Alfred Binet

-Developed intelligence quotient (IQ) based on Minet's work

-Speed of cognitive growth

-Child’s intelligence level relative 

to his/her age level

-IQ = 100 x Mental Age/Chronological Age

-Position within a group of same-aged peers

-Mean = 100 (+ 1 Standard Deviation = 115)

Relatively large increases in IQ across 

generations possibly due to:

-Better nutrition

-Educational system

-More testing experience

-IQ is a fairly good predictor of scholastic performance

-IQ is a good predictor of attainment but relatively poor predictor of performance for occupational success

-“practical intelligence” more important for job 

performance(knowing how to do specific task)

-intelligence is one global factor, so people who do well on one tests tend to do well on others

-"g" is the general intelligence ability

-"s" is some specific abilities

Hierarchical Model of

Intelligence

-A hierarchical notion of intelligence places 

g at the top of the hierarchy

-At the next level are verbal ability, 

quantitative ability, and spatial ability

-Each of these can be subdivided into more 

specific abilities

Multiple Intelligences 

-Linguistic -Bodily-kinesthetic

-Logico-mathematical -Naturalist

-Musical -Interpersonal

-Spatial -Intrapersonal

-“Mental efficiency” (i.e., spatial rotation task)

-Ability to deal with new problems

-Rises until young adulthood then decreases

-Fact-oriented (i.e., vocabulary test)

-Acquired knowledge

-Rises well into middle age then levels off

Genetic Contribution to

Intelligence

-Studies of twins, family members, and adopted 

children together support the idea that there is a 

significant genetic contribution to intelligence

Two tests

-Army Alpha test (for literate people)

-Army Beta test (for illiterate people)

-Environmental factors (poverty and poor 

schooling) 

-Socioeconomic status

-Cultural differences 

-Testing experience/comfort with 

standardized testing

-Performance changes if “primed” (reminded) 

about a stereotype of one’s group

-Stereotypes do affect actual performance 

both positively and negatively

Learning involves the formation of simple 

associations 

-More complex learning = many associations

-All learning depends on the same mechanisms 

and should be governed by the same principles

Decrease in our response to stimuli that 

have become familiar through repeated 

exposure (numbing process)

A previously predictable stimulus changes, 

causing the organism to renew its attention 

to the stimulus

Animals learn about the 

association/relationship between one 

stimulus and another

– an unconditioned stimulus (US) elicits an 

unconditioned response (UR)

– This is a “natural” association

A stimulus that reliably triggers a particular response without prior training (Meat)

A response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus without prior training (Salivating)

-Neutral stimulus originally causes no 

response (bell) 

-Neutral stimulus is paired with the 

Unconditioned Stimulus (meat)

-Neutral stimulus then becomes the 

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

-If the Unconditioned Stimulus follows a 

conditioned stimulus many times 

-this CS on its own will soon evoke the 

conditioned response

   -After being paired with the meat, the bell 

itself leads to salivation

-When a CS-US relationship is well established, the CS can then be paired with a second, neutral stimulus

-That second stimulus will then also elicit the conditioned response

-If the bell and a light are presented together, the light alone will then cause salivation

 -Trials in which the CS is presented without the US lead to extinction

-CS no longer elicits a conditioned response

-Spontaneous recovery shows that the CR is only masked by extinction

  -after an alone interval, CS will elicit CR again

the tendency for stimuli similar to those used during learning to elicit a reaction similar to the 

learned response

-the CR can also be elicited by stimuli that 

are similar to the CS

Instrumental (or operant) conditioning 

uses a reward system

– reinforcement after appropriate response

-Edward Thorndike

-Performance is strengthened if it's followed 

by a reward and weakened if it's not

Voluntary responses, 

strengthened by reinforcement

Designed by B.F. Skinner for testing ideas about 

instrumental/operant conditioning

-Builds on a response (UR) that's automatically 

triggered by a stimulus (US)

-Learning about relations between two stimuli (US 

and CS)

-Behaviors appear to be voluntary

-Involves learning about the relations between a response and a stimulus (the operant and reward)

A stimulus delivered after a response 

that makes the response more likely to 

occur in the future (A REWARD)

– Primary reinforcers (food, water, etc.)

– Conditioned reinforcers

A Positive discriminative stimulus is 

labeled S+ and a negative is labeled S-

-Tells the animal when a behavior will be 

rewarded (positive) and when it won‟t 

(negative)

the process of eliciting a desired response by rewarding behaviors that are increasingly similar to 

that response

The response is 

reinforced only some of the time

Scheduled Reinforcement

(Fixed or Variable)

– in ratio schedules

• i.e., reinforce after every 5 correct responses

– in interval schedules, 

• i.e., reinforce after every 5 minutes

doing something for 

a payoff

doing something 

simply for the pleasure of doing it

-If organisms are constantly punished with no means to avoid the punishment, they won‟t respond even when they have control

-An acquired sense that one has lost control over one‟s environment => leads to giving up

if we see someone 

else scared of a stimulus, then we are 

scared of that stimulus as well

imitation of reaction to stimulus, but can have undesirable consequences

Certain forms of learning are particular 

to one species

• In humans, specialized forms of learning 

include:

-language 

-ability to learn by observing others

The neural bases for learning involve diverse mechanisms, such as:

 • Increase in neurotransmitters released

    • The increased sensitivity of post-synaptic 

receptpors

-this is called long-term potentiation (LTP) 

• Creation of entirely new synapses 

Acquisition-->Storage-->Retrieval 

-Memory proceeds through these steps in this 

specific order

memorizing 

something deliberately to be used later

not aware that 

learning is actually taking place

holds onto input briefly 

in sensory form

Working Memory 

(Short-term)

holding 

information while you process/interpret it

all knowledge that 

we’re not using at any given time

-sight

-0.5 seconds long

-hearing

-3-4 seconds long

-touch

- <second long

-Maintain information for a relatively short 

period of time (~20 seconds)

-Manipulate that information so that it can be 

utilized

Serial Position Effect:

Primacy Effect

-More likely to recall info presented EARLY in 

a list

-Requires retrieval from long-term memory

-But longer time to attend to these items

Serial Position Effect:

Recency Effect

-More likely to recall info presented 

RECENTLY (i.e., later) on a list

-Retrieved directly from working memory

-Can be encoded without retrieving from longterm memory

-We retain information better when we rehearse over a longer period of time

-Better strategy than memorizing over a 

very short period

Items are recoded into a smaller number of 

larger units

F-B-I-T-W-A-C-I-A-I-B-M 

FBI    TWA    CIA    IBM

4 chunks

-Help a person form memory connections

-Mnemonic techniques use vivid imagery and organizational devices in aiding memory

-The more meaning an item has to the individual the better it is remembered

-encoding that emphasizes 

superficial characteristics 

(i.e., that word was in capital letters)

-encoding that emphasizes 

meaning 

(i.e., this word means _____)

Memory Trace

(Storage)

-physical record that 

preserves a memory

-memories not recorded in a specific location

Memory Consolidation

(Storage)

-Long term memory depends on it

-New connections are formed among neurons

-Usually takes at least several hours

Recognition

(Retrieval)

Identify an item amongst other 

choices (A multiple-choice test)

Recall

(Retrieval)

Retrieve information with no cues

(A fill in-the blank test)

-Are consciously recalled

-Processed mostly by hippocampus

-Are not consciously recalled but are more automatic

-Processed mostly by cerebellum

-concern specific episodes

-i.e., the last time you played tennis

-concern broader knowledge, not tied to a particular episode

-i.e., the rules for playing tennis

Can be considered a specific type of episodic memory

-Vivid and detailed

-Tend to last an extraordinarily long time

-Often a result of emotionally important events

-Particularly those that are unexpected, surprising, and/or traumatizing

-Inability to retreive information due to poor 

acquisition, storage, or retrieval

-Forgetting can occur at any memory stage

Memory depends on environments when learned and tested 

-Scuba divers recall more words underwater if they learned the list underwater

-Recall more words on land if they learned that 

list on land

-Poor durability of stored memories leads

to their decay

-Time between learning and recall makes a difference

learning new information can disrupt 

retrieval of other information

information learned after an event gets

encoded as part of that event

General mental representation that summarizes what we know about a certain event/situation

-can intrude in our memory of an event

– we remember something that didn’t actually 

occur (but fits our schema)

cannot remember 

what happened before an injury

cannot form new 

memories after an injury

-Eyewitness testimony carries a lot of weight in the criminal justice system

-Studies indicate that 58-87% of wrongful 

convictions are based on mistaken identification

-The accuracy of eyewitness testimony is NOT 

related to the confidence of the eyewitness

-may be difficult to pay attention

-we want to identify a perpetrator

-stressful and traumatic events can make 

some memories more difficult

–biological processes of memory can be disrupted

• Expressing thought

• Conveying 

Information

• Expressing and 

solidifying social/ 

cultural bonding

How is speech produced?

Air flow from lungs

-Passes through larynx (voice box)

-Through mouth and nasal cavities (vocal tract)

How is speech produced?

Vowels

created by movements of lips and 

tongue

How is speech produced?

Consonants

created by temporarily 

obstructing air flow through vocal tract

-speech sounds vary continuously, but we 

perceive them in strict categories

-Between categories: 

easy to tell the difference

-Within category: 

hard to tell the difference

-sound categories that matter in a language

-phonemes are the smallest significant unit 

of sound

-roughly correspond to alphabetic characters

-combined to form syllables

-approximately 40 phonemes in English

-ex. /p/ /i/

• are the smallest language units 

that carry meaning

• fixed sequences of phonemes: 

-can be words on their own

-or combined into words

• words are made by combining morphemes

• carry the main burden of meaning

• i.e., man, tree, bake

• add details to the meaning (i.e., plural, tense)

• serve various grammatical purposes

• Suffixes – “-er”, “-s”, “-ed”

• Connecting words – “”and”, “which”

-Morphemes must be combined in a 

particular order

-In spoken language, there are rarely any 

true “breaks betweenwords

-we must figure out where 

one word ends and another begins

-especially difficult for new or second 

language learners

• A phrase is an organized grouping of words

• A sentence is an organized grouping of phrases 

• Some sequences of words are allowed, but 

others are not

• Guide our grammar

-Skinner

-Environmental influences

-Reinforcement and Imitation

-Chomsky

-LAD: Language Acquisition Device

-Universal Grammar

-current view

-innate biases and environmental influences

-words are represented in our mind by a 

group of words that define it

-these are called “semantic features”

-Semantic features necessarily define the word’s 

meaning and its representation in our mind

-The concept of apple is constructed by putting 

together:

-red, round, sweet, juicy, etc. . . 

-All other words will have a different set of semantic features

• The meaning of words is represented by an 

ideal (or prototype) example of that word

• We carry around “average” or “typical” 

representations of categories

• Use those examples (prototypes) to determine the meaning of a word

• Make decision based on how closely the 

stimulus matches the prototype

Garden Path Sentence

-listeners jump to temporary false interpretations

-then recover once later information makes 

first interpretation false

-semantics (meaning), not just structure are 

used to interpret

Sentence Interpretation

• To understand what we’re hearing, we 

integrate the sentence with what we see in 

the world

• In conversation, we fill in the blanks

• Inference helps us interpret the full meaning 

of what is said

• Allows conversations to be succinct and efficient

Early Language Production:

0-2 months

reflexive vocalization

-burps, hiccups, crying

Babbling

-starts with vocal play

-then form actual syllables

-then native intonation

Early Language Production:

12-14 months

-One word at a time

-Typically content words or action words

- use one word to refer to 

other things w/ different actual names

ex. use “cat” to refer to all animals

ex. “ball” describes anything round

• Word learning is influenced by ways the 

child is disposed to categorize objects 

• Children acquire basic-level words for 

objects first (dog) 

• before learning superordinates (animal) or 

subordinates (Chihuahua)

~ 1.5 – 2.5 years 

-begin combining words

-this is called “telegraphic” speech 

-content words remain but function works left out

e.g., Noun-Noun  “Mommy ball”

 Noun-Verb  “Mommy throw

-gradual increase in length of sentences

-function words added

-- e.g., ball red    -the ball is red.

-- mommy walk  -mommy’s walking

At first they get these words right:

-run -ran

-foot -feet

But later. . .  “overregularization”

-run -runned

-foot -feets

• Children can understand language much 

earlier than they can actually say words

• Even children who only produce one-word 

utterances have relatively complex understanding of syntax and know common structure of sentences 

infants are good at discriminating 

speech contrasts in all languages but lose it

-6 to 8 months:  

infants discriminate non-native sounds

-10 to 12 months:  

infants no longer discriminate non-native sounds

Infant Directed Speech

(motherese)

Characteristics:

-higher pitch and more range

-smooth and expanded pitch contours

-shorter sentences   -clear pronunciation

-distinct pauses 

Infants prefer it, but it does not help grammar learning

-period in infancy where learning a language is much easier

-early exposure is important

-biological

-cognitive

-social

-emotional

• William James emphasized role of instincts

• Motivation arises from genetically 

endowed set of instincts -focus is on biological roots

• Humans all share these instincts but little agreement on what they were

body’s tendency to self-regulate in order to 

maintain its internal conditions

a deviation from homeostasis (i.e., hunger, 

thirst, need for sleep)

-when a drive is present, we are motivated 

to reduce that drive

-that drive reduction behavior returns our 

body to equilibrium and homeostasis is maintained

-process by which organisms 

maintain a constant body 

temperature

-regulated by hypothalamus

-sympathetic branch is activated 

-increased heart rate, shivering, blood vessels contract (vasoconstriction) and heat travels to the core so that heat can be conserved

-parasympathetic branch is activated

-blood vessels dilating, sweating and panting occur

-blood vessels widen (vasodilation) and heat travels to extremities so that heat can then be released

-the point at which feedback indicates you 

have eaten too much

-helps to maintain a constant weight

-when full of fat, cells release leptin, which 

causes the organism to stop eating

-can be altered by weight change

-a biological abnormality (i.e., a brain lesion)

-genetics

-"thrifty genes" are genes which enable people to effeiciently collect and process food during periods of food abundance (helpful during times of hunter/gatherer, but not in modern society)

Social Influences – we eat more if people 

around us eat more

Cultural Influences –different cultures have 

different “ideal" standards

-response to threat that is controlled by the  autonomic nervous system

-body becomes “activated” and increased heart rate and respiration

-too much arousal can lead to 

stress and poor health consequences

-performance is best when there is some arousal 

-more arousal better for easier tasks

-more prevalent in males

-males more likely to engage in physical  aggression like pushing, hitting, acting out

-females more likely to engage in 

relational (or social) aggression that aim to hurt others through non-physical means

like gossiping, spreading rumors, isolating

-can be a strong motivator

-guides eating, drinking, and sexual behavior

Wanting – motivation to obtain a reward

Liking – pleasure that follows that reward

avoidance of pain also motivates us

-states of discomfort cause behavior

-make choices to avoid painful stimuli

-we are motivated to strive for success

-dictates what we do and how long we persist

– focus on gaining new 

knowledge or skills

-more likely to lead to intrinsic motivation

-focus on performing 

well and appearing intelligent to others

-more likely to lead to extrinsic motivation

The need to belong can be a powerful motivator

-motivation as a social concept

Social contact provides many rewards

-tangible support – practical help from other people

-emotional support – focused on emotional needs

People strive for higher-order needs only 

when lower-order needs are satisfied

Starts with basic physiological needs

Ultimate goal is self-actualization

-realizing one’s full potential

Affective responses that are characterized 

by changes in:

-behavior – how we act

-subjective experience – how we feel

-physiology – how our bodies respond

-some aspects of emotion appear

-cultural "display rules" may differ across contexts

-cultures have different rules about how 

emotions should be displayed

-there is debate over whether people in different cultures all feel the same emotions

-a stimulus leads to an emotion, which 

causes a change in your body

-when you see an oncoming car, you get 

scared, and that fear makes your heart 

beat faster

-emotions come before physiological responses

-physiological activity comes BEFORE 

subjective emotional experience

-experience of emotion comes from 

perceiving one’s own bodily experiences

-stimulus triggers a physiological response 

and emotional experience at the

same time

-physiological change and emotional 

experience occur at the

same time

-this happens because the stimulus trigger 

brain activity in the thalamus

-emotional experience results from how we 

interpret bodily responses

-stimulus causes physiological response, 

and then we judge WHY that change 

occurred, which leads to emotional 

experience

-cognition (how we think about things) and 

emotion are linked

Purposes of Emotion

-joy and pleasure help us recover from stress and broaden our attentional focus.

-negative emotions (anger and fear) seem to focus attention

-all emotions seem to promote memory.

-emotions serve a social function – communicate 

our intentions in groups settings

-it is often important to regulate our emotions

-the ability to regulate emotions develops over the course of childhood