Intro. to Psychology Exam 2

Developmental Psychology, Learning, Decision Making, and Memory

developmental psychology

scientific study of how humans change over the life span (from conception until death)

sociocultural theory

how culture is transmitted from one generation to the next via everyday social interactions

bioecological systems theory

development results from ongoing interactions between biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes within individual and their changing contexts

dynamic systems theory

children’s developmental domains, maturation, and environment as an integrated system, every changing, resulting in developmental change and emergence of new abilites

germinal period

division of the zygote and implantation in the uterine wall

embryonic period

brain, spine, major organs, and bodily structures begin to form int he embryo

fetal period

brain continues developing; bodily structures are refined; fetus grows in length/weight and accumulates fat for birth

teratogens

environmental substances that can harm prenatal development (alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, drugs, rubella, syphilis, radiation, etc.)

cephalocaudal development

growth occurs from top down

proximodistal development

growth occurs from the center of the body outward

rooting reflex

infant turns their head and opens their mouth when the corner of their cheek is touched

sucking reflex

allows babies to suck, swallow, and breathe to feed

grasping reflex

baby’s fingers curl around an object placed in their palm

maturation

physical development of the brain and body that prepares an infant for voluntary movement

harry harlow’s monkey attachment experiment

tested whether attachment bonds are formed when caregivers provide for physical needs vs. comforting contact

mary ainsworth’s strange situation test

assess the quality of a child's attachment to their caregiver; it involves a series of separations and reunions between a child and caregiver in a controlled environment to observe the child's reactions to stress, stranger anxiety, and reunion behavior

secure attachment

infants confident enough to play in unfamiliar environment if caregiver present + infants readily comforted by caregiver in times of distress

avoidant attachment

insecure attachment - infants somewhat willing to explore unfamiliar environment, but with little interest in caregiver

ambivalent attachment

infants unwilling to explore unfamiliar environment with mixed feelings about the caregiver (cry when caregiver leaves, but not consoled upon return)

theory of mind

capacity to understand that other people have minds and intentions

piaget’s theory of cognitive development

infants change how they think as they form new schemas or ways of thinking about how the world works

assimilation

fitting new information into existing mental frameworks (ex: child sees a poodle and calls it a dog. later, it sees a daschund and still calls it a dog)

accomodation

changing existing frameworks to fit new, conflicting information (ex: child initially believes that all four legged animals are dogs, but later learns that a cat is not a dog and creates a new schema for that)

sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)

acquisition of information through senses and motor skills; object permanence

preoperational stage (2-7 years)

reasoning based on intuition and superficial appearances rather than logic; law of conservation (taller vs shorter glass, child believes taller glass has more water), centration (ignoring other relevant information and only focusing on one thing), and egocentrism (viewing the world solely through your experiences)

concrete operation stage (7-12 years)

begin to think about and understand logical operations, and no longer fooled by appearances

formal operational stage (12-adulthood)

think abstractly, and able to formulate and test hypotheses through logic

criticisms of piaget’s theory

he underestimated the ages at which certain skills develop + cog. dev. understood in terms of trends rather than strict stages

phonemes

any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat

morphemes

the smallest meaningful units of language, which serve as the building blocks for words

babbling

intentional vocalization, often by an infant, with no specific meanings

telegraphic speech

rudimentary sentences with missing words and grammatical markings, though follow logical syntax and convey meaning

over-regularization

incorrect use of a regular syntax rule where exception to a rule should be used

erikson’s psychosocial theory

development though psychosocial stages related to the role of soicety and culture

freud’s psychosexual theory

development as progression through psychoscexual stages with drives focused on body parts

cognitive psychology

scientific study of mind and mental function, including memory, learning, attention, perception, reasoning, langauge, conceptual development, and decision making

learning

the process of acquiring through experience, new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

habituation - non associative learning

lengthy or repeated exposure to a stimulus which eventually leads to a DECREASED individual response

sensitization - non associative learning

lengthy or repeated exposure to a stimulus which eventually leads to an INCREASED invidiual response

US - unconditioned stimulus in pavlov’s experiment

food

UR - unconditioned response in pavlov’s experiment

salivation in response to food

NS - neutral stimulus in pavlov’s experiment

bell paired with US (food)

acquisition

the association between the NS and US

CS - conditioned stimulus in pavlov’s experiment

previously the NS, when paired with US over time, it now elicits a CR

john b watson’s little albert experiment

classical conditioning - conditioned a 9-month old baby to associate rats (CS) with a loud noise (US) and fear them (CR)

stimulus generalization

tendency to respond to stimuli similar to but not identical to a CS

stimulus discrimination

ability to respond differently to various stimuli

operant conditioning

a form of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

edward thorndike’s law of effect

behaviors followed by a satisfying outcome are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors that cause discomfort are less likely to recur

primary reinforcers

an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need (ex: food, water, shelter)

secondary (or conditioned) reinforcers

a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power via its association with a primary reinforcer (ex: money can be exchanged for food)

reinforcement schedule

a pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced

continuous reinforcement

the desired response is reinforce EVERY TIME it occurs

partial (internment) reinforcement

responses are sometimes reinforced and sometimes not reinforced; more resistant to extinction aka more effective

observational learning (OL)

the acquisition or modification of a behavior after exposure to at least one performance of that behavior

modeling

the imitation of behavior through OL

vicarious conditioning

learning the consequences of an actin by watching others being rewarded or punished for performing the action

decision making

attempting to select the best alternative among several options

bounded rationality

the idea that in decision-making, rationality of individuals is limited by
1) the information they have
2) the cognitive limitations of their minds
3) the finite amount of time they have to make a decision

heuristic

shortcut used to reduce the amount of thinking needed to make decisions

availability heuristic

tendency to make decision based on information that comes most easily to mind (assuming a woman is a model bc that’s the first occupation that comes to mind)

representativeness heuristic

tendency to place people or objects in a category if they are similar to the concept that is the prototype (assuming a woman is a model and not a lawyer because she has a beautiful body)

bias

systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, whereby inferences about others and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion

framing

how information is presented affects how that information is perceived and influences decisions

memory

learning taht has been kept over time; information which has been stored and that can be recalled

encoding

processing of information to allow its storage

storage

retention of encoded representations over time

retrieval

act of recalling or remembering information that has been stored when needed

filter theory

explains how we selectively attend to the most important information

change blindness

failure to identify significant visual changes in environment (ex: a stranger in a crowd was switched out with another person)

working memory

processing system which permits to maintain information in short-term storage by actively manipulating it and rendering it available for its current use

chunking

using working memory to organize information into meaningful units to facilitate retrieval (smaller more manageable “chunks” so you can remember better)

maintenance rehearsal

shallow encoding by using working-memory processes to repeat auditory information (repeating words to remember a list)

elaborative rehearsal

in-depth encoding and long term storage by using working memory processes to think about how new information relates to ourselves or our prior knowledge (remembering a person’s name by linking it to something you already know)

context dependent memory

congruence between environment when encoding and retrieving

state dependent memory

congruence between physiological states when encoding and retrieving

mood dependent memory effects

easier retrieval when same mood when encoding and retrieving

mood congruence effect

easier retrieval when similar mood when encoding adn retrieving

mnemonics

memory aids that require elaborative rehearsal (association to remember)

method of loci

sequential pieces of information to be remembered are first associated with sequential locations in a very familiar room or location (“mind palace”)

retroactive interference

when NEWER memories prevent access to older ones

proactive interference

when OLDER memories prevent access to newer ones

flashbulb memories

vivid memories of circumstance when encoding of emotionally intense event occurred

suggestablity

when people are given misleading information, this information affects their memory for an event (ex: hearing eyewitness account makes you remember the event through their perspective)

persistance

continual recurrence of unwanted memories from long-term storage (PTSD)