psych test 3 combined w sang's

Social Psychology

the study of how one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are affected by other people

Person Perception

how we form impressions of others.

social schemas

mental frameworks about types of people or social situations.

Stereotypes

generalized beliefs about a group of people.

Prejudice

a negative attitude or emotion toward someone because of their group.

Discrimination

behavior that treats people unfairly based on their group.

attribution

inferred cause of behavior

internal attribution

people act the way they do because that’s who they are. Assume it’s part of their personality

external attribution

situational force that causes someone to act the way they did.

consistency

To what extent does this person produce this behavior in this situation repeatedly over time?

high = repeated behavior

low = one time occurence

consensus

To what extent are other people producing their behavior in this situation?

high: others are also doing the same
low: just that target’s doing it

distinctiveness

To what extent does this person produce this behavior in a variety of other situations?

high: only do it at a certain place

low: do it everywhere

3 dimensions of behavior

consistency, consensus, and distinctiveness

internal attribution

high consistency, low consensus, low distinctiveness

external attribution

high consistency, high consensus, high distinctiveness

fundamental attribution bias

Assume the other person’s actions come from their personality, not the situation they’re in

Actor-observer effect

your own behavior by blaming the situation, but explain others’ behavior by blaming their personality

Self serving bias

tendency to take credit for successes (internal causes) but blame failures on external factors.

Heider Balance theory

people want their attitudes and relationships to be consistent with other people towards or objects

triads

relationship between 3 entities

POX triangle

visual way to show Heider’s balance theory using three points

Festinger

thought of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

feel mental discomfort

when their attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors don’t match

Attitude 1 doesn’t equal Attitude 2

Attitude doesn't equal behavior

Soloman Asch

used line judgement tasks

Stanley Milgram

obedience to authority experiment (shock experiment)

Darley and Latane

studied bystander intervention — how the presence of others affects helping behavior in emergencies (with college freshman)

bystander effect

the more witnesses there are for a need for help, the less likely that help will actually be given

social loafing

Reduction in productivity or effort by individuals in groups (vs alone)

Ringelmann Study

earliest demonstrations of social loafing showing a group of people pulling weights

Social facilitation

In the presence of an audience, people tend to do an easy task faster/better, and a difficult task slower/worse than when alone

ex: triplett observation

Triplett

observed cyclist. They rode faster if they rode against another cyclist compared to clock Being around others can boost performance on simple or familiar tasks

Zajonc’s Drive theory

explained why social facilitation happens (the process)

Encoding

Putting information into the brain

Attention

We are always exposed to too many stimuli. We can focus on one thing by directing our attention to that one thing.

Early Filtering

At some level, our brain still processes everything we are exposed to, but the brain still chooses to filter everything before it comprehends the meaning of those stimuli.

Late Filtering

We are still processing everything we are exposed to and process the meaning, but the brain chooses to ignore those meanings and unnecessary information and only truly understands the meaning we need.

Cognitive Capacity Theory

We can only process so much information at a time. Our brain only has a certain amount of information. 

Automatic vs controlled processes

Automatic Processes are mental activities that require little or no conscious effort, attention, or awareness. They happen quickly and without interfering with other tasks.

Controlled Processes are activities that require conscious effort, attention, and awareness. They are slow, deliberate, and usually done one at a time.

cocktail party phenomenon

if you are in a large gathering and you hear someone say ur name from across the room, this is an example of late filtering because your brain has already processed all conversations, but ignored the meaning and everything else, but only chose to fully process when your name was called.

Elaboration

Encoding 2 pieces of information at the same time so if you can remember one of the two, you will remember the second as well.

self-referrent encoding

process where information in the brain is processed more deeply if it is connected with something personal.

Ex: You meet someone named Grace. if you think to yourself “oh grace, like my cousin grace.” you will be more likely to rememeber her name because it relates to you in some way

Sensory memory

this is the first place the information you study goes to. does not fully process the meaning of what it is you studied. lasts ¼ of a second in the brain and it is unprocessed memory.

short-term memory

through attention, whatever we choose to pay attention to is stored in another location called the short-term memory. The brain stores 5-9 chunks of information in short-term memory and only lasts 20-30 seconds. This can be improved through rehearsal.

long-term memory

this is where encoding happens. there is infinite capacity for long-term memory.

duration: some research says that its limited, but some that it lasts forever.

semantic network

model of how our brain arranges knowledge and meaning. it is basically how concepts are connected in our memory.

nodes

one concept that is stored within a semantic network

priming

This happens when exposure to one stimulus affects your response to another stimulus.

for example, if someone tells you the color yellow, and then someone asks you to name a fruit, you will most likely name banana faster than you would any other fruit because your name tied yellow and banana together, priming them.

spreading activation

this is where when you think of one thing, you are automatically triggered to think of any other related things.

Ex: when you think of the word firetruck, your brain automatically reminds you of words like red, siren, water, hose, etc.

schemas

organized clusters of knowledge about an object, event, or person

schemas also help you interpret words based on the situation you are in. For example, if you were given PTELA, and were about to eat, you would probably spell that as PLATE, but if you were thinking about a flower, you would interpret that as PETAL

Schemas also fill in missing info from situations, based on what you know about it. For example, if you see a birthday party picture, you’d automatically assume there was cake.

ex: stereotypes are just schemas for a group of people

Retrieval

The process of accessing and bringing into consciousness stored information.

tip of the tongue phenomenon

The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon happens when you know that you know something, but you can’t quite retrieve it at that moment.

You feel the answer is right there — “on the tip of your tongue” — but you can’t say it.

retrieval cues

When you’re stuck in a tip-of-the-tongue state, a retrieval cue can trigger the missing word by reactivating the right connections in your brain.

For example: You can’t remember the word “umbrella.” Then you hear the song “Umbrella” by Rihanna, and suddenly the word pops into your head. That song acted as a retrieval cue — it reactivated the stored memory and broke you out of the TOT state.

Reinstating the statement

giving the context to something might help you recall what you were going to say. 

State-dependant memory effect

You have improved memory if you are in the same mental state at the time retrieval as you were at the time of encoding

mood congruence effect

improved memory for information that is consistent with our current mood

ex: if your mood is better you will be able to recall moe things from your fall break because your mood was good during break.

2 ways to measure memory

recall and recognition

recall

You have to bring the information out of memory yourself with little or no help.

Example:

Essay questions or “short answer” test questions.

This requires active retrieval because you generate the answer on your own.

recognition

You just need to identify the correct answer when you see it.

Example: Multiple-choice questions.

this is easier because the cue for the correct answer is right there in front of you. 

ineffective encoding

this happens when you forget information because you never actually properly encoded the information within yourself. basically you never actually learned it.

impermanent storage (decay theory)

This theory says that memory traces fade over time if they aren’t used.

proactive interference

Old information interferes with new information.

retroactive interference

new information interferes with old information.

amnesia

memory loss caused by physical damage to the brain. 

retrograde amnesia

loss of memory from before the physical damage to the brain

anterograde amnesia

losing the ability to make new memories because of physical damage to the brain

declarative memory

memory of facts and events that can actively be remembered and recalled

semantic memory

a part of declarative memory that allows you to recall actual factual information. 

episodic memory

The other part of declarative memory that allows you to recall life events or personal experiences

language

A system of arbitrary symbols that convey meaning and follow specific rules for combining those symbols.

arbitrary symbols

Sounds or letters that stand for ideas or objects without any natural connection (example: “T” represents the “tuh” sound).

syntax

the rules for how words are arranged into meaningful sentences

phenomes

basic units of sound in a spoken language. About 100 of those exist and each language contains 20-80. English has 40-45

ex: t, ch, er, s

language acquisition

the process with which humans learn to understand and produce language

behaviorist theories

these theories state that language is learned through reinforcement and punishment. You have to work your way there.

Nativist Theories

this theory states that we learn language because we are biologically and genetically equipped.

Noam Chomsky

Proposed that reinforcement alone can’t explain language learning; children are born with an innate ability to acquire language.