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Introduction to Course • • • • • Web Site: www.psy.cmu.edu/~kotovsky/85102/home.php Instructor TA’s Major Instructional Strategy and Goals – Depth, higher educ., focus, purpose(s) Major Activities: highly varied Methodology Questions For the first recitation, bring a significant or “big” and real question about psychology, one that psychology might (or perhaps might not) have an answer to, and be prepared to discuss it a bit and also turn it in to your TA. It should be something that you are genuinely interested in and curious about. Save a copy for yourself—it might come in handy when generating a paper topic! Question Examples (Including one author’s attempt to answer) David Brook’s Ex. (NYT 8/24/10)- What are our thinking weaknesses? “For example, Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway once described “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment.” He and others list our natural weaknesses: -We have confirmation bias; we pick out evidence that supports our views. -We are cognitive misers; we try to think as little as possible. -We are herd thinkers and conform our perceptions to fit in with the group. To use a fancy word, there’s a metacognition deficit. Very few in public life habitually step back and think about the weakness in their own thinking and what they should do to compensate. Brooks also more recently wrote about what makes true genius: the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in your head simultaneously; a kind of self examining or self-challenging stance we might think of as a thinking strength. Antietam: Historic battlefield—leads to a question….Why are we so willing to kill each other? Methodology: Some Basic Issues • • • • • Why Psychology? (vs. other sources of wisdom) Focus on actual data Observation vs. experimentation Independent and dependent variables Experimental control-getting rid of spurious variables • Correlation and causation • “Unusualness” of a result: statistics • Distributions (the statistical nature of our data) Basic Methodology • Observational vs. Experimental studies Causation vs. Correlation (storks, scz, food) Experimentation Independent vs. Dependent Variables Experimental “Control” & Confounds (Hawthorne) Making Observations • Scientific observations often begin with a question or hypothesis. • The hypothesis must be testable. • This calls for an operational definition of key terms to specify the study’s dependent variable. • Data must also be systematically collected. • Researchers ignore anecdotal evidence. Defining the Sample • Based on observations of a sample, psychologists want to draw conclusions about a broad population. • Random sampling • All members of the population have an equal chance of being picked to participate. • Researchers also use other procedures, including stratified sampling and case The Power of Experiments • The two groups must be matched at the outset of the experiment. • To ensure matching groups, researchers use: • random assignment (ex. Clinical trials) • within-subject comparison. • taking precautions to address problems created by the sequence of conditions The Control Condition Assessing External Validity • Researchers want their study to mirror circumstances of the broader world. • external validity • External validity depends on many factors. • The study should not change behaviors the researchers hope to understand. Assessing External Validity • One concern here involves the study’s possible demand characteristics: • Cues to participants/experiments about how they’re supposed to behave (Rosenthal) • One way of avoiding this problem is to use a double-blind design. Measurement • The Description of Data – Central tendency • Mean, median, mode – Variability • Variance • Standard deviation – Correlation & significance level Measurement T H HT TT T = tails H = heads TH HH Correlation Coefficients (0 – 1) Sleeping The ignored behavior! Defining/describing sleep • • • • Decreased awareness & interaction with world Decreased motility & muscular activity Characteristic posture Partial or total decrement in voluntary consciously directed behavior • Decreased forebrain activity & cortical input from lower centers Sleep as a behavior • Quietude • Life span decrease • Brain activity/EEG & reactivity Theories of sleeping • • • • • Motivation Energy conservation Restorative Memory consolidation & Learning Adaptive Brain Control Hypothalamus: Rostral/Caudal sleep areas – Rostral (stimulate --> sleep, extirpate --> wake) – Caudal (stimulate --> wake, extirpate --> sleep) – Reticular activating system & monitoring – Hypothalamus’ superchiasmatic nucleuspineal glandmelatonin sleep. (light supresses Mel.) – Kleitman in a cave! Arguments for Necessity/Functionality of sleep! – Regularity – Motivation/crummy feelings – Health involvement -Fatal Familial Insomnia (30+ families/thalamic/death) -Some linkage to other disorders (depression, cold susceptibility) (although sleep deprivation helps in depression via activation of serotonin receptors) – Hallucination argument – REM recovery – Restorative: increase in SWS in sleep-deprived & athletes, increase anabolic/decrease catabolic activity – Memory consolidation REM block->poor memory function – Some rat studies show immune system effectsdeath Arguments Against Necessity • • • • • • Deprivation/human & animal Exceptional sleepers Hallucination explanation Dement study 11 days deprv. Then 16 & 8 hours REM recovery: limited Programmatic reduction-->1-2 hr. decline – 1/2 hr per 2 weeks->4.5-5.5 ok – One year later slept 1 to 2.5 less! • Cats in a puddle! Conclusions Adaptive theory seems to win! – The function of sleep is sleep! – Ungulates sleep much less than meat eaters • Five hours or less (opossums 19-20 hours) • Frogs don’t sleep. Dolphins sleep ½ brain at a time! • Small/defensless animals sleep much more – Accounts for life span decrease as well – But still a bit of an open question One Last Theory About Sleep “Basic Satisfaction” Theory – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUw3s4evhTE Dreaming: What & Why? Multiple perspectives and much speculation! Outline • Dream behavior • Theories of Dreaming • Conclusions – What can we learn from our dreams? – Are they meaningful? True / predictive? Dream behavior & description • Within sleep • Amount • Brainwave activity & bodily quietude:the paradox • REM Dreams & REM sleep • • • • Aserinsky-REM Dement & Kleitman-Stages REM amount & periodicity Brainstem cholinergic & adrenergic promoting & inhibiting areas for REM • A regular activity rooted in the brain Some Questions: • • • • • Are Dreams meaningful--what do they mean? Are the predictive or “true”? How do they differ from other states? What is their function do they even have one? Are they primarily brain functions or mind functions? Outline • Characteristics and Descriptions • Theories of Dreaming • Conclusions – What can we learn from our dreams? • Are they meaningful? True / predictive? Theories of Dreaming • • • • • • Dreams as meaningful events: Freud (& Jung) Aserinsky, Dement & Kleitman implications Hall/Cartright Dreams as random activity (Hobson +) Synthesis (perhaps) Psychoanalytic Theory • • • • • Mental conflict Unconscious motivations Two forces: impulses & defenses Dreams as a release Dreamwork and its results – Latent dream – Manifest dream – Remembered dream Dreamwork and forgetting as protective mechanisms Poetzel Effect Freud & Neuroimaging • Michael Anderson- Validates Repression: Forebrain active in inhibiting hippocampus on repressed items • Allen Braun: Limbic system-emotion active during REM • Prefrontal cortex (working mem. Attention, logic & selfmonitoring) inactive during REM • Above consistent with dream bizarreness & emotional disinhibition/wish fulfillment • Visual cortex inactive but higher visual areas active so we see w.o. visual input- one of the amazing things about dreaming! Freud & Neuroimaging (Mark Solms) Injured Pons vs. injured Forebrain -Pons-disrupts REM but dreaming goes on. -Forebrain-lose dreaming but REM goes on. -Also, some dreaming outside of REM Role of Motivation (in addition to emotional areas) -Prefrontal leukotomy (white matter in ventro-medial forebrain area) decreases dopamine release. It’s a motivational area “seeking” behavior. -Hartmann: administering dopamine supercharges dreaming! Supportive (in a general way) of Freudian link between motiv. & dreaming. Variations on Psychoanalytic Explanation + Challenges • • • • • Aserinsky, Dement & Kleitman: REM & implications Hall and Cartwright: Dream Series Challenging Views Dreams as random activity (Hobson +) Synthesis (perhaps) as Hobson accepted imaging results Other Neuroscience Views • • • • Crick: Purge extraneous connections Evans: Sorting function on day’s events Winson: Sorting for survival Wilson: Rat Dream article- maze learning during dreams • Hobson: random activity & activationsynthesis hypothesis Hobson: Dream Transformations From: To: Inanimate Animate Character Inanimate Animate Character 21 2 0 0 0 0 0 7 14 Dream Characteristics Lack of active volition Absence of ongoing reflective judgment Limited to phenomena of the immediate present Diffuse cognitive slippage--dreamlike confusiontransformations of perception, thought, memory, emotion, relationships, etc. Gaps in experience: 20% Confusion of thought & irrational intuitions: 41% Problems in sustained attention: 5% Memory deficiencies within the dream: 15% Overall, even 51% of "clearest dreams" had clouding of cs. --Usually not radical (scz, psychedelic) but rather more like that of waking life Can even have hallucinations or psychedelic exper. in dreams (as in waking life!) ex. flying 4%, bizarre figures,4%, changed identity 3%, LSD-like transformations of vision 13%. Mostly visual 47%. Somatic 10%, audit. 14%. Conclusions • Can we obtain meaningful insights about ourselves through our dreams? • What can we learn from our dreams? • Are they meaningful? true / predictive/useful? • Dream problem-solving (Lowie, Kekule)!