AP Psychology Chapter Summary

PS 102

Chapter 6

Classical Conditioning * Learning: refers to a relatively durable change in behaviour of knowledge that is due to experience * Mild phobias are commonplace * Classical conditioning: is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus * First described by IVAN PAVLOV * Pavlovian conditioning * Conditioning comes from Pavlov’s determination to discover the “conditions” that produce this kind of learning

Pavlov’s Demonstration: “Psychic Reflexes” * Prominent Russian psychologist * Nobel prize winner on digestion * Pavlov studied the role of saliva in the digestive process of dogs, he discovered
psychic reflexes * Accidental discovery * Discovered dogs would salivate even before meat powder was present (by clicking of machine that would dispense the meat powder) * Presented tone with meat powder, and dogs would salivate to the sound of the tone * Pavlonian conditioning evolved because it increases reproductive fitness

Terminology and Procedures * Unconditioned Stimulus: (UCS) a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning * Unconditioned Response: (UCR) an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning * Conditioned Stimulus: (CS) is a previously neutral stimulus that has through conditioning acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response * Conditioned Response: (CR) a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning * Pavlov’s initial demonstration: * UCR and CR were both salivation * When evoked by UCS (meat powder) salivation was the unconditioned response * When evoked by the CS (the tone) salivation was a conditioned response * Trial: any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli

Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life * Phobias * Advertising: associate well known people, celebrities, cute children or puppies with products, positive

Conditioning and Psychological Responses * Affects not only overt behaviours but physiological as well * Robert Adler and Nicholas Cohen * Show classical condition procedures can lead to immunosuppression * Decrease in the production of antibodies * Classical conditioning also relates to allergic reactions, drug tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, sexual arousal, increased sperm release, fetishes

Conditioning and Drug Effects * Drug tolerance: a gradual decline in responsiveness to a drug with repeated use, so that larger doses are required * Compensatory CRs: partially compensate for some drug effects, opponent responses as the result of conditioning with narcotics, stimulants and alcohol * Help maintain homeostasis in physiological processes * Counterbalance some of the potentially dangerous effects of various drugs * Drug administration process can become a CS associated with drug effects * As compensatory CRs strengthen they neutralize more and more of a frugs pleasurable effect

Basic Processes in Classical Conditioning * Most conditioned processes are reflexive and difficult to control

Acquisition: Forming New Responses * Acquisition: refers to the initial stage of learning something * Acquisition of a conditioned response depends on stimulus contiguity * Stimuli are contiguous if the occur together in time and space

Extinction: Weakening Conditioned Responses * Extinction: the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency * The consistent presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone without the unconditioned stimulus leads to extinction * Ex. presenting only the tone without the meat powder to the dogs * Depends on strength of the conditioned bond when extinction begins * Some conditioned responses extinguish quickly, others are difficult

Spontaneous Recovery: Resurrecting Responses * Is the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of nonexposure to the conditioned stimulus * Renewal Effect: If a response is extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear if the animal is returned to the original environment where acquisition took place

Stimulus Generalization * Organisms not only respond to the exact CS but to other similar stimuli * Ex. Pavlov’s dogs may respond to a different sounding tone * Stimulus Generalization: occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to a new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus * Adaptive and common place * Law of generalization: the more similar the new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the generalization

Stimulus Discrimination * Opposite of stimulus generalization * Stimulus discrimination: occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus * Adaptive * Law of discrimination: the less similar new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the likelihood of discrimination

Higher Order Conditioning * In which a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus * Ex. Pavlov’s dogs salivating to a red light that was presented with the tone * Shows that classical conditioning does not depend on the presence of a genuine natural UCS * Based on the foundation of already established conditioned responses

Operant Conditioning * B.F. Skinner * Operant conditioning: is a form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences * Difference between classical: the former regulates reflexive, involuntary responses, whereas the latter governed voluntary responses

Thorndike’s Law of Effect * Operant conditioning = instrumental learning * Thorndike wanted to emphasize that this kind of responding is often instrumental in obtaining some desired outcome * Thorndike = cats in a puzzle box * Law of effect: if a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the association between the stimulus and the response is strengthened

Skinner’s Demonstration: It’s All a Matter of Consequences * Skinner: Pigeons * Skinner demonstrated that organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by favourable consequences * Reinforcement: occurs when an event following a response increases an organism’s tendency to make that response * Response strengthened as it leads to rewarding consequences

Terminology and Procedures * Operant chamber or skinner box: small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is recorded while the consequences of the response are systematically controlled * Allows the experimenter to control the reinforcement contingencies * Reinforcement contingencies: are the circumstances or rules that determine whether responses lead to the presentation of reinforcers * Emit: to send forth * Key dependent variable: response rate over time * Cumulative recorder: creates a graphic record of responding and reinforcement in a skinner box as a function of time * Animals rate of pressing a lever or disk is monitored by the cumulative recorder

Basic Processes in Operant Conditioning

Acquisition and Shaping * Acquisition: refers to the initial stage of learning some new pattern of responding * Operant responses established through shaping * Which consists of the reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response * Is necessary when an organism does not emit the desired response * Ex. releasing food when ever rat moves towards lever in skinner box

Extinction * Extinction: refers to the gradual weakening and disappearance of a response tendency because the response is no longer followed by a reinforcer * Resistance to extinction: occurs when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforce has been terminated * The greater the resistance to extinction the longer the responding will continue * Ex. if a researcher stops giving reinforcement for lever pressing and the response tapers off slowly, the response shows high resistance to extinction

Stimulus Control: Generalization and Discrimination * Discriminative stimulus: are cues that influence operant behaviour by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or nonreinforcement) of a response * Ex. only when a white light is on the skinner box will dispense food when disk is pecked by pigeon

Process & Definition | Description in Classical Conditioning | Description in Operant Conditioning | Acquisition: the initial stage of learning | CS and UCS are paired, gradually resulting in CR | Responding gradually increases because of reinforcement, possibly through shaping | Extinction: the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency | CS is presented alone until it no longer elicits CR | Responding gradually slows and stops after reinforcement is terminated | Stimulus generalization: an organism’s responding to stimuli other than the original stimulus used in conditioning | CR is elicited by new stimulus that resembles original CS | Responding increases in the presence of new stimulus that resembles discriminative stimulus | Stimulus discrimination: an organism’s response to stimuli that re similar to the original stimulus used in conditioning | CR is not elicited by new stimulus that resembles original CS | Responding does not increase in the lack of presence of new stimulus that resembles the original discriminative stimulus |

Reinforcement: Consequences that Strengthen Responses * Skinner: Reinforcement occurs whenever an outcome strengthens a response as measured by an increase in the rate of responding * Reinforcement is defined after the fact, in terms of its effect on behaviour * Superstitions – pigeons * Primary Reinforcers: are events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs * Humans: food, water, warmth, sex, affection * Secondary or conditioned reinforcers: are events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers * Depend on learning, ex. money, good grades, attention, flattery, praise
Schedules of Reinforcement * Schedule of reinforcement: determines which occurrences of a specific response result in the presentation of a reinforcer * Continuous reinforcement: occurs when every instance of a designated response is reinforced * Scientists use this to shape and establish new responses before moving on to more realistic schedules * Intermittent or partial reinforcement: occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time * Makes a response more resistant to extinction * Ratio Schedules: require the organism to make the designated response a certain number of times to gain each reinforcer * Fixed Ratio (FR) Schedule: the reinforcer is given after a fixed number of nonreinforced responses * Variable Ratio (VR) Schedule: the reinforcer is given after a variable number of non reinforced responses * Interval Schedules: require a time period to pass between the presentation of reinforcers * Fixed Interval (FI) Schedule: the reinforce is given for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed * Variable Interval (VI) Schedule: the reinforcer is given for the first response after a variable time interval has elapsed * Ratio schedules tend to produce more rapid responding than interval schedules, variable schedules tend to yield steadier responding * Gambling reinforced according to variable ratio schedules

Positive Reinforcement vs. Negative Reinforcement * Positive: occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus * Negative: occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus * Involves a favourable outcome that strengthens a response tendency * Ex. Skinner box, electric shock given to rat, turned off for a period of time when lever is pressed

Negative Reinforcement and Avoidance Behaviour

Escape Learning * An organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive stimulation * Shuttle box: has two compartments connected by a doorway, opened and closed by an experimenter * Animal placed in one compartment and an electric current in the floor on that chamber is turned on with the doorway open, animal learns to escape by running through the door, strengthened through negative reinforcement

Avoidance Learning * An organism acquires a response that prevents some aversive stimulation from occurring * Ex. experimenter gibes an animal a signal that a shock is coming, ie. A light that goes on prior to the shock

Punishment: Consequences that Weaken Responses * Punishment: occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response * Ex. Sinner box, when rat or pigeon press lever, receive slight shock * May also involve the removal of a rewarding stimulus

Side Effects of Physical Punishment * Produce many unintended and undesirable side effects * Poor quality parent child relationships, elevated aggression, delinquency and behavioural problems, increased likelihood of children being abused * May carry over into adult hood, aggression, criminal behaviour, mental health problems * How to make punishment more effective: * Apply punishment swiftly * Use punishment just severe enough to be effective * Make punishment consistent * Explain the punishment * Use noncorporal punishments, such as withdrawal of privileges

Changing Directions in the Study of Conditioning

Recognizing biological constraints

Instinctive Drift: The case of the miserly raccoons * Instinctive drift: occurs when an animal’s innate response tendencies interfere with conditioning processed * The Brelands (animal trainers), trained raccoons to deposit a coin into a box, with food as a reinforcer, once they gave the raccoons multiple coins they would rub them together * Associating coins with food had brought out the raccoon’s food-washing behaviour

Conditioned Taste Aversion: The “Sauce Béarnaise Syndrome” * Many people develop aversions to food that has been followed by nausea from illness, alcohol intoxication and food poisoning * John Garcia: conditioned taste aversion * Found it was almost impossible to create certain associations, whereas taste-nausea associations (and odour-nausea) were almost impossible to prevent * Natural selection will favour animals that quickly discover what not to eat (ie. Poisonous foods)

Preparedness and Phobias * Preparedness: involves a species-specific predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways and not others * Explains why certain phobias are more prominent then others * Genuine threats to our ancestors (heights, spiders, snakes)

Arbitrary Versus Ecological Conditioned Stimuli * Domjan maintains that researchers should shift their focus to ecologically relevant conditioned stimuli, which may yield somewhat different patterns of learning

Evolutionary Perspectives on Learning * Species have adapted to the specialized demands of their environments * There is no such thing as THE learning process, but there are many learning processes sculpted by evolution * Reject there are universal laws of learning

Recognizing Cognitive processes in Conditioning * Tolman * Theorists to shift toward more cognitive explanations of conditioning

Signal Relations * Rescorla: environmental stimuli serve as signals and that some stimuli are better or more dependable than others (rats)

Response-Outcome Relations and Reinforcement * Highlight the role of cognitive process * Reinforcement is not automatic when favourable consequences follow a response * Response is more likely to be strengthened when the person things the response caused the outcome

Observational Learning * Observational learning: occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models * Albert Bandura * Differences between animal and human learning * Both classical and operant conditioning can take place vicariously through observational learning
Basic Processes * Attention: must pay attention to another person’s behaviour and its consequences * Retention: must store in your memory a mental representation of what you have witnessed * Reproduction: ability to reproduce the response by converting your stored mental images into overt behaviour * Motivation: you are unlikely to reproduce an observed response unless you are motivated to do so

Acquisition vs. Performance * Reinforcement affects which responses are actually performed more than which responses are acquired * People emit responses they believe are most likely to be reinforced

Featured Study: The long-term effects of watching violence on TV * Children’s own increased aggressiveness is associated with observing obsessive behaviour * Bandura wanted to determine if childhood exposure to violent TV programs would predict adult aggression 15 years later * Subjects: 10 year old children, 329 of 577 were located and participated in full 15 years * TV violence viewing was related to their level of aggression as adults

Observational Learning and the Media Violence Controversy * Children are very impressionable and pick up on many responses from viewing models from TV * Including aggressive behaviour * Bobo doll experiments – Bandura * Showed that children would imitate aggressive behaviour directed a Bobo doll by an adult model * The more violence seen on TV, the more aggressive the child will be

Observational Learning and the Brain: Mirror Neurons * Research suggested the relevance of a specific type of neuron – the mirror neuron – in imitation, observational learning, and other facets of social cognition * Mirror neurons: are neurons that are activated by performing an action or by seeing another monkey or person perform the same action * Rizzolatti: Monkeys preform reaching and grasping movements with their hands, and stimulate neurons, and the same neurons were stimulated when they saw an experimenter preform the same actions * “Mirror neurons are neurons that internally represent an action” * Similar mirror neurons exist in humans, frontal lobe and parietal lobe * The relevance of mirror neurons to autism, our understanding of facial expressions, emotion recognition, empathy and language learning

Putting it in Perspective * Nature and nurture interactively govern behaviour * Research on learning demonstrates the enormous power of the environment in shaping behaviour * Progress in psychology spills over to affect trends and values in society at large * Behaviourists’ ideas about reinforcement and punishment have influenced patterns of discipline in our society

Personal Application * Behaviour modification: is a systematic approach to changing behaviour through the application of the principles of conditioning * Antecedents: are events that typically precede the target response * A token economy: a system for doling out symbolic reinforcers that are exchanged later for a variety of genuine reinforcers * Behavioural contract: a written agreement outlining a promise to adhere to the contingencies of a behaviour modification program

CHAPTER 7 Human Memory

* Encoding: involves forming a memory code * Storage: involves maintaining encoded memory over time * Retrieval: involves recovering information from memory stores

Encoding: Getting information into memory * Next-in-line effect: when you forget information said before you speak because your thinking about what you are going to say, ie. Names

The Role of Attention * Attention: involves focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events * Selective attention, without it life would be utter chaos * Without a filter you wouldn’t be able to read, converse with a friend, or even carry on a train of thought * Cocktail party phenomenon: suggests that attention involves late selection, based on the meaning of the input * Studies have found that both early selection and late selection filtering takes place * Locations of attention filter are flexible rather than fixed * Location depends on cognitive load of current information processing * High load (lots of attention): selection occurs early * Low load (simpler tasks): later selection * When people divide their attention between memory encoding and some other task, large reductions in memory performance are seen * Divided attention: * Negative impact on preforming a variety of tasks, especially when the tasks are complex or unfamiliar * Human brain can handle only one attention consuming task at a time * Multi tasking: switching attention back and forth among tasks, driving on a cell phone * Effortful processing: you are picking up information because you are intentionally attempting to do so

Levels of Processing * Attention critical to coding of memories * We focus on different aspects of the stimulus input * People take different strategies when trying to learn new material * Related to activity levels in different parts of the brain * Differences in how people attend to information are the main factors influencing how much they remember * Some methods of encoding create more durable memory codes than others * Incoming information can be processed at different levels * Levels of Processing: * Structural encoding: relatively shallow processing that emphasizes the physical structure of the stimulus (ex. capital letters, length of a word) (SHALLOW processing) * Phonemic encoding: emphasizes what a word sounds like, involves naming or saying the word (INTERMEDIATE encoding) * Semantic encoding: emphasizes the meaning of verbal input, involves thinking about the objects and actions the words represent (DEEP processing) * Levels of processing theory: proposes that deeper levels of processing result in longer lasting memory codes \ * Processing time is not a reliable index of depth of processing

Enriching Encoding

Elaboration: * Semantic encoding enhanced through * Elaboration: is linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding * Additional associations created by elaboration usually help people remember information * Consists of thinking of examples that illustrate an idea

Visual Imagery * Imagery: the creation of visual images to represent the words to be remembered * Used to enrich encoding * Easier to form images of concrete objects than concepts * High imagery words are easier to remember than low imagery * Dual coding theory: holds that memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either can lead to recall

Self-Referent Encoding * Making material personally meaningful * Involves deciding how or whether information is personally relevant

Storage: Maintaining information in memory * Incoming information passes through two temporary storage buffers, the sensory store and the short-term store, before it is transferred into a long term store

Sensory Memory * Sensory memory: preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second * Allows sensation of visual pattern, sounds or touch to linger after the sensory stimulation is over * Vision: people perceive an afterimage rather than the actual image * Gives additional time to recognize stimuli

Short-term Memory * Short term memory (STM): a limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to about 20 seconds * Able to maintain information in short-term memory * Rehearsal: the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information * Maintenance rehearsal: simply maintaining the information in consciousness * Elaborative rehearsal: you are increasing the probability that you will retain the information in the future

Durability of Storage * Without rehearsal, info in STM is lost in 20 seconds * Interference of competing material and time decay contribute to STM loss

Capacity of Storage * STM limited in # of items it can hold * George Miller – The Magical Number 7, Plus or Minus 2 * People remembered only 7 items in tasks that required them to remember unfamiliar material * Can increase capacity of STM by combining stimuli into chunks * A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit

STM as “Working Memory” * STM is not limited to phonemic encoding, decay is not the only process responsible for the loss of information from STM * Alan Baddeley: model consists of 4 components * Phonological loop: is at work when you use recitation to temporarily remember information, evolved to facilitate the acquisition of language * Visuospatial Sketchpad: permits people to temporarily hold and manipulate visual images (like rearranging bedroom furniture in your head) * Central Executive: controls the deployment of attention, switching the focus of attention and dividing attention as needed, also controls the actions of the other modules * Episodic Buffer: temporary, limited capacity store that allows the various components of working memory to integrate information and that serves as an interface between working memory and LTM * Found that processes do not interfere with each other * Working memory capacity plays an important role in complex cognitive processes

Long Term Memory * LTM is an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time * All information stored in LTM is permanent, forgetting occurs because people cannot retrieve needed info (one point of view) * Flashbulb memories: are unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events * Studies suggest they are neither accurate nor as special as believed

Are STM and LTM Really Separate?
* Differences in STM and LTM based on the belief that they used different types on encoding and
forgetting * STM thought based on phonemic encoding (on sound), and on time related decay * LTM thought to be based on semantic (on meaning), and on interference * Views: * View STIM as a tiny changing portion of LTM, in heightened state of activation * Single unitary memory store governed by one set of rules and processes

How is Knowledge Represented and Organized in Memory?
Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies * Clustering: the tendency to remember similar or related items in groups * Factual information is organized into simple categories * Conceptual Hierarchy: a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items

Schemas * Is an organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with the object or event * People are more likely to remember things that are consistent with their schemas than things that are not * People sometimes exhibit better recall of things that violate their schema-based expectations * Relational schemas: represent regularities in your interpersonal experience, affect the way you process information about others and yourself and influence your expectations and beliefs about yourself

Semantic Networks * Consists of nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts * When people think of a word, their thoughts go to related words (Spreading Activation)

Connectionist Networks and Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) Models * Connectionist models of memory take inspiration from how neural networks appear to handle information * Parallel distributed processing (human brain) – simultaneous processing of the same information that is spread across networks of neurons * PDP: assume that cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks * PDP system consists of a large network of interconnected computing units (nodes) that operate much like neurons * Nodes – may be inactive or may send either excitatory or inhibitory signals to other units * Level of activation reflects the weighted balance of excitatory and inhibitory inputs from other units * PDP models: assert that specific memories correspond to particular patterns of activation in these networks * PDP called connectionalism

Retrieval: Getting information out of memory

Using Cues to Aid Retrieval * Tip of the tongue phenomenon: the temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that its just out of reach * Indicated a failure in retrieval * Retrieval cues: stimuli that help gain access to memories

Reinstating the Context of an Event * Context cues: facilitate the retrieval of information, putting yourself in the context in which an event occurred * Also is true for state and mood dependent effects too (ie. Alcohol) * Hypnosis increases the tendencies to report incorrect information

Reconstructing Memories and the Misinformation Effect * Memories are sketchy reconstructions of that past that may be distorted, and include things that did not occur * Part of what people recall is a reconstruction of an event based on their schemas * Show up in eyewitness testimony * Misinformation effect: occurs when participants’ recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post event information * Ex. How fast were they going when the cars hit, or smash into each other? Creates different answers

Source Monitoring and Reality Monitoring * Misinformation effect due to unreliability of source monitoring * Source monitoring: is the process of making attributions about the origins of memories * Contributes to many mistakes people make in reconstructing their experience * Source monitoring error: occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source * Cryptomnesia: inadvertent plagiarism that occurs when people come up with an idea that they think is original, when they were actually exposed to it earlier * Reality monitoring: refers to the process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources (one’s perception of actual events) or internal sources (one’s thoughts and imagination)

Forgetting: When Memory Lapses * Forgetting is adaptive, reduce competition among memories that can cause confusion

How Quickly We Forget: Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve * Forgetting: Hermann Ebbinghaus * Forgetting curve: maps retention and forgetting over time * Shows a precipitous drop in retention during the first few hours after the nonsense syllables were memorized * Conclusion: most forgetting occurs very rapidly after learning something

Measures of Forgetting * Measures of forgetting measures retention as well * Retention: refers to the proportion of material retained (remembered) * Retention interval: the length of time between the presentation of materials to be remembered and the measurement of forgetting * Recall: measure of retention requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any cues (write down as many words as you can from a list of 25) * Recognition: measure of retention requires subjects to select previously learning information from an array of options (write down 25 words from a list of 100) * Relearning: measure of retention requires a subject to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having learning it before

Why We Forget

Ineffective Encoding * Pseudoforgetting: forgetting something that you actually never learning in the first place, due to a lack of attention

Decay * Decay theory: proposes that forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time * The passage of time produces forgetting * Research shows, that forgetting depends not on the amount of time that has passed since learning but on the amount, complexity, and type of information that subjects have has to assimilate during the retention interval * Interference: the negative impact of competing information on retention

Interference * I. Theory: proposes that people forget information because of competition from other material * Interference greatest when intervening material is most similar to the test material * Retroactive Interference: occurs when new information impairs the retention of previously learned information * Occurs between the original learning and the retest on that learning * Proactive interference: occurs when previously learned information interferes with the retention of new information
Retrieval Failure * People often remember things that they were unable to recall at an earlier time * Encoding specificity principle: states that the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code (Tulving and Thompson) * Transfer appropriate processing: occurs when the initial processing of information is similar to the type of processing required by the subsequent measure of retention

Motivated Forgetting * Freud: people often keep embarrassing, unpleasant or painful memories buried in their unconscious * Repression: refers to keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious

The Repressed Memories Controversy * False accusations to teachers, parents and neighbors on sexual abuse in childhood, presented much later in life, due to recovered memories * In most cases the allegations of abuse have been denied

Support for Recovered Memories * Sexual abuse in childhood is far more widespread then thought * Sexual abuse by a parent evokes coping efforts that attempt to block awareness of the abuse because that awareness would interfere with normal attachment processes * Recent upsurge in recovered memories: attributed too increased sensitivity to an issue that people used to not discuss

Skepticism Regarding Recovered Mem. * Critics say people are being convinced by persuasive therapists that their emotional problems must be the result of abuse that occurred years before * Minority of psychologists are under the assumption that virtually all psychological problems are attributable to childhood sexual abuse * Skepticism based on: * Hypnosis: tends to increase memory distortions while making people feel more confident about their recollections * Dream interpretation: based on highly subjective guesswork that cannot be verified

Rebuttals to the Skeptics * Recantation of a recovered memory of abuse does not prove it was false * Laboratory demonstrations that it is easy to create false memories have involved insignificant memory distortions that do not resemble the emotionally wrenching recollections of abuse and are limited relevance to the complexities of real world memories
Conclusions
* Therapists CAN unknowingly create false memories in their patients, memories are the product of suggestion * Some memories are also authentic * The matter needs to be addressed with great caution * Controversy has helped inspire research that increases our understanding of how fragile, fallible, malleable and subjective human memory is

In Search of the Memory Trace: The Physiology of Memory

The Bio Chemistry of Memory * Memory formation results in alterations in synaptic transmission at specific sites * Specific memories depend on biochemical changes that occur at specific synapses * Hormone changes can either facilitate or impair memory, depending on the specific hormone and the amount of change * Other studies: suggest that adequate protein synthesis is necessary for the formation of memories

The Neural Circuitry of Memory * Richard Thompson: specific memories may depend on localized neural circuits in the brain * Memories may create unique reusable pathways in the brain along which signals flow * Long-term potentiation (LTP): long lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway * Appears to involve changes in both presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons in neural circuits * Inspiring drugs that might enhance memory in humans * Long-term Depression (LTD): a durable decrease in synaptic excitability along a neural pathway * May shed light on how forgetting occurs at the level of the synapse * Neurogenesis: the formation of new neurons * May contribute to the sculpting of neural circuits that underlie memory * Newly formed neurons are more excitable than mature neurons

The Anatomy of Memory * Organic amnesia: extensive memory loss due to head injury * Retrograde amnesia: involves the loss of memories for events that occurred prior to the onset of amnesia * Anterograde: involves the loss of memories for events that occur after the onset of amnesia (who you meet, where you park your car) * HM (had procedure to relieve seizures, removed hippocampal region of brain) * Hippocampal region of brain is believed to be critical for many types of long term memory, plays a key role in the consolidation of memory * Consolidation: is a hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long term memory * Memories are consolidated in the hippocampal region and then stored in diverse and widely distributed areas of the cortex * Much of the consolidation process may unfold as people sleep

Systems and Types of Memory

Implicit vs. Explicit Memory * Implicit: is apparent when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering * Incidental, unintentional remembering * Unaffected by age, amnesia and drugs (alcohol), length of retention period and manipulations of interference * Explicit: which involves intentional recollection of previous experiences * Conscious, is accessed directly, assessed with recall or recognition measures of retention * Affected by all factors listed above * Implicit and explicit memory rely on different cognitive processes in encoding and retrieval * Or because they are found in different memory systems (Declarative and Procedural)

Declarative vs. Procedural Memory * Separate memory systems for different types of information * Declarative: handles factual information * Contains recollections of words, definitions, names, dates, faces, events, concepts and ideas (facts) * Handled by the hippocampal complex and far areas of the cortex * Procedural: houses memory for actions, skills, operations and conditioned responses (motor skills) * Contains memories of how to execute such actions such as riding a bike, typing and tying your shoes * Associated with the cerebellum and amygdala

Semantic vs. Episodic Memory * Division of declarative memory * Semantic: general facts (encyclopedia) * Episodic: personal facts (autobiography) * Made up of chronological, or temporally dated, recollections of personal experiences * Record of things you’ve done, seen, and heard, when you did those things, saw them or heard them * Semantic Memory: contains general knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned * Information stored undated *

Featured Study: The Neuroscience of Time Travel * Episodic memory: allows us to think about the past, running record of our experiences * Also linked with our ability to imagine the future * Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis * Suggest that remembering the past and simulating the future should draw on similar kinds of info from episodic memory and utilize similar types of neural processes * Shacter and Addis * Participants: 16 right handed adults (7 males 9 females), 18-33 * Procedure: to use word cues to imagine an event in the future that would occur in a specified time frame, then asked to elaborate on event * Results: brain imaging showed considerable overlap in brain regions active in remembering the past and creating the future * Medial and frontal parietal regions, hippocampus * Right hippocampus only active during construction of future

Prospective vs. Retrospective Memory * Prospective: involves remembering to perform actions in the future (remembering to walk the dog) * Frontal lobe, and medial temporal lobe * Retrospective: involves remembering events from the past or previously learned information (who won the Stanley cup last year) * Event based tasks: involve future actions that should be triggered by a specific cue * Time based tasks: require that an action be performed at a certain time or after a certain length of time has elapsed * Age is a factor that affects prospective memory

Putting it in perspective * Peoples experience in the world is subjective * What you see in the world around you depends on where you focus your attention * When storing a memory of an event, it is not the exact copy, approximation, reshaped as time goes by * Psychology’s theoretical diversity * Theoretical debates about the nature of memory storage, causes of forgetting, and multi memory systems * Behaviour is governed by multiple causes * Memory to a specific event may be influenced by your attention to it

Improving everyday memory * Mnemonic devices: are methods used to increase the recall of information * Overlearning: refers to continued rehearsal of material after you first appear to have mastered it * Serial position effect: occurs when subjects show better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list than for items in the middle * The link method: involves forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together * Method of Loci: involves taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations * Keyword method: in which you associate a concrete word with an abstract word and generate an image to represent the concrete word

* Hindsight bias: is the tendency to mold our interpretation of the past to fit how events actually tuned out

Chapter 8 Language and Thought * Cognition: refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge * Involves thinking

Language: Turning thoughts into Words

What is Language? * A language: consists of symbols that convey meaning plus rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages * Language is symbolic: people use spoken sounds and written words to spoken sounds and written words to represent objects, actions, events and ideas * Symbols allow one to refer to objects that may be in another place and to events that happened in another time * Language is semantic (meaningful): the symbols used in a language are arbitrary in that no built in relationship exists between the look or sound of words and the objects they stand for * Language is generative: a limited number of symbols can be combined in an infinite variety of ways to generate an endless array of novel messages * Language is structured: sentences must be structured in a limited number of ways, rules govern the arrangement of words into phrases and sentences, some arrangements are acceptable and some are not

The Structure of Language
Phonemes
* Phonemes: the smallest speech units in a language that can be distinguished perceptually * Different languages use different groups of about 20 to 80 phonemes * English is about 40 (26 letters in the alphabet and other variations, ch, sh)

Morphemes and Semantics * Morphemes: are the smallest units of meaning in a language * 50000 English morphemes (root words, as well as prefixes and suffixes) * Unfriendly = un, friend, ly * Semantics: the area of language concerned with understanding he meaning of words and word combinations * Learning about infinite variety of objects and actions that words refer to * Words meaning consists of: * Denotation: dictionary definition * Connotation: includes emotional overtones and secondary implications

Syntax * Is a system of rules that specify how words can be arranged into sentences * A sentence must have both a subject and a verb

Milestones in Language Development

Moving Toward Producing Words * Janet Werker: development of language of infants * Optimal periods for the different subsystems involved in language acquisition * Babbling: “lalalalala”, reflects the brain’s maturation in controlling the motor operations needed to eventually produce speech, babbling allows the infant to acquire the basics of language Age | General Characteristics | Months | | 1-5 | Reflexive communication: vocalizes randomly coos, laughs, cries, engages in vocal play, discriminates language from nonlanguage sounds | 6-18 | Babbling: verbalizes in response to the speech of others; responses increasingly approximate human speech patterns | 10-13 | First words: uses words, typically to refer to objects | 12-18 | One word sentence stage: vocabulary grows slowly; uses nouns primarily; over extensions begin | 18-24 | Vocabulary spurt: first mapping facilitates rapid acquisition of new words | Years | | 2 | Two word sentence stage | 2.5 | Three word sentence stage, over regularizations begin | 3 | Uses sentences to tells stories understood by others, uses plurls | 3.5 | Four word sentences | 4 | 5 word sentences | 5 | Well developed complex syntax | 6 | Metalinguistic awareness |

Featured Study: Babbling in the Manual Mode * Babbling is the function of both the maturing vocal tract and brain mechanisms that are related to mechanical structures of speech * Reflects the maturation of the language capacity controlled by the brain * Participants: five infants, 2 deaf, 3 normal * Results: only the deaf infants showed evidence of manual babbling * Manual babbling of deaf infants exhibited most of the properties exhibited by the hearing babies and their babbling * Discussion: deaf infants who are exposed to sign language babble like hearing babies, manually * Therefore babbling is tied to the developing language capacity

Using Words * 10-13 months of age children utter sounds that correspond to words * Toddlers receptive vocab is larger than their productive vocab * Comprehend more words spoken by others then they can utter * Toddlers refer mostly to nouns before verbs because meanings of nouns are easier to encode * Vocabulary spurt 18-24 months * May be attributed to articulation skills, improved understanding of syntax, underlying cognitive development * Fast mapping: the process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure * Overextension: occurs when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than it meant to (ex. ball for anything round) * Underextensions: which occur when a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects or actions than it is meant to (doll for only a single, favourite doll)

Combining Words * Combine words to sentences at the end of the second year * Early sentences telegraphic, resemble telegrams * Telegraphic speech: consists mainly of content words; articles, prepositions, and other less critical words are omitted * Ex. give doll, instead of please give me the doll * Mean length of utterance (MLU): the average length of youngsters’ spoken statements (measured in morphemes) * Over regularizations: occur when grammatical rules are incorrectly generalized into irregular cases where they do not apply * “I hitted the ball” * Occur in all languages * Children are working to master the rules of languages

Refining Language Skills * Metalinguistic awareness: the ability to reflect on the use of language * Irony: involves conveying an implied meaning that is the opposite of a statement’s literal meaning * Sarcasm: is a variation on irony in which there is a caustic element directed at a particular person * Both irony and sarcasm learned in school years

Learning More Than One Language: Bilingualism * Bilingualism: the acquisition of two languages that use different speech sounds, vocabulary, and grammatical rules * More common in Europe and other regions

Does Learning 2 Languages Slow Down Language Development * Bilingual children may have a smaller vocabulary in each language * But when combined their vocabulary is equal or greater than a child speaking only one language

Does Bilingualism Affect Cognitive Processes and Skills * Bilingualism displays some cognitive advantages * On some types of tasks may have a slight disadvantage in terms of raw language processing speed * Bilingualism higher in: * Cognitive flexibility, analytical reasoning, selective attention and metalinguistic awareness * Bilinguals may process language entirely differently, increase density of grey area in the left interior parietal cortex

What factors influence the acquisition of a second language * Age, effects how effectively people acquire a 2nd language, younger better * Acculturation: the degree to which a person is socially and psychologically integrated into a new culture, greater is better * Learners motivation and attitude toward the other group that uses the language

Can Animals Develop Language * Some language like skills have been taught to dolphins, parrots, sea lions and chimpanzees * Chimps do not have the appropriate vocal apparatus to acquire human speech * ASL taught to Chimp Washoe, Allen and Beatrice Gardner * Washoe learned 160 words, and could put together simple sentences (2 words) * Critics: chimps showed little evidence of mastering rules of language, sentences were products of imitation and operant conditioning * Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, studies with bonobo chimps * Chimps communicate by pressing geometric symbols that represent words on a computer keyboard * Kanzi: acquired hundreds of words and has used them in thousands of combinations, could follow actions like “put the coke in the lemonade” * Broca’s area: small region in left hem of brain that is crucial to language production * Chimps do have an analogous area in the left hem * Neurological substrates underlying language may also be present in chimps

Language in an Evolutionary Context * Language us an innate human characteristic * Species specific trait as product of natural selection * Language evolved as a device to build and maintain social coalitions in increasingly larger groups * Genes for language

Theories of language Acquisition * Nature vs. nurture * Environmental factors govern language development (BF Skinner)

Behaviourist Theories * By controlling reinforcement, parents encourage their children to learn the correct meaning and pronunciation of words * Principles of imitation and reinforcement to explain how children learn syntax * Construct sentences by imitating adults and older children * If parents can understand requests of children, they will be reinforced

Nativist Theories * Noam Chomsky * There are infinite number of sentences in language, therefore unreasonable to expect that children learn language by imitation * Children overregulize verbs like “goed, eated”, since adults do not use words like this, children cannot imitate these things as they don’t hear them * Children learn the rules of language not specific verbal responses as skinner proposed * Humans have an inborn or nature propensity to develop language (native, variation on nature) * Nativist theory: proposes that humans are equipped with a language acquisition device (LAD) * An innate mechanism or process that facilitates the learning of language * Biologically equipped for it * Chomsky debates: * How can children develop language in such a short period if they aren’t “wired” for it * Children develop language all at the same time, even though they grow up in different environments

Interactionist Theories – biological and environmental * Chomsky Critics * LAD concept very vague * Interactionist theories: assert that biology and experience both make important contributions to the development of language * Cognitive theories: assert that language development is simply an important aspect of more general cognitive development, depends on maturation and experience * Social communication theories: emphasize the functional value of interpersonal communication and the social context in which language evolves * Emergentist theories: argue that the neural circuits supporting language are not prewired but emerge gradually in response to language learning experiences * Importance of childnren’s learning experience, and information processing * Human organism is biologically equipped for language development

Culture, Language, and Thought * Does a cultural group’s language determing their thoughts, or does thought determine language * Linguistic relativity: the hypothesis that one’s language determines the nature of ones thought * Different languages lead people to view the world differently * Colour perception * People from different cultures think about the world somewhat differently * Evidence supports only a weak version of the linguistic relativity process

Problem Solving: In search of solutions

Types of Problems * Problem solving: refers to active efforts to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that is not readily attainable * Problems of inducing structure: require people to discover the relationships among numbers, words, symbols or ideas (ex. series completion, analogy) * Problems of arrangement: require people to arrange the parts of a problem in a way that satisfies some criterion (string problem, and anagram), solved with a burst of insight * The sudden discovery of the correct solution following incorrect attempts based primarily on trial and error * Problems of transformation: carry out a sequence of transformations in order to reach a specific goal (hobbits and orcs, water jar), challenging,

Barriers to Effective Problem Solving

Irrelevant Information * People often assume that all numerical information in a problem is necessary to solve it * Focusing on irrelevant info can have adverse effects on reasoning and problem solving * Must figure out what info is irrelevant

Functional Fixedness * The tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use * Ex. screw driver only for turning screws, turn it around and use it as a hammer * Young children less effected because less knowledge of conventional uses of items

Mental Set * Exists when people persist in using problem solving strategies that have worked in the past * The tendency to let ones thinking get into a rut * Expertise in an area sometimes backfires and in fact hampers problem solving efforts

Unnecessary Constraints * Problem solving requires specifying all the constraints governing a problem without assuming any constraints that don’t exist * Ex. 9 dots on paper, draw straight lines through each without lifting pen off paper * People make assumptions that impose unnecessary constraints

Approaches to Problem Solving * Problem space: refers to the set of possible pathways to a solution considered by the problem solver (SIMON AND NEWELL) * People must choose from among a variety of conceivable pathways or strategies in attempting to solve problems

Using Algorithms and Heuristics * Trial and error: involves trying possible solutions and discarding those that are in error until one works * Algorithm: a methodical, step by step procedure for trying all possible alternatives in searching for a solution to a problem * Guarantees that one can eventually find a solution * Impractical when problem space is large, therefore inefficient * Shortcut called heuristic * Heuristic: a guiding principle or “rule of thumb” used in solving problems or making decisions * Always allows you to discard some alternatives * Selectively narrow the problem space * Ex. forming sub goals, working backward, searching for analogies, changing the representation of a problem

Forming Subgoals * Subgoals: intermediate steps toward a solution * When you reach your subgoal you’ve solved part of the problem, help solve problems much more quickly

Working Backward * Problems with a well specified end point, you should begin at the end and work backward

Searching for Analogies * Spot analogy between problems, may be able to use the solution to a previous problem to solve a current one * People are often unable to determine if two problems are similar * Tend to focus on superficial, surface features of problems rather than their underlying structure

Changing the Representation of the Problem * How you envision a problem * Problems can be represented verbally, mathematically, spatially * The best representation will depend on the nature of the problem

Culture, Cognitive Style and Problem Solving * Cultural differences in the cognitive style that people exhibit in solving problems * Field dependence – interdependent: refers to individuals’ tendency to rely primarily on external versus internal frames of reference when orienting themselves in space * Field dependent: rely on external frames of reference and tend to accept the physical environment as a given instead of trying to analyze or restructure it * Focus on total context of a problem, instead of specific aspects * Field independent: rely on internal frames of reference and tend to analyze and try to restructure the physical environment * Focus on specific features of a problem and reorganize the component parts * Field independent subjects outperform FD subjects on a variety of classic laboratory problems * Some cultures encourage a FD cognitive style, while others encourage FI * Western, nomadic societies, personal autonomy = FI * Sedentary agricultural societies and conformity = FD * Asian cultures – holistic cognitive style: focuses on context and relationships among elements in a field (wholes) * Western cultures – analytic cognitive style: focuses on objects and their properties rather than context (parts) * Eastern cultures are more field dependent * Cognitive disparities in cognitive style are substantial and that literally different cognitive processes are often invoked by East Asians and westerners dealing with the same problem

Decision Making: Choices and Chances * Decision making: involves evaluating alternatives and making choices among them * Simon’s theory of bounded rationality: asserts that people tend to use simple strategies in decision making that focus on only a few facets of available options and often result in “irrational” decisions that are less than optimal

Making Choices about Preferences: basic strategies * Making decisions involves choices about preferences * People in modern societies are overwhelmed by an overabundance of such choices about preferences * People routinely make errors even when choosing among few alternatives * Choice overload undermines happiness and leads to depression * Additive strategy: would list the attributes that influence his decision * Can weight attributes differently * Elimination by aspects: making choices by gradually eliminating less attractive alternatives * People adapt their approach to the demands of the task * Simple task: additive * Complex: elimination by aspects

Making Choices about Preferences: Quirks and Complexities * Risky decision making: involves making choices under conditions of uncertainty * Uncertainty exists when people don’t know what will happen * People behave in ways that are inconsistent with expected value * People continue to gamble even though odds are against them * Subjective utility: represents what an outcome is personally worth to an individual * Subjective probability: if people don’t know actual probabilities, they must rely on their personal estimates of probabilities

Heuristics in Judging Probabilities * Heuristics: mental short cuts that people use when grappling with probabilities * Availability is one heuristic * Involves basing the estimated probability of an event on the ease with which relevant instances come to mind * Representativeness, another heuristic in estimating probabilities * Involves basing the estimated probability of an event on how similar it is to the typical prototype of that event

The Tendency to Ignore the Base Rates * People underestimate the risks of their own health impairing habits while viewing others risks much more accurately * Risky decision making, people often think they can beat the odds

The Conjunction Fallacy * Probability of being in a sub category is not higher than the probability of being in a broader category * Conjunction fallacy: occurs when people estimate that the odds of two uncertain events happening together are greater than the odds of either event happening along

Evolutionary Analysis of Flaws in Human Decision Making * Human decision making strategies are riddled with errors and biases, yielding irrational results * Research shows animals in natural environments tend to make sounds choices * Humans are poor in cognitive research because it confronts them with artificial problems that do not involve natural categories and have no adaptive significance (hunting, finding food, finding a mate)

Fast and Frugal Heuristics – Gigerenzer * Simpler than complicated mental processes * Work well enough most of the time to be adaptive in real world (no time to go over stats, pros and cons and probability) * Recognition heuristic: if one of two alternatives is recognized and the other is not, infer that the recognized alternative has the higher value

Putting it in Perspective * Nature and nurture * Language acquisition * Science depends on empirical methods * Progress in the study of cognitive processes * Subjective nature of human experience * Research on decision making * Cultural factors * Cognitive processes are moderated

Personal Application * Gambler’s fallacy – the belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn’t occurred recently * Conformation bias – the tendency to seek information that supports one’s decisions and beliefs while ignoring disconfirming information * Belief perseverance – the tendency to hang on to beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence * Overconfidence effect – people put too much faith in their estimates, beliefs and decisions even when they should know better * Framing effect – how decision issues are posed or how choices are structured

Critical Thinking
Shaping Thought with Language * Linguistic relativity hypothesis: the idea that people’s language determines how they think about things * Has not been supported by research * Carefully chosen words can exert subtle influence on people feelings * Politicians, advertisers, and big business have refined art of shaping thought by using language * Semantic slanting: refers to deliberately choosing words to create specific emotional responses