The study of why organisms behave the way they do

-Must be inferred

-Latency/speed (how quickly do decide)

-Persistence

-Intensity/vigor

The tendency for an organism to maintain a stable, internal environment (equilibrium)

Disequilibrium creates aversive tension that organisms are driven to reduce --> discomfort

Motivates us!

Without that "yucky" feeling you get when you're hungry, you wouldn't eat

Two objects/people are equally attractive

(not difficult to decide)

Human Needs

(Physiological)

Needs that directly promote survival promote survival or reproductive success

-Needs that maintain internal equilibrium (Regulatory)

-Needs to avoid harm or escape dangers and to feel safe (Safety)

-Needs that lead to procreation (Reproduction)

Human Needs

(Psychological)

Needs that can promote survival or reproductive success, but don't necessarily do

-Needs that promote bonds between people (Social)

-Needs for self-respect, self-satisfaction (Self-Worth)

-Need to play, create, master, explore, curiosity (Educative)

Self-actualization (maximizing one's potential and fulfilling their aspirations)

Esteem Needs

Belongingness & Love needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs

*Can't move up until you satisfy lower level

-Receive and integrate signals that monitor needs/drives

-Control processes that carry out motivated behavior (perception, planning, etc)

Central drive system

-Receives input from body and cooridnates responses to extreme/internal stimuli

Hunger --> Low Glucose --> Orexigenic Chemicals released (chemicals that make you feel hungry) --> Eat --> Raise Glucose --> Anorexigenic chemicals released (chemicals that make you unhungry) --> Stop eating

-Appetite stimulation

-When destroyed, animals will starve themselves to death because they don't realize they're hungry

-Appetite suppression

-When destroyed, animals will overeat because they do not realize they're full

Motivation and emotions are related

Emotions motivate behavior

Emotions come from something happening (stimulus)

Mood doesn't need a stimulus

Eliciting stimulus --> cognitive appraisal

cognitive appraisal <--> physiological reaction <--> subjective feeling <--> behavioral tendency <--> cognitive appraisal

Emotions that are innate and universal because they're adapted

Can be recognized by all members of a species

Emotional -- Stimulus -- Appraisal -- Behavior -- Conseq.

1) Fear -- Threat -- Danger -- Escape -- Safety

2) Anger -- Obstacle -- Enemy -- Attack -- Conquer

3) Disgust -- Unpalatable object -- Poison -- Vomit -- Eject

4) Sadness -- Loss of valued object -- Abandonment -- Cry -- Reattch to valued object

Guilt: Violating a moral standard

Shame: Exposed as weak/deficient

Envy: Wanting what someone else has

Jealousy: Resenting a 3rd party for taking away what's yours

Pride: Believing you brought about a positive outcome

*You have the capacity to feel these emotions, but society will teach you what it is that makes you guilty, proud, etc

1) Common sense

2) James-Lange

3) Cannon-Bard

4) Schachter & Singer

stimulus --> appraisal ---> arousal & feeling --> behavior

*Spinal Reflexes

stimulus --> appraisal --> arousal & feeling --> behavior

*Emotions precede behavioral response

stimulus --> arousal --> appraisal --> feeling --> behavior

*Emotions with undefined physiological correlates

Nervous System!

-Sympathetic division of the autonomic NS

-Limbic System

-Prefrontal Cortex

-Facial Musculature

Left Hemi underlies positive emotions

Right hemi underlies negative emotions

*Negative emotions are primary; positive emotions require maturity

Governs responses to novel, unfamiliar, and fearful stimulil

Direct route from thalamus to amygdala -- quick reaction (fear)

-Rare disorder in which a person believees that a loved one has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter

-Cause: damange to the pathway between the recognition of face with emotions

Fusiform Face Area -- limbic system (temporal lobe)

Learning not to respond to a stimulus

Through principles of association, a previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke a previously reflexive response

EX: Pavlov and dogs

By virtue of its personal consequences, a previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke a voluntary behavior

Ex: Thorndike, Watson, Skinner

By virtue of its observed consequences, a previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke voluntary behavior

Ex: Bandura

Stimulus that innately produces a reflexive response

Ex: Food in mouth innately produces salivation

Reflexive response to an unconditiooned stimulus

Ex: Salivation reflexively follows food in mouth

Previously neutral stimulus that produces a learned reflexive behavior

Ex: Tone paired with food produces salivation

A learned response (habit) to a previously neutral stimulus

Ex: Salivation occurs when tone is heard

A similar CS produces a CR

Dog salivates to the sound of the pitch pipe -- similar to the sound of the tone

A dissimilar CS doesn't produce a CR

Dog doesn't salivate to sound of drum

A CS can function as a "secondary" UCS

Dog learns to salivate to sound of a drum if its first paired with tone

CR stops occuring if USC no longer follows the CS

Dog stops salivating if food stops following tone

Tone doesn't mean anything then

CR is easily reinstated if USC follows CS

Dog begins to salivate to tine if food follows once again after not for a while

Disgust is easily conditoned to stimuli associated with poisounous substance

Food poisoning

Chemotherapy patients

Overdose

1) Positivism: study only conrete events that can be verified by multiple, neutral observers

(Study behavior not consciousness)

2) All behavior originates through trial & error

3) Mechanism: Thoughts play no role in guiding behavior

(thoughts exist but they are epiphenomenal -- above the phenomenen)

-Put animals in puzzle box (cage)

-Arbitrarily picks a "correct" response

-Reinforces animals whenever it emits the "correct" response

-Over time, animal emits correct response almost immediately

Nautral selection

Variation exist among members of a species

Some of these variations prove to be adaptive

Adaptive variations endure; maladaptive ones perish

Thorndike

(Operant Conditioning)

Animals flail (their movements are random)

Some of these movements prove to be adaptive

Adaptive movements (behaviors) persist; maladaptive ones perish

Developed operant chamber -- includes light, lever, dispenser

Light or speaker -- "Discriminative stimulus"

Indicates when a response will produce a consequence

Disc. stimulus (green light) --> Response (pull lever) --> consequence (food appears)

*doesn't like words like "reward" or "desire" -- scientific/objective

Any consequence that increases the liklihood of a behavior

(opposite: punisher)

With effort, take control of biological processes (conscious control of involuntary actions)

Ex: redirect blood flow slightly to different area of body

A stimulus is reinforcing only if it reduces a need

Conencts motivation, emotion, and learning

Drive is a build-up of tension that arises from an unsatisfied need

Drive motivates behavior

Learning occurs only if a consequence reduces a drive (satisfies a need)

1) All behavior originates through trial and error

2) Reinforcement is needed for learning to occur

3) Any response can become associated with any stimulus with equal probability

Social learning

Animals imitate other animals, proving initial behaviors aren't always random

Only contiuned if its reinforced

Ex: Borrowing someone's pick-up line

Latent Learning

Behaviorism maintains that reinforcement is needed in order for learning to occur

Group 1 gets reinforcement when reached goal box

Group 2 never gets any food when reached goal box

Group 3 received no fod for 10 days when reached goal box, but did get food on the 11th day

Garcia & Koelling

(1966)

Classical view: Mindless process, where CS comes to reflexively trigger CR

Contemporary view: Prediction, not mindless association, underlies classical coinditioning

The recording, storing, and retreival of experiences and information.

Transitional construct, bridging biology, and psychology

Places/structures where inf is stored

Processes that govern the handling of information within each store, and the transfer of info from one store to another

Holds info long enough to be processes for its significance

Large capacity: can hold many items at once

Duration depends on nature of sensory input

-Iconic Memory: memory for visual info --> 3/10 sec

-Echoic Memory: memory for auditory info --> 2 sec

Showed subjects 9 letter displays for 1/10 second

Measured recall

Recall rates were very low

Believed info was all there, but was lost very quickly

Decided to focus on portion of the display

Sensory info deemed important is transferred to working memory

Info can enter working memory from long-term memory

Location of "thinking and reasoning"

Unless info is actively used, info in working memory lasts only 30 seconds

Holds no more than 7 (+-2) meaningful numbers (Ex: phone number)

Limitless library of durable memories (Can't remember anything between the ages of 0-3)

2 types of long-term memory

 Memory for info and experiences that are recalled without conscious intention

(classical conditioning, procedural (motor) memory)

Info and experiences that we consciously try to recall

1) Semantic memory (knowledge, info)

2) Episodic memory (personal experiences)

-Autobiographical memories

-Flashbulb memories

Synapses between neurons!

Long-term potentiation: When 2 neurons fire together, they wire together. (Hebb)

1) Automatic: Without effort or awareness

Subliminal priming

2) Effortful: with effort or awareness

Repitition

Elaborative encoding

Hermann Ebbinghaus

(1850-1909)

Verbal learning = learning associations (non-sense words) strengthened through repition

Memory as habit (reflex-like)

Used himself as the only subject

Forgot the greatest amount of non-sense words within the first hour. Gradual forgetting over the next 31 days.

Ability to recall based on position in a series (first, last, middle of list)

Speed: Memory was much stronger

Smaller study, spaced out over time

Massed: All at once, not effective way to study

Involves actively focusing on the meaning and elaborating in some way

Ex: Understand, relate to previous knowledge, mnemonic devices

Craik & Tulving

(1975)

Subjects shown series of words, make 1 of 3 judgements about it

Questions: How's it written? Does it rhyme with ___? What does the word mean?

Memory is then unexpectedly tested

Memory aids that reorganizes info into meaningful units (retreival)

Acronyms

A stimulus that activates information stores in long-term memory

Multiple cues enhance the retreival process

Memory is enhanced when conditions present during retreival match those present during encoding

Context-dependent memory: environmental similarity between encoding and retreival

State-dependent memory: Hungry while studying --> take test while hungry

SCUBA experiement

Learned words underwater so they have to be underwater to remember them

1) Logical reasoning: Judge the truth of an assertion (syllogism)

2) Problem Solving: Finding and testing solutions to problems (trail/error)

3) Intelligence: General capacity to acquire knowledge, reason, and solve problems effectively

4) Decision-making: Ability to mke appropriate choice based on uncertain outcomes (rational, costs-benefit analysis)

An inability to recongnize objects that belong to particular categories

Brain might be pre-wired to organize information into categories (living vs innate)

1) Judging the truth of an assertion

2) Inductive Logic: From specific to general

3) Deductive logic: General to specific

Confirmation bias: we focus on confirmatory cells and ignore remaining ones

Sampling Bias: We base our conclusions on faulty samples (ask our friends, not random -- convenience)

People make rational choices

Rational choices maximize expected utility

$20 = 0.2 x $100

Expected utility = Expectance x Value

People are risk-averse forg ains, but risk-seeking for losses

100% chance of losing $500 OR 25% chance of losing $2500 (75% chance of losing nothing)

85% of people will choose second option

1) Achievement test: assesment of knowledge in specific areas

2) Aptitute tests: measure potential for future learning and performance in specific areas

3) Intelligence test: ability to quickly solve unfamiliar problems

Fluid: Ability to solve probelms for which personal experience doesn't provide a solution

(uses stimuli either unfamiliar to everyone or familiar to everyone)

Crystallized: Ability to apply previously acquired knowledge to solve current problems

(Items that are familiar to some but not to all)

Developed coefficient correlation

Coined term "eugenics"

Some families are inherently smarter than others -- breeded within his family

Tests of mental ability are positively correlated

Intelligence performance influenced by 1) general intelligence

2) specific ability

Louis Thurston

Analytical

Practical

Creative

Designed an intelligence test to identify remedial students

Nurture is more important than nature

Mental abilities develop with age, gradually

Intelligence should be measured with unfamiliar/abstract problems

Mental Age: Age at which a child is performing on mental tasks

IQ = Mental Age/Chronological Age x 100

2 scores: general and specific skills

Specific skills: 1) intellectual ability in specific areas

2) processing speed and performance

Average score: 100

Standard deviation: 15

Globally, IQ scores have risen 25 points in the last 50 years

Due to better nutrition, complex learning, and advanced technology

Researches model variabiltiy among people

To what extent do variations in genetic similarity predict variations in observable characteristics

If we reduce variability in genes, then environment is the only thing that matters

Vice versa

First known form of written language

Spoken language was believed to predate this by thousands of years

A regional way of speaking (dialect)

A patois with an army

Smallest unit of sound

Ex: Th

Rules that specify how phonemes can combine to produce morphemes

Smallest unit of meaning (word, prefix)

Ex: Th, cat

Rules that specify how morphemes can combine to produce words

Morpheme combinations

Ex: The cat

Phrase combinations

Ex: The cat shredded my homework

Morphemes and their order

The comprehension of phrases and sentecnes

Bottom up processing: Extracting meaning by analyzing words

Top down processing: Using existing knowledge/context to intepret what words likely mean

*pragmatics is top down process in which we use knowledge of launguage to infer meaning

An innate biological mechanism that contains general grammatical rules common to all language

Location unknown

*Piaget

Factors in the social environment that facillitates the learning of language

*Vygotsky

Ex: Babies 2 hours old will suck paciphier harder if it produces mother's voice

Ex: Babies under 6 months old can distinguish the difference between 2 phonemes.

(Imitative magic) based on the belief that people can alter events from a distance by engaging in symbolic behaviors

2 Laws:

1) Law of Contagion: When humans contact an inanimate object, an essence is tranferred that remains even after the two are separated

2) Law of similarity: An effect resembles its cause, and an image equals an object

Patients with VMPFC damage can reason normally (directed thinking), can easily solve hypothetical moral problems, but cannot make actual moral decisions.

VMPFC: ventromedial area of the prefrontal cortex

Consciousness is a recent cultural development (~3500 years)

A story we pass onto our kids

Libet et al

(1985)

Action potential observed ~250 ms before participants said they were going to start

All decisions are initiated by our unconscious minds but the final decision to act or not was conscious and willful

"No free will, just free won't"

Change is uniform and gradual

Treat change as rapid with qualitatively different stages evient across the life span

Once threshold is crossed, we do not go backward

Ex: catepillar to butterfly

Jean Piaget

(1896-1980)

Cognitive development passes through series of discrete stages that culminate in the ability to display abstract symbolic reasoning

Driven by the child's active attempt to manipulate physical objects

The process of applying an existing schema to a new object

Ex: picking up a baseball and throwing it because you know what a football is like

The process of modifying a schema to manipulate a new object

Ex: Never seen object before but figure out schema for it

Piaget's Theory

Stage 1

Sensorimotor stage (Birth-2 yr)

Infants understand the world through experience and movement

Infants act on objects only when they are physically present

Lack "object permanence" -- can't mentally represnet an object if it isn't still within sight

Piaget's Theory

Stage 2

Preoperational (2yr - 7yr)

Can mentally represent physical objects, but can't mentally operate on (transform) them

Milestones: Language, object permanence

Deficits: Understanding is still based on appearance only, with no distinction between "what seems to be" and "what is"

Piaget's Theory

Stage 2 cont.

Conservation-- knowing that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant even if it's appearance changes

Irreversibility: cannot mentally reverse actions

Egocentrism: Believes other people share his/her visual perspective

Can't mentally transform objects and doesn't distinguish appearance and essence

Piaget's Theory

Stage 3

Concrete opertaitonal (Age 7yr-12yr)

Children can perform basic mental operations concerning problems that involve tangible objects & situations

Understand reversibility, easily solve conservation problems, and display less egocentrism

Can't exhibit abstract, hypothetical reasoning (can add/divide, no variables)

Piaget's Theory

Stage 4

Formal operational (12yr-adult)

Individuals think logically about abstract problems, form hypothesis, and test them using a hypothetico-deductive model of reasoning

Becomes concerned with the future and ideological problems

Infants stare longer at unexpected, complex, unfamiliar, new stimuli rather than at simple, familiar stimuli

Longer they look, the more puzzled they are

Dishabituation: Continuing to look at a stimulus suggests that the stimulus violates an expectancy

Cognitive development represents a biological unfolding

Child is a solitary scientist whose knowledge is acquired by manipulating physical objects

Social interaction (not personial exploratioin) is the principle force behind cognitive development

Children acquire cultural values, beliefs, and problem solving strategies by interacting with more knowledgable members of their social group

Piaget: Primarily a matter of biological maturity, invariant across cultures

Vygotsky: Primarily driven by social interactions and shaped by cultural forces

P: Primarily the result of independent explorations in which children construct knowledge of their own

V: Primarily the result of social interation, as caretakers shepherd children through their zone of proximal development

P: Egocentric processes give away to social ones

Ex: Child abandons egocentrism in favor of social perspective talking)

V: Social processes become individual-psychological processes

Ex: children learn to speak with others before they learn to privately think

Synchronized interactions between caregiver and infant, in which each responsds to the other in a coordinated fashion

Unsynchronized parent-child interactions predic maladjustment

Infants as young as 2 days old can imitate the facial expression of an adult model

By about 10 months old, infants look to caregivers for emotional cues when facing ambiguous situations

Exceptioin:

Visual cliff: once they learn to crawl (infants learn to trust their own senses and don't rely on caregivers)

Tendency to explain behavior using psychological qualities, such as intention, desire, emotion, and belief

Tested with the false belief test: most children didn't pass this test until 4 years old

Ex: Sally & Ann, Marble in the basket and box