PSYC 001 Midterm 2 - Summary Introduction to Experimental Psychology PDF

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Study guide for the second midterm with Professor Connolly...

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PSYC 001 Midterm 2 Study Guide © Lauren Rantz

Table of Contents Lecture 12 2 Lecture 13 5 Lecture 15 8 Lecture 16 10 Lecture 17 12 Lecture 18 14 Lecture 19 18 Lecture Guest 1 Lecture Guest 2 Lecture Guest 3 Chapter 6 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 14

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Corresponding Information: Chapter 6 – Lecture 16 Chapter 8 – Lecture 10 Chapter 9 – Lectures 18, 19 Chapter 10 – Lecture 15, 17 Chapter 14 – Lecture 12, 13

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Lecture 12 1. In Piagetian theory, what are "assimilation" and "accommodation"? a. Children learn from two processes, assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process of putting new experiences into existing knowledge and existing theory (what Piaget would call children's "schemas"). Accommodation is the process of changing existing schemas to fit new experiences. For example, a child looks at how a fan works and builds a theory, which is wind comes from the fan, the fan creates the wind. When this child goes out and sees a tree being blown by the wind, he will engage in the process of assimilation, that is, he will think that the tree is the cause of the wind, just like the fan is the cause of the wind. If the child somehow finds out that tree is not the cause of the wind, the child will engage in the process of accommodation to modify his theory on where the wind comes from in order to fit this new experience. (Lecture; Textbook P554) 2. Can infants learn before birth? (i.e., can fetuses learn?) Can you give an example? a. Yes they can. In a classic study done by DeCasper and Spence (1986), pregnant mothers read aloud to their unborn infants twice a day for the last 6 weeks of their pregnancy. Once the children were born, researchers set up an apparatus so that if infants sucked on a pacifier in one way, the apparatus played the story their mothers had read before they were born; if they sucked in another way, the apparatus played an unfamiliar story. The researchers found that infants adjusted their sucking pattern so that they could listen to the story to which they had been exposed in utero, indicating that the infants had learned one story and preferred it to the story they did not know. (Lecture; Textbook P548) 3. What does "pruning" refer to in brain development? a. The fetus and infant produce far more neurons and synapses than needed by the mature person. Pruning is the process of losing the neurons that are not retained. It is normal for between 20% and 80% of neurons to die as the brain develops, depending upon the region of the brain. For example, the prefrontal lobe has the maximum amount of neurons when humans are around 12 months old and it stays that way for about 6 years. The pruning process starts around late teens and humans only keep 65% of the neurons as adults. (Lecture; Textbook P549) 4. What are the four intellectual stages in Piage's stage theory? Name an important feature of each stage. a. In Piaget's theory, children go through four stages of intellectual growth. They are: Sensorimotor period (from birth to about 2 years), the child has not yet achieved object permanence; the child first fails to reach for hidden objects and later makes the A-notB error. Preoperational period (about 2 to 7 years), the child fails conservation tasks; centration (focusing on only one dimension of a problem). Concrete operational period (about 7 to 12 years), the child passes conservation tasks and can focus on more than one dimension of a problem, but lacks formal operations. Formal operational period (about 12 years and up), the child can reason about abstract and possible/hypothetical things (Lecture; Textbook P552-556) 5. What are teratogens? Give a few examples. Also, what is fetal alcohol syndrome? a. Teratogens are environmental factors that can disrupt healthy neural development. Examples include lead, mercury, alcohol, cigarette smoke (well, not so much the smoke while the baby's on the inside and the smoke's on the outside; but rather the consequences of the mother smoking during the pregnancy), X-rays, and diseases such as rubella. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a developmental disorder that affects children whose mothers consumed substantial amounts of alcohol during pregnancy. Its effects include a range of psychological problems (learning disorders and behavior difficulties) and physical abnormalities (smaller stature and a characteristic pattern of facial abnormalities). (Textbook P549) 6. Describe two errors children usually make in Piaget's "sensorimotor" stage and the reasons Piaget provided for these behaviors.

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When children are in the sensorimotor stage, they don’t search for objects once they are out of sight. Piaget explained this behavior as a lack of "object permanence" the child believes that the object only exists in relationship to her own perceptual experience; once the object is out of sight, it no longer exists. Children also make the "A not B error" during the sensorimotor stage, once they do start reaching for hidden objects. In the A not B error, they continue to reach for a toy in an initial hiding place (A) after the hiding place changes to another location (B), even though they watched the adult change the hiding place. Piaget explained this behavior as the child being unable to separate the world from his own actions and movements. The child's reaching behavior defines his experience of the object, so he continues to reach toward the same hiding place to access it. The child can't conceptualize the object apart from his experience reaching for it. These errors are indicative of Piaget’s conception of the sensorimotor stage overall, which he believed was defined by cognition that is purely physical (based on movements and sensory information). In this stage, Piaget believed that children cannot think about the past or future, cannot differentiate between themselves and the world (they believe that the world is a product of their own movements and perceptions), and lack object permanence. (Note though that Piaget's explanations for these very real behavioral phenomena are no longer believed by most psychologists.) What are "conservation tasks" and how did Piaget explain children's behaviors when confronted by these tasks? a. During Piaget's preoperational stage, children fail the classic Piagetian conservation tasks. They believe that pouring water into a thinner glass creates more water (lack of conservation of volume), thinning out a ball of play-dough creates more (or sometimes less) play-dough (lack of conservation of substance), pushing a stick to one side changes the amount of "stick"; (lack of conservation of length), and spreading apart pennies creates more pennies (lack of conservation of number). Piaget believed that in the preoperational stage, although children are free of sensorimotor thinking, they lack the capacity to compute "operations", or aspects of logical thinking. One such operation is "reversibility" - the notion that for transformations like squashing clay, you can put it back to its original state, and therefore haven't changed its quantity. Piaget believed that a particular obstacle to understanding these tasks is the child’s tendency to only focus on one thing at a time - in this case, on one dimension. In the case of water in two differently-shaped glasses, they know that the height of water is relevant, but they can't simultaneously consider that the width of the glass is important as well. Which parts of Piaget's theories have held up over time, and which parts are no longer believed to be accurate? a. Piaget's notion of constructivism - the idea that throughout life, we systematize our knowledge and learn to interpret phenomenon according to our structures of knowledge - is still widely accepted. We also still believe that children are inherently motivated to learn. Finally, researchers agree that it is possible to answer important questions about human nature by observing children’s behavior, and that Piaget's observations were largely generalizable, despite his initially having observed only his own children. Piaget's idea of domain-general stages, that children are in a certain stage regardless of the domain being considered, has not stood the test of time. The theory has also lost support because it is possible to change at least some of the Piagetian tasks in a way that should be irrelevant the theory, and children go from failing to succeeding. That is, two versions of a task might both in principle demand use of the same "operation", but fail in Piaget's version and succeed in another version. In essence, we now know that very young children know more than Piaget believed, although their knowledge does not come through when the standard Piagetian tasks are used.

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Preschool children who have a basic grasp of counting skills often fail Piaget's conservation of number test (when the experimenter spreads out the coins). What is one explanation for this finding (text page 559)? a. It is possible that asking children the same question twice implies that the child made a mistake the first time around and that the adult is giving them a second chance to give the "correct" answer. For example, when the experimenter asks "how many coins are in the row?" and then asks "now how many coins are in the row?" after spreading out the coins, kids may assume that they were wrong the first time around and change their answer as a result. This is only possible if the child is unsure of her answer, however, so despite this alternative explanation, Piaget was correct in his observation that preschool children have a tentative grasp of numerical concepts. He may not have been correct in his prediction that preschool children inevitably fail this task, since other studies have shown that simplifying the task leads children who would have failed the standard tasks to succeed. 10. What is "theory of mind" and do children have it (pages 559-662)? a. Theory of mind is the set of interrelated concepts we use to make sense of our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as those of others. For example, having the idea that other people have thoughts in their heads, and that other people's thoughts could be different from ours. Children seem to have some sense of theory of mind that they continue to develop as they grow. Infants have been shown to have some limited understanding of other people's intentions and goals. Children as young as 18 months understand that people have different preferences and that they make choices according to their preferences. By the time children are about 4.5 years old, they also show an understanding that beliefs can be true or false and that different people have different beliefs.

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Lecture 13 1. Explain the logic of twin designs: why does the distinction between monozygotic and dizygotic twins help understand heritability? a. Monozygotic (MZ) twins share 100% of their DNA, while dizygotic (DZ) twins share 50% of the DNA (just like all siblings who aren't twins). MZ twins share traits and behaviors because of their shared genetic information and their shared environment, but they differ in the unique environmental factors to which each twin is exposed. Psychologists are able to infer the source of individual differences in the population by comparing traits and behaviors of MZ and DZ twins - this type of study produces an estimate of heritability, or how much of the variation in a trait can be accounted for by genetic factors. 2. What is one problematic assumption of twin studies and what are the arguments for and against accepting the estimates that result from these studies? a. Twin study designs assume that the major differences between MZ and DZ twins result from genetic factors, since the extent to which twins share environments is the same for MZ and DZ twins. On the one hand, this is a problematic assumption because we know that it isn't quite true - MZ twins experience more similar environments than DZ twins. This is because people respond to each member of a MZ twin pair more similarity than they respond to each member of a DZ twin pair. On the other hand, studies of DZ twins mistakenly classified as MZ twins and treated as such show that these DZ twins are not behaviorally more similar than any other DZ twins (who were not mistaken as MZ twins at birth). These studies suggest that the similar treatment of MZ twins probably has more to do with their shared genetics rather than other people's perception of their similarity. This assertion is strengthened by the fact that estimates from these studies match estimates from twin studies. Finally, other methods aside from studies of twins (which do not rest on the same assumption) have found similar estimates, supporting the notion that these estimates are accurate and that the violation of this assumption not does invalidate the findings from twin studies. 3. Suppose that a trait is considered 80% heritable, according to behavioral genetics research. If your parents have that trait, does this mean you are 80% likely to have it too? a. No, it doesn't mean that. Heritability is not an estimate of individual risk. It is a population estimate and does not give us information about the individual risk for particular disorders/traits. b. Suppose that a trait is considered 80% heritable, according to behavioral genetics research. Does that mean that it can't be changed by interventions? i. Not at all. Heritability of a trait in facts says nothing about its amenability to treatment. One example is short-sightedness, which is somewhat heritable but which has a perfectly fine treatment, i.e. glasses or contacts. 4. What does "attachment" mean in the context of development, and how do children differ in their attachment (pages 563-567)? a. Attachment is the strong, enduring emotional bond between a child and its caregivers that some psychologists consider the basis for relationships later in life. The main name to remember here is John Bowlby. He viewed attachment as also providing to the child the model that he or she will use in viewing all social relationships. While this is certainly possible, there are also alternative explanations of findings showing a relationship between attachment pattern early in life and outcomes later in life. 5. What is the "strange situation" in attachment research? a. Researchers (starting with Mary Ainsworth) described four types of attachment styles, as revealed in the "strange situation"; method. The first is secure attachment, which describes a child who explores the environment, is mildly upset when the mother leaves the room and enthusiastic when she returns. The second is anxious/resistant attachment, which describes a child who does not explore the room, does not become upset when the mother leaves, and acts ambivalently to the mother when she returns. The third is anxious/avoidant attachment, which describes a child who is distant when the mother is present and typically ignores her when she returns. The fourth type is

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disorganized, which describes a child who is confused and inconsistent and lacks an organized method for dealing with stress. Researchers have proposed that there are two binary dimensions that describe parenting, yielding four possible styles (as described by Diana Baumrind). Describe these dimensions and styles. Why do parents adopt a particular style (569-570)? a. The first dimension is how accepting parents are of children and how responsive they are to the child's needs and the second dimension is how demanding they are of their child's behavior. The first style Baumrind described are authoritarian parents, who are high on demandingness but low on responsiveness, and have firm rules that they don't explain to their children and who often severely punish them. On the other hand, there are permissive parents, who are low on demandingness but high on responsiveness and set few rules and restrictions, have loose schedules, and rarely use punishment. The third style of parenting is authoritative, which is high on responsiveness and demandingness. These parents exercise power and have rules that they enforce, but they also respond to their children's opinions and requests. Finally, some parents are disengaged. They are low on both responsiveness and demandingness, and they have few rules and are insensitive to their child's needs. There are several reasons that parents adopt a particular style - one possible factor is situational (for example, poverty is associated with lower levels of involvement) and the other has to do with the child's characteristics. This is similar to what Dr. Jaffee brought up in lecture, which is that children elicit certain behaviors from parents. There may also be additional factors, like the personality traits of parents or their cultural background, which contribute to their parenting style. What is a gene x environment interaction? Give an examples of a gene x environment interaction. a. A gene x environment interaction implies that the effects of some aspect of the environment will vary as a function of genetic differences among people. Examples: The serotonin transporter is responsible for picking up excess serotonin in the synapse allowing for serotonin reuptake in the pre-synaptic cell. The efficiency of this transporter has been implicated in depression: The long form of the gene that codes for the serotonin transporte is more efficient than the short form. It may be that people who have different forms of the serotonin transporter are more or less susceptible to depression. Research has shown that for individuals who were homozygous for the short form of the gene, stressful life events were associated with an increased risk for major depression. Conversely, for individuals with at least one long form of the gene, the risk of depression after exposure to stressful life events is lower than for those who were homozygous. For individuals with the low MAOA activity allele (low enzyme activity), the more severe any maltreatment they suffer as children, the greater their risk of conduct disorder. Conversely, for individuals with the high MAOA activity (high enzyme activity), their risk for conduct disorder was much lower than for those with the low MAOA activity allele. In other words, individuals with the high activity form of the gene were buffered substantially from the effects of severe maltreatment. What are the three types of gene-environment correlations? Give an example of each. a. Passive gene-environment correlation – parents create a home environment that is partly determined by the parents’ genetics. And of course parents pass on their genes to their children. example: Parents who are aggressive are more likely to use more harsh physical discipline with their children. Additionally, aggressive parents transmit a genetic risk for aggressive behavior to their children as well. As a result, the association between physical discipline and aggressive behavior in children may be genetically confounded. Spanking one’s child may just be a marker for genetic risk for aggressive behavior that is being transmitted to the child. Evocative geneenvironment correlation – occurs when an individual’s (heritable) behavior evokes a response from the environment. example: children who are aggressive are those who elicit harsh physical discipline leading to an association between physical discipline and aggressive behavior. Active gene-environment correlation – occurs when

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individuals seek out environments that are congruent with their genetic predispositions. example: children who are aggressive may seek out aggressive peers leading to an association between peer group membership and aggressive behavior. All of these gene-environment correlations can make it hard to be sure how to explain similarities between parents and children. 9. What is a “discordant monozygotic twin design”? a. This design examines MZ twins who have had different experiences (one twin has been exposed to a certain experience while the other has not). If the twins differ in their outcomes, it is likely that the diffe...