psych 2aa3- oct 24th

Question 1

what trait of COGNITION is highly heritable

Answer 1

executive function

Question 2

why is executive function seen as highly heritable?

Answer 2

• parents and offspring have similar executive function
• monozygotic twins have higher correlations than dizygotic twins

Question 3

is cognition influenced by environment? how/provide an example

Answer 3

yes, physically fit children performed better at allocating attentional resources

Question 4

what is the heritability of intelligence like?

Answer 4

mostly indirect (passive, evocative, and active effects)

Question 5

what are the passive effects for how genes effect intelligence like?

Answer 5

passive effects: parents genes dictate how parents behave towards their children and the kind of environment they provide

Question 6

what are the evocative and active effects of genes on intelligence?

Answer 6

evocative effects: children’s genes dictate how others respond to them and which environments they choose (evocative and active effects)

Question 7

why did high SES correlate to higher IQ?

Answer 7

SES is dependant on the home environment (value of education), friend selection, neighbourhood income, academic expectation, and academic opportunities

Question 8

How do children who experienced perinatal stress get effected?

Answer 8

they experience a greater effect being low SES

Question 9

how much is the estimate of heritability and intelligence?

Answer 9

50%

Question 10

Why is the correlation between heritability of intelligence 50%?

Answer 10

adoption studies have shown that there is no genetic relationship between parents and children, similarities are due to environment whereas twin studies have revealed that monozygotic twins are more similar that dizygotic twins so there is some influence genetic influence

Question 11

How important is prenatal environment for intelligence?

Answer 11

It is more important than previously believed.

Question 12

So, what is the bottom line on intelligence? what effects it?

Answer 12

both environment and genetics (roughly 50/50 based on studies)

Question 13

what was the paradoxical adoption study results?

Answer 13

• average IQ of African American children adopted into white middle class families was 20 points higher then comparable African American children who were not adopted
• however, correlation was higher between children and their biological mothers (r=0.43) then with adoptive mothers (r=0.29)

Question 14

what did the paraodixal adoption study reveal about correlation?

Answer 14

correlation does not tell us about the value of a variable but only reveals the relationship between the two variables

Question 15

what was the experiment used to determine the influence of early experience?

Answer 15

the rat-cage experiment

Question 16

what was the rat- cage experiment?

Answer 16

rats were raised in 3 different environments, normal cage, a cage with activities, and a stove pipe. the rats were in 4 groups, ranging from 30-75 days (children) and 75-120 days (adult) and had to solve a maze

Question 17

what were the results of the rat-cage experiment?

Answer 17

most errors: stovepipe–>free
second most errors: normal cage
2nd least errors: free to stovepipe
least errors: free environment

Question 18

what do the results of the rat-cage experiment show?

Answer 18

early experience/environment is very important because the stovepipe rats in early development made the most errors. In addition, the rats who got a free cage in early development made the 2nd least few errors

Question 19

What is lower iq associated with?

Answer 19

Lower iq associated with low SES, lac of stimulating play materials, and unresponsive parenting (not responding appropriately to individuals behaviour)

Question 20

What is the cumulative deficit effect

Answer 20

as the number of risk factors increase, IQ decreases (but need a good build up, just 1 risk factor wont have a significant effect)

Question 21

What happened in Romanian orphanages?

Answer 21

to increase the population, people gave birth and placed them in orphanages that had horrible environments (eg: abuse, overcrowding)

Question 22

what were the physical and cognitive effects of the Romanian orphanages?

Answer 22

physical: decreased height, weight, head circumference
cognitive: lowered IQ (in range of intellectual disabilities)

Question 23

What were the effects in the brain from the orphanages

Answer 23

reduced cortisol activity in prefrontal cortex (executive function), temporal lobe, hippocampus (memory), and amygdala (emotions) and less white matter (myelination) in pathways between limbic system and frontal lobe

Question 24

is there plasticity in the effects of orphanages (is it reversible)?

Answer 24

yes, it is reversible, children who were removed from the orphanages within first 2 years of life had normal developmental outcomes

Question 25

is prefrontal cortex only important for intelligence?

Answer 25

No, efficiency of processing in neural pathways could be more indicative of intelligence

Question 26

why are the differences between low and high performative vs verbal individuals?

Answer 26

for performative, there was no difference in cortisol thickness, only verbal iq had a difference

Question 27

what was the pattern found in low vs high verbal IQ people?

Answer 27

significantly greater correlation strength in thickness in low verbal iq people (thickness in one area would predict thickness in another area)

Question 28

what areas of the brain did verbal iq people have significantly strong correlation strength?

Answer 28

bilateral tamporal, inferior frontal, and lateral partial regions

Question 29

is cortisol thickness important for intelligence?

Answer 29

people with superior intelligence had cortisol thickness until 11 years old (even though it was thickening by less and less). high/average interest had less thickening in the initial years.

Question 30

where are the differences in cortisol thickness between average and superior IQ youth?

Answer 30

Frontal lobes