Psychology Exam 2

alpha waves

8-13 cycles per second, regular with small amplitude, relaxed state

beta waves

fast (13-30 cps), irregular, small, occur when concentrating or excited

theta waves

4-7 cps, medium amplitude, light sleeping

delta waves

1-3 cps, slow, irregular, high emplitude, deep sleep

Wakefulness

alpha and beta activity

stage 1 sleep

alpha and theta activity

stage 2 sleep

theta activity with sleep spindles and k complexes (singular delta waves)

stage 3 sleep

theta and 10%-50% delta waves

stage 4 sleep

>50% delta waves

REM sleep

lightest stage of sleeping, when you dream

atonia

process of the pons keeping us from acting out our dreams

Reasons for sleep

Non-REM: preservation/protection, restoration. REM: exercise for neurons, memory consolidation

preservation and protection theory

sleep preserves energy and protects individual during a time when being awake is of little value or its dangerous to be moving about

cross species sleep patterns

sleep time depends on feeding habits and ways of achieving safety rather than physical exertion

restoration theory

sleep (especially slow wave sleep) restores body tissues, replenishes vital substances

slow wave sleep

blood supply to the muscles is increased, which aids in recovery after intense workouts or vigorous exercise. Body temperature lowered. Metabolic activity at its lowest for tissue growth and repair. Secretion of growth hormone at its highest. Immune syste

King 1997

exercise leads to faster sleep onset and greater sleep time

Shapiro 1981

Running a marathon increased slow wave sleep, depriving an animal of sleep causes death

REM maintaining synapses

REM is critical for maintaining synapses b/c they degenerate if inactive too long, slow wave sleep weakens connections among all nerves; those execised during REM kept

REM establishing synapses

Electrical stimulation of motor and sensory-cortex (active during REM) results in dream-like hallucinations. Large amounts of time in REM among babies and fetuses

REM for memory consolidation

Studies show that humans show enhanced performance in newly learned perceptual motor tasks but not learning of new facts when given REM

Wagner et al 2004

Sleep is beneficial for generating "insight" -sudden gains in explicit understanding, often based in creative approaches to problems

manifest content

content of the dream that one experiences

latent content

true or hidden meaning of the dream

night terrors

occur during stage 4, usually in children, accompanied by thrashing, screaming, no imagery

wood et al 1992

studied nightmares in college students following earthquake and found that students who lived through it dreamt about it more

sleepwalking

associated with non-REM sleep. NOT acting out dreams, usually just walking or dressing

REM behavior disorder

acting out your dreams--for some reason atonia is not occurring

Sleep paralysis disorder

atonia just as waking or falling asleep

narcolepsy

periods of irresistible sleep

consciousness

knowledge of perception about surroundings and internal state

altered states of consciousness

drug effects, lucid dreaming, hypnosis, meditation

hypnotizability

stable attribute, young children more susceptible, only about 40% of adults are minimally responsive

hypnosis and meditation

both states of consciousness have more alpha and theta, fewer beta waves. less activity in left hemisphere, more in right

Polyphasic sleeping

short bouts of sleeping and wakefulness interspersed throughout the 24 hour day

Porcu et al 1998

studied polyphasic sleeping in air force personnel and concluded that they got less sleep than usual, and had REM rebound

REM rebound

after periods of little sleep when you don't get much REM, you start to enter it more quickly

cognitive processes

mental processes involved in acquiring, organizing, remembering, using, and constructing knowledge; the "processes of knowing

parallel processes

cognitive processes that can happen at the same time

serial processes

processes you have to carry out one at a time

automatic processes

well-rehearsed, practiced operations that require little or no attention; can do many at once (reading)

controlled processes

new or novel operations that require attention; hard to do more than one at a time

automatization

processes (typically through repetition) through which controlled processes become automatic

emotional stroop effect

example with colored words and time it takes to read them. people with anxiety have enhanced ESE--colored words w/ negative connotation take longer to read

reasoning

process of organizing facts in your mind to accomplish some desired end

mental set

tendency to respond to new problem with techniques used previously

functional fixedness

type of mental set in which you represent an object according to its conventional function and fail to consider its novel function (a chair is used for sitting)

deductive reasoning

drawing conclusions logically from premises. applying generalized rules to specific instances to arrive at logical certainties. *premises have to be true, and logic has to be valid

belief-bias effect

if a conclusion is apparently true, you're more likely to judge a conclusion as valid, even if it's not

inductive reasoning

inferring general (likely, but not certain) truths from specific instances

heuristic

a rule of thumb, simplification, or shortcut to make decisions in complex or poorly understood domains

availability

a heuristic in which you make judgments based on information readily available in your memory

representativeness

heuristic: assigns objects to category on basis of a few characteristics regarded as representative of that category (stereotyping)

anchoring

heuristic: an insufficient adjustment up or down from an original starting value when judging the probable value of an event or outcome (turkey example)

framing

a description or perspective on a choice that influences that decision by shifting the reference point

prospect theory

if a decision is framed in terms of gains, people are risk avoiders. If decision is framed in terms of losses, people are risk takers

learning

a process based on experience that results in a relatively permanent chance in behavior or behavior potential (e.g., attitudes, values, knowledge)

habituation

most basic form of learning; decline in response to stimulus once stimulus has become familiar

dishabituation

increase in responsiveness when something novel is presented, following multiple presentations of familiar stimulus

classical conditioning

a basic form of learning in which a behavior comes to be elicited by a formerly neutral stimulus. an association is learned between two stimulus

pavlov

russian physiologist studying digestion in dogs, formulated and tested ideas about classical conditioning

unconditioned stimulus

a stimulus that elicits a particular reflex or reflex-like behavioral response without any prior learning

unconditioned response

the unlearned reflex or reflex-like behavioral response that is elicited by an unconditioned stimulus

conditioned stimulus

an initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a particular response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits the response

conditioned response

a learned response to a stimulus (the CS) that was not originally capable of eliciting the response

acquisition

period during which conditioned response becomes associated with conditioned stimulus; CS and UCS must occur closely enough that their association is clear

extinction

the gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of a learned response that occurs because the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus

spontaneous recovery

the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period

reactivation

the rapid relearning of an extinguished conditioned response

stimulus generalization

once a CR has been conditioned to a particular CS, similar stimuli may also elicit the response

stimulus discrimination

the process by which an organism learns to respond differently to stimuli that are distinct from the CS on some dimension

watson and rayner 1920

little albert experiment--conditioned him to fear fuzzy white things by striking a steel bar when he pet a rat

counterconditioning

therapeutic technique involving the substitution of a new conditioned response for a maladaptive one

mary cover jones 1924

counterconditioning experiment with peter, caused him to like rabbits by associating them with his favorite food

operant conditioning

learning in which the consequence of a behavior affects the likelihood that the individual will engage in that behavior again

operant

any behavior that has some effect on the environment

reinforcement contingency

a consistent relationship between a behavior and the chance in the environment it produces

reinforcer

any consequence that increases the frequency of a behavior (reward)

punisher

any consequence that decreases the frequency of a behavior

positive reinforcer

when a behavior is followed by the adding of a stimulus that increases the probability of that behavior being repeated (rewarding behavior with treats)

negative reinforcer

when a behavior is followed by the removal of a stimulus and therefore increases the probability of that behavior being repeated (take away an aversive stimulus (leash for a dog) to encourage behavior)

positive punishment

when a behavior is followed by the adding of a stimulus that decreases the probability of that behavior being repeated

negative punishment

when a behavior is followed by the removal of a stimulus and therefore decreases the probability of that behavior being repeated (time out, take a toy away)

appetitive stimulus

stimulus that when added, increases behavior and when removed, decreases behavior

aversive stimulus

something that when added, decreases behavior, and when when removed, increases behavior

reinforcement schedules

partial vs. continuous, partial broken down into interval vs. ratio and fixed vs. variable

fixed interval

rewarded for 1st operant after a set period fo time

variable interval

reward for first operant after a varying amount of time

fixed ratio

rewarded for first operant after a set number of operants

variable ratio

rewarded for 1st operant after a varying number of operants (most effective because organism can't figure out the schedule so they keep doing the behavior to get the reward)

shaping

used to create a very specific behavior by rewarding progressively similar behaviors

necessary conditions for observational learning

attention (have to attend to the stimulus), retention(have to remember the stimulus), motivation (vicariously rewarded/punished to provide motivation), production (must be able to reproduce behavior)

problem for operant conditioning

unintentional elimination of desired behaviors. (kids coloring example) if you are rewarded for something you like, you'll be less likely to enjoy it because you'll tell yourself you're only doing it for the reward

extrinsic rewards

okay for behaviors that aren't intrinsically rewarding: chores, etc.

tangible rewards

should be just large enough to encourage activity - decrease in intrinsic motivation inversely related to extrinsic reward

extension to punishment

power assertive punishment is bad-kids reason that they only behave appropriately to avoid punishment

intelligence

individual differences in the ability to learn, remember, comprehend, and manipulate information

Binet and Simon

study where they calculated mental age and IQ by diving mental age by real age * 100

IQ

normal curve with the mean being 100 and 15 is 1 standard deviation

Stability of IQ

increases with age, and measurements closer in age are more similar than those farther apart in age

Predictive validity of IQ

IQ can predict school performance, occupational success, health and psychological adjustment

Terman

study of gifted children showed that they were more often in leadership roles, physically healthy, went to college, low incidence of maladjustment

Spearman

correlation matrix shows general and specific correlations between verbal, quantitative, and analytical abilities

factor analysis

looks at magnitude of correlations among a large set of variables to find different groupings

fluid intelligence

innate abilities that make people flexible and adaptive thinkers and that underlie the acquisition of knowledge and experience

crystallized intelligence

knowledge acquired through life experience and education; culturally influenced

Correlation between fluid and crystallized

among people who have similar backgrounds, there's a strong correlation. for people with different backgrounds, weak correlation

Flynn effect

intelligence increasing from generation to generation because of nutrition, selective breeding, familiarity with testing, environmental changes

gardner's 8 intelligences

movement, spatial, musical, verbal, logical-mathematical, insight regarding self, insight regarding others, naturalist

Gardner's criteria for an intelligence

must be definable, have experimental evidence, developmental course, have evolutionary history, isolated by brain damage, exceptional talents exist