Psych 100 - Lecture notes 1-26 PDF

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Summary

Introduction to the process of psychological science. Includes coverage of research methods, biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, cognitive psychology, abnormal behavior and treatment, developmental psychology, and social and personality psychology....

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PSYCHOLOGY 9/6/17 Humans Are Intuitive Psychologists “So… isn’t psychology just common sense? I knew all this stuff already” “Why do we need to study it?” What is Psychological Science The scientific study, through research of: The mind, The brain And the behavior Levels of analysis: “I can take any behavior and anything I want to look at in human life and I can target any level: biological or social” Biological level: brain, genetics neurotransmitters Individual level: age, personality, perceive the world (gender, personality, demographic) Social: class, peers, family Cultural: ethnic People who walk before light turns green on mainstreet and some wait.. What kind of research questions would be asked by scientists to study this using the following levels of analysis 1. 2. 3. 4.

Biological : Individual : what gender, may be more inclined Social : people surrounded by, following others Cultural :

Why We are Not so Great Intuitive Psychologists Failing to accurately judge source credibility Ignoring evidence (confirmation bias) → we only look for evidence that supports research and not the evidence that fights it Misunderstanding statistics- be aware of the source, how did we get the numbers? Accepting after the fact explanations (hindsight bias) Failing to see our own inadequacies (a form of self serving bias) 9/8/17 -

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Class activity: If someone pricks you with a needle will you bleed? How hard? Characteristics of skin Size of needle Medical history ^little extra How sharp Where on the body If someone pricks you with a needle will you retaliate? Who was it? Emotional Intent Pain tolerance Personality/background Performance Over estimation occurs in the lower tior

info sent down the axon (sent as an electrical signal - action potential) > myelin sheath speeds up the electrical signal > terminal buttons release the chemical signal > synapse releases chemical messages and connections > dendrites Brain structures Subcortical structures Brain stem Regulates functions Heart rate and breathing Cerebellum Motor skills Motor memory

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Subcortical Brain structures Hippocampus Responsible for storing memory Thalamus Sensory gateway Basal ganglia Movement Reward Nucleus accumbens Releases dopamine Works with the cerebellum to make smooth coordinated movements Hypothalamus Regulates body functions Blood pressure Lobes of the cerebral cortex Frontal lobe Thought, planning, movement Higher order cognition Abstract thinking Working memory Better communication to the rest of the brain the more effective the communication and processing Phineas gage Missing a chunk of his brain Went from being a mild tempered man/ successful to being tempermental personality Parietal lobe Touch, spatial relations Temporal lobe Hearing, memory Occipital lobe Vision Brain plasticity Lifelong development Genetic driven windows of plasticity Able to expand the window Normal developmental process Compensation for loss Behavioral genetics Genotype Phenotype Role of monozygotic twins in behavioral genetics methods Gene by environment interaction \ MAOA study Everyone possesses maoa gene High activity Low activity Maoa activity impacted by childhood maltreatment` Nature vs nurture Intermingled Plasticity Fire together wire together Sensation and Perception Do our senses convey and objective reality? Sensation

Perception

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Detection of external physical stimuli Mechanical

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Interpretation Past experiences mood/emotions expectations/thoughts

Vision -

Stimulus External physical stimuli Light waves Rod cones Process color and details (in high levels of ligh t) Sensory receptor Galion cells Translates electrical signals into what your brain understands transduction 1st neurons in visual pathway Bottom-up and top-down processing Bottom -bits and pieces of sensory information Bottom up Taking those bits of information to make sense of them and create a meaningful unit Top down Expectation of what you expect to see impact what you think you see Presecption Pieces info together Requires organization of visual information Gestalt school of thought Innate principles to organize sensory information Proximity Principle of similarity Illusory contours See a flat image as dimensional Figure ground Brain has to make an assumption as to what is the foreground and what is the background Closure Acclusion Image continues even tho it is cut off Good continuity Depth cubes Sensory thresholds:

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How much more or less of something before a difference is registered

Difference threshold -

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Threshold depends on the intensity of the original stimuli How much more of something before you feel the difference

Signal detection theory Moving beyond simple thresholds Dilemma Abandoned idea of simple threshold for all people at all times Considered detection as a decision-making process 3 factors of decision making Nature of stimulant

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How sensitive is that person Cognitive factors Emotions can impact

Sensory adaptation Habituation Sensory adaptation Brain gets used to sensory information- neurons block out stimuli Neurons slow down firing causes there is no new stimulus Causes people to have different perception Signal detection theory Inconsistency Don’t always process everything Face processing Temporal lobe Face and object recognition Important for social creatures to understand and recognize faces Prosopagnosia Facial blindness Can’t piece together pieces to understand and recognize faces Attention Filter through sensory pieces using attention What you paid attention to shapes your experience

Attention 2 processes focusing on relevant information Putting limited resources onto what is necessary for current use Blocking out irrelevant information Key ideas Limited resource Able to maximize usage Attention is selective Filter theor bb y ?Processed and stored into LT memory Stuff not filtered through isnt completely lost Unconsciously processed, not as strong Cognitive processing Efficiency and accuracy Controlled Effort, difficult, attentive, conscious awareness, performed slowly Automatic Quickly, without effort, little to no attention, unconscious, rapidly performed, repetition Miss things in everyday life Failures of awareness Inattentional blindness Absolute threshold- nothing to something Failure of awareness Inattentional blindness Failure due to all attention being focused on a separate, cognitively demanding task Conditions How demanding is that task- how hard, how effortful Extremely distracted The thing that we have “missed” is like the things we were supposed to ignore Counter intuitive Change blindness

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Visual disturbance Discontinuity

Multitasking Research HMT vs LMT (self-reported) People who self report as HMT actually have worse multitasking ability Those who multitask a lot overestimate their ability to multitask Those who multitask a lot have issues with controlled processing Less attention The more you multitask the worse you are at multitasking Experimental designs #1 Does technology-based multitasking affect your own learning/abilities 2 groups: note takers, multitaskers People who were multitasking had worse grades #2 Does multitasking impact others People how can see other people multitasking, they have a bigger reduction to their grade than the person who was multitasking

10/9/17

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What is memory? information from experiences —-> storage and retrieval our nervous system taking in information (storing and retrieving) from our experiences came about after cognitive revolution use of computers brought out the cognitive revolution gave our early model of memory (computer) typing: receiving information hard-drive and memory file: storage monitor: using information/retrieval Memory function is disputed across the brain Different forms and different kinds of memory that are ultimately related to the different parts of the brain Prefrontal Cortex function of working memory active processing unit in order to finish a task in front of you how well connected or well communicated it needs to be with the rest of the brain well connected and well communicated = more efficient Hippocampus explicit memory (I can declare it out loud) plays a particular role in the consolidation of memories (process of shorter term memories get transferred to long term memory) right and left hippocampus right: involved in spacial memory spacial relationships between the environment and objects left: Temporal Lobe Amygdala emotional processing system sensitive to fear fearing learning sensors Cerebellum muscle or motor memory (movement & balance) outside of cognitive awareness (why you type but not remember where letters are) example: typing on keyboard Memory as we know it are in essence are electrically coated representations when you think of all of those memories, all it is is a pattern of chemical reactions in your brain (chemical reactions) how the communication happens (the pattern) Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

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related to the concept of “fire together-wire together” we need experiences that will produce neuro firing wire together: strength synaptic connections pre synaptic neuron & post synaptic neuron

10/11/17 Long term potentiation Fire together/wire together- when there is stimulation in the world neurons will strengthen their synaptic connection to each other Sensitive to each other When presynaptic neuron fires you have more of a chance of the postsynaptic neuron firing Role of epigenetics Idea that the environment can turn on and off genes in different patterns Three memory system model Sensory input Sensory memory Unattended information is lost Tied to sensory receptors Continuous ⅓ of a second > Moves to short term through attention Short-term memory Unrehearsed information is lost 20 to 30 seconds Active processing unit Working memory Capacity: 7 units of information Maintenance rehearsal Repeat information to keep it in the working memory Encoding Consolidation Make it more efficient by connecting it to something in our long term memory Chunking Organizing many pieces of information into chunks > Moves to long term through encoding Long term memory Some information may be lost over time Explicit Episodic - episodes of your life, form of memory Semantic- definitions , normal facts > Moves back to short term through retrieval -

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when we repeatedly expose ourselves to something we can’t just repeat we need to connect to long term memory Elaborative rehearsal: simply repeating and doing something over and elaborating on the information to bring it to long term memory Long Term Memory ○ Explicit: can declare out out ■ Episodic: episodes of your life, form of memory ■ Semantic: definitions, normal facts ■ Verbal memory ○ Implicit: outside of conscious awareness ■ fear learning ■ Motor memory ○ Prospective: remembering to remember something ■ future oriented memory ■ remember things in specific orders

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have to scan your environment for cues, that’ll tell you what the next thing you have to do is Long Term Memory Organized ○ Schemas: cognitive frame works Spreading Activation Models (networks of association) ○ an item’s characteristics and associates are linked to it ○ the closer then nodes the stronger the association will be ○ activation one node increase the likelihood that closely associated nodes will be activated

10/16/17 Parietal lobe - space Reconsolidation process Every time you retrieve a memory it can be altered and changed The Forgetting Curve Transience Time decay of information If you do not think about a memory again Proactive interference Proactive interfering with the Old information is interfering with the new Retroactive interference When new information interferes with memory for old Transience after 9 hours we have forgotten all the material we saw if material has not been revisited re exposing ourselves to information is how we avoid forgetting

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can counteract memory loss Eye witnesses Crimes happen fast and without warning Confidence does not equal accuracy Limited and selective attention Memory interference and distortions Missattribution Assigning a memory to the wrong Bias Influence of current knowledge on memory for past events Suggestibility Altering a memory because of misleading informative Case study of clive wearing Had a stroke Retrograde and the other amnesia

EXAM 3

10/23/17 3 primary functions of emotions Interpersonal Across persons Relationships Social level Capgras disorder Disconnect between visual processing and emotional ties Believe that the person they are seeing is an imposter Emotional processing to inform you about how to interact with people Facial expressions Communicate and elicit specific behavior Signal the state of interpersonal relationships Marriage

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Whether the contempt facial expression = failing marriage

Intrapersonal Within person Thinking and decision making Individual level Role of emotions Decision making Lack of emotions - can’t determine good or bad Damage to prefrontal cortex you can’t connect as well Able to weigh pros and cons Can’t come to decision Lost connections Gambling test Unable to register the “gut feeling” Can’t make rational decision making Behavioral Typical person Started with high risk then switched to the low risk Prefrontal Damaged Started and stayed with the high risk decks Went bankrupt Physiological Typical person Increase in arousal when they chose the high risk deck Anticipatory arousal before decision making Prefrontal damaged No arousal Cultural Cultural level Full societies, large amounts of people Social norms -

Emotions Immediate reactions tied to events in your life Continuum of positive to negative Associated with a particular pattern Vary on valence and arousal Valence How positive or negative the experience is pleasant/unpleasant Arousal Physiological pattern and response intense/mild Emotional impudence Cannot determine good or bad without emotion Self shape emotion Cultural rules Display rules What is acceptable/how different cultures display emotion Ideal affect America Enthusiastic, excited, euphoric High arousal and high valence

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East asian Relaxed, calm, peaceful Low arousal and high valence Emotional diversity Have the highest grade but also feel guilt for how their classmates didn’t do as well

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Emodiversity Acknowledgement and acceptance of feeling lots of different types of emotions American culture Idea affect - Have to be happy all the time Low emotional diversity Can’t accept and acknowledge emotions Have negative outcomes - unhappy Associated with anxiety, depression Association b/w emodiversity and physical and psychological health High emodiversity Less medication use Fewer doctor visits/days in the hospital Correlational Third variable problem - outside variable that can impact the relationship between the two tested variables Makes it impossible to correctly determine the correlation b/w two things Motivation Impacted by emotions Approach motivation Motivated to approach things that make us feel good Avoidance motivation Avoid bad emotions Need to belong theory Motivated to in a social group with others Driven by feeling of belonging to a social group Psychological need Motivated to avoid things that will make us rejected Emotional pain creates physical pain 3 factors Energizing of behavior Desire to do a task Directive Have to choice the behaviors that will get you to your goal Sustaining and persistence Doing things to actually achieve your goal Strategies to achieve a goal Lack of knowledge to complete a task drive down the motivation Drives Physiological arousal Optimal performance when moderate arousal Too much physical arousal - too much stress - overwhelming Incentives Intrinsic motivation Internal motivation Motivated through own desires Do something because you love it and enjoy it Extrinsic motivation

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External motivation External reward - material goods When things are already intrinsically motivated, extrinsic rewards hinder performance

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Extrinsic Expect an award Intrinsic Didn’t get an award and didn’t expect to get an award Unexpectedly rewarded After drawing, given a reward they did not know about Extrinsically motivated kids lost drive to draw Helping behavior study Condition 1 - neutral - nothing happened About 100% helping Condition 2 - praised About 90% Condition 3 - material reward - toy About 50% Delayed gratification Marshmallow test Gave kids one marshmallow at sight or wait 15 minutes and getting 2 marshmallows Better outcomes when older if they waited Self control Ability to delay gratification is dependent on how reliable your environment is Positive thinking Less physical arousal Woop Wish and Outcome Set your goal and think about how good it would be if you actually achieved that Obstacles Plan Action plan to counteract obstacles Learning principles Learning - any lasting change in behavior that results from experience Associative Nonassociative Everyone learns this way Habituation Continuous stimulus being repeated in the external world Due to repeated stimuli you start to ignore it Sensitization Become more sensitive to a repeated stimuli Observational Learning by watching how other behave Modeling Modeling our behavior after someone we admire Vicarious learning Observing the consequences of someone else’s actions before deciding if you will copy their actions

11/3/17 Operant conditioning Positive reinforcement

Adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior happening Negative reinforcement Taking away an undesirable stimulus to increase a behavior happening Positive punishment Adding an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior happening Negative punishment Taking away a desirable stimulus to decrease a behavior happening Types of reinforcers Primary reinforcers Food and water Satisfy primary needs Release dopamine in the nucleus accumbens Secondary reinforcers Rewards associated with necessary goods Reinforcement schedules Continuous Every time you will be rewarded Acquired fast Extinguishes fast Partial Fixed - delivery of the reinforcer is regular and predictable Ratio (behavior) Regular number of behaviors before the reinforcement is given Interval (time period) Deliver a reinforcer every 5 minutes - during the time interval a behavior has occurred Someone will continue to do something Variable - delivery of reinforcer is not predictable Ratio Produces most behavior responses in the quickest amount of time Keep engaging in the behavior because you don’t know when you’re going to get a reward Interval Can’t predict when you will get reinforcer -

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11/6/17 Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiments Modeling 2 groups Kids observed adult fight the bobo doll Kids were far more likely to be violent towards the bobo doll Cathartic - to release the aggression in a positive way Kids observed adult being nice to the bobo doll Vicarious 3 groups Kids saw adult beating up the bobo doll - no consequences Control group - certain amount of kids were aggressive Kids saw adult beat up the bobo doll - got a reward More kids participated in aggressive behavior than control group Kids saw adult beat up the bobo doll - got yelled at Less kids were aggressive than in the control group Mirror neuron system Related to empathy Dopamine responses After conditioning has occurred

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