Studied by 3 people
Neuroplasticity
the ability of the brain to change through the making and beaking of synaptic connections between neurons
Neural pruning
once the connections of brain start to break.
Merzenich et al 1984
cortical remapping of digits in owl monkeys
Aim: to invesitgate how the sensory cortex respinsible for the hand will respond to injury.
Participants: 8 owl monkeys
Method: experiment, repeated measure designs (involves multiple measures of the same variable.)
Procedure: Sensory inputs for the finger were mapped in the cortex using electrodes attached to the cortex responsible for sensation in the hand and fingers were stimulated and corresponding electrode signals were noted. One of the digits were removed and remapping of the cortex was down 2 months later.
Results: First mapping showed there were 5 different sections in the cortext, each section corresponding to each digit. Adjacent areas represented adjacent fingers. After the amputation it was seen that the surrounding cortex sections occupied the area in which the amputated finger was at, so for example if digit 3 was lost, the the cortex areas responsible for 2 and 4 would fill the the spot.
Conclusion: this showed us that the sensory cortex of adult owl monkeys adapt to injury by remapping cortically.
Endocrine system
A chemical messenger system of the organisms; the system of glands that secrete hormones
Gene knockout
A genetic technique in which one of the genes of an organism is “switched off”; the term can also be used to describe the organism that carries this inoperative gene.
Oxytocin
A hormone prodcued by the hypothalamus and released in the pituitary gland; it is known for its role in social interaction and sexual reproduction.
Produced by women in large amounts during child birth and breast feeding.
Also shwn to be related to feelings of trust.
Pheromones
A chemical messenger that communicates infromation to other members of species.
Similar to neurotransmitters and hormones they are chemical signals but they work outside of the body between between members of the species.
How do pheromones work?
In short we release pheromones in our sweat which is then picked up by the opposite sex through their sense of smell, specifically through the vomeronasal organ which is connected to the accessory olfactory bulb (part of the brain.) Its the olfactory nerves that send the signal to the hypothalamus triggering an emotional response.
Human fetuses have the accessory olfactory bulb but it dissapears after birth. Thsu this shows that some people have the VNO, other didn’t. Those who did have it disconnected from the nervous system. This essentially says hat pheromones could possible be processed somewhere else.
Cutler et al (1998)
Synthetic pheromone administered in men’s aftershave increased sexual contact initiated by women.
Aim: to investigate if synthetic pheromones can increase socio-sexual behavior.
Participants: 38 het males, 25-42 years old. Healthy and reg appearance.
Method: field experiment, independent measure.
Procedure: asked to use regular aftershave for 2 weeks and record the amount of petting, affection, kissing, sleeping next to romantic partner, sex, formal and infromal dates, masturabation. Afterwards ethanol (to mask smell) or ethanol & pheromone added and the same experiment was repeated for 6 more weeks.
Results: Compared to the control group there was an increase in all of the activites other than masturbation and formal dates.
Conclusion: Cultler argues that synthtic pheromones does affect attractiveness.
Could b argued that it increased male libido instead n they initiated contact but it that would mean that masturbation and formal dates would also increase.
very intrusive, peeps sharing sensitive info so gotta be kept anon, could cause health probs, funded by after shave company so might also b bias and cherry picking data.
Evolution and disgust
The process in which organisms change generation by generation due to transmission of heritable characteristics.
Many principals of evolution but main is drive to survive and reproduce
An element of behavior that hangs onto this ability is disgust which is an evolutionary mechanism to dissaude us for things that could be classified as a biological hazard and dissaude us from harm/danger.
Curtis, Aunger and Rabie (2004)
Aim: to test out 4 predictions - women have higher disgust as they nurse children and thus need it to help protect their children, older people as there is no need to reproduce anymore, digust is cross cultural and disgust should be greater to things associated with disease.
Sample and design: Survey conducted on 77,000 people across 165 countries.
Method: Firstly asked people demographic questions, age, gender and ethnicity. Then they were asked to rate 6 pics on a disgust level of 1-5 with each pair having a disease salient photo and the same photo although slightly altered (different color/varient). Results proved the conclusions right and prove dthat disgust was indeed an evolutionary mechanism for the drive to survive and reproduce, especially cause of the women and their young having more disgust and older peeps having less.
Evaluation:
Pros:
Large sample group is good.
Cons:
bc its a survey there is self selected bias, as only peeps who wanna do the survey did it, but what abt the people who didn’t wanna.
Also smt disgusting could b something appealing to other cultures
only accounts for sight disgust and not touch, hearing, smelling basically other senses.
Draganski et al (2004)
Neuroplasticity occurs in reponse to reg learning which means that neuroplasticity is the neural basis of learning
Aim: 2 see whether structual changes in brain will occur via juggling
Participants: self-selecting sample of volunteers with no prior experience of juggling.
Method: true experiment, mixed design
Procedure: Sample randomly assigned juggler/non-juggler. Jugglers practiced 3 ball routine for 3 months and then no practice for the remaing 3 months.
Results: No difference in brain structure before experiment. After months significant growth was shown in mid-temporal cortex (also responsible for coordination). After 3 months of non-practice grey matter decreased once more (neural pruning) but not back to its og state.
Conclusion: Clear cause and effect relationship between brain structure and learning. grey matter grows in response to environmental demands (essentially for survival) and decreases when the infor is not needed anymore.
Crockett et al (2020)
Aim: to investigate the effect of seratonin on prosocial behavior.
Participants: 30 healthy volunteers
Method: experiment, repeat meausre deign with counterbalancing, also double blind
Procedure: Condition 1 participants give citalopram (an SSRI, basically stops the uptake of seratonin, so increased seratonin level.) Condition 2 give placebo. Participants were then given a moral dilemma - trolly problem (trolly travels down a rail about to kill 5 people)
impersonal scenario - pull lever, divert trolly and kill 1 person to save 5 people
Personal scenario - push the man off the bridge into the trolly, killing him but he slows down the train and saves 5 people.
In both scenarios he dies but the question is how active are you in his death?
Results: Impersonal scenario responses were unaffected byt the citalopram. In personal scenario same particis were reluctant to push the peep off the bridge.
Conclusion: The SSRI reduces the acceptability of personal harm i.e. it promotes prosocial behavior. Increaed seratonin in the brain mayc ause people to be more opposed tot he idea of inflicting harm on others.
Kasamatsu and Hirai (1999)
Aim: to see how sensory deprivation affects the brain, also to see how it affects behavior.
Methods: Studied a group of buddhist monks (specifically 6) who went on a 72 hour pilgrimage to a holy mountain in Japan. Field study which did not disrupt ecological validity.
Monks did not consume water or food, did not speak, were exposed to cold weather.
Researchers took blood sample before monks went up mountain and right after the monks reported hallucinations.
Results: After 48 hours, monks had hallucintions, seeing ancient ancestors or feeling presences by their sides.
Thye found serotonin levels had increased in monks. Thus the higher levels of serotonin activated the hypothalamus and frontal coretx, resulting in hallucinations.
Conclusion: Researchers concluded that sensory deprivation triggered the release of serotonin, which altered the way that the monks experienced the world, a behavior expressed by humans.
Scheele et al (2012)
Oxytocin modulates social distance between men and woman
Aim: to see the role of oxytocine in promoting fidelity in humans
Participants: 86 heterosexual men, some single and some in stable relationship.
Method: true experiment, independent measures design, double blind.
Procedure: Either oxytocin or placebo was given to participants internasally. After this, participants were required to do to tasks:
Stop distance paradigm - participant stood at one side of room, attractive female confederate on other. Particis were instructed to slowly go towards female confederate and stop at a distance that made em feel slightly uncomfy.
Approach avoidance task - particis were put in front of screen. They also had a joystcik. They were then shown a series of pic of four types in random order:
Pos Social pics (attrac women)
Pos non-social (beautiful landscape)
neg social (mutilations)
neg non-social (pic of dirt or smt)
If the participant like spicks he would pull joystick towards him, if he didnt like he would move the joystick away.
Results of first task - shpwed that oxytocin caused men to keep a greater distance away from attrac women. but only if dude was in stable female relationship.
Results of sec task - showed that the only group of pics affected by oxytocin and relationship status was positive social group. Men in relation ship pulled the joystick more slowly in oxytocin condition but not placebo condition.
Conclusion: oxytocin causes men in a relationship to keep a greater distance from attrac women who r not their partner. Researchers explained that this promotes fidelty. The sec task shows that this effect of oxytocin is high;y specific and selective to an certain stimuli - attractive women.
Lundstrom and Olson (2005)
Being exposed to AND increases the mood of women in the presence of males may trigger attraction
Aim: to investigate AND on the mood of women in the prescence of men.
37 hetereosexual women with the mean age of 25
Method: true experiment 2×2, experiment design (2IV with 2 levels).
Procedure: exposed to either AND or control solution either with male (30 years) or female (28 years) experimenter. Various measurementd taken including questionaire about sexual mood.
Results: AND increased women’s mood in the presence of males (not females)
Conclusion: May serve the function of signaling sexual attractiveness.
Memory
A cognitive process in which info is encoded, stored and retrieved in the brain.
Multi store memory model
Consists of sensory registry (pay attention, 1 sec iconic, 2-5 sec echoic. Must pay attention in first place.
STM where iconic is 20-30 secs and 5-7 auditory items stored.
We can convert STM to LTM by rehearsing.
Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)
Aim: to investigate the serial postion effect with and without interference of filler activity. (serial position effect is the ability to recall the first and last items on a list better than the ones in the middle)
Method: Trues experiment, repeated measures desgin.
Sample: 46 army enlisted men.
Procedure: 15 word lists (5 lists for each conditions) was read, after hear the list particis instructed to do free-recall task. There r three conditions:
free recall immediately after reading list
free recall after counting 10
free recall after counting 30
Results: in condition w/o filler both aspects of serial position is observed, primacy effect and recency effect.
in condition with filler, primacy effect stayed but recency effct is gone, more so in 30 sec condition.
Schemas
Deeply rooted mental representations that help us organize our knowledge, beliefs and expectations.
There are 4 types:
Social schemas, the foundations of stereotypes and can intimately lead to views on ethnicity, social economic status, religion and gender.
Scripts: mental representations of sequences of events that help us make sense of info that are time encoded.
Self-schemas: these are mental representations of ourselves.
Social schemas: Unconscious Biases.
Bransfor and Johnson (1972)
Aim: to investigate the effect of context on comprehension and memory of text passages.
Method: Experiment, independent measure design.
Participants: 50 male and femal high school volunteers.
Procedure: participants hear a tape recorded passage and were asked to recall by writing down as many ideas as possible. There were 5 conditions:
No context, heard passage once
No context, heard passage twice
contextual pic, provided before hearing passage
contextual pic, provided after hearing passage.
Partial contextual picture provided after hearing pic.
Results: there were a total of 14 ideas. Context before variable had 100% more recalled facts.
Conclusion: reinforces idea of schemas. Picture created schema and info encoded against this mental representation.
Albarracin et al (2001)
Aim - to investigate TPB for people decision to use condoms (STD prevention)
Method: meta analysis study
Participants: 42 research papers and 96 data sets.
Procedure: all data combined into data matrix and statistical analysis used.
Results: TPB successful at predicting condomuse (0.51 correlation between intention and behavior).
There was significant correlations between intentions and norms, attitudes and perceived control.
Conclusion: People are more likely to use condoms when intention present. Intention based on norms, attititudes and control. High predictive power of future behavior.
Loftus and Palmer (1974)
Aim: to investigate if memory can be altered by misleading post-event information (in an eye witness situation)
Method: Experimetn, independent measure.
Participantss: Experiment 1 - 15 students, 5 groups. Experiment 2 - 150 students, 3 groups.
Procedure:
Experiment 1 - 5 groups were shown same traffic collision vids and asked to fill in questionnaire. All Q’s the same other than ‘about how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ the IV was the misleading post-event information operationalized as the emotional intensity of the verb. The DV was the perceived speed of collision.
Experiment 2 - Participants were shown traffic collision and were asked to fill a questionnaire (critical question wording), ‘smashed into each other,’ ‘hit each other,’ No critical question.
One week later they were asked to complete a second questionaaire (10 questions) critical question (yes/no) did you see any glass broken?
result for experiment 1 → people listed higher speeds for smashed and lower speeds for hit
result for experiment 2 → the verb with smash had more people saying yes to broken glass than hit.
Therefore: Loftus and Palmer argue that two kinds of information go into a person's memory of an event; the information obtained from perceiving an event and the information supplied to us after an event. Over time the information from these two sources may become so integrated that we are unable to tell from which source they originally came from, all we have is one memory (known as the 'reconstructive hypothesis').
Tversky and Kahneman (1981)
aim - invetigate influence of the way as decicion prob is framed on decisions in scenraios involving risks.
sample - 307 undergrad kids
method - true experi, independent meas design
procedure - peeps were given prompt “imagine if asian disease come and expected to kill 600 peeps, two alt programs r proposed:
in group 1 - 200 peeps saved, 1/3 prob 600 peeps will b save, 2/3 prob that no one will
in group 2 - 400 peeps die, 1/3 prob no on dies, 2/3 prob that 600 peeps die.
results → 72%, 28% and 28%, 72%.
both results r the sam but the framing is what made em chose, this brings us back to heuristics as rational decision makers would not do this.
emotion and cognition
It was proposed by J. leDoux that we have a 2 speed system, so our brain has a quick emotional reaction followed by a more sophisticated process of cognitive interpretation, therefore emotions do play a process in memory processing which leads us to flashbulb memory.
Flashbulb memory states that is a major unusual even occurs that elicits an intense emotion like surpise or something that meotionally arouses the persom, then it is more liekly to create an impact in a persons memory and therefore allowing the memory to be retrievd in a more vivid manner.
There r two mechanisms to this:
formation - is mem arises emotion then it will create memory similar to photographic memory
maintenance - after formed, it has to be sustained and this is by covert or overt rehearsal. Overt is the convo with people about memory after happened and covert is the replaying in our head.
Brown and Kulik (1977)
Aim - to investigate the determinants of flashbulb memories about assassinations, newsworthy evens and personally sig events.
Method - correlation data using questionnair centered around 20 events. use of quasi experiments as difference between black and white americans were hypothesized- different public figures would have different significance.
participants - 40 black and 40 white americans aged between 20-60 years old.
procedure - participants asked to fill questionaire centered around 10 events - free recall of events, rating out of 5 for personal significance and the frequency they had discussed this story. Compromised of 9 events ivloving politicians (assainsnations etc) and 1 unexpected and personal in nature.
results: black participants more likely to have vivd flashbuld memories of assassination of leaders like Malcom X so occurrence of flashbul memory correlated wtih ratings of eprsoal consequentiality and occurrnce of flashbuld memory correlated with ratings of frequency of overt rehearsal.
Conclusion - results support the role of rehearsal and personal consequence. However assumed events were suprising and did not measure this as we cannot recreate a story as this
Enculturation
The process by which people learn the necessary and appropriate norms in the contact of their culture that is, cultural transmission (Passing cultural norms from one generation to the next) and enculturation are two sides of the same process.
Demorest et al (2009)
Participants: 150 trained and untrained participants from America and Turkey.
Procedure: Participants listened to several novel musical excerpts from both familiar and unfamiliar cultures (western, Turkish and Chinese) and then completed a recognition memory task.
Results: Participants were significantly better at remembering novel music from their native cultures, Musical expertise did not correlate with this result.
Conclusion: Enculturation influences musical memory on a deep level (cognitive schemas for musical information).
N.B: Cognition also counts as "behavior", therefore demonstrates the effects of enculturation on behavior.
Acculturation
Internalizing the dominant culture, migrants have moved to.
There r four kinds:
Assimilation: open to change without fear of loss of original cultural connection.
Integration: Preserve their beliefs and norms but also explore host culture.
Separation: fear of loss of own culture and restrict contact w other cultures.
Marginalization: individuals fail to maintain own culture but fail to seek contact with host culture.
Sha et al (2015) - obesity of South Asian workers in UAE.
Acculturation contributes to unhealthy eating as they move to a more unhealthy culture.
Aim: to study connections between Acculturation and obesity.
Method: correlation studies.
Participants: Random sample 1,375 south Asian workers (males), 50% staying 6 months or more. Comparison group in home country.
Results: Migrant workers had a higher BMI that comparison.
The longer they stayed the higher the BMI. Obesity was higher than control group and host nationals.
Conclusion: Host country has culture of unhealthy eating, migrants have adopted this trait.
Note
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