psych 102 exam 1

Hypothesis-

testable prediction

Theory-

integrated set of principles that organizes observations to predict behaviors and events

Variable-

anything that varies and can be measured

Independent variable-

the thing you are changing or altering

Dependent variable-

impacted by the independent variable

Operational definition-

clear precise description of variable being measured

Ex blood alcohol content by a breathalzyer

descriptive research:  3 types of studies

case studies, naturalistic observation, survey

Case studies-

in depth studies of 1 person usually from a rare occurrence Ex phineas gage’s head injury spike in the head

Naturalistic observation-

studies behavior in real life situations “the creeper method Ex people watching

Surveys-

collects self reported attitudes/behaviors Ex rating a class

correlational research: strength & direction (positive & negative) 

* Measures how closely 2 + variable are related  
* r: # usually a decimal showing the strength and direction of relationship  


* Closer to one either positive or negative the stronger the relationship  


* - r as one goes up one goes down ex grades and number of absences  
* + r they both go up or both go down ex calories burned and time running  

can you draw causation from a correlation

no

experimental research: independent variable, dependent variable 

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* Examines cause and effect by manipulating 1 + variable (the independent variable) to determine its effect on another variable (the dependent variable) also need a control  

quasi-experimental research 

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* Compares 2+ groups based on preexisting characteristics that can’t be manipulated  


* Ex sex race  

• longitudinal research 

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* Study the same people for a chunk of time to track something over the course of someone’s life  

Null hypothesis-,

population level effect is 0 ( no effect/no relationship)

Alternative hypothesis-,

predicts the existence of an effect/relationship

Statistical significance-,

likelihood of getting a similar or increased extreme result to that in the sample if there’s no true effect in the population

P value-,

based on the observed test statistic for sample- determines whether relationship/group differences are statistically significant

P value < 0.05,

if there is no true effect in population a similar or increased extreme effect would be observed less than 5% of the time

Effect sizes:,

provides info on the size of relationship/difference increase the effect size= increase the relationship/difference

Cognition

mental activities involved in thinking remembering and communicating Allows us to communicate

Metacognition-

thinking about thinking Ex do I know this topic? Influence choices of what to study

Overconfidence-

being too confident

encoding fluency & how it influences overconfidence

Encoding fluency- (ease of learning) can miscalibrate confidence Most common metacognitive problem\=overconfidence (tendency to be more confident than correct) Thinking going into an exam thinking you are going to kill it then you do really bad If you increase someone's knowledge this lessens their overconfidence Where overconfidence can be good: job interview

* Dunning-Kruger effect

* Dunning-Kruger effect: those with less skills especially prone to overestimate their ability (lack metacognitive skills to recognize inability) 
* EXAM QUESTION 
* Top 25% of students under estimated their ability  
* Imposter syndrome  
* Bottom 25% overestimated their abilities by a lot  
* Estimated they'd get in the 60th percentile but got in the 10th  
* You lack the ability to recognize the fact that you don't have the skills  

category

* Category: cluster of objects events or ideas sharing core features  


* Ex Dogs (breeds of dogs)  

concept

* Concept: mental representation of categories  


* Ex if you have a concept of dogs you would be able to tell that the thing you see is a dog  
* Sometimes they don't map onto the actual category  


* Ex someone thinking that a mini skirt and a crop top is appropriate interview attire  
* Ex is ballet a sport  

prototype

* Prototype: mental representation of an average category member 


* Ex with the dogs you don't think of a rat dog you think generally of a golden retriever or basic dog 

problem-solving techniques: trial & error

trying something to see if it will work

insight

* Insight: sudden realization of a problem's solution 


* Aha or eureka moment  
* Archimedes moment with the bathtub and the gold crown  
* Asian elephants seeing if they use tools to get food that they can’t reach a baby elephant did it  

* Algorithms:

* Algorithms: problem solving based on methodological rules/procedures  


* If this leads to this then this and on and on  
* Specific set of decision solving  
* Pro you eventually get to a solution  
* Con it takes you a very long time  
* Ex password code you could try every combo but it would take forever  

* Heuristics:

* simple quick strategies based on prior experience and intuition (effortless immediate automatic feelings/thoughts) 


* Pro less mental effort  
* Con prone to error (no one decision rule works for all cases) 

* Availability heuristic

* Availability heuristic: judging event's likelihood by how easily examples come to mind  


* Easily remembered thought to be more common  
* People are more afraid of plane crashes than of car crashes bc they are easier to remember/shown more or shark attacks or terrorists  
* Daschans more likely to bit people than pitbulls  

* Representative heuristic:

* estimating likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes  


* 2009 arrest of dr gates harvard professor sterotype of him caused him to be arrested  
* Gets arrested for disorderly conduct bc police think he's breaking into his own house 
* Racial profiling  
* Someone might miss something if you are young and women trying to smuggle drugs since most peoples idea of a drug smuggler is not a young women  
* False negative or positive error 

* Framing:

* decisions and judgements are influenced by the way in which info is presented  


* Same info just presented differently can make something more or less desirable  

* Attribute framing

* : altering description of a single attribute of an item (as positive or negative) can alter people's perception of an item  


* Ex ground beef 75% lean vs 25% fat (no difference between the beef just changing how you frame it) 
* Items framed more positively (vs. negatively)= evaluated more favorably  


* 95% of the time the professor was on time vs late 5% of the time  

loss aversion

* Loss aversion: people more upset by potential losses than potential gains: leads us to avoid losses 


* Pain from loss 2x more intense then the pleasure from gain  


* Companies and marketers frame things as losses  
* The 25% off sale ends tonight so you feel like you have to use it now or you'll loose it  
* Credit card companies motivated to get you to charge a lot on your card reach out to people who hadn't used their card in a few months with a message a gain framed (you'll get airline miles) vs a loss framed message (you'll loose out on airline miles etc) 


* Then they track their behavior loss framed used the card 2x as often and spent 2x as much  


* Loss aversion can be used for good things too- mammogram  


* Have women view 1 of 2 messages gain framed or loss framed  
* Followed up with them and found that women in the loss framed were more likely to go in a get a mammogram  


* Can be good or bad loss aversion 

anchoring effect

Anchoring effect: tendency to rely on the first piece of info (the anchor) when making judgments/ decisions   

* Ex do you think the pop of Chicago is more or less than  (give them one of the 2) 


* 200,000 (low anchor) or 5 million (high anchor) 
* For 200,000 the median estimate was 600,000 
* For 5 mill estimate 5.5 mill 
* We anchor to the first piece of info that we get 

\
in pain scales

* More frequent  = less severe  
* Less frequent  = more severe   

fixation

Fixation: inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective 

* 9 dots 4 lines problem  
* Don't think you can draw outside of the lines when you actually can  

mental set

 tendency to approach a problem in a certain way (often due to past success with that approach)  

* DEALS WITH PEOPLES MIND 
* Ex Pushing on a pull door  
* Can stop our ability to solve physical and social problems  

functional fixedness

inability to realize objects known to have a particular use may also be used to perform other functions  

* The box holding the tacks in the Duncker's candle problem can also use the box to hold the candle  
* DEALS WITH OBJECTS 

confirmation bias

tendency to search for and pay attention to info supporting our beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence  

* We tend to search for info that already confirms our beliefs 
* Seen a lot on facebook and twitter 
* Ex reading about vaccines  


* People look for info that confirms their preexisting beliefs whether it is good or bad  
* Preexisting beliefs about vaccines predicted  


* Choice of pro/anti vax articles  
* Perceived credibility of articles 

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Belief perseverance:

holding onto beliefs even when evidence shows beliefs are wrong   

* Potential solution consider the opposite  
* Force someone to argue against their belief 

creativity

Creativity: the ability to produce new and valuable ideas  

convergent thinking

* narrows available solutions to determine single best solution  


* Thinking involved in taking a multiple choice test  
* Trying to narrow it down to the best answer 
* Measured with the remote associates test 


* Ex Square carboard open -> box 

divergent thinking

* expands the # of possible solutions: diverges in different directions  


* Measured by saying "2 minutes potential uses for a paperclip?" Those sorts of tests  

* Cognitive factors related to creativity  

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* Working memory  


* Processing memory holding things in your short term memory  
* A larger working memory capacity tends to be better for creativity  


* intelligence  


* Necessary but not sufficient 


* Mind wandering allow yourself to day dream while trying to solve a problem 

5 components to creativity (Sternberg)

* Expertise (well developed knowledge) 
* Imaginative thinking  
* Adventuresome determined personality  
* Intrinsic motivation  
* A creative environment 

to boost the creative process

1. Develop your expertise  


2. Allow time for incubation  


3. Set aside time for the mind to roam freely  


4. Experience other cultures and ways of thinking   

• perils & powers of intuition 

* Intuition is recognition born of experience instant intuition comes from experience ex nurses  
* Usually adaptive-gut feeling  
* Huge unconcious way that influences constantly affects our judgements  
* Ex sometimes we choose a more complex sounding answer bc it sounds better 

planning fallacy

is a phenomenon in which predictions about how much time will be needed to complete a future task display an optimism bias and underestimate the time needed

problem-solving skills in nonhuman animals

* Do other species share our cognitive skills? 


* Using concepts and numbers  


* Some birds and great apes  


* You can train pigeons to sort pictures into categories  


* Displaying insight 


* Chimps and elephants 


* Using tools and transmitting culture  


* Various species  

clever hans effect

* Clever Hans effect: desired behavior unintentionally cued by the questioner  


* The animals read the cues and don't actually know it  
* Clever hans- horse from the early 1900s that could count on command and answer questions about time  
* It doesn't really seem to be that they know the skills but they pick up on the unintentional behavior  

Language:

spoken written or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme:

smallest distinctive sound unity in language Ex "b" "t" "p" "ee" "eh" "ah"

Morphemes:

smallest language unit that carries meaning Ex c+a+t\= cat Can't be broken down any smaller or it doesn't carry a meaning

Free morphemes:

can stand on its own ex: r+u+n\=run

Bound morphemes:

can't stand on its own Ex re-run you can't just say the word re "re" is the bound morphemes

Grammer:

system of rules that enable communication made of 2 parts: Semantics and syntax

Semantics:

deriving meaning from sounds Ex diversity what all does it include Words have different meanings Road vs rode

Syntax:

set of rules about order of words in sentences Can differ across languages Spanish vs English adjective placement

universal grammer

Noam Chomsky's ideas 

* __Universal grammar__: all languages share basic elements  
* Humans born with predisposition to learn grammar rules not a built in specific language 

• receptive language (stages / milestones therein) 

* Receptive language: ability to understand what is said to& about one  
* \~4 months: can recognize phonemes 


* Can recognize phonemes that don't even appear in the language that is spoken in their environment  
* Gives support to Noam Chomsky's idea that we can learn any language  
* Can recognize a face making a word 


* 7 months +: increased ability to break sounds into words  


* Can start discerning patterns and grammar in language 
* Can understand what is being said before they start talking   

when babies can start to recognize phonemes can they recognize ones that don’t appear in the language that’s spoken around then

Can recognize phonemes that don't even appear in the language that is spoken in their environment  

productive language (stages / milestones therein)

Productive language: ability to produce words

Babbling stage (-4 months): spontaneously utters random sounds: starts babbling in "native language by 10 months

1 word stage (\~1-2 yrs): speaks mostly in single words

Speaking mostly in nouns

They will say what they want

2 word stage (\~2 yrs) speaks mostly in 2-word statements or telegraphic speech

Telegraphic speech short simple statements uses mostly nouns and verbs

Dog go

By the time they reach elementary school they can speak in simple sentences

Vocab starts exploding at 2 yrs from 1 word a week to 1 word a day

You learn new words all of the time

when you are in your 1 word stage what do you mostly speak in

nouns

when you are in your 2 word stage what do you mostly speak in

nouns and verbs

critical periods for language development 

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* Childhood: critical period for mastering certain aspects of language  
* Those exposed to low quality language often display low language skill  


* Know this because of horrific instances of child abuse 
* by age 7 if you haven’t been exposed to spoken or signed language you lose the ability

deafness & language development 

* Contexts where sign language is used: babies babble with hand gestures  
* Can teach babies to sign before they can speak  
* **Critical period**: compared to native signers deaf kids who learn signing after age 9 exhibit decrements in learning sign language  
* Doesn't matter what kind of language it is your brain soaks up language 
*  

Aphasia

language impairment

Broca's area:

controls speech

left frontal cortex

Broca's aphasia:

decrements with spoken language but retain ability to understand language Struggle to speak but they can still understand what's going on They can still sing tho and doesn't apply to writing or reading

Wernicke's area:

left temporal lobe

supports a critical component of speech production, referred to as phonologic retrieval, in which the phonemes to be articulated, and their temporal order, are represented mentally

Wernicke's aphasia:

decrements with understanding & producing meaningful language They can speak but they are random words that make no sense They also don't understand what is being said to them

• nonhuman animals & language controversy 

Nonhuman animals: wide range of communication and comprehension  

* Honey bee dance  
* Monkeys with their alarm yells for what sort of predator is in the environment 
* Sign language in chimps washoe   
* Replicated with nim chimpsky and he learned 125 signs  


* Critics say: 


* Vocabulary and sentences limited and simple  
* Lacks grammar and syntax 


* If we define language by these features then language is solely a human thing   

* Linguistic determinism:

* language determines basic ideas  


* If you don't have a word for an idea then you can't imagine this idea  
* This culture has this word but this culture can't experience this idea because they don't have a word for it  

linguistic relativism

language influences (but not determines) thinking  

language can influence attitudes

* Russian similar to spanish requires speakers to stick to the gender of objects  
* Estonian a lot less gendered language  
* Study brought in bilingual speakers from neither culture to either complete a survey in russian or estonian  
* Asked them to fill out a survey asking about paternity leave female political recruitment and female defense minister  
* If taken in russian they were less likely to support the gender equality ideas  
* Completing a survey in a language that is more gendered is associated with slightly lower responses of support for gender equality  


* Expanding language= expanding ability to think  


* If you can put a word on it then you can better think it 

relevant evidence from bilingual speakers about linguistic relativism and determinism

* Diff sense of self based on what lang bilingual person is speaking  
* Depending on what emotion they want to express they switch languages  
* Reveal 2 diff personalities also depends on cultural associations  
* Bilingual advantage- they know more words so can think about more things  

thinking in images 

Implicit memory a mental picture of how to do something we often think in images  

With a learned skill watching the activity will activate the brain internal stimulation of it  

Imagining a physical experience activates some of the same neural networks as actually doing it  

Outcome stimulation- (visualizing getting an A) little effect  

Daily process stimulation- (visualizing how you’ll study) began studying sooner and scored higher  

Intelligence:

ability to learn from experience

General intelligence (g):

unitary construct underlying cognitive abilities to learn reason and solve problems- regardless of their nature

Ex: verbal comprehension

* Distinct abilities but they are all related to each other  
* Think about it with sports hand eye coordination and how fast you can run not the same but they are related 

• how g relates to life outcomes 

G: associated with __many__ life outcomes  

* __Educational attainment__: r=.81 between g (11 yrs) & GCEs score (16 yrs) 


* Argument that they are just measuring intelligence since they are so closely related  


* __Adult income__: r= .30 between childhood g & adult income 


* Positive correlation not as strong but still there  


* Relationship between childhood g and adult income: driven by educational attainment  


* Childhood g to educational attainment r=.61 
* Educational attainment to adult income r=.36 
* Childhood g and adult income r=.28 
* Kids who tend to score higher on tests go on to get more education and then make more money

Cattell-Horn Carroll Theory

Raymond cattell and john horn simplified thurstone’s primary mental abilities into 2 factors  

Fluid intelligence (Gf) our ability to reason speedily and abstractly like when solving logic problems  

Crystallized intelligence (Gc) our accumulated knowledge as reflected in vocab and applied skills theory that our intelligence is based on g as well as specific abilities bridged by gf and gc  

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences 

intelligence consists of multiple abilities in different areas

* Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial& visual, bodily-kinesthetic , musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist
* Evidence of multiple intelligences found in savant syndrome
* the later 9th intelligence Existential Intelligence. Existential intelligence refers to deep sensitivity and people's ability to handle deep questions such as the meaning of existence, it's one of the most complex of the nine types of intelligence listed in Gardner's research

learning styles and critiques

Types of learning style: idea that people learn in a specific way and perform better when info is conveyed in their learning style  

* Visual auditory and kinesthetic  
* If you don't cater to each students individual learning style then you're failing  
* But actually the idea that you have one learning style is a complete myth  
* There is no evidence to support this or evidence to back it up that people learn better in their learning style 

savant syndrome

Savant syndrome: rare condition where a person with developmental disabilities has an exceptional specific skill  

* Ex stephen wiltshire  


* Can draw very elaborate city scapes from memory  


* Not an ability to rattle off different facts but it involves another aspect like drawing or music or something  
* Impaired in all other areas except this certain thing  
* Savant syndrome sometimes occurs in those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) 
* But not all people with ASD are savants  
* \~1 in 10 people with ASD have savant skills  
* Not all savants have ASD: \~1 in 1,400 people with severe mental/ central nervous system deficits other than ASD have savant skills 

• Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: 

* Analytical: analyze evaluate judge compare and contrast  
* Practical: street smarts and common sense 
* Creative: imaginative and novel problem solving 

emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence: ability to understand your own (& others) emotions and to control your emotions appropriately. Abilities involve: 

* __Perceiving__: recognizing emotions in faces, music, and stories 
* __Understanding__: predicting how emotions may change and blend  
* __Managin__g: knowing how to express emotions in various situations  
* __Using__: knowing how to use emotions for adaptive/creative thinking 

Intelligence test:  

method for assessing an individual's mental aptitude and comparing them with others using numerical scores 

aptitude test

* designed to predict future performance  


* Aptitude capacity to learn  
* Seem to correlate pretty strongly with measures of g  
* Seems to predict how well people do in their first year of college  
* Ex SAT or ACT or GRE (for grad school) 

achievement test

* designed to assess what a person has learned  


* Ex licensing exams, bar exam, usmle, driver's license test   

**Sir Francis Galton**  

* Founder of psychometrics: measurement of psychological traits and abilities  
* 1st to attempt to measure intelligence  
* Believed that intelligence was heritable  
* Advocate of eugenics: selectively encouraging/discouraging parenthood to "improve human race"  

**Alfred Binet**  

* Developed intelligence test to predict which kids would struggle in school- measured "mental age"- how a kid is performing compared to other kids at their age  
* Believed intelligence influenced by the environment  
* Wanted to get interventions for kids at school to help them  

**Lewis Terman**  

* Revised Binet's test: Stanford Binet 
* Believed intelligence tests measure innate ability & should be used to identify "superior" kids  
* Intelligence quotient (IQ): score represents performance on intelligence test relative to avg. Performance of same aged others  
* Originally calculated as (mental age/ chronological age) \* 100= IQ 
* Terman's IQ classifications: superior: 110+ average 90-110 dullness less than 90  
* We use different classifications now these are outdated 

stanford-binet

* Widely used american revision by terman at stanford of binet’s original test  
* Extended the upper end of the test to include superior adults  

psychometrics 

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measurement of psychological traits and abilities   

Founded by galton