Midterm 2 Flashcards
What determines your internal reactions?
- intuitive valuation & 2. deliberate evaluation of the situation
Describe associative memory
- your implicit model of the world
- different components of statistical (typical) regularities across your experiences and lifetime
** the ability to learn and remember the relationship between unrelated items
Ex. the name of someone we have just met or the aroma of a particular perfume.
Semantic memory
- your explicit model of the world
- general knowledge (facts, ideas, meanings and concepts; can come from experience or culture)
**refer to facts about the world
Ex. knowing that Paris is in France.
__________ is a major source of associative learning
CULTURE
- Our culture influences what we are exposed to every day
- Repeated exposure strengthens some associations
- Lack of exposure weakens other associations
*culture effects our implicit view of the world without our awareness, and our explicit with OR without awareness
What is conditioning?
a major way of learning new associations and thus forming associative memories
What do System 1 and System 2 associate with?
System 1 = INTUITION (intuitive)
System 2 = REASONING (deliberate)
What does our associative memory determine?
Our intuitive judgments
From there, they are endorsed into our deliberate judgements and accepted
Describe some characteristics of System 1
Fast
Parallel
Automatic
Effortless
Associative
Slow-learning
Emotional
Describe some characteristics of System 2
Slow
Serial
Controlled
Effortful
Rule-governed
Flexible
Neutral
What is the availability heuristic?
a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person’s mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision.
Ex. It’s easy to recall examples of complications arising during childbirth. Therefore, we believe that complications during childbirth must be common.
What is processing fluency?
A cognitive bias where our opinion of something is influenced by how easily our brain processes it and understands it.
We tend to prefer things that are simple to understand and use, and will even find simple information more believable.
What is attribute substitution?
It occurs when people make a judgment that requires the use of a target attribute, but make the judgment using a heuristic attribute that comes more readily to mind
Ex. someone who has been thinking about their love life who is then asked about their happiness might substitute how happy they are with their love life rather than answer the question as asked.
What are “weasel words”?
Vague enough to be meaningless, but can be used to mislead:
Ex.
- It’s possible
- It’s a serious/definite possibility
- It might/could
- there is a chance
etc….
What is Words of Estimative Probability (WEP)
terms used by intelligence analysts in the production of analytic reports to convey the likelihood of a future event occurring
Our judgments about what is “dangerous” or “safe” are….
- generally not based on statistical probabilities
- culturally influenced
- based on associative memory and heuristics
WHEN APPLIED TO BIRTH:
“Birth is dangerous, but intervention (technology/control) makes it safe”
What are the 2 failures that are attributed to the dual system models of reasoning?
- System 1 - the automatic operations that generate a faulty intuition
- System 2 - fails to detect and correct the intuition with it’s controlled operations
In general, what can judgemental biases be attributed to?
Described as a big focus on some info and little focus/neglecting other info
When do framing effects occur?
they commonly occur when alternative statements of a decision problem evoke different emotions
Ex. “10% mortality vs 90% survival”
Give an example of how assertiveness can be judged differently based on heuistics?
When ppl were asked to recall 12 instances in which they behaved assertively judged themselves to be less assertive than those who were asked to recall only 6 instances
**struggling to recall the last dew instances was the heuristic by which assertiveness was judged.
Fluency is…..
a poor indicator of accuracy
What is the general outcome from fearing things we shouldn’t?
We put ourselves in MORE danger by fearing unnecessarily for things.
Ex. people didn’t take planes after 9/11 and instead drove, which resulted in more deaths bc driving is a higher risk
What are the 2 different strategies our brain has to make sense of a situation?
- Conscious Strategy —> think about what we learned and come up with an answer in a logical and guaranteed way.
- Unconscious Strategy (“FAST AND FRUGAL”) —> picks up on problem very easily, operates below unconscious level and not in a logical way (intuition)
**represented in Iowa experiment with the red and blue cards
Once a treatment is known as “standard care”, is it easy for the treatment to change when there is new evidence?
NO - once a treatment is viewed as the norm it is very hard for it to not pertist
Treatments are usually based on flawed results that end up sneaking their way into standard medicine.
“we adopt things before we know if they actually work because they SHOULD work”
What drug is added to the IV post c-section?
PITOCIN - it is added to the IV when stitching up the uterus to help the uterus contact and therefore decrease bleeding.
What is the ventral amygdalofugal pathway?
It connects to a lot of brain regions but most importantly connects the amygdala to the hypothalamus!
It is important for the associative memory (the ability to learn and remember the relationship between unrelated items - ex. remembering the name of someone you just met)
What is stria terminalis?
a major pathway between the amygdala and the hypothalamus that provides reciprocal connections between the two structures.
They project ONLY TO SUB-CORTICAL STRUCTURES
What is the basal ganglia?
a group of sub-cortical nucliei in an area of the brain that is very closely involved with VOLUNTARY EMOTIONAL ACTIVITY
Involved with implicit memory
What are the automatic bodily responses involved in emotions controlled by?
Controlled by outputs of the AMYGDALA —-> go to the nuclei of the sympathetic nervous system in the brainstem —-> to the HYPOTHALAMUS
What does the hypothalamus control?
Its main function is to keep your body in a stable state called homeostasis. It does this by influencing your AUTONOMIC NS or by managing hormones.
**releases hormonal secretions of the pituitary gland
What are the 2 pathways once the thalamus is aware it is in danger?
- Thalamo-amygdala pathway “the SHORT route” = passes straight from thalamus to amygdala. fast, rough impression of situation, no cognition involved
- Thalomo-cortico-amygdala pathway “the LONG route” = passes from the thalamus to the neocortex and only then to the amygdala
What happens when info passes through the thalomo-cortico-amygdala pathway?
It’s the “long route” –> the info that has travelled through this long route has been evaluated whether or not the stimulus is a real threat
What does the polymodal associative cortex do?
it conceptualizes an object and informs the amygdala about it
The hippocampus supports which type of memory?
Explicit memory (type of long-term memory that’s concerned with recollection of facts and events)
Explicit memory is required to learn about the dangerousness of an object or situation to begin with.
What part of the brain activates when there is possible danger?
The amygdala - and activates the efferent structures that release physical manifestations of fear (ex. increased heart rate, sweaty hands, dry mouth, tense muscles, etc.)
In other species, the prefrontal cortex is dedicated to only ________________
VOLUNTARY MOTOR CONTROL
In primates, the prefrontal cortex has developed to be beyond that.
Studies have compared the human brain to those of other primates, but not many comparisons to _____________
the great apes
However, in those few studied they found that the prefrontal cortex was found to be about the same in size humans as the great apes (as they are the closest cousins)
Humans have larger volume of ________ in the prefrontal cortex
WHITE MATTER
What type of memory is linked to an active role of the prefrontal cortex?
working memory (small amount of information that can be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks)
What do the culturally dominant representations of birth tend to AVOID?
- the physiological reality: blood, bodily fluids, body organs, etc
- the vulnerability and dependency of human newborns on their mothers
- the animalism and emotionality of birth
What are the 2 ways reasoning can be motivated?
- ACCURACY MOTIVE: motivation to arrive at an accurate, thorough explanation
- Leads us to expend more cognitive effort
- process information more deeply
- use more complex thinking strategies - DIRECTIONAL MOTIVE: motivation to arrive at a particular, directional explanation
- leads us to try to justify a particular conclusion in rational, convincing manner
- undertake a biased memory search for particular beliefs and rules
- access only a subset of our relevant knowledge
When is the self serving bias most likely to occur?
when we formulate explanations about positive or
negative events or outcomes
How are positive outcomes explained in the context of self-serving bias? How are the negative outcomes explained?
- positive evens or outcomes tend to be explained through internal causes (“it was me”)
^^ attributed to dominant cultural values - negative events or outcomes tend to be explained through external causes (“it wasn’t me”)
^^attributed to non-dominant cultural values
Do people with depression show less or more self-serving bias than someone who is not depressed?
They show less self-serving bias and are more realistic
Define “due date”
Expected date of birth: 280 days (40 weeks) from the first day of the last menstrual period
Term pregnancy
Between 37 and 42 weeks (“window”)
What is pre-term and post-term pregnancy?
- Pre-term: before full 37 weeks of pregnancy
- Post-term: after 42 weeks of pregnancy
At how many weeks is membrane sweeping offered according to medical guidelines?
It’s offered at 38 to 41 weeks
When is induction offered according to medical guidelines, why is it offered at this time?
offer induction at 41+0 to 42+0 weeks
***BECAUSE… present evidence reveals a decrease in PERINATAL MORTALITY with induction
