Psych test 3 Flashcards
Cognitive Development
How kids learn about the world, develop higher order functions, learn to be creative, use their inner monologue, etc
Jean Piaget
French, COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, kids can reason, they just do it differently than adults
Schema
Concepts that organize and interpret information, ex having a schema that trumpets are shiny instruments with a small horn
Assimilation
Interpreting new experiences into the terms of existing schemas, ex a gold trumpet and a silver trumpet are both trumpets
Accommodation
Something breaks the schema, so you make a new one, ex a baritone isn’t a trumpet
Piaget’s four stages
Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational… criticized because he thinks that you’re fully developed at 12
Human Development
changes that occur “from womb to tomb” including physical, cognitive, and social development
Longitudinal Study
The same people are studied repeatedly over a long time
Cross-Sectional
People of differing age with the same traits or interests are studied at the same time
Prenatal Development
Begins with conception and ends at birth, usually 40 weeks
Stages of prenatal development
Germinal - Conception to 2 weeks
Embryonic - 2 weeks to 8 weeks
Fetal - 9 weeks to birth
Germinal Period
“Finding a place to live”, conception to two weeks
Conception
The moment a female becomes pregnant, marks the beginning of development
Zygote
Fertilized egg implants itself in the uterine wall, DNA is passed on, genetic makeup and sex of fetus set
Embryonic Period
“Organizing Space”, implantation to 8 weeks, major organs and structures develop and start functioning
Implantation
Sevenish days after conception, ball of cells starts to embed into the wall of uterus, this is where most pregnancies fail
Embryo
Developing multicellular organism attached to uterus
Placenta
Specialized organ to provide nourishment to the embryo through the umbilical cord, filters waste away from baby
Fetal Period
“finishing touches” nine weeks to birth, fetus gains weight and strength, brain completely forms
Fetus
developing organism from eight weeks after fertilization to birth
Critical Periods
Times when certain environmental influences can impact the development of the infant (embryonic period)
Teratogen
Agents (chemicals and viruses) that can reach the embryo or fetus during parental development and cause harm
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
Birth defects associated with drinking alcohol during pregnancy
common teratogenic agent
prescription/illegal drugs, Marijuana, Nicotine, Alcohol, Stress
Reflexes
infants have innate unlearned behavior patterns to help them survive, disappear around six months: grasping, rooting, sucking, steping
Infantile Amnesia
the brain forms memories so differently when you’re a baby, most people can’t recall the first 3 years of their life
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, mostly uninfluenced by experience
Developmental Norms
The normal age babies develop specific things, sometimes babies deviate and need intervention
Six Motor Milestones
How an infants muscles and nervous system mature, Sit, crawl, stand w/ assistance, walk w/ assistance, stand, run
Lev Vygotsky
Russian Developmental psychologist, theory on how child’s mind grows through interaction with a social environment, building on a scaffold of mentoring, language, and cognitive support from others
Scaffolding
a more skilled learner gives help to a less skilled learner, helping less and less as the less skilled learner becomes more capable
Stranger Anxiety
The fear of strangers infants display beginning at 8 months of age, the emerging ability to evaluate people as unfamiliar and threatening
Attachment Bond
Emotional bond between an infant and the primary caregiver
Konrad Lorenz
If attachment was important in human survival it may be important in other species, experimented with geese, critical period
Critical Period
Optimal period certain events must take place to facilitate proper development
Imprinting
The process of how certain animals form attachments during a critical period early in life, difficult to reverse
Temperament
People’s intensity of emotions, GENETIC, two types: easy or difficult
Harry Harlow
Attachment studies, contact comfort, isolation studies, broke the thought that moms had better relationship with children because they breastfed, monkeys
Mary Ainsworth
attachment, strange situation experiment (kids left at daycare and reacted to mothers leaving and coming back), types of attachment
Secure Attachment
60% of kids, mothers are consistent and responsive, baby is upset when mother leaves and refuses to be comforted by stranger, baby makes quick effort to touch mother when shes back and then goes to play, trust forms more easily
Insecure / Avoidant Attachment
Mothers unresponsive and insensitive, baby is indifferent when mother leaves, when mother comes back baby may try to touch but pull back
Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment
constant state of stress for baby, mother is inconsistent in good v bad behavior, when mother leaves baby is distressed, when mother returns baby is spiteful and resentful
Diana Baumrind
Three parenting styles
Authoritarian
“because I said so”, strict rigid rules, demanding, most likely to use physical punishment, uncompromising, ends up with rebellious kids
Permissive
Gives into all their kids desires, two types: neglectful and indulgent
Permissive Neglectful
Parents don’t care and just want to be left alone, kids can do whatever they want, creates kids with social awkwardness
Permissive Indulgent
Too involved with their children and allow kids to behave as they will, refuse to set limits on kid’s behavior, creates bratty kids
Authoritative
Parents listen and compromise, they set rules but explain them, encourage open discussion, creates well rounded kids
Sensorimotor Stage
Birth to 2, learning to use senses and motor abilities to learn about the world, lack of object permanence
Preoperational Stage
2 to 6/7, using language, learning through make believe, lack of conservation, egocentrism
Conservation
gain at the end of preoperational, properties like mass and volume stay the same no matter what shape they’re in,
Egocentrism
Preoperational, difficulty taking another’s point of view of physical environment
Concrete Operational Stage
6/7 to 11, logic, concrete grammar and math, etc, conservation
Formal Operational Stage
12 and up, abstract reasoning, thinking logically about abstract stuff, riddles, wordle, etc
Chromosomes
Determines sex, two X chromosomes for female, X and Y for male
Testosterone
Most important male sex hormone, both males and females have it but males have more
Primary Sex Characteristics
The bodies structures that make sexual reproduction possible (ovaries, testes, external genitalia)
Secondary Sex Characteristics
Nonreproductive sexual traits, female breasts and hips, male voice quality and body hair
Spermarche
boy’s puberty landmark, first ejaculation, often occurs during sleep, happens at 14
Menarche
Girl’s puberty landmark, first menstrual period, usually around 12.5 years old
Intersex
A condition present at birth due to unusual combinations of male and female chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy, having biological features of both sexes
AIDS
acquired immune deficiency syndrome, life threatening, sexually transmitted infection caused by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), depletes immune system leaving person vulnerable to infection
Environmental factors of teen pregnancy
lack of communication about birth control, impulsivity, alcohol use, mass media
Reasons for sexual restraint
high intelligence, religious engagement, father presence, service learning participation
Older brother / Fraternal birth-order effect
men with older brothers are more likely to be gay
Menopause
menstrual cycles start to end, biological changes happen in woman as her ability to reproduce declines
Telomeres
tips of chromosomes that wear down, stops cells being perfectly reproduced
Moral Development
when and how do you get your moral reasoning (your sense of right and wrong)
Lawrence Kohlberg
Moral Development, presented males with moral dilemmas and asked them what they would do and why, categorized answers into 3 stages with 2 substages each
Preconventional Morality
Develops between 4 and 9, what most of us use as reasoning
1. Am I going to be punished
2. Am I getting something from it?
Conventional Morality
Level 2, Develops at 11-13, we behave based off of two things
1. Rules and laws
2. Social acceptance
Postconventional Morality
Developed by mid to late adolescence, abstract, based on what is right for society in general
1. Is there a higher good that can come from the actions I do?
2. (I’m not sure about this one) Societies rules take a backseat if they contradict the rights of basic human beings
Infant Psychosocial Task
trust v mistrust
Toddler Psychosocial Task
autonomy v shame and doubt
pre-schooler Psychosocial Task
Initiative v guilt
school-ager Psychosocial Task
Industry v Inferiority
Adolescent Psychosocial Task
Identity v Role confusion
Young adult Psychosocial Task
Intimacy v Isolation
Middle age Psychosocial Task
Generativity v Stagnation
Older Adult Psychosocial Task
Ego-integrity v despair
Trust v Mistrust
Infant, birth to 1 year old, learning that people can be trusted
Autonomy v Shame/Doubt
Toddler, 1 to 3 years old, gaining control of their own environment, “me do it”
Initiative v Guilt
Preschool, 3 to 6, learning to plan and achieve goals with others
Industry v Inferiority
Elementary School age, 6 to 12, comparing yourself to your peers, getting along with others
Identity v Role Confusion
Adolescence, 12 to 18, developing a sense of self, trying on different personalities to see which ones fit
Intimacy v Isolation
Early Adulthood, 20s to 40s, after you develop a sense of self you share it with others
Generativity v Stagnation
Middle Adulthood, 40s to 60s, Contributing to society and the younger generation
Ego Integrity v Despair
60s and up, dying with no regrets, reflecting on your life
Carol Gilligan
Female moral development, stages of ethics of care
Erotic Plasticity
fluid and changing sexual activity levels, higher for women and lower for men
Gay-Straight differences
spatial abilities, fingerprint ridge count, auditory system development, handedness, occupational preferences, relative finger lengths, gender nonconformity, age of onset puberty in males, face structure and birth size/weight, sleep length, physical aggression, walking style
Brain gay-straight differences
hypothalamic cell cluster smaller in women and gay men than straight men, gay men’s hypothalamus reacts the same as a womens to the smell of male sex-related hormones
Genetic gay-straight influences
Shared sexual orientation is higher among identical twins than fraternal twins, sexual attraction in fruit flies can be genetically manipulated, male homosexuality often appears to be transmitted from the mothers side of the family
Fertile Females Theory
maternal genetics may be at work, gay men have more gay relatives on their mothers side than their fathers
Death-Deferral phenomenon
people die more often when they hit milestones (right after birthdays, Christmas, etc)
Prospective memory
“remember to…” stuff you’re planning to do in the future, teens and young adults are the best at this
Neurocognitive disorder (NCD)
Dementia, often related to alzheimers, brain injury or disease, substance use, etc
Alzheimers
marked by neural plaques
Social Clock
culturally preferred timing of social events like marriage, parenthood, retirement
Emotions
Intense, short lived, reactionary effective states –> sadness
Mood
Exact opposite, prolonged, long-lasting, not reactionary states –> depressed
James-Lange Theory
You feel an emotion AFTER you have a physiological response to a stimuli, stimuli –> bodily reaction –> emotion, BODY RESPONDS FIRST
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotions
Bodily reaction happens same time as feeling emotion, they DON’T cause each other, stimuli –> bodily reaction / emotion
Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory
Cognitive appraisal is conscious, you have to consciously say to yourself “I think…”, stimulus –> bodily reaction / cognitive appraisal –> emotion
Zajonc and Ledoux Theory
Emotion is what you experience first and instantly, stimuli –> emotion, precedes cognitive appraisal
Ledoux Specific
Emotions are quick because of the neural pathways they take, high road and low road
High Road
Ledoux specific, specific complex emotions, takes longer, goes to thalamus and stuff (hatred, love, etc)
Low Road
Ledoux specific, emotions go directly to amygdala, less intense and complex, quick emotional decisions (I don’t like… I like…)
Lazarus
There is cognitive appraisal, but its completely unconscious, you decide “is this dangerous or not” unconsciously
Health Psychology / Behavioral Medicine
Sub-field in psych for studying health, illness, and healthcare, how do you change your behavior to make you more healthy, writing policies and doing research, ex tobacco use, obesity, substance use
Primary Appraisal
Figure out if something is actually stressful, is stress relevant or threatening? can you find a silver lining?
Secondary Appraisal
Considering resources that are available to respond to or cope with stress, “Do I have a course of action I can take?”
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Hans Selye, three stages of bodies psychological reaction to stress: Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion, stress is a defensive mechanism, prolonged stress can result in diseases or death
Alarm
Body’s first reaction to stressors, sympathetic NS activates, adrenal glands release hormones to make bodily stress, may create fevers, nausea, headaches
Resistance
Body settles into sympathetic division activity, keeps releasing stress hormones that help body fight stressor, noradrenaline is released which takes away sensitivity to pain
Exhaustion
Body’s resources are gone, can lead to formation of stress-related diseases, parasympathetic division activates and body attempts to replenish its resources
Immune system
Stress creates same reaction in immune system as infections, so your body just goes at it until it runs out of gas, which is when you’re more likely to get a disease
Colds
Higher the stress index, the higher your likelihood of getting a cold
Heart Disease
Prolonged stress = higher likelihood of heart disease
Cancer
STRESS CANNOT CAUSE CANCER, however stress takes down immune system, which makes you more susceptible to cancer
Approach-Approach Conflict
You have to choose between two good outcomes
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
Choose between two bad outcomes
Approach-Avoidance Conflict
Exists when one event/goal has both good and bad features
Multiple Appraoch-Avoidance Conflicts
You have to choose between two or more good things, each of which have both good and bad features
Goal
Cognitive representation of a desired state, how you want something to turn out
Motive
Desire that leads you to behaviors that lead you to completing goals
Drives
Primarily biological, both primary and secondary, leads us to seek out and take part in certain activities
Primary Drives
Innate biological needs, necessary for survival, thirst, hunger
Secondary Drives
Not necessary for survival, linked to social or identity factors, money, pride, fame
Predicting Behavior
You are more likely to predict a behavior that results from a motive than an emotion
Homeostasis
We fulfill drives until we reach homeostasis
Instinct Theory “The Evolutionary Perspective”
We behave in order to survive
Drive Reduction Theory
Biological, we have certain PHYSIOLOGICAL needs that create drives (food –> hunger) that create drive-reducing behavior (hunger –> getting something to eat)
Arousal Theory
There’s an optimal level of arousal/dopamine and we act to increase or decrease that level to be optimal
Yerkes-Dodson Law
Performance, if a task is difficult you need lower levels of arousal, if a task is easy you need higher levels of arousal
Incentive Theory
If you’re going to get a reward for something, you’ll be motivated to do it
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
We are motivated by going through a pyramid of needs to get to the top (or in this list the bottom)
1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Belongingness
4. Esteem needs
5. Self-actualization
Intrinsic Motivation
Motivation that stems from internal factors, benefits associated with the process of pursuing a goal, driven by an interest in the task itself and not society, people who use this do better and improve skills
Extrinsic Motivation
Motivation that stems from external factors, benefits associated with achieving a goal or avoiding punishment (compensation, punishment, reward), performing tasks to receive something from others
Physiological Needs
First and most basic Maslow need, ex air, food, water
Safety Needs
2nd Maslow need, are you safe from danger, pain, or an uncertain future? motivation towards obtaining shelter and protection
Love/Belonging Needs
3rd Maslow need, the need to bond with other humans and to be loved, forming long lasting attachment, if you dont have this it will negatively affect health and well-being
Esteem Needs
4th Maslow need, desire to be respected by peers, feel important and appreciated, people often look for ways to achieve mastery and seek validation
Self-Actualization
Highest Maslow need, achieving your full potential, acquiring new skills, taking on new challenges, behaving in a way that achieves your life goals
Self-Transcendence
The strive for meaning, purpose, and communion that is beyond the self, Maslow also said that near the end of life some people kind of achieve this
Motivated Behaviors
Psychologists studying motivation often focus on specific behaviors in their attempt to provide a more complete understanding of factors that influence behaviors
Drive States
Experience that motivates organisms to fulfill goals that are generally beneficial to their survival and reproduction
Hunger Motivation
Understanding why we eat, hunger is something that makes us do things and is a drive state, pushes a person to behave in a way that fills a need
Glucose
The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues
Insulin
Hormone released by the pancreas, regulates the level of glucose in the bloodstream
Hypothalamus
Lower central part of brain, plays important role in eating behavior, responsible for synthesizing and secreting various hormones
Lateral Hypothalamus (LH)
Largely concerned with hunger, when activated it increases desirability of food and reduces desirability of non food-related items, the “on” button for eating, if lesioned people won’t feel hungry
Ventromedial Hypothalamus (VMH)
The “off” button for eating, if lesioned people won’t feel full and become fat
Basal Metabolic Rate
Body’s resting rate of energy expenditure
Set Point
the point your “weight thermostat” is supposedly biologically set, when body falls below weight you increase in hunger and vice versa, body’s way of maintaining optimal weight
Reward Value
What your brain identifies in food, affects organism’s motivation to consume food, the hungrier you are the greater reward value of the food
Taste Preferences
Mood - tense or depressed (hi cal), Excited (carbs), stressed (sweets)
Culture Based (feremened/cheese)
Evolution (toxins)
Adaptive - climate, pregnancy
Situational Influences
Arousal, friends and food, serving size, selection variety, nudge nutrition (human factors psychology example)
Limbic System
Processes Emotion
Amygdala
analysis of potential threats, fight-or-flight response, may be involved in mood and anxiety disorders
Hypothalamus
Plays a role activating the sympathetic nervous system (which is a part of any emotional reaction)
Hippocampus
Integrates emotional experience with cognition
Polygraphs
Lie detector machines, records changes in heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and skin response (not very accurate), determine base level arousal and then ask questions that could evoke emotional feelings
Stress Reaction
Arousal of the autonomic NS that occurs in response to stressor
Coping Strategies
Actions people take to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize effects of stressors
Signs of people not coping
Anxiety, apathy, irritability, excessive worry about illness, avoiding responsibilities and relationships, self-destructive behavior, poor diet, drugs
Problem-Focused Coping
Cutting at the root, trying to eliminate the source of a stressor using direct actions, most effective
Emotion-Focused Coping
Changing the impact of a stressor by changing your emotional reaction (aka your temperment… very hard to do), works when the problem is uncontrollable
Appraisal-Focused Coping
Finding the silver lining, reframing stressor to find the positive side
Type A Personality
Extremely ambitious, time conscious, hardworking, high levels of hostility and anger, easily annoyed, 3x more likely to get heart diseases, disease-prone personality because of chronic negative mood
Type B Personality
Relaxed, laid back, less driven, less competitive, slow to anger, lower stress disorders, self-healing personality, tends to have stronger social relationships and be more emotionally secure
Maladaptive “Negative” Strategies
Quick fix, good at managing stress but provides an ultimately bad result, leads to burnout, ex avoidance, escape (suicide), self-defeating thoughts
Self-Defeating Fears and Attitudes
Cognitive factors that can make coping with stress difficult, “if someone criticizes me, it must mean there’s something wrong with me”
Albert Ellis
When people create an unrealistic view of the world based on irrational thinking (awfulizing), stressors seem more severe and harder to manage
Escape
Physically or psychologically removing yourself from the stressor, reaction to frustration, ex drugs, alcohol, excessive work or exercise, suicide
Burnout
Negative changes in thoughts, emotions, and behavior as a result of prolonged stress or frustration, can be lessened through social support or motivation
Adaptive “Positive” strategies
Coping strategies that successfully lower the stress you face, ex social coping, sprituality/faith, optimism, relaxation, meditation, lifestyle changes
Social Coping
Seeking support in your social network
Guided Imagery
Visualizing images that are calming, relaxing, or beneficial
Stress incoculation
Positive coping statements to control fear and anxiety
Ways to promote wellness
exercise, getting involved with others, getting sleep, eating healthy, taking a deep breath, having fun, managing time
Duchenne Smile
Natural smile, raised cheeks and activated muscles under eyes
Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen
Research into facial expressions, isolated people respond with easier to read facial reactions
Darwin
Provides explanation for expressions in his evolutionary theory, back before words, you survived by communicating through expressions
Display Rules
Cultural “rules” about how different expressions mean different things depending on the culture ex in china you’re supposed to have a calm disposition while in the US you should smile easily
Facial Feedback Effect
Facial muscle states can trigger feelings, ex when you smile you can get a bit happier
Behavior Feedback Effect
Behavior tends to influence thoughts, feelings, and actions
Affiliation need
Need to build relationships and fit in
Autonomy
Sense of personal control
What do you need to be satisfied
Competence and autonomy
Ostracism
Deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups ex hitler
Chain Migration
People of certain cultures tending to stick around each other, aka how places like Chinatown were made
Self Disclosure
Sharing yourself (your joys, worries, weaknesses, etc) with others
Narcissism
Excessive self love and self-absorption
Steps to maintaining balance with internet
monitor time, monitor feelings, “hide” from posting too much, don’t check your phone while studying, refocus by taking nature walks, don’t take ap psych
Achievement Motivation
Desire for significant accomplishment (being a master at something)
Grit
Passion and perseverance in pursuit of long term goals
Achieving Goals
Make resolutions, announce goal to friends/fam, develop implantation plans, create short-term rewards to support long term goals, monitor and record progress, create supportive environment, transform hard-to-do behavior into a must-do habit
Memory
Learning that persisted over time
Information-Processing Model
Your brain is like a computer, you process memory in three stages - encoding, storage, retrieval
Encoding
Recieving, processing, and combining information, information from the outside world reaches senses and turns into chemicals
Automatic Processing
We process an enormous amount of information effortlessly (unconsciously), such as space, time, and frequency
Effortful Processing
Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort, what you try to remember, three components: rehearsal, spacing effect, serial position effect
Serial Position Effect
Remembering the first and last items of a list, but not the middle ones
Primacy Effect
Remembering the first item on a list
Recency effect
Remembering the last item on a list
Semantic distrinctiveness
Remembering unrelated items on a list
Rehearsal effect
remembering repeated items on a list
Chunking
remembering phrases in a list, or just general terms that go together
constructive memory
adding items to your memory of a list due to associations
Visual Encoding
encoding of picture images, conscious
Acoustic encoding
encoding sounds, especially words
Semantic encoding
encoding of meaning, especially the meaning of words
Storage
The creation of a permanent record of encoded information
Retrieval (recall/recognition)
The calling back of stored information because of some cue to use in a process or activity
Iconic Memory
You can remember all aspects of a visual image for about 1/2 a second through visual icons
Echoic Memory
You remember a lot of auditory information, but only for 3-4 seconds (this is when the sound briefly replays in your head)
Haptic Memory
You remember everything you touch for about 2 seconds, really helpful when assessing how hard you need to grip familiar objects
Short-Term Memory (STM)
Holding a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for a brief period of time, a mental scratchpad, very sensitive, usually 15-30 seconds without rehearsal
Working Memory
Active system that processes information into short-term memory where it can be manipulated
Spacing Effect
Space out your rehearsal to remember better
Memory Span
Number of items a person can remember and repeat back using attention and short-term memory, millers magic number
Miller’s Magic Number
George Miller, you can remember 7 plus or minus 2 bits of information in short term memory
Maintenance Rehearsal
Repeating information to prolong its prescense in short term memroy, can increase the time information is stored in STM by about 30 seconds
Shallow Processing
Memorize something without attaching meaning to it (forgetting ideas quickly)
Elaborative Rehearsal
Method of transferring information from Short term memory to long term memory by making it meaningful
Deep Processing
Elaborative rehearsal along with a meaningful analysis of ideas and words being learned
Long Term Memory (LTM)
Final stage of memory that can store info indefinitely based on the relative importance to the individual
Implicit / Nondeclarative Memory
Remembering how to do something WITHOUT conscious awareness, the memories just translate into actions without you realizing
Procedural Memories
Actions that involve movement and motor coordination, habits, ex riding a bike, type of implicit memory
Conditioned Memories
Learned emotional responses to stimuli, type of nondeclarative memory
Eidetic Memory
Some young people have visual images clear enough to be retained for at least 30 seconds, photographic memory, can be with any sense, type of implicit memory
Explicit / Declarative Memory
Memory of facts, concepts, and information WITH conscious recall of it, intentional
Semantic Memory
Abstract factual knowledge, general facts, ex faces, places, facts, concepts
Episodic Memory
Memories for personal events in a specific time and place, personal facts
Script
Type of semantic memory, blueprints of what tends to happen in certain situations (social norms), ex only the bride wears white
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
A lasting strengthening of synapses that increases neurotransmissions, the biological basis for learning and memory, how your memories go from short to long term (when you are sleeping in hippocampus)
Amygdala (memory)
Explicit and episodic memory, primary processor of emotional reactions
Cerebellum (memory)
Involved in procedural memories
Basal Ganglia
Memory retrieval and procedural memory, habits
Frontal Lobes (memory)
Working memory
Hippocampus (memory)
Transfer of information from short-term to long-term
Amnesia
Being unable to form new memories because of an injury or trauma that’s messed with your brain
Retrograde Amnesia
Forgetting events that happened before an injury or trauma (not basic facts or language)
Anterograde Amnesia
Occurs when hippocampus is damaged, resulting in inability to “create” long-term memories… person only has short term memories and lives in the present
Source Amnesia
inability to remember the source of a memory while retaining its substance
Storage Decay
Hermann Ebbinghaus, forgetting curve: the exponential loss of information after learning it
Hermann Ebbinghaus
First to conduct experimental studies on memories using himself as a subject, forgetting curve and disturbed practice
Disturbed Practice
“cramming” isn’t good (haha), spacing when you study so between breaks so you can remember better
Massed Practice
Cramming
Encoding Failure
Happens when memory was never formed in the first place, “in one ear and out the other”
Retrieval Failure
Failing to recall a memory because of missing cues that were there when you encoded it
Tip-of-the-Tongue
the feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable
Memory Cues
Stimulus associated with memory, cues can enhance the retrieval of a memory
State Dependent Memory
Memory retrieval that works really well when you’re in the same state of consciousness as when the memory was formed, aka alcohol, nicotine, circadian rhythms, hormone levels, caffeine, hunger, etc
Mood Dependent Memory
Recalling information easier when you’re in the same mood as when you got it, can’t be faked
Context Dependent Memory
Recall of information while in the same context of environment it was acquired, ex being in the same classroom with the same smell and visual cues
Trace Decay Theory
Memories leave a physical/chemical trace in the brain, and forgetting is just when that trace decays
Interference Theory
P.O.R.N.
Retroactive Interference
new memories kill older memories
Proactive interference
old memories strangle new memories at birth (you have trouble learning something now, because you learned something a long time ago)
Motivated Forgetting-Repression
Theory of forgetting by Freud, pushing painful memories out of consciousness, repressing memories, not backed up by research, not conscious
Motivated Forgetting-Suppression
Conscious process of deliberately trying to forget something that causes distress, ex distracting yourself by keeping busy to avoid emotional pain
Flashbulb Memory
Vivid and detailed memories that people create during personally emotional significant events, ex where were you at 9/11
Memory Reconstruction
Memory is cognitive process and errors can happen, we can alter memories as we take them from our memory bank, people can update their memories
Pseudo-Memories
Memories that never happened
Elizabeth Loftus
Research on memory construction and false memories, misinformation effect
Misinformation Effect
New information that alters the way previous information is held in memory
Positive Transfer
Mastery of one task aids another
Distributed practice
spacing out your practices, cramming is bad
Testing Effect
Long term memory is increased if you do practice tests
Cognition
Mental Activity associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Concepts
Mental groupings of objects, events, ideas, or people, used to form category hierarchies
Prototype
Mental image or best example of a specific concept or category
Critical Thinking
Going beyond acquiring information using concepts, prototypes, and other crap to develop opinions and beliefs about that information
Skepticism
Being unwilling to blindly accept claims
Creativity
Ability to produce new and valuable information
Expertise
Strong base of knowledge on a topic
Convergent thinking
A question only has one answer
Divergent thinking
a question or problem has several or many possible responses
Problem Solving
process of cognition when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving certain ways
Trial and Error / Mechanical Solution
Problem-solving by trying out solutions until you find one that works
Algorithms
specific, step by step procedures for solving certain types of problems, guarantees solving a problem by exploring every possibility
Heuristics
“rules of thumb” an educated guess based on prior experiences that helps narrow down possible solutions for a problem, leads to stereotypes
Representativeness Heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to match prototypes, snap judgements
Availability Heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory
Insights
the lightbulb moment, a sudden realization of the solution to a problem
Wolfgang Kohler
Studied chimps trying to get bananas that were out of reach, realized the chimps had insight to place boxes on top of each other and climb them
Intuition
an effortless, automatic feeling or thought, “trusting your gut”
Confirmation Bias
Tendency to search for info that supports our preconceptions, “you hear what you want to hear”
Fixation
Inability to see a problem from a fresh/new perspective
Mental Set
Tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that worked in the past
Functional Fixedness
The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions
Overconfidence
You’re more confident than correct, overestimating the accuracy of your judgments
Self-serving Bias
Evaluating ourselves in an overly favorable manner
Belief Perseverance
Denial, clinging to your initial conceptions after their basis has been discredited, the simple fix to this is to consider the opposite
Framing
Cognitive Bias, the process of presenting or posing an issue or question, how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions/judgments
Anchoring Effect
Cognitive bias, favoring the first information offered
Linguistics
Study of language
Phonemes
Smallest distinctive sound unit in a language (English has 40)
Morphemes
Smallest units of meaning in a language
Grammar
System of rules governing the structure and use of a language
Syntax
The system of rules for combining words and phrases to form grammatically correct sentences
Semantics
rules for determining the meaning of words and sentences
Babbling Stage
starts at 4 months, spontaneously vocalizing various unrelated sounds
One-Word Stage
Age 1-2, child speaks in single words
Two-word stage
age 2, child speaks in 2 or 3 word statements, telegraphic speech and overgeneralization
Telegraphic Speech
Child will use mostly verbs and nouns, two word stage
Overgeneralization
Application of grammar rules in instances to which they don’t apply, two word stage
Full Sentences
age 6-10, child speaks in sentences and masters syllable stress patterns to distinguish between words, they now know 80% of all the language they will ever need
Language acquisition
learning a language
B. F. Skinner
Operant learning, behaviorist, we can explain development with familiar learning principles: association, imitation, and reinforcement
Chomsky
Inborn universal grammar, all people have an inborn capacity to learn the language they’re raised in, language acquisition
Statistical Learning
Where babies determine breaks and pauses should be in speech and what syllables go with other syllables
Linguistic Determinism
Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think, not just that we think in differently languages
Intelligence
Ability to learn from experiences, acquire knowledge, and use resources
General Intelligence
Charles Spearman, underlies specific mental abilities and is measured by every task on an intelligence test
Charles Spearman
General Intelligence
Factor Analysis
Statistical technique that determines how different variables relate to each other
Howard Gardner
8 Intelligences
Howard Gardener’s 8 Intelligences
Intelligence is multiple abilities that come in packages: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathmatical, naturalistic, intrapersonal, visual-spatial
Robert Sternberg
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence AND five components of creativity
Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Practical intelligence - experimental, leads to specific learning
analytical intelligence - solving a problem with a single answer
creative intelligence - generating new ideas to adapt to situations
Five Components of Creativity
Ability to produce information that’s novel and valuable: Creative environment, venturesome personality, expertise, intrinsic motivation, imaginative thinking
Emotional Intelligence
Social skills: perceiving emotion, understanding emotion, managing emotion, and using emotion
Gender and Intelligence
Males do better on visuospatial, females do better on verbal ability, females score lower on ACT and SAT but have higher undergraduate grades, there’s no overall difference in intelligence
Nature v Nurture in Intelligence
Nature, twins raised apart are similar due to research from Thomas Bouchard, and adopted children are more intelligently similar to their biological parents than their adoptive parents
Thomas Bouchard
Twin studies on intelligence, discovered strong genetic link to intelligence
Heritability
Sir Francis Galton, fisrt attempt to measure levels of intelligence, thought intelligence was inherited rather than influenced by environment, genetic basis of intelligence
Sir Francis Galton
Intelligence Heritability
Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale
Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon, used to identify children who would benefit from extra help, used mental age
Mental Age
Intelligence tests find your mental age, and then compare it to your biological age to figure out if you’re ahead or behind your peers
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test
Lewis Terman modifed the Binet-Simon test for the US, created IQ
Lewis Terman
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test
William Stern
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
taking the mental age of an intelligence test, dividing it by the chronological age, and multiplying that by 100
Wechsler Intelligence Scales
David Wechsler, different forms of this scale for adults and children, added a scale for preformance, WAIS/WISC
WISC
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
WAIS
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Achievement Tests
identify what you know and test your skills in different areas (final exams)
Aptitude tests
measure ability in certain areas (numerical, verbal, etc), indicates one’s potential vocational or professional direction
Modern Intelligence Tests
Measures individual differences by comparing results to others that take the same exam
Standardization
Every exam is exactly the same and scored the same way
Norm
Distribution of scores of a group
Norm-referenced test
compares sample group to entire population taking test
Validity
Degree to which a test actually measures what it’s supposed to measure
Content Validity
Test Measures all aspects of what its supposed to measure
Predictive Validity
Test accurately forcasts performance on a future measure
Reliability
tendency of a test to produce the same scores again and again
Test-Retest Reliability
An individual receives a similar score after retaking a test
Split-Half Reliability
If you give two different halves of an exam to two different groups, they should get similar scores
Stereotype Threat
Minorities are more likely to be identified as having lower intelligence scores than white people
Fluid Intelligence
Raymond Cattell, recognizing patterns, seeing relationships, using logic, decreases when you’re old, independent of existing knowledge
Crystallized Intelligence
Accumulated knowledge, facts and experiences, increases with age
Raymond Cattell
Fluid and Crystallized intelligence, personality research, combine both kinds of intelligence to create g factor
Flynn Effect
James Flynn, people are either getting smarter or getting better at taking intelligence tests
Intellectual Disability
Scoring 2 or more standard deviations below norm (70 IQ or below)
Down Syndrome
Having an extra 21st chromosome
Intellectually Gifted
2-3 percent of individuals receive gifted label, Joseph Renzulli
Joseph Renzulli
Giftedness has three factors: intelligence, creativity, and motivation
Savant Syndrome
Person has limited mental ability, but has an exceptional SPECIFIC skill (drawing), mostly males, commonly also have autism
Maturation
Learning, any relatively permanent change from experience or practice
Behaviorists
Psychology should be the scientific study of observable behavior, all learning happens because of interactions with your environment
Pavlov
Pavlov’s dog, studied digestion and accidentally found classical conditioning
Neutral Stimulus
What turns into the conditioned stimulus, doesn’t make a response
Unconditioned Stimulus
Naturally triggers a response, don’t have to learn to respond to it
Unconditioned Response
Unlearned response, natural response to unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned Stimulus
Always same as neutral stimulus, triggers conditioned response
Conditioned Response
Learned response to conditioned stimulus
Acquisition
Initial stage of learning, when a response is first established, CS needs to come half a second before US for acquisition to occur
Higher-Order Conditioning
Adding more steps to classical conditioning, ex walking to door –> opening can of food –> giving food to dog –> dog salivates
Extinction
The unconditioned and conditioned stimulus no longer connect and the response is lost
Spontaneous Recovery
The random return of the connection after extinction
Watson’s “Little Albert”
You can condition fear
Stimulus Generalization
The response can come from similar stimuli, ex little albert was conditioned to a white rat, but he also reacted to a white fur rug
Stimulus Discrimination
Differentiating between stimuli… opposite of generalization
Systematic Desensitization
Slowly exposing stuff people are afraid of to them to make them not so afraid of the real thing, ex a snake stuffed animal
Operant Conditioning
Learning process where behaviors are reinforced or punished, associating actions with negative or positive consequences
Throndike’s Puzzle Box
A hungry (same) cat is placed into a box, the only escape is to press a lever on the floor, the cat used trial and error to get outside to food, and then was able to do that again and again
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
Responses followed by SATISFACTION will occur more, behaviors followed by DISSATISFACTION will occur less
Superstitious Beliefs
Actions that are only randomly tied to good results
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Belief
Behaviors followed by REINFORCEMENT will be repeated, behaviors followed by PUNISHMENT will be less likely to repeat
Skinner Box
he put rats in a box and proved his theory of punishment and reinforcement, as well as schedules
Shaping
Reinforcers gradually guide an animal’s actions to a desired behavior… small steps, successive approximations
Successive Approximations
Rewarding each step in the right direction toward your goal and ignoring everything else
Primary Reinforcement
Doesn’t require learning, something you have an evolutionary basis to want, ex food, air, water, sleep
Secondary / Conditioned Reinforcement
Stimuli that have become rewarding by being paired with another stimulus, you’ve learned to like it through association
Positive Reinforcement / Punishment
Adding something to increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior
Negative Reinforcement / Punishment
Removing something to make a behavior more or less likely
Avoidance Behavior
Behaving to prevent something bad happening… always negative reinforcement
Severe Punishment Causes…
Child may avoid punisher instead of behavior being punished, may encourage lying, fear and anxiety in child, models aggression
Punishment
Needs to directly follow behavior
Visual Transduction
Our eyes receive light energy and transduce it into neural messages that our brain then processes into what we see, HAPPENS IN RETINA
Wavelength
Distance from one peak to the next, represents hue and
Amplitude
The total height of the wave, represents intensity (aka brightness)
Cornea
Transparent tissue in the front of your eye
Iris
The colored bit, a muscle that pulls your pupil open and closed
Pupil
The black bit, adjustable opening in the center of the eye where light enters
Lens
Transparent structure behind pupil that changes shape to focus images onto retina
Retina
Light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, contains rods and cones
Visual Accommodation
The lens changes to focus on stuff thats far away vs close
Cones
Color, do better in daylight, provide detail
Rods
Black and white, work best in low light, peripheral
Optic Nerve
Carries neural impulses from eye to brain
Feature Detectors
In the visual cortex there are specialized neurons that respond to the strength of stuff like shapes, angles, edges, lines, movement
Parallel Processing
The brain can do more than one thing at once, for visual processing color, motion, shape, and depth are processed at the same time
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory
Three-color theory, everything is a combo of red, green, and blue
Opponent-Process Theory
The colors fight and whatever color you see is a combination of the winners and how much they won (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black)
Afterimage
You can see something after the actual ‘something’ is removed
Gestalt Psychologists
The brain integrates pieces information into meaningful wholes, patterns
Figure-Ground
the background is a thing and the figure is a thing
Proximity Principal
things that are close together belong in a group
Similarity
Similar objects are in the same group
Continuity
Objects that form a continuous form are in the same group
Closure
We fill gaps ourselves if we can recognize them, creating a group
Depth Perception
You can see objects in 3d even though the images we see in our eyes are 2d
Binocular Cues
Cues that depend on both eyes: retinal disparity, convergence
Monocular Cues
Depth cues that only need one eye: relative height, relative size, relative clarity, interposition, linear perspective, light and shadow, relative motion
Linear Perspective
Parallel lines get closer together the farther they go on
Interposition
if something is blocking another thing the ‘something’ is closer
Relative Size
Something small is farther away and vice versa
Relative Height
Objects higher in your field of vision are farther away
Relative Clarity
Clear objects are closer than blurry objects
Light and Shadow
Nearby objects reflect more light than distant objects (dimmer is farther away)
Texture Gradient
More detailed, textured things are closer and smoother things are farther
Relative Motion
as we move, objects that are stable appear to move, far objects move with you, close objects move backward
Motion Parallax
Objects closer to you move faster than objects that are far away
Perceptual Set
You’re designed to see one thing and not another
Context and Culture Effects
You might have a bias to see some things and not others because of your culture, motivation, emotions, or expectations
Perceptual Constancy
Objects are unchanging even as retinal images change
Shape constancy
The shape of the table doesn’t change as you move around it and your view changes
Size Constancy
Even if your view of something changes, its still the same physical size
Lightness / Brightness Constancy
An object will always be the same amount bright even if the light shining on it is more or less
Color Constancy
Stuff doesn’t change color even if your retinal image changes
Visual Cliff
An experiment testing to see if young animals and infants had depth perception (they do)
Phi Phenomenon
Illusion of movement when >2 lights blink on and off
Perceptual Adaptation
The ability to adjust to changed sensory input, ex if you wore those drunk glasses and was able to get used to it enough to function normally
Consciousness
How aware you are of everything that’s going on at any one given moment
Conscious Awareness
All the ideas in your immediate awareness: thoughts, feelings, senses (you spend most of your time here)
Nonconscious
Biological functions happen, ex respiration and digestion
Preconscious
Items we can access from long-term memory
Subconscious
Hidden memories that can influence behavior
Unconscious
Psychoanalytical, hidden memories that influence behavior but will NEVER be accessed
Sleep
Altered state, one of the body’s biological rhythms, lacks full awareness but brain is still active
Circadian Rhythm
Bodily rhythm where you spend 16 hours awake and 8 hours asleep, can be influenced by exposure to daylight
Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
Light activates this, which causes the pineal gland to adjust melatonin production
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Measures electrical currents in brain, recording them on an encephalogram, important in sleep studies
Wake/Sleep Cycle
Sleep has a biological rhythm that happens every 90 minutes, usually 3-5 times a night
Beta Waves
15-30 hz, awake, alert, anxious
Alpha Waves
7-12 hz, relaxed, ready for sleep
Theta Waves
4-7 hz, stages 1 and 2 of NREM sleep
Delta Waves
0-4 hz, deep sleep, stage 3 of NREM
NREM stage 1
Light sleep, hyphagogic sensations, hallucinations
Pineal Gland
Produces melatonin
Hypnagogic sensations / jerks
When your body jerks when sleeping, like you’re falling, NREM stage 1
NREM stage 2
Body temp drops, sleep spindles, sleep talking is most common
Sleep Spindles
NREM stage 2, sudden burst of energy in theta waves
NREM stage 3
Deep sleep, slow wave sleep, memories process, human growth hormones produce (which is why babies sleep a lot), immune system refreshes, sleepwalking
REM sleep
Rapid Eye Movement, brain looks like its awake, what happens when you’re dreaming
Sleep paralysis
Inability to voluntarily move muscles during rem sleep, your brain wakes up while your body is still sleeping
Cerebral Cortex
Outer layer of brain, receives and processes sensory information and directs movement, center for higher order processes
Lobes
Areas of cerebral cortex, location and primary function, each with a specialty
Occipital Lobes
Rear and bottom of cerebral hemisphere containing visual centers of brain, info from left visual field is processed in right lobe and vice versa
Parietal Lobes
Top and back of each hemisphere, contains centers for sensory signals (touch, pressure, temperature, pain)
Temporal Lobes
just behind temples, contains neurons for hearing and meaningful speech
Frontal Lobes
Front and top of brain, responsible for higher mental functions, emotional behaviors, making decisions, carrying out plans
Prefrontal Cortex
Higher cognitive functions (planning, distinguishing right from wrong, socially acceptable behavior, decision-making, producing insights), may not develop until mid 20s
Functional plasticity
Brains ability to move functions from a damaged area to other undamaged areas
Structural plasticity
Brain’s ability to actually change its physical structure as a result of learning
Nervous System
“Body’s electrical wiring”, body’s communication network of nerve cells
Central Nervous System (CNS)
Coordinates actions and interactions of brain and spinal cord, largest part of nervous system
Spinal Cord
Information highway from peripheral nervous system to brain
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
Sensory nerves outside of brain and spinal cord that connect CNS to the rest of the body, two divisons: motor and sensory pathway
Motor Pathway
Part of Peripheral Nervous System, signals from brain to muscles/glands
Sensory Pathway
Part of Peripheral Nervous System, signals from sensory receptors to brain
Somatic Nervous System
Nerves that transmit signals from brain to skeletal muscles… voluntary movement
Autonomic Nervous System
Regulates involuntary and unconscious actions, ex breathing, blood pumping, digestion, etc
Sympathetic Nervous System
Fight or flight, emergency response system, ex accelerate heartbeat, raise blood pressure
Parasympathetic Nervous System
“rest and digest”, calms the person down
Descartes
Mind is entirely distinct from body and can survive the body’s death, they communicated by “animal spirits” which flowed through brain cavities into nerves into muscles
Locke
The mind is a blank slate (labula rasa) that experience writes on (nurture)
labula rasa
blank slate, John Locke
Bacon
Started empiricism with Locke
Empiricism
Knowledge comes from experience, observation and experimentation enable scientific knowledge
Wundt
Birth of psychology (i hate you), first psych lab
G. Stanley Hall
First US psych lab
3 Psych Schools
Structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism
Structuralism
Wundt and Tichener, used introspection to reveal true nature of human mind
Tichener
Structuralism, used introspection
Introspection
Looking inward at yourself to study yourself
James
Considered the evolved functions of thoughts and feelings, Funcionalism
Functionalism
James and Darwin, how mental and behavioral processes function (heh like the name) and how they enable organisms to adapt, survive, and flourish
Mary Whiton Calkins
First woman to be president of the American Psychological Association
Margaret Floy Washburn
First female psych Ph.D, synthesized animal behavior
Behaviorism
Psychology objectively studies behavior without mental processes, Watson and Skinner
Humanistic Psychologists
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, emphasized human growth potential, everyone is born good
Overconfidence Effect
The tendency to be very sure of a fact, the difference between what people think they know and what they really know
Confirmation Bias
We look for evidence that confirms our beliefs and we ignore evidence that disputes us
Observer Effect
Animals or people being watched don’t behave normally… observer should remain hidden
Observer Bias
Observers overemphasize behavior they expect to find and fail to notice behavior they don’t expect
