psych_summary.docx

What is a reflex

Thorndike,s Law of effects —> behaviour is engrained relative to the conse-    quences of the behaviour —> eg. Behaviours followed by pleasant effects are   more likely to be repeated, behaviours followed by unpleasant effects less likely to be repeated

Non-reflexive learning

Many species good at learning

(primates, dogs, not just humans)  associative learning is not entirely conscious. conditioning, imitation and habituation n sensitisation

Noxious element (hot stove) recoil and pull our hand back before we are aware    that we are in pain before we can cognitively label those feelings boil in to pro-   tect us so members in the see cis with hose mechanism can pass down those genes to the offspring

Reflex action that is non conscious

Newborn baby (not very conscious, no agency or intention)

Pull our hand away and think reflexes felt synonymously with  conscious inten- tions and behaviours

Moro reflex disappears in adulthood (it does not persist)

Stimulus-response —> nonhuman species; spot animals (non human) they are   not intentional about their actions (reflective side seems to be uniquely human), but they are driven by the biological needs of these actions

Dragonfly not thinking of its actions, they are mostly reflexive, not meta-cogni- tive or intentional of their actions

Not planning in advance,just avoid detrimental things, to acquire food; the predator has reflexes to help it survive

Types f [earning

• 习6i[ity t anticipate the future pryides enrmus suryiya[adyantages as anima[sgain time t prepare

• C[assica[cnditining (frm assciatins 6etween pairs f stimu[i that c- cur sequentia[[y in time)

• Operant cnditining (frm assciatins 6etween 6ehayiurs and their cnsequences)

孔n assciatiye —> changes in the magnitude f respnses t a sing[e stimu[i rather than the frmatin f cnnectins 6etween stimu[i.

叶a6ituatin

Sensitisatin

O6seryatina[[earning —> ccurs when ne rganism [earns 6y watching the actins f anther rganism

• 王g; watch what thers d during afrma[dinner s we knw what t d with the many utensi[s

• 叶as the adyantage f transmitting inf acrss generatins within fami[ies and cu[tures

C[assica[cnditining

(assciatins 6etween stimu[i)

• Iny[untary respnse + stimu[us

• 王g. Fd (uncnditined stimu[us) pairedwith 6e[[ (neutra[stimu[us) t get dg sa[iyating (uncnditined respnse)

• 习fter cnditining, dg sa[iyates (cnditined respnse) upn hearing 6e[[ (cnditined stimu[us)

• Takes time fr cnditining t happen; present neutra[stimu[us with uncn- ditined stimu[us a few times

• T much de[ay 6etween neutra[stimu[us and uncnditinedstimu[us —> n respnse

• 3rd and4th assciatin nwards, may nt 6e a6[e t cnditin the su6ject as it has t d with the sa[ience f the stimu[us

• Gradual development of conditioned responses

• Likelihood of acquisition decreases when the unconditionedstimulus is shown long after the conditioned stimulus

Extinction

• Fading of non-reinforced conditioned response over time

• Happens because new learning overrides old learning

• eg. Bell unpaired with unconditioned stimulus foodfor too long

Spontaneous recovery

• Even though the subject stops responding meaningfully to the stimulus, it could still do so at random

• Don,t fully understand this phenomenon

Operant conditioning

(behaviour associated with conse-

quence; usually involves volun-

tary behaviour)

b.f. skinner + his skinner box.

Punish /reward the animal in the

box with electric shocks /food

•   Afraid of stimuli that fits a general category / once a CRis successfully acquired, organisms show a tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to the CS

•   Eg. Little Albert is afraidof all smallfurry animals because he was conditioned by James Watson to fear the sight / touch of small rabbits (pairedit with loud noises)

•   Survival value —> if our ancestors had one bad experience with a lion, it would make sense to avoid all lions as well as other animals with lionlike characteristics

•   Negative consequence —> soldier traumatisedin combat develops ptsd

Discrimination

•   Make fine distinctions between the implications of stimuli

•   eg. Dog hears sounds of 2 different pitches, food is presented after the higher pitch sound, the dog salivates at that sound and not the lower pitch sound

•   Further experiences with the sound helps the organism distinguish it from other similar sounds, then it loses its ability to elicit the CRfrom the organism

•   Little Albert didn,t fear anything, can pickup on the differences between small rabbit and big dog.

Inhibition

•   A conditioned stimulus predicts the nonoccurence of an unconditionedstimulus

•   eg. Present the light (which signals to the rat that it is going to get shocked) with a sound,  followed by no shock—> the rat learns that it is not going to be shocked in the presence of the sound—> shows no fear

Higher-order Conditioning

•   CRs occur in response to stimuli that predict the CS

•   Allows us to make more distant predictions about the occurrence of significant events

•   eg. Person bitten by dog shows fear the next time the dog is seen due to the sight of the dog   (CS) being associated with the pain of the bite (UCS), over time, the sight of the dog will be – come the UCS, inducing fear in response to other stimuli (hearing it bark or seeing its dog-    house)

Latent inhibition

•   Takes more time to learn about a familiar CS than an unfamiliar CS

•   eg. If we eat a lot of pizzas overtime (familiar CS), but get sickafter eating one —> asso –  ciate the pizza with feeling ill; but if we eat cake for the first time andget sick, we quickly associate eating cake with feeling ill

Counterconditioning

•  Systematic desensitisation —> people relax in the presence of stimulus that elicits fear

—————————————— classical conditioning —————————————

Method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for continuing /stop – ping a behaviour

James Watson thinks can turn everyone into anyone through conditioning and associa-   tive learning —>founder of behaviourism; can condition fear; they are not afraid of the dark—>fear is not natural occurring. Is good to be afraid of things, but newborns and young infants don,t show fear responses —> they need to explore, be interested and not  afraid. Alberts naturalfear response was very low level,just hada startle response at     first

• 卫sitioe —> addsmething t the enoirnment t cntinue the 6ehaoiur

• eg. Laughing at smene when they make ajke

• eg. Wait fr a dg t sit /perfrm a trick then gioe it a treat

• 孔egatioe —> addsmething t the enoirnment t stp the 6ehaoiur

• eg. Remoa[ f punishment: we punish a chi[d when they d smething     6ad, 6ut when they stp mis6ehaoing, remoe the punisher t reinfrce the gd 6ehaoiur.

• 卫sitioe —> addsmething t the enoirnment t discntinue a 6ehaoiur

• eg. When pep[e em6arrass us in frnt f a [arge grup f pep[e, it stps us frm repeating the actin 6ecause we want t aoidfee[ing ashamed

• 孔egatioe —> remoe smething frm the enoirnment t discntinue the 6e- haoiur

• eg. Cnfiscate a chi[d,s ty if they mis6ehaoe s they stp the 6ehaoiur

• Fr chi[dren t cy 6ehaoiur that is un[ike[y t ccur natura[[y, they require

4 cgnitioe prcesses

Repetitin

习ttentin

Retentin

• chi[dwitnesses smene e[se getting praisedfr a 6e- haoiur, raises the [ike[ihd f them imitating it

• Chi[dwitnesses smene e[se getting punishedfr a 6ehaoiur, decreases [ike[ihd f them imitating it

• It is nt permanent

• eg. Chi[dren may mde[ adu[ts andswear, 6ut they sn rea[ise the prper time and p[ace t d s, it des nt persist in the [ng- run

• Chi[dren may mde[ an aggressioe 6ehaoiur, 6ut it des nt mean they are actua[[y aggressioe

• The a6i[ity t [earn frm thers expands ur [earning capacity —> especia[[y when we are a6[e t genera[ise the 6ehaoiur andcme up with cncrete examp[es t prduce effectioe ru[es

May hear a sound, if it keeps returning, we don,t pay attention to it anymore, not in the forefront of our mind

Is functional to pay attention to things that are new and to what is old

Shared understanding of how to label + categorise the world

Not sure whether the develop-    ment of language depends on the environment or it is an innate

feature

quality

Are humans the only species who have developed and use language?

• Humans have specific regions in the brain for functions of   language

• Humans generate new words, meanings, combine words in a novel way to reflect our

thoughts (productively, genera- tively)

• Believes we are born with in- nate capacity for language –   wired up for language, come   into the world with intuitive sense of how language is sup- posed to be constructed

• Universal Grammar: gram-   mar is intuitive, we know of it, are ready to learn it when born

• Common principles to all languages that we have   the readiness to pickup

• innate, genetic mechanism for detecting language

Steven Pinker

• Claims we have more than an innate capacity for language

• also have an intuitive mecha- nism for figuring out lan-

guage

• Our brain is ready for input   and we already have some in- put when we are born

• Believes that language is ac-    quired through principles of op- erant conditioning, including    association, imitation, andre-   inforcement.

nected to language

through the environment

• Humans pass on language they learn to their offspring, primates do not

• Primates are conditioned to learn tricks for rewards —> not truly processing commands

• Primates learn associations with handsignals and commands —> are only responding to verbal commands, not truly communicating

•  ‘language acquisition, is a long and tedious process, researchers do not have enough time /money to continue

Genie,s difficulty with grammar and slow rate of syntax acquisi- tion shows that grammar is not innate, it requires learning and  input

• Period in our development

where we need to be spoken to,  hear words, develop eye contact and respond to nonverbal cues,  when our brain is wired up to   learn language

• Neural connections will not be formed properly without input, infact it will wither away

• Accidental actions, rewards and reinforcements done by the parent to their child

• Parents communicate with   infants by exaggerating and elongating their words, pro-  vide opportunities for infant to repeat, motivate them to   continue

• Caregivers use language that may not be directed to their  infants

• Infants listen to their verbal  commands, how they speak    to other adults IRL or on TV

• Sensory input thus facilitates their progress

• Proves that intense training to improve language is untrue

• Just require basic input from adults / caregivers

• The process of learning is in-  nate, and there is nothing we can do about it

• Enhancing all domains at once is detrimental to the child

Don,t need extensive training to build intelligence —> only need bare minimum inout from care-

givers talking to the children listen to the words to distinguish the

phonemes

Children in Japanese households    process the sounds as similar, Eng- lish households able to distinguish it

Parents —> infant directed speech —> allows infants to pick up on start and end of words —> create bank of words (syntax)

Right brain training —> attempt to speedup the process of learning language and memory —> not actually effective —> pop psych interest in speeding up the process

Doing so can actually be very problematic —> we learn in a particular way —> master one domain before moving to the   next one. Trying to master all the domains —> partial development in many domains —> master motor development, then sensory motor, then language —> having deficit in one domain is actually beneficial

from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning and to overcome obstacles

>>> Ultimately, higher cognition requires mental representation andschemas

(recap; mental representation aids in the   formation of schemas, they become heuris- tics)

How to assess

• How we understand/manifest it de-     pends on us, how we design the metric,  judge an associative skill that correlates to it.

• The way it is measured varies across time and culture

eg. Infants who are breast-fed have higher IQscores than those who are not,   but the experience of being breastfed increases IQonly in children with one     variation of agene, has no effect on IQresults in children with another varia- tion of the same gene

Although many genes are known to influence brain development, none have been con-

cretely linked to high IQ test performance. Likely that a very large number of genes, each having a small impact and interacting with the individual’s environment, contribute to   the development of intelligence

Intelligence is a construct —> can never say it is straight-forwardly genetic —> environment plays a role, but is not 50-50, hard to disentangle the roles —> but the mechanisms (memory, categorisation ability) are innate

Systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between conception and death (womb to tomb~)

thoughts become intentional ac- tions —>

And also strong belief that chil- dren are the future of our soci-   ety so must take care of them    too !

On[y after 22 weeks, then fetuses haoefunctining 6rain actioity —> can

sense, hear, moe in a way that is mre directed than  6efre

• First few weeks after ferti[i- satin and imp[antatin

• C[uster f ce[[s

• Majr rgan deoe[pment

• 王xpsure f infant t teratgens resu[t in terminatin —> 6dy   takes care f issue f nn oia6[e  rgan deoe[pment

• Majr rgan andsensry de- oe[pment, eoerything neces- sary fr neura[ deoe[pment

卫rir t 22 weeks, n fu[[prjectin frm spina[ crdt tha[amus t crtexunti[22-26 weeks, then can start Moe in mre directed way, can hear (cnditined t 6efami[iarised with mther,s oice, fami[iar oices)

• ①isease / drug / enoirn-      menta[ agent that causes se-  oere damage during prenata[ perid

• ①sage

• 叶eredity: genetic makeup can   cause sme t 6e mre suscepti-  6[e t disease due t gene-enoi-  rnment interactins, thers are mre resistant

• 卫r nutritin, [ack f medica[ care

• 卫erid f deoe[pment: germina[ and em6rynic peridresu[ts in   terminatin, ther peridis fa-   ta[ cnsequence

• Causes unnecessary stress    that impairs deoe[pment f infant

• Mst infants turn utfine   despite expsure t terat –    gens —> they d nt usu-    a[[y haoe negatioe effects n

pregnancy

• We are cnstant[y expsed t teratgens in ur eoery-  day [ife —> sti[[ turn ut  k

• ①etect sme[[, changes in [ight andsund, tacti[e stimu[atin

• Least deoe[ped sense is oisin —> nt much input in-uter, it is dark

• 卫erceptin cmes much [ater as it requires interpretatin —> knw[edge and mre cgnitin

• Una6[e t determine oer6a[[y what the 6a6y thinks, 6ut can judge frm their facia[ expressin

• Curisity —> 6etter fr them t exp[re rather than 6efearfu[/inhi6it themse[oes —> d nt haoe fight /fiight respnse —> [imited mtr ski[[s s they can ,t defend themse[oes

• eg. Ba6y accustmedt mther,s attentin —> when mther stps gioing 6a6y attentin, 6a6y     screeches and uses actins t gain 6ackattentin —> withut attentin, 6a6y fee[s the stress f it —> [ses psture and cries

Start at 8 months

• Self-location: when we experience things, we do so through our own consciousness • Rouge-test self-recognition

• 0 – 2 years

• Here and now rather than past andfuture

• Exploring through moving andsensing

• Object permanence (connected to growth in pre-frontal cortex)

• Development of language leads child into per operational stage

• 2-6 years old

• Child still unable to engage in internal mental operations /manipulations

• Language acquisition

• Conservation —> changing the form / appearance of an object does not change its quantity

• Egocentrism —> inability to understand points of view other than their own

Logical but not abstract reasoning Learning by doing

Mastery of conservation problems

eg. Luis is eight years old. He is becoming quite good at arguing with his parents over what his bedtime should be, whether he has eaten enough of his supper to have dessert, etc. He loves

toys and projects that involve hands-on learning

Individual differences in temperament are representative of genetic differences Interacts with socialisation provided by parents and also by their own culture Interacts with eh success /failure of conditioning

Most babies fallin calm, or fussy —> extreme cases of good babies (very easy, not common,   sleep though the night and are not fussy) vs difficult babies (very hard to condition them as    they have a difficult temperament, too much going on with them so they can,t focus on the re- ward/punishment)

• Baby wanders the room freely, away from the mother

• When mother leaves room, baby searches for her, cries and shows signs of distress —> stillgreets her warmly when she returns to the room

Insecure attachment

• Avoidant—> did not seem uncomfortable when mother left room, allowed themselves to be com- forted by the stranger in the room —> when mother returned, did not approach her immediately

• Anxious-ambivalent—> uncomfortable when mother left the room —> was clingy and rejecting to- wards her when she returned

• Disorganised—> confused and not well attached—> contradictory behaviour such as approaching her and walking backward

High warmth, low control—> one-way communication as the childgets to dictate what they want to do

Negligent

Low warmth, low control—> lack of nurturing care to the child

Authoritarian

High control, low warmth —> one-way communication and parent punishes child without rationale authoritative

High control, high warmth —> communication is 2-way, parents explain rationale behind punishment

• Epigenetic influences accumulate over the life span

• Younger children have had less time for epigenetic interactions between their genes and their experience to take place —> have more in common with one another at a particular age than do older adults, whose decades of experience have caused their epigenetic

paths to lead them in different directions

• Contrast between children and adults may have led earlier psychologists to mistake that development stops at some point in child-   hood/ adolescence, but all they were seeing was a transition point where internal influences were becoming overshadowed by exter- nal ones

• 孔t sure if it is refiexioe /refiectioe —> when d the infants p[an their actins instead f it just 6eing refiexioe?叶w much is the infant in charge f its wn deoe[pment? Or is deoe[pment just happening 6ased n genetics and nt the infant?

• Cntinuus os discntinuus —> des deoe[pment prceedgradua[[y andsmth[y oer time r changes a6rupt[y frm ne stage t the next?

习ccmmdatin —> the incrpratin f new [earning int an existing schema that require reoisin f the schema eg. When chi[dren [earn a6utfiight[ess kiwis, a change in their 6irdschema is required

Converting information into a

form usable in memory for subse-

quent retrieval

Where things tend togo wrong

Retaining info in

memory

The physical mappings of where memories are stored is poorly under- stood (hard to under-  stand where memories are stored, how exactly are they remembered

We know the least about storage; only  representatively

Recalling info stored in our

memory

Problem boils down with ex-

cess info getting in the way

—> storing way too much

info, not enough room for it,

too taxing on the info we al-

ready have —> interference

theory

cannot remem–

ber stuff

back, have to filter out all this info so we can focus on the main task)

•   We think we can encode information passively and retrieve the information later —> NO canNOT—> we need to attach incoming information to existing ones, rehearse it proactively

•   When we repeat stuff but then we get distracted, we encode stuff wrongly

•   Too much information to store

•   Proactive interference —> old memory interferes with our ability to retrieve new info

•   Retroactive interference —> new info interferes with our ability to recall old info

•   When we recall info —> create new short-term memory —> opportunity to recall wrong info / add new info in —> therefore inaccurate

member stuff

properly

Higher likeli- hood of at-  taching info  to our self

•  Suppress distractors, heighten interest, decrease likelihood of en- coding failures, increase likelihood that we remember the info

•  More attentive to novel info that is surprising —> they have the potential to harm us

•  Interesting info tends to engage us more

•  Visual representations (neuron)

•  Associated with the neutron

•  Able to make meaning with the pictures compared to just looking at words

•  Can chunk info in our ~mind palace~ (visual representation where we can attach info into a visual section) condense a lot of info

into a smaller piece of info that we hold on to

•  Encodes info as a smaller whole

•  Associations (hippocampus)

•  Encode more info because we are able to attach new info to old info associate new info with something that is already well-en- coded

•  Chunking

•  Grouping similar or meaningful info together —> in the absence of chunking, each item is processed as a single, unrelated item to remember, which rapidly overwhelms the capacity to remember

•  We don,t have a good system for taking in a lot of info, thus have to take in info in certain ways

•  Mnemonics —> memory aids that link new info to well-known info

•  Loci —> representations of visual images in memory

• Find out the big question, the context of what they are remember- ing first

Repetition works the least effectively

Can be interfered with, encode the wrong info,

Shows process of moving

sensory information from the environment to our long-

term store

•  Holds large amounts of incom- ing data for brief amounts of   time

•  Input from different sensory

systems remains separate in sen- sory memory (visual, haptic and acoustic codes)

•  Described as a raw, immediate  memory that it much like an af – terimage

•  We are passively bombarded     with info, if we pay attention   to a sensory info, can move info into short term memory

•  Acoustic codes (echoic memo- ries) last longer than visual

codes to meet our needs to hear entire words and phrases before we can understand spoken lan-

guage

• Holds small amount of info for a limited time

• If we rehearse apiece of info from sensory memory, it can stay in our short-term memory indefinitely

• Limitations in capacity and duration —> but actually makes it idealfor tasks that we need to complete —>   free up room regularly for incoming information

• If can hold many pieces of info, search process is lengthy and difficult

• But chunking allows us to relate info we need to re- member so it doesn,t overwhelm the capacity of

shirt-term memory

• When we retrieve info from our short-term memory, we  search through it one item at a time, rather than retrieve all the content at once

Moving info into long-term memory

Through rehearsal—> maintenance rehearsal (simple repetition) and elaborative rehearsal (attaching new mate –

rialto things we already know)

Elaborative rehearsal—>  levels of processing theory —> words —> visual appearance, sound of word, meaning

of word and personal relevance of word (order of increasing effort needed to encode the info)

•  Semantic

•  objective, thematic understanding of words

• general, agreed-upon words

•  Labels for categories

•  We have multiple experiences with the words

•  Episodic

•  Subjective recall of memory

•  eg. Recall an interaction with a cat, recall something from long term mem- ory

•  Very related to us because we see everything happening in the event through our own perspective

•  Autobiographical memory

•  Both semantic and episodic memory give rise to this; takes place over our lifetime, find a narrative that relates to our life

•  Eg. We combine our personal experiences andspecific objects, people and events experiencedat a specific time and place, andgeneral knowledge    about the world—> story about our pet cat and it getting lost, having   interactions with family members

•  Classical conditioning

•  Procedural memories

•  Tellus how to carry out motor skills and procedures that are difficult to describe in words

•  We perform the skill automatically once we have done it many times —> can spend more attention perfecting the skill once we have masteredit

•  eg. walking, driving car

•  Priming

•  Change in our response to a stimulus due to pre-exposure to related stimuli, explains everyday effects of familiarity

•  Effects of priming are hard to test

•  Spreading actioatin mde[—> pep[efrm their wn rgani-  satins in memry 6ased n their persna[ experiences —> first wrd actioates a cncept —> spreads t cnnectedcncepts     and prperties —> a[[ws quick decisin t 6e made

•  But  cncepts differ in strength f their cnnectins (sme pe –  p[e haoe c[ser [ink in their memries eg fruits: think f range first then aocad)

•  Unre[atedwrds wi[[ take [nger time t make decisin

When we encunter new inf, attempt t fit int  ex-  isting set f expectatins a6ut 6jects and situatins ①etai[s cnsistent with ur schemas are mre [ike[y t 6e retained, incnsistent detai[s are [eft ut

We are the n[y species that can p[an /.haoe menta[ representatin f what we want t d

习ctioate schemas after hearing /seeing misce[[aneus detai[s

Start with categrisatin —> oery simp[e then we [earn mre

①efine a categry eg. 习nima[s, within that categry  there are anima[s with 4/2 [egs, furry r nt —> 6ut t 6rad, we encunter a dg —> identify different perpetua[features (furry, 4-[egged andis sma[[) —>  might identify the anima[ as a dg 6ecause we haoe   the inf gioen t us, actioate the schema fr the ani-  ma[ that is the dg. Quite effrtfu[in ur ear[y years. Is it agdexemp[ar f the categry?

If ntgdexemp[ar —> cgnitioe disequi[i6rium — > smething that a[erts us that it is nt the same —> noe[, des ntfit the categry f “dg” 6ut we ca[[it cat

卫ick up n shared qua[ities —> prduct the wr[d we are in

①n,t prcess the new inf as smething different — > steretype —> anther exemp[ar f a categry we  a[ready haoe

Stimulus that helps us access target info

Recognition > recall (which require

fewer retrieval cues but are more diffi-

cult to complete)

Easier to remember concepts if we re-

late them to our personal experiences

Encoding specificity —> baddeley,s ex-

periment —> encode specific bits of in-

formation andfeatures of the environ-

ment to the memory

Retrieval occurs step by step, can remember the

first part of a word/concept, but may not be

able to recall the rest

Building a memory out of

stored content by blending re-

trieved info with new content

present in working memory

Loses the true original events

or distorts certain facts

Unreliable eyewitness testi-

monies —> affected by leading

questions

Emotional moments form strong memo-

ries —> help us respond effectively to

similar situations in the future

Flashbulb memory —> able to recall

exact, vivid moment of the memory

Ability to retrieve info that we do not use fades overtime

Stays in long-term memory but we

haven,t used the memory in so long

that it atrophies

We also decay in terms of our physical

entity overtime

99% of humans suffer from dementia

Failure to retrieve unpleasant / threat-

ening info

Disruption of memory caused by inter-

ference of previously /newly learned

material

Happens in the window of time in

which memories are being processed but

not fully consolidated—> subjected to

distortion, loss, or replacement

Is part of our core executive system, cannot switch off, necessary for every aspect of con-

scious functioning

Interplay between old    and new, short term and long term

Eg. Retain information while we pay attention to something else.

Create mental represen- tation of old and new,  recall the words that    have meaning to them,  and also applying the   meaning actively as we hear it

Responsible for verbal and auditory info

Mechanism for combin- ing info stored in long-  term memory

If not everything will amalgamate into a

murky confusion

Allows us to divide out attention —> decides   how much attention we need to spend on either  task (visualise andsay  info) to do them well

• Short-term memory involves the passive storage of info, working memory involves an active ma- nipulation of info

• Short-term memory is viewed as managing a sin- gle process at a time, working memory is more     complex, allows multiple processes to occur si-    multaneously

• Primacy —> recall of first few items on list as  they stored in the longterm memory (able to re-  hearse teh words the most, move into long-term memory)

• Recency —> recall last words on list (words that remain in the working memory)

able to remember small    amounts of info for few   seconds, face difficulty    when storing new info in long-term memory

K. F. —> able to form new memories (long-    term!) but can,t recall  list of digits (working  memory)

–  foundation of our thoughts

–  Refers to inner mental world that no one has access to

–  Allows us to engage in sym- bolism

eg. They see the ba-  nana as a phone be- cause of the shape

Heuristics ! —> mental shortcuts that help us predict the world in an effi-

cient way

• Eg. “not if but when”SG     Secure poster —> see it ev-   erywhere (public transport    etc) —> Think there is high  likelihood of terrorist attack in Singapore

• eg. Person wears glasses is    smart BUT may not be true as visual impairment is not  indicative of intelligence — > may led to self-fulfilling   prophecy where we actually become smart because so

many people tellus that we are —> start to engage in   more “academic” pursuits,    studying hard

• eg. Michelin tire associates   feelings of warmth and love  as it the tire is pictured with a baby—> when we want   to buy tires, think of this

sense of family, buy into no- tion that purchasing the tire ensures that we will always have this sense of security

• Start to think that the

world is very predictable, we become biased in ourjudge-   ment and decision-making

• Schemas areformedfrom our own memories and experi-     ences, they are specific to us,  causes blindspot in situa-     tions we have not encoun-    tered before

Exemplars provide a better way of thinking about the variability of a category than prototypes

Power of the situation —> by failing to fully appreciate it, we tend to:

– oversimplify complex situations

– decrease our understanding of the true cause

– blame the individual when people are overpowered by socialforces

Negative outcomes —>jump to situationalfactors

Positive outcomes —> attribute it to our own efforts, look at ourselves in an overly favourable man- ner —> self-serving bias —> cognitive process distorted by our need to maintain and enhance our    self-esteem

Why d we cnfrm

• uncertain a6ut what t

• Reduce risk f rejectin frm scia[grup which ensures ur suryiya[

Cmp[iance —> agree t d smething simp[y 6ecause antherpersn asks us t d it, eyen if they haye n authrity yer us

Why d we cmp[y

• Want t frm new re[atinships

• In the presence f physica[[y attractiye pep[e

• Reciprcatin —> dr-in-the-face technique, ft-in-the-dr technique, [w-6a[[ing tech-

nique

O6edience —> cmp[iance with the request f an authrityfigure Why d pep[e gain 6edience f thers

Our perceptin f their [egitimacy

• ①epends n: if ur indiyidua[ effrts are eya[uated—> if nt, we are nt cnceded 6y ur perfr- mance in the grup

• 王nhanced/impeded 6y thers in the grup

• Lss f indiyidua[identity —>frget ur wn 6e[iefs and actins —> d things we nrma[[y wu[dn,t d a[ne

• 习nnymity

• M6 effect —> endrse andadpt the grup 6e[ief as ur wn

• pep[e fee[ [ess accunta6[e

• increases 6edience t grup nrms

• eg. Scia[media tr[[s are nt in actua[physica[grup tgether 6ut they sti[[pssess “perceiyed pwer” t cndemn thers

• Decision-making —>groups only do well if the most talented member can convince others that he is right

• Why are groups unable to find the most competent member?

• Members don,t try hard enough to do so

• No time

• Most competent leader cannot identify themselves

• Or they feel the pressure to conform to the group as they do not want to be different from oth- ers

• Groupthink is most likely to occur when the group is:

• Highly cohesive —> close friends

• Isolatedfrom contrary opinions

• Ruled by a directive leader who makes his /her wishes known —> everyone acquiesces to the  mean even if they have differing opinions —>final opinion does not have to reflect everyone,s individual opinions

• Downside of groupthink—> lack of differing / dissenting opinions can result in an echo chamber

• Diffusion of responsibility —> understand that there is a problem, expect others to solve it —> responsibility decreases as the number of witnesses increases

Humans constantly trying to make sense of the world—> assessing situations, observing the condi- tions of the situation

Ourjudgements are based on construals —> made on our subjective interpretation of the world VS what is actually studying

Tend to process the whole of the situation without spending sufficient time on the details within the whole

Construals formed through global overall assessment of the situation VS detailedfocus on smaller components the give us accurate info

Limited capabilities —> unable to process everything

Schemas + knowledge from previous experiences; avoidspending too much time and effort evaluating every new situation we encounter

Give rise to inaccurate conclusions about the world, not focusing on relevant details

eg. Explains why negotiations between nations are so hard—> each nation thinks they are in the right

§rupish, fee[mre pwerfu[ in a grup 叶umans hade existentia[ cncerns

Knw[edge f ur temprary existence, urfuti[ity, that we wi[[ cease t exist, scares us —> want t [eade 6ehind/ engage in smething meaningfu[s ur [ife desn’t ~g t waste~

In a grup, ther pep[e cntri6ute t ur we[[6eing Being accepted—> we adhere t the grup’s nrms

①n’t necessari[y endrse the nrms pridate[y, 6ut we cmp[y s we can 6e accepted 6y the grup

eg. 习LS Ice Bucket Cha[[enge —> meant t raise awareness f the disease —> 6ut pep[e started ding it t fit in, nt 6ecause they knw its purpse

• ①istrt the wr[din rder t fee[gda6ut themse[des √S represent the wr[d accurate[y 叶w are pep[e’s se[f-esteem affected 6y different factrs?

• 卫ep[e find meaning in 6e[nging t 6e[nging t mu[tip[e scia[grups; 6e[nging t sme- thing [arger than se[f

• Cu[ture: pep[e in c[[ectidistic cu[tures adid standing ut frm the grup; thse wh are mdest dwnp[ay their utward perceptin f se[f esteem

What are the addantages f se[f-esteem

• 习cts as a 6uffer when we hear 6ad news

• Cntri6utes t the maintenance fgdscia[re[atinships What happens when ur se[f-esteem is threatened

• Cgnitide dissnance; hw t a[[ediate?

• Change 6ehadiur

• Justify 6ehadiur 6y changing ne f the dissnant cgnitins

• Justify ur 6ehadiurs 6y adding new cgnitins

• Ignre / deny inf that cnfiicts existing 6e[iefs

• Se[f-afirmatin (adding psitide cgnitins a6ut urse[f)

The diew that pep[e are amateur s[euths, ding their 6est t understand and predict their scia[ wr[d (hwpep[e prcess, stre, and

app[y infrmatin a6ut ther pep[e andscia[situatins.)

①uring decisin-making

Make use f representatin, adai[a6i[ity and affect heuristic Steretyping

Make use f these shrt-cuts t make judgements n pep[e (eg. gender, race, cu[ture)

Representative heuristics —> snap judgements formed on people eg. Perceived relationship between people who wear GLASSES and intelligence —> society treats these people a certain way through- out their life —>further affects their behaviour in society —> has an effect on their own judge-     ment of their actions

Inter-personal relationships —> we project our beliefs of our partner onto them —> they start to conform to that belief through their actions

When we change our attitudes in response to info provided by others

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Organises and predicts our responses to persuasive messages by recognising 2 major pathways leading to

changes in attitudes

Receiver actively processes info, focuses on rationality of the argument

Subsequent attitudes are more enduring, resis- tant to counter-persuasion, more predictive of  behaviour

Employed when the receiver is knowledgeable about a topic, or they have the motivation to think about the  topic

Receiver not actively processing info, insteadfocuses on

peripheral cues such as attractiveness of the speaker,

Subsequent attitudes less enduring or resis-

tant

Employed when the receiver is knowledgeable about   the topic but they just don,t have time to think about it /don,t care about it —> shortcuts provided by this route more useful

Applies to the persuasive message, the manner in which the message id presented (speed, accent) or traits of

speaker (attractive, credible)

Limited time, knowledge and cognitive resources, thorough evaluation of all the messages we perceive is not practical

Peripheral route allows us to use heuristics, rules of thumb to react promptly

Fatalism

Stuff that we can,t control/happened to us during our childhood that contributes to our current behaviour

Psychosexual stage

Failure to resolve the conflict has long-term impacts on our behaviour

Eg. Oral stage —> newborns put everything into their mouths —> improper weaning off breastfeeding —> become fixated with the lack of contact of the breast and their mouth   —> results in oralfixation as an adult (eg. nail-biting, smoking)

3 personality types

Id (present at birth) —> pleasure principle —> primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories

Superego (develops at 5) —> morality principle —> internal moral compass guiding us in the best direction —> punishes our ego through guilt —> develops when the child begins to internalise society,s rules for right and wrong (conscience)

Ego (develop at 2) —> reality principle —> mediates between the desires of the id and superego through defence mechanisms —> cost-benefit analysis, practical reasoning —> component of personality that is readily seen by others, acts as the person,s self

Resolution of conflicts between the 3 personality types —> emergence of personality traits; continuing conflict —> neurosis

Personality is blank at birth —> develops in the person we are based on learning (through classical and operate conditioning)

Reinforced by caregiver—> positive reinforcement

Despite our predisposition, we develop personality traits through conditioning

Positive perspective about people —> we are civilised—> able to cultivate the ability to manifest  our own destiny —> have the power of choice, reasoning, the ability to live in accordance with our goals and desires —> maximise their individual potential

But criticisedfor not being scientific in their methods

Most interested in the process by which personality develops

Understanding the context of our situation + our construals —> we are who we are depending on the context of the situation

Internal locus of control—> belief that we have the power to change; we are in control of our life and all the good/ bad things that occur

External locus of control—> things just happen, we are passive to what happens in the  world—> can have positive outlook (learn from the things that happen) or negative out- look (no point in trying ti change)

A trait is a stable personality characteristic

Openness —> appreciation for fantasy, actions, ideas —> people are curious, imaginative, explo- rative

Conscientiousness —> competence, order, self-discipline —> people are reliable, workhard

Extroversion —> warmth, assertive, seek excitement —> seek social activity andfindit invigorat- ing VS introversion (reserved, passive, recharge by having time to themselves)

Agreeableness —> trusting, altruistic, modest —> people are cooperative and likeable Neuroticism —> anxious, angry, depressive, vulnerable —> has survival advantages

Criticisms of such surveys

• Does not capture the full complexities, nuances of behaviour —> and there are very few options on the scale

• Should not combine small traits into one big label—> there are contradictions between the traits, we lose the depth and complexity of what a person is

• Cannot consider one trait in isolation —> they act together—> high score on all traits is not the ideal

• Our own understanding of the traits are subjective, varies from person to person

• Ultimately our personality varies from situation to situation

Rorsach test —> test for subjective interpretation of how a person perceives an image that is mean- ingless to judge one aspect of their similarity

Child,spattern of mood, activity or emotional responsiveness

Belief that it is biological in origin, but begins to interact with the social and physical environments Eg. Brave, fearless child chooses different actives to do and is treated differently than a

shy, cautious child

Research done during twin studies —> twins similar despite being raised in different households

Shared experiences which affect all members of a family + non-shared experiences which affect only the individual

Certain traits are more prevalent as they are functional—> help us survive, cooperate with others so we survive

• People like to gain insight about themselves

• Cultural and social variations

• Amalgamation of theories —> makes theories murky

considered to be a spectrum until very recently

Technological advancements More $$$ to research

More ways of assessment

Refers to behaviour that is unacceptable in society

Characterised as social impairment, the inability to process the emotions of others Repetitive patterns of behaviour

Limited/non-functioning theory of mind

ADHD

Characterised by inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity

Typically considered a childhood disorder

Criteria used to diagnose them are broadening, the disorder is now on a continuum —> people on the mildside can also be diagnosed

Late onset diagnoses —> people never different stages of their life, bring out the disorder (eg. Med school is stressful environment)

Autism also has more coverage in the media, people are trying to figure out its causes, ongoing debates

Treatment of

ADHD also very effective —> parents rush to ‘deal, with their children because they are

‘hard to deal with,, but it couldjust be a developmental phase —> thus treatment could bring more harm

Typically diagnosed in adolescence of the person —> due to abnormal prefrontal cortex development, dopamine-deficiency and G E NES

In the past, there was only an arbitrary method of diagnosis —> was not done systematically or thor- oughly —> proven by Rosenhan

Sent out confederates to mental hospitals who were diagnosed and treated, when confessed to conducting an experiment, they were not believed—> had to feign ‘getting better, in order to be releasedfrom the hospital

Another experimenter criticised the experiment —> subsequently many reports of ‘confeder-    ates,going to hospitals to get diagnosed, people assumed rosenhan was still conducting the ex- periment —> but he wasn,t !

Experiment raised many questions, pushedfor more robust standards of diagnosis to be established

Characterised as loss not interest /pleasure in usual activities, changes in sleep pattern, appetite and energy

Why do we use the word depressed on a daily basis? —> don,t suffer from it but use it

causally in everyday speech —> term has been integrated into our daily lives as psychology it- self has permeated into our everyday life

But also leads to:

Increase in self- and clinical diagnosis

Illnesses now seem as if they can affect everyone

Conceptualise everyday fluctuations in our mood as something diagnosable