Week 9 and 10 PSYC Flashcards
Salience Bias
We will focus our attentions on things that are more present and come to mind faster
Confirmation Bias
A bias that that leads people to seek out information that confirms their existing belief and ignore information that will challenge it
Tversky and Kahneman
We base judgements/decisions on heuristics. Tested through an experiment which gave background info on a person (linda) and then asked participates to rate the likelihood of certain occurances.
When is confirmation bais strongest
Emotional issues
Heuristics
Rules of thumb about the world - Mental shortcuts that our brain uses in complex situations to arrive at a solution quickly
Two types of heuristics
Representativeness heuristic and the availability heuristics
Representativeness Heuristics
Judgeing something on how well it matches the prototype or sterotype
Availability Heuristics
Judging something based on how easily examples come to mind (salience bias)
Schemas
mental knowledge structures
Scripts
Common action routines
Important purpose of Heuristics
logical thought costs time and mental resources therefore automatic processes are the best way to approach the world
Dan Kahneman fast processes
Automatic, rapid, draws on concepts, routines and rules of thumb acquired through practice
Cost to Fast processes
Gaining expertise in a process for it to be a fast process comes with a cost of time and effort
What does conscious thought involve
requires effort, filtering out distractions, and is resource intensive
Iceberg concept
We have mental processes that reach your awareness but there is so much more cognitive processes beneath your awareness
Modes of thinking
Open ended (reflection)
Goal directed
What is the default mode network used for
- mind wandering
- integrating past and present
- imagination, creative thinking
- episodic future thinking (creating scenarios for future thinking)
Goal directed thinking
- must maintain information and work on it in some way
- requires mental effort, concentration
- engage a wide network of brain structures
What brain network does open ended thinking use
The default mode network
What brain network does goal directed thinking use
Executive control network
Hot Cognition
The mental processes involved in making judgements and decisions in situations involving strong emotion
Hot Cognition examples
- making choices based on preferences
- repsonding appropriatly to socially sensitive situations
- understanding how other people may feel in a situation
What happened to michael
Damaged frontal lobe in combat
He still is very intelligent but has poor judgment when emotions are involved
Damasio’s Somantic Marker Hypothesis
This brain region binds memories together with their emotional associations, we use these associations to guide our decisions
Cold cognition
decision making processes driven by reason and logic with minial emotional influence
Darley and Gross (1983) confirmation bias experiment
Experiment: Showed participants videos of oral tests and told group 1 the girl was from “middle class” and group 2 the girl was from “poor background”
Findings: Middle class group reported more examples of good answers while poor group reported more examples of bad answers
Conclusion: People look for confirmation based on preconceptions formed during the framing of a question
Real Life example of representativeness heuristic
Prototype of typical heart disease patient = 50 year old, man, overwight
Therefore women, who do not match this prototype have a lower classification rates for their heart attacks
Dan Kahneman slow processes
Effortful, slow, needed in unfamiliar situations, crucial in precision & creativity
Cost to expertise
Heuristics are rapid, the may confer overconfidence
Berner & Graber (2008)
Doctors were given case descriptions and some led to high disagreement amongst expert doctors. However, each individual doctor was confident they were correct.
= Development of rich and rapid automatic strategies (heuristics) for classification can have a dark side of overconfidence
Definition of thinking
The conscious experience of generating mental representations and operating on them in some way.
How to measure conscious thought?
fMRI measuring brain activity, when people are at rest in an fMRI scanner, a network of structures “talk” to each other and these structures are interconnected
Can you do both open ended and goal directed thinking at the same time
No, you shift between the two and for many tasks we need to switch between states
Hot cognition card gambling example
Players must choose between risky and safe decks. Skin Conductance Response (SCR) measures sweat rates, indicating emotional responses and sympathetic nervous system activation.
Healthy people show SCR when approaching high-risk decks and learn to avoid them. Emotional responses (like a “bad feeling”) guide them towards safer choices.
People with frontal damage (orbital region) don’t show this response and perform poorly in the task.
How does Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis guide our decisions
When faced with a decision, we recall emotions from previous similar actions/situations, bad associations deter us from that action, good associations encourage us
Hot cognition and social inference making
Patients with frontal damage can fail the faux pas task and find it difficult to identify and justify social blunders
What is learning
An experiential process resulting in a relatively permanent behavioural change that cannot be explained by temporary states, maturation, or innate tendency’s.
Learning requires a CHANGE in behaviour. This could be ….
- Development of new behaviours
- Modification of old behaviours (re-learn and adapt)
- A reduction in behaviour.
Why are genetically predetermined behaviours, and changes brought about by maturation not examples of learning
Learning is the result of experience - Therefore, many instances of behavioural change ARE NOT examples of learning, rather biological maturation or reflexes
3 features of the area of behavioural psychology research
- Emphasis on effect of environmental events on behaviour
- Typical subjects are individuals (as easier to detect subtleties in individuals) and many studies employ non-human animals as subjects
- An emphasis on external/observable phenomena (i.e. the only way we can infer that learning has occurred is by actually seeing an observable behaviour change)
Ivan Pavlov initial experiment
Noticed that if a dog was presented with food bowl, with no food in it, it would salivate (associated stimulus can elicit reflexive response)
Tested this theory - Took a neutral stimulus (tone) and paired it with meat powder - When tone was presented in isolation, it elicited the same response as the meat powder
Classical conditioning
A learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a reflex-eliciting unconditioned stimulus, such that it can elicit a conditioned response when presented alone.
what is an UCS
unconditioned stimulus - the stimulus that elicits the response naturally (food for dogs salivating, loud noise for albert crying)
what is a CS
a Conditioned Stimulus that is associated with the CR such that it elicits a response
what is a CR
Conditioned response - the response elicited by a previously neutral stimulus that is now a CS
Pro and con of classical codnitioning
Pro
- Learn to avoid dangerous events
Con
- lead to the development of phobias
Aquisition
Increased no. of trials = stronger response. Although conditioning can be established in a single trial, typically a number of pairings of a CS with a UCS are required before a CR emerges as a response to the CS alone.
Variables that increase the degree of classical conditioning (using albert as example)
UCS more intense
(e.g. very loud noise)
Short delay between UCS & CS
(e.g. 1s between rat & noise)
UCS reliably follows CS
(e.g loud noise ONLY ever occurs in the presence of a rat
Variables that lower the degree of classical conditioning (using albert as example)
UCS less intense
(quiet noise)
Long delay between UCS & CS or UCS occurs before CS
UCS only sometimes follows CS (e.g. loud noise sometimes occurs in the absence of rat
Generalisation
allows learning to carry over to new situations/stimuli without requiring further learning
Discrimination
restricts new learning from being inappropriately applied to ALL situations.
Extinction
If the CS continues to be presented without the UCS occurring then the CR Is eventually eliminated
Real world examples of classical conditioning
- Likes and dislikes (advertising)
- Political preferences (politicians and cute animals)
- Food preferences (associate with childhood influence)
Edward Thorndike (1874 - 1949)
Investigated non-reflexive behaviours modified as a result of experience by using a puzzle box with a cat which had to press a lever to get food. After many trials, cat became more efficient at eliciting this response
Operant conditioning
we tend to repeat behaviours that lead to desirable outcomes and we tend to stop performing behaviours that lead to undesirable outcomes
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
If a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the association between that stimulus and response is strengthened
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Operant chambers
Skinner was interested in how changing environmental events such as the payoff for lever pressing, resulted in changes in behaviour Operant chambers are a very controlled environment that can rule out confounding influences.
3 term contingency
…describes the relationship between environmental events and behaviour (A -> B -> C)
what do the letters represent in the 3-term contingency A -> B -> C
A = antecedent stimulus or discriminative stim
B = the behaviour
C = the stimuli that occur as a consequence of the behaviour (normally just called ‘consequences’
Stimulus control
The relationship between A & B
Antecedent / discriminative stimuli set the occasion for responding, i.e. signal what behaviour is now appropriate (ringing signals that picking up the phone is now appropriate behaviour.)
Schedule control
The relationship between B & C
The reason you continue to perform particular behaviours in the presence of particular antecedent stimuli is because you had gained desirable consequences when performing those behaviours in the past.
Reinforcers
desirable consequence that lead to an increase in behaviour
Punishers
Aversive consequences that reduce the occurrence of a learned behaviour
Positive reinforcement
Consequences that causes an increase in the rate of responding
Negative Reinforcement
Where responding is maintained or increases as the result of the termination of an aversive stimulus (taking panadol for headache)
Positive Punishment
when responding decreases as a result of the delivery of an aversive stimulus
Problems with positive punishment…
i) most effective forms cause pain or discomfort,
ii) induces fear and hostility
iii) learn to escape/avoid punishing situation
iv) only learning what response ‘not to make’
Response cost
a decrease in the frequency of a response that is followed by the termination of, or lack of access to, positive stimuli or events (also called negative punishment, omission training) - e.g. time out
ALternative to positive punishment
- Extinction
- Remove antecedent stimuli preceding undesirable behaviour
- Use response cost
What are primary reinforcers/Punishers
Events that satisfy an inherent survival need (e.g., food) & punishers that are inherently aversive (e.g., painful stimuli)
What are conditioned reinforces/punishers
Are established by our past learning history via classical conditioning (E.g. money, kind words etc
E.g. flashing lights on police car, fines, unkind words)
Wolfang Kohler demonstration
- Insight learning in chimps in the 1920’s
- Hung bananas just out of reach of the apes
- If he left boxes scattered around the enclosure, chimps would learn to push box so they can reach banana (could also learn to stack them)
Insight
sudden appearance of an appropriate behaviour without any obvious shaping
Shaping
the process by which new behaviours emergge
2 things shaping relies on
- Differential reinforcement of appropriate behaviours and/or punishment of wrong behaviours
- Natural tendency for behaviour to vary from instance to instance
Basic steps to experimentally shape behaviour
i) Identify pre-shaped behaviour
ii) Identify potential reinf’s/punish’s
iii) Apply differential reinf./punish
iv) Reinforce successive approximations to desired behaviour (i.e. as behaviour starts to alter change the criterion before reinf. given again)
Why does shaping underlie superstitious behaviour
Behaviour naturally varies - so purely by chance sometimes a behaviour may be accidentally followed by reinforcement.
Extent of generalisation depends upon
- Physical similarity of the stimuli
- How salient *obvious) the stimuli are
- Presence of other stimuli
- Our past learning history
Seligman’s *(1970) concept of PREPAREDNESS
suggests that through evolution all animals are biologically prewired to easily learn behaviours related to their survival as a species
Taste Aversion - Garcia & Koelling (1966)
Presented rats with poison paired with novel stimulus (group A with sweet taste or group B bright noisy water). All rats were made ill, and group A then avoided novel water while group B continued to drink novel water.
When repeated with a shock and the same conditions, group A continued to drink sweet water while group B avoided bright-noisy water
Garcia & Koelling taste aversion conclusion
Organisms are biologically predisposed to associate certain events with others. e.g. (in the case of rats) taste with being sick or visual / auditory appearance with painful event … useful in terms of survival.
“instinctive drift”
instinctive behaviours interfering with conditioned responses
4 reasons emotions are adaptive
- Activate survival mechanisms
Fear = your body trying to keep you alive by protecting you from threats - Motivate adaptive behaviour
Good feeling/happiness = motivates us to do more of these things - Optimise use of cognitive resources
Brain on fear is different to brain on love - Communicate needs and intentions
Know what infants needs
3 aspects of emotion
Physiology (heart rate, sweating, blood pressure)
Behaviour (facial expressions, posture, muscle tension)
Subjective experience (feelings)
“Basic” emotions
Happiness, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Surprise, Disgust
“Blended” emotions - combination of two of the basic emotions
Jealousy, Awe, Contempt, Pity, Delight
“Social” emotions
Require a social environment in order to feel - Embarrassment, Shame, Empathy, Love
Intellectual Emotions
Curiosity, Boredom, Insight, Confusion, Aha!
Homeostatic Emotions
Hunger, pain, thirst, itch
Discrete models
Just focus on the categorisation of emotions (basic, blended, social, intellectual, homeostatic)
Dimensional Models
Look at the dimension of emotion in terms of valence (pleasent/unpleasent) and arousal (high/low activation). A third aspect has been added which is motivation (approach/withdraw)
Darwin theory of emotion
- Emotional behaviours in many animal species
- Argued that these basic emotions have a survival value
- These basic emotions appear very early in life (in young infants)
Paul Ekman Basic emotion theory
Emotions are discrete neural/physiological/behavioural states that our bodies adopt for a certain period of time, triggered by defined (evolutionarily relevant) situations)
- Distinctive universal signals, physiology, subjective experience, universal triggers
- Automatic appraisal
- Presence in other primates & infants
James-Lange Theory
- Emotions are survival states
- What we feel as the emotion is not what makes our bodies react
- Our bodies react in particular ways, our brains feel that response and interpret this as an emotion
James-Lange Theory key point
Body signals are KEY trigger for an emotion
Attribution of Arousal - Schater & Singer:
- Situation triggers physiological response
The context that we are in determines how we interpret physiological response
Key point of Schater and singer
Physiology + Interpretation = Emotion
Inconsistency with James-lange theory
Your heart pounds when you run, so why don’t you feel fear then??
Waiting room adrenaline experiment
can someone put their stuff in for this flashcard i cant really find what to write love you and thanks xx
Psychological Constructionist Approaches
Emotions emerge from the combined actions of core psychological processes: -
- Core affect (in the body, positive or negative)
- Conceptualisation (what is it?)
- Executive attention (what is important about it?)
- Language (what do I call it)
Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion (appraisal theory_
We see the bear, that activates different parts of the brain (thalamus) - This then branches off to a) Arousal of autonomic system and b) Conscious emotion (fear)
Body and Emotion are two independents thing Not that the body CAUSES emotion (like James)
Magda Arnold
Situation going on in life
- Appraise it as good or bad
- That gives rise to emotion (liking/disliking)
- This leads to following action (approach or withdrawal)
what is enteroception
the feelings that come from the body
the main neural pathway that initiates an emotional response (5 step)
- Thalamus sends informstion to a cortex responsible for processing that particular sensory modality
- The outcome of that process is sent to the prefrontal cortex
- Prefrontal cortex than weighs the value of that outcome, and in that process of assigning value, that creates an “appraisal”
- In the process, the PFC will decide that the thing is emotional and will send it to your amygdala
- The amygdala processes the signal from the PFC and will send this down through the hypothalamus and from there is will go to the autonomic nervous system
appraisal
a judgement about something you experience
The “thinking highroad”
Goes to prefrontal cortex BEFORE amygdala
The “speedy low road”
- The information goes directly from the thalamus to the amygdala
- Amygdala than stimulates fear response
Cannot read, can categorise primordial fears
Amygdala function in emotions
- Interconnected area of the brain, regulates arousals, and sends info to autonomic nervous system (helps emotional response and classical conditioning)
Prefrontal cortex function in emotions
- Appraisal/evaluation
- Decision making
- Goal setting/action
- Emotion regulation
EEG emotional brain activity and reigon
- Positive (approach) emotions have greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex while withdraw emotions have greater activity in the right prefrontal cortex
How do different sides of the brain function with emotional experience
Language is heavily associated with the left side (words themselves) while emotional perception is more associated with the right side (tone of voice, etc)
function of Adrenalin/Norepinephrine in the stress response
responsible for stimulating nerves involved in the sympathetic nervous system, sends signal to kidney to release cortisol
Depression and activation of brain areas
Reduction in overall activity in the left prefrontal cortex in those with depression
function of cortisol in the stress response
fear/stress hormone - helpful for increase glucose availability and energy provided
How does emotion affect attention
Memory for an event can be strengthened by the fact that you attended to certain parts. For example, - First date - might remember details about person and conversation, but may not remember emotionally invaluable things (what you ate, what server wore)
Kensinger et al (2007)s & monkeys experiemnt
Assessed peoples ability to remember the foreground and background images when shown snakes (fear inducing stimuli) and monkeys (neutral stimuli)
Kensinger et al (2007)s findings
Clear effect of valence on memory of primary object and people remember more of the emotional information at the cost of remembering the background information
Cahill & McGaugh (1995) storytelling experiment
- Show people same visual information but tell them different stories about the images (mother & son medical scene, grave). Participants viewed the same story slides with either a neutral or emotional plot
Findings of Cahill & McGaugh (1995) story experiment
Found that even with the same exact visual information, emotional value remembers events better and recognises the images better
