Psych 2H03 Exam

cognitive unconscious

The broad set of mental activities of which people are completely unaware but that make possible ordinary thinking, remembering, reasoning, and so on.

consciousness

is a state of awareness of sensations or ideas,such that one can
- reflect on those sensations and ideas,
- know what it "feels like" to experience them, and
- report to others that one is aware of these sensations and ideas

unconscious experiment

- delivered shocks to demonstrate unconscious causal reasoning about somatic symptoms
-placebo: placebo pill to diminish effects
- attributed physical symptoms of the shock to the pill

Blind Sight

- results from damage to the visual cortex
-No visual awareness: Patients insist that they cannot see visual stimuli, and they do not react to them
- They can correctly "guess" the locations of objects, reach for them, and generally describe them

Subliminal Perception

people can be influenced by visual inputs they didn't consciously perceive

Action Slips

cases in which you do something differently than intended
-When trying to do something different, you often end undoing what is normal or habitual

Unconscious processes can operate without "supervision."

Run many processes simultaneously• Increases speed and efficiency of cognition• Attention can be devoted elsewhere.
- biological (built into nervous system) + practice

Executive Control + Unconscious actions

- a way to initiate or override actions.
- a way to represent its goals and agenda.
- information about inputs
- information about the state of mental processes.

Metacognitive skills

Skills in monitoring + controlling ones mental processes

Metamemory

knowledge and beliefs about, awareness of,and control over one's own memory
- "Okay, I understand this material; I can study something else now
- guided by goals

True or False? There is a designated brain area for consciousness

False no consciousness center - 2 broad categories: Overall alertness, content

Overall Alertness or Sensitivity

- Range from being sleepy and dimly aware to fully awake,highly alert, and totally focused
Compromised by damage to the thalamus or reticularactivating system

Content of consciousness

Various contents rely on different brain regions.

Neuronal workspace hypothesis

A specific claim about how the brain makes conscious experience possible; the proposal is that "workspace neurons" link together the activity of various specialized brain areas, and this linkage makes possible integration and comparison of different types of information.

Qualia

one's subjective experiences that cannot be conveyed as a first-person experience to someone else
- For example, the pain of a headache

mind-body problem

The difficulty in understanding how the mind (a nonphysical entity) and the body (a physical entity) can influence each other, so that physical events can cause mental events, and mental events can cause physical ones.

Intellgence Quotient Test

Ration between someones "mental age" and chronologial age
-rely on many subtests - vocab, numbers etc

Weshler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance subtests

Reliability

consistency of measurement
- often evaluated by test-retest reliability (Intell. tests have high R)

Validity

whether something measures what it is designed to measure

predictive validity

If the test measures what it should measure, then the score on the test should predict how well a person scores on a related measure
ex. IQ score and GPA should be correlated

IQ and Implications

- strong indicator of how someone performs on the job
- higher iq's = typically higher prestige careers, live longer

general intelligence

a capacity that provides an advantage on virtually any mental task - opp side, low level = do poorly on wide range of tasks

factor analysis

-procedure that looks for common factors
- looks for elements that contribute to multiple subset - link those subsets

fluid intelligence

our ability to deal with novel problems
- peaks in early adulthood then declines
- Tasks impaired by fatigue, depression etc.

Crystalized Intelligence

involves your acquired knowledge, including your verbal knowledge and your repertoire of skills—skills useful for dealing with problems similar to those you've already encountered

Inspection Time

the time one needs to make a discrimination between two stimuli
- Negative correlation between response time and intelligence scores
-Support for intelligence being based on processing speed

Memory + g

People with larger working-memory capacities do better on tests designed to measure g

practical intelligence

"street smart" reasoning needed in day-day settings
- teaching can be more effective when matched to students abilities

Measures of Rationality

the capacity for critically assessing information asit is gathered in the natural environment

emotional intelligence

- understand one's own emotions
- understand others' emotions
- control one's emotions when appropriate.

Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner)

linguistic, logical-mathematical, and spatial intelligences already assessed instandard IQ testsnm;'

Savant Syndrome

Profoundly disabled individuals (IQ as low as 40-50) with a stunning level of specialized talent
- Possible to have extreme talent that is separate from intelligence test scores

Nature vs. Nurture

Intelligence is influenced by genetics ("nature") and experience("nurture")

Flynn Effect

scores on intelligence tests have risen approximately 3 points per decade over the last few decades
-Observed in affluent nations and impoverished nations

stereotype threat

negative impact of social stereotypes, once activated, on task performance

Introspection + Self Report Data

-Francis Galton 1883 → used introspection study mental imagery
-Self-report data → suggested that people could inspect + describe their mental image just like viewing a picture

Translation Step

the point when people translate their inner experience to words

Chronometic studies

- Ask participants to judge / manipulate the mental images (doing something with the images)
- Measure how long this takes to test this hypothesis

Description

prominent features that are distinct will be strongly associated with the object when being described

Depiction

The size and position determined what's prominent vs not

image-scanning procedure

- scan across images at a constant rate → scan time doubles = required time doubles
- Response times are directly proportional the amount of zoom required

mental rotation task

-mentally rotating shapes in mind
-Time required depend on the amount of rotation

_____ areas used for early visual processing are also active during visualization imagery.

Occipital

Binocular Rivalry

2 different visual stimuli are presented to each eye

True or False - If you lose ability to perceive find details you also lose the ability to visualize fine detail

True

Spatial + Visual Imagery in Brain

- Visual and spatial tasks activate different brain areas

What influences choosing between visual vs spatial imagery

- the task
- personal preference
- individual ability

Aphantasia

inability to form mental images

eidetic memory

photographic memory

Precepts

- mental representations of the perceived stimulus
- Depictions (like pictures) that represent three-dimensional layout
- Unambiguous, organized depictions (unlike pictures

How are images stored in Long term memory

- stored in a piece by piece fashion
- need to activate repersentation of the image frame --> elaborate on the frame

True or False - More imagable words are easier to remember than less imagable words

True

Dual Coding

Imageable materials can be coded verbally and as an image - multiple retrieval opportunities

Boundary Extension

- Pictures are often remembered as having depicted more information than they did.
- May be that the experience of the picture is remembered rather than the picture itself
- Includes expectations and schematic knowledge

Orbitofrontal cortex

Damage to this part of the brain causes loss of emotions, and can lead to extreme difficulty in decision making. Crucial in use of somatic markers.

Frequency estimate

An assessment of how often various events have occurred in the past. Many judgments begin with this.

Attribute substitution

A strategy for decision making in which you rely on easily assessed information as a proxy for the information you really need (e.g. "I remember being stuck in traffic on 4th that one time, so 16th must be better - this is specifically an availability heuristic)

Availability heuristic

A form of attribute substitution in which one relies on availability as a substitute for frequency

Representativeness heuristic

A form of attribute substitution in which one relies on resemblance to make a judgment

Heuristic

An efficient strategy that usually leads to the right answer. Sometimes leads to errors.

True or false? A big problem with the availability heuristic is that rare events stick out more in memory.

True

Covariation

the amount of change in one variable that is consistently related to the change in another variable of interest

Illusions of covariation

- Incorrect perceptions that one variable predicts another
- Astrological signs and personality
- Social stereotypes
- Superstitions

Gambler's fallacy

The belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn't occurred recently (e.g. coin tossing) - stems from the assumption of homogeneity

Man who argument

Basing decisions on one instance rather than considering a larger sample of data (e.g. "I know a guy who bought a BMW and it broke down 2 days later, don't buy one")

Confirmation bias

A tendency to be more alert to evidence that confirms your beliefs than to evidence that might challenge them

Base rate information

Information about how frequently something occurs in general

Diagnostic information

Information about a particular case (people seem to rely more on this information than on base rate information, as demonstrated in the lawyer/engineer description study - p. 465)

Dual process model

The notion that two networks exist within the human brain, one for emotional and one for analytical processing of stimuli (Type 1 vs Type 2 thinking)

Type 1 thinking

Thinking that is fast and easy, heuristic based.

Type 2 thinking

Thinking that is slower and more effortful. Thought to come into play only if triggered by certain cues and if circumstances are right

False

True or false? Type 1 thinking always ignores base-rate information.

True or false? People are more alert to a base rate phrased as "12 out of every 1,000 cases" than they are to "1.2% of all cases".

True

Cognitive Reflection Test

Test with questions that have what seems like an obvious answer, which turns out to be wrong. There are only 3 questions. Intelligent people mess it up. Those with high scores tend to have better scientific understanding, show greater skepticism towards paranormal abilities, and even seem more analytic in their moral decisions.

Induction

The process through which you make forecasts about new cases, based on cases you've observed before

Deduction

The process in which you start with claims or assertions that you count as "given" and ask what follows from these premises.

Belief perseverance

The tendency to stick with initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

Categorical syllogisms

A type of logical argument that begins with 2 assertions (premises), each containing a statement about a category. It can then be completed with a conclusion that may or may not follow from these premises.

Valid syllogisms

Syllogisms in which the conclusion follows from the 2 premises stated. People are really bad at evaluating the validity of the conclusions.

Belief bias

The tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid

4 card task (selection task)

Task with 4 cards with a letter on one side and a number on the other. Task is to evaluate the statement "if a card has a vowel on one side, it must have an even number on the other side"

Utility maximization

The proposal that people make decisions by selecting the option that has the greatest utility.

Framing

the way an issue is posed; can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Risk seeking

Preferring to take risk when a choice could result in loss

Risk aversion

Preferring to avoid risk when a choice would result in a gain

Reason based choice

The idea that we make choices that we feel good about, and feel are reasonable and justified.

True or false? The cost of too many options is demonstrated by the fact that when doctors were asked to choose between surgery and one medication, they went with medication more often than when they were asked to choose between surgery and 2 different medications.

True

Somatic markers

States of the body used in decision making. For example, a tight stomach and an accelerated heart rate when a person is thinking about a particular option can signal to the person that the option has risk associated with it.

Affective forecasting

Ability to predict our own future emotions - shown to be relatively poor.

Paradox of choice

The idea that having too many choices makes us less happy

Conjunction fallacy

Fallacy when people estimate the odds of 2 events happening together are greater than the odds of either happening alone

Paired distinctiveness

The pairing of 2 distinct events that stand out because they co-occur

Which form of reasoning, inductive or deductive, involves drawing general conclusions based on specific instance?

Inductive

Which form of reasoning, inductive or deductive, involves applying general circumstances to specific instances?

Deductive

Predicting Emotions - Affective Forecasting

your prediction about your future emotions - usually inaccurately predict the duration of those feelings

Aphasia

A loss of the ability to produce and understand ordinary language

True or false? Some people with aphasia can still sing, showing that they involve different processes.

true

Sentences

coherent sequences of words that express the intended meaning of a speaker

List the hierarchy of linguistic units in top down order.

Sentence, phrase, word, morpheme, phoneme