Download Ch 1 Concept of Discipline of Psychology It is the scientific study of

Ch 1
 Concept of Discipline of Psychology
 It is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes (people’s actions, their
thoughts, emotions, perceptions, reasoning processes, memories, and the biological
activities that maintain bodily functioning).
 The goals of psychology
 Description
 What is happening?
 Explanation
 Why is it happening?
 Theory - general explanation of a set of observations or facts
 Prediction
 Will it happen again?
 Control
 How can it be changed?
 Different fields and specialties in the field of Psychology
 Behavioral Neuroscience
 Mainly examines how the brain and, as well as other biological processes
determine behavior
 Clinical Psychology
 Deals with study, diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders
 Clinical Neuropsychology
 Unites the areas of neuroscience and clinical psychology: it focuses on the origin of
psychological disorders in biological factors
 Health Psychology
 Explore the relationship between psychological factors and physical ailments or
disease
 Developmental Psychology
 Examines how people grow and change from the moment of conception through
death
 Forensic Psychology
 Legal issues
 School Psychology
 It is devote to counseling and testing children and adolescents from Elementary,
Middle and High School
 Counseling Psychology
 Focuses primarily on educational, social, and carrier adjustment problems
 Cross cultural Psychology
 Investigate the similarities and differences in psychological functioning in and
cross various culture and ethnic groups
 Educational Psychology
 Concerned with teaching and learning processes
 Industrial/Org Psychology
 Psychology of workplace
 Environmental Psychology
 Relationship between people and their physical environment
 Experimental Psychology
 Study processes of sensing, perceiving, learning and thinking about the world
 Psychology of Women
 Women issues
 Social Psychology
 How people’s thoughts, feeling and actions are affected by others
 Sport Psychology
 Applies psychology to athletic activity and exercise
 Research method
 Scientific method
 Question: what is happening here
 Hypothesis
 Test hypothesis by collecting data, analyzing results
 Draw conclusion about investigation’s success or failure to explain event
 Report, share your results
 Psychology: The Scientific method
 Naturalistic observation: observe people or animals in natural environment
 Laboratory observation: observe people or animal in laboratory environment
 Case studies: individual is studied in greater detail, researchers try to learn
everything they can about the individual
 Surveys: ask questions about topic researchers are studying via telephone,
internet, or a questionnaire
 Different early theories in the field of psychology
 Philosophers
 Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.)
 connection between soul and body
 Plato (427 - 347 B.C.)
 dualism – body and soul are separate but interrelated
 Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650)
 modified dualism – mind and body have reciprocal interaction via pineal gland
 How do mind and body interact?
 Wilhelm Wundt
 First psychology lab in Germany (1879)
 Mind consists of basic elements analyzed via objective introspection
 Structuralism - focused on structure or basic elements of the mind.


Wilhelm Wundt’s psychology laboratory Germany in 1879
Developed the technique of objective introspection – process of objectively
examining and measuring one’s thoughts and mental activities.
 Edward Titchener
 Wundt’s student; brought structuralism to America.
 Margaret Washburn
 Titchener’s student
 first woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.
 First woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology (1894)
 Author of The Animal Mind
 Structuralism died out in early 1900s.
 William James
 “stream of thought” vs. elements of mind
 Focus on adaptation, living working, playing—functioning in the real world
 Stream of thought
 Unlike Wundt and Titchener, James believed that trying to study consciousness
was like trying to study the wind. Conscious ideas are constantly flowing in an
ever-changing stream, and once you start thinking about what you were just
thinking about, what you were thinking about is no longer what you were thinking
about, it’s what you are thinking about, and . . . excuse me, I’m a little dizzy. I think
you get the picture, anyway.
 Functionalism - how the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and play.
 Influenced the modern fields of:
 Educational psychology
 Evolutionary psychology
 Industrial/organizational psychology
 Gestalt Psychology
 Max Vertithemier
 Gestalt - “good form”
 Gestalt psychologists believe that people naturally seek out patterns (“wholes”) in
available sensory information

Gestalt principles are relevant to cognitive issues such as learning, memory,
problem solving and relationships.
 Psychoanalysis
 Sigmund Freud
 Neurologist in late 18th century Vienna
 Psychoanalysis – insight therapy for fear & anxiety
 Freud’s patients suffered from nervous disorders with no found physical cause.
 Freud proposed that there is an unconscious (unaware) mind into which we push,
or repress, all of our threatening urges and desires.
 He believed that these repressed urges, in trying to surface, created nervous
disorders.
 Freud stressed the importance of early childhood experiences.

 Behaviorism - the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only.
 Must be directly seen and measured.
 Proposed by John B. Watson.
 Based much from work of Ivan Pavlov who demonstrated that a reflex could be
conditioned (learned)
 Watson believed that phobias were learned.
 Case of “Little Albert” – taught to fear a white rat.
 Functions of the psychologist, psychiatrist and other mental health professionals
 Psychiatrist - a medical doctor who has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of
psychological disorders.
 Psychoanalyst –
 either a psychiatrist or a psychologist who has special training in the theories of
Sigmund Freud and his method of psychoanalysis.
 Psychiatric social worker
 a social worker with some training in therapy methods who focuses on the
environmental conditions that can have an impact on mental disorders, such as
poverty, overcrowding, stress, and drug abuse.
 Psychologist –
 a professional with an academic degree and specialized training in one or more
areas of psychology.
 Can do counseling, teaching, and research and may specialize in any one of a large
number of areas within psychology.
 Areas of specialization in psychology include clinical, counseling, developmental,
social, and personality, among others.
Ch 2
 Neuron
 Neurons - the basic cell that makes up the nervous system and which receives and
sends messages within that system.

 Parts of a Neuron
 Dendrites - branch-like structures that receive messages from other neurons.
 Soma - the cell body of the neuron, responsible for maintaining the life of the cell.
 Axon - long tube-like structure that carries the neural message to other cells.

 Glial cells - grey fatty cells that: provide support for the neurons to grow on and
around, deliver nutrients to neurons, produce myelin to coat axons,

 Myelin - fatty substances produced by certain glial cells that coat the axons of neurons
to insulate, protect, and speed up the neural impulse.

 Clean up waste products and dead neurons.
 Neurotransmitters
 Chemicals that carry messages across the synapse to the dendrite (and sometimes to
the cell body) of a receiver neuron
 Each NT has a distinctive and specific type of Receptor site on the receiving Neuron
 Synapse- A chemical connections that bridges the gap between two neurons
 very important link between the nervous system and behaviors
 Function of the Nervous System
1. Sensing specific information about external and internal conditions (In the example
above, this is seeing your friend).
2. Intergrating that information (This is the understanding of the information coming
from the eyes).
3. Issuing commands for a response from the muscles or glands (This is the reaction of
walking towards him).
 Parts and functions of the Central Nervous System
 CENTRAL – Controls the brain and spinal chord
 Brain
 Controls the body and interprets sensory input
 Sensory neuron - a neuron that carries information from the senses to the central
nervous system. Also called afferent neuron.
 Motor neuron - a neuron that carries messages from the central nervous system to
the muscles of the body. Also called efferent neuron.
 Interneuron - a neuron found in the center of the spinal cord that receives
information from the sensory neurons and sends commands to the muscles
through the motor neurons. Interneurons also make up the bulk of the neurons in
the brain.
 Spinal cord
 Pathway connecting the brain and the peripheral nervous system
 a long bundle of neurons that carries messages to and from the body to the
brain that is responsible for very fast, lifesaving reflexes.
 Functions of the different Lobes:
 Both the left and right hemispheres can be roughly divided into four sections
 Cortex
 Outermost covering of the brain consisting of densely packed neurons, responsible
for higher thought processes and interpretation of sensory input.
 Corticalization – wrinkling of the cortex. Allows a much larger area of cortical cells
to exist in the small space inside the skull.
 The cortex is divided into two sections called the cerebral hemispheres, which are
connected by a thick, tough band of neural fibers (axons) called the corpus
callosum.
 The corpus callosum allows the left and right hemispheres to communicate with
each other”
 Occipital lobe
 Section of the brain located at the rear and bottom of each cerebral hemisphere
containing the visual centers of the brain.
 Primary visual cortex
 Processes visual information from the eyes.
 Visual association cortex
 Identifies and makes sense of visual information.
 Parietal lobes
 Sections of the brain located at the top and back of each cerebral hemisphere
containing the centers for touch, taste, and temperature sensations.
 Temporal lobes
 Areas of the cortex located just behind the temples containing the neurons
responsible for the sense of hearing and meaningful speech.
 Primary auditory cortex
 Processes auditory information from the ears.
 Auditory association cortex
 Identifies and makes sense of auditory information.
 Frontal lobes
 Areas of the cortex located in the front and top of the brain, responsible for higher
mental processes and decision making as well as the production of fluent speech.
 Left side of the brain:
 Seems to control language, writing, logical thought, analysis, and mathematical
abilities, processes information sequentially, can speak.
 Right side of the brain
 Controls emotional expression, spatial perception, recognition of faces, patterns,
melodies, and emotions, processes information globally, cannot speak.
 Cerebrum
 The upper part of the brain consisting of the two hemispheres and the structures
that connects them.
 Split brain research
 Study of patients with severed corpus callosum.
 Involves sending messages to only one side of the brain.
 Demonstrates right and left brain specialization.
 Limbic system
 a group of several brain structures located under the cortex and involved in
learning, emotion, memory, and motivation.
 Thalamus
 part of the limbic system located in the center of the brain, this structure relays
sensory information from the lower part of the brain to the proper areas of the
cortex and processes some sensory information before sending it to its proper
area.
 Olfactory bulbs –
 two projections just under the front of the brain that receive information from the
receptors in the nose located just below.
 Hypothalamus
 small structure in the brain located below the thalamus and directly above the
pituitary gland, responsible for motivational behavior such as sleep, hunger, thirst,
and sex.
 Sits above and controls the pituitary gland (master endocrine gland).
 Hippocampus
 curved structure located within each temporal lobe, responsible for the formation
of long-term memories and the storage of memory for location of objects.
 Amygdala
 brain structure located near the hippocampus, responsible for fear responses and
memory of fear.
 Peripheral Nervous System:
 Transmits information to and from the central nervous system
 Somatic Nervous System
 Carries sensory information and controls movement of the skeletal muscles; Controls
voluntary movement
 Autonomic nervous system
 Automatically regulates glands, internal organs and blood vessels, pupil dilation,
digestion, and blood pressure; the heart, blood vessels, glands, lungs
 Sympathetic
 Prepares the body to react and expend energy in times of stress
 Parasympathetic
 Maintains body functions under ordinary conditions; saves energy
Ch 3
 Concept of Sensation
 The process by which our sense organs receive information from the environment
 Sensation is the activation of receptors in the various sense organs.
 Just noticeable difference
 Smallest difference detectable 50% of time
 Is the smallest difference between two stimuli that is detectable 50 percent of the
time.
 Absolute threshold
 least energy for correct stimulus detection 50% of time
 is the smallest amount of energy needed for a person to consciously detect a stimulus
50 percent of the time it is present.
 Weber’s law
 of just noticeable differences states that the just noticeable difference between two
stimuli is always a constant.
 Subliminal stimuli
 are just below the level of conscious awareness but have not been shown to affect
behavior in day-to-day life.
 Sensory Adaptation
 tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less responsive to a stimulus that is
unchanging.
 Average or Absolute threshold for human vision
 A candle flame seen at 30 miles on a clear, dark night
 Absolute threshold
 Is the smallest amount of energy needed for a person to consciously detect a stimulus
50 percent of the time it is present.
 Habituation
 tendency of the brain to stop attending to constant, unchanging information.
 Concept of Perception
 The sorting out, interpretation, analysis, and integration of stimuli by the sense organs
and brain
 Cones and Rods
 Cornea –
 clear membrane that covers the surface of the eye; protects the eye and is the
structure that focuses most of the light coming into the eye.
 Radial kerototomy
 vision-improving technique that uses this fact by making small incisions in the
cornea to change the focus in the eye.
 Aqueous humor –
 next visual layer; clear, watery fluid that is continually replenished and supplies
nourishment to the eye.
 Pupil
 hole through which light from the visual image enters the interior of the eye.
 Iris
 round muscle (the colored part of the eye) in which the pupil is located; can
change the size of the pupil, letting more or less light into the eye; helps focus the
image.
 Lens
 another clear structure behind the iris, suspended by muscles; finishes the
focusing process begun by the cornea.
 Visual accommodation
 the change in the thickness of the lens as the eye focuses on objects that are far
away or close.
 Vitreous humor –
 jelly-like fluid called that also nourishes the eye and gives it shape.
 Pupil
 hole through which light from the visual image enters the interior of the eye.
 Iris
 round muscle (the colored part of the eye) in which the pupil is located; can
change the size of the pupil, letting more or less light into the eye; helps focus the
image.
 Monochrome colorblindess
 either have no cones or have cones that are not working at all.
 Red-green colorblindess
 either the red or the green cones are not working.
 Sex-linked inheritance.

Ch 4
 Concept of Consciousness
 Awareness of everything going on inside and outside of you
 Waking:
 Thoughts, feelings, sensations are clear
 Altered State of consciousness
 Shift in quality or pattern of mental activity
 Non-REM sleep
 Stage 1:
Theta waves; light sleep; hypnic jerk; hypnagogic images
 Stage 2:
Temperature, breathing and heart rate decrease; sleep spindles
 Stages 3 and 4:
Delta waves; growth hormones released; hard to wake up
 REM sleep
 Rapid eye movement (REM):
 Eyes moving under eyelids
 90% of dreaming
 REM sleep occurs four or five times a night, replacing Stage 1 after a full cycle through
Stages 1 through 4 and then back to Stage 1.
 It is accompanied by paralysis of the voluntary muscles but rapid movement of the
eyes.
 Insomnia
 Inability to get to sleep, stay asleep, or get good quality sleep
 Narcolepsy:
 Person falls immediately into REM sleep during the day without warning
 Cataplexy
 Sleep apnea:
 Person stops breathing for half a minute or more
 How much sleep do people need?
 Young people 7-9 hrs
 Old ppl 4-5 hrs
 Average adult 6 hrs
 Research findings on sleep deprivation
 Adaptive theory:
Animals evolved sleep patterns to avoid predators by sleeping when predators are
most active.
 Restorative theory:
 Sleep replenishes
 Chemicals
 Repairs cellular damage.

 Drug use (tolerance, withdrawal, etc)
 Physical dependence:
 Person’s body becomes unable to function normally without drug
 Withdrawal
 Tolerance
 Negative reinforcement
 Psychological dependence:
 The feeling that a drug is needed to continue a feeling of emotional or
psychological well-being
 Positive reinforcement
 Categories:
 Stimulants:
 Drugs that increase the activity of the nervous system, particularly the
sympathetic division and the central nervous system.
 Amphetamines
 are synthetic drugs such as Benzedrine or Dexedrine. They help people stay
awake and reduce appetite but are highly physically addictive.
 Cocaine
 highly addictive and can cause convulsions and death in some first-time
users.
 Nicotine
 A mild stimulant and is very physically addictive.
 Caffeine
 the most commonly used stimulant, found in coffee, tea, chocolate, and
many sodas.
 Depressants:
 Decrease the functioning of the nervous system
 Barbiturates
 also known as major tranquilizers, have a sedative effect and are used as
sleeping pills.
 Benzodiazepines
 The minor tranquilizers are benzodiazepines such as Valium or Xanax
 Alcohol
 is the most commonly used and abused depressant.
 Alcohol can interact with other depressants.
 Excessive use of alcohol can lead to alcoholism, health problems, loss of
control, and death.
 Narcotics or Opium based
 Class of opium-related drugs that suppress pain and mimic endorphins
 are pain-relieving drugs of the depressant class that are derived from the
opium poppy.

Opium
 is the earliest form of this drug and is highly addictive because it directly
stimulates receptor sites for endorphins. This causes natural production of
endorphins to decrease.

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Morphine
 is a more refined version of opium but is highly addictive
Heroin
 believed to be a purer form of morphine and, therefore, less addictive, but
in fact it is even more powerfully addictive
Methadone
 has the ability to control the symptoms of heroin or morphine withdrawal
without the euphoria, or “high,” of heroin or morphine
Hallucinogens
Cause false sensory messages, altering the perception of reality
stimulants that alter the brain’s interpretation of sensations, creating
hallucinations.
Three synthetically created hallucinogens are LSD, PCP, and MDMA
 LSD
 PCP
 MDMA (Ecstasy)
Three naturally occurring hallucinogens are mescaline, psilocybin, and marijuana.
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Mescaline
Psilocybin
Marijuana
Marijuana is a mild hallucinogen, producing a mild euphoria and feelings of
relaxation in its users.
Larger doses can lead to hallucinations and paranoia.
It contains substances that may be carcinogenic and impairs learning and
memory.
 Hypnogogic hallucinations
 Vivid, realistic hallucinations that occur in Stage 1 sleep are called hypnogogic
hallucinations and are often misinterpreted as ghosts or other supernatural
visitations.
 hypnopompic hallucinations


Similar hallucinations that occur when awakening from REM sleep are called
hypnopompic hallucinations.
Ch. 5
 Concept of Learning
 Relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience
 Pavlov his classical conditioning theory
 Ivan Pavlov
 1849-1936
 Russian physiologist
 Discovered classical conditioning
 Reflexes, stimuli & responses
 Russian physiologist (person who studies the workings of the body) who
discovered classical conditioning through his work on digestion in dogs.
 Classical conditioning:
 Learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural
stimulus that normally produces the reflex.
 Normally, when food is placed in the mouth of any animal, the salivary glands
automatically start releasing saliva to help with chewing and digestion. This is a
normal reflex (involuntary response) in both animals and humans. The food causes a
particular reaction, the salivation. A stimulus can be defined as any object, event, or
experience that causes a response, the reaction of an organism. In the case of Pavlov’s
dogs, the food is the stimulus and salivation is the response.
 Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - a naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an
involuntary response.
 Unconditioned means “unlearned” or “naturally occurring.”
 Unconditioned response (UCR) - an involuntary response to a naturally occurring or
unconditioned stimulus.
 Conditioned stimulus (CS) - stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex
response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus.
 Conditioned means “learned.”
 A neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus when paired with an
unconditioned stimulus.
 Conditioned response (CR) - learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus.
 Sometimes called a conditioned reflex.
 Stimulus substitution - original theory in which Pavlov stated that classical
conditioning occurred because the conditioned stimulus became a substitute for the
unconditioned stimulus by being paired closely together.
 Cognitive perspective - modern theory in which classical conditioning is seen to occur
because the conditioned stimulus provides information or an expectancy about the
coming of the unconditioned stimulus.
 Stimulus generalization - the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to
the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response.
 Stimulus discrimination - the tendency to stop making a generalized response to a
stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus because the similar
stimulus is never paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

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 Extinction - the disappearance or weakening of a learned response following the
removal or absence of the unconditioned stimulus (in classical conditioning) or the
removal of a reinforcer (in operant conditioning).
 Spontaneous recovery - the reappearance of a learned response after extinction has
occurred.
Skinner and his Operant Conditioning
 Behaviorist; wanted to study only observable, measurable behavior.
 Gave “operant conditioning” its name.
 Operant - any behavior that is voluntary.
 Learning depends on what happens after the response — the consequence.
 1904-1990
 Studied observable, measurable behavior
 operant – voluntary behavior
 learning depends on consequences
Reinforcement
 Any event or stimulus that when following a response, increases the probability that
the response will occur again.
 Any consequence that makes a response more likely
Positive and Negative Reinforcement
 Primary reinforcer - any reinforcer that is naturally reinforcing by meeting a basic
biological need, such as hunger, thirst, or touch.
 Secondary reinforcer - any reinforcer that becomes reinforcing after being paired with
a primary reinforcer, such as praise, tokens, or gold stars.
Positive and Negative Punishment (Appreciation and Removal )
 Positive – addition of pleasurable stimulus
 Negative – removal, escape or avoidance of aversive stimulus
 Punishment - any event or object that, when following a response, makes that
response less likely to happen again.
 Application – addition of unpleasant stimulus
 Removal – removal of pleasurable stimulus
 Punishment by removal vs. negative reinforcement
 Punishment by application - the punishment of a response by the addition or
experiencing of an unpleasant stimulus.
 Punishment by removal - the punishment of a response by the removal of a
pleasurable stimulus.
Shaping
 Process of teaching a complex behavior by rewarding closer and closer
approximations of the desired behavior
 Start by reinforcing any behavior that is at all similar to the behavior you want the
person to learn
 Reinforce only the response closest to the behavior
 Finally you reinforce only the desire response

 Noticeable difference threshold
 Little Albert experiment
John B. Watson and his partner, Rayner, chose Albert from a hospital for this study at the age of
almost nine months.[1] Albert's mother was a wet nurse at the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid
Children. "Albert was the son of an employee of the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, where Watson and Rayner were conducting their experiments."[2]
As the preliminary to the experiment, Little Albert was given a battery of baseline emotional
tests: the infant was exposed, briefly and for the first time, to a white rabbit, a rat, a dog, a
monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool, burning newspapers, etc. During the
baseline, Little Albert showed no fear toward any of these items. Albert was then placed on
a mattress on a table in the middle of a room. A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert
and he was allowed to play with it. At this point, the child showed no fear of the rat. He began
to reach out to the rat as it roamed around him. In later trials, Watson and Rayner made a loud
sound behind Albert's back by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer when the baby
touched the rat. Little Albert responded to the noise by crying and showing fear. After several
such pairings of the two stimuli, Albert was again presented with only the rat. Now, however,
he became very distressed as the rat appeared in the room. He cried, turned away from the rat,
and tried to move away. Apparently, the baby boy had associated the white rat (original neutral
stimulus, now conditioned stimulus) with the loud noise (unconditioned stimulus) and was
producing the fearful or emotional response of crying (originally the unconditioned response to
the noise, now the conditioned response to the rat).
This experiment led to the following progression of results:
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Introduction of a loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned
response), a natural response.
Introduction of a rat (neutral stimulus) paired with the loud sound (unconditioned stimulus)
resulted in fear (unconditioned response).
Successive introductions of a rat (conditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (conditioned
response). Here, learning is demonstrated.
The experiment showed that Little Albert seemed to generalize his response to furry objects so
that when Watson sent a non-white rabbit into the room seventeen days after the original
experiment, Albert also became distressed. He showed similar reactions when presented with a
furry dog, a seal-skin coat, and even when Watson appeared in front of him wearing a Santa
Claus mask with white cotton balls as his beard, although Albert did not fear everything with
hair.
 Stimulus Generalization
 Stimulus generalization is another learning phenomenon that can be illustrated by
conditioned taste aversion. This phenomenon demonstrates that we tend to develop
aversions even to types of food that resemble the foods which cause us illness. For
example, if one eats an orange and gets sick, one might also avoid
eating tangerines and clementines because they look similar to oranges, and might lead
one to think that they are also dangerous.
 In conditioning, stimulus generalization is the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to
evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned. For example, if a child
has been conditioned to fear a stuffed white rabbit, it will exhibit fear of objects similar
to the conditioned stimulus such as a white toy rat.
Ch 6
 Concept of Memory
 System that senses, organizes, alters, stores, & Retrieves information
 MEMORY: The process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information

 Steps in the memory process
 Encoding
 The set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to
convert that information into a form that is usable in the brain’s storage systems.
 Initial recording of information
 Storage
 Holding onto information for some period of time.
 Information saved for future use
 Retrieval
 Getting information that is in storage into a form that can be used.
 Recovery of stored information
 Sensory memory
 Main process – pattern recognition
 Iconic memory - brief memory (“literal” cognitive code) of something that a person
has seen.
 Echoic memory - brief memory (“literal” cognitive code) of something that a person
has heard.
 Capacity of the sensory register - The capacity of the sensory register is large, limited
only by the sensitivity/limitations of one’s sensory organs. Capacity of the iconic
sensory register is larger than the capacity of the echoic sensory register.
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 Duration of sensory memories - In real life, information that has just entered the
sensory register will be pushed out very quickly by new information, a process called
masking. Iconic memories last for about one quarter of a second. Echoic memories
last for two to four seconds.
 Capacity – large but not unlimited
 Duration of Sensory Codes – very brief
 Short term memory
 Encoding - visual/auditory
 Visual sketchpad & phonological loop
 Capacity
 “magical” number 7
 expand via chunking
 Duration
 12 to 30 seconds
 maintenance rehearsal
 Short-term memory (STM) (working memory)
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the memory system in which information is held for brief periods of time while
being used.
 Selective attention
 the ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input.
 Capacity
 Digit-span test – memory test in which a series of numbers is read to subjects in
the experiment who are then asked to recall the numbers in order. Conclusions are
that the capacity of STM is about seven items or pieces of information, plus or
minus two items, or from five to nine bits of information. “Magical number” = 7 + 2 so 5-9.
 Chunking – bits of information are combined into meaningful units, or chunks, so
that more information can be held in STM.
 Duration of STM - lasts from about 12 to 30 seconds without rehearsal.
 Maintenance rehearsal - practice of saying some information to be remembered
over and over in one’s head in order to maintain it in short-term memory (STMs
tend to be encoded in auditory form).
 STM is susceptible to interference (e.g., if counting is interrupted, have to start
over).
 Long term Memory
 Rehearsal
 Rote vs. elaborative
 Types of memory
 Procedural
 Declarative
 Semantic memory - type of declarative memory containing general knowledge,
such as knowledge of language and information learned in formal education.
 Episodic memory - type of declarative memory containing personal
information not readily available to others, such as daily activities and events.
 Semantic and episodic memories are forms of explicit memory - memory that is
consciously known.
 Information-processing model of memory
Ch 7
 Concept of Cognition
 Thinking (cognition) - mental activity that goes on in the brain when a person is
organizing and attempting to understand information and communicating information
to others.
 Mental images - mental representations that stand for objects or events and have a
picture-like quality.
 Concepts - ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities.
 Superordinate concept - the most general form of a type of concept, such as “animal”
or “fruit.”
 Basic level type - an example of a type of concept around which other similar concepts
are organized, such as “dog,” “cat,” or “pear.”
 Subordinate concept – the most specific category of a concept, such as one’s pet dog
or a pear in one’s hand.
 Problem solving - process of cognition that occurs when a goal must be reached by
thinking and behaving in certain ways.
 Trial and error (mechanical solution) – problem-solving method in which one possible
solution after another is tried until a successful one is found.
 Algorithms - very specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain types of
problems.
 Heuristic - an educated guess based on prior experiences that helps narrow down the
possible solutions for a problem. Also known as a “rule of thumb.”
 Means–end analysis - heuristic in which the difference between the starting situation
and the goal is determined and then steps are taken to reduce that difference.
 Insight - sudden perception of a solution to a problem.
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 Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences
 Intelligence - the ability to learn from one’s experiences, acquire knowledge, and use
resources effectively in adapting to new situations or solving problems.
 Multiple intelligences - ranging from verbal, linguistic, and mathematical to
interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.
 Verbal/linguistic - Ability to use language
 Musical - Ability to compose and/or perform music
 Logical/mathematical - Ability to think logically and to solve mathematical problems
 Visual/spatial - Ability to understand how objects are oriented in space
 Movement - Ability to control one’s body motions
 Interpersonal - Sensitivity to others and understanding motivation of others
 Intrapersonal - Understanding of one’s emotions and how they guide actions
 Naturalist - Ability to recognize the patterns found in nature
 Existentialist - Ability to see the “big picture” of the human world by asking questions
about life, death, and the ultimate reality of human existence
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 IQ
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Administration to groups of children
Measures various intellectual skills
MA / CA
IQ = MA/CA x 100
IQ = 15/10 x 100 = 150
IQ score  comparison across age groups
Standardization - refers to the process of giving the test to a large group of people that
represents the kind of people for whom the test is designed.
Norms - scores from the standardization group; the standards against which all others
who take the test would be compared.
Deviation IQ - Test designers replaced the old ratio IQ of the earlier versions of IQ
tests with deviation IQ scores, which are based on the normal curve distribution.
Deviation IQ is a type of intelligence measure that assumes IQ is normally distributed
around a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of about 15.
It is very difficult to design an intelligence test that is completely free of cultural bias,
a term referring to the tendency of IQ tests to reflect, in language, dialect, and
content, the culture of the person or persons who designed the test. A person who
comes from the same culture (or even socioeconomic background) as the test designer
may have an unfair advantage over a person who is from a different cultural or
socioeconomic background. Just because an IQ test gives the same score every time a
person takes it doesn’t mean that the score is actually measuring real intelligence,
right? If people raised in an Asian culture are given a test designed within a traditional
Western culture, many items on the test might make no sense to them.
intelligence quotient (IQ) - a number representing a measure of intelligence, resulting
from the division of one’s mental age by one’s chronological age and then multiplying
that quotient by 100.
A French psychologist named Alfred Binet was asked by the French Ministry of
Education to design a formal test of intelligence that would help identify children who
were unable to learn as quickly or as well as others, so that they could be given
remedial education. Eventually, he and colleague Théodore Simon came up with a test
that not only distinguished between fast and slow learners but also between children
of different age groups as well.
The quotient has the advantage of allowing testers to compare the intelligence levels
of people of different age groups. Today, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth
Edition (SB5) is often used by educators to make decisions about the placement of
students into special educational programs. Most children are given this test in the
second grade, or age 7 or 8.
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 Criteria for Gifted in terms of intelligence (IQ)
 Above 130 or 140-145
 Criteria for Mental Retardation in terms of intelligence (IQ)
 Below 25-70
 Emotional Intelligence
 Emotional intelligence – the awareness of and ability to manage one’s own emotions
as well as the ability to be self-motivated, able to feel what others feel, and socially
skilled. Viewed as a powerful influence on success in life.
 Goleman proposed that emotional intelligence is a more powerful influence on
success in life than more traditional views of intelligence. One who is emotionally
intelligent possesses selfcontrol of emotions such as anger, impulsiveness, and
anxiety. Empathy, the ability to understand what others feel, is also a component, as
are an awareness of one’s own emotions, sensitivity, persistence even in the face of
frustrations, and the ability to motivate oneself.
 Although his own work and that of his colleagues provide empirical support for The
concept of emotional intelligence, Mayer has criticized the presentation of emotional
intelligence in popular magazines and best-selling (but nonscientific) books by stating
in an online article for the American Psychology Association, . . . the popular
literature’s implication—that highly emotionally intelligent people possess an
unqualified advantage in life— appears overly enthusiastic at present and
unsubstantiated by reasonable scientific standards.
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Ch 8
 Concept of Human Development
 Study of changes in people from conception until death
 Development of motor skills and primary/secondary sex characteristics
 Development of thinking, problem solving, and memory
 Development of personality, relationships, and a sense of being male or female
 Development of an understanding of rules distinguishing right from wrong
 Down syndrome
 2% to 5% cases are born with birth genetic defects
 Down syndrome
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Extra chromosome
 Phenylketonuria (PKU)
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Inherited disease. Cannot produce enzyme required for normal development.
Poisons cause MR/ test for PKU/treatable if early
 Down syndrome – caused by full or partial duplication of the 21st chromosome
 23 sets of chromosomes or 46 in total
 Dominant and Recessive genes
 Dominant- most active
influencing trait
 Recessive-when paired with a
dominant gene it is pushed back
 Interaction between nature and nurture
 Nature - the influence of our inherited characteristics on our personality, physical
growth, intellectual growth, and social interactions.
 Nurture - the influence of the environment on personality, physical growth,
intellectual growth, and social interactions.
 Behavioral genetics – focuses on nature vs. nurture.
 Menopause
 The point at which they stop menstruating and are no longer fertile
 The cessation of ovulation and the menstrual cycle
 At the age of 40s; the avg of 51