Psych 101 - Midterm 2

Daniel Kahneman

developed the two theory of two modes of thinking, System 1 and System 2

System 1

automatic - fast, effortless, parallel, associative, emotional, learns slowly

System 2

controlled - slow, effortful, serial, rule-based, learns quickly, neutral

The “paradox of choice”

we might think we want more choices, but that might not be the best thing for us

Decision fatigue

deteriorating quality of decisions with increase of decisions to make

The Stroop Effect

more likely to report wrong or more slowly colors when color of word doesn’t match the word itself - System 1 wants say word read, but System 2 wants to say color of word

Iyenager and Lepper’s “Jam Study”

set up jam-tasting station - more people stopped for more varieties, but less people bought than if there were fewer choices - demonstrates the paradox of choice

Linder et al’s study of decision fatigue in medical prescriptions

doctors become more likely to prescribe antibiotics as day goes on because of decision fatigue

Danzier et al’s study of decision fatigue in parole decisions

judges more likely to dismiss parole the longer they’ve been considering cases due to decision fatigue

Heuristic

mental shortcuts that allow people to make faster decisions but rely on less thought or information

Availability heuristic

determining frequency based on how easily it comes to mind

Lichtenstein’s suicide/homicide judgement study

participants assumed there were more homicides than suicides because they saw more homicides in the news than suicides, even though this assumption is wrong - proves availability heuristic

Confirmation bias

tendency to look for and weigh evidence that confirms preexisting beliefs more strongly than evidence that disconfirms those beliefs

The death penalty studies

Lord et al selected 24 proponents and 24 opponents to the death penalty. In groups they individually read cards with either confirming or disconfirming results of studies about the death penalty. They read the cards and then answered questions about attitude change. Then they read the full procedures and results of each study and then judged how through and accurate each study was. Then they answered attitude change questions again. - confirmed idea of confirmation bias

Metaphor

often used to describe abstract concepts - like ideas are food or life is a journey

George Lakoff

studied idea that metaphor isn’t just applicable to language, but also describes how we mentally process abstract concepts - explored how we view government, like a strict father (conservative) or nurturant parent (liberal) - difference in perception can lead to disagreement

The Wednesday meeting example

showed time-moving perspective (time is space, like the holidays are fast approaching) or ego-moving perspective (we’re moving up to the weekend) - asked people what it meant that Wednesday meeting was moved forward two days - using time-moving, one would say Monday - using ego-moving, one would say Friday

Boroditsky and Ramscar’s Thai cafe study

studied how perspective changed as we move through space - interviewed people in various places in line waiting to get into a new Thai restaurant - demonstrated abstract thinking

The crime metaphor study

described crime as either beast or a virus - categorized solutions - if crime was described as beast, more likely to offer enforcement solutions, while if crime was described as virus, more likely to offer social environment solutions

Political metaphors

how we view government, such as like a family - saw how difference in perception can lead to disagreement

Shared system, rule-governed, generative

requirements of language - represent 3 c’s of language - communicate, connect, and cooperate

\-shared - a shared system of arbitrary symbols that refer to things

\-rule-governed - has rules (grammar and syntax) that govern how symbols can be arranged

\-generative - symbols can be combined (according to rules) to produce an infinity of ideas

Pidgin

a created language that uses words from all languages, but inconsistent grammar - ex. in Hawaii, many migrants came to harvest sugar cane and they spoke multiple languages - created pidgin language to communicate

Creole

when a new generation inherits a pidgin language and systematize and improve it, injecting new grammatical consistency and structure

Nicaraguan Sign Language

deaf community in Nicaragua largely isolated (no formalized language) - first schools for deaf created in 1979 and focused on lip reading - LSN is a pidgin created by teens to communicate using hand gestures - new kids came in and created creole called ISN

Phonology

speech sounds - sound system of languages, smallest unit of sound to produce language

Morphology

parts

Semantics

meaning

Syntax

grammar

Pragmatics

uses - the way we use language, not how it’s structured - includes social timing, eye contact, proximity, turn-taking

Conditioned head turn task

A method of testing whether infants can discriminate two sounds or two categories of sound. Infants are trained to turn their head to the location of the speaker on their left when there is a change in a repeating train of sounds

\-babies are good at picking out phonemes

High amplitude sucking technique interburst intervals

The HAS technique capitalizes on infants’ sucking reflex: infants hear a sound stimulus every time they produce a strong or “high-amplitude” suck.

Code switching

the alternate use of language (usually two or more) in one conversation

Werker’s ba v. da perception study

we hear the sound being mouthed even if it is different - so if ba is mouthed but da is said, we still hear ba

DeCasper and Spence Cat in the Hat study

babies were more drawn to or stimulated by stories they were read in the womb

\-babies can hear/react to sounds in womb, prefer target story read by mother

Human vocal tract theory

narrower vocal tract and a deeper larynx allow us to speak - babies are born with a larynx like a neanderthal that then changes as they develop

Bipedalism

freed up our hands and allows us to communicate with hands - posits that gesture is the key to language

Representational and non-representational gestures

representational - iconic, metaphoric, affect gestures

non-representational - dietic, beat gestures

Emblems

conventionally, culturally-determined gestures

Iconic gestures

a gesture that has some physical resemblance to the meaning or idea that it stands for, such as holding up the hand with the thumb and forefinger very close together to signify that something is very small

Metaphoric gestures

occur when an individual creates a physical representation of an abstract idea or concept, and these gestures provide additional semantic meaning that complements the ongoing speech

Affect gestures

a behavior which acts as a sign of emotion which can be seen visually in the manner it is displaced, such as facial expressions

Deictic gestures

gestures use to point out concrete or abstract objects or events

Beat gestures

gestures that do not carry any speech content

Gesture in blind children study

found that blind and sighted children and adolescents gestured at comparable rates

Lucca and Wilbourn’s study of the connection between pointing gestures and word learning in toddlers

pointing and reflected readiness to learn

Alfred Binet

created a test to see how one child performs compared to other children in regards to actual age - used this to help children who need more resources - gave them IQ

Mental age

how a child performs compared to other children

Chronological age

how old a child is

Ratio IQ

(mental age/chronological age) \* 100 - used to test intelligence of children

Deviation IQ

(your score/average score) \* 100 - used to test adults

Lewis Terman

introduced IQ tests to America, viewed intelligence as innate and wanted to find the most intelligent individuals so as to give them resources - part of the eugenics movement

Eugenics movement

used intelligence tests to create most intelligent society and used forced sterilization to reach this goal, but biased based on race and culture

Enrichment

resources given/available

Bob Rosenthal

completed study about experimenter bias and intelligence of rats

Pygmalion Effect (self-fulfilling prophecy)

having someone believe in and enrich you can have dramatic results - it matters how a student views themselves

Carol Dweck

pioneered growth mindset - implicit theories or mindsets about intelligence - teaches that brain is malleable, that it’s a muscle to be cultivated and worked out

Growth mindset

intelligence can be changed and is malleable - students perform better because they want to learn, see effort as crucial, see challenge as opportunity, and respond resiliently to setback

Fixed Mindset

intelligence can’t be changed - students want to look “smart,” sees effort as indicating low ability, sees challenge as risk, and responds helplessly to setbacks

Fluid intelligence (Gf)

ability to solve problems and complex relationships

Crystallized intelligence (Gc)

knowledge a person already acquired

Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices

used to see if training working memory increased fluid intelligence - it did

The dual n-back task

designed to quickly train fluid intelligence, to expand working memory - involves keeping track of visual and auditory information from n-trials ago and is used to increase capacity or working memory to increase fluid intelligence

Intelligence and genetic relatedness data

identical twins reared together are more likely to have similar intelligence, as compared to fraternal twins reared together - important to note that environment increased correlation coefficient, which implies that nature and nurture interact to determine/improve intelligence

Cooper-Zubek’s rats reared in different environments study

demonstrated that rats raised in restricted environments are dull, but those raised in enriched environment were bright - environment can override genetics

Rosenthal and Fode’s experimenter bias and rats study

had students train rats that they thought were either smart or dumb - students who had “smarter” rats trained better-performing rats - no difference in resources, but difference in belief translates to performance

Rosenthal’s Academic “bloomer” study

20% of students randomly assigned to be intellectually “blooming” - only told teachers, not kids - dramatic increase in IQ for kids labelled as “bloomers”

Blackwell’s mindset studies

kids with growth mindsets performed better and better than those with a fixed mindset

Jaeggi’s study of working memory training

found that you can quickly train fluid intelligence and expand working memory - which has lasting, positive effect on fluid intelligence

Claude Steele

studied stereotype threat impact on test scores

Stereotype threat

our awareness of stereotypes that our different social groups teach us impact our intelligence - burden caused by concern that performance might confirm negative stereotypes

Steele and Aronson’s stereotype threat studies

demonstrated effect of stereotype salience - stereotype in mind - demonstrated that race got in participants head and impacted GRE test score

Spencer, Steele, and Quinn’s stereotype threat studies

effect of stereotype relevance - stereotype relevant to task at hand - gender got in participants head and impacted math students’ scores - also demonstrated stereotype lift

Cheryan’s study of physical space cues

explicit and implicit cues in physical space using classroom with science fiction posters of classroom with art

Canning et al’s study of professor’s mindsets and their relationship with achievement gaps

faculty who believe that ability is fixed have larger racial gaps and inspire less motivation in class

The facial expression and sensory intake study by Susskind et al

Emotions shape what we take in through our senses - fear expressions make it so that more stimulus is taken in and disgust makes it so less stimulus is taken in

The emotional memory and propranolol study by Cahill et al

told participants two stories (one emotional and one neutral) and found that emotion boosts memory - then tried to suppress emotions using propranolol and found that memory of two groups were much the same

The propranolol and PTSD study by Brunnett et al

reduced ptsd symptoms by assigning 60 adults to take 2 meds and then undergo brief traumatic memory activation - propranolol helped a lot

Emotional video enhancing memory for Psych content study by Nelson et al

gave three language lectures - then had one group watch emotional video or boring video - emotional video helped boost memories

The case study of “Elliot” by Damasio

emotions help us learn and make decisions - Elliot had suppressed emotions and then had trouble making decisions

Universality hypothesis

all emotions are the same and are easy to recognize - argues that Westerners and non-Westerners can recognize same emotion

Basic emotions

emotions all humans have - disgust, fear, joy, sadness, anger

Social referencing

demonstrated by the visual cliff experiment - infants use the affective displays of an adult to regulate their behaviors toward environmental objects, persons, and situations

Interpersonal emotions

include jealousy and embarrassment and are directly related to social interactions

Paul Ekman’s study of emotion recognition and expression

proved universality hypothesis by taking pictures of classmates expressing different emotions and saw widespread agreement on the depicted emotion in western culture but when showed to Papua New Guineans (unexposed to western culture), still showed emotional recognition; he followed up by taking pictures of the Papua New Guineans and showed to westerners and saw that they too could recognize emotion of others

The “visual cliff” study by Sorce et al

Visual cliff study showed how emotional expression of caregiver (social referencing) impacted the motion of the child and when the mother smiles, they cross but when she looks afraid, they stay back

“Common sense” theory

stimulus → subjective emotional experience → bodily response → report

\- false bc if no bodily symptoms, no emotion

James-Lange theory

stimulus → bodily response → subjective emotional experience → report

\- false bc some emotions have similar bodily response and some responses are slow

Cannon-Bard theory

stimulus → subjective emotional experience AND bodily/physiological responses → report

Schacter-Singer (Two Factor) theory

stimulus → bodily/physiological responses → cognitive interpretation → subjective emotional experience → report

Strack et al’s “facial feedback” study

by changing facial expression as instructed while reading cartoons, saw that people holding pencil in mouth more smiley saw the cartoon as funnier

The “Bridge” study by Dutton and Aron

\-male participants crossing the bridge and asked them to complete a questionnaire (experimental group was scary bridge with female interviewer - assuming heterosexual) and interviewer gave phone number; saw that on the safe bridge most people did not call, on the scary bridge some people called the male interviewer, and on the scary bridge most people called the female interviewer, showing that people confused the physiological arousal of fear for love

\-Follow-up study just used scary bridge and tested on bridge or in parking lot and got similar findings for the on bridge condition

\-showed we can mislabel our emotions and actually be wrong about how we feel and we can change our interpretations and thus how we feel

Emotion regulation

trying to modify some aspects of our emotional response

Process model of emotion regulation

situation (situation selection and situation modification) → attention (attention deployment) → appraisal (cognitive change) → response (response modulation)

Situation selection

choose situations whether they generate desirable or undesirable emotions

Situation modification

once in situation, change it in some way to change emotional impact

Attentional deployment

change your focus to change emotion

Cognitive change

change how we think about it to alter emotional impact

Response modulation

try to directly influence experience, behavior, or response (like suppression) - dealing with in-the-moment emotional feeling

The karaoke study by Brooks

participants sang in front of a stranger and began by saying nothing, "I'm anxious," and "I'm excited" and saw that anxious condition lowered scores and excited condition improved scores in game

Cumulative cultural evolution

cultures evolve to build complex practices and areas of knowledge that gradually improve over centuries and millennia - we build on past ideas and inventions