 2010), increases in income no longer produce meaningful benefits to happiness.
Results: No satiation effect found.
– Two authors joined forces and re-analyzed smartphone data together.
–> Highest happiness respondents saw no satiation.
However, lowest happiness respondents saw satiation.

Factors:
Necessities
Status
Control
Luxuries

Question 46

Psychological Richness

Answer 46

A life characterized by a variety of interesting and perspective-changing experiences.

3 dimensions of a ‘good life’ – happiness, meaning, and psychological richness.

Question 47

Kinds of Norms

Answer 47

Prescriptive/Injunctive: what people ought to do

Descriptive/Statistical: what people tend to do

Conventional: one type of social norm that are mutually agreed upon practices that govern how people act in different social situations
- How to greet someone
- How to use utensils

Question 48

The Ultimatum Game – Norms of Fairness

Answer 48

There are two players.

Player 1 can split up the money via an offer to Player 2.
Player 2 can accept or reject the offer.

A rejection means neither get anything.
- Player 1 rarely offer below 40%, with Player 2 rejecting offers below 40%
–> Variations are different according to culture.

Question 49

Conformity - Asch’s Experiment & Stanley Milgram Experiments

Answer 49

Asch’s (1951) Experiment – demonstrated how individuals often conform to the majority opinion of a group, even when that opinion is clearly wrong.

• Participants were asked to compare the length of lines, and when a group of confederates gave incorrect answers, a significant portion of participants conformed and gave the same wrong answer despite knowing it was incorrect.
• Criticisms: Artificial setting, limited sample, and ethical concerns.

Stanley Milgram Experiments – measure how far participants would go in obeying an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.
- Participants were instructed by an experimenter to administer electric shocks to the learner (a confederate) for incorrect answers to a memory task.
- These shocks were increased each time a learner made a mistake.
⅔ of all participants continued to the highest level of 450 volts. All participants continued to 300 volts.
- Conclusion: People appear to be more obedient to authority figures than we might expect, to the extent of potentially causing harm to an innocent human being. People are willing to harm someone if responsibility is taken away and passed on to someone else.
- Criticism: Handling of deception was extreme.

Question 50

Prejudice

Answer 50

positive vs negative evaluations of groups

Question 51

Stereotypes

Answer 51

specific traits associated with groups

Question 52

Discrimination

Answer 52

differential treatment of group members

Question 53

Implicit association test (IAT)

Answer 53

Measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report.

A series of stimuli (words and/or images) is presented to each respondent, who must sort them into two categories.

The key assumption is that the stronger the association a respondent makes between two concepts, the faster they are to make these associations.

Question 54

How to Compute Expected Value for Simple Decision Tasks

Answer 54

Expected Value = (outcome 1 x probability 1) + (outcome 2 x probability)…

Essentially, it’s a weighted average of potential outcomes based on their likelihoods.

Question 55

“Expected Utility”

Answer 55

An economic theory that estimates the value of an action when the outcome is uncertain.

Probability x Outcome Utility

Question 56

Framing and Certainty effects

Answer 56

Framing Effect – cognitive bias that occurs when people’s decisions are influenced by how information is presented, rather than the information itself.

Certainty Effect – people tend to be more confident in certain outcomes, rather than less certain ones.

Question 57

Peak-End Rule

Answer 57

People tend to ignore the duration of pain or pleasure. The peak rating and the end rating predict the overall rating.

Question 58

Endowment Effect

Answer 58

People tend to value items they own more than items they don’t.

Question 59

3 Main “Heuristics” of Judgment

Answer 59

Heuristics – judgemental shortcuts that generally get us where we need to go quickly.

1) Availability Heuristic – estimates of frequency or probability made based on the ease with which instances come to mind.
Example: If you recently saw a plane crash, you might think that flying is more dangerous than driving. .

2) Representative Heuristic – estimating the probability of an event based on how similar it is to a known situation.
Example: Assuming someone is a lawyer because they are wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase.

3) Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic – estimating based on an initial value, or anchor, and adjusting it until reaching a reasonable estimate.
People often do not adjust enough, and their final estimate is biased towards the anchor.
Example: If a customer sees a product’s original price before it’s discounted, they might view a discount as a great deal.

Question 60

Maximizers vs Satisficers

Answer 60

Maximizers want to ensure they get the most out of the choices they make.

Satisficers tend to adopt a ‘this is good enough’ approach.

Question 61

“System 1” versus “System 2” dichotomy

Answer 61

A model of the mind that describes two types of thinking processes in the brain.

System 1 – an automatic, intuitive, and emotional process that operates quickly and unconsciously. It’s responsible for our first reactions to situations and emotions, and for making split-second judgments. System 1 uses heuristics to prioritize relevant information and filter out the rest.

System 2 – a slower, more deliberate, and effortful system that’s responsible for conscious thought, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making.

The brain isn’t literally divided into two systems. However, some argue that the System 1 vs System 2 dichotomy doesn’t adequately account for the range of processes the mind can accomplish.

Question 62

Anxiety vs Fear

Answer 62

Anxiety – apprehension about a future fear
Fear – response to an immediate threat

Question 63

3 Components of Fear/Anxiety

Answer 63

1) Cognitive/Subjective
2) Physiological
3) Behavioral

Question 64

4 Anxiety Disorders in DSM5

Answer 64

1) Specific Phobias
2) Panic Disorder
3) Social Anxiety Disorder
4) Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Question 65

Diathesis-Stress Model

Answer 65

A theory that explains how a combination of vulnerability factors (diathesis) and stressors can lead to psychiatric disorders.

Factors: biological/psycological/social

Vulnerability means you may have all risk factors, but will never develop a mood disorder. Unless that vulnerability is triggered, you will be fine.
Protective factors help against developing mood disorders.

Question 66

Biopsychosocial Models of Disorders

Answer 66

A holistic approach to understanding and treating disease that considers the biological, psychological, and social factors that contribute to a patient’s conditions.

Question 67

Unipolar vs Bipolar Mood Disorders

Answer 67

Unipolar – MDD; characterized by a prolonged period of depression.

Bipolar – characterized by mood episodes that oscillate between manic episodes and depressive episodes.

Question 68

Phonemes

Answer 68

The smallest unit of speech to differentiate between utterances.

45 English phonemes.

Question 69

Morphemes

Answer 69

The smallest unit that denotes meaning

Morphemes make up our lexicon.
All combinations of morphemes make up your vocabulary.

Example: recharge - 2 morphemes
rechar(e)ing - 3 morphemes

Question 70

Lexicon

Answer 70

The collection of words and word elements that make up a language.

Question 71

Syntax

Answer 71

The study of sentences and their structure.

Question 72

Semantics

Answer 72

The study of word meanings.

Question 73

Recursion

Answer 73

Repetition of a grammatical structure or linguistic element, such as a phrase or setnence, within another sentence or phrase

Example: “Hand me the nails that Dan bought.”
Relative clause “that Dan bought” is contained within the larger noun phrase “the nails.”

Recursion allows language to
produce an infinite number of sentences.

Question 74

Pragmatics: Implicature

Tone/Emphasis Effects

Answer 74

‘I was wondering if you would be able to drive me to the airport tomorrow morning.’
You aren’t wondering if the person can drive. You want them to drive you to the airport tomorrow.

Tone/Emphasis – completely different meanings of the same sentence (‘I never said she stole my money’) depending on which word is stressed.

Question 75

Language/Thought Distinctions

Answer 75

Language and thought appear to be distinct.
- Significantly distinct brain networks for language versus thought.

Neuropsychology findings suggest you can think while not producing language (e.g. aphasia) or produce normal language with rather disorganized thoughts (e.g. Williams syndrome, some cases of schizophrenia).
- Language network–-supported functions: language comprehension and language production – consistent.
- Multiple demand network–supported functions: executive functions, novel problem solving, mathematics, some forms of reasoning, computer code comprehension
- Theory of mind – supported functions: social reasoning, mentalizing