Midsemester test Flashcards
Difference between positive and clinical psychology
Traitional mental health wants to get rid of the illness
Positive focusses on living well and living with illness
SELIGMAN’S PERMA MODEL of wellbeing: 5 components
Positive emotions: how often do you feel happy, what makes you feel good.
Engagement: to what extend do you feel excited about things, what flow activities make you lose track of time
Relationships: Who brings you joy and support, to what extent do you feel loved
Meaning: what do you find worthwhile, do you feel what you do is worthwhile
Accomplishment: how often do you feel like you are achieving your goals
Subjective wellbeing
The experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful and worthwhile.
What are the features of someone with subjective wellbeing?
More:
- successful
- socially engaged
- more stable relationships
- creative
- better physical health
- better immune systems
- live longer
Subjective wellbeing: hedonic component
Experience of positive emotions and absence of negative emotions, life saatisfaction
subjective wellbeing: Eudaimonic component
psychological wellbeing, search and attainment of meaning, self-actualisation, and personal growth
In business settings, materialism ______ correlated with caring about corporate social responsibility and ______ correlated with interpersonally deviant workplace behaviours
negatively, positively
The big 5 personality dimensions
- extraversion (most associated with positive feelings)
- conscientiousness
- avoidance orientation
- agreeableness
- neuroticsm
Adaption
The fact that after people first react to good or bad events, sometimes in a strong way, their feelings and reactions tend to dampen down over time and they return toward their original level of subjective well-being.
Bottom-up
or external causes of happiness
Situational factors outside the person that influence his or her subjective well-being, such as good and bad events and circumstances such as health and wealth.
Happiness
The popular word for subjective well-being. Scientists sometimes avoid using this term because it can refer to different things, such as feeling good, being satisfied, or even the causes of high subjective well-being.
Life satisfaction
A person reflects on their life and judges to what degree it is going well, by whatever standards that person thinks are most important for a good life.
Negative feelings
Undesirable and unpleasant feelings that people tend to avoid if they can. Moods and emotions such as depression, anger, and worry are examples.
Positive feelings
Desirable and pleasant feelings. Moods and emotions such as enjoyment and love are examples.
Subjective well-being
The name that scientists give to happiness—thinking and feeling that our lives are going very well.
Subjective well-being scales
Self-report surveys or questionnaires in which participants indicate their levels of subjective well-being, by responding to items with a number that indicates how well off they feel.
Top-down
or internal causes of happiness
The person’s outlook and habitual response tendencies that influence their happiness—for example, their temperament or optimistic outlook on life.
Outlooks
how one sees the world
important internal cause of subjective wellbeing
What are mindtraps
impact bias - overestimate emotional impact of events
hedonic adaption - we get used to stuff
eaily misled
* Our minds judge based on (faulty) reference points
o A lot of our experiences and how we see the rest of the world is based on our experiences, or reference points
E.g. if co-workers have a higher salary, you are less happy with your job (even after controlling for salary
Downward social comparison
when comparing oneslf with inferior others who have negative characteristics
Upward social comparison
occurs when comparing oneself with superior others who have positive characteristics
Hedonic adaption
become accustomed to both positive and negative stuff
even major events lose impact in less than 3 months, there is a standard pattern of affective dynamics
when bad stuff happens we think it is the end of the word - but we have these set points of happiness that we usually go back to
you learn a new reference point, things seem less extreme
the two big culprits of hedonic adaption
rising aspiration and social comparison
Impact bias
we tend to overestimate the emotional impact of things both in intensity and duration
Affective forecasting
we tend to exaggerate effects of positive or nagative events on our happiness.
people epect certain events to hurt them more then they end up doing
twarting hedonic adaption
Savouring: stepping outside experience to appreciate it
replaying: happy memories increases positive emotions over time
negative visualisation: what life would have been like without somethings, can rekindle a relationship
Gratitude
live each day as if it were your last
Growth mindset
fixed m would be someone who things intelligence is a stable and unchangeable trait - avoid challenged
a growth mindset is someone who sees failure as inevitable for progress, more likely to persist and take on challenges
What is flow
Mental state in which you’re performing an activity where you are fully immersed, where you feel energised, have a sense of control, strong sense of self, focused, you’re fully involved, and you’re enjoying it as you go
Characteristics of flow
- complete concentration on task
- sense of ecstacy
- greater inner clarity
- knowing activity is doable
a sense of serenity
timelessness
intrinsic motivation
Signature strengths
using your top character strngths in new ways
savouring
taking time to savour the things you enjoy
graititude
expressing gratitude for the people and things in your life
kindess
increasing your acts kindness
social connection
making connections with strangers and acquaintances along with scheduling time for people in your life
exercise
increasing physical activity to at least 30 minutes a day
sleep
making sure you gget at least 7 hours of sleep
meditation
m for 5-10 minutes and increasing over time
change your diet
reduce UPF and increase F and V intake
Character strength
a positive trait or quality deemed to be morally good and is valued for iteslf as well as for promoting individual and collective well-being
flourishing
to live optimally, psychologically, relationally, and spiritually
forgiveness
letting go of negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours toward an offender
humility
having an accurate view of self-not too high or low- and a realistic appraisal of one’s strengths and weaknesses, especially in relation to other people
positive psychology
the science of human flourishing - an applied science with an emphasis on real world intervention
pro-social
thoughts, actions, and feelings that are directed towards others and which are positive in nature
three key strengths to make yourself happier
forgiveness, gratitude, and humility
Predator eyesight
tend to have frontal eyes to eye up prey
binocular vision
large areas that both eyes cover
- better depth perception, helps with locating prey
Perception is constructive
our brain makes assumptions we’re unaware of, think of duck rabbit example
Peception is selective
we don’t take in all the information in the environment, we take in the information we want
why is perception constructive and selective
predict future
classify objects when at an odd angle or partially obstructed
reduce processing load
____ lens required to focus a distant object on retina
Thin
___ lens required to focus nearby object on retina
thick
Normal vision
lens just right, object focused on the retina
Myopic
nearsighted
lens too thick or eyeball too long
distant object focused in front of retina
Hyperopic
farsighted
lens too thin or eyeball too short
close object would have been focussed behing the retina
Presbyopia
Presbyopia is a refractive error that makes it hard for middle-aged and older adults to see things up close. It happens because the lens (an inner part of the eye that helps the eye focus) stops focusing light correctly on the retina (a light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye)
Eyes as we age
lens loses elasticity, presbyopia, why many old people require glasses
Photoreceptors: rod
100 to 120 million
extremely sensitive
everywhere in retina except for the fovea, for vision in low light levels
helps in dim light, do not see wavelengths, cannot see colour
Photoreceptors: cones
three types
6 to 7 million
less sensitive to light
concentrated at the fovea
for vision under normal lighting conditions and for colour
can see wavelengths, allow us to see colour
not as sensitive as rods
Distribution of cones in the retina
high concentration at fovea - helps see fine details
blind spot, hole in our retina where the nere fibres exit the eye to the brain, no photoreceptors there
Distribution of rods in the retina
none at fovea or blind spot
Why don’t we notice blind spot
usually have both eyes open
brain is good at filling in information
Dark adaption curves
when walk into dark cinema, can’t see at first, over time vision becomes cleared
- Initially we rely on our cones
- but they are not sensitive, so we can see, but not in detail
- after 6 mins, they stop adapting, vision doesn’t get better
- rods kick in, see more details
- best in the para-fovea because the fovea does not have any rods
__ are mostly responsible for processing light when photons are scarce
rods, but takes time to replenish the visual prigment that rods require for photoactivation
under bright conditions, ___ are quickly bleached
rods, when cones become useful because they canno tdeal with the constant barrage of photons
in bright light ___ are bleached, takes 30 minutes in dimmer environment for them to recover
rods
___ require more photons to fire and their photopigments replenish much faster than ___ photopigments, allowing them to keep up when photons are abundant
cones, rods
Contrast gain
the visual system dertimines the mean contrast in a scene and represents values around that mean contrast best, while ifnoring smaller contrast differences
Lateral inhibition - interaction between neurons
Lateral inhibition refers to the capacity of excited neurons to reduce the activity of their neighbors. Neurons that are firing inhibit the stimulation of surrounding. Accordingly, only the neurons that are most stimulated and least inhibited respond.
E.g., A is darker than B, so A said not as much inhibition to B compared to the inhibition sent by B at the other side, so the border between B and C there is more inhibition, which is why the part looks a little bit darker
Importance of contrast
important because your neurons go out of their way not only to encode differences in light but to exaggerate those differences for you so you don’t miss them - this is lateral inhibition
when a neuron fires in response to light: produces two signals
- output signal: pass on to the next level in vision
- lateral signal: to inhibit all neurons that are next to it
3 types of cones:
s, m and l
s-cone:
those most sensitive to short wavelengths, these cones are more sensitive to wavelengths we typically perceive as blue
m-cone:
most sensitive to the medium wavelengths like green
l-cone:
long wavelengths, orange/red
Shades of grey, white and black:
means the surgace reflects about equally all visible wavelength, reflectance is very high
why do we see a tomato as red
they refract the light at the longer portion of the spectrum, a spectral reflectance,
Trichromatic theory of colour vision: Young-Helmholtz theory
ability to distinguish wavelengths depends on the operation of three different kinds of cone receptors (the s, m and l cones)
At its most basic, the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory states that within your eye are tiny cells that can receive waves of light and translate them into one of three colors: blue, green, and red. These three colors can then be combined to create the entire visible spectrum of light as we see it.
perceived colour is based on the relative amount of activity in the three cones
the opponent process theory: Hering theory
colour vision is caused by opposing responses generated by 3 pairs: blue v yellow, green v red, and black v white
monocular visual cues
occlusion/interposition: when an object covers another, helps with depth
relative height: mountains taller than flowers, but smaller in horizon
texture gradient
linear perspective
aspects of a scene that yield info about depth when viewed with only one eye
often called pictorial depth cues because it works even in 2d images
why sun and moon look the same size
we don’t have any depth cues, brain cannot infer the actual distance
just has to rely on the size of the image on the retina, large and far away sun = close smaller moon
binocular disparity
the magnitude of the disparity reveals how far the object is from fization
Binocular disparity is the difference in image between the two eyes, think when you focus on something in front of you like a finger and close one eye then the other, it appears that the object moves.
Binocular depth cues exist because we have stereoscopic vision: having space between our eyes means that each eye registers a slightly different view of the world
- The closer the object you’re looking at, the great the BD – the difference in retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth
- You brain computes the disparity between the two retinal images to perceive how far away objects are, as shown above.
- This idea was first discussed by Charles Wheatstone in 1839
- This is why we see the world in three dimensions, because our eyes are a distance apart and the image of an object falls on the retina of each eye at a slightly different place. The disparity in the positions of the object’s retinal images provides a compelling cue to depth
motion based on depth cues
motion parallex = a depth cue based on the movement over time - in car, objects in distance appear to move slower
Gestalt principles of perceptual grouping:
“perception of the whole is more than simply the sum on individual parts” - our vision system constantly organising things
muliple principles for how we do this: proximity, similarity, pragnanz, good continuation, common fate
proximity vision
things near eachother get groups
similarity vision
similar elements get groups together, like orientation or colour
pragnanz: good figure, simplicity
everything seen as simple as possible, e.g. olympics logo, see as occluding circles, not a bunch of different shapes stuck together
Good continuation
regions appear to follow in the same contours grouped together: a rectangle with its middle occluded by a square, assumed the recatangle continues behind the square and out the other side
common fate
things that move together seen as belonging together
separating figure from ground
face and vase example, we segregate figure and background
ventral pathway
involved in what, perception of colour and form
o Many of these computations occur in specialized brain areas. For instance, an area called MT processes global-motion information; the parahippocampal place area identifies locations and scenes; the fusiform face area specializes in identifying objects for which fine discriminations are required, like faces. There is even a brain region specialized in letter and word processing. These visual-recognition areas are located along the VENTRAL PATHWAY of the brain (also known as the What pathway).
dorsal pathway:
invonved in the perception of movement, location, and how to make a movement to respond to or interact with an object
DORSAL PATHWAY (or Where-and-How pathway) will compute information about self- and object-motion, allowing you to interact with objects, navigate the environment, and avoid obstacles (Goodale and Milner, 1992).
Vestibulo-ocular reflex
when your head moves in one direction, your eyes reflecively move in the opposite direction to compensate, allowing you to maintain your gaze on the object you are looking at
it is achieved by integrating information from both the visual and the vestibular system
Synaesthesia:
occurs when one signal gives rise to two or more sensations - the most common type is grapheme-colour synaethesia
about 1 in 200 individuals experience a sensation of colour associated with specigic letter, numbers or words
some can include taste and colour or music and colour, like this chicken tastes green
perceptual constancy
even as aspects of sensory signals change, perception remains consitent
Cones
photoreeptors that operate in lightened environments and can encode find visual details.
there are three different kinds (S or blue, M or green, and L or red) that are each sensitive to slightly different types of light.
Combined, these three types of cones allow you to have colour vision
contrast gain
process where the sensitivity of your visual system can be tuned to be most sensitive to the levels of contrast that are most prevalent in the environment
contrast
relative difference in the amount and type of light coming from two nearby locations
dark adaption
process that allows you to become sensitive to very small levels of light, so that you can actually see in the near absence of light
lateral inhibition
a signal produced by a neuron aimed at suppressing the response of nearby neurons
opponent process theory
theory of colour vision that assumes there are gour different basic colours, organised into two pairs (red/green and blue/yellow) and proposes that colours in the world are encoded in terms of opponency (or difference) between the colours in each pair
there is an additional black/white pair responsible for coding light contrast
photoactivation
a photochemical reaction that occurs when when light hits photoreceptors, producing a neural signal
primary visual cortex (V1)
brain region located in the occupital cortex (toward the back of the head) responsible for processing basic visual information like the detection, thickness, and orientation of simple lines, colour and small-scale motion
rods
photoreceptors that are very sensitive to light and mostly responsible for night vision
synesthesia
the blending of two or more sensory experiences, or the automatic activiation of a sexondary (indirect) sensory experience due to certain aspects of the primary (direct) sensory stimulation
Trichromacy theory
theory proposes that all of you colour perception is fundamentally based on the combination of three different colour signals
vestibulo-occular reflex
coordination of motion information with visual information that allows you to maintain your gaze with an object while you move
what pathway
pathway of neural processing in the brain that is responsible for your ability to recognise what is around you
where-and-how
pathway of neral processing in the brain that is responsible for you knowing where things are in the world and how to interact with them
a visual scene can be separated into two parts:
the figure, which is the object that commands our attention, and the ground which seems ot exist as a backdrop behind the object
The speedometer in a car has a black background with white numbers, and an orange pointer that indicates the speed at which you are driving. What process explains how your brain sees that orange hand?
Your brain assess the contrast in the light coming from the orange hand and the light coming from the back background.
The first stop in the cortex to begin the ____ process of turning neural signals into usable information occurs in the primar visual cortex, also known as V1
reconstruction
when to use bar graph
where there are discrete bars apart from each other
because of categorical variable green is not involved with purple, they are completely seperate variables
histogram
opposite of bar, where there is a continuous variabel. live the number of bags and the number of purple planes in each bag
central tendency
a single value that describes the centre of a data distribution
mean (average): sum of all the numbers in a dataset, divided by the number of repsonses
median: middle number if you line up the numbers in a dataset from smallest to largest
mode: most popular value that appeared in the data set
mode
Not affected by extreme values
Good for categorical variables
Will always be a real value of category
Possible to have two modes (bimodal) or no mode
BUT: there are some circumstances where the mode doesn’t make sense, the jet plane example is good because it is a categorical variable, especially when you compared to median or mode where there are decimal numbers
Better for nominal data (i.e., categorical variables
mean
basis of most statistical tests
can change greatly due to addition of expreme variables
better when data is ‘normally’ distributed
median
not affected by extreme values
better when data is skewed
normal distribution
mean, median, and mode are the same mode, d is symmetrical around the value of central tendencies
Research: descriptive approaches
describes tendencies in people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours
like a public opinion survey, achival studies, observational studies
Research: correlational designs
examines the relationship between two variables
negative, zero and positive
correlation does not equal causation
experimental designs
examines cause and effect between variables
o Involves random assignment of participants between experimental conditions
o Researcher maintains control over the experimental procedure
o Only design that allows us to establish causality
observational stidu
e.g. smoking and long term effects
correlation studies:
no groups or experiments, just viewing
experimental study
introduce intervention and study events - e.g., drug testing with placebo
quasi-experimental
don’t allocate people to groups
no random assignment of conditions
instead rely on existing group memberships and treat them as independent variable
more observational
difference between experiment and quasi-experimental
Judging two professors on their students’ final grades. Here, the independent variable is the professor and the dependent variable is the students’ grades
In an experimental design, you would randomly assign students to one of the two professors
But this isn’t realistic in real life, so researchers would need to use pre-existing classes
This can affect results. Some students may have chosen one professor because they heard they gave out better grades, whereas the other class sets higher standards, more smart people might go to the latter
cofounds
factors that undermine the ability to draw causal inferences from an experiment
correlation
measures the association between two variables, or how they go together
dependent variable
the varaible the researcher measures but does not manipulate in an experiment
experimenter expectations
when the experimenter’s expectations influence the outcome of a study
independent variable
the variable the researcher manipulates and controls in an experiment
longitudinal study
a study that follows the same groups of individuals over time
operational definition
how researchers specifically measure a concept
participant demand
when participants behave in a way they think their experimenter wants them to behave
placebo effect
when receiving special treatment or something new affects human behaviour
quai-experimental design
an experiment that does not require random assignment to conditions
central limit theorem
as the size of the sample increases, the sample distribution of the mean will get closer to a normal distribution
the sample mean will start to approach the population mean
correlational analysis
used to compare the relationship between two continuous variables
The correlation coefficient R, between -1 and 1, are calculated from standard deviations
between 0 and 1, indivation of strength and relationship
positive and negative correlation
positive: as one variable goes up, so does the other, linear correlations
opposite for negative
0=0 no correlation
behaviour repertoire
set of behaviours containing everything you do:
- responses to different situations
- habits and activity patterns
- skills and abilities
- problem solving and language etc.
It is not physical or biological attributes
Diversity of behaviour repertoire
between species and between individuals of the same species, like age and cultural differences
sources of variability in the behaviour repertoire
biological/phsyiological factors
- hormones
- effects of brain or other injury
- drugs
Developmental processes
- emergent behaviours in infants, like smiles
- leads to “stage theories of cognitive development, e.g., Piaget
Experience
- individual’s history of interaction with physical and social world - learning
- experience changes the behaviour repertoire
Kinds of behaviour in the behaviour repertoire
Respondent behaviour
Operant behaviour
Respondent behaviour
involuntary or reflex behaviour, we don’t have much control over it
pulled out of you -> elicited by events (stimuli) in the environment
when respondent behaviour systems go awry, often see emotional or psychophysiological stress disorders
operant behaviour
voluntary rather than automatic
operants are behaviours you emit, - you use them to operate on the world
when operant behaviour system go awry, we often see inappropriate, deviant, or damaging maladaptive behaviour
adding new operant behaviours
we learn new operant behaviours in three ways
- observation
- trial and error
- “shaping” - giving old behaviour new form
these are called acquisition processes
Differences between respondent and operant behaviour
Respondent:
- Elicited by a stimulus
- Is the result of a stimulus in the environment
- Controlled by prior eliciting stimuli
- Involuntary/reflexive
- Research founder: Ivan Pavlov -> Pavlovian
Operant:
- Emitted by the individual
- Produces a result (consequence) in the - environment
- Controlled by the results (consequences) produced
- Voluntary (although reasons why might be subconscious)
- Research founder: E.L Thorndike & B.F Skinner
Observational learning
also called social learning
Involves at least two individuals:
- the model: already has a particular behaviour
- the observer/learner: does not have behaviour, but gets it through OL
observation and experience of consequences as well as observation is important to what is learned
Who do we imitate?
Imitated:
- clear performance
- similarity
- emotionally responsive
- high social status
Less imitated:
- unclear performance
- dissimilar to learner
- unresponsive
- low social status
What things do we learn through observation
addiction
phobias
moral judgments and behaviours
steroptypes/prejudice
problem solving
violent and aggressive behaviour
Also used in behaviour therapies
Trial and error learning
learning through direct experience of bejaviour an consequence
E.L Thorndike and other early 20th century researchers used devices such as mazes and puzzle boxes
Disadvantages:
- slow, tedious
- haphazard and unreliable
- risk of frustration, and that the task becomes aversive
- reduce chance of success
But we still do a lot through trial and error
acquisition process
remember that we learn new operant bejaviours in three ways:
- observation
- trial and error
- “shaping” - giving behaviour new form
Shaping by successive approximations
stepwise progression from current behaviour to required behaviour
- step are called successive approximations
shapes the required behaviour by:
1. selecting instances that more resemble the required behaviour
2, rewarding these repeatedly until they become common
3. revising the selection criteria to select an even close “approximation” to the required behaviour
maintaining and strengthening behaviour
once a behaviour has been added to the repertoire how is it maintained?
Two processes:
Practice
Reinforcement
reinforcement
means to strengthen
what does strength of behaviour mean?
- behaviour persists in the repertoire
- reaction time improves
- frequency of performance increases
- accuracy improves, errors reduce
- duration of correct performance increases
- behaviour resists disruption/distraction
reinforcement and punishment
there are four primary processes that have an impact on the strength of our behaviour
these 4 processes are distinguished by two dimensions that we can objectively observe:
1. the consequence of a behaviour (experience)
2. the subsequent effect on behaviour (learning
The consequence of bejaviour with reinforcement and punishment and positive and negative stimuli
page 5
token economy
- an example of a very effective behaviour therapy based on reinforcement
- problem: people with behaviour repertoires low in appropriate social behaviours (psych patients and offenders)
- solution: reinforce appropriate behaviour with tokens, which can then be exchanged for reinforcers (perferred activities, consumable etc.)
what makes for an effective positive reinforcer?
higher quanity
higher quality
less of a delay between behaviour and reinforcer
higher frequencer (of responses or reinforcers)
intermittent reinforcement (not receiving a reinforcer every time)
negative reinforcement
strengthens and maintains escape and avoidance behaviour
- unlike positive r which strengthens approach and engagement bejaviour
Innapropriate escape/avoidance underlies many maladaptive behaviours e.g.,
- anxiety and eating disorders
- substance use
- social aggression
- emotinal repression
Weakening or removing behaviours from the repertoire: two methods of behaviour reduction/removal
extinction and punishment
extinction
requires us to:
- identify the reinforcing event
- stop it from occuring
Extinction is the effect of having no consequences
- only if there is a history of previous reinforcement
can be gradual or rapid
factors that cause high extinction resistance
large quantity of past reinforcement
better quality of past reinforcement
intermittent reinforcement
variablility of past reinforcement
post-extinction burst
one temporary side effect of extinction where it jumps higher than it was before extinction
spontaneous recover
suddenly occurs every now and then
punishment
either adding or removing something with the result being suppression of behaviour
social attention in giving punishment may be reinforcing
Problems with punishment
strong emotional reactions - interfere with learning
adaption and escalation - punishment intensity grows out of control
a learning process that occurs when two ____ are repeatedly paired: a response which is at first _____ by the second ____ is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone
stimuli, elicited, stimulus
Dog experiment, first had bell and food, then only bell made it salivate
effects that increase behaviours are called ____; effects that decrease behaviours are called _____
reinforcers, punishers
classical/pavlovian conditions
Ivan Pavlov - a theory of learning and identity
Unconditioned stimulus (US, the food) elecits and unconditioned response (UR, the dog drooling)
Condition stimulus (ringing the bell, meant nothing to the dog beforehand) produces a conditioned response (starts to drool when bell rung)
conditioned response
almost always the same as the unconditioned response
But it is called conditioned because it is conditional on (or depends on) being paired with the conditioned stimulus (e.g., the bell)
taste aversion conditioning
flavour associated with illness or stomach pain becomes disliked
fear conditioning
people associate cures with panic or other emotional trauma
conditioned compensatory response
- person takes meds for pain
- body learns that the drug is coming soon
- makes them more sensitive to pain anticipating the drug will take care ot
- decreases the impact of the drug on the body
- become tolerant to the drug
- overdose is usually not due to an increase in dosage, but to taking the drug in a new place without familiar cues - which would have otherwise allowed the user to toerate the drug
cause discomfort, motivating the drug user to continue usage of the drug to reduce them
operant conditioning
when a behaviour, as opposed to a stimulus, is associated with the occurrence of a signinficant event
rat: rat finds that pulling lever results in food
the food pellets serve as a reinforcer because they sterngthen the rat’s desire to engage with the environment in a particular manner
looks at how effects of bejaviour will affect likelihood of doing it again
According to Thorndike’s law of effect: when a behaviour has a positive/satisfying effect or consequence, it is more likely to be repeated and vice versa.
classical/pavlovian v instrumental/operant conditioning
CC: animal beaves as if it has learned to associate a stimulus with a significant event
OC: animal bejaves as if it has learned to associate a behaviour with a significant event
In response to classical situation (salivation) is elicited by a stimulus that comes before it
whereas the response in the operant case is not elicited by any stimulus -> instead, o responses are emitted
the word emmitted conveys the idea that operant bejaviours are essentially voluntary in nature
Blocking
a phenomenon where a previously learned association blocks the conditioning of a second stimulus
e.g. dog experiment, next bring in a light, but the dog blocks this because they already associate with the bell
B and other related effects indivate that the learning process tends to take in the most valid predictors of significant events and ignore the less useful ones
Prediction error
to learn something through classical conditionig, there must be some PE, or the chance that a conditioned stimulus won’t lead to a specigic outcome
Classical conditioning is strongest if the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulis are intense or salient
best if they are relatively new to the animal
especially strong if the organism’s biology has prepared it to associate particular CS and US
- like rats and humans are naturally inclined to associate an illness with a flavour, rather than with a light or tone
this is so we avoid foods that make us feel ill, an evolutionary process called preparedness
Erasing classical learning
after conditioning, the response to the CS can be eliminated if the CS is presented repeatedly without the US - this is called extinction, and the response is said to become extinguished
sometimes pops back up called spontaneous recovery, following lapse of exposure, re-exposure can evoke the CR again
Renewal effect: if the CS is tested in a new context after extinction, like a different location, the CR can also return
- especially when it is somewhere yo would not expect -> suggests extinction inhibits rather than erases the learned behaviour
perceptual learning
auditory learning
think of when you are listening to music, your brain’s response to auditory information changes with your experience with that information
implicit learning
each time we listen to music, we hear it differently because of our experience.
when we exhibit changes in behaviour without having intended to learn somethingt that is called implicit learning
and when we exhibit changes in our bejaviour that reveal the incluence of past experience even though we are not attempting to use that experience is called implicit memory
Jae sings along to a song she has only heard once when it was on in the background. Her knowledge of the lyrics is an example of ______.
* Implicit memory is a type of long-term memory that is not conscious or intentional. It refers to the unconscious influence of past experiences on current behavior, such as skills and habits that we have learned through repeated practice, as well as our general knowledge of the world.
nonassociative learning
look for a change in our responses to things when we are repeatedly stimulated
- clock sound initially annoying, but you start to not notice it over time
-
In which a single repeated exposure leads to a change in behaviour
- Habituation: our response lessens with exposure
- sensitisation: our response increases ‘
Animals can also learn about relationships between things, such as when an alley cat learns that the sound of janitors working in a restaurant precedes the dumping of delicious new garbage (an example of stimulus-stimulus learning called classical conditioning), or when a dog learns to roll over to get a treat (a form of stimulus-response learning called operant conditioning)
occurs when a single repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to a change in behaviour
learners
able to allocate more effort to learning prioritised over unimportant materials
working memory capacity
relevant to learners
the form of memory we use to hold onto information temporarily
- higher scores on working memory measures are predictive of better reasoing skills, reading comprehension, and better control of attention
anxiety affects the quality of learning
people with anxiety have smaller capacity for working memory
expertise
there is not a finite capacity for us to store information
the usual bottleneck to remember is that it is our ability to access information, not our space to store it
having more knowledge or expertise enhances our ability to learn more information
expertise allows one to chunk mulitple pieces into a smaller number of pieces of information-but only when that informaiton was structured in such a way as to allow the application of that expertise
encoding activities
how we go about encoding information determines a lot about how we remembers
Incidental learning - learning without the intention to learn
is better than intentional learning
advantages for learning
better to space out repitiation
interleaving multiple skills to be learned
retrival is one of the most powerful ways of enhacing learning
value of effective metacognition
M describes the knowledge and skills people have in monitoring and controlling their own learning and memory
we can acquire better m by paying attention to our successes and failures in estimating what we do and don’t know - helps monitor our progress
estimate what we do and don’t know
transfer appropriate processing
states that memory is better when the test taps the same type of knowledge as the original encoding activity
need to learn material in same way we would use them
an emergency responder who needs to access learned procedures under stress should learn differently from a hobbyist learning to use a new camera
the value of forgetting
important to jettison information not needed so brain does not become cluttered
evidence shows that some forgetting is a prerequisite for more learning
blocking
in classical conditioning
no conditioning occurs to a stimulus if it is combined with a previously conditioned stimulus during conditioning trials.
suggests that information, suprise value, or prediction error is important in conditioning
classical conditioning
procedure in which an initially neutral stimulus (the condition stimulus) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus
the result is that the conditioned stimulus beings to elicit a conditioned response
CC is nowadays considered an important as both a behavioural phenomenon and as a method to study simple associative learning
same as pavlovian conditioning
conditioned compensatory response
in CC, a CR that opposes, rather than is the same as, the unconditioned response.
functions to reduce the strength of the UR
often seen in conditioning when drugs are used as unconditioned stimuli
conditioned response CR
the response that is elicited by the conditioned stimulus after classical conditioning has taken place
conditioned stimulus CS
an initially neutral stimulus like a bell or light that elicits a conditioned response after it has been associated with an unconditioned stimulus
discriminative stimulus
in operant conditioning, a stimulus that signals whether the response will be reinforced. It is said to “set the occasion” for the operant response
every time the instructor says “to summarise today’s lesson” her students start packing up their notebooks. the students have learned this phrase as a discriminative stimulus.
extinction
decrease in the strength of a learned behaviour that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus (in classical conditioning) or when the behaviour is no longer reinforced (in instrumental conditioing
the term describes both the procedure as well as the result of the procedure
behaviours that have been reduced in strength through extinction are said to be “extinguished”
fear conditioning
a type of calssical or pavlovian conditioning in which the conditioned stimulus is associated with an aversive unconditioned stimulus
as a consequence of learning, the CS comes to evoke fear - thought to be involved in the development of anxiety disorders in humans
goal-directed behaviour
instrumental behaviour that is influenced by the animal’s knowledge of the association between the bejaviour and its consequence and the current value of the consequence.
sensitive to the reinforcer devaluation effect
habit
instrumental behaviour that occurs automatically in the presence of a stimulus and is no longer influenced by the animal’s knowledge of the value of the reinforcer.
insensitive to the reinforcer devaluation effect
Devaluation effect
Distractor devaluation effect is an attentional inhibition that occurs during discrimination tasks leads to the negative evaluation of distractor stimuli.
instrumental conditioning
process in which animals learn about the relationship between their bejajviours and their consequences. also known as operant conditioning
law of effect
the idea that instrumental or operant responsese are influenced by their effects
responses that are followed by a pleasant state of affairs will be strengthened and those that are followed by discomfort will be weakened
nowadays, the term refers to the idea that operant or instrumental bejaviours are lawfully controlled by their consequences
Biological determination of crime studies
twin studies, cross fostering, sibling concourdances
strong suggestion of genetic factors - especially difficult termperament like sensation seeking, low self control etc. and under functioning limbic system and PFC
also traumatic brain injury
but expression of genetics often requires environmental triggers
learning criminal behaviour
all behaviour is learned
reinforcement and punishment
- called density of rewards and costs
- what is a reward and cost will differ between individuals
observationsal learning
leardning also has a part to play in desistence
- as rewards for non crim increase, person has more to lose
risk-need-responsivity framework for offender rehabilitiation
Risk principle: treatment intensity should match offender’s risk of reoffending
need principle: treatment should target dynamic risk factors associated with sex offending
responsibity principle: treatment should be delivered in a manner most responsive to offender’s learning styal and to minimise individual responsivity varriers
offender risk
measured using structures risk assessment tools, applied by a trained clinician
sexual offending offence rate
- an estimated 15-20% of sexual offenders against children will re-offend over a 10 year period
- this means most aren’t reconvicted
- most sexual offenders require low-medium intensity treatment
Statis-99R coding form
positions offenders in terms of their relative degree of risk for sexual recidivism
need principle
treatment targets based on theories about the casuses of crime, or on factors that predict recidivism - called criminogenic needs
many programmes target the central 9 factors
needs are generally consistent across different kinds of offenders, although there are some excpetions e.g., sexual offending
treatment targets for sexual offenders
sexual deviancy
emotional identification with children
antisocial origentation
general self-regulation difficulties
some factors have no relationship with offending:
- lack of victim empathy
- denial or minimisation of offending
- lack of motivation for treatment
responsivity principle
deliver treatment in a way that is most effective for clients
- will depend on things like cognitive functioning, developmental stage, previous trauma, and cultural factors
best response is to CBT programmes
- focus on skill acquisition
- delivered by trained staff often in groups
- use the principles of observational learning and reingorcement/punishment
PCL-R
checklist used in interview and file record information to diagnose patients
two factors:
1: reflects the affective and interpersonal features of psychopathy -> this factor reflects the psychopath’s verbal and interpersonal style
2: reflects social deviant behaviours that have been labelled chronically unstable and antisocial lifestyle -> the items that define the factor predominately depend on identifying the occurence of specific behaviours, most often using the inmate’s file
validity of psychopathy
PCLR score linked to offending - largely because of factor 2, factor 1 scores are not as strongly related with offending - if at all
so psychopathy is seen as a risk factor for crime
dangers of the psychopathy label
suppose you have been diagnosed - you know you experience empathy for some people in some situations and you have expressed it at times. but your diagnosis sayys you lack the capacity to feel this. This diagnosis must be wrong
but based on your diagnosis, what do others think of you
Rosenhan on being sane in insane places
patients forcefully told they were mentally ill when they were perfectly fine
Julius Koch
introduced the disease-oriented term of P to convey the idea that conditions of this type had a strong consitutional-heritable basis
Hervey cleckley
described p as depp rooted emotional pathology concealed by an outward appearance of good menal health
he quationed whether violence should be considered a primary characterisitc of psychopathy
he provided 16 diagnostic criteria distilled from his clinical case summaries, encompassing indicators of apparent psychological stability along with symptoms of behavioural deviance and impaired affect and social connectness
saw that they were not necessary violent or dangerous - more often caused nonphysical harm by being self-centeredness not viciousness
McCord v Cleckley
M described the condition in more general pathologic terms, highlighting guiltnessness and lovelessness as centreal defining features
C orginally was the standard for DSM on the subject, but in the third edition his conception of psychopathy was replaced by antisocial personality disorder
- defined by specific indicants of behavioural deviancy in childhoos that followed into adulthood
5th edition DSM
Now includes a new dimensional treait approach to characterising persoality pathology
focuses more on interpersonal traits rahter than deviant behaviour
psychopathy in adult criminals
most widely used diagnosis tool is the PCLR
- effectively captures the interpersonal-affective deficites and behavioural deviance features indentified by Cleckyley
- but include only limited, indirect covreage of positive adjustment features
- manual suggests to use a cut off score of 30 out of 40 for assigning a diagnosis of psychopathy
- high scores are associated with impulsive and aggressive tendencies, low empathy, lock of social, persistent violent offening - more like the predatory aggressive conception of McCord than to Cleckley
PCLR items reveal distinct interpersonal-affective and antisocial deviance subdimensions (factors) - although moderately correlated, these factors show ontrasting relations with external criterion measure
the interpersonal-affective factor
- relates to indices of nacissim, low empathy and proactive agreession, high social assertiveness and low fear, distress and depression
high scores on the antisocial deviance factor by contrast, are associated mainly with maladaptive tendencies and bejaviours, including impulsiveness, sensation seeking etc.
criminal psychopathy has been characterised into two variants
primary - bold disinhibited
secondary - disinhibited mean
both based on anxiety levels
psychopathy in noncriminal adults
mostly assessed on a self report basis
PPI tool used - coheres to two distinguishable factors: a fearless dominance factor (reflecting social potency, stress immunity and fearlnessness) and a self centred impulsivity factor (reflecting egocentricity, exploitativveness, hostile rebelliousness and lack of planning
Unlike PCLR, PPI factors are uncorrelated
callous=unemotional ysed ti describe youth who show symptoms that may indicate psychopathic tendencies
DSM-5 classifies childhoos psychopathology as a conduct disorder
different inventories exist for assessing psychopathic tendencies in young
best known consist or rating based measures developed, using the PCLR, ti udebtuft ostcgioatgt
emphasis in work of this type for predicting greater severity and persistence of current problem
- termed callous-unemotional traits, these features enompass: low empathy, deficient remorse of guilt, shallow affect, and lack of concern about performance in school
one popular method is Antisocial process screening device for ages 6-13 - has two distinct factors
core ingredients of psychopathyL disinhibition, boldness and meanness
triarchic model - conceives of psychopathy as encompassing three separable symptomatic components - viewed as thematic building blocks for different conceptions of psychopathy
disinhibition:
- encompasses tendencies toward impulsiveness, weak behavioural restraint, hostility and mistrust, and difficulties regulating emotion
meanness:
- entails deficient empathy, lack of affiliative capacity, contempt toward others, predatory exploitativeness, and emopowerment through cruelty and destructiveness
referents for disinihibition and meanness include the finding of distinct ICP and CU factors in the child psychopathy literature and corresponding evidence for distinct disinhibitory and callous-aggression factors underlying impulse control problem in adult
boldness: encompasses dominance, social assurance, amotional resiliency, and venturesomeness
from the perspective of the triarchic model
Cleckley’s conception of psychopathy empahsized boldness and disinhibition
whereas criminally oriengtated conceptions including the PCLR and APSD emphasize meannes and disinibition more so
according to the model
individuals high in disinhibitory tendencies would warrant a diagnosis of psychopathy -> if also high in bordless or meanness (or both), but individuals high in only one of these tendencies would not
Must be disinhibitory and boldness or meanness
anti social personality disorder
counterpart diagnosis to psychopathy
defined by specific symptoms of behavioural deviancy in childhoos continuiing into adulthood
psychopathy
synonymous with psychopathic personality, the term used by Cleckley, and adapted from the term psychopathic introsuxde by Koch to designate mental disorders presumed to be heritable.
triarchic model
model formulated to reconcile alternative historic conceptions of psychopathy and differing methods for assessing it. conceives of pyschopathy as encompassing three symptomatic components: boldness, involving social efficacy, emotional resiliency, and venturesomenesss, meannes, and dishingibition
