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Chapter 1: introduction Psychological science is the study of the mind, brain and behaviour Mind refers to mental activity, like the perceptions, feelings, thoughts and memories of individuals. Mental activity results from biological processes, the actions of nerves and neurones and their associated chemical reactions occurring within the brain. Behaviour is used to describe a wide variety of actions from the subtle to the complex that occur in every organism. The seven themes of psychological science 1. Psychology is an empirical science Psychological scientists use the scientific method to understand how people feel and act. The scientific method is the use of objective, systematic procedures that lead to an accurate understanding of what is being studied. It involves careful observations of our world. Understanding that psychology is an empirical science can lead us to be better consumers of scientific literature. 2. Nature and nurture are inextricably entwined Nature: psychological characteristics that are biologically innate Nurture: psychological characteristics that are acquired through education, experience and culture It is now know that both nature and nurture are important for human`s psychological development and influence each other in shaping the brain, mind and behaviour. 3. The mind and brain are inseparable The mind/body problem is perhaps one of the greatest psychological issue: are the mind and body separate and distinct, or is the mind simply the physical brain’s subjective experience? For theological reasons (humans possess a divine and immortal soul), many earlier scholars believed that the mind is indeed separate and in control of the body. Da Vinci’s dissection of the human body led him to think that all sensory messages arrived at one location in the brain, in the region called the sensus communis (common sense!) Descartes developed the dualism theory which states that mind and body are separate yet intertwined. The body is an organic machine governed by reflexes and the rational mind controlling voluntary acts is divine and separate from the body. 4. A new biological revolution is energizing research In the last 20 years, there has been tremendous growth in the understanding of mental activities, biological bases. There are 3 main developments that have set the stage for the biological revolution. Brain chemistry The brain works through the actions of neurotransmitters, chemical that communicate messages between nerve cells. The better understanding of the chemical processes occurring in the brain lead the researchers to comprehend both mental activity and behaviour which allowed them to develop treatments for various disorders. Human genome After mapping the human genome, scientists were able to connect a certain behaviour to genes. By indentifying the genes new forms of therapies and treatments can be developed. They also begin to understand that situational contexts can influence the expression of genes. Watching the working brain Being able to watch the working brain allowed scientists, using the methods of neuroscience, to answer some of the most fundamental questions such as how different brain regions interact to produce perceptual experience etc. Finding that consistent patterns of brain activation are associated with specific mental tasks suggests that the 2 are connected to each other. We know that there is some localization of functions but many brain regions participate to produce behaviour and mental activity. 5. The mind is adaptive The brain has evolved after years of problem solving, during that time; genetic mutations occurring lead us to new adaptation, physical characteristics that increased our odds of survival Darwin first presented the mechanism of evolution called natural selection: those who inherit characteristics that help them adapt to their environment have a selective advantage over those who do not. Solving adaptive problems Adaptive behaviours and specialized mechanism have been built into our body and brain through evolution. Evolution theory is useful for considering whether they are adaptive, in other words whether they affect survival and reproduction Modern minds in Stone Age skulls Some of our behaviours are still tainted of our ancestor’s survival instincts Culture provides adaptive solutions The complexity of living in groups gives rise to culture whose various aspects are passed on through generations. Culture evolution occurs much faster that brain evolution and plays a central role on how people view and reason about the world. For culture psychologists, observing behavioural phenomena in their cultural context is important. 6. Psychological science crosses levels of analysis Behaviour can be analysed on many levels from chemical processes occurring in the brain to how culture influences one’s behaviour. There are 4 main levels Biological: how the physical body contributes to mind and behaviour, as in the neurochemical and genetic processes occurring in the body and brain. Individual: differences on personality and in the mental processes that affect how people perceive and know the world Social: how group contexts affect people’s ways of interacting and influencing each other. Cultural: the influence of culture on people’s behaviours. 7. We are often unaware of the multiple influences on how we think, feel and act Some factors influence us at an unconscious level and leave us without knowledge of them. This is often associated with Freud’s theory. Events can prime (activate) our minds so that we act in response to the priming stimuli even though we don’t even know that we are being influenced. How did the scientific foundations of psychology develop? In the mid 1800s in Europe, psychology arose as a separate field of study using the experimental method John Stuart Mill declared in A System of Logic (1843) that psychology should leave the realm of speculation and philosophy and become a science of observations and experiments. He defined psychology as science of the elementary laws of the mind and declared that only through science would the processes of the mind be understood. Experimental psychology begins with Structuralism Wundt (1879) established the 1st psychological laboratory and institute. He measured reaction time to study psychological processes. In order to measure conscious experience he developed introspection: a systematic examination of subjective mental experience that requires people to inspect and report the content of their thoughts. The problem with this technique is that experience is subjective and was abandoned later on. Titchener used methods such as introspection to pioneer structuralism which is based on the idea that conscious experience can be studied when it is broken down in its underlying components. He believed that understanding the basic element of consciousness would provide the scientific basis for understanding the mind. Functionalism address the purpose of behaviour James (1873) wrote Principles of Psychology (1890) that became the most influential book of his time. He criticized structuralism and argued that the mind was more complex than its elements and can not be broken down. He noted that the mind consisted of an ever changing, series of thought that he called stream of consciousness and can’t be frozen in time. The mind’s elements mattered less than the mind’s function as a whole. He stated that the functions must be observed and developed functionalism which is concerned with the adaptive purpose (evolution of mind for life preservation), or function of mind and behaviour. Functionalists stated that if behaviour serves a purpose, that purpose is ought to be reflected in daily human life. The broad ranging subjects touched by this approached lead to criticism for lack of seriousness. Gestalt psychology emphasises patterns and context in learning The theory was founded by Wertheimer (1912) and expanded by Kohler, among others. This theory is based on the idea that the whole of personal experience is different from simply the sum of its constituent elements. In experimentation they relied not on the reports of trained observers, but on ordinary people’s observations. This unstructured approach was called the phenomenological approach that refers to the totality of subjective conscious experience. This movements reflected that the perception of objects is subjective and dependant on context. (Take an image, what do you see) Women made pioneering contributions to psychology Mary Calkins studied philosophy and classics at Smith College and was invited to become a professor of philosophical psychology at Wellesley College. She studied with William James at Harvard University as a guest at his seminary. In 1895 she completed all the requirements for her PhD. with Munsterberg, but Harvard denied her degree, offering instead a PhD from Radcliffe that she denied. She wrote in 1901 an introductory psychology book, published more than 100 articles, and in 1905 was elected the 1st woman president of the American Psychological Association. Her major interest was the self and she was disenchanted by the rise of behaviourism and its dismissal of the concept of the self. Margaret Washburn was the 1st woman to be officially granted a PhD in psychology, in 1921 from Cornell University, where she studied with Titchener. In 1921 she became the 2 nd woman president of the APA and spent most of her life at Vassar College. She set up a scholarship fund for women. Freud Emphasized the Power of the Unconscious Freud began working with a patient with neurological disorders and found out that his patient’s paralysis was not always caused by medicinal reason and came to believe that they were caused by psychological factors. He deduced that much of the human behaviour is determined by mental processes operating below the level of conscious awareness, at the level of the unconscious. He believed that these unconscious mental forces, often sexual and in conflict, produced psychological discomfort and in some cases, disorders. Freud pioneered the clinical case study approach and developed psychoanalysis that attempts to bring the contents of the unconscious into the conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed and dealt with. He analysed the content of dreams and used free association, a technique in which patients would simply talk about what they wanted for the times that they wanted, believing that patients would reveal the unconscious conflicts causing them problems. He extended his theory for general psychological functioning. The problems with his method are that they are extremely difficult to analyse using the scientific method. Freud’s theories are no longer accepted, but the idea that mental processes occur below the level of consciousness is widely accepted. Most behaviour can be modified by reward and punishment Watson (1913) disapproved of methods like free association and introspection and believed that if psychology was to be a science, it had to stop trying to study mental events that could not be observed directly. He developed behaviourism, an approach that emphasizes environmental effects on behaviour. Influenced by Pavlov, the most important issue was the nature/nurture question. For him, nurture was all and he believed that animals acquired all behaviours through environmental factors: understanding the stimuli was all that was needed to predict the behavioural response. Skinner denied mental states’ existence, writing in his provocative book Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971) that concepts referring to mental processes were of no scientific value in explaining behaviour. He wanted to understand how repeated behaviour were shaped or influenced by the events or consequences that fallowed them Behaviorism was popular well through the 1960’s. Although some of their theories help the understanding of the mind, brain and behaviour, evidence shows that thought processes influence outcomes. Cognition affects behaviour Human’s perceptions can influence behaviour and that learning was not as simple as the behaviourists believed. In 1921, Kohler (Gestalt theorist) found out that monkeys could solve the problem of how to get a banana that was out of reach by figuring out how to connect 2 sticks together. After trying a few methods, the animals succeeded and used this method thereafter. Tolman, a learning theorist, showed that animals could learn by observation, which made little sense according to behaviourism, because the animals were not rewarded, the connection was all being made in their heads. Other psychologists showed that the laws of behaviourism were not sufficient to explain why cultural experiences alter a person’s way of remembering a story, how grammar develops systematically, and why a child goes through stages of development during which they interpret the world differently Miller (1975) launched the cognitive revolution. Neisser (1967) integrated a wide range of cognitive phenomena in his classis book Cognitive Psychology, which named and defined the field. Cognitive psychology is the study of how people think, learn and remember. Research has shown that the way people think about things influence their behaviour. Newell and Simon applied the functioning process of a computer to how the mind works. The information processing of the cognitive theories viewed the brain as the hardware that ran the mind that was the software. A lot preferred to focus only on the software. In 1980, cognitive psychologists joined forces with neuroscientists...and developed an integrated view of the mind and brain. In 1990, cognitive science was created which is the study of the neural mechanisms that underlie thought, learning and memory. Social situations shape behaviour In the 1900s social psychology emerged which is defined as the study of group dynamics in relation to psychological processes. The Nazi cases were studied. In the 1930 and 1940’s Lewin (Gestalt) emphasized a scientific, experimental approach to social psychology. His field theory emphasizes the interplay between people and their environments, such as social situations and group dynamics. This science recognizes the importance of fully considering a situation to predict and understand the behaviour within it. Psychological therapy is based on science In the 1950s, a humanistic approach to the treatment of psychological disorders led by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, emphasized how people can come up to know and accept themselves in order to reach their unique potential. The techniques involved questioning and listening in a certain type of way. In the last 40 years, a scientific approach to treating the disorders arose. Today 2 key factors are important in the treatment: a clinically recognized treatment is required and recognizing that each person is a unique individual with specific issues and needs. Chapter 2 : research methodology Critical thinking skill: identifying the need for control groups, recognizing that large samples are more reliable than small samples What is scientific inquiry? It is a way of finding answers to empirical questions that can be answered by observations or measure. It has 4 goals: describing what happened, predicting when it happened, controlling what causes it to happen, and explaining why it happened. The scientific method is used. The scientific method depends on theories hypotheses and research A theory (model of interconnected ideas and concepts that explains what is observed and makes predictions about future events) should generate a hypothesis (a specific prediction of what should be observed in the world if the theory is correct). If the theory is accurate the hypothesis should be supported. Once hypotheses have been developed research, which involves the systematic and careful collection of data, or objective information that provides a test of the hypothesis, and ultimately says if the theory is likely to be supported. Once the research findings are in, you return to the original theory to evaluate the implications of the data that were collected. The findings either support or require modifications of the theory. The study must be replicated and the results must be the same. Theories must give rise to a wide variety of hypotheses to allow evaluation. Focus on a theory, formulate a hypothesis, conduct research, analyze whether the data supports or refutes the theory, report results and embark on further inquiry. Many scientific discoveries are the results of serendipity: when researchers unexpectedly discover something important. What are the types of studies in psychological research? There are 3 main types of study design: descriptive, correlational and experimental which differ in the extent to which the researcher has control over the variables in the study and therefore in the extent to which the experimenter can make conclusions about causation. The variables must be defined in a precise way that reflects the method used to assess them. This is done by using operational definitions, which identify and quantify variables so they can be tested. Descriptive studies involve observing and classifying behaviour Descriptive studies (observational studies) involve observing and noting behaviour to analyse it objectively. Advantages: valuable in early stages of research, when trying to determine whether a phenomenon exists and takes place in a real world setting. Disadvantages: errors in observations can occur because of an observer’s expectations (observer bias) (Hawthorn effect). Observer’s presence can change the behaviour being witnessed. There are 2 main types: Naturalistic observation: the observer remains separated and makes no attempt to change the situation. Participant observation: the observer in directly involved. They need to minimize their impact on a situation in order to avoid problems. Longitudinal studies are one type of developmental design that involve observing and classifying developmental changes that occur in the same people over time, either with or without intervention form the observer. Advantages: provide info on the effect of age on the same people, allowing the researchers to see developmental changes. Disadvantage: expensive, takes a long time, and may lose participants over time. Cross-sectional studies involve observing and classifying developmental changes that occur in different groups of people at the same time. Advantages: faster and less expensive than longitudinal studies. Disadvantage: unidentified variables may be involved in differences between the groups (different level of education between the old adults and young adults.) Observer bias: systematic errors that occur in observation because of the observer’s expectations (influenced by culture and stereotypes). It can even change the behaviour being observed, a phenomenon called experimenter expectancy effect. To counter that effect it is better that the person doing the experimentation is blind to, or unaware of the study’s hypothesis. (Rosenthal study with the students training the rats: half were told that their rats were trained to run a maze faster and the other half was told nothing. The 1st group of rats did finish the maze faster because the students cave them cues which change their behaviour.) Correlational designs examine how variables are related Correlation study: a research method that examines how variables are naturally related in the real world, without any attempt by the researcher to alter them. These methods are sometimes required for ethical reasons. Certain problems are associated. 1. No known causality: they don’t tell what causes behaviour, but can enable the researcher to make predictions that the same pattern in the association will be reproduced in further cases. (We can say that the horrors of war are associated with learning difficulties, but can’t say they cause them because the soldier’s wartime experiences were not controlled). 2. They don’t allow the knowledge of the direction of the cause-effect relation between variables. This ambiguity is called the directionality problem. (Does less sleep cause more stress, or more stress cause less sleep?) 3. The 3rd variable problem: when the experimenter cannot directly manipulate the independent variable, and can’t be confident that another unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of differences in the dependent variable. Instead of A causing B, C (3rd variable) caused A and B. (A genetic predisposition to smoke or to develop cancer interfere is the causality of smoking and cancer.) Randomizing the sample sometimes helps, but sometimes difficult for ethical reasons.(picking up random children that will or will not go to preschool in order to see if going the preschools betters children’s reading ability). By showing that a relationship between 2 variables still holds even if a 3rd variable can come into play is meaningful. An experiment involves manipulating conditions An experiment is a study in which the researcher manipulates one variable to examine the variable’s effect on a second variable. Control (or comparison) group: the participants in a study that receive no intervention or a different intervention from the one being studied. Experimental (or treatment) group: the participants in a study that receive the intervention. Independent variable: the variable being manipulated by the experimenter to examine its impact on the dependent variable: the measure that is affected by manipulation of the independent variable. The benefit of an experiment is that the researcher can establish that causal relationship between the 2 variables. Although they can infer case the link is often criticised is being artificial. Research design often involves a series of choices: it means balancing the problems of taking people as they come with the problems of creating an artificial environment for the experiment. Establishing causality An experiment must be controlled; the possibility that anything other than the independent variable may affect the experiments’ outcome must be minimized. A confound is anything that affects a dependent variable and may unintentionally vary between the experimental conditions of a study, making it impossible to discern what caused a change. Alternative explanations for the observed data must be ruled out so that only the independent variable varies. Random assignment is used to establish equivalent groups Population: everyone in the group the experimenter is interested in Sample: a subset of a population undergoing the experiment. Sampling: process by which people from the population are selected for the sample. In order for the sample to reflect the population the best method is to use random sampling. A likely confound is pre-existing differences between groups that are assigned to different conditions. Convenience sample: a sample of people conveniently available for the study Selection bias: when participants in different groups in an experiment differ systematically. Random assignment: the procedure for placing research participants into the conditions of an experiment in which each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any level of the independent variable. It balances out known and unknown factors. Meta-analysis: a ‘’study of studies’’ that combines the findings of multiples studies (the same type) to arrive at a conclusion. What are the data collection methods of psychological science? The question the researcher wants to answer dictates the appropriate method for collecting data. The 1st step in selection is determining the level of analysis a particular question is addressing. Cross cultural studies: compares groups of people from different cultures. Advantages: examine the effect of culture on some variable of interest, thereby making psychology more applicable around the world. Disadvantages: some situations and some specific words do not convey the same meaning when translated across cultures and can leave room for alternative explanations, such as misunderstanding during the research process. Culturally sensitive research: studies that take into account the ways culture affects thoughts, feelings and actions. Culture is adaptive (modifies in function of survival) and has a shared system of meaning. Observing is an unobtrusive strategy Observational techniques: involve the systematic assessment and coding of overt behaviour. 3 questions must be asked. 1. Should the study be conducted in the lab or in the environment? 2. How should the data be collected? As a written description of what was seen or as a running tally of pre specified categories of behaviour? 3. Should the observer be visible? The concern here is that observations might alter the behaviour being observed, an effect known as reactivity. The Hawthorn effect refers to changes in the behaviour that occur we people know we are observing them. Case studies examine individual lives and organizations. A case study: special type of observation/descriptive study that involves the intensive examination of a person or a few individuals (clinical case studies) or one or few organizations (organizational case studies), typically people or organizations that are somehow unusual. They reveal a lot on the person being observed but can’t generalize to all similar people (troubled people). Advantages: can provide extensive data about one or a few individuals (brain injured) or organizations (success/failure of a procedure). Disadvantages: can be very subjective: if a researcher has a causal theory (for example, people who are loners are dangerous), this theory can bias what is being observed and recorded (Can’t know why some people react differently to a similar situation). It is not possible to generalise the results from an individual to the population. Asking takes a more active approach Includes surveys, interviews, questionnaires, and other self-reports. A critical issue in asking research-based questions is how to frame the questions, there are several options. Open-ended questions: allow respondents to provide any answer they think of and to answer in as much detail as they feel appropriate. Close-ended questions: the respondents must select among fixed options. Self report methods: method in which people are asked to provide information about themselves, such as questionnaires or surveys. Experience sampling: method used when the researcher wants to understand how thoughts, feelings and behaviours vary through a period of time. Several samples are taken overtime. Self-report bias: when people introduce bias in their answers, making it difficult to discern an honest and true response. Specially present when the question produces socially desirable responding, or faking good. There can also be the better than average effect in which people describe themselves more positively than they should. (might not be conscious) Interactive methods involve asking questions to participants, who then respond in any way they feel is appropriate or select from a fixed number of options. Advantages: self-report methods such as questionnaires can be used to gather data from a large number of people. They are easy to administer, cost efficient and a relatively fast way to collect data. Interviewing people face to face gives to researcher the opportunity to explore new lines of questioning. Experience sampling allows researchers to examine how responses vary overtime. Disadvantages: people can introduce biases into their answers (self-report bias) or may not recall information accurately. Scientifics can be more comfortable with their findings when they use different types of methods, because we can get different results when we use different methods. Response performance measures information processing Response performance: a method in which researchers quantify perceptual or cognitive processes in response to a specific stimulus. Researchers measure reaction time (based on the fact that the brain takes time to process information; the more processing a stimulus requires, the longer the reaction time), response accuracy can also be measured, response performance by asking people to make stimulus judgments regarding different stimuli with which they are presented. Advantages: relatively simple way to study cognition and perception, less affected by observer bias or subject reactivity. Disadvantages: can be costly and time consuming, less likely to be useful in real-world settings. The Stroop effect: it takes longer to name the colors of words that are printed in conflicting colors. Body/brain activity can be measure directly (biological level of analysis) Psychophysiological assessment: Researchers examine how bodily functions change in associations with behaviours or mental states. (Polygraph: lie detector) Electrophysiology: data collection method that measures electrical activity in the brain. Electrodes are fixed in the person’s scalp. The device measuring brain activity is an electroencephalogram (EEG). Different behavioural states will produce different and predictable EEG patterns, but is limited because the recordings cover all brain activity and therefore are too noisy or imprecise to isolate specific response to particular stimuli. Brain imaging: a range of experimental techniques that make brain structures and brain activity (blood flow) visible. ( brain’s electrical activity is associated with changes in the blood flow carrying oxygen and nutrients to the active brain regions) Positron emission tomography (PET): computer aided reconstruction of the brain’s metabolic activity by using a radioactive substance injected into the bloodstream that enables to find the brain areas that are using glucose. Correlation between two relatively similar tasks, because the brain is extremely active. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) produces high quality image of the brain. Researchers momentarily disrupt the magnetic forces and energy is released from the brain tissue. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): makes use of the brain’s blood flow indirectly by assessing changes in the blood oxygen levels to map mental activity, scanning the brains of participants as they perform tasks. Advantages: map the brain in various ways to show brain regions involved in different tasks. Disadvantages: show only the brain regions active while tasks are performed; we don’t know whether, for example, a particular brain region is necessary for a particular task because these data are correlational (third variable problem, directionality problem) Transcranial magnetic stimulation: uses strong magnets to briefly interrupt normal brain activity as a way to study brain regions. Good method to examine which brain regions are necessary for specific functions. It can be used shortly to examine brain regions close to the scalp. Research with animals can provide important data Ivan Pavlov’s observation of a salivating dog inspired Jon B.Watson to launch the behaviourist movement: humans are subjects to the same laws of nature as animals. For research purpose transgenic mice are produce by manipulating the genes in developing mice embryos. There are ethical issues to consider Institutional review boards (IRBs): groups of people responsible for reviewing proposed research to ensure that it meets the accepted standards of science and provides for the physical and emotional well-being of research participants. Participants must be ensured privacy. Is it okay that people are unaware? They must be ensured confidentiality so that personal information is not linked publicly to the study’s findings. Or else participants may bias their responses in order for them to be more socially acceptable. For studies that are concerned with extremely sensitive topics, the participants’ response should be anonymous, meaning that no personal information is collected, so that responses can never be traced to the individuals (not the same as confidentiality). Informed consent: people must be provided with all the relevant information that might affect their willingness to become participants, and must make a knowledgeable decision to participate. It is often obtained in written form. In the case of observational studies done publicly, the individuals will remain anonymous. Minors, intellectually incapacitated and the mentally ill can’t provide legal informed consent, therefore, a legal guardian must do it for them. Deception: when participants are mislead of the studies’ goals to avoid that participants alter their behaviour knowing the true goals. Used in last resort. After a deception is used a careful debriefing (explanation of the study) must be done to explain why the deception was done. Relative risk of participation (mental or physical health of participants): researchers can’t make their participants endure pain. How are data analysed and evaluated? Good research requires valid, reliable and accurate data Validity: the extent to which the data collected addresses the research hypothesis in the way intended. The data’s validity depends on the question being studied. It is essentially the extent to which the data is really measuring what you want to measure. Reliability: the extent to which a measure is stable and consistent over time in similar conditions. Accuracy: the extent to which an experimental measure in free from error (random and systematic) Descriptive statistics provide a summary of the data The 1st step in evaluating data is to inspect the raw values, looking for errors in data reporting. The 2nd step is summarizing the basic patterns using descriptive statistics, which provide an overall summary of the data. Central tendency (simplest descriptive stat): a measure that represents the typical behaviour of a group as a whole. Mean: a measure of central tendency that is the arithmetic average of a set of numbers. Median: a measure of central tendency that is the value in a set of numbers that falls exactly halfway between the lowest and the highest values. Sometimes a better estimate than the mean because doesn’t include extreme values. Mode: most frequent score in a set of values. Variability: in a set of numbers, how widely dispersed the values are from each other and from the mean Standard deviation: a statistical measure of how far away each value is, on average, from the mean. Range: the distance between the largest and the smallest value. Correlation describes the relationship between variables. The 1st step in examining the relationship between 2 variables is to create a graph known as a scaterplot. In analysing the relationship, researchers can compute a correlation coefficient (-1: perfect negative correlation, to +1: perfect positive correlation) Inferential statistics permit generalizations Inferential statistics: a set of procedures used to determine if differences (between means) actually exist in the population from which the sample are drawn. When the results obtained by a study would be very unlikely to occur if there were no differences between the groups of subjects, the scientist conclude that the results are statistically significant: it would have to occur less than 5% of the time. Chapter 3: biological foundations What is the genetic basis of psychological science? Genetics refers not only to characteristics, but also to the process involved in turning genes on and off. Nature/nurture is related and influences each other. (2001: Human genome project whose 1st task was to map out the entire structure of DNA. We have fewer than 30 000 genes.) The genome provides the option, and the environment determines which option is taken. Chromosomes: (23 pairs) structure within the cell body made out of genes: the unit of heredity made of DNA that code for a specific protein, which carries a specific task. The environment decides which proteins are produced and when they are produced Heredity involves passing along genes through reproduction Mendel (1866) developed selective breeding that strictly controlled which plants bred with other plants. He establish the basis of genetics: dominant and recessive genes Genotype (organism’s genetic constitution) and phenotype (physical appearance resulting from genetic and environmental influences) Polygenic effects: influenced by many genes (intelligence, behaviour) Genotypic variation is created by sexual reproduction In each parents, reproductive cells separate and form gametes, each of which contain half the chromosome pair. The resulting fertilized cell is a zygote, which has a unique genotype and grows trough cell division. Sometimes mutations occur through mitosis, if it is an advantage, it might spread. (Industrial melanism: flies went darker to hide from predators). If disadvantaging they still stay in the gene pool (recessive genes tend to stay because don’t cause harm when not expressed) unless causes infertility. Genes affect behaviour Behavioural genetics: the study of how genes and environment interact to influence psychological activity. Behavioural genetics methods: Twin studies: compare similarities between different types of twins to determine the genetic basis of specific traits. Monozygotic twins: result from one zygote splitting in 2, both having the same genetic background, the DNA is not perfectly the same. Dizygotic twins: 2 separately fertilized eggs. Adoption studies: compare the similarities between biological relatives and adoptive relatives. (Living in the same home has no effect or very little on behaviour however, identical twins raised together or apart or very likely to be similar Heritability: a statistical estimate of the variation, caused by differences in heredity, in a trait within a population. (If within a population a trait such as height has a heritability of 0.6, that means 60 percent of height variation among individuals within that population is hereditary.) Social and environmental contexts influence genetic expression Study with 1000 New-Zealanders. MAO is important in determining susceptibility to the effect of maltreatment, because low levels of MAO have been implicated in aggressive behaviours. Good example of how nature/nurture is entwined. Genetic expression can be modified Knockouts: research mice from which genes have been knockout or rendered inactive by being removed from or disrupted within the genome Critical thinking skill: seeking disconfirming evidence. How does the nervous system operate? Neurones are specialized for communication Neurones are the basic units of the nervous system; they operate through electrical impulse and communicate with other neurones through chemical signals. They have 3 functions: taking in information from neighbouring neurons (receptions), integrating those signals (conduction), and passing signals to other neurones (transmission). Sensory (afferent): detect information from the physical world and pass that information to the brain. The sensory nerves that provide information form muscles are called somatosensory. Motor (efferent): neurones that transmit signals from the brain to the muscles, causing them to move. Interneurones: communicate within short-distance or local circuits and integrate neural activity within a single area rather than transmitting information to other brain structure or to the body organs. Neurone structures Dendrites: branchlike extensions of the neurone that detect information from other neurons. Cell body: where the information of other neurones is collected and processed Axon: a long narrow outgrowth of the neurone by which information is transmitted Terminal buttons: small nodules, at the end of the axon that release chemical signals from the neurone to the synapse Synapse: the site for chemical communication between neurones which contain extracellular fluid. Myelin sheath: a fatty material made up of glial cells that insulate the axon and allows for rapid electrical impulses along the axon. Nodes of Ranvier: small gaps of exposed axon, between the segments of myelin sheath, where action potential are transmitted. The resting membrane potential is negatively charged When a neurone is not active, the inside and outside differ electrically because the ratio of negative to positive ions is greater inside the neurone than outside it. Changing this differential electrical charge, polarization, creates the electrical energy necessary to power the firing of the neuron. The roles of sodium and potassium: contribute to the neurone’s resting membrane potential. Ions pass through the cell through ion channels, specified pores located at the nodes of Ranvier that control the flow of ions by a gating mechanism. When the gate is opened the ions flow in and out of the membrane. Ion flow is also affected by membrane selective permeability: more K+ is inside the neurone than Na+, an imbalance that contributes to polarization. Action potential cause neural communication Action potential (neurone firing): electrical signal that passes along the axon and causes the release of chemicals from the terminal buttons. Changes in electrical potential lead to action: the signals, which work by affecting polarization arrive at the dendrites and are of 2 types: excitatory (depolarize the cell membrane, increasing the likelihood of it firing) and inhibitory. If the total amount of excitatory input from the other neurone reaches the neuron’s threshold, an action potential is generated. When a neurone fires, the sodium gates in the cell open, allowing sodium ions to rush into the neuron that becomes slightly more positively charged than the outside. A fraction of a second later, a potassium channel opens, allowing K+ to rush out of the cell. Action potential spread along the axon When a cell fires, the membrane’s depolarization moves along the axon like a wave, an action called propagation. Like dominoes, sodium ion channels open successfully, always moving down the axon away from the cell body to the terminal buttons. (multiple sclerosis: deterioration of the myelin sheath) All or none principle: the principle whereby a neuron fires with the same potency each time, although frequency may vary; it either fires if it receives enough signal to raise the voltage or doesn’t fire at all. How often the neurons fire depends on the strength of the signal. Neurotransmitters bind to receptors across the synapse The neurone that sends the signal is call pre-synaptic, and the neurone that receives the signal is call postsynaptic. Neurotransmitter: a chemical substance that carries signal from one neurone to the other, and are released once the vesicles of the terminal buttons once the potential reaches them. Receptors: specialized protein molecule, on the postsynaptic membrane that neurotransmitters bind to after passing across the synaptic cleft. Neurotransmitters bind with specific receptors: more than 60 chemicals transmit information Once neurotransmitters are released, they continue to fill and stimulate that receptor, and they block now signals until their influence is terminated. The 3 major events that terminate the transmitter’s influence in the synaptic cleft are reuptake, enzyme deactivation and autoreception. Reuptake: occurs when the neurotransmitters are taken back into the pre-synaptic terminal buttons. Enzyme deactivation: occurs when an enzyme destroys the transmitter substance in the synaptic cleft. Auto-receptors: receptors to which the neurotransmitter can bind to on the pre-synaptic neurone, they monitor how much neurotransmitter has been released into the synapse. When in excess, the auto-receptors signal the pre-synaptic neurons to stop the release. All neurotransmitters trigger or inhibit action potentials, their effect are a function of the receptors to which they bind, which in return determine which neurons will fire or less likely to fire. Neurotransmitters influence mind and behaviour Agonist: drugs and toxins that enhance neurotransmitters’ action Antagonist: drugs and toxins that inhibit these actions. Drugs and toxin can also bind to the receptors, mimicking neurotransmitters. (Heroin, cocaine) Types of neurotransmitters Acetylcholine (ACh): responsible for motor control at the junction between nerves and muscles; also involved in mental processes such as learning, memory, sleeping and dreaming. Botulism (inhibits the release of ACh, also used as Botox, paralyzing muscles that cause wrinkles) Alzheimer’s disease is associated with diminished ACh. Drugs that are ACh antagonist may enhance memory. Four of these are called monoamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonine, and dopamine). Their major function is to control states of arousal and affect feelings and to motivate behaviour. Epinephrine: neurotransmitter responsible for adrenaline rushes, bursts of energy caused by its release throughout the body Noreinephrine: involved in states of arousal and awareness. It inhibits the response to weak synaptic inputs and strengthens or maintains responsiveness to strong one. Serotonin: important in a wide range of psychological activity, including emotional states, impulse control, and dreaming. Low levels of serotonin are associated with sad and anxious moods, food cravings, and aggressive behaviour. Used to treat OCD, depression, eating disorders (Prozac hello) Dopamine: involved in reward, motivation and motor control Parkinson’s disease: a neurological disorder that seems to be caused by dopamine depletion (the dopamine producing neurones slowly die off) marked by muscular rigidity, tremors and difficulty initiation voluntary actions. Treated with L-DOPA. Implantation off foetus cells in the brain can help. GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) is the primary inhibitory transmitter in the nervous system. Without it, synaptic excitation might get out of control (epileptic seizures). By affecting GABA receptors, alcohol produces a relaxed feeling and interferes with motor coordination. Glutamate: the primary excitatory transmitter in the nervous system, opening sodium gates, and is involved in fast-transmission throughout the brain. Glutamate receptors aid in learning and memory by strengthening synaptic connections. Endorphins: involved in natural pain reduction and reward. Substance P: involved in pain perception as well as mood states and anxiety. (chilli peppers) What are the brain structure and their functions? Central nervous system (CNS): the brain and spinal cord Peripheral nervous system (PNS): all the other nerve cells in the body that are not part of CNS. The 2 systems are anatomically different but their functions are interdependent: the PNS transmit a variety of information to the CNS, which organizes and evaluates that information and then directs the PNS to perform specific behaviours or make bodily adjustments. The brain: a brief history of understanding its functions Phineas Gage: a huge road went through his head resulting in mood changes. His recovery help argue that the entire brain works uniformly and that the healthy parts had taken over the damaged parts. The medical community eventually recognized that Gage’s psychological impairments had been severe and that some areas of the brain in fact have specific functions. His injuries to the frontal region of the brain lead researchers to think that this regions is particularly concerned with social phenomena, such as following social norms, understanding what other people are thinking, and feeling emotionally connected to others Egyptians thought that the heart was the mind’s home. Greeks and Romans recognized that it was the brain. By the beginning of the 19th century, anatomists understood the brain’s basic structures reasonably well. But debates about how mental activity is generated still occurred. Equipotentiality: all areas of the brain are equally important in cognitive activities Phrenology (Gall, Spurzheim): the brain operates though functional localization. It is the practice of assessing personality traits and mental abilities by measuring bumps on the human skull. Psychographs were used to tell about participants’ personalities based on the location and sizes of bumps on their heads. Lashley set out to identify the places in the brain where learning occurs. He believed that specific regions were involved in motor control and sensory experiences, but that all other parts contributed to mental activity. The 1st strong evidence that the brain regions perform specialized functions came from the physician and anatomist Paul Broca (performed an autopsy on Leborgne who could only say the word tan, but could still understand language. When he observed, he found out that there was a large lesion on the left side, which lead him to conclude that this region is important for speech Broca’s regions: the left frontal region of the brain, crucial for the production of language. The invention of brain imaging methods in the late 1980s has lead to great breakthrough. The brainstem houses the basic programs of survival Spinal cord: a rope of neural tissue that runs inside the hollows of the vertebrae from just above the pelvis up to the base of the skull. It coordinates each reflex and carries out sensory information up to the brain and carries signal form the brain to the body parts below. It is composed of 2 different tissues: The gray matter: dominated by neurones’ cell bodies White matter: consists of mostly axons and the fatty sheaths that surround them In the base of the skull, the spinal cord thickens and becomes more complex as it transforms into the brainstem, consisting in the medulla oblonda, the pons and the midbrain, it houses the nerves that control the most basic functions of survival, such as breathing, swallowing, vomiting, urination and orgasm. It performs functions for the head similar to those that the spinal cord performs for the body. Many reflexes emerge from here analogous to the spinal reflexes. The brainstem also contains a network of neurones, known collectively as the reticular formation that project up into the cerebral cortex and affect general alertness, and is also involved in terminating the different stages of sleep. The cerebellum is essential for movement Cerebellum: large protuberance connected to the back of the brainstem. It is extremely important for proper motor function, and lesion to its different parts produce very different effects. Damage to the little nodes at the bottom causes a head tilt, balance problems, and a loss of smooth compensation of eye position for head movement. Damage to the ridge that runs up its back: affects walking. Damage to the bulging lobes on either side: cause a loss of limb coordination. Its most important role is in motor learning: it seems to be trained by the rest of the nervous system and operates independently and unconsciously. Recent studies indicate that it is involved in various cognitive processes such as making plans, remembering events, using language, and experiencing emotion (even empathy) Subcortical structures control emotions and basic drives Forebrain: consists of 2 cerebral hemispheres and includes the cerebral cortex, subcortical regions which contain the hypothalamus, thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and the basal ganglia. Some of these structures belong to the limbic system that separates brainstem and cerebellum from the cerebral cortex. The structures in the limbic system are important for controlling basic drives (eating, drinking, and emotions) Hypothalamus: brain’s master regulatory structure that receives input from almost everywhere in the body and brain and projects its influence throughout the body. It affects many internal organs’ functions, regulating body temperature, rhythms, blood pressure and glucose. It is also involved in many basic drives (thirst, hunger, aggression, and lust) Thalamus: the gateway to the cortex: almost all sensory information goes through it before reaching the cortex, except for the sense of smell that has a direct route to the cortex. During sleep, it shuts the gate on incoming sensations while the brain rests Hippocampus: plays an important role in the storage of new memories by creating new interconnections within the cerebral cortex with each new experience. A new hypothesis suggests that it may be involved in how we remember the arrangements of both places and objects in space. (Maguire found that the hippocampus was more developed in taxi drivers than other drivers, 2003). Thus, it changes with experience. Amygdala: serves a vital role in our learning to associate things in the world with emotional responses, enabling the organism to overrule instinctive responses by connecting memories of things to the emotions engendered by those things. It also intensifies memory’s function during times of emotional arousal. It plays a special role in responding to stimuli that elicit fear (evolution: protection of animals from danger) and is involved in evaluating a facial expressions’ emotional significance (activates specially in response to a fearful face). Recent studies show that it is involved in the processing of more positive emotions (sexual arousal).(Study Hamman, amygdala activity increases when people view sexual things and its activity is greater in men, because men are more responsive to visual sexual stimuli; this suggest that the amygdala may play a role in greater responsiveness. Basal ganglia: a system of subcortical structures crucial for planning and producing movement. They receive input from the cortex and project to the motor centers of the brainstem and, via the thalamus, back to the cortex’s major planning areas. Nucleus accumbens: structure within the ganglia that provides a good example of how environment interacts with the brain. It has been shown that it is important for experiencing reward. (A study shows that viewing pictures of sports cars lead to greater activation in men) The cerebral cortex underlies complex mental activity Cerebral cortex: the outer layer of the brain tissue, which forms the convoluted surface of the brain. It is the site of all thoughts, detailed perceptions and consciousness. It is also the source of culture and communication that allow us to learn fine distinctions and intricate details of the outside world. Each cerebral hemisphere has 4 lobes: occipital, parietal, temporal and frontal. The corpus callosum: a massive bridge of millions of axons that connects the 2 hemispheres together and allows information to flow between them. Occipital lobe: back portion of the brain devoted mainly to vision. It consists of many visual areas. The primary visual cortex is by far the largest and is the major destination for visual information which is typically organized for the cerebral cortex in a way that preserves spatial relationships. Surrounding the primary visual cortex is a patchwork of secondary visual areas that process various attributes of the visual image (colors, forms and motions) Parietal lobe: devoted partially to touch and includes the primary somatosensory cortex. The left hemisphere receives touch information from the right side of the body and the right hemisphere, from the left side of the body. This information is represented by the somatosensory cortex in a way that groups nearby sensations. The result is a distorted (because more cortical area is devoted to the body’s more sensitive areas (face and fingers)) representation of the body: the somatosensory homunculus. (hemineglet (damage to right side of the parietal lobe) patients would only draw the right side of an object) Temporal lobes: holds the primary auditory complex, specialized visual areas (for recognizing detailed objects such as faces), the hippocampus and amygdala. Fusiform face area: at the intersection of the temporal and occipital cortices, it is much more active when people look at faces than anything else. Frontal lobes: essential for planning and movement. The rearmost portions of the frontal lobes are the motor areas including the premotor cortex and the primary motor complex. It includes neurones that project directly to the spinal cord to move the body’s muscles. Its responsibilities are divided down the middle of the body, like those of sensory areas, the left controls the right and the right controls the left. Prefrontal cortex: a region of the frontal lobes (30% of brain) responsible for directing and maintaining attention, keeping ideas in mind and developing and acting on plans. Indispensable for rational activity, it is especially important for many aspects of human social life, such as understanding what other people are thinking, behaving according to norms, and even contemplating our own existence. It provides both our sense of self and our capacity to empathize with others or feel guilty about harming them. How are neural messages integrated into communication systems? This section describes the interaction of the nervous system and a different mode of communication, the endocrine system, in the production of psychological activity. The PNS includes the somatic and the autonomic systems Somatic nervous system: transmits sensory signals to the CNS via nerves and the CNS sends signals through the somatic nervous system to initiate, modulate, or inhibit movement, Autonomic nervous system: regulates the body’s internal environment by stimulating glands and by maintaining internal organs. Nerves in the ANS carry somatosensory signals to the CNS, providing information about the body’s condition. 2 types of signals travel from the CNS to organs and glands in the PNS that control most of our internal organs: Sympathetic division of ANS: prepares the body for action Parasympathetic division of ANS: returns the body to its normal resting state The endocrine system communicates through hormones Endocrine system: a communication system that uses hormones to influence thoughts, behaviours and actions. Hormones: chemical substances released into the bloodstream by the endocrine glands (thyroid, testes, ovaries) and travel until they reach their target tissues, where they bind to receptor sites and influence those tissues. They can take hours or minutes to affect tissues and once they are active their affects can last for a long time and affect multiple targets. Hormones’ effect on sexual behaviour The main endocrine glands affecting sexual behaviour are the gonads. The 2 major gonadal hormones are identical in males and females, but the quantity differs: androgens (testosterone) are more predominant in males and estrogens (estradiol and progesterone) are more prevalent in females. These hormones influence both the development of secondary sex characteristics and adult sexual behaviour. Estrus: period of the year when nonhuman females are sexually receptive and fertile. Removal of the ovaries ends the estrus. In female humans, removal of the ovaries has no effect on their sexual behaviours. Actions of the nervous system and endocrine system are coordinated Ultimately the endocrine system is controlled by the CNS. The brain interprets external stimuli, and then sends signals to the endocrine system, which responds by initiating various effects on the body and behaviour. Most of the central control of the endocrine system is done by the hypothalamus. Pituitary gland: located at the base of the hypothalamus, it governs the release of hormones form the rest of the endocrine glands. Neural activation causes the hypothalamus to secrete a particular releasing factor that causes the pituitary to release a hormone specific to that factor. The hormone then travels through the bloodstream to endocrine sites throughout the body. Once the hormone reaches the target area, it touches off the release of other hormones, which affect bodily reaction of behaviour. By releasing hormones in the bloodstream, it controls other glands and governs major processes (development, ovulation, and lactation) How does the brain change? Plasticity: a property of the brain that allows it to change as a result of experience, drugs or injury. It reflects the interactive nature of our biological and psychological influence. The connections in the brain can change with experience. The brain fallows predictable developmental patterns, with different structures and abilities progressing at different rates and maturing at different points in life. The interplay of genes and environment wires the brain Which cells express which genes, and to what extent is determined by environment. The constant interaction of nature and nurture affects our DNA’s activity and the products of that activity. Cell identity becomes fixed over time Stamp cells can take whatever functions depending on the nature of its surroundings and the signals received. During the development of the embryo, each cell becomes more and more specialized and its functions become crystallized. Cell transplantation is very promising. Experience fine-tunes neural connections: connections form between brain structures when growing axons are directed by certain chemicals that tell them where to go. The major connections are given by chemical messengers, while the detailed connections are given by experience. Critical periods: time during which certain experiences must occur for development to proceed normally. (Experience: 2 groups of rats, the ones with the luxury cage were the most developed) Culture affects the brain Cultural neuroscience: studies cultural variables’ effect on the brain, the mind, the genes and the behaviour. It consists of bringing information about brain functions, analysing social and emotional processes, examination of perceptual processes. Evidence shows that cultural experiences influence perception and cognition to the extent that cultural differences contribute to different patterns of brain activity. (westerners focus more on objects than easterners) Within cultural contexts people learn which features in the environment merit more attention because they are more important. Evidence suggest that people are better at recognizing emotional expression from people of their own culture, because they have more experience in interpreting emotional expressions among those with whom they interact regularly. The amygdala shows increased activity when they view fearful expressions of members of their own social groups The brain rewires itself throughout life The rewiring of the brain through life represents learning’s biological basis Changes in the strength of connections underlies learning. All our memories are reflected in the brain’s physical changes in the strength of existing connections (not in its general arrangement). One possibility is that when 2 neurones fire simultaneously, the synaptic connections between them strengthens, making them more likely to fire together in the future. This theory accounts for both the burning in of an experience and the ingraining of habits. Until recently, scientist believed that the brain couldn’t grow new neurones, but it can and this process is called neurogenesis (a lot in the hypocampus, perhaps neurones can be lost and replaced without disrupting memory) which plays a major role in recovering from brain injury Elizabeth Gould and her colleagues have shown that environmental conditions play a large role in neurogenesis. In some animals, stress is a factor. Dominant animals show increase in new neurone formation. Thus, social experiments can strongly affect brain plasticity, a dynamic process we are only beginning to understand. Neurogenesis may underlie plasticity, through that process, we could eliminate mental decline (due to aging). Changes in the brain The portions of the cerebral cortex shift in response to activity, wiring in the brain is affected by amount of use. Cortical reorganization can have bizarre results. For example, phantom limb (an amputee still feels as if his limb was there. This phenomenon suggests that the brain has not reorganized in response to the injury and that the missing limb’s cortical representation remains intact. Ramachandran discovered that an amputee who has lost a hand may when his eyes are closed, perceive a touch on the cheek as if it were the missing hand. The unused part of the amputee’s cortex assumes to some degree the function of the closest group representing the face. The brain hasn’t kept pace with the somatosensory area enough to figure out these neurones’ new job, so the neurones are activated by a touch on the amputee’s face. The puzzle of synesthesia Ramachandran inferred that the genes involved were related to brain formation. He concluded that people with color/number synesthesia have the region associated with seeing colors and the one associated with understanding numbers connected or cross-wired. One portion of the brain would have adopted the role of the other. He found evidence of neural activity in the brain associated with color vision in synesthetes that were presented black and white numbers. Synesthesia remained in the gene pool because it is advantageous, it allows creativity. More creactive people are synesthetes. Critical thinking skill: recognizing unstated assumptions Females’ and males’ brain are similar and different Sexual dimorphism: the study of the differences in anatomic structures of the brain. Richard Haier found that females show greater use of language-related brain regions and that males show greater use of spatial-related brain regions, even when participants are of matched intelligence. Males generally have larger brains than females (9% bigger), this is not better (one developmental process in the brain involves disconnecting neurones so that only the most useful connections remain) Females’ brains are more bilaterally organized for language: the brain areas used for processing language can be found in both hemispheres. The halves of women’s brains are connected by more neural fibres than men’s are. There is a portion of the corpus callosum that is larger in women. The brain can recover from injury The brain can reorganize in response to injury. Following an injury in the cortex, the surrounding gray matter assumes the role of the damaged area. This remapping seems to begin immediately, and it continues for years. Such plasticity involves all levels of the nervous system. It is much more prevalent in children than adults. Radical hemispherectomy: the surgical removal of an entire cerebral hemisphere. (In children) Stem cells transplantations into the brain to repair damage. Chapter 5: sensation and perception How do we sense our world? Sensation: our sense organs’ detection of and responses to external stimuli and the transmission of these responses to the brain. Perception: the process in the brain, organization and interpretation of sensory signals: it results in an internal representation of the stimulus. Stimulus: a green light emits physical properties in the form of photons Sensation: sensory receptors in the driver’s eye detect this stimuli Sensory coding: the stimulus is transducted (translated into chemical and electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain. Perception: the driver’s brain processes the neural signals and constructs a representation of a green light ahead, which is interpreted as a sign to continue driving Perception is often based on our prior experiences, which shape our expectations about new sensory experiences. What we sense is the result of our brain processes that actively construct perceptual experiences and, as a result, allow us to adapt to our environments’ details. Stimuli must be coded to be understood by the brain Sensory coding: our sensory organs’ translations of stimuli’s physical properties into neural impulses. The different features of the physical environment are coded by different neural impulse patterns The brain cannot process raw stimuli, so the stimuli must be translated into chemical and electrical signals the brain can interpret. Sensory coding begins with transduction, in which receptors, specialized neurones in the sense organs, pass impulses to connecting neurones when the receptors receive physical or chemical stimulation. Connecting neurones than transmit information to the brain in the form of neural impulses. Most sensory information goes to the thalamus. Neurones in the thalamus then send information to the cortex, where incoming neural impulses are interpreted in smell, sight, sound, touch or taste. The brain needs quantitative (sensory neurones respond to qualitative differences by firing different combinations) and qualitative (sensory receptors respond by firing at different rates) information about a stimulus. Coarse coding: sensory qualities are coded by only a few different types of receptors, each of which respond to a broad range of stimuli. The combined responses by different receptors firing at different rates allow us distinction. Psychophysics relates stimulus to response Developed in 19th century by Weber and Fechner examines our psychological experiences of physical stimuli. It assess how much physical energy is required for our sense organs to detect a stimulus and how much change is required before we notice that change. Sensory thresholds Absolute threshold: minimum intensity of stimulation that must occur before we experience a sensation, or the stimulus intensity detected above chance. (the level of intensity at which participants correctly detect a stimulus 50% of the time) Difference threshold: the just noticeable difference between 2 stimuli- the minimum amount of change required for a person to detect a difference. It increases as the stimulus becomes more intense. Weber’s law: the just noticeable difference between 2 stimuli is based on proportion of the original stimulus rather than on fixed amount of difference. Delta I / I = a constant. Critical thinking skill: recognizing the effects of context on judgments Signal detection theory (SDT): based on the idea that the detection of a faint stimulus requires a judgment, it is not an all or none process. Research is based on a series of trials in which a stimulus is presented in only some trials. In each trial, participants must state if they sensed the stimulus, it has 4 outcomes. If the signal is presented and the participant detects it, the outcome is a hit. If the participant fails to detect the signal, than the outcome is a miss. If the participant ‘’detects’’ a signal that was not presented, the outcome is a false alarm. If the signal is not presented and the participant doesn’t detect it, the outcome is a correct rejection. The participant’s sensitivity to the signal is usually computed by comparing the hit rate with the false alarm rate, thus correcting for any bias the participant may bring to the testing situation. Response bias: a participant’s tendency to report detecting the signal in an ambiguous trial. Sensory adaptation: sensory systems are tuned to detect environmental changes because they might require response. It is a decrease in sensitivity to a constant level of stimulation. If a stimulus is present constantly the response of the sensory system that detects it is diminished over time. What are the basic sensory processes? Only the neurones in the sensory organs respond directly to events in the world. The other neurones respond to inputs of other neurones. In taste, taste buds detect chemicals Gustation: the sense of taste Taste buds: sensory receptors that transduce taste information. We have from 500 to 10000. When food stimulates them they send signals to the brain, which then produces the experience of taste. In all the senses a near infinite variety of perceptual experiences arises from the activation of unique combination of receptors. Every taste experience is composed of a mixture of 5 basic qualities: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami (yummy). The last category arises from the detection of glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter that occur naturally in foods such as meat, some cheese and mushrooms. Glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid (MSG) Taste alone does not affect how much we like or dislike a certain type of food; it also relies on the sense of smell. Food’s texture matters as well. The entire taste experience occurs in the brain, not in our mouth. Supertasters: particularly sensitivity to bitter foods, they have 6 times the amount of taste buds. Our individual taste preferences come partly from our different number of taste receptors. Cultural factors influence as well, it can even begin in the womb; mothers pass their eating preferences to their offspring. In smell the nasal cavity gathers odorants Olfaction: the sense of smell, which occurs when receptors in the nose respond to chemicals. It has the most direct route to our brain. In the nose and nasal cavity the particles come in contact with the olfactory epithelium. Olfactory epithelium: a thin layer of tissue, within the nasal cavity in which thousands of receptors are embedded, and each category respond to different chemical groups. Each odour stimulates receptors and the activation pattern across several receptor types determines the olfactory perception. These receptors transmit information to the olfactory bulb: the brain center for smell, located below the frontal lobes. From here smell information goes to other brain areas. Smell signals bypass the thalamus. Areas in the prefrontal cortex process information about whether a smell is pleasant or not, whereas the smell intensity is processed in the amygdala. The prefrontal cortex is also involved in emotion and memory, thus olfactory sensation can invoke feelings and memories. Females are better at perceiving and identifying odours than men are. They also have better memories for odours. This is related to their capacities to excel at certain verbal tasks: they are more likely to label a smell giving them mnemonic devices for retrieving particular smells. It can also be because women are more likely to feed infants and thus need to indentify spoiled foods. As we age, our sensory perception becomes less acute. Recent studies have found that an impaired sense of smell is associated with an increased risk of mental decline and of Alzheimer’s disease. In touch, sensors in the skin detect pressure, temperature and pain Haptic sense: sensation of temperature, pressure, pain and a sense of where our limbs are in space. We really have 8 senses because of the haptic sense’s 4 parts (hot, cold, pressure and pain) that are encountered separately. Anything that makes contact with our skin provides tactile stimulation which gives rise to an integrated experience of touch. The haptic receptors for temperature and pressure are sensory neurones that terminate in the skin’s outer layer. Their long axons enter the CNS by way of spinal nerves. For sensing temperature, there are separate receptors for sensing cold and hot, although both can be triggered at the same time by intense stimuli which can produce strange sensory experiences such as a false feeling of wetness. Some receptors for pressure are nerve fibbers at the bases of hair follicles that respond to movement in the hair. Other pressure receptors are capsules in the skin that respond to continued vibration, to sudden movements, and to steady pressure. Pain receptors are found throughout the body, not just in the skin. The integration of various signals and higher-level mental processes produce a tickling sensation, which can be pleasant or unpleasant depending on the mental state of the person. Some areas in the brain respond less to self produced tactile stimulation than to external stimulations. 2 types of pain: pain signals that we should stop from continuing harmful activities. The actual experience of pain is created by the brain. Most experiences of pain result when damage to the skin activates haptic receptors. The nerve fibbers that convey pain information are thinner than those for temperature or pressure and are found in all body tissues that sense pain: skin, muscles, membranes around both bones and joints, organs and so on. 2 kinds of nerve fibbers for pain have been identified: fast fibbers for sharp immediate pain and slow fibbers for chronic, dull steady pain. An important distinction is the myelination (fast fibbers) or nonmyelination (slow fibbers) of their axon, which travel from pain receptors to the spinal cord. Gate control theory: the brain regulates the experience of pain, sometimes producing it, sometimes repressing it. Theory from Melzack and Wall (1982) that states: for us to experience pain, pain receptors must be activated and a neural gate in the spinal cord must allow the signals though the brain. Pain signals are transmitted by small diameter nerve fibbers, which can be blocked at the level of the spinal cord by the firing of larger sensory nerve fibbers. Thus sensory nerve fibbers can close a gate and prevent or reduce the sensation of pain. Distraction can also close the gate whereas worrying or focusing on the pain seems to open the gate. Because pain is processed in the same brain area as stress, fear and anxiety, it is a sensory experience, and an emotional response. Pain perception is complex and depends on biological, psychological and cultural factors. It has been shown that women are more sensitive to pain than men are; the evidence comes from autonomic –involuntary- responses. Thus there might be sex-related pain treatments. One new method in treating pain takes advantages of advances in brain imaging that allow us to see which parts of the brain are active when we feel pain . Pain perception is divided in 2 areas in the brain. The 1st area: responds to sensory input from the part of the body that is in pain. The 2nd area registers the emotional aspect of pain. When we feel pain both areas are active. Visualising pain positively helps to reduce it. Pain medication blocks the signal transmission of pain to the brain. General anaesthesia slows down the firing of neurones throughout the nervous system. In hearing, the ears detect sound waves Audition: is second to vision as a source of information about the world, it is the perception of sound. Hearing results from the movements and vibrations of objects caused by displacement of air molecules. Displaced molecules produce a change in air pressure. And that change travels through the air. Sound wave: pattern of changes in air pressure throughout time. The amplitudes determines loudness (higher is perceived is louder) and the frequency (Hz: vibration/sec) determines the pitch (higher frequencies correspond to higher pitch). We can detect frequencies from 20 to 20000 Hz. Once again, it is perceived in the brain. Hearing is based on interactions of various regions of the ear, which convert sound waves into brain activity, producing the sensation of sound. Changes in air pressure produce sound waves that arrive at the outer ear and travel down the auditory canal to the eardrum, a membrane stretched tightly across the canal and marking the beginning of the middle ear. The sound waves make the eardrum vibrate. These vibrations are transferred to ossicles (3 tinny bones: hammer, anvil, stirrup). The ossicles transfer the eardrum vibrations to the oval window, a membrane of the cochlea, or inner ear, a fluid-filled tube. Running through the center of the cochlea is the thin basilar membrane. The oval window’s vibrations create pressure waves in the inner ear’s fluid that prompt the hair cells to bend and cause neurones on the basilar membrane to fire. These hair cells are the primary auditory receptors. Thus the mechanical signal of a sound wave hitting the eardrum is converted into a neural signal that travels to the brain via the auditory nerve. Locating sounds: the sensory receptors don’t code where the events occur. The brain integrates the different information coming from the ears. Understanding comes from the observation of barn owl which locates an object using 2 cues: the time the sound arrives in each ear and the sound’s intensity in each ear. We use a similar process. In vision, the eyes detect light waves Light 1st passes though the cornea (the clear outer covering of the eye). The cornea focuses incoming light in a process called refraction. Lights rays then enter and are bent farther inward by the lens, which focuses the light to form a single image on the retina, the inner surface of the back of the eyeball. Although more refraction occurs at the cornea than at the lens, the lens is adjustable whereas the cornea is not. The pupil is a small opening in front of the lens that determines how much light can enter by dilating or contracting. The iris is a coloured muscular circle on the surface of the eye that changes shape to let in more or less light by controlling the pupil’s size. Behind the iris, muscles change the shape of the lens, flattening it to see distant objects and thickening it to see close objects, this process is called accommodation. The lens and cornea work together to collect and focus light rays reflected from an object, to form on the retina an upside-down image of the object. The eyes send information to the brain not as a complete picture but as bits of information transmitted through neural signals. The visual system uses patterns of neurones that fire at different rates and in different combinations to represent the external world. Rods and cones: the retina’s receptor cells Rods: respond to low levels of illumination and result in black and white perception, good for night vision and resolve details poorly. 120 M Cones: respond to higher level of illumination and result in color and detail perception. 6M Within the rods and cones, light sensitive chemicals called photopigments initiate the transduction of light waves into electrical neural impulses. Fovea: region in the center of the retina where cones are densely packed. Cones are scarce near the outside edge, whereas rods are all located at the retina’s edge, none are in the fovea Transmission from the eye to the brain Electrical signals are generated by the photoreceptors in the retina. Light is transduced into neural impulses by the rods and cones. Other cells in the retina (bipolar, amacrine, horizontal) perform on those impulses a series of sophisticated computations that help the visual system process the incoming information. The outputs from these cells converge on about 1M ganglion cells, the 1st cells in the visual pathway to generate action potentials. The ganglion cells send their signals along their axon form inside the eye to the thalamus. The axons bundle up to form the optic nerve, which exits the eye at the back of the retina. The point at which the retina has no cones or rods and is called the black point. The brain can fill in so that there are no discontinuations. At the optic chiasm half the axons in the optic nerves cross. Information from the left side of the visual space is projected into the brain’s right hemisphere and vice versa. The 1st synapse of the majority of the ganglion cells lies within the visual areas of the thalamus, and visual information is transmitted from there to the primary visual cortex, cortical areas in the occipital lobe. The pathway from the retina to this region carries all the information that we consciously experience as seeing. The detection of visual information Each neurone has a particular tuning. A given visual neuron’s tuning specifies its receptive field, the population of sensory receptors that influence activity in a sensory neurone. One of the most popular receptive fields is a circle that consists of a center region and a surrounding region. Light directed toward the center region causes the cell to become more active, whereas light directed toward the surrounding region inhibits the cell’s firing. Lateral inhibition Our visual system is especially sensitive to edges because they tell us where objects end. Lateral inhibition: process by which adjacent photoreceptors tend to inhibit one another, emphasizing the changes in visual stimuli. (an object will look lighter against a black background) The color of light is determined by its wavelength We are seeing light waves ranging from 400 to 700 nm. The color of light is determined by the wavelengths of the electromagnetic waves that reaches the eye. There are 3 kinds of cones; each kind is most receptive to specific wavelengths. Colors are categorized along 2 dimensions: hue (distinctive characteristics that place a particular color in the spectrum), brightness (intensity or luminance) and saturation (color’s purity, the vividness of the hue, and varies according to the mixture of wavelengths in a stimulus. Lightness is determined by its brightness relative to its surroundings. Pure colors have only 1 wavelength. Subtractive color mixing A color is determined by the mixture of the wavelengths from a stimulus. Any given color may be produced in either 2 ways, depending on the stimuli: subtractive and additive mixture of wavelengths. Subtractive: a way to produce a given spectral pattern in which the mixture occurs within the stimulus itself and is actually a physical process Paint is determined by pigments that absorb wavelengths and reflect the wavelength that corresponds to the color we perceive. Red, yellow and blue are subtractive primary colors. Additive: a way to produce a given spectral pattern in which different wavelengths of light are mixed. The percept is determined by the interaction of these wavelengths with receptors in the eye and is psychological. Primary additive colors are red, green and blue. When added, they yield white light. Explaining color vision Color is a property of our visual system; it doesn’t exist in the physical world. One type of cone is more sensitive to green light (medium wl), another to red light (long wl) and another to blue light (short wl). The cones are named S,M,L. Yellow looks yellow because it stimulate the L and M cones and barely the S. Our perception of different colors is determined by the ratio of activity among the 3 types of receptors. Some colors seem to be opposites: when we stare at a red image, we see a green afterimage when we look away. We also have trouble imagining different color mixtures. This cannot be explained by the responses of the different cones in the retina. We must turn to the second stage of visual processing, which occurs at the ganglions cells. Different combinations of cones converge on the ganglion cells. One type of ganglion cell may receive input from L cones, but may be inhibited by M cones. These cells create the perception that red and green are opposites. This process was discovered by McCollough, but is not fully understood yet. Simultaneous contrast: an optical illusion in which identical stimuli appear different when presented against different backgrounds. There is lateral inhibition in the retina that emphasises the difference between an object and its background. Humans and animals have other sensory systems We have internal sensory systems that send information to the brain. Kinesthetic sense: perception of our limbs in space which helps us coordinate movement. Vestibular sense: perception of balance and uses data from the receptors in the semi circular canals of the inner ear which contains a liquid that moves when the head moves, generating nerve impulses that inform us of the head’s position. Animals have sonar senses and electroreception. These animals produce calls and then respond to the echoes of those calls; the system is bisonar because the sound waves emanate from the animal. Electroreception operates in a similar way: some fish emit an electrical field and then analyse disruption in the field to avoid predators or find pray. The evidence form extrasensory perception (ESP) is weak or nonexistent Howard Hughes in Sensory Exotica (2000) points out that humans and other animals have several internal sensory systems in addition to the 5 primary senses. The evidence for a 6th sense is purely anecdotal and isn’t scientific. Honorton (1994) in his study, a ‘’sender’’ in a soundproof booth focused on randomly generated images, and a receiver in another room tried to sense the sender’s imagery. The receiver was asked to choose among 4 alternatives, one of them being correct. They were right about 33% of the time. What are the basic perceptual processes? Perception occurs in the brain Hearing: auditory neurones in the thalamus extend their axons to the primary auditory cortex (A1), in the temporal lobe. Neurones in this region code the frequency of auditory stimuli. Neurones toward the A1 respond best to lower frequencies, whereas those in the front of the A1 respond to higher frequencies. Touch: touch info from the thalamus is projected in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), in the parietal lobe. Penfield discovered that electrical stimulation of the S1 could evoke sensation of touch in different regions of the body and found that neighbouring body parts tented to be represented next to one another in the S1, so that the body is effectively mapped out there according to physical proximity. Most sensitive body parts have more cortical tissue dedicated to them. Vision: some estimates that up to half the cerebral cortex may participate in visual perception in some way. The primary visual cortex (V1) is in the occipital lobe. The neural pathway from the retina to the occipital lobe preserves spatial relationships, so that adjacent areas of the retina correspond to adjacent areas in the V1. Hubel and Wiesel (1962) began exploring the properties of neurons in V1 by recording activity from single cells. They discovered that some neurones in the V1 respond more to lines in particular orientations. The firing of these cells, termed simple cells decreased as the orientation of the line segment is rotated away from their preferred orientation. It was also found that there are neurones that specialise in detecting colors, end of lines, or more complex visual features. What versus where Neurones in different parts of the brain tend to have different types of receptor fields. These areas appear to process specific aspects of visual stimulus (color and motion). One theory proposes that visual areas beyond V1 form 2 parallel processing streams: the lower ventral stream that is specialized for the perception and recognition of objects (color, shapes) and the upper dorsal stream that is specialised for spatial perception. These 2 streams are known as the what pathway and the where pathway. Studies have shown that brain regions in the upper pathway are activated by tasks that require decisions about spatial relationship, whereas regions in the lower pathway are activated by tasks that require identifying objects. D.F. had object agnosia, the inability to recognize objects. Her conscious visual perception of objects was impaired. Object perception requires construction Illusions reveal the operation of the mechanism that helps our visual systems determine the size and distances of objects in the visual environment. Gestalt (shape or form, organized whole) principles of perceptual organization A series of laws explain how we perceive features of a visual scene are grouped in organized wholes. Our brain uses innate principles to organize sensory information. Proximity: the closer objects are, the more likely we are to group them and view them as the same object. Similarity: we group figures according to how closely they resemble each other According to both of these principles, we tend to cluster elements of the visual scene, enabling us to consider them as whole rather than individual parts. The best forms: how we perceive a form’s feature Good continuation: tendency to interpret intersecting lines as continuous rather than as changing directions radically. Good contour continuation appears to play a role in completing an object behind an occluder, anything that hides a portion of an object from the view. Closure: tendency to complete figures that have gaps. Illusionary contours: illustrates several gestalt principles and refers to the fact that we perceive contours even though they do not exist. They appear when stimulus configurations suggest that contours ought to be present. Figure and ground Reversible figure illusion (face vs. background). Nisbett (2001) found that easterners are more likely to be influenced by the background of a figure, whereas westerners will more likely extract the figure from its background. Memories of a particular shape can inform shape processing. Bottom-up and top-down information processing Bottom-up: a hierarchical model of pattern recognition in which data are relayed from one processing level to the next, always moving to a higher level of processing. Top-down: a hierarchical model of pattern recognition in which information at higher levels of processing can also influence lower, earlier levels in the process, which is why context affects perception. Faulty expectations can lead to faulty perceptions Face perception reveals more about the person than anything else. Certain brain regions are dedicated only to perceiving them. A region of the fusiform gyrus, in the right hemisphere, may be responsible for perceiving faces. This brain area responds strongly to upright faces. Other brain areas are sensitive to changes in faces, such as facial expression and gaze direction. A face’s emotional significance appears to be activated by the amygdala. Studies show that people more quickly respond to angry faces that happy ones. Anger is recognized faster in men whereas happy is recognized faster in women. Thus facial recognition supports the idea that the mind is adaptive. Females of all age more accurately recognize faces, and even more accurately female faces. Both sexes have difficulty recognizing upside down faces because it interferes with the way we perceive features. (Tatcher illusion) People are better at recognizing faces of their own racial groups Regaining vision by fixing the eyes Most people who become blind have lost sensory input from the retina, yet they will remember what objects look like. Operations on people who have been blind for a short time, will work and they will see as before. For someone who has been blind for a long time, the sight might not be perfect. (May couldn’t recognize faces, had problems with motion and depth). Thus, if a cortical region has been inactive in perception, it ceases to develop normally. Esref Armagan: born blind, but can paint realistic paintings Depth perception is important for locating objects How are we able to construct a 3 dimensional mental representation of a 2 dimensional retinal input? A 3 dimensional array creates exactly the same image on the retina than does a photograph of the same array. We are able to perceive depth in these 2 dimensional patterns because the brain applies the same rules that it uses to work out the spatial relations between objects in the 3D world. To do this the brain exploits certain prior assumptions it has about the nature of the relationship between 2D image cues and 3D world structure. This depth cues can be divided in 2 categories Binocular depth cue: cues of depth perception that arise because people have 2 eyes Monocular depth cues: cues of depth perception that are available to each eye alone. Binocular depth perception Binocular disparity: a cue of depth perception that is caused by the distance between a person’s eyes, which provides each eye with a slightly different overlapping image that allows the brain to compute distance to nearby objects. Stereoscopic vision: the ability to determine an object’s depth based on that object’s projections to each eye. Stereoscope: create by Wheatstone (1838). Allows a viewer to perceive depth in a pair of 2D pictures taken from a slightly different perspective. The resulting 3D image is due to the brain’s reconciling the disparate image created by each eye. Brewster (1849) invented the kaleidoscope, created the autostererogram- an optical illusion that turns specially designed pairs of 2D images into 3D images by presenting them in an unfocused manner. Monocular depth perception Pictoral depth cues: used by artists (Da Vinci), they include: Occlusion: a near object blocks an object that is farther away Relative size: far off objects project a smaller retinal image than close objects do. Familiar size: we know how large familiar objects are, so we can tell how far away they are by the size of their retinal images. Linear perspective: parallel lines appear to converge in the distance Texture gradient: as a uniformly textured surface recedes, its texture continuously becomes denser. Position relative to horizon: all else being equal, objects below the horizon that appear higher in the visual field are perceived as being farther away. Objects above the horizon that appear lower in the visual field are perceived as being farther away. Culture influences perception Mueller-Lyer illusion provides a way of answering the question of whether people automatically use pictures’ depth cues or whether they learn how to use them. People who lived in more urban areas can identify things in the picture better than those in rural areas. Those who were more acculturated to larger cities identified things better than those who were less acculturated. People who live in uncarpented worlds, who have little knowledge of modern technologies and are unfamiliar with 2D representation of the world, will more likely perceive the line in the Muelle-Lyer illusion as the same length. Motion cues for depth perception Motion parallax: the relative movements of objects that are at various distances from the observer. (motion of objects passing by in a car) It helps the brain to calculate which objects are farther away and which are closer. Size perception depends on distance perception The size of a retinal image is proportional to the distance of that object, the further it is, the smaller it appears on the retina. Optical illusions arise when normal perceptual processes incorrectly represents the distance between the viewer and the stimuli-depth cues fools us into seeing depth when it is not there. Ames boxes: Crafted by Adelbert Ames (1940): these boxes plays with linear perspective and other distance cues. One such room makes a far corner appear the same distance as a near corner. The child in the farthest corner doesn’t appear further, so he looks taller. Ponzo illusion: described by Mario Ponzo (1913), it is another example of a size/distance illusion. Monocular depth cues make the 2D image appear 3D. They make the 2 non-parallel lines seem parallel, mimicking a railroad, so that the 2 parallel lines appear as if they were at different distances, thus not the same length. Horizontal/Vertical illusion: horizontal lines look shorter than vertical ones, either because our visual field is wider than it is tall or because we unconsciously interpret the vertical dimension as receding in the distance, thus being longer, or because our eyes rest in horizontal sockets, so looking up and down is more effortful than looking side to side. The moon illusion: the moon looks much bigger when it is close to the horizon than when it is overhead, the distance remains the same and the image on the retina is of the same size. When the moon is overhead, there are no depth cues that indicate that the moon is really far away. The brain can reconciliate this discrepancy only by assuming that the moon is larger when overhead. Another theory is that we unconsciously believe that the sky is an inverted soup bowl; we judge the moon to be larger at the horizon because we unconsciously assume that it is farther away. Motion perception has internal and external cues The brain can perceive motion because it has some neurones that fire when movement occurs. (M.P. a German who would not see motion, rather just frozen images and snapshots) Motion after effects: occur when we gaze at a moving image for a prolonged period of time and then look at a stationary scene, and experience a momentary impression that it is moving in the opposite direction from the moving image. This illusion is called the waterfall effect. After effects are strong evidence that motion sensitive neurons exist. The theory behind this illusion combines sensory adaptation with neural specificity. The visual cortex has neurons that respond to movement in a given direction. When we stare at a moving stimulus for a long time, these direction specific neurons begin to adapt and therefore become less sensitive. If the stimulus is removed, the neurones responding to all the other directions are more active. Compensatory effect: the brain calculates an object’s perceived movements by monitoring the movement of the eyes, and perhaps also the head, as they track a moving object, In addition, motion detectors track an image’s motion across the retina, as the receptors in the retina fire one after the other. Stroboscopic effect: perceptual illusion that occurs when 2 or more slightly different images are presented in a rapid succession. Wertheimer (Gestalt) (1912): 2 images flashed less the 30 ms, were thought to be flashed simultaneously, but at intervals over 200 ms, the 2 lines were seen flashed at 2 different times. At an interval of about 60ms, the lines appeared to jump from one place to another; at slightly longer intervals, the line appeared to move continuously-a phenomenon called phi movement. Perceptual constancies are based on ratio relationships Perceptual constancy: the brain correctly perceives objects as constant despite sensory data that could lead it to think otherwise (changing an object’s angle, distance, illumination doesn’t change our perception of that object’s size, shape, color or lightness). For size constancy, we need to know how far away the object is from us. For shape constancy, we need to know from what angle we see the object. For color constancy, we need to compare the wavelengths of light reflected from the object with those reflected from its background. In each case, the brain computes a ratio based on the relative magnitude rather than relying on each sensation’s absolute magnitude, which allows the brain to keep consistency. These constancies illustrate that perceptual systems are tuned to detect changes from baseline conditions, not just respond to sensory inputs. It is believed that the brain has built-in assumptions that influence perceptions. Chapter 6: learning Pioneers: Skinner How did the behavioural study of learning develop? Learning: an enduring change in behaviour resulting from experience. It occurs when animals benefit from experience so that their behaviour is better adapted to the environments. The essence of learning is understanding how events are related. Classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning: a type of learned response that occurs when a neutral object comes to elicit a reflexive response when it is associated with a stimulus that already produces response. When we learn that a certain event leads to a certain outcome. Operant conditioning or instrumental conditioning: a learning process in which the consequences of an action determine the likelihood that it will be performed in the future. When we learn that a particular behaviour leads to a particular outcome. It was of great interest to Skinner. The rise of the learning theory in the earlier 19th century was partly due to the dissatisfaction with the use of introspection. Watson founded behaviourism based on Locke’s idea of blank state, which states that infants are born knowing nothing and that knowledge is acquired through sensory information. His theory was of great influence well through the 1960’s Behavioural responses are conditioned Watson was influenced by Pavlov who won the Nobel Prize for his work on the digestive system, the salivary reflex. Salivation at the site of a person or a bowl is not an innate reflex, and must have been acquired through experience. In a typical Pavlovian experiment, a neutral stimulus, unrelated with the salivary reflex, such as ringing a bell, is presented along with a stimulus that reliably produces the reflex, such as food. This pairing, a conditional trial is repeated a number of times; on the critical trial, the bell sound is presented alone and the salivation reflex is measured. It was found that the sound of the bell alone can produce salivation. This type of learning is referred to as classical conditioning. Unconditioned response (UR): a response that doesn’t have to be learned (reflex) Unconditioned stimulus (US): a stimulus that elicits a response, such as reflex, without any prior learning. The US leads to the UR Conditional stimulus: a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place Conditioned response: a response that has been learned. The CR is usually weaker that the UR Acquisition, extinction and spontaneous recovery Pavlov was greatly influenced by Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and believed that conditioning is the basis for how animals learn to adapt to their environments Acquisition: gradual formation of an association between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli Contiguity: critical element in the acquisition of a learned association is that the stimuli occur together in time. Further evidence showed that the strongest conditioning occurs when there is a brief delay between the CS and the US. Extinction: a process in which the conditioned response is weakened when the CS is repeated without the US. The CR is extinguished when the CS no longer predicts the US Spontaneous recovery: a process in which a previously extinguished response re-emerges following presentation of the CS Thus extinction inhibits the strength of the bond but doesn’t eliminate it Generalization, discrimination and 2nd order conditioning Stimulus generalization: adaptive process that occurs when stimuli similar, but not identical to the CS produces the CR. Slight differences in the CS leads to slight different perception of the CS, so the animal learns to respond to variants of the CS Stimulus discrimination: a differentiation between 2 similar stimuli when only one of them is consistently associated with the US and the other is not. 2nd order conditioning: when a CS becomes directly associated not with the US, but with other stimuli associated with the US. Pavlov did studies on that as well. Most of its influence occurs unconsciously. Phobias and addictions have learned component (classical conditioning) Phobias and their treatment Phobia: an acquired fear that is out of proportion to the real threat of an object or a situation. According to classical conditioning theory, they develop through the generalization of a fear experience. Fear conditioning: animals can be classically conditioned to fear neutral objects. Without the amygdala, this process wouldn’t happen Watson tested this on an infant Albert to account for his theory that phobias could be explained by simple learning principles, such as classical conditioning. In his experience, the US (smashing sound) lead to the UR (fear) and eventually the pairing of the CS(rat) and the US(smashing sound) led to the rat producing fear on his own (CR). To revert this, Watson wanted to present the feared object with more pleasant ones so that a similar association could take place (counter conditioning) Wolpe (1997) developed a formal treatment based on counter conditioning, systematic desensitization. After patients are taught to relax their muscles, they are asked to imagine the feared object or situation while continuing to use the relaxation exercise. CS – CR1 (fear) this connection can be broken by developing a CS – CR2 (relaxation) connection. It has been shown that repeated exposure to the feared stimulus has proven more useful than relaxation. Drug addiction: classical conditioning plays a role The sight or smell of a drug can become a conditioned stimulus that leads the addicts to feel aroused as though they had consumed the drug. Cravings can be caused by the sight of certain things that are associated with the drug. Not satisfying this craving can lead to withdrawal, an unpleasant state of anxiety that occurs when addicts stop using the drug. Relapses can occur because, once the addicts re-integrate their environment, they experience conditioned cravings. Cues associated with the drugs, when presented to addicts, activates the prefrontal cortex and different regions of the limbic system, areas of the brain involved in the experience of reward. Learning theorist, Shepard Siegel, has conducted research that drug tolerance effects are specific to certain situations. Tolerance effects are greatest when the drug is taken in the same location as previous drug use, because the body has learned to compensate for the drug. Classical conditioning involves more than events occurring at the same time Some conditioned stimuli would more likely produce learning than others and that contiguity was not sufficient to create CS-US associations Evolutionary significance: according to Pavlov, any object or phenomenon could be converted into a CS during conditioning trials. However, not all stimuli are equally effective in producing learning. John Garcia showed that certain parings of stimuli are more likely to become associated with others. Conditioned food aversion: the association with eating novel food and getting sick is very strong. It can be produced with smell and taste, but not by light or sound, which makes sense from an evolutionary viewpoint. Seligman (1970) argued that animals are genetically programmed to fear specific objects: biological preparedness, which explains why animals tend to fear potentially dangerous things. In conditioning experiences, people are more likely to associate aversive stimuli with members of a different racial group. The adaptive value of a particular response varies according to the animal’s evolutionary history. Different types of stimuli cause different reactions even within a specie. Gender difference in learning: for most of human history, people live in hunter-gatherer societies, in which women gathered edible vegetation, usually returning home each day, and men traveled longer distances, hunting for animals. Since women spent most of their adult life pregnant or nursing, they didn’t travel as much as men, and thus generally didn’t develop the ability to learn their way though environment as well as men did. Researchers have revealed some differences in how men and women navigate: women will more likely use landmarks and memorize a series of terms; males will more likely keep track of cardinal directions. When the participants could use either strategy, men learned the task more quickly. Critical thinking skill: recognizing and avoiding inappropriate association effects in reasoning. We have a tendency to associate things that occur in time together. (Guilt by association or virtue by association) The cognitive perspective: until the 1970s, most learning theorists were concerned only with observable stimuli and observable responses. Now we try to understand the mental processes that underline conditioning. Classical conditioning is a means by which animals come to predict the occurrence of events. Cognitive perspective: increasing consideration of mental processes such as prediction and expectancy Robert Rescorla (1966) conducted one of the 1st studies highlighting cognition’s role in learning: for learning to take place, the conditioned stimulus must accurately predict the unconditioned stimulus. A stimulus that occurs before the US is more easily condition than one that comes after it. Rescorla-Wagner model: a cognitive model of classical conditioning: it states that the strength on the CS-US association is determined by the extent to which the US is unexpected. The greater the surprise of the US, the more effort an organism puts into trying to understand its occurrences, thus there is greater classical conditioning of the event (CS) that predicted the US. Novel stimuli are more easily associated with the US than are familiar stimuli. Once learned, a CS can prevent the acquisition of a new CS a phenomena known as the blocking effect. A stimulus associated with a CS can act as an occasion setter, or trigger, for the CS How does operant conditioning differ from classical conditioning? Classical conditioning is passive, the person just associates things. Many of our actions are instrumental, done for a purpose. We learn that certain behaviours lead to certain outcomes, and those outcomes will determine if we will do the behaviour again, this process is called instrumental or operant conditioning. William James and his graduate student Edward Thorndike, were influenced by Darwin and were studying animals that showed signs of intelligence. A puzzle box was built and cats were put in it and food was placed outside the box. After 10 min the cat would accidently pull the string and the door opened. The cat pulled the string more quickly each consequent time. The law of effect was determined, which states that any behaviour leading do a “satisfying state of affairs’’ will more likely occur again, while any behaviour leading to an “annoying state of affairs” will less likely occur again. Reinforcement increases behaviour Skinner developed a more formal learning theory based on the law of effect. He said that states of satisfaction are not observable empirically. He used the word reinforce to describe an event that produces response. Reinforcer: a stimulus that fallows a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated. He believed that behaviour occurs because it has been reinforced. The Skinner box: a small chamber in which one lever is connected to a food supply, another to a water supply. An animal is placed in it and learns to operate the lever. Used a maze before and later developed a recording device that allowed the experimenter not to be present. Shaping: a process of operant conditioning that involves reinforcing behaviours that are increasingly similar to the desired behaviour. (we don’t have to wait for the animal to do the wanted task) Reinforcing successive approximation eventually produces the desired behaviour by teaching the animal to discriminate which behaviour is being reinforced. Used to teach amazing skills and to teach mentally ill people appropriate social skills. Reinforcers can be conditioned Primary reinforcers: those that satisfy biological needs Secondary reinforcers: those that do not satisfy biological needs and are established through classical conditioning. We associate money (CS) with reward (US) Reinforcer potency Premack: a reinforcer’s value could be determined by the amount of time an organism engages in a specific associated behaviour when free to do anything. It can account for differences in individual’s values Premack principle: a more valued activity can be used to reinforce the performance of a less valued activity. Both reinforcement and punishment can be positive or negative Positive reinforcement: the increase in the probability of a behaviour being repeated following administration of a stimulus (involves reward) Negative reinforcement: the increase in the probability of a behaviour being repeated through the removal of a stimulus. (close the door to shut off noise) Positive punishment: punishment that occurs with the administration of a stimulus and thus decreases the probability of a behaviour’s recurring. Negative punishment: punishment that occurs with the removal of a stimulus and thus decreases the probability of a behaviour’s recurring. Effectiveness of parental punishment It is often applied ineffectively and it may have unintended and unwanted consequences. For punishment to be effective it must be reasonable, unpleasant, and applied immediately so that the relationship between the unwanted behaviour and the punishment is clear. Skinner pointed out that the one thing we learn from punishment is how to avoid it. Can lead to negative emotions which may become associated through classical conditioning, and often fails to offset the behaviour. Better to reinforce good behaviours, compliment them, rather than punish Spanking: ineffective, done by 75% of American parents, may lead to poor parent-child relations, weaker moral values, mental health problems, increased delinquency and future child abuse. It teaches the child that violent behaviour is appropriate for adults. Operant conditioning is influenced by schedules of reinforcement Continuous reinforcement: a type of fast learning in which the desired behaviour is reinforced it time it occurs Partial reinforcement: a type of learning in which behaviour is reinforced intermittently; it is more common and depends on schedule. It can be administered according to either the number of behavioural responses or the passage of time. It can be given on a fixed or variable schedule. Ratio schedule: in which reinforcement is based on the number of times the behaviour occurs, leads to a greater responding that interval. Interval schedule: in which reinforcement is available after a specific unit of time. Fixed schedule: in which reinforcement is consistently provided upon each occurrence. Variable schedule: in which reinforcement is applied at different rates or at different times. (commission) Behavioural persistence: the schedule of reinforcement also affects the persistence of behaviour. Continuous reinforcement is highly effective for teaching behaviour, but if the reinforcement is stopped, the behaviour extinguishes quickly. Machines sometimes provide monetary rewards, so people continue using them, which can be explained by the effect of a variable-ratio schedule reinforcement. Partial-reinforcement extinction effect: refers to a greater persistence of behaviour under partial reinforcement than continuous reinforcement (we know when reinforcement stopped). Thus the less frequent the reinforcement, the greater the resistance in extinction. Conditioning a behaviour so that it persists involves conditioning it continuously in the early stages and then slowly changing to partial reinforcement. Behavioural modification: use of operant conditioning techniques to eliminate unwanted behaviours and replace them with the desired ones. (good for depression and anxiety disorders). Draws on the principles of secondary reinforcement. (token economy) Biology and cognition influence operant conditioning Biology constrains learning, and reinforcement doesn’t always have to be present for learning to take place. Biological constraints: we have a hard time learning things that run counter to our evolutionary adaptation. Marian and Keller Breland used operant conditioning techniques to train animals for commercials. Many of their animals refused to perform the behaviours Bolles: animal have built-in defence reactions to threatening stimuli. Conditioning is most effective when the association between the behavioural response and the reinforcement is similar to the animal’s built-in predispositions. Gallistel: various learning mechanisms have evolved to solve specific problems, often adaptive ones. Acquisition/performance distinction Tolman (cognitive theorist) argued that reinforcement has more impact on performance than learning Cognitive maps: a visual/special mental representation of an environment and begins to be used when reinforcement occurs. (3 groups of mice) Latent learning: learning that takes place in the absence of reinforcement Insight learning: a form of problem-solving in which solution suddenly emerges after a period of inaction or contemplation of the problem. The presence of reinforcement doesn’t adequately explain insight learning, but it predicts whether the behaviour is subsequently repeated. The value of reinforcement follows economic principles (supply and demand) Adults with lower incomes discount bigger future payments and accept lower ones right now more than people with higher income. People and animals often need to choose between reinforcers, and that a particular reinforcer’s worth is affected by the likelihood of its payoff and how long the payoff might take. Bickel found that smokers and heroin addicts discount future rewards more greatly than nonaddicts. Animals are highly sensitive to the relative rates of reinforcement among different patches and will sometimes take risk in finding food. Optimal foraging theory: describes how animals in the wild choose their own reinforcement schedules. Even simple behaviours, such as eating, involve a series of calculations to detect the cost and benefits associated with different behavioural options. How does watching others affect learning? We learn much behaviour by watching others Learning can be passed on through cultural transmission Meme: a unit of knowledge transferred among generations within a culture, they can spread quickly, by watching other’s behaviours. Imo-monkey washing his potatoes Cultural believes about learning Differences in learning between Asians (knowledge is a must, if we work hard we can get it) and Americans (some have it, some don’t) Learning occurs through observation Observational learning: occurs when behaviours are acquired or modified following exposure to others performing the behaviour. Powerful adaptive tool for humans. It is even possible to acquire beliefs Bandura’s observational studies: work on observational learning done in the 1960s. Preschool children were showed a film of an adult playing a doll called bobo. Children who watched adults play aggressively with the doll were 2x more likely to play aggressively with it. This means that exposing children to violence may encourage them to act aggressively. Social learning of fear Mineka: monkeys trained in the lab aren’t afraid of snakes, but when they see the wild monkeys’ reactions of fear; they begin to fear as well. It is the same thing for human, thus social forces play an important role in the learning of fear. Teaching through demonstrations: we can learn by other’s exaggerated gestures Animals and Humans imitate others Modeling: imitation of behaviour through observational learning. We will more likely imitate models that are attractive, have a high status, or are similar to us. The model’s influence will often occur implicitly. Adolescents and smoking (those from non-smoking parents are more likely to be influence by the media) Vicarious reinforcement Another factor that will determine if we fallow a certain model is if the model is reinforced for performing the behaviour. Bandura: here all the children learned the (aggressive) behaviour, but only those who saw the model being rewarded performed the behaviour. Vicarious learning: occurs when people learn about an action’s consequences by observing others being rewarded or punished for the behaviour Mirror neurons: neurons that are activated during observations of others performing an action. They are activated in the observer, and the person doing the actual behaviour. They might be the neural basis for empathy. Humans have mirror neurons for mouth movement, so that when we see the mouth move in a particular way, those neurons become activated which means that mirror neurones might also be involved not only for imitation learning, but also for humans’ ability to communicate through language Rizzolatti and Arbib: the mirror neuron system has evolved to give rise to language, because speech evolved mainly from gestures. Evidence indicates that listening to sentences that describe actions activates the same brain regions active when those actions are observed. Even reading words that represent actions lead to the activation of brain regions relevant to motor, as the word like activate brain regions that control tongue movement. Media and violence: Us: TV is on for 5-6 hours per day, 3h for children. Saturday morning cartoons watched by 60% of us kids contain 20 aggressively violent acts per hour. Media violence has been shown to increase the likelihood of long or short term violence. There is a desensitisation to violence taking place, showing fewer helping behaviour and increased aggressively. Adolescents who played certain kinds of video games showed decreased activation in the prefrontal region and more activation of the amygdala. The influence can be compared to the linking of smoking and cancer, the influence is nearly as large. Freedman: a number of aggressive behaviours in children could be interpreted as playful. The clips used in labs are very brief and extremely aggressive, which is not the same as normal TV watching. Extra variables could also lead to the violent behaviour. Studies failed to prove that TV is the cause of the violent behaviour. Statement: a number of studies point overwhelmingly to a causal relation between media violence and aggressive behaviour in some children. They are lead to think that violence in the real world is common and inevitable. Critical thinking skill: avoiding the association of events with others that occur at the same time What is the biological basis of learning? Dopamine activity underlies reinforcement The neural basis of this reinforcement is the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which plays an important role in the experience of reward and is crucial for positive reinforcement. Pleasure centers Milner and Olds (1950s) were testing whether electrical stimulation to a specific region would stimulate learning: a rat pressed a lever connected to electrodes implanted in its brain, the electrodes stimulates pleasure centers in the brain, the rat learns that pressing the lever will lead to pleasure (intracranial self-stimulation) The brain regions that support the ICSS were referred to as pleasure centers It is believed that ICSS acts on the same brain regions as those activated by natural reinforcers, in fact, the same neurotransmitter system, dopamine is used in both cases. Depriving an animal of food and water leads to an activation of the ICSS Nucleus accumbens activation: the experience of pleasure results for activation of dopamine neurones in this region. In operant conditioning, dopamine release sets a reinforcer’s value Secondary reinforcers also rely on dopamine Through a classical conditioning process, neural stimuli that at first fail to stimulate a dopamine release do so readily after being paired with US Habituation and sensitization are simple models of learning Semon (1904) memories are stored through changes in the nervous system. He called the storage of learned material an engram (term popularized by Lashley) Hebb (1948) learning results from alterations in the synaptic connections. When one neurone excites another, the synapse between the 2 strengthens. One neuron’s firing becomes increasingly likely to cause the other’s firing. Cells that fire together, wire together. Studied learning with the aplysia (contains few neurons, some large enough to be seen without a microscope) Kandel used it to study the neural basis of habituation and sensitization. Habituation: a decrease in behavioural response following exposure to nonthreatening stimuli Orienting response: when an animal encounters a novel stimulus, it pays attention to it. Sensitization: an increase in behavioural response following exposure to a threatening stimulus, can lead to heightened responsiveness to increased stimuli. For both types of learning, presynaptic neurones alter their neurotransmitter release: a reduction lead to habituation and an increase leads to sensitization. Long term potentiation is a candidate for the neural basis of learning Long-term potentiation (LTP): the strengthening of a synaptic connection so that postsynaptic neurones are more easily activated. It occurs when the intense electrical stimulation increases the likelihood that stimulating one neuron leads to an action potential in the second neuron. LTP effects are most easily observed in brain sites known to be involved in learning and memory such as the hippocampus. The drugs that improve memory lead to increased LTP. Behavioural conditioning produces neurochemical effects nearly identical to LTP Neurons that signal the US are active at the same time than those that activate the CS LTP and the NMDA receptor (a type of glutamate receptor) The NMDA receptor is required for the LTP and has a special property: it opens only if a nearby neurone fires at the same time, a phenomenon supporting Hebb’s rule. With this finding, scientists examined genetic processes that might influence learning. Tsien: modified genes in mice to make the genes NMDA receptors more efficient. When tested, the mice learn new tasks more quickly and showed increased fear conditioning. Doogie mice. Many pharmaceuticals are exploring drugs that enhance the learning processes by manipulating gene expression or activating NMDA receptors. If successful, such treatment might help for Alzheimer’s Fear conditioning: it may induce LTP in the amygdala (crucial for fear conditioning) we freeze when we are afraid LeDoux: auditory fear conditioning and LTP induction lead to similar changes in the amygdala, which suggests that fear conditioning, might produce long lasting learning through LTP induction. The social learning of fear also relies on the amygdala. Similar mechanisms are involved in conditioned and observational fear learning. Chapter 7 : Attention and memory Memory: the nervous system’s capacity to acquire and retain usable skills and knowledge, allowing organism to benefit from experience. They are often incomplete, biased, and distorted. How does attention determine what is remembered? Pay attention: the word ‘’pay’’ indicate that costs are associated with attending to some forms of information and not to others. Attention is limited. Visual attention is selective and serial Treisman: advances in the study of attention: we automatically identify ‘’primitive features’’ (colors, shape, movement) within an environment. Separate systems analyze objects’ different visual features. Through parallel processing, these systems all process information at the same time, and we can attend selectively to one feature by blocking the further processing of others. Visual search task: search for target among distracters. Serial: searching for 2 features, we need to look at the stimuli one at a time. Conjunctions task: the stimulus looked for is composed of 2 simple features Auditory attention allows selective listening Talking on a cell phone while driving is more hazardous than talking with a passenger because the person on the phone isn’t aware of the route conditions. Cherry (1953) cocktail party phenomenon: you can focus on a single conversation in the midst of a chaotic party, yet a particularly pertinent stimulus mentioned in another conversation can capture our attention. He developed selective listening studies to examine what people’s minds do with the unattended information when people pay attention to one task. Shadowing: a participant wears head phones that deliver one message to one ear, and another message to the other. The person is asked to pay attention to one ear only and shadow it by repeating it aloud. The subject will notice the unattended sound, but won’t be able to know its content. Some important information might get through the filter of attention, but it needs to be personally relevant information, or particularly loud or different in some manner. Selective attention can operate at multiple stages of processing Broadbent (1958) developed the filter theory to explain the selective nature of attention. People have a limited capacity for sensory information and thus screen for incoming information, letting in only the most important. Some stimuli demand attention and virtually shut off the ability to attend anything else. High pitch sounds are hard to ignore, because they signal pain or fear. Some evidence says that decisions about what to attend to are made early in the perceptual process, unattended information is processed to some extent. Change blindness: the common failure to notice large changes in the environment, which shows that we can attend to a limited amount of information and that large discrepancies exist between what most people believe they see and what they actually see. It also shows how attention affects memory. What are the basic stages of memory? Like a computer, memory’s multiple processes can be thought of as operating over time in 3 phases: 1. Encoding phase: the processing of information, that occurs at the time of learning, so that it can be stored 2. Storage phase: the retention of encoded representations over time that corresponds to some changes in the nervous system that registers the event. 3. Retrieval phase: the act of recalling or remembering stored information to use it. Involves: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long term memory. This modal memory model was proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968), and although incomplete, still prevails. Sensory memory is brief Sensory memory: memory for sensory information that is stored briefly close to its original sensory form, lasts only for a fraction of a second. Occurs when a sound or light leaves a vanishing trace on the nervous system Sperling (1960) initial empirical evidence for SM (series of letters flashing, we recall only 3 or 4): when a sound was produced very shortly after the letters were shown, the participants would recall the letters, but the longer the delay, the worst the participants did. The visual memory persists for 1/3 of a second, after which the sensory memory trace faded progressively until it was no longer accessible. Our SM allows us to see the world as a continuous stream rather than in discrete sensation, much like a movie Working memory is active Information attended to is passed from sensory stores to short term memory (STM), a limited capacity system that holds information in awareness for a brief period of time, but longer than the SM. It is called the working memory, to indicate that it is a memory system that combines information from different sources and can work on the information we have in memory. It is also called immediate memory (i.e. RAM) Information remains in WM for about 20 to 30 sec, and then disappears if not rehearsed. Memory span and chunking WM can hold a limited amount of information. Miller noted that it is generally of 7 items, a figure referred to as memory span, which varies among individual Chunking: organizing, breaking down information in meaningful units to make it easier to remember. The greater our expertise with the material, the more efficiently we will chunk. Working memory’s four parts: it is an active processing unit that deals with multiple types of information (sounds, images, ideas) Baddeley: developed a model of an active memory system that they called working memory. The 3 components of WM are: phonological loop : encodes auditory information and is active when a person tries to remember words. Words are processed by how they sound, not by how they look. visuospatial sketchpad: processes visual information episodic buffer: holds temporary information about oneself, drawing heavily on episodic memory. The central executive presides over the interactions among the 3 components. It encodes information from the sensory systems and then filters the information that is sufficiently important to be stored in the LTM. It relies on the other 3 subcomponents, which temporarily hold auditory or visuospatial information or personally relevant information. Long term memory is relatively permanent: Human LTM is virtually limitless Distinguishing LTM for WM: duration and capacity Evidence of the LTM and WM can from research at the individual level of analysis, that required people to recall a long list of words. Items presented early or late in the list were remembered better than those in the middle. Serial position effect: the ability to recall items from a list depends on order of presentation, with items presented early (in LTM) or late (still in WM) in the list remembered better than those in the middle. It involves two separate effects: primacy effect and the recency effect. The recency effect might not be completely attributable to the WM. Some case studies indicate that the LTM can be dissociated from WM; however, the 2 systems are highly interdependent. What gets in LTM Information enters permanent storage by rehearsal; however, simply repeating things is a poor way to store. Over learning is good, and distributed practice is better that massed practice (cramming). Only information that helps us adapt to the environment is transferred in the LTM. Evolutionary theory helps explain how we decided in advance what information will be useful What are the different long-term memory systems? (1970-80) Tulving, Schacter, Squire argued that memory is not just one entity, but rather a process that involves several interacting systems, that encode and store different information in different ways Explicit memory involves conscious effort The major division between memory systems is the division of the memories that we are consciously aware of from memories that we acquire without conscious effort or intention. Implicit memories: the system underlying unconscious memories Explicit memories: the processes involved when people remember specific information Declarative memory: the cognitive information retrieved from explicit memory; knowledge that can be declared Tulving (1972): explicit memory can be divided in episodic and semantic memory Episodic: memories from one’s personal life Semantic: memory for knowledge about the world Implicit memory occurs without deliberate effort Classical conditioning involves implicit memory Effortless, occur without us knowing they occur, but can influence our lives. Advertisers rely on it Jacoby: the false fame effect Involved in repetition priming, the improvement in identifying a stimulus that has been experienced previously (some words have been primed: activated in the memory). Procedural or motor memory: a type of implicit memory that involved motor skills and behavioural habits Prospective memory is remembering to do something Prospective memory: remembering to do something, sometime in the future. It involves both automatic and controlled processes How is information organized in LTM Long term storage is based on meaning Our perceptual images are transformed into representation or codes, which are then stored. All this information is stored in networks of neurones in the brain. Retrieval often involves an explicit effort; it is involved in explicit or implicit memory systems. They are stored by meaning. Craik and Lochkart: theory of memory based on depth of elaboration. According to their level of processing model, the more deeply an item is encoded, the more meaning it has and the better it is remembered. Different types of rehearsal lead to differential encoding. Maintenance rehearsal: repeating the item over and over again Elaborative rehearsal: encodes the information in more meaningful ways, such as thinking of the object conceptually: we elaborate on basic information by linking it to knowledge from LTM. Encoding: participants are asked to consider a list of words according to how the words are printed, how they sound and what they mean. It turns out that words processed at the semantic level are remembered better, because it activates more brain region, and the more brain regions are activated, the better the memory. Schemas provide an organizational framework Schema: a hypothetical cognitive structure that helps us perceive, organize, process and use information. They are structure in the LTM. They can also lead to biased encoding, especially in cultured-influenced schemas. Bartlett: asked British people to listen and repeat an American folktale. They altered it so that it made sense form their viewpoint and even left the parts that didn’t make sense to them. When we retrieve information about a certain person or event, everything we know will be retrieved along with the story we try to remember Information is stored in association networks From Aristotle: our knowledge of the world is organized so that things related in meaning are linked in storage Collins and Loftus: an item’s distinctive features are linked so as to identify the item. Each unit of information in the network is a node and each node is connected to many other nodes. Activating one node increases the likelihood that other close related nodes will be activated. The closer the node, the stronger the association between them and the more likely that activating one will activate the other. Stimuli in WM activate the specific nodes in LTM; and this activation increases the ease of access to that material, facilitating retrieval. Their organization is based on hierarchically structured categories, which provide a clear an explicit blueprint for where to look for needed information. Retrieval cues provide access to Long-term storage Retrieval cue: anything that helps the person sort through the data of the LTM to access the right information. They explain why it is easier to recognize than to recall information Encoding specificity principle: any stimulus that is encoded along with an experience can trigger memory from the experience (Tulving). When participants studied and were tested in the same room, they remembered better than those who studied in one room and were tested in another. This is known as context dependent memory, which can be based on things like physical location, odour or background music. Internal mood states or inebriation can facilitate the recovery of information from LTM. Enhancement of memory when internal states match during encoding and recall is known as state dependant memory. Eich (1975) study of state-dependent memory on marijuana use What brain processes are involved in memory? Focus on the biological level of analysis There has been intensive effort to identify memory’s physical location Lashley (engram) spent much of his time trying to localize memory. He trained mice to run a maze, and then removed different parts of their cortices. He found out that the size of the area removed rather than its location was most important in predicting retention. He concluded that memory was distributed throughout the brain rather than in one localised region (equipotentiality). He didn’t examine subcortical regions. Memories are stored in multiple regions of the brain and linked to memory circuits (Hebb). Neural specialization occurs such that different brain regions are responsible for storing different aspects of information. (declarative and procedural memories use different brain regions). Regions in the temporal lobes are important for the ability to encode new memories, and are important for declarative memory, but not so much for implicit memory. The cerebellum plays a role in how motor actions are learned and remembered. The amygdala is responsible for fear conditioning. The medial temporal lobes are important for consolidation of declarative memories The medial region of the temporal lobe includes the amygdala and the hippocampus (damage to it causes anterograde amnesia: the inability to store new memories). Consolidation: a hypothetical process involving the transfer of contents from immediate memory into LTM. All learning leaves a biological trail in the brain which results from changes in the strength of neural connections that support memory and from the construction of new synapses. Medial temporal lobes are important for coordination and strengthening the connections among neurons when something is learned, but that the actual storage most likely occurs in the particular brain regions engaged during the perception, processing and analysis of the material being learned. Memories from sensory experiences involve retrieving the cortical circuits involved in perceiving them. Medial temporal lobes form links between the different storage sites and directs the gradual strengthening of those links. Reconsolidation: once memories are activated they need to be consolidated again to be stored back into memory. Researchers found evidence for such a process by giving a drug that interferes with memory storage after a memory has been activated: when memories for past events are retrieved, they can be affected by new circumstances, so that the newly reconsolidated memories may differ from their original version. This reconsolidation process occurs every time we retrieve a memory and put it back in storage. Spatial memory: function of the hippocampus that consists of memory for the physical environment (location of objects, directions and cognitive maps). The role of the hippocampus is supported by place cells: neurons that fire when a rat returns to a specific location, and fired again during their REM sleep- rats were dreaming about the maze they had just learned. Sleep is important to consolidate memories. Morris water maze test p. 307 The frontal lobes are involved in many aspects of memory Extensive neural networks connect the prefrontal cortex with other brain regions involved in memory, such as medial temporal areas. The frontal lobes are crucial for encoding. Deep encoding tasks will more likely lead to frontal activation than shallow ones. Frontal activation is a good predictor for which events will be remembered and which will not. Further activity in frontal brain regions involved in processing specific types of information is associated with better memory for that type of information. The medial prefrontal cortex is selectively active when people think about themselves, thus activity in this region predicts memory for information encoded about the self, but not for information encoding about others. The frontal lobes might also play a role in WM, because patients with damage to this region have difficulty following plans or goals, and monkeys with frontal lesions have impaired WM. Frontal regions become active when info is retrieved from the LTM into WM or encoded from WM into LTM. The frontal lobe and medial temporal lobes work together to consolidate storage of the lecture in our LT declarative memory. Neurochemistry underlies memory As memories are consolidated, neurones link into distributed networks, and those networks become linked. Various neurotransmitters, known as memory modulators, can weaken or enhance memory. Neurochemistry indicates the meaningfulness of stimuli Important events lead to neurochemical changes that produce emotion, which make those events likely to be stored in memory. Epinephrine jolts tells us to remember (excitement). This hormone is secreted in the bloodstream from adrenal glands, located near the kidneys, thus it doesn’t affect memory directly. Researchers initially believed that it affected memory because it causes glucose release, which then enters the brain and influences memory storage. When we learn something new, we drain glucose from key parts of the brain (hippocampus) that are associated with memory and learning. (elderly people who drank lemonade)it is complex carbohydrates that improve the brain’s glucose availability. The amygdala and the neurochemistry of emotion Any arousing event causes greater activity of norepinephrine receptors, which strengthens the memory of that event. The amygdala contains such receptors. Emotional memories affect the right amygdala in men and the left one in women, who have a better memory for emotional events. Canli: showed men and women picture: women remembered emotional pictures better and their emotional amygdala response was also greater. Women are more prone then men to depression. Why sex matters in neuroscience lists many reason for studying sex differences in brain structure and function to understand brain disorders and normal brain functioning. Men and women perform equally well on the memory test that regarded tasks in which their brain activity patterns differs. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): a mental disorder that involves frequent nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks related to an earlier trauma. Sufferers often have chronic tension, anxiety, and health problems, and may experience memory and attention problems in that daily lives. PTSD is associated with an attentional bias: people are hyper vigilant to stimuli associated with their traumatic events, which leads to activation of the amygdala. On ethics: altering memory for sufferers of PTSD, or even more people, what would it lead to and is it acceptable to alter our memories, for they make who we are and our society advances. If we didn’t remember traumatic events, we would be somewhat de-sensitised to such events. When do people forget? Forgetting: the inability to retrieve memory from LTM. We forget far more than we remember. Not being able to forget is maladaptive (as well as not being able to remember). Normal forgetting helps us better remember and use important information. Ebbinghaus: forgetting occurs rapidly in the 1st few days but then leaves off. He used the methods of savings to examine how long it took people to re-learn a list of non-sense syllables. Relearning past learnt subjects would take us less time to learn than the 1st time David Schacter: the 7 sins of memory (p.313) Transience is caused by interference Transience: the pattern of forgetting overtime. Unused memories are forgotten overtime. Most forgetting occurs because of interference from other information. We can forget because of proactive and retroactive interference. In both cases, competing information displaces the information we are trying to retrieve. Proactive: old information inhibits the ability to remember new information Retroactive: when new information inhibits the ability to remember old information Blocking is temporary Blocking: the temporary inability to remember something that is known. Tip of the tongue phenomenon (Brown and MacNeil) and can be produced in the laboratory (A.Brown). It often occurs because of the interference of similar words Absentmindedness results from shallow encoding Absentmindedness: the inattentive or shallow encoding of events. (Groups in the change blindness experiment)There are cultural differences in patterns of attention. Amnesia is a deficit in LTM Amnesia: a deficit in LTM, resulting from disease, brain injury or psychological trauma. There are 2 types: retrograde and anterograde. Often occurs from damage to the temporal lobes, sometimes to the thalamus. Korsakoff’s syndrome: long-term alcohol abuse can lead to vitamin deficiencies that result in thalamic changes and subsequently, amnesia. Retrograde: past-memories are lost, such as memories for events, facts, people, or personal information. Anterograde: inability to form new memories How are memories distorted? Flashbulb memories can be wrong Flashbulb memories (Brown, Kulik): vivid memories for the circumstances in which one 1st heard a surprising, consequential and emotionally arousing event. (Conway) better memory for the flashbulb experience occurs among those who found the news surprising and felt the event was important. Von Restorff effect: a distinctive event might simply be recalled more easily than trivial events, however inaccurate the result. People make source misattributions (identified by Schacter) Source misattributions: the misremembering of the time, place, person, or circumstances involved with a memory. (False fame effect, sleeper effect (arguments that come from a questionable source become more persuasive overtime)) Cryptomnesia: when a person thinks she has come up with a new idea, but really has retrieved an old one from memory and failed to attribute it to the proper source. People are bad eye witnesses Wells: 36 out of 40 cases in which DNA studies have shown that a person had been falsely accuse came from eye witness testimony (William Jackson’s case) Cross-ethnic identification: we have better memories for same race faces (fusiform face area), we see categories, not individuals. Suggestibility and misinformation: Loftus (1970) people can develop biased memories when provided with misleading information, a phenomenon known as suggestibility. (When we hear a car smashed into, we tend to think it went faster than if we had heard, the car collided) This phenomenon is more prevalent in a laboratory than in real life situations, because, due to the increased stress hormones, the memories may be more vivid. Eyewitness confidence: those that are wrong are just as confident as those who are right, perhaps even more so. Accurate witnesses tend to pay no attention to details. Simon: the Innocents project: police officers and prosecutors influence memory through the way in which they conduct the identification process. People have false memories Source amnesia: a type of amnesia that occurs when a person shows memory for an event but cannot remember where he encountered the information. Childhood amnesia: most people can’t recall anything before the age of 3. This may be due to a lack of linguistic capacity as well as an immature front lobe Creating false recognition Confabulation: the false recollection of episodic memory. Moscovitch described it as an honest lying (H.W.) Capgras syndrome: patients delusionaly believe their family members have been replaced by impostors, even when presented with contradictory evidence. Such patients often have damage to their frontal lobes and the limbic brain regions. The brain regions involved in emotion is separated from the visual input. Repressed memories are controversial Long-repressed memories can resurface during therapy. Loftus points out that there is little evidence that recovered memories are genuine or at least sufficiently accurate to be believable. Schacter alludes to the frightening possibility that repressed memories might have been introduced by misguided therapists. Hypnosis, age regression, and guided recall can create false memories. Halbrook: in a group therapy, she thought she had been abused in satanic rituals and killed a baby. It would be a mistake to dismiss all adult reports of early abuse. In the latter half of the 1990, there have been much less recovered memories People reconstruct events to be consistent Memory bias: the changing of memories over time in ways consistent with prior beliefs. Festinger: I prefer to rely on my memory. I have lived with that memory long enough, I am used to it, and if a have rearranged or distorted it, surely that was done for my own benefit. People tend to recall their past attitudes and past beliefs as being consistent with their current ones, often revising their memories when they change attitudes and beliefs. They also tend to remember events as casting them in the predominant roles or favourable lights, and other thing the like. Orwell: we can change the past, not the future Neuroscience may make it possible to distinguish between true and false memories When we remember something, the brain areas activated are the same ones that were activated when we learned them. If the memory is true, the brain areas activated should be the same as those activated when the event occurred. If the memory is false, unrelated brain areas would be activated. False memories tend to be similar to true memories, especially when there are true and false components in the same global memory. Over the next scientists will debate if using fMRI is reliable. How can we improve learning and memory? Mnemonics are useful strategies for learning Practice: the more time you repeat an action, the easier it gets. Memories are strengthened with retrieval. Repeated testing is a good way to improve memory. Elaborate the material: the deeper the level of processing, the more likely we will remember the material later. Why critical thinking skill is important. Try to organize the material in a way that makes sense to us, form concepts about it. Good when the material is made relevant to us. Overlearn: recognition is easier than recall: rehearse the material, when we think we have learned it. Distribute our study overtime Sleep: it may help with the consolidation of memories and disturbing sleep interferes with learning Use verbal mnemonics: slogans, acronyms Verbal imagery: engage both systems in WM, creating a more lasting one. Method of loci visualizes ourselves placing objects. Pegs, visualize the new words hanging on pegs. Chapter 8: thinking and intelligence Gigerenzer: low probability events that are highly published have dire consequences: dread risk can profoundly affect reasoning How does the mind represent information? Intelligence: some people seem to be better than others at using information Gladwell: The Power of Thinking without Thinking: the ability to use information rapidly is a critical human skill Cognitive psychology: originally based on the notions that the brain represents information and that the act of thinking: cognition- is directly associated with manipulating these representations. Understanding the nature of our everyday mental representation is difficult. Analogical representations: Have some of the physical characteristics of an object; it is analogous to the object. (images) Symbolic representations: an abstract representation that doesn’t correspond to physical characteristics of an object or idea. (words) Mental images are analogical representations The ‘’R’’ studies showed that the time it takes to say whether a stimulus is a mirror image will increase as a function of how far the stimulus is rotated from its original position. Are representations of objects analogical or could they be simple representations based on factual knowledge about the world? – At least, some thoughts take the form of mental images. Kosslyn: visual imagery is associated with activity in visual perception related areas of the brain: the same brain areas activated when we view something are active when we think in images. When we retrieve information from memory, the representation of that recalled picture in our mind’s eye parallels the representation in our brain of the 1st time we saw it. (eye facing into the brain) Limits of analogical representations: if something can’t be perceived wholly by our perceptual system, we can’t form a complete analogical representation of it (mental maps = analogical + symbolic). We often regularize irregular shapes as shortcuts. Concepts are symbolic representations How we use knowledge about objects efficiently. Categorization: grouping things based on shared properties, reduces the amount of knowledge we must hold in memory and is therefore an efficient way of thinking Concept: a category, or class, that includes subtypes and /or individual items. An abstract representation that groups or categorizes objects, events or relations around common themes. Defining attribute model: that idea that a concept is characterized by a list of features that are necessary to determine if an object is a member of a category. It fails to capture many key aspects of how we organize things in our minds. It implies an all-or-non categorization, and that all the given category’s attributes are equally salient in terms of defining this category, and the model posits that all the members of a category are all equal in the category Prototype model: an approach to object categorization that is based on the premise that within each category, some members are more representative than others. A particular prototype can be chosen for different reasons Exemplar model: information stored about the members of a category is used to determine category membership- any concept has no single best representation, instead all the examples of category members form that concept. Accounts for the observation that some category members are more prototypical than others: the prototypes are simply members we have encountered more often Schemas organize useful information about environments Enable us to interact with the complex reality. Knowledge regarding situations and social contexts differ from the knowledge associated with object classification. One theory is focused on schemas about the sequences of events in certain situations. Shank and Abelson (1977) have referred to those schemas as scripts which operate at the unconscious level. (gender role = schema) We can employ schemas because common situations have consistent attributes, and people have specific roles in specific contexts. Scripts dictate our appropriate behaviours, and what we view as appropriate is shaped by culture. Their adaptive value is that they minimize the amount of attention required to navigate familiar environments, and to avoid unusual or dangerous information. They can lead into thinking in stereotypical ways. How do we make decisions and solve problems? Reasoning: using information to determine if a conclusion is valid or reasonable Decision making: attempting to select the best alternative amongst several options Problem solving: finding a way around an obstacle to reach a goal People use deductive and inductive reasoning Deductive: reason from the general to the specific, using a belief or rule to see if a conclusion is valid Inductive: reason from the specific to the general, using examples or instances to determine if a conclusion is likely to be true. Deductive reasoning: we use logic to draw specific conclusions under certain assumptions, or premises. Deductive reasoning tasks are often presented as syllogisms (logical arguments containing premises and a conclusion). Conditional: if A is true, then B is true. The conclusion may or may not be true Categorical: the logical argument contains 2 premises and a conclusion, which can be determined to be either valid or invalid. (All As are Bs, all Bs are Cs, therefore all As are Cs) We are influenced by our experiences Inductive reasoning: after a number of instances, we might induce a general conclusion. The use of the scientific method is an example. In everyday life, it might not be as accurate; we are often influenced by anecdotes) Decision making often involves heuristic Research on decision making has been influenced by normative (humans are optimal decision makers) and descriptive (account for human’s misinterpretations, and irrational acts) models Expect utility theory: normative model of how humans should make decisions. It views decision making as a computation of utility, the overall value of each possible outcome in a decision making scenario. Tversky, Kahnemann: importance of both reasoning and decision making in economics. They identified several common heuristics Heuristics: in problem solving, mental shortcuts used to reduce the amount of thinking that is needed to move from an initial state to a goal state. Not the same thing as algorithm (a procedure that, if followed correctly, will always yield the correct answer). Heuristic thinking often occurs unconsciously, it allows us to focus on other things, since the conscious mind’s processing capacity is limited. They required minimal cognitive resources, but can also result in bias Critical thinking skill: understanding how the availability and representativeness heuristics can affect thinking Availability heuristics: making a decision based on the answer that most easily comes to mind Representativeness heuristic: a rule for categorization based on how similar the person or object is to our prototypes for that category. (Bias: not enough base rate) Framing effects: the effect of presentation on how information is perceived Tversky, Kehnemann: prospect theory: we need to take into account people’s wealth in predicting their choice and we need to consider the fact that because losses feel much worse than gains feel good, people try to avoid situations that involves losses. (loss aversion) Affective forecasting (Gilbert, Wilson, 2007): people aren’t good at knowing how they will feel about something in the future, and generally don’t realize how bad they are at predicting their future feelings (overestimate the negative feelings, we are unaware that we can find positive outcomes from tragic event) We have excellent strategies of coping in order to protect our mental health. Affective forecasting can also influence our perception of positive events. Winning a silver medal might be more negative than winning a bronze. Good decision makers: (Bruin, Parker, Fischoff) found that good decisions lead to a better life. Applying critical thinking skills can positively affect multiple areas of a person’s life. Problem solving achieves goals Organization of subgoals: process from one step to the next (tower of Hanoi). A problem must be broken down into subgoals. Sometimes it is difficult to find the order in which to do them) Sudden insight: the sudden realization of a solution to a problem (Kohler: chimpanzee and banana) (Maier: strings on the ceiling) Changing representations to overcome obstacles: revise a mental representation Restructuring: a new way of thinking about a problem that aids its solution (Scheerer: 4 lines, 9 dots) Mental sets: a problem solving strategy that has worked in the past, we tend to follow them (Luchins: bottles of water) Functional fixedness: sticking with our mental representation about objects’ typical functions. It must be overcomed. (Dunker: candle and matchbox) Conscious strategies: working backward (water lily), finding an appropriate analogy: transferring a problem solving strategy that works in one context to solve a similar problem. Analogous problems enhance our ability to solve each one, provided that we see the structural similarities. (Semmelhack, a software designer who played Lego with his son) The paradox of choice: the more choices the better? – no too many choices can be frustrating. When we remove our freedom of choice, we feel wronged; we want the sense of having control over our life Schwartz: having too many choices make some people miserable, it might even lead to the increase of clinical depression, because if the choice we make always fails us, we are likely to become depressed. He believes that if decisions aren’t crucial, we should settle for choices that match our needs even if they aren’t the absolute best. He divides the world into satisficers (from Nobel laureate Simon) and maximizers. Satisficing: choosing an option that sufficiently satisfies our needs. Satisficers do not lack standards, they choose whatever matches the most closely what they want and buy it regardless if there are better or cheaper things. Maximizers always seek to make the best possible choices and devote time. For them, making the wrong choice can have catastrophic consequences. They are hesitant in their choice and keep on questioning it after it has been done; they feel more disappointed with their decisions. Paradox of choice might have an impact on the cultural shift in age of marriage and settlement. They want to maximize their choices. How do we understand intelligence? Large debate as to what extent is our intelligence determined by our genes or our environment. Intelligence: the human ability to use knowledge, understand complex ideas, learn quickly, and adapt to environmental challenges. On ethics: cognition enhancing drugs Drugs to prevent normal slow loss of brain function- yes Unaware of the side effects, might bring to a loss of values such as perseverance, people might be cohered into taking them, because they present such an advantage. What will happen if memories are intact? Sir Francis Galton: (1800) earliest efforts to study intelligence. He believed that intelligence was related to the speed of neural responses and to the sensitivity of the sensory/perceptual systems Psychometric approach: general approach to understanding intelligence at different levels of analysis focuses on how people perform on standardized achievement tests, examining what people know and their problem solving skills. Cognitive approach: how information is processed, speed of reaction, amount of info held in memory, focus on tasks. Biological approach: how information is processed by the brain, and how genes and environment affect brain activity. Intelligence is assessed by psychometric tests Achievement assess tests: current levels of skills and of knowledge Aptitude tests: examine whether people will be good at various jobs in the future and may predict what jobs people will be good at Binet: intelligence is best understood as a collection of high level mental processes (verbal, mathematical, and analytical abilities) Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale: measuring children’s abilities. Over the entire test, good results by luck aren’t a factor. Stanford (Terman) revision: adapted version of American children (1919) Wechsel (1939) test for adults WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. WAIS III: verbal part, performance part Intelligence quotient Mental age: introduced by Binet, it is an assessment of a child’s intellectual standing relative to that of his or her peers; determined by a comparison of the child’s test score for children of each chronological age IQ: the number computed by dividing a child’s estimated mental age by the child’s chronological age and then multiplied by 100. The average IQ is 100. Not so good for adults. Validity: do they really measure what they need to measure Miller analogy test: results predicted academic performances, productivity, creativity. Modest correlation between IQ and work, skill... They only predict 25% of the variation in school or work. People from privileged backgrounds seem to have higher IQs. Cultural bias: they may penalize people for belonging to certain cultural groups (we must speak the language and know the culture). Some tests try to avoid this problem, but seem to be biased as well. Sometimes they favour who wishes to do well. What it means to be intelligent varies amongst cultures Critical thinking skill: recognizing and avoiding reification: the tendency to think about complex traits as though they have a single cause and objective reality. We must recognize the complexity of concepts such as intelligence. General intelligence involve multiple components Does intelligence reflect one overall talent or multiple individual ones? Factor analysis: statistical technique that clusters items similar to one another; the clusters are referred to as factors. Spearman (1904): most intelligence test items tended to cluster as one factor and that people who scored highly one on type of item also tended to score highly on other types of items. He viewed general intelligence or ‘’g’’ as a factor that contributes to performance on intellectual task. Most scientists agree that some form of intelligence of g exists, they also recognize that intelligence comes in various forms. Fluid versus crystallized intelligence: Cattell (1971) G consists of 2 types of intelligence Fluid: information processing in novel or complex circumstances. Often assessed in nonverbal, more culture-fair intelligence tests Crystallized: knowledge acquired through experience and the ability to use that knowledge Throughout the adult years, crystallized intelligence grows steadily, while fluid intelligence declines steadily. Multiple intelligences: Gardner (1983) theory of multiple intelligences Multiple intelligences: people can show different skills in a variety of different domains, independent from one another. (Musical, bodily-kinesthetics, linguistic, mathematical/logical, spatial, intrapersonal, interpersonal) Greenberg: average boy, but outstanding musical prodigy. Each person has a unique pattern of intelligence and no one should be viewed as smarter than others, just differently talented. He feels that the current tests fail to capture the true essence of intelligence. Sternberg (1999) theory of 3 intelligences: analytical, creative, practical Emotional intelligence (Salovey, Mayer, popularized by Goleman) EQ EQ: a form of social intelligence that emphasises the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions to guide thoughts and actions. Consists of 4 abilities: manage our own emotions, use emotions to facilitate activities, recognize other’s emotions, and understand emotional language. Regulating our mood, resisting impulses and temptation, and controlling our behaviour are all important components of EQ. It is correlated with the quality of social relationships. Importance of G: it predicts not only performance in school, and at work, but also longevity. Low G is related to early death (heart attacks, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s, traffic accidents, drowning). It may affect health, people with higher G better analyse. G’s main value is in allowing people to adapt quickly to environmental challenges. Kanazawa suggests that G is important only in novel situations. One’s level of intelligence doesn’t matter for recurring adaptive challenges Intelligence is associated with cognitive performance Galton (1822-1911): intelligence is related to our brain’s efficiency as well as to keen perceptual skills; intelligent people have larger, more efficient brains. Other psychologists: believe that intelligence is supported by low level cognitive processes, such as mental processing, WM, and attention Speed of mental processing: Test of simple reaction time: easy Choice reaction time: more representative of intelligence scores Inspection time test: if a stimulus is presented, and covered up, how much time is required to identify if stimulus A is longer than stimulus B. The results are proportional to psychometric test results. The fact that highly intelligent people’s brains work faster was found by measuring brains’ electrical activity in response to stimuli presentation. The relationship between reaction time and longevity is somewhat stronger than that between scores on intelligence tests and longevity. Working memory: G intelligence scores are closely related to WM. Memory tests that have dual components, show a strong relation between WM and intelligence. The link may be attention; the ability to stay focused is important. Brain structure and function Brain volume, as assessed by MRI, explained about 10% of the difference in people’s intelligence scores. People with autism tend to have larger brains. A small but significant correlation has been found between the size of selected brain structures and intelligence. The volume of neuronal cell bodies in the frontal lobes and in other brain regions that support attentional control is related to fluid intelligence, but not to crystallized intelligence. Sandra Witelson: Canadian neuroscientist who has 125 brains including Einstein’s. His brain is unremarkable in overall size or weight, but his parietal lobe is 15% larger than average. Savants: Kim Peek, savant who inspired the character played by Dustin Hoffman in Rain man, who can memorize impressive things, but can’t manage the daily chores of daily life. With a score of 87 on an intelligence test, he was born in 1951 with several brain anomalies, especially in his left hemisphere. (enarlged head, missing corpus callosum) Wiltshire: autism, can reproduce paintings of images he only glanced at years ago. Genes and environment influence intelligence Nature and nurture both play a role in development of intelligence. (parent’s brain size, nutrition influences brain size, intelligent people might seek out activities that will increase the volume of their frontal lobe, heritability of vocabulary size, the amount of schooling...) Behavioural genetics: genes do play a role, but the extent of their influence remains unknown. No intelligence has been found. (study in mice, removed genes, knockout genes, or replacing them with other, knockin genes, lead to increase intelligence for a few hours). IQ chart p.368. Environmental factors: prenatal and post-natal factors influence intelligence. Studies show that firstborns often have higher IQs, psychologist disagree with these findings. Laterborns often have a lower IQ than firstborns. This could be because parents devote more time and attention to older siblings, who grow up with fewer children. Adopted children had higher IQs and better school performances than their biological sibling who hasn’t been adopted. Their IQs were similar to non-adopted siblings, but school performances lagged behind. Enriched environment enhances learning and memory as well. Environment influences how genes involved in brain development are expressed, including the formation of new synapses. The intellectual opportunities that a child receives also influence their intelligence: starting school early. Flynn effect: rise of the IQ scores during the last century, since every generation needs more education than the preceding, and work and leisure require more complex cognitive processing. It could also be related to better nutrition, health care system, better educational methods, longer school years, smaller families with more parental attention, exposure to technology. Group differences in intelligence have multiple determinants Gender: Jensen found that no evidence was found for sex differences in the mean level of g or in the variation of g. Males excel on some factors, females on others. There are differences between males and females: males tend to do better on math and visuospatial processing, females get better grades and have advantages on measures of writing and languages. Studies have shown that females tend to estimate their intelligence lower that males estimate theirs, because females receive modesty training and underestimate their intelligence. Females and males tend to attribute higher IQs to their fathers than mothers. Race: Jensen said that African Americans are, on average, less intelligent than European Americans; they score about 10 to 15 points higher. Why? We must consider if race is a biologically significant concept, many believe it isn’t. It is wrong to conclude that genes influence those groups when there are environmental factors at stake. Lewontin (1976) provided a good analogy for this. African Americans tend to make less money and are more likely to live in poverty, they have fewer years of education, and are targets of discrimination, which may lead to lower-self esteem. African American children who wrote about what mattered to them as a racial group had better grades (40% reduction of the racial gap in grades.) Stereotype treat: apprehension about confirming negative stereotypes related to one’s own group. (it could interfere with the good performances of AA) We tend to do as the stereotype predicts we will do. SAT scores can be affected by that, but it is still debated. Because according to brain imaging techniques test takers resulting anxiety reduced the capacity of their WM, more arousal in brain areas related in emotion. Chapter 10: Health and well-being Can psychological factors affect health? Health psychology: concerned with the events that affect physical well-being. It arose 30 years ago when psychologists realized the importance of lifestyle factors to physical health Well-being: a positive state that includes striving for optimal health Psychologists rely on experimental and statistical data to understand the correlation between thoughts, actions, and physical and mental health. They also study the inverse of these relationships. The biopsychosocial model of health incorporates multiple perspectives for understanding and improving health. Biopsychological model: model of health that integrates the effects of biological, behavioural, and social factors on health and illness. It is a circular model p.429. Not like the traditional medical model in which patients are passive and the doctor knows best. Behaviour contributes to the leading causes of death Most people fear the wrong things We are more likely to die from causes that stem from our own behaviours, which we can learn to modify. Lifestyle behaviours that begin in childhood and teenage years have a great impact on health. (in teens 49% of deaths are from accidents) Behaviours influence environments, which in turn influence the biological bases of behaviours. Critical thinking skill: indentifying regression to the mean En extreme event will likely be followed by a less extreme event Placebos can be a powerful medicine Placebo effect: a drug or treatment, unrelated to the particular problem of the person who receives it, may make the recipient feel better because the person believes that the drug or treatment is effective. For a placebo to work, the patient must believe it will, i.e. they mustn’t know it is a placebo. It can be attributable to decreased anxiety, partly. We can’t separate the effects from our mind from those of our bodies. It is an experimental control A drug that made the analgesics ineffective also made the placebo ineffective. MRI studies showed that when patients have a positive expectation about a placebo, the neural processes involved in responding to it are the same ones activated in response to a biologically active treatment. Critical thinking: recognizing placebo effects when evaluating treatment claims. How do people cope with stress? Stress: a pattern of behavioural and physiological responses to events that match or exceed an organism’s abilities to respond in a healthy way. (A little stress may be beneficial). It is divided in 2 types: eustress (from positive events) and distress or duress (stress of negative events). They equally put strain to our bodies. Extreme distress can lead to serious health problems. Daily hassles can build up and cause serious problems because they wear down personal resources. We may accommodate to certain types, but not to others, such as interpersonal stress. Stressor: an environmental event or stimulus that threatens an organism Coping response: any response an organism makes to avoid, escape from, or minimize an aversive stimulus. When too much is expected of us, we perceive a discrepancy between the situation and what we can do. Stress has psychological components Stress activates a chain of events known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. P.435 It was an efficient model for our ancestors because it results in increased energy. Because hormones travel slowly in the bloodstream, stress affects the system much longer than stressors do. Excessive stress disrupts WM, especially when the demand of WM is high. Chronic stress has been associated with memory impairments caused when cortisol damages neurons in brain areas including the hippocampus. There are sex differences in responses to stressors Fight-or-flight response: (Cannon) the psychological preparedness of animals to deal with danger. Taylor says that this model has been studied using 80% males, which means that we have a distorted vision of stress response. This is mostly because females’ menstrual cycle level of hormones may interfere Tend-to-befriend response (Taylor: female’s tendency to protect and care for their offspring and form social alliances.) Excellent from an evolutionary point of view. This theory can’t be applied universally to all females. Geary and Fill: males often engage in tending behaviours Oxycontin: a hormone important for mothers in bonding to newborns, it is produced by the hypothalamus and released in the bloodstream by the pituitary gland. Oxycontin levels tend to be high in stressful situations, it is especially important in women’s stress response Estrogens are also important in understanding the differences between male and female stress response Their different responses may explain why they tend to live 5 to 8 years longer than males on average. The general adaptation syndrome is a bodily response to stress Selye: effects of sex hormones by injecting rats with hormones from other animals he found: enlarged adrenal glands, decreased levels of lymphocytes (white T or B cells that make up the immune system) and stomach ulcers. These 3 responses were part of the nonspecific stress response General adaptation syndrome: alarm, resistance and exhaustion (p.438) Stress affects health The prolonged action of stress hormones (cortisol) negatively affects health (high blood pressure, cardiac disease, diabetes, decline sex drive, dwarfism) Sapolsky: chronic stress, especially psychological stress, is associated with the initiation and progression of a wide variety of diseases. Many coping strategies can be damaging Immune system: stress alters its function. Psycho-neuro-immunology studies the response of the body’s immune system to psychological variables. Short term stress boosts it, chronic stress weakens it, because of decreased lymphocyte production Cohen: people sniffed cold viruses; those with the highest levels of stress developed heavier symptoms. The more desirable events, the greater the production of antigens. Heart disease: the leading cause of deaths for adults. Factors: genetics, health behaviours, response to stress (personality traits, 1950s) Friedman (chair) his patients were impatient and driven, they were sitting on the front of their chairs. He deduced that personality could influence heart disease. Today, it has been shown that negative emotions influence the risk of heart diseases. Western Collaborative Group (1960) 8 year study with 3500 men free of heart disease at the start of the study and found that a set of personality traits were related to heart disease. Type A behaviour: competitive, goal oriented, aggressive, hostile, restless, not able to relax, impatient with others. They are much more prone to heart disease, such behaviour is as strong a predicator of heart disease as is high blood pressure. Type B behaviour: easygoing, relaxed, non competitive, accommodating. Depression can also lead to heart disease. In contrast optimistic people tend to have lower risks. Duke University found out that hostility was the worse, because such a state of arousal puts a strain on the body (impact on pulmonary health also) Allostatic load theory of illness: when people are continuously stressed, they are unable to return to bodily states that characterize normal stress levels. Allostatic load is similar to homeostasis. The body of more positive people should return more easily and often to their allostatic load. Coping is a process Lazarus (1993) conceptualised a 2-part appraisal process: people use primary appraisals to decide whether a stimulus is stressful, benign, or irrelevant. If they find the stimuli stressful, they use secondary appraisals to evaluate response options and choose coping behaviours. Anticipatory coping: coping that occurs before the onset of a future stressor. Types of coping: Folkman and Lazarus outline 2 categories of coping Emotion-focused coping: people try to prevent having an emotional response to a stressor, adopting often passive strategies (avoidance, minimizing the problem, distanciation from outcome, eating, drinking) that don’t solve the problem. Effective only in the short-run. Depending on the situation, it might be the best option. Problem-focused coping: people take direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor, generating alternative solutions. Method when we perceive the stressors as controllable Folkman and Moskowitz: in addition to problem focused coping, 2 strategies can be adopted to help people use positive thoughts to deal with stress. They involve positive reappraisal, a process in which a person focuses on possible good things in his situation, looking for the silver lining. Downward comparison: comparing oneself to those who are worse off Creation of positive events: infusing ordinary events with positive meaning Individual differences in coping: some people are stress-resistant; they are able to adapt to life changes by viewing events constructively. Hardiness (Kobasa): commitment, challenge, control. They experience a high blood pressure when faced with stress, a sign of coping, and they have an increase in positive thoughts about themselves. Family-focused interventions: including family members in a treatment plan for chronically ill doesn’t help: the patient may feel as though family members are controlling their life rather than providing help. Being in control of essential decisions reduces stress and promotes wellbeing. Motivate that patient to make his health and life choices, carry the daily activities Modelling healthy behaviours Providing reward Pointing out the positive consequence of caring for one’s illness What behaviours affect mental and physical health? Our daily habits contribute to nearly every major cause of death in developed nations. High stress is associated with more problems than fat intake, less exercise, and heavier smoking. Obesity results from a genetic predisposition and overeating Why some people can control what they eat and some can’t remains unclear. Society has a negative attitude towards overweight people and tends to think they are just lazy pigs. Travis former president of NAAFA: provide support for discrimination. After a life time of failed diets, they realize they will probably always be fat and they must learn to accept themselves and to educate society about obesity. Obese: when 20% over ideal body weight. BMI: body mass index. According to it, 1/3 of Americans are clinically obese Genetic influence: half the variability in body weight. 60 to 80% heritability in fraternal twins. Environment has far less effect than genetics. It determines whether a person can become obese, but environment determines if a person will become obese (Stundark). More than 300 genetic markers play a role Study by Bouchard of twins being overfed: differed weight can amongst pairs, similarity within the pairs. The stigma of obesity: can give rise to psychological problems. In some cultures, obesity is appreciated. Low self-esteem might cause the weight gain. (girls rating themselves 4 or less can gain 2 BMI points 2 years after rating themselves as such. ) In western cultures, being overweight is associated with lower status, especially for women. Ideal 5’11’’ and 110. 6’ 145. At odds against men’s bodies whose sizes increased. Restrictive dieting doesn’t work: because of the body’s self defence against weight loss. Weight is regulated around a set-point determined primarily by genetic influence. 1966, study with inmate to increase body weight by 25%, few did it 1950, study to challenge men to reduce body weight by 25%, very hard, became obsessed with food. Similar outcomes to those with eating disorders. The body responds to weight loss be slowing down metabolism, after the body has been deprived of food, it needs less food to maintain a given body weight; weight gain occurs much faster when previously starved Close friends tend to have similar body weights, because of the social transmission; the implicit agreement on what body weight is acceptable or normal. Restrained eating: chronic dieters (restrained eaters), are prone to excessive eating in some situation (Polivy, Herman) If they think they have blown their diets, they will indulge in eating more. Stress can also lead them to abandon their diets. Their binge eating depends on their perception of when their diets are broken. They rely on cognitive control of food intake rather than eating according to body states of hunger. Disordered eating: chronic dieting may promote it, they feel it difficult to lose weight (cycles of yoyo alters the metabolism and makes it more difficult to lose) and have low self-esteem. Tend to run in families, are due partially to genetics. Bulimia seems more culture bound, but Anorexia is prevalent in every country where there is abundant food. Anorexia: excessive fear of becoming fat and refusal to eat. 1% of the population meet the criteria: objective measures of thinness and psychological characteristics that indicate abnormal obsession with food and body weight. Can lead to loss of bone density and 15-22% die. Bulimia: alternate between binging and dieting. 1-2% of girls meet the criteria; they tend to be average or overweight. Binge-eating disorder: no purging On ethics: obesity and public policy p.451 Smoking is a leading cause of death Data from World Health Organization, increasing numbers of people are smoking in low-income countries. 5.4M deaths are caused by tobacco every year. 1G of people will die in this century. 1 in 4 American are smokers, 440K deaths in the US per year. Most smokers begin in childhood or adolescence, every day 5000 Americans between 11-17 years old have their 1st cigarette; half will continue smoking and a third will die from it. By the 12th grade 70% have had experiences with tobacco products, 30% smoke regularly. Starting smoking: coughing, watery eyes, bad taste, and nausea. Social influences: adolescents will more likely smoke if their parents or friends are smoking. False consensus effect: they over estimate the number of smokers. ‘’being a smoker’’ has an influence; they are viewed as tough, sociable, good with members of the opposite sex. Children take it up to look cool. Some people are particularly susceptible to nicotine addiction because of genetics. Nicotine may lead to increased activation of dopamine neurones, which can have a rewarding effect. Maintaining a healthy weight or quitting smoking: smokers may need to hit rock bottom before they do something about it. Exercise has physical, emotional and cognitive benefits Reduced depression, enhanced memory and cognition: Miracle-Gro for our brains (aerobic exercise promotes neurogenesis, the growth of new neurones and neural connections) The additional neurons created through exercise result in larger brains, affecting especially the hippocampus. Study: adults between 60-79 in a 6 months aerobic plan showed increased white and gray matter. Makes us heal faster. Adults with memory problems showed increased memory and cognition. Exercise reduces memory decline in older adults with moderate problems. Exercise increases the immune system and prevents certain cancers. It reduces stress and improves mood. Good for the clinical treatment of depression, addiction and alcoholism. There are ethnic differences in health behaviours Genetics, affordable health care, culture. Acculturation (extent to which an individual accommodate to the culture) is important. AA and HA were less likely to smoke or drink than EA and AsianA. EA were better for diet and exercise. Can a positive attitude keep us healthy? Being positive has health benefits Rogers, Maslow, Erikson: early pioneers of positive psychology great success in the 1950-1970s. Comeback in the 1990s. The new positive psychology emphasises the strengths and virtue that people thrive, it tries to understand what makes people happy. Happiness has 3 components: positive emotions and pleasure, engagement in life, meaningful life. When one increases the others increase as well. Are happier people healthier: yes Study of 1000, 2 years after analysing for hypertension, diabetes, and respiratory tract infection. People who are hopeful have reduced risk in all 3, and curious people have reduced risk of the 1st and 2nd. Thus having a positive attitude has multiple beneficial effects, including on the immune system functioning and greater longevity. Social support and social integration are associated with good health Happy people tend to have strong social networks and are more socially integrated than less happy people. Social interaction is beneficial for physical and mental health. People with large social networks will less easily get colds. People who have more friends live longer. Men with fewer friends were 2.3% and women 2.8% more likely to die during the 9 year study period. Socially isolated ill people will likely die sooner, in part because isolation is associated with many health problems. Social integration: the quality of a person’s social relationships. Social support is linked to fewer health problems, because of decreased stress. To be most effective, people need to care about the recipient. Buffering hypothesis: the idea that other people can provide direct support in helping individuals cope with stress. Emotional disclosure has positive effects on health: writing or talking about our emotions has great health benefits. Studies by Pennebaker, found those positive effects College students who were assigned to write about their emotions visited school counselling less often than those assigned to write about other things. Anderson: writing about emotional events helps understand the cause of the events, and construct meaningful stories out of experiences so that they can better understand these experiences and can move on. At first, people might experience negative feelings, but they will go away. They must start with something that needs resolution, for 15 mins. Marriage can be good for our health: positive relationships are good, stronger for husbands than for wives. See chart p.459. Same benefits for homosexual relationships, it was found that lesbian couple work more cooperatively on lab tests than other couples. Couples who fight showed a decreased immune system in the 24 hours after conflict. Glaser found that people going through a divorce had compromised immune systems. Marital conflicts have more negative outcomes for wives than husbands: women’s greater responsiveness to conflict and the higher premium they place on emotional closeness makes them more likely than men to seek divorce when there is high conflict. Trust and health are related across cultures Oxytocin is involved in trust relationships: attachment hormone. Released when people feel empathy for others, and is involved in feelings of love. It is released when participants are engaged in trust relationships while playing the trust game. Players who had oxytocin sprayed in their noses were more trustful. Thus having more of this hormone makes people more trusting. Moberg: people who secrete more oxytocin have more trusting personalities and form attachments more readily. Zak: studies on secreting of testosterone and distrust. Men showed increased levels of testosterone when they didn’t trust the player. Thus men and women respond differently when they distrust someone. Trust is associated with better health and longer lives. Less trusting people have poorer health. It may not be causal; there might be a 3rd factor involved. Spirituality contributes to well-being People who are religious report greater feelings of well-being than those who aren’t. Myers found that religious people are better at coping with crises in their lives. Their beliefs serve as a buffer. They can also derive meaning to their lives. They feel they are more than just a momentary blip in the universe. Beliefs can help people achieve and maintain well-being through the support provided by faith communities. Religion supports healthy lifestyle. Action plan for well being Taking care of the body and mind Eat natural foods, watch portion size, drink alcohol in moderation, if at all, keep active, don’t smoke, practice safe sex, learn to relax, learn to cope, build a strong support network, write about troubling events in your life, consider your spiritual life, try some of the happiness exercises. Chapter 11: human development Developmental psychology: the study of changes in physiology, cognition, and social behaviour over the life span What shapes a child? Our genes set the pace and order of development p.471. Environment also plays a role. If a baby sleeps on his back, he will crawl later. Development starts in the womb Zygote: 1st cell Embryo: from 2 weeks to 2 months, internal organs, nervous system Foetus: physical growth Physical development: most of the brain’s nerve cells develop in a specific sequence in the 1st 7 months of gestation. Basic brain areas form by week 4. Cells that form the cortex are visible from week 7, those of the thalamus and hypothalamus by week 10, those of the left and right hemispheres, by week 12. At birth the brain has cortical layers, connections among its neurones ad myelination, yet the development continues throughout his life. Hormones that circulate in the womb influence the developing foetus; if the mother doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormones, the baby is at risk for low IQ. The mother’s emotional state also matters; when the baby is exposed to high levels of stress hormones, it may have an impaired development Teratogens: environmental agents that harm the embryo or foetus. They can impair cognitive and physical development. The extent to which a teratogen impairs the development depends on when the exposure occurs and how long it occurs. Brain development promotes learning Newborns have are able to process a wide variety of sensory stimuli. Their auditory system is much more developed than the visual system; they have a visual acuity of 8-12 inches. Grasping reflex (survival mechanism). Rooting effect (sucking). These reflexes pave the way for a more complicated behaviour pattern such as feeding oneself and walking. Thus at birth the brain is sufficiently developed to support basic reflexes, but further development appears necessary. Myelination and neuronal connections: brain circuit maturation; it begins in the spinal cord during the 1st trimester and on the brain’s neurons during the second. It occurs in different brain regions at different stages of development Early brain growth has 2 important aspects: specific areas within the brain mature and become functional, and regions of the brain learn to communicate with one another through synaptic connections The myelinated axons form synapses with other neurones. Synaptic pruning: the frequently used connections are preserved; the unused ones decay or disappear. (graph p.475) Once the connections are established, the brain makes them more permanent, by increasing myelination. Infants do not develop specific cognitive skills until certain brain connections are made. The brain grows as determined by genetic instruction, but the organ is also highly adaptable. Most neurones are formed at birth, but the brain’s physical development continues through the growth of neurones and the new connections they make. By age 4, the brain grows from about 350 grams to 1,250 grams (80% of the adult brain). This size increase is due to myelination and to new synaptic connections. Early childhood nutrition affects myelination and other development. Sensitive learning periods: Critical periods (Lenneberg): biologically determined time periods for the development of specific skills. Sensitive periods: biologically determined periods when specific skills develop most easily. Attachment promotes survival Children are also shaped by their early relations, especially from their care givers; social development begins in infancy. Humans are born immature, but their cries cause psychological, physiological, and behavioural reactions that compel the caregiver to provide food. Within 10 weeks infants are profoundly affected by their caregiver’s facial expressions and emotional responses. Between 4 and 6 weeks of age, young children express their 1st social smile, which enhances powerful feelings of attachment between caregiver and child, it is an attachment bond that will persist throughout life Bowlby: infant attachment leads to heightened feelings of safety and security and motivates infant and caregiver to stay in close contact. Infants have an innate repertoire of attachment behaviours that motivate adult attention, thus attachment is adaptive. Adults talk in high pitched voices because infants react to such pitches. Attachment in other species: some birds have a period where they become extremely attached to adults Lorenz: imprinting preferably on a female of their species Harlow: monkeys in cages with mothers one made out of wires that provided food and one made out of cloth that looked cuddly. The monkeys were clinging on to the cloth mother. The mother-as-food-theory was no more good. His findings established the importance of contact comfort. Attachment style Attachment behaviours begin in the 1st months of life and may vary somewhat on cultural practices. At around 8-12 months, infants display separation anxiety, in which they become very distressed when they can’t see or are separated from their attachment figures. Ainsworth: the strange situation test p.479. A standard sequence of separation and reunions between the child and each adult. Over the course of 8 episodes, the child experiences increasing distress and a greater need for caregiver proximity. The extent to which the child copes and the strategies used indicate the quality of the child’s attachment. Secure attachment: a majority of infants (65%) are readily comforted when their attachment figure returns after a brief separation. He is distressed when the attachment figure leaves. Avoidant attachment: applies to 20-25% of children. He doesn’t appear distressed when the attachment figure leaves. If upset, they may be comforted by the stranger. When the caregiver returns, the child doesn’t want a reunion, but rather ignores or snubs the attachment figure. If he approaches the attachment figure he does so tentatively Anxious/ambivalent attachment: applies to 10-15% of children. They are anxious throughout the test, clings to the attachment figure after she enters the room, and when she leaves, they become extremely upset. When the attachment figure returns, he will seek and reject caring attention. Disorganized attachment: infants give mixed responses when their caregiver leaves and returns from a short absence¸ Children with behavioural problems are more likely to be insecurely attached. The caregiver’s personality also contributes to the child’s attachment style. Emotionally and behaviourally inconsistent caregivers tend to have children with and anxious/ambivalent attachment style and rejecting caregivers tend to have children with an avoidant attachment. Critical thinking skill: understanding that some doesn’t mean all Children who were securely attached to their caregivers are more likely to have a good romantic relationship. Chemistry of attachment: oxytocin is related to social behaviours including infant/caregiver attachment. It plays a role in maternal tendencies, feelings of social acceptance and bonding, and sexual gratification. Higher level of this hormone was predicting a better maternal attachment. How do children learn about their worlds? Perception introduces the world The infants use the information given by their senses to try to make sense of their world. Infant research techniques: Preferential looking technique: infants are shown 2 things; they look at the one that interests them the longest. Orienting reflex: pay more attention to new stimuli than to stimuli to which they have become habituated. Based on this, a lot can be measured about the infant’s abilities. Vision: with preferential looking techniques to determine the infant’s visual acuity. They respond more to objects with high contrasts. Fantz: showed black and white strands and patches of gray to an infant held by its caregiver Visual acuity increases rapidly during the 1st 6 months, and adult level of acuity aren’t reached until 1 year; due to the development of the visual cortex and of the cones in the retina. Fox: stereogram for depth perception in which one view of an image is shown to one eye and another view to the other; this information is then converted into depth perception. If infants can’t see this disparity information to perceive depth, they will just see random dots. P.484. Ability to perceive depth develops between 3 and a half and 6 months. Auditory perception When infants are presented with sounds in their right or left ear, they turn in the direction of the sound. 6 months babies have nearly all the auditory capacities of an adult. Infants also have some memory for sounds; they recognize sounds they have heard before. (measure the rate of nipple sucking) De Casper and Fifer: operant conditioning to determine what sounds 2 day old infants could remember: newborns alter their sucking rates to hear their mother’s voices more often. In adults, different brain regions respond to speech and non-speech. Adults and infant’s distinction between speech and non-speech was measured using event related potentials (EGG). The patterns were similar, thus from the 1st 3 months there is a continuity in how the brain processes speech. Memory improves over childhood Collier: from a very young age, infants possess some type of rudimentary memory p.485. The memory retention test: if the baby recognizes the mobile, they will kick faster. Older infants remember better; by 18 months, they could remember for several weeks. Infantile amnesia: the inability to remember events form early childhood (usually before 4 years old). Some suggest that the ability to form memories arises with autobiographical memory others with language acquisition. Inaccurate memory: young children often have source amnesia. Early childhood memories aren’t memories of the actual event, but that of movies, stories, picture albums... Children also confabulate (they have undeveloped frontal lobes). It happens more when they are asked about personal experience rather than general knowledge. There are more disputed memories between identical twins than fraternal twins. Most of them occur during preschool, when source memory is developing. Piaget emphasized stages of development He paid as much attention to how children made errors as to how they succeeded on tasks which provided insight on how kids make sense of the world. He concluded that children go through 4 stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational (p.487). Their views about the world isn’t inaccurate, it is that they view it on different assumptions than those held by adults. During each stage of development, children develop new schemas. He believed that each stage builds on the previous one in 2 learning process: Assimilation: the process through which a new experience is incorporated in an existing schema Accommodation: the process by which a schema is changed to incorporate a new experience that doesn’t easily fit in an existing schema Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years): acquisition of information through senses only. As they begin to control their movements, they develop their 1st schema: conceptual model consisting of mental representations of the kinds of actions that can performed on certain kinds of objects. Piaget believed that eventually all the sensorimotor schemas merge into an explanatory schema: they learn they can act on objects, manipulate them to understand them rather than simply reacting to them. Object permanency: the understanding that an object continues to exist even when it can’t be seen (starting at 9 months, children search for hidden objects). Full accomplishment of object permanency is a key accomplishment to the 1st stage of development Preoperational stage (2-7 yrs): children can think about objects not in their immediate view and have developed various conceptual models of how the world works, they begin to think symbolically, but can’t think operationally (they can’t imagine the logical outcome of performing a certain task on a certain object. They base their reasoning not on logic, but on immediate appearance. They have no understanding of the law of conservation of quantity Concrete operational stage (7-12 yrs): children begin to think about and understand operations in ways that are reversible. We develop logic when we can understand operations. A classic operation is an action that can be undone. Conservation of quantity can then be understood. It is the beginning of logical thinking, but children reason about concrete things, they don’t yet have the ability to reason abstractly, or hypothetically. Formal operational stage (12+ yrs): involves the ability to think abstractly and to formulate and test hypotheses through deductive logic. They can form a hypothesis and test it through deductive logic Challenges to Piaget’s theory: it is disputed that every person goes through the stages of development in the same order. His framework leaves little room for different cognitive strategies or skills among individuals. Many children seem to move back and forth between stages. Theorists believe that different areas in the brain are responsible for different skills, and that the development of different skills doesn’t have to follow strict stages. Infants have early knowledge about the world Children understand much more at much earlier stages about the world that was previously believed. Using the preferential looking technique, it was found out that 3 months old infants can remember not in sight objects. Infant’s reactions to novel stimuli indicate that they have early cognitive skills. Infants respond differently to impossible events than possible ones, they demonstrate an understanding that an object continues to exist even when not in sight. (Baillargeon’s apple/carrot test) Understanding the laws of nature: physics Spelke: infants have a primitive understanding of the laws of physics, they are born with the ability to perceive movement, and as they get older they use information to determine if an object is continuous. (rod in a box, 4 month-olds looked longer at the separate rod). Baillargeon: by the age of 3 months, young children begin to understand what is necessary to support an object in space. They seem to have in intuitive understanding of the laws of physics. Understanding the laws of nature: mathematics Piaget: the concept of quantity wasn’t understood by the number of objects, but by length. Mehler and Bever: 3- yrs old children can understand the concept of more than and less than: more than 80% of the children picked the shortest row containing more M&Ms as the one containing more candy. Researchers found that some young children have amazing numerical capacities using a study with 9 month-olds to which was shown computer animation of addition and subtraction. Humans learn from interacting with others Early social interactions between infants and caregivers are essential to understanding other people and communicating with them through language Theory of mind: describes the ability to explain and predict other people’s behaviour as a result of recognizing their mental state. Premack: young children aren’t very good at understanding how others feel, they are egocentric. (less than Piaget believed). Young children come to understand that other people perform actions for reasons, that the actions are intentional. Study: infants older than 9 months showed greater signs of impatience when the adult was unwilling than when the adult was unable to hand them a toy 13 months old, the age at which it is believed that children begin to understand intention, expectations depended on what they believed the caterpillar knew These studies provide strong evidence that in the 1st year of life, children begin to read intentions and that by the end of the second year, by 13 to 15 months, they becomes very good at reading them. False belief test: measures children’s ability to predict actions, to complete the test, they must understand that people can act on the basis of false information. They can solve it by the age of 4. Their success at this test and in the full development of the theory of the mind coincides with the maturation of the frontal lobes. Those results are culturally universal. In brain imaging studies, prefrontal regions become active when people are asked to think about other’s mental states. Like the abilities to understand math and physics, theory of the mind might develop independently of other brain functions. (children with autism can’t solve the false-belief problem, children with Down syndrome can) Thus theory of the mind isn’t governed by reasoning and general intelligence. Moral reasoning and moral emotions: moral development concerns the way people learn to decide between behaviours with competing social outcomes. Morality develops during childhood and into adulthood, and is divided between moral reasoning, dependent on cognitive processes, and moral emotions. The 2 are intertwined: moral reasoning is enhanced by moral emotions. The study of cognitive processes of moral behaviour have focused on Lawrence Kohlberg’s stage theory who tested moral reasoning skills by asking people to respond to moral dilemmas, and look at the reason to their answers. He devised a theory of moral judgments that involves 3 levels of reasoning Preconventional: self-interest determines what is moral Conventional: rules and the approval of others determine what is moral Postconventional: decisions about morality depend on abstract principles Some say that moral reasoning fails to predict moral behaviour; instead moral actions are more influenced by emotion than cognitive principles. Research focused on empathy (understanding of one’s emotions, feeling with) and sympathy (pity, sorrow, feeling for) which are considered self-conscious because they require comprehension of oneself as a causal agent and an evaluation of one’s own response. They arise later than primary emotions, thus are called secondary emotions. Parents’ behaviour influence their children’s level of both moral emotions and presocial behaviour, thus not all the same children progress at the same rate or in the same order. Inductive reasoning promotes children’s sympathetic attitudes, feelings of guilt and awareness of other’s feelings Physiological basis of morality: moral emotions are based in physiological mechanisms that help people make decisions. Damasio: somatic-marker hypothesis: people have a visceral response to real or imagined outcomes that help decision making. Patients with damaged prefrontal cortex fail to become emotionally involved in decision making, because their somatic markers are not involved. Patients with damaged prefrontal regions showed severe deficiencies in moral and social reasoning, but scored at the preconventional level and neglected social and emotional factors in their life decisions. Language develops in an orderly fashion As the brain develops, the ability to speak and form sentences also develops. As children’s social skills develop, their language skills also improve. Tomasello: early social interactions between infant and caregiver are essential to understanding other people and being able to communicate with them through language. Infants and caregivers attend to objects in their environment together, which facilitates learning to speak. This ability can be disrupted by social isolation and lack of exposure to language. From 0 to 60000 Language is a system of using sounds and symbols according to grammatical rules to communicate, and can be viewed as a hierarchical structure, in which sentences can be broken down into phrases which can be broken down into words that consist of phonemes. This structure makes sense in syntax. Newborns are already well on their way to language learning. Kuhl found that up to 6 months, a baby can discriminate all the speech sounds that occur in all natural languages. Habituation technique to study if babies can discriminates sounds in their own language: a sound was emitted bababa, and a new sound was emitted lalala, if the baby turns its head, it means that he discriminates between the sounds. Japanese: r/l in the same phonetic category, but not in English. 65% of 6-8 months babies were able to discriminate between such sounds. From 10-12 months English babies got better and Japanese babies got worse. Kuhl: experience of exposure to foreign languages p.497. A live interaction was needed, which reinforces the importance of social interactions in language learning 1 month: crying, fussing, eating, breathing 3-5 months: cooing, laughing 5-7 months: babbling using consonants and vowels 7-8 months: babble in syllables 1 year: syllables are mixed, sounds and rhythms of native language Language’s onset is marked by the 1st word a baby utters and appears to understand. Utter 2 types of words: performative (learned in a context, might not be used for meaning) and true words (meant to represent concepts). 1st words are those that identify things in their immediate environment such as objects, simple actions, quantifiers, qualities or adjectives, socially interactive words, internal states. 18 months: put words together, rapid increase of vocabulary, rudimentary sentences (usually 2 words) that have a logic or syntax. The words’ order indicates what has happened or should happen. Roger Brown: telegraphic speech: the tendency for children to speak using rudimentary sentences that are missing words and grammatical markings but follow a logical syntax. As children begin to use language in a more sophisticated method, they may overapply new grammatical rules they learn. Might make mistakes at 3-5 years with words they used correctly at 2-3 years. This is rare, and occurs because children are able to use language in a generative way, thus making more errors with words used less frequently. Acquiring language with the hands: if perception and production of words are key neurological determinants of early language acquisition, than babies learning sign language should acquire this language in a different manner. If language is learned through systematic patterns than both languages should be acquired the same way. Laura Ann Petitto: deaf babies exposed to sign language from birth acquire these languages on an identical maturation timetable as hearing babies acquire spoken languages. Humans must possess a biologically endowed sensitivity to aspects of language patterns. Universal grammar Noam Chomsky: language must be governed by universal grammar, or innate knowledge of a set of universal and specifically linguistic elements and relations that form the heart of all human languages. The way people combine elements to form sentences and convey meaning is only a language’s surface structure, the sound and order of words. He introduced the concept of deep structure: the implicit meaning of sentences. He believed that we automatically and consciously transform surface structure to deep structure. We remember the underlying meaning, not the surface structure of a sentence. We are born with a language acquisition device, which contains universal grammar, but exposure to a native language narrows down the grammatical rules a person learns. Vygotsky: developed the 1st major theory that emphasized the role of social and cultural context in the development of both cognition and language. Humans are unique because they use symbols and psychological tools through which they create culture, which in turn dictates what we need to learn and develop. He distinguished between elementary mental functions (innate sensory experiences) and higher mental functions (language, perception, abstraction and memory). As children develop, their elementary capacities are gradually transformed, primarily by culture. Social and cultural contexts influence language development, which in turn influences cognitive development. As children develop they begin to direct speech towards themselves. Interactions across cultures also shape language. Creole describes a language that evolved overtime from the mixing of existing languages. It develops out of rudimentary communications, languages mix in a pidgin, informal creole that lacks consistent grammatical rules. Bickerton: colonists’ children impose rules on their parents’ pidgin, developing it into a creole, which is evidence for a built-in universal grammar: the brain changes a nonconforming language by applying the same principles to it. Different creoles that form in different parts of the world are more similar to each other than long-lived languages. Learning to read: there are 2 major schools Phonics method: teaches an association between letters and their phonemes. Children learn to spell out words by how they sound. Popular for over 200 years. They learn to make the appropriate sounds for the letters of the English alphabet. They learn a small number of simple words that teach the sounds in English. General rules are learnt 1st and exceptions latter. It emphasizes mapping between letters and their sounds Whole language approach: emphasizes words’ meaning and how they are connected in sentences. It has dominated American schools for the past 20 years, because it emphasizes children’s interest in reading. Children should learn to read the same way they learnt to talk, we understand speech as a series of connected words that have meaning in a sentence, thus breaking down words into sounds is unnatural. Progressive philosophy that tries to foster a love of learning. It was found that a phonetics instruction is largely superior that whole-language approach in creating proficient readers. This result applies mainly to children who are at risk of becoming poor readers. Animal communication: teaching language to chimpanzees requires the use of sign language to see if they understand words or concepts such as causations, which they can, but it doesn’t mean that they have innate language abilities. Petitto tried to teach ASL to Nim Chimpsky, which failed to master key components of language syntax. He could communicate with a small set of basic signs, but was never able to create creative rule governed sentences. Used language to make requests. How do children and adolescents develop their identities? As children learn about the world, they develop a sense of identity, which is important for social development: the maturation of skills or abilities that enables people to live in a world with other people, and enables to interact with others. When a child enters adolescence, he begins to question his place and future in life. Establishing a personal identity means breaking away from childhood beliefs by questioning and challenging parental and social ideas. Who am I, where am I going? Answers are greatly influenced by environmental factor. 3 major changes that trigger this are: 1- Changing physical appearance: changes in self-image 2- More-sophisticated cognitive abilities: prompts increased introspection 3- Heightened pressure to prepare for the future (make career choice) Social systems influence development Bronfenbrenner: biocultural system theory: emphasizes the way biology and cultural systems interact to affect development. We can understand development by considering the context in which it occurs. 4 levels of systems affect the developing person. Microsystem: at the center and has the most immediate effect on a child (family) Exosystem: less direct influences (parents’ workplace) Macrosystem: larger sociocultural context in which the child is reared Chronosystem: norms and rules in effect at the historical time when the child is reared His work lead to interdisciplinary work in child development because it hypothesized that social and historical contexts are important in development. He cofounded Head Start (a massive federal program in the US designed to help children in lowincome families develop skills and abilities). His emphasis on larger social systems translated psychological research into public policy and created a role for government in fostering positive development. His theory emphasises cultural effects on the way people develop their senses of identity. Friends influence identity and behaviour Play is the work of childhood. Attention to peers begins at the end of the 1st year, when infants begin to imitate other infants, smile and make vocalizations and other social signals to their peers. Children from all ages learn to behave from their friends, because they receive social reward/punishment depending on their attitudes. Early friends are both teachers and playmates. How children and adolescents compare their strengths and weaknesses with those of their peers also influences the development of identity. Teenagers form friendships with others whose values and world views are the same. Adolescent groups are designated by a fairly small set of stereotypic names. Parents versus peers: Harris: parents contribute little to children’s social development; they even have no long-term effect on the development of their child’s personality. A child’s peers are the most important influence when it comes to socialization. Group socialization theory: children learn 2 sets of behaviours: one for inside the home and one for outside. The behaviours taught by parents aren’t useful in outside social contexts. Only the behaviours learnt outside the home have long-term effects on personality and on adult behavioural outcomes. In contrast to Harris’s research, it has been shown that parents have a substantial influence throughout the adult life. Neither the peer nor the parent group can be assigned to primary influence on development, they play complementary roles. Brown: parents’ influence can be direct or indirect. They don’t only contribute to specific individual behaviours, but they affect social development indirectly by influencing the choices the child makes about what kind of crowd to join. Parents and teachers play a major role in realigning social groups, so they are consistent with family norms. Parental style can affect children’s well being Important support for the significance of the child/parent interaction comes from the New York Longitudinal Study, begun in 1956 by Chess and Thomas. They focused on each child’s biological based temperament, as a combination of typical mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity. They found that the fit between the child’s temperament and the parents’ behaviour is most important in determining social development. Parents who respond to a difficult child calmly, patiently and consistently had the most positive outcomes. Overprotectiveness can encourage a child’s anxiety in response to a new situation, escalading the child’s distress. The best style of parenting takes into account the parents’ personalities, the child’s temperament, and the particular situation. Parents have multiple influences on their children’s attitudes, values, and religious beliefs. Nurturing parents tend to raise children with more social emotions. Divorce is difficult for children Divorce is associated with numerous problems in children, although some especially intelligent, mature and responsible children cope well with the divorce. Those from divorced parents tend to do worse in school, have more conduct disorders and psychological problems, and have poor social relations and low self-esteem. They are also more likely to get divorced as adults (gene passing or continued negative influence) Divorce may change a relationship with one or both parents; the child then loses a potentially important source of emotional support and guidance. Children who stay in houses with conflicts might have psychological problems whether the parents stay together or not. People who get divorced differ in important ways from those that don’t, and these personal factors might interfere with their ability to be effective parents. 1/3 of American children had unwed mothers. Those who lose a parent to death have fewer problems that child of divorce, but those who were raised by single mothers share many of the problems as those of divorce. The absence of a biological father is thus the source of many negative outcomes. Girls raised without fathers are more likely to engage in sexual activity younger and become pregnant at a young age. Having a step father doesn’t resolve this problem, in fact it may be associated with an increase in psychological problems. An alarming number of single mothers live in poverty, and rely on assistance to provide for their children. Divorce is associated with a decline in financial resources, which predicts the negative outcomes of divorce. When the father stays involved in parenting both economically and emotionally , divorce’s negative effects are reduced considerably. Living in a high conflict family is associated with even greater negative outcomes than is parental divorce Critical thinking skill: recognizing and avoiding either/or thinking p.507 Gender identity is determined by biology and cultural norms Sex differences ought to reflect different adaptive problems men and women would have faced. Since men and women have faced similar challenges, they are similar on many aspects. Many of the differences have something to do with socialization and genetics. Sex: refers to biological differences and gender to express socialization differences. This distinction is difficult because the biological and psychosocial aspects of being female or male are so entwined that they aren’t separable. Gender identity: personal beliefs about whether one is male or female. Gender roles: the characteristics associated with males or females because of cultural influence or learning. Gender schemas: cognitive structures that influence how people perceive the behaviours of females and males. The behaviours boys and girls display are determined in part by cultural rules about sexappropriate behaviours. Situational factors also contribute to gender-specific behaviour. (Young women talk differently to their male friends than their boyfriends, and do so consciously) Biological bases of sexual identity Brian and Bruce: a bad circumcision happened to Bruce, his penis shrivel up and disappeared. Colapinto’s book: As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. The parents wondered if Bruce should undergo sexual reassignment. Money convinced them that it was the right thing to do (it had never been done on a kid born with normal genitalia). Bruce was castrated, renamed Brenda, and rose as a girl. Brenda wasn’t comfortable being a girl, when Brenda learned what happened she was relieved. He changed back to a men, got the name David married and had 3 children. His twin brother died, he divorced and committed suicide at 38. Thus, gender identity isn’t solely shaped by weather a person is being treated as a boy or a girl; biology has a strong effect on whether people identify themselves as female or male. In the 1960s environmental explanations were preferred. People define themselves in terms of race and ethnicity By 3 months, infants can discern racial differences in the faces of strangers. Infants generally looked longer at faces of their own race, which indicates a preference for their own race. Infants of African descent living in a predominantly Caucasian culture didn’t show that preference. This is probably because of high levels of interracial contacts during the 1st months of life. P.510 In the US, where people of so many ethnicities live together, the process of identity formation is more complicated. Children of ethnic minorities often face challenges with regard to the development of their ethnic identities. Children entering middle childhood have an awareness of their ethnic identities, and know the labels that the dominant culture applies to them. In middle childhood and adolescence, children on minorities often engage in additional processes aimed at ethnic identity formation. Growing proportion of racially mixed individuals, and people increasingly identify themselves as biracial and multiracial. What brings meaning to adulthood? Important changes in physiology, cognition, and social behaviour continue throughout adulthood into old age. How mental activity and social relations are changing through life is studied. We shouldn’t equate growing old with despairs; many positive things can happen as we age. Erikson: proposed a theory of development emphasising age-related psychological processes and their effects on social functioning across the life span. Identity development is composed of 8 stages, each of which is associated with a crisis that can provide an opportunity for psychological progress, if progress isn’t made, than further development is impaired. P.512 6th stage: intimacy vs isolation: challenge of forming and maintaining committed friendships and romantic relationships. It involves finding someone with whom to share your life. 7th stage: generality vs stagnation: productivity or giving back to society, includes things like parenthood that brings additional meaning to life. 8th stage: integrity vs despair: integrity refers to a sense of honesty about oneself. Older adults reflect on their lives and respond either positively or with regret. Erikson’s theory highlights the way people care about different things as they grow older. Adults are affected by life transitions The major challenges of adulthood reflect the need to find meaning in our lives. Career: most people work 100 000 hours in their lives. A good job not only provides material reward, but also brings a sense of accomplishment and purpose. Many people have mid-life crisis in which they realise that their careers don’t fulfill them. We don’t need a specific plan, but we must be honest with ourselves: assess strength and weaknesses and develop a general idea of what career would be appropriate. From Erikson’s point of view, the desire for generatively inspires us to want to give something to society. The right career allows us to pursue our interests and gain a sense of accomplishment while balancing family and other life goals. Marriage: the vast majority of people marry at some point or try to find someone with who they can form a permanent bond. Marriage is declining and people marry later in most industrialized countries. In Western culture, the search for the right partner is very important while in Eastern cultures, marriage is often arranged. The later type of marriage is stable and people report being relatively satisfied. Marriage has many health advantages; marital partners can support each other, and encourage healthy behaviours. Its positive effects are similar in all countries, and their benefits of marriage were equal for both sexes. The benefits of being married versus being divorced was higher in collectivist countries that individualist countries. The vast majority of married people report satisfaction with their marriage. Those reporting the most satisfaction have sufficient economic resources, share decision making, and hold the same value that marriage should be a lifelong commitment. Half the marriages end up in divorce. Having children: having children changes the life of the couple in almost all ways. Parents often become immersed in their child’s life. Being a parent is central to many adult’s self-definitions. Children can strain marriages, especially when money isn’t there. Couples with children, especially adolescent children report less satisfaction from their marriage than those who are childless. However those with children have more stable marriages. For many people having children is about redefining their lives to reflect the value they place on family. Aging can be successful In Western societies, people are living much longer, and the number of people over 85 is increasing dramatically. By 2030, 20% of Americans will be over 65, will be ethnically diverse, well educated, and fit. Elderly contribute much to modern society (judges), and many can work productively well past their 70s. However the body and mind starts deteriorating slowly at about age 50. The frontal lobes shrink proportionally more than other brain regions. More of older adults stay alert as they age, but do things more slowly. Dementia: dramatic loss in mental ability experienced by older adults. It is a brain condition in which thinking, memory, and behaviour deteriorate progressively. It has many causes such as alcohol intake and HIV, but for older adults, the main cause is Alzheimer’s disease and small strokes that affect blood supply to the brain. After age 70, the risk of dementia increases every year. 3-5% of people from 70-75 will develop Alzheimer’s, and then the proportion of people with the disease will double every 5 years. Genes contribute to its development. One gene involved in cholesterol functioning is predictive of the disease, although how it is related is unknown. Despite the physical, social and emotional challenges of aging, most older adults are healthy and happy. Individual with adequate financial situation and good health especially thrive in old age. Older adults have fewer health problems, including depression that younger adult and report being happy than them as well. Carstensen’s socioemotional selectivity theory: as people grow older, they perceive time to be limited and adjust their priorities to emphasise meaningful events and goals. According to Erikson, older adults find meaning by looking back and evaluating what they have done with their lives. When they consider their time well spent, they can savour their last years. The crisis can be triggered by events that highlight the mortal nature of human life, or by changing social and occupational roles. People come to terms with the reality of death, and meaning of life becomes an increased preoccupation for the elderly. Cognition changes during aging It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what causes the mental decline with age. There is a consistent slower mental speed. The increase in time it takes to process a sensory input and react with a motor response becomes more rapid as the individual ages. Some sensory-perceptual changes occur with age and may account for some of the observed decline. Aging also affect memory and intelligence. Memory: they have difficulty with memory tasks that require the ability to juggle multiple pieces of information at the same time. Tasks when attention is divided is also proven more difficult. This reflects a decreased ability to store multiple pieces of information in WM simultaneously. The frontal lobes shrink with aging, thus cognitive skills that rely on this region show impairment with aging. LTM memory is less affected than STM or WM, although certain aspects of LTM appear to suffer in advanced age. Older people often need more time to learn new information, but once learned, they use it as efficiently as younger adults. They are better at recognition than retrieval tasks. Older people show better memory for positive than negative information. Logan examined the memory processes of adults in their 20s and adults in their 70s and 80s. Older adults showed less activation in the left hemisphere brain areas known to support memory and greater activation in the right hemisphere areas that don’t aid memory. It was found that if older adults are given a strategy to retain information such as classifying words as concrete or abstract that leads to deeper encoding, that is better memory and greater activation of the left frontal regions. Thus, one reason for the decline in memory is that older adults don’t use strategies to facilitate memory, which means that cognitive training might be useful to prevent age-related memory deficits. Intelligence: IQ declines with aging. Fluid intelligence tends to peak in early adulthood and decline as we age, crystallized intelligence seems to increase with age and breaks down. Declines in other cognitive abilities prevent new information from being processed. Intellectual decline doesn’t arise until people are in their 60s or 70s. People who were healthy and remained mentally active have fewer declines. The speed of processing may decline, but the continued ability to learn new information may mitigate those losses in terms of daily functioning. Active social engagement may help older adults maintain their cognitive abilities; they may be less susceptible to Alzheimer’s and dementia. Chapter 12: social psychology During wartime, people are especially likely to view the world as consisting of others and them. Members of the opposite group are viewed as all the same, often as evil or inferior, and are treated in a dehumanized fashion. Zimbardo and Haney: psychologically stable Stanford undergrads played the role of prisoners and guards. Within 6 days, the guards became brutal and sadistic. Social context is powerful. Social psychology is concerned with how people influence other people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. How do attitudes guide behaviour? Attitudes: the evaluation of objects, event or ideas. They are shaped by social context. Some we are aware of, some we don’t know we hold. We form attitudes through experience and socialization In general, people develop negative attitudes about objects more quickly than they develop positive ones. Mere exposure effect: greater exposure to an item means greater familiarity which causes people to have more positive attitudes about the item. (experiment by Zajonc) Attitudes can be conditioned, and shaped through socialization. Behaviours are consistent with strong attitudes Attitudes are adaptive and should guide behaviour, the stronger and the more personally relevant the attitude, the more likely it will predict behaviour, be consistent overtime, and be resistant to change. The more specific the attitude, the more predictive it is. Attitudes formed through direct experience tend to predict behaviour better. Attitude accessibility: the ease with which memories related to an attitude are retrieved predicts behaviour consistent with the attitude. Fazio: easily activated attitudes are more likely to resist changing, being predictive of behaviour, and stable. Explicit attitudes: attitudes that people can report Implicit attitudes: attitudes that influence our feelings and behaviour at an unconscious level. It involves brain regions associated with implicit memory. They are assessed through behaviour rather than self-report. (Greenwald, Banaji) Implicit Association Test: a reaction time test to assess implicit attitudes. It measures how quickly we associate a concept with a positive or negative word. It is a very good predictor. Discrepancies lead to dissonance Leon Festinger: influence theory of cognitive dissonance Cognitive dissonance: an uncomfortable mental state due to conflicts between attitudes or between attitudes and behaviour. (smoking). Dissonance causes anxiety and therefore motivates people to reduce the dissonance and relieve displeasure by changing their attitudes and behaviours, rationalizing or trivializing discrepancies. Postdecisional dissonance: holding positive attitudes about 2 options, but having to choose one of them causes dissonance. Postdecisional dissonance causes us to emphasise the positive aspects of the chosen option, and the negative ones of the non-chosen option. It occurs automatically, without awareness. It is prevalent even in patient with impairment to their LTM. Attitude change: experiment p.528. Those paid 1$ had an insufficient monetary reward to lie, a dissonance was created that changes their attitude, but those who were paid 20$ had a sufficient reward for lying, thus the dissonance wasn’t made. Changing attitude, behaviour must be changed 1st, using as few incentive as possible, Justifying effort: when people put themselves through pain, embarrassment, or discomfort to join a group, they experience a great deal of dissonance which they resolve by inflating the importance of the group and their commitment to it. Attitudes can be changed through persuasion Persuasion: the active conscious effort to change attitudes through the transmission of a message. Hovland: emphasised that persuasion is most likely to occur when people pay attention to a message, understand it and find it convincing. The message must be memorable, so that its impact lasts over time. Petty and Cacioppo: elaboration likelihood model: persuasion works in 2 routes. Elaboration likelihood model: persuasive messages lead to attitude changes. P.529 Central route: people pay attention to arguments, consider all the information, and use rational cognitive process, which leads to strong attitudes that last overtime and resist to change. Peripheral route: people minimally process the message, which leads to more impulsive actions. The cues that influence a message’s persuasiveness include the source (the ones that are both credible and attractive are the more persuasive), the content, and the receiver. The message is effective because of peripheral processing. Credibility and persuasiveness can be increased when the receiver perceives the source as similar to himself. Strong arguments that appeal to our emotions are the best. Mere exposure effect can be used. One-sided arguments work best when the audience is on the side of the speaker or is gullible. With a more sceptical crowd, speakers who acknowledge both sides of the arguments but argue that one is superior works better. Critical thinking skill: making sound arguments p.531 How do we form our representation of others? Nonverbal actions and expressions affect our impressions There is a great importance of 1st impressions on long-term evaluation of people. How we feel initially about that person will be determined mostly by non-verbal behaviours (facial expressions, gestures, mannerism, and movements by which one communicates with others). Facial expression: the 1st thing we notice is the face which communicates a great deal, such as emotions, interest and distrust. Eye contact is important in social situation, and how we perceive it depends on culture. Westerners make eye contact when they speak to someone. Native Americans, making eye contact, especially with the elderly, is disrespectful. Body language: Ambady and Rosenthal: people can make accurate judgments based on a few seconds of observation, what they refer to as thin slice of behaviour. Gait, how people talk is important, it provides information about affective state. We make attribution about others Attributions: people’s causal explanation for why events or action occurs. We are motivated to draw inferences in part by basic need for both order and predictability. People tend to prefer that things happen for a reason, so that they can anticipate future events. Just world hypothesis; victims must have done something that justifies what happened to them, so that the world seems safer and saner. Attributional dimensions: Fritz Heider: attribution theory Personal attributions: explanations that refer to internal characteristics, such as abilities, traits, moods and effort. (internal, dispositional) Situational attributions: explanations that refer to external events, weather, luck, accidents, other people’s actions. (external) Weiner: attributions can vary on other dimensions, such as if they are stable overtime, or controllable. His theory is used to explain depression. Those who are depressed attribute their failure to their own personal incompetence, and those who aren’t blame it on external factors. Attributional bias: we tend to overemphasise the importance of personality traits and underestimate the importance of the situation. Fundamental attribution error: the previously stated tendency. (Jones, 1960, initially called the correspondence bias) We expect others to behave as we do. Heider, Kelley: people are intuitive scientists who try do draw inferences about others and make attributions about events. We tend to be systematically biased in our social information processing. We make self-serving attributions consistent with our personal beliefs, and fail to take into account that other people are influence by social circumstances. When people make attribution about themselves, they tend to focus on situations rather than on their personal dispositions, an error that, with the fundamental attribution error, leads to the actor/observer discrepancy, most commonly observed for negative events. We tend to attribute positive events to our own disposition, and negative events to the outside world. People of eastern cultures use much more information when making attributions than do Westerners, and they are more likely to believe that human behaviour is the outcome of both personal and situational factors. They are also more likely to take situational forces into account, whereas people in the West place overriding importance on personal factors. Critical thinking skill: indentifying and avoiding the actor/observer discrepancy Stereotypes are based on automatic categorization Stereotypes: cognitive schemas that allow for easy, fast processing of information about people based on their membership in certain groups. They occur automatically and most of the time without our awareness. In and of themselves, they are neural and simply reflect efficient cognitive processes. Some are based in truth. They are made because of limited neural resources; it is impossible to scrutinize every person encountered, thus the need for grouping. It affects impression formation. They guide attention towards information that confirms the stereotype, and away of disconfirming evidence. Our memories are also biased to match stereotypes, which leads to illusory confirmations. Subtyping: when a person that doesn’t match the category, she is put in a special one that alters the stereotype and allows to maintain it. Self-fulfilling effects Self-fulfilling prophecy: people’s tendency to behave in ways that confirm their own or others’ expectation that can lead initially untrue stereotypes to become true. Rosenthal: bloomer experiments: bloomers were chosen randomly, but were said to be most likely children to show increase in IQ during their school year. Teacher, believing this is true showed increase attention to them, and they indeed showed large increase in IQ because if this extra attention and special treatment they received. Study: when men thought they were talking to an attractive women they rated her as more pleasant, than when they believed they were talking to an unattractive one. Women interacting with men who believed they were attractive behaved more pleasantly than the ones who were believed to be unattractive. Stereotype threat: applies to any group for which there is a negative stereotype. May explain the underlying disparity between the numbers of men and women in scientific careers. Mechanisms responsible for producing decreased performances following threat: 1- physiological stress affective prefrontal functioning 2- a tendency for people to think about their performances, which can distract them during the task. 3- Attempts to suppress negative thoughts and emotions, which require a great deal of effort. It was found that women exposed to a math stereotype threat showed reduced activations in the brain regions associated with math performances and increased activation in brain regions associated with social and emotional processing, supporting the idea that stereotypes threat undermines cognitive processes by raising performance anxiety. We behave according to stereotypes. Stereotype can lead to prejudice Prejudice: the usually negative affective or attitudinal responses associated with stereotypes. Discrimination: the inappropriate and unjustified treatment of people based only on their group membership. Only certain types of people are prejudiced, people treat others as scapegoats to relieve tension, or to protect their own self-esteem. Evolution leads us to favour our own groups over other groups, and we tend to stigmatize those who pose threats. Ingroup/outgroup bias: ingroup: group in which we belong; those to which we don’t are called outgroups. People are wary of those who aren’t part of their group. People in low racial bias, on both implicit and explicit measures, are less likely to acquire negative association to neural stimuli in classical conditioning paradigm. The separation of people into ingroup or outgroup appears early in development, and thereafter treat them accordingly. 3 months old recognize faces from their own group and that of Africans, Middle eastern, and Chinese. At 6 months they recognize that of Chinese only and by 9 months, only that of their own racial group. IAT findings suggest that 6 year olds show as much implicit bias as that of 10 year olds and adults. Outgroup homogeneity effect: they view members of the same outgroup as all the same Ingroup favouritism: the tendency for people to evaluate favourably and privilege members of the ingroup more than members of the outgroup. Occurs even is the group is determined randomly. (Tajfel, Turner: money experiment). Our group memberships are an important part of our social identity and contribute to our overall sense of self-esteem. Women show an increase ingroup bias for women than men for other men. Rudman and Goodwin: men and women depend on women for nurturing, both are threatened by male violence, and men can’t express their feelings for other men because it challenges their sexual identities. Stereotype and perception: implicit social attitudes can influence basic perceptual processes. Payne’s experiment p. 540 pictures of Blacks and Whites, guns and tools. Priming people with pictures of weapons leads them to pay greater attention to black faces that to white faces. There might have been an implicit bias in Diallo’s shooting. Computerised training, in which race is unrelated to the presence of a weapon can eliminate this. Extensive training of police officers can help the bias greatly. On ethics: psychological testing for prejudice p.541 Inhibiting stereotypes: Patricia Devine: people can override the stereotypes they hold and act in non-discriminatory ways. People low in prejudice override this automatic activation. We can consciously alter our automatic stereotyping. Presenting flattering images of a stereotyped group can produce more favourable attitudes. Training people to respond counterstereotypically led to reduced automatic stereotyping. Telling people that they hold such believes can help them correct those mistaking judgments. If the faces of Blacks that initially produced greater activation of the amygdala were presented longer, there was an activation of the frontal lobes, and a decreased activity of the amygdala. This reaction happened more for those who showed negative attitudes about blacks in the IAT. When White participants had their frontal lobes activated, they showed poor performance on subsequent task of mental function, which implies that controlling stereotype is mentally taxing. Those with high levels of motivation to avoid appearing racist have an anxious arousal response when interacting with African Americans, a response that subsequently can interfere with cognition. Cooperation can reduce prejudice Social psychology may be able to suggest strategies for promoting intergroup harmony and producing greater tolerance for outgroups. When there is a greater collective purpose, in which collaboration is needed, then negative attitude can alleviate. Sherif (1950): 22, 10 year old boys were in a summer camp divided in 2 groups that competed with each other. Great animosity arouse between the 2 groups. Then in the second phase of the experiment, they had the children cooperate to achieve necessary goals. The boys than became friends across the groups. Later research showed that only a certain type of contact between hostile groups can lead to reduced prejudice and discrimination. Shared super ordinate goals, that require people to cooperate, reduce hostility between groups. Jigsaw classroom: person-to-person interaction is the tactic that brings the most successfully groups together. Aronson’s jigsaw classroom: students work together in mixed sex and mixed ethnic groups, in which each member of the group is an expert at a particular field. Children in such rooms tend to have more positive attitudes towards others, and perform better, grow to like each other more and develop a higher self-esteem. How do others influence us? One way to fit in is by presenting ourselves positively, and trying not to offend others. There is a great desire to fit in the group that leads us to engage in activities that we normally wouldn’t do. The power of social situation is much greater than what people believe. The importance of social behaviour was summed up by Philip Zimbardo, who said that it is difficult to remain a cucumber when those around us become pickles! Groups influence individual behaviour Triplett (1897): 1st social psychology experiment: bicyclists pedal faster with other people. Social facilitation: the presence of others enhances (simple tasks) or impairs (difficult task) performance. Model by Zajonc (1965) p.545 Social loafing: the tendency for people to work less hard in a group than when working alone. This phenomenon disappears if the individuals are told that their performance is rated individually. Deindividuation: when people are part of a group, they have low self-awareness, lose their individuality and fail to attend personal standards. They do things they wouldn’t do. Occurs most when people are aroused, anonymous, and when responsibility is diffused. People who look similar are more likely to conform to orders. Group decision making: Stoner found that groups often made riskier decisions, a phenomenon known as risky-shift effect. Group polarization: groups tend to enhance the initial attitudes of members who already agree, thus, groups can be riskier or more cautious. Janis (1972): groupthink: for the sake of cordiality, the group will make a bad decision. Occurs especially when a group is under intense pressure, facing external threats, or biased in a certain way. Leaders must refrain to express their opinions too strongly at the beginning of a discussion. Alternative ideas should be considered. We conform to social norms Social norms: expected standards of conduct, which influence behaviour. Conformity: the altering of one’s opinions or behaviours to match those of others or to match social norms. Sherif: (1930) one on the 1st researchers to demonstrate to power of norms and conformity in social judgement based on the autokinetic effect (a stationary point of light appears to move when viewed in a totally dark environment). In ambiguous situations, people often compare their reactions with others’ to judge what is appropriate. Asch: if there are objective perceptions, participants shouldn’t conform p.548. About one third of the time, the participant went along with the confederates. Asch tried to identify which factors decrease the chances of conformity: group size, (3 or more). Conformity tends to level off after 7, and lack of unanimity. Schachter: when it became clear that the confederate with the different opinion wouldn’t conform to the group, he became ostracized. The amygdala activates, perhaps a fear response, when the participant gives out answers that don’t conform to the group’s incorrect answer. Simply providing descriptive norms can cause change in behaviour. We are compliant Compliance: the tendency to agree to do things requested by others. Forgas: people in good moods are especially likely to comply. Caldani: people comply because they are following a mental shortcut to avoid conflict. Foot-in-the-door effect: people will more likely comply with a large and undesirable request if earlier they have agreed to a small request. Freedman and Fraser: once people commit to a course of action, they behave in ways consistent to that course. Door-in-the-face: people will more likely comply to a small request if they have refused a large request, because of the comparison between the 2. Low-balling strategy: a salesperson offers a very low price, the customer agrees, and then the sales person says that his boss doesn’t approve. The person will often agree to pay the extra. We are obedient to authority Milgram (1960): wanted to understand why normal Germans would agree to kill innocents in WWII. He was interested in the determinants of obedience. The experimenter says that you have to give a learner increasing shocks, and that you have to choice, but to continue even if the learner screams in pains and shout to stop the experiment. Nearly all the participants tried to quit, but 2/3 of them completely obeyed the experimenter’s directives despite believing they were administering 450 volts to an older man with a heart condition. Both situation and personality influence behaviour. Ordinary people can be coerced into obedience by insistent authorities, even if it goes against the way they usually behave. Many participants were glad to have participated, because it allowed them to learn about themselves. P.551 Milgram then studied how to reduce obedience. If the participant had to see or touch the learner, obedience was decreased. When the experimenter gave the orders by phone, obedience was dramatically decreased. When do we harm or help others? This tension between our aggressive and altruistic sides is at the core of who we are as a species. Aggression can be adaptive Aggression: any behaviour or action that involves the intention to harm someone else. Physical aggression is more prevalent among children, as adults, aggressive acts often involve words meant to threaten, intimidate, or emotionally hurt others. Biological factors: stimulating certain brain regions or altering neurochemicals can lead to substantial changes in behaviour. Stimulating or damaging the septum, amygdala, or hypothalamus leads to corresponding changes in the level of aggression displayed. Kluver, Bucy: removing the amygdala from aggressive monkeys lead them to be friendly, the also began to put anything within reach into their mouths. (Kluver-Bucy syndrome) Serotonin is very important in the control of aggressive behaviour; enhanced activity lowers the levels of aggression. Low levels are associated with violence, but not necessarily criminal acts. Suicide victims, that killed themselves in violent fashions, have extremely low levels of serotonin, but not those who did so in passive ways. Low levels may also interfere with good decision making in the face of danger or social threat. Individual factors: Dollard: frustration-aggression hypothesis: the extent to which people feel frustrated predicts the likelihood that they will be aggressive. (1930) Berkowitz’s cognitive-neoassociationistic model: frustration leads to aggression by eliciting negative emotions. Any situation that induces negative emotions can trigger aggression, because it primes cognitive knowledge associated with aggression. Aggressive behaviour depends on the situation. Aggression has social and cultural aspects Violence varies dramatically across cultures and even within cultures at different times. Violence can be prevalent because it subscribes to a culture of honour, which supports Bandura’s social learning theory. University of Michigan: compared Southern Americans and Northern Americans. As the participants walked by an aggressive male confederate blocking the way, Southerners were more likely to be aggressive, and had an increased cortisone and testosterone level. Many factors may influence helping behaviour Prosocial: tending to benefit others promotes positive interpersonal relationships. Batson argue that prosocial behaviours are motivated by empathy. Cialdini argues that most prosocial behaviours have selfish motives. Others proposed that we have an inborn disposition to help others. Children’s empathic responses to other’s sufferings indicate that prosocial behaviour is hardwired. Altruism: the providing of help when it is needed, without any apparent reward for doing so. It appears contrary to evolution. Hamilton proposed that natural selection occurs at the genetic level rather than at the individual level. He created the inclusive fitness concept which describes the adaptive benefits of transmitting genes rather than focusing on individual survival. Kin selection: people are altruistic toward those with who they share genes. All altruistic behaviour can’t be attributed to this phenomenon. Trivers: reciprocal helping to explain altruism to non-relatives. Benefits must outweigh the costs, all will most likely occur among animals that live in social groups. Some situations lead to bystander apathy Kitty Genovese murder in front of 38 silent witnesses. Bystander intervention effect (bystander apathy): failure to offer help by those who observe someone in need. Latané, Darley: a person will less likely help if others are around. When participants were on their own, they are much more likely to go get help than if they are in groups. 1. There is a diffusion of responsibility, we expect others to help. Thus, the greater the number of people the less likely that any of them will report 2. People fear making social blunders in ambiguous situations 3. People will less likely provide help when they are anonymous and will remain so. 4. People weigh how much harm can be done to themselves before helping others What determines the quality of relationships? Many of the research findings on the subject consider the adaptiveness of forming lasting affiliative bonds with others. Situational and personal factors influence friendships Friendships often form among people who belong to the same groups. Proximity might have its effects, because people like familiar things more than unfamiliar ones. Humans generally fear anything novel, a phenomenon known as neophobia. Yet, the more familiar we are with someone, the more we become aware of how we are different. Birds of a feather: similarity increases liking. The most successful romantic couples also tend to be the most physically similar, a phenomenon known as the matching principle. Personal characteristics: people tend to especially like those who have admirable personality traits and who are physically attractive, both as friends and lovers. Table p.560. Generally people like those who have personal characteristics valuable for the group. Too perfect people make others uncomfortable. Physical attractiveness: rating is generally consistent across cultures. Langlois and Ruggman used a computer program to average out various faces, the more there are averaged faces, the more people rate the computer image as attractive. Averaged attractive faces are rated more attractive. Most people like symmetrical faces, because a lack of symmetry could indicate poor health or genetic defect. Biracial people tend to have more symmetrical faces and tend to be rated as more attractive. Attractive people are seen to be happier, more intelligent, more sociable, more successful, and less socially deviant. Dion: what is beautiful is good stereotype. Children as young as 6 months old like to look at attractive faces. Even mothers treat attractive children differently; they are much more affectionate and playful, and express slightly more positive attitudes towards those infants. The correlation between attractiveness and other characteristics appears small. They are even similar to less attractive people in self-esteem. This could be because attractive people learn to distrust attention from others, because they assume that people like them for their good looks. They might also feel insecure because good looks fade overtime. Love is an important component of romantic relationships Hatfield, Berscheid: drew an important distinction between passionate and companionate love Passionate: state of intense longing and sexual desire. It is associated with increased dopamine levels, the same reward system involved in drug addiction. Companionate: strong commitment to care for and support a partner that develops slowly over time. It is based on friendship, trust, respect, and intimacy. Lasting relationships can go from passionate to companionate love. Attachment theory: the types of relationships that adults have relate on how their parents treated them as children. Those with warm parents (60%) report having secure relationships, those with cold parents (25%) find it hard to trust others, and are wary of those who try to become too close to them. Those who were treated inconsistently have anxious/ambivalent attachment (11%), and worry that people don’t really love them and are bound to leave them. Making love last is difficult In North America, 50% of marriages fail, often within the 1st few years. Miller: married people are meaner to each other than they are to total strangers. Passion fades away, frequency of sex declines by 50% in the 1st year of marriage, and continues to decline more gradually. Unless people develop other aspects of their relationship, it is doomed to failure. Jealousy and possessiveness: infidelity is far less frequent than what people believe, 25% of men have extramarital sex and 10% of women do. Dealing with conflict: a way people deal with conflict is a determinant of whether the relationship will last. Gottman: 4 interpersonal styles that lead couples to discord. He called them the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: being overly critical, holding the partner in contempt, being defensive, and mentally withdrawing from the relationship. Most satisfied couples tend to express concern for each other even while arguing, try to see each other’s point of view and try to stay calm. Optimistic people are more likely to use cooperative problem solving. Attributional styles and accommodation: attributional style: how one partner explains the others’ behaviour. Happy couples attribute good outcomes to each other and bad ones to external situations. Accommodation: partner-enhancing attributions in which they overlook bad behaviour or respond constructively. Gottman: Why Marriages Succeed or Fail and How You Can Make Yours Last: outlines differences between happy couples and unhappy ones. Couples that have the most sex aren’t the happiest, but those who agree on the frequency are the happiest. Fighting allows grievances to be relieved and, if done properly, can be good for the relationship Validating couple: each partner considers the other’s opinions and emotions valid. They try to compromise and show mutual respect. As long as there are 5 positive interactions for every negative one, there are good chances that the relationship will be stable. Show interest in your partner, be affectionate, show you care, spend quality time, maintain loyalty and fidelity, learn to handle conflict. Chapter 13: personality Personality: the characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviours that are relatively stable in an individual over time. Personality trait: a characteristic, a disposal tendency to act in a certain way over time and across circumstances. How have psychologists studied personality? Allport definition of personality (1937): the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behaviour. Organization means that personality is not just a series a traits, but a dynamic coherent whole, because it is goal seeking, sensitive to context, and adaptive to environment. By emphasising psychophysical systems, he highlights that psychological nature of personality while recognizing that it arises from basic biological processes. Personality causes people to have characteristic behaviours and thoughts. Psychodynamic theories emphasise unconscious and dynamic processes Psychodynamic theory: Freudian theory that unconscious forces, such as wishes and motives influence behaviour. He referred to those psychic forces as instincts, defining them as mental representations arising out of biological or physical need. People satisfy the life instinct by following the pleasure principle, which directs people to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. The energy that drives the pleasure principle is the libido. The life instinct can be viewed as the desire to satisfy libidinal urges for pleasure. When forces are in conflict, mental illness arises. A topographical model of mind: Freud believed that most of the conflict between psychological forces occurs below the level of consciousness. He proposed that the structures of the mind are divided into 3 mental zones: conscious level, where people are aware of their thoughts, the preconscious level, where content is not currently in awareness, but could be brought, and the unconscious level that contains material that the mind can’t easily retrieve to protect a person from distress. Sometimes this information leads into the conscious mind, during a Freudian slip, where the person reveals a hidden motif. Development of sexual instinct: early childhood experiences have a major impact on the development of personality. Psychosexual stage: Freud believed that children go through stages corresponding to their pursuit of satisfaction of libidinal urges. At each of those stages, libido is focused on one of the erogenous zones (mouth, anus, genitals). Oral stage: from birth to 18 months: pleasure is sought through the mouth. Anal phase: from 2 to 3 years old, toilet training leads the focus on the anus. Learning to control the bowels is the focus of that phase. Phallic stage: from 3 to 5, their libidinal energy is directed toward the genitals. According to Freud, children desire an exclusive relationship with the parent of the opposite sex, because the same-sex parent is considered a rival, hostility is developed towards him. In boys, this is known as the Oedipus complex: children desire to kill one parent. They resolve that phase through identification with the same-sex parent. Mostly applied for boys. Latency stage: libidinal urges are suppressed or channelled into doing schoolwork or building friendships. Genital stage: adolescents and adults attain mature attitudes about sexuality and adulthood. Libidinal urges are centered on the capacity to reproduce and contribute to society. Children can become fixated at a stage in which they receive excessive parental restriction or indulgence. Those fixated at the oral stage develop oral personalities: they continue to seek pleasure through the mouth. Those fixated at the anal stage develop anal-retentive personalities: they are stubborn and highly regulating. Structural model of personality: integrated model of how the mind is organized. Id: the component of personality that is completely submerged in the unconscious level and operates according to the pleasure principle. The innate forces driving it are aggression and sex. Superego: the internalization of societal and parental standards of conduct. Developed during the phallic phase, it is a rigid structure of morality, or conscience. Ego: the component of personality that tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the superego. It operates according to the reality principle, which involves rational thoughts and problem solving. Defence mechanisms: unconscious mental strategies that mind uses to protect itself from conflict and distress. Mostly studied by Anna Freud. Today, most researchers believe that they protect self-esteem. Reaction formation: occurs when people ward off an uncomfortable thought about the self by embracing the opposite thought. Homophobia might result from repression of homosexual impulses, leading to reaction formation. Psychodynamic theory since Freud: many embraced the notion of unconscious conflict; such neo-Freudians include Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney. Adler and Horney strongly criticized Freud’s view of women. Many neo-Freudians rejected Freud’s emphasis on sexual forces, focusing instead on social interactions. This focus is embodied in object relations theory: the object of attachment is another person. Horney and Erikson also emphasised the culture. Psychodynamic theories have largely been abandoned, because they can’t be examined through scientific methods. Humanistic approaches emphasis integrated personal experience Humanistic approach: approaches to studying personality that emphasis personal experience and belief system; they propose that people seek personal growth to fulfill their human potential, a process known as self-actualization. They focus on subjective human experience, or phenomenology, and view each person as inherently good. It is not too concerned about the scientific study of personality. Maslow’s theory of motivation: he believed that the desire to become self-actualized is the ultimate and most important human motive. Carl Rogers: person-centered approach to personality emphasise people’s personal understandings, or phenomenology. The therapist would create a supportive and accepting environment and would deal with the client’s problems and concerns as clients understood them. His theory highlights the importance of how parents show affection for their children. He speculated that most parents provide conditional love; they love their children as long as the children does what the parents want, this leads children to abandon their true feelings to keep only those who pleases and accept only those part of themselves that elicit parental love. Parents should raise their children with unconditional love which will lead their children to become fully functioning person. Seligman: the positive psychology movement that encourages the scientific study of qualities. Diener: research on subject well-being, he found that the wealthiest countries have the highest levels of satisfaction. Tugade and Frederickson: people who are resilient experience positive emotions even when under stress. According to the broad and build theory, positive emotions prompt people to consider novel solutions to their problems, thus resilient people tend to draw on their positive emotions in dealing with setbacks of negative emotions. Type and trait approach describes behavioural dispositions Personality types: discrete categories based on global personality characteristic. Implicit personality theory: our tendency to assume that certain personality characteristics go well together, and therefore to make predictions about people based on minimal evidence. Trait approach: focuses on the extent to which individuals differ in personality dispositions. Most people fall in the middle of a trait, few are at the extremes. Allport and Odbert: 18 000 words can be counted as personality traits Cattell: set out to ascertain the basic elements of personality, believing that statistical procedures would enable him to take the scientific study or personality to uncover the basic structures of personality. Factor analysis: grouping items according to their similarities. In 1965, he identified 16 basic dimensions of personality. Eysenck’s hierarchical model: the basic structure begins at the specific response level, which consists of observed behaviours. There is a habituation response level. If a person has the same behaviour on many occasions, she is said to possess a trait, which can be grouped as components of superordinate traits. P.578 Jung: introversion/extroversion. Eysenck believed that this dimension reflects differences in biological functioning. Emotional stability: the extent to which people’s moods and emotions change. Those low in emotional stability are said to be neurotic. Highly neurotic people often report feeling anxious, moody and depressed and have very low opinions of themselves. Psychoticism: a mix of aggression, impulse control, and empathy. It is now called constraint. The big five: five-factor theory: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Each factor is a higher-order trait. P. 579. Consistent across cultures and ages. For Chinese: interpersonal trait is highly important, but not for Westerners. The factors uniquely predict certain outcomes. Personality reflects learning and cognition Skinner who sees personality as the result of internal processes view personality mainly as learned responses to patterns of reinforcement. Kelly: emphasised the importance of people’s understanding, or personal constructs, of their circumstances. He thought that people view the world as if they were scientists. Personal constructs develop through people’s experiences and represent their interpretations and explanations for events in their social worlds. Rotter (1954) built further on the cognitive approach by introducing the idea that behaviour is a function of people’s expectancies for reinforcement, as well as values they ascribe to particular reinforcers. People differ in their beliefs that their effort will lead to positive outcomes. People with an internal locus of control believe they bring about their own rewards, whereas those with an external locus of reward believe that rewards result from forces beyond their control. Cognitive social theories: incorporation of cognition into learning theories led to the developments of cognitive-social theories of personality, which emphasise how personal beliefs, expectancies and interpretations of social situations shape behaviour and personality. Bandura: humans possess mental capacities that interact with environment to influence behaviour. The extent to which people believe they can achieve certain outcomes, call selfefficacy, is an important determinant of behaviour. Expectancies develop in part through observational learning. Mischel: approach the study of personality at the social level. Personality traits often fail to predict behaviour across different circumstances. Cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS), people’s responses are influenced by how they perceive a given situation, their affective response, their skill in dealing with challenges, and their anticipation of the outcomes of their behaviour. P.580 Norem, Cantor: defensive pessimism: people expect to fail and enter test situation with dread. Self-regulatory capacities: people set personal goals, evaluate their progress, and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Personality represents behaviour that emerges from people’s interpretations of their social worlds and from their beliefs about how they will affect and be affected by their social situations. How is personality assessed, and what does it predict? Personality refers to both unique and common characteristics Allport divided the study of personality in 2 approaches: Idiographic: person-centered, they focus on the individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons. Same metric. It assumes that all individuals are unique. Murray did a case study with Hitler. Dan McAdams considers life as a narrative; each person has a life-story that integrates self-knowledge into a coherent whole. It is reconstructive and imaginative, in doing so, the person creates individual myths. Nomothetic: focus on characteristics common to all people, but on which individuals vary. Different metric. Central traits: are especially important for how individuals define themselves. Secondary traits are less important. Researchers use objective and projective methods to assess personality. Assessment procedures can be grouped into projective and objective measures. Projective measures: personality tests that examine unconscious processes by having people interpret ambiguous situations. People will project their mental content into these ambiguous situations, revealing hidden aspects of their personality. They are used to assess psychopathology. Rorschach inkblot test finds many disturbances in apparently healthy individuals. Murray and Morgan: Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) to study achievement motivation. This method of looking at an ambiguous picture and telling a story about it reveals traits related to achievement, power, and affiliation. It can determine how interpersonally dependent people are. Objective measures: relatively direct assessments of personality, based on information gathered through self-report questionnaires or observer ratings. They require people to make subjective judgments. Terms can also mean different things to different people. NEO personality inventory: assess the Big Five personality factors according to 240 items. California Q-Sort: people sort 100 statements printed on cards into 9 piles according to how accurately the statements describes them. Only so many cards can be placed in piles, with fewer cards piled at for the extreme ends of the scale. Observers show accuracy in trait judgments Funder: surprising degree of accuracy for trait judgments. Close people can even better describe us than ourselves, because they observe us. Our subjective perceptions may diverge from our objective behaviours. People are sometimes inconsistent Mischel (1968): situationism: behaviour is determined more by situations than by personality traits. In the person/situation debate, personality researchers argued that the extent to which a trait predicts behaviour depends on the centrality of the trait, the aggregation of behaviour over time, and the type of trait being evaluated. If personality traits are averaged in situations, traits are more predictive of behaviour. E.G. the trait of self-monitoring allows people who possess it to alter their behaviour to match the situations. Behaviour is influenced by the interaction of personality and situations Being neurotic is the best predictor of marital dissatisfaction and divorce. Personality dispositions are meaningful constructs that predict behaviour overtime and across circumstances. People are also highly sensitive to social context, and most conform to social norms. The situation can dictate behaviour regardless of personality. Situations differ in the extent to which they constrain the expression of personality. There is a difference between strong situations and weak situations. Interactionist: theorists who believe that behaviour is determined jointly by underlying principle and situations. A reciprocal interaction occurs between the person and the environment, so that they influence each other. Personality reflects both underlying dispositions and the activation and emotional responses in given situations. There are cultural and gender differences in personality People from different cultures can interpret questions differently. One must also be careful about the chosen sample. Investigation of personality across 56 nations p.587 Heine: national reputation may be correct and that people are biased when they rate themselves, because of the average behaviour of the country. Women are more empathetic and agreeable than men, and also more neurotic and concerned about their feelings. Men are more assertive. Gender differences in personalities are greater in NA and Europe, a smaller in Asia and African communities. This may be explained because women are allowed a greater education and can express their individuality more. Certain sex differences emerge early in childhood. Guimond: people in individualistic cultures tend to compare themselves with other groups. What are the biological bases of personality? Biological factors play an important role in the development of personality and its determination. Gene expression underlies all psychological activity. Genes have the effects only when expressed, and environment controls such an expression. Animals have personalities Humans and other animals have evolved as they solved occasionally similar adaptive challenges; which raises the possibility that animals might display consistent individual differences in behaviour, which reflect the biological bases of personality. Gosling: 36 hyenas, 44 traits, 4 raters. The traits clustered into 5 factors. Similarities: agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience. No conscientiousness, extraversion in the form of assertiveness. John: similarity in extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness could be seen in most species. Openness in animals can be compared to that of small children. Conscientiousness could only be found in chimpanzees. Gosling examined personality judgments for domestic dogs and compared those to judgments made by humans, studied 4 personality factors that correspond to openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism with 3 criteria of accuracy that were respected. Another group of judges rated only pictures of the dogs. Dog’s personalities can be rated with accuracy, and that animals show clear evidence of basic personality traits which suggest that such traits are biologically based on passed along genes. Personality is rooted in genetics Nearly all personality traits have a genetic component. Loehlin, Nichols, examined similarities in personality among over 800 pairs of twins. Identical twins had much more similarities than fraternal twins. P.592. Genetic influences about 50% of the variance in personality traits, and the genetic basis of these traits are the same across culture. Bouchard: twins raised apart are as similar as twins raised together, or even more so. Identical twins become more alike as they age. This is because parents emphasis their individual differences when children. Adoption studies: siblings who are adopted are more similar than 2 strangers. Personality of adopted children isn’t similar to that of adoptive parents, which means that parenting style has little influence on personality. Sibling’s personalities slowly grow apart as their initial differences become magnified through their interactions with the world. Lykken: children raised by inadequate parenting are much more likely to become delinquent or show antisocial behaviour. Are there specific genes for personality? Genes predispose certain personality traits associated with behavioural tendencies. Multiple genes interact independently with the individual’s environment to produce general dispositions. Genes can be linked with some specificity to personality traits. Some pairs of genes can work in opposite ways. Lykken: it may be the chance aggregation of genes that produces unique individuals Temperaments are evident in infancy Temperaments: biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways. They are considered broader than traits. Work on infants, because personality differences early in life indicates the action of biological mechanisms. Buss and Plomin: 3 personality characteristics can be considered temperaments: activity level, emotionality and sociability. These are the main factors influenced by genes. Long-term implication of temperaments: early childhood temperaments significantly influence behaviour and personality structure throughout a person’s development. Inhibited children are far more likely to become depressed. Gender and temperaments: great difference in early childhood. Girls have a stronger ability to control their attention, and to resist their impulses. Boys are more physically active, and experience more high-intensity pleasure. There are no differences in negative emotions. Shyness and inhibition: the extent to which people are shy has been linked to early differences in temperament. 6 week old children can be identified as shy. Kagan: 15-20% of newborns react to new situations or strange objects by becoming distressed, they are said to be inhibited, a characteristic that he views as being biologically determined. Inhibited children show greater reactivity in brainstem measures, which are the same when they are 12 as when they are 4 months. Shy people have a much greater activation when showed unfamiliar faces. 25% of shy children aren’t shy later childhood. This development occurs when parents create supportive and calm environment in which children can deal with stress and novelty at their own paces. Shyness also varies across cultures. Thus social and cultural factors highlight the interplay between nature and nurture. Personality is linked to specific neurophysiological mechanisms Personality differences may reflect differences may reflect differences in the relative activation of different biological systems. Arousal and extraversion Eysenck: founder of modern biological approach to personality, he believed that differences in cortical arousal produce the behavioural differences between extraverts and introverts. Cortical arousal or alertness is regulated by the ascending reticular system (ARAS) which differs between them. Extraverts seek continual arousal, and introverts seem to avoid arousal. Each person prefers to operate at some optimal level of arousal. The resting levels of ARAS are higher for introverts than extraverts. Extraverts perform better in noisy settings. Introverts, being chronically more aroused, ought to be more sensitive to stimuli. Introverts do appear more sensitive to pain, and to sourness. Evidence for baseline differences in arousal is difficult to produce, thus what differentiates extraverts for introverts is their level of arousability, or reactivity to stimuli. Zuckerman: arousal-based trait of sensation seeking as similar to extraversion, but with an impulsive element that more closely matches psychoticism. Sensation seekers have a neurochemical deficiency that motivates them to seek arousal and tend to be easily bored and try to escape boredom through the use of alcohol/drug. Neurophysiology of extraversion and introversion Gray: incorporated the differentiation between approach learning and avoidance learning in his approach/inhibition model of the relation between learning and personality. Personality is rooted in motivational functions that have evolved to help organisms respond efficiently to reinforcement and punishment. Behavioural approach system (BAS): the brain system involved in the pursuit of incentive rewards. It is the go system Behavioural inhibition system: (BIS): the brain system that is sensitive to punishment, and therefore inhibits behaviour that might lead to danger or pain. It is the stop system. It is associated with the activity in the frontal lobes Extraverts have stronger BAS than BIS, so they are more influenced by rewards than by punishment. Introverts have a more active BIS, their chronic anxiety often lead them to avoid social situations in which they anticipate negative results. Fearfulness, anxiousness and shyness are associated with excessive activation of the amygdala. Personality is adaptive Buss: the Big 5 personality traits are fundamental because each trait provides important information regarding mate selection. Individual differences reflect characteristics, perhaps resulting from random processes, that are of trivial importance with regards to evolution. Buss and Greiling: individual differences might reflect the inheritance of alternative strategies that have become activated according to situational contexts. Evolution has allowed for multiple strategies that are differently adaptive depending on environmental demands. Human groups whose members possess different skills have a selective advantage over other human groups Critical thinking skill: avoiding single-cause explanations Personality traits are stable overtime Michael Up series: follow the development of british children and found that they are stable overtime Clinical psychology: people can and do change important aspects of their lives. Personality was the least stable for children under 2 and the most stable for adult over 50. James (1890): for most of us, the character has set like plaster and will never soften again. Age-related change: people when older become less neurotic, less extraverted, and less open to new experiences; they are also more agreeable and more conscientious. Not large, but consistent effects even across cultures which means that personality changes aren’t related to the environment. Personality change has a genetic component. Characteristic adaptations McCrae and Costa: important distinction between basic tendencies of personality and characteristic adaptation. Basic tendencies are dispositional traits determined by biological processes, thus are very stable. Characteristic adaptations: adjustments to situational demands, they are less consistent. If personality is determined partly by biological processes, some of its changes will be associated to changes in biological makeup. The fact that the brain develops well in adulthood explains why personality can change before age 30. Upon adulthood situation are also less variable. How do we know our personalities? Self: each person’s mental representations of personal experiences that includes thought processes, physical body, and conscious awareness of being separate from others and unique. It is a unitary experience continuous over time and space. Our self-concepts consist of self-knowledge Self-concept: everything we know about ourselves, it is the cognitive knowledge structure that guides attention and information important, and helps adapt to the environment. Self-awareness: the sense of self as the object of attention. It is dependent of functional frontal lobes. People without functioning frontal lobes are minimally self-reflecting, and show a lack of interest in their disorders. James and Mead: differentiate between the self as the knower (I) which is involved in executive functions, and the self as the objects that is known (me), now called the objective self, which is the knowledge the subject holds about himself. Duval and Wicklund: theory of objective self-awareness that leads people to act in accordance with the values they hold. Discrepancies between personal standards and goals can motivate a behaviour that reduces the discrepancy. Higgins: self-discrepancy theory: the awareness of differences between personal standards and goals leads to strong emotions. Struss: intelligent patient with frontal lobe damage became less productive at work even if his knowledge about the world remained intact. He was asked to play the role of the boss and gave an accurate suggestion, but when in his position again, he disagreed with it. Self-schema: Cocktail party phenomenon: information about the self is processed deeply, and automatically. Markus (1977): the self-schema is the cognitive aspect of the self-concept, consisting of an integrated set of memories, beliefs, and generalization about the self. May lead to enhanced memory for information processed in a self-relevant manner. Rogers: trait adjective processes with reference to the self were better recalled than comparable items processed only for their general meaning. There is an activation of the middle of the frontal lobes when people process information about themselves. The greater the activation of this area during self-referencing, the more likely we will remember the item later during a memory task. Working of self-concept: the immediate experience of the self, limited to the amount of information that can be possessed cognitively at any given time. Thus, the sense of self varies over situation. We emphasise aspects of our personalities that makes us separate from others, but at the same time we don’t want to stand out to much. Perceived social regard influences self-esteem Self-esteem: evaluative aspects of the self-concept, indicating people’s emotional responses as they contemplate various characteristics about themselves. Reflected appraisal: self-esteem is based on how people view us, people internalize the values and beliefs expressed by important people in their lives, adopting those attitudes as their own. Consequently, people come to respond to themselves in manners consistent with how other view them. Need for parents’ unconditional love, but in relatively strict parenting with well defined limits. Sociometer theory: Leary: self-esteem monitors the likelihood of social exclusion. Sociometer: internal monitor of social acceptance or rejection. Critical thinking skill: resisting appeals to snoberry: play on people to appear superior. Self-esteem and death anxiety: according to the terror management theory: self-esteem protects people from the horror associated with knowing they eventually will die. We counter a sense of immortality when we have the feeling that we contribute to our society. Reminding people of their mortality leads them to act in ways that enhance their self-esteem. Self-esteem and life outcomes Baumeister: people with high self-esteem report being happier, but it is weakly related to objective life outcomes. There is a slight correlation, perhaps because success causes higher selfesteem. Violent criminal have high self-esteem. When people with high self-esteem believe their abilities have been challenged, they may act in ways that cause people to dislike them. Narcissim: self-centered people view themselves in grandiose ways, they are manipulative, and unfaithful in their relationships. Programs design to improve children’s self-esteem could be responsible, and the rise in self-promoting sites. We use mental strategies to maintain our views of self People show favouritism with everything associated with the self. 90% of drivers believe that have better than average drive skills. P.607 Better-than average effect: people rate themselves as better than average in nearly every way. People with high self-esteem are especially likely to do so. Taylor and Brown: most people have positive illusions in at least 3 domains: they continuously experience the better than average effect, they unrealistically perceive their personal control over events, and most people are unrealistically optimistic about their futures. The self-evaluative maintenance, social comparisons, and self-serving biases help us to cope with the disappointments of life. Self-evaluative maintenance: Tesser: self-esteem can be affected by how relevant people’s performances are to their self-concepts, and how their performances compare to significant people in their lives. People can feel threatened when someone close to them performs better. To maintain self-esteem, we could distance ourselves from the relationship or find a different aspiration. It causes people to exaggerate their connections to winners and to minimize their connections to losers. Social comparison: when we compare to others to see where we stand. People with high selfesteem seem to make downward comparisons whereas people with low self-esteem make upward comparisons. There is a form of downward comparison when one recalls his own past, viewing their current self as better than their former self. P.609 Self-serving biases: the tendencies for people, especially those with high self-esteem, to take personal credit for success, but blame failures on external factors. People with high self-esteem assume that criticism is motivated by envy or prejudice; indeed, people in discrimination groups have high self-esteem. Crocker and Major: members of these groups maintain positive self-esteem by taking credit for success and blaming negative feedback on prejudice. In thinking about our failures, we compare ourselves to those who did worse, and think about the things we are good at. They may even reflect healthy psychological functioning. There are cultural differences in the self Difference among people regarding self-concept: whether they view themselves as fundamentally separate from or connected to other people. Triandis: some cultures emphasise the collective self more than the personal self. Collectivist cultures and more respective of social norms and of family values whereas individualistic cultures emphasise rights of freedom of expression. Markus and Kitayama: people in collectivist cultures have interdependent self-construals, in which the self-concepts are determined largely by their social roles and personal relationships, whereas people in individualistic cultures have independent slef-construals. Culture and self-serving bias: most non-depressed individual make self-serving biases. Heine: the self serving bias may be more common in individualistic cultures than in collectivist ones Endo, Meijer: Americans listed more successes than failures, and the Japanese’s list showed an equal amount of successes and failures. Self criticism in more common than self promotion in Asia, and such a tendency is preserved even when the Asians are anonymous. People in Japan and China also share a positivity bias like that of the Americans (tendency to view themselves as better than others.), which was perceivable using an implicit measure of self-esteem that rely on how participants associated positive things with themselves. Thus Easterners value themselves equally as westerners but are hesitant to admit it. Asians self-enhance in domains particular to them: they enhance how good group members they are. Thus self-enhancement is universal, but the traits emphasised are different. Chapter 14: Disorders of the mind and body Psychopathology: a disorder of the mind 7% severely affected How are mental disorders conceptualized and classified? Does the behaviour deviate from cultural norms? Is the behaviour maladaptive? Is the behaviour causing the individual distress? The symptoms of the disorder must interfere with at least one aspects of the person’s life, such as work, social relations, or self-care. Mental disorders are classified into categories Etiology: factors that contribute to the development of a disorder Kraepelin: (1800) mental disorder identification based on the basis of groups of symptoms that occur together. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1952) (DSM): standard Today: multiaxial system: the system used in the DSM that provides assessment along 5 axes describing important mental health factors. 1- Clinical disorders 2- Mental retardation or personality disorder 3- Medical conditions 4- Psychosocial problem 5- Global assessment of how well the person is functioning Mental disorders must be assessed Assessment: examination of a person’s mental state to diagnose possible psychological disorders. 1. Make a diagnosis 2. Treatment 3. Ongoing assessment Mental status exam: provide a snapshot of mental functioning: behavioural observation. Can differentiate with physical disorders (stroke) In a clinical interview, the 1st thing a psychologist asks is: current symptoms and recent experiences that might cause distress. Structured versus unstructured interviews: Unstructured interviews are flexible, but are too highly dependent of the interviewer’s skill. In structured interviews, standardized questions are asked in the same order. The patient’s answers are coded according to a predetermined formula; the diagnosis is based on the patterns of responding. The most commonly used is the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID) Types of testing Behavioural assessment Psychological testing: the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) (1930) which consists of 567 true/false questions and takes into account 10 clinical scales. It also includes validity scales. The scores considered normal are not representative. Neuropsychological testing: each task requires ability such as planning, coordinating or remembering. It might indicate a problem with a certain brain region. It is followed by a MRI or PET. Evidence-based assessment: approach to clinical evaluation in which research guides the evaluation of mental disorders, the selection of tests and neuropsychological methods, and the use of critical thinking skill in making a diagnosis. Comorbity: many mental disorders occur together. Critical thinking skill: recognizing when categories represent continuous dimensions. Dissociative identity disorder is a controversial diagnosis Milligan’s 24 personalities were found innocent in the murder and rape. Dissociative identity disorder (DID): the occurrence of 2 or more distinct identities in the same individual. Most sufferers are women who report being severely abused as children. (Children cope by pretending it has happened to someone else). The identities are all different. Many researchers are sceptical of the disease; since many diagnoses occur often when patients have committed crimes. The number of cases has skyrocketed in the 1990, and the number of personalities went from 2 to 3 to 20. The therapists might even have suggested without awareness that their patients may suffer from the disease. Mental disorders have many causes Diathesis-stress model: a diagnostic model that proposes that a disorder may develop when an underlying vulnerability (diathesis) is coupled with a precipitating event. Biological factors: influence the development and the course of a mental disorder (foetuses are very sensitive, and disorders can arise from things such as malnutrition). They have an effect of the nervous system, and can trigger mental disorders. There are structural differences in certain parts of the brain that differ from healthy individuals. Neurotransmitter levels can trigger disorders. Psychological factors: thoughts and emotions are shaped by environment and can affect behaviour. Family system model: considers symptoms within an individual as indicating problems with the family. Behaviour must be considered in a social context. It is very useful in determining if the family will or will not help the patient. Sociocultural model: views psychopathology as the result of the interaction between individuals and their cultures. Cognitive-behavioural factors: strict behaviourists argue that mental disorders result from classical and operant conditioning. Thoughts can become distorted and produce maladaptive behaviours. It is believed that thought processes are available to the conscious mind, and can be analysed. Cognitive-behavioural approach: views psychopathology as the result of learned maladaptive cognitions. Sex-differences in mental disorders: in general the disorders associated with internalizing are more prevalent in females, and those associated with externalizing are more prevalent in males. P.628 Culture and mental disorders: most mental disorders are the same across culture, especially those with a strong biological component. Sometimes manifestations of the disorder can vary across cultures. P.629 Can anxiety be the root of seemingly different disorders? Anxiety disorders are characterised by excessive anxiety in the absence of a true danger. There are different types of anxiety disorders 25% will suffer from anxiety disorders at some point of their lives. The sufferers feel tense, are often depressed and irritable because they see no end to their anxiety. They have trouble falling and staying asleep. Their arousal involves the autonomic nervous system, and can lead to bodily symptoms such as sweating, high blood pressure... Chronic arousal can also lead to hypertension, headaches, intestinal problems, can even cause illness or tissue damage. Sufferers have pointless motor behaviours. Chronic stress can damage the hippocampus that is involved in learning and memory. Phobic disorder In phobias, fear is out of proportion. Specific phobias affect 1/8 people are affected. P.631 Social phobia: also called social anxiety disorder, it is a fear of being negatively viewed by others. 1/8 people will experience it. It is one of the earliest forms of mental disorder to develop, often beginning around 13; and the more social fear, the more likely the person will develop another disorder, particularly depression and substance abuse. Generalized anxiety disorder: a diffused state of constant anxiety not associated with any specific object or event. GAD affects 6% of the population. Sufferers experience distractibility, fatigue, irritability, sleep problems, headaches, restlessness, light-headedness, and muscle pain. Panic disorder: affecting 3% of the population, it is characterized by sudden, overwhelming attacks of terror. They last for several minutes during which the patient begins to sweat and tremble, his heart races...People developing it in adolescence are more likely to develop PTSD and GAD in adulthood. Agoraphobia: related disease marked by the fear of being in situations in which escape may feel difficult or impossible. OCD: affects 1-2%, and is characterized by frequent intrusive thoughts and compulsive actions. The most common behaviours are cleaning, checking and counting. They anticipate catastrophe and loss of control. They fear what they might do or have done, and checking is the only way to calm the anxiety. Anxiety disorders have cognitive, situational, and biological components Cognitive factors: when presented with ambiguous situations, anxious people tend to see them as threatening, and focus excessive attention on perceived threats. Situational factors: looking at one’s fear might trigger the fear reaction. Biological factors: children who have an inhibited temperament are more likely to experience anxiety disorders, and are especially at risk of developing social phobia. The inhibited group showed greater activation of the amygdale while viewing the novel faces. OCD sufferers are aware that their obsessions and compulsions are irrational, but are unable to stop them. Anxiety is paired to a specific event, through classical conditioning, and the person engages in the behaviour that reduces anxiety, and therefore is reinforced through operant conditioning. OCD is in part genetic. The specific mechanism hasn’t been identified, but the neurotransmitter glutamate, which is the major excitatory transmitter in the brain, causing increased neural firing. The caudate, a brain structure involved in suppressing impulses, is smaller and has structural abnormalities in people with OCD. PET studies show abnormal activity in the thalamus and the caudate in those with OCD. Patients with diseases in those areas have similar symptoms to those of OCD. Impulsions leek into consciousness and the prefrontal cortex becomes overactive in an effort to compensate. Electrical stimulation of the caudate can help. OCD can be triggered by environmental factors such as a streptococcal infection in children. Discovered by Swedo, it strikes at night, triggering an autoimmune response that damages the caudate. Are mood disorders extreme manifestations of normal moods? There are different types of mood disorders Mood disorders reflect extreme emotions: depressive disorders feature persistent and pervasive feelings of sadness and bipolar disorder involve radical fluctuations in mood. Depressive disorders: can be major or less severe. Major depression: severe negative moods or lack of interest in normally pleasurable activities. 1- Depressed mood or loss of interest in pleasurable activities. 2- Appetite and weight changes sleep disturbance, loss of energy, difficulty concentrating, feelings of self-reproach or guilt, frequent thoughts of death and suicide. Only long-lasting episodes that impair a person’s life are diagnosed as mood disorders. It affects 6-7% of the population in a given year, and 16% will experience it at some point of their life. It is often lasting for many years. Dysthymia: a form a depression that is of mild to moderate severity. Affects 2-3% of the population. They have a depressed mood most of the day, more days than not, for at least 2 years. Periods last from 2-20 days, and are typically 5-10 days. It is often seen as a personality disorder. In its more severe form, depression is the major cause of disability in the US and worldwide. It is the major factor for suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of death of young women in China and India, and the highest rate of depression is found in women of developing countries, especially in rural Pakistan. Overwork and lack of support might explain why depression is so prevalent in women. Women also respond to stressful events by internalizing their feelings which leads to depression and anxiety. Bipolar disorder: alternating periods of mania and depression. Affects 4% of the population. It is more common in adolescence and in early adulthood. Manic phases: elevated mood, increased activity, diminished need for sleep, grandiose ideas, racing thoughts, and extreme distractibility. Hypomanic phases: heightened creativity and productivity, and can be pleasurable and rewarding. Jamison: an Unquiet Mind. Suffered from bipolar disorder and took lithium to help. This drug deprives people from good moods. Mood disorders have cognitive, situational, and biological components Depression has a genetic component. Concordance rates between identical twins are 4 times higher than between fraternal twins. Genetic contribution to depression is weaker than for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Concordance in identical twins is of 70%, and of 20% for fraternal twins. All of those affected with the disease have the same defect. Its heredity is complex and not just related to one gene. Successive generation of bipolar disorder suffers have more severe disorders at an early age of unset. Major depression involves a deficiency of one or more monoamines. Medication that increases the availability of norepinephrine alleviates depression. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) increases the levels of serotonin. Damage to the left prefrontal cortex can lead to depression. The brain waves of depressed people show low activity in these same regions in the left hemisphere. These patterns persist in people who are in remission. Biological rhythms: implicated in depression: depressed patients enter REM sleep more quickly and have more of it. Indeed, depressed people sleep a lot and always feel tired. SAD: seasonal affective disorder Life stressor can cause depression; the main ones are interpersonal losses, and the more there are, the more likely it is that depression will occur. A person that has close friends is less likely to have depression when faced with stress. Cognitive processes also play a role in depression. Beck: depressed people think negatively about themselves, their situation, their future (cognitive triad). Depressed people attribute their failures on themselves, and successes to luck. They also make errors of logic, such as over generalizing, magnifying the seriousness of bad events, and taking responsibility for bad events that didn’t really have anything to do with them. Cognitive patterns are more a cause than a consequence of depression. Learned helplessness model: people feel unable to control events around them. It is made by Seligman: animals that couldn’t escape situations became passive. What is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia: ‘splitting of the mind’ refers to a split between thought and emotion. It is a psychotic disorder that is characterized by alterations in thoughts perceptions, or in consciousness. It affects 0.5-1% of the population. The rates are slightly lower in developing countries, and the prognosis is better in such countries. The disorder has different subtypes. Schizophrenia has positive and negative symptoms Positive symptoms: delusions, hallucinations that are excessive in behaviour. Negative symptoms: deficits of functioning such as apathy, lack of emotion, and slowed speech and movement. Subtypes: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, residual Delusions: persecution, reference, grandeur, identity, guilt, control Positive symptoms: Delusions: false personal beliefs based on incorrect inferences about reality (Noid). The types of delusion can be influenced by culture. Germans: delusions of guilt and persecution. Japanese: delusions of harassment. Both had the same delusions of grandeur. Hallucinations: false sensory perceptions that are experienced without an external source. They can be visual, olfactory or somatosensory, and most often auditory. Typical auditory hallucinations involve voices telling the person that he or she is inept or evil, or that command that person to do dangerous things. They are associated with the activation in cortical areas that process external sensory stimuli. Such hallucination might be caused by an inability to distinguish normal inner speech. Loosening of associations: a speech pattern among schizophrenic patients in which their thoughts are disorganized or meaningless. Clang association: the stringing together of words that rhyme but have no apparent link Disorganised behaviour: acting in a strange or unusual ways, including strange movements, bizarre speech, and inappropriate self-care. Echolalia: repeating words they hear, occurs in catatonic schizophrenia (associated with fear response) Negative symptoms of schizophrenia: more common in men Patients are often isolated and withdrawn, often avoid eye-contact and seem apathetic. They use slowed speech, reduced speech output, and a monotonous tone of voice. Patient’s movements may also be slowed and their overall amount of movement reduced, with little initiation of behaviour and no interest in social participation. While positive symptoms can be reduced or eliminated, the negative ones often persist, suggesting that the 2 types of symptoms have different causes. Positive ones are thought to arise from neurotransmitter dysfunction, and negatives ones are associated with abnormal brain regions. Schizophrenia is primarily a brain disorder Early theories attributed the disease to mothers with contradictory behaviour. Genetics play a role: 50% of identical twins, 14% of fraternal twins, 13% one parent, 50% both parents. The genetic component represents a predisposition not a destiny. P.645 Patients have rare mutations of their DNA about 3 to 4 times more often, especially in genes related to brain development and neurological functions. These mutations might result in abnormal brain development that might trigger the disease. Multiple genes contribute; each of at least 24 genes might modestly influence. Mental disease can arise when the competition between the mother and father’s DNA leads to an unbalanced outcome. The ventricle are enlarged, meaning that the actual brain tissue is reduced, and the greater the reduction, the worse the outcome. The reductions increase overtime. They occur in many regions of the brain, especially in the frontal lobes and medial temporal lobes, and lead to a decrease of their activity. Many have speculated that it is more a problem of connection between brain regions that the result of diminished or changed functions. It could also result from abnormalities in neurotransmitters such as dopamine: drugs that block dopamine decrease symptoms, and drugs that increase dopamine increase symptoms. It might also involve abnormality in the glial cells that make up the myelin sheath which would impair neurotransmission through the brain. It is most often diagnosed in the 20s or 30s, however, neurological signs of the disease can be identified earlier. Walker: those who developed the disorder displayed unusual social behaviours, more severe negative emotions, and increasing motor disturbances, such as strange facial expression that all went undiagnosed. Those with schizophrenia were more likely to have displayed behavioural problems as children, such as fighting or not getting along, than those who developed other disorders. 5 factors predict the onset of the behaviour: a family history, greater social impairment, higher level of suspicion/paranoia, a history of substance abuse, and higher level of unusual thoughts. When youths had 2 to 3 of the 1st 3 factors, they are 80% likely to develop full blown psychosis. Environmental factors influence schizophrenia Environmental stress seems to contribute. 13 % of adopted children placed in disturbed families and whose biological mother had schizophrenia developed the disease while 41% developed other severe psychological disorders. None of those placed in healthy families developed disorders. Being born or raised in an urban area doubles the risk of developing the disease, suggesting that urban stress contributes. Existence of a schizovirus: living in the close quarters of a bid city increases the risks of the virus spreading. Antibodies were found in the blood of schizophrenics that weren’t found in the blood of healthy individuals. Those diagnosed with schizophrenia were more likely to have been born during late winter or early spring, because their mothers were in their second trimester during flu season. Evidence suggests that mothers of schizophrenic children are more likely to have contracted influenza during that critical period when a great deal of brain development occurs, so at that time trauma or pathogens can interfere with the organization of brain regions. Are personality disorders truly mental disorders? Personality disorder: when people interact with the world in maladaptive and inflexible ways for long lasting periods and causes trouble in work and social situations. They affect 10% of the population. Personality disorders are maladaptive ways or relating to the world They are classified in axis 2 because they last throughout life without any change. Table p. 649 They appear to be extreme versions of personality traits, and there are overlaps among the traits in different disorders. They often don’t affect daily life as much as type 1 disorders. Borderline personality disorder is associated with poor self-control BPD: identity, affective, and impulse disturbances. The term borderline is used because patients are considered to be on the border of normal and psychotic behaviour. It affects 1-2% of adults, and is more than twice more common in women than in men. They seem to lack a strong sense of self, can’t tolerate being alone, have an intense fear of abandonment, and thus can be very manipulative in their attempts to control relationships. They also have emotional instability characterized by sudden episodes of depression, anxiety, anger, and irritability that can last from a few hours to a few days. They are also impulsive (sexual promiscuity, physical fighting, binge eating and purging, and self-mutilation) and are at a high risk for suicide. It has a genetic component. Patients also show sleep abnormalities characteristic of depression; borderline disorder and affective disorder both involve low levels of serotonin linked with impulsive behaviour. They have diminished capacities in their frontal lobes, which help control behaviour. It may also have an environmental component; there is a strong relationship between trauma and abuse and borderline disorder. 70 to 80% of patients have reported being abused or noticed violent events. Borderline patients may also have had caretakers that were not accepting of who they were or were unreliable or unavailable. The constant rejection made it difficult for children to regulate and understand emotional reactions to events. Caregivers could also have encouraged dependence and therefore patient couldn’t have developed a proper sense of self. Antisocial personality disorder is associated with a lack of empathy 1800, psychopath: someone who seems willing to take advantage of others and hurt them without concern or remorse. Checkly (1941): Mask of Sanity: psychopaths can be charming, rational on the outside and insincere, unsocial, incapable of love, lack insight and be shameless. 1980: DSM: Antisocial personality disorder: marked by a lack of empathy or remorse, often hedonistic. Psychopaths are said to have an extreme form of this disorder. They intentionally kill to gain something, whereas those without psychopathic tendencies kill out of impulse. (Jeffrey Dahmer, Dennis Rader BTK strangler, Gary Gilmore) Assessment and consequences: Affecting much more men than women, it occurs if 1-4% of the population. It appears in late adolescence and early adulthood and often improves around 40 (at least for those without psychopathic traits) It can’t be assessed under 18, but the person must have displayed antisocial conduct before 15. They must have repeatedly performed illegal acts, lied, and showing reckless disregard for their own or for other’s safety. Being often bright and talkative, they can talk their way through, and punishment has very little effect; they often repeat the problem behaviour. 50% of the prison population meets the criteria for APD. A study was conducted out of prison, and 1/3 of interviewed patients were diagnosed. Psychopaths can hide their traits well, and can even be at an advantage in politics and business. On ethics: psychopathy and crimes in youths p.653 The causes of antisocial personality disorder Lykken (1957): psychopaths don’t become anxious when subjected to aversive stimuli. They don’t seem to feel fear or anxiety. Criminal who have the disorder have slower alpha-wave-activity, indicating a lower overall level of arousal and may explain why they engage in sensation-seeking and why they don’t learn from punishment. This pattern also occurs in adolescent at risk for psychopathy. There amygdala is smaller and they are less responsive to negative stimuli. There are deficits in frontal lobe functioning which account for the lack of forethought and the inability to consider the implications of characteristic actions. Genetic and environmental factors are important for APD, and genetic components are more important for psychopathy. Identical twins have a higher concordance of criminality than fraternal twins . Adopted male children have a higher rate of criminality is their biological father was a criminal, and the greater his record, the greater the chances that the kid will engage in criminal behaviour. Low economic statues, dysfunctional families, and childhood abuse play an important role. Malnutrition at age 3 predicts antisocial behaviour at 17. Should childhood disorders be considered a unique category? Kraepelin (1883) didn’t list childhood disorders. Now DSM has a category in Axis 1 called disorders usually 1st diagnosed in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Table p.655. It should be taken into account that some children behaviour that are typical of a disorder may be normal at an earlier stage of development. Autism is a lack of awareness of others Autism: a developmental disorder involving deficits in social interaction, impaired communication, and restricted interest. It varies in severity, from mild social impairments to severe social and intellectual impairments. Kanner (1943): 1st to describe children as having early infantile autism. 3 to 6 children have autism, and 3 times more boys have it than girls. From 1991 to 1997, there was an increase of 556% of cases diagnosed because of greater awareness of the disease and willingness to attribute more behaviour the disease. Gernsbacher found problems with the studies saying that there are large increases in the number of autistic children. Asperger’s syndrome: high-functioning autism, in which children of normal intelligence have deficits in social interactions, reflecting an underdeveloped theory of the mind. (Grandin: sees the world from an animal’s point of view) Core symptoms of autism Those with severe autism are seemingly unaware of others. As babies they don’t smile to their caregivers, don’t respond to vocalization, and may actively reject contact with others. They don’t establish eye contact and don’t use their gaze to direct attention. Early signs of autism may be overlooked (77% of people identified autistic babies by looking at video footage of their 1st birthdays. There are also deficits in communication that are evident by 14 months among autistic children who show severe impairments in verbal and non verbal communication. They have echolalia, which may cease, and do pronoun reversal, a behaviour that will persist. Those who develop functional language often interpret words literally, use language inappropriately, and lack verbal spontaneity. They also have restricted activities and interests. They are acutely aware of their surroundings, and may focus on unimportant details. Any changes in their daily routine or in the placement of furniture and toys may lead them to throw a tantrum. They tend to be obsessive and repetitive, with a focus on objects’ sensory aspects. Their own behaviour is repetitive with odd hand movement, body rocking, and hand flapping. Self-injury is also common. Critical thinking skill: recognizing and resisting hindsight bias (we saw it coming) Autism is primarily a biological disorder Kanner: it is an innate disorder exacerbated by cold and unresponsive mothers. Parents are insensitive, meticulous, introverted, and highly intellectual Genetic studies are difficult since autistic people rarely marry and almost never have children. If one child is autistic in the family, there is a 2 to 9% probability that another child will be diagnosed. If 2 siblings are autistic, the chance of a third sibling to be autistic is of 35%. There is a concordance of 70% to 90% in identical twins, and of 10% in fraternal twins. There are prenatal and or neonatal events that may result in brain dysfunction. The brain of autistic children grows unusually large during the 1st 2 years of life, and more slowly until age 5. Their brains don’t develop normally during adolescence. Some mothers of autistic children have bled significantly during their second trimester suggest trauma during the critical period for brain development. Autistic children also have a higher level of neonatal complications such as apnea, seizures, and delay in breathing. They are also more likely to have minor physical anomalies, to be the product of a 1st pregnancy, or to be born to older mothers. Oxytocin may be involved in some of the behaviours of autistic children. Autistic adults who receive oxytocin shuts have improved behaviours. Such injections are particularly useful for reducing repetitive behaviours, questioning, inappropriate touching, and self-injury. Levels of 4 proteins in the blood involved in brain development are elevated in 97% of autistic children and in 92% of retarded children, but in none of the healthy controls. Abnormal antibodies were found in the blood of the mothers of 11% of autistic children. Amaral: injected these antibodies in monkeys who developed behaviours characteristic of autism. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder is a disruptive impulse control disorder ADHD: restless, inattentive, and impulsive behaviour. 50% of 4 year old mothers believe that their child has it. The etiology of ADHD: 11% of boys and 4% of girls have it. The causes remain unknown and it is most likely a heterogeneous disorder. Children might come from disturbed families, and factors such as poor parenting and social disadvantages may contribute to the onset of the disease. There is a genetic component: 55% concordance in identical twins and 32% in fraternal twins. Zametkin: adults who have been diagnosed with ADHD had reduced metabolisms in brain regions involved in self-regulations of motor functions and of attentional systems. The connections between the frontal lobes and the limbic system are impaired in those with ADHD. The symptoms of ADHD are similar to the behaviours of those with frontal lobe damage. Prefrontal abnormalities were found when adolescents with ADHD perform tasks that require inhibiting motor responses. Greater impairments in performance on the tasks are associated with abnormal activation of these prefrontal regions. There are differences in the basal ganglia, which is involved in regulating motor behaviour and impulse control, in the brains of some ADHD patients. ADHD across the life span: diagnoses are given when 5 or 6 year old kids enter socially structured environments. Many preschoolers that have ADHD behaviour are normal. Children later diagnosed often have difficulty establishing patterns for eating and sleeping. Between 30 to 80% of those with ADHD continue to show symptoms throughout adulthood. Adults with ADHD, 4%, may struggle academically and vocationally; they reach a generally lower-than-expected socioeconomic levels and change jobs more frequently.