Rhythms in Humans

1
Rhythms in Humans

• Yearly - seasonal variations in appetite, sleep
  length, moods
• .Seasonal Affective
  Disorder 28 day - female menstrual cycle 90
  minute - we cycle through various stages of sleep
• 24 hour - Circadian Rhythms alertness, body
  temp, growth hormone secretion
• What happens if no external cues? 25-hour cycle
• Jet lag West to East Phase advance
• East to West Phase delay
• Sleep Deprivation form of torture, stress, after
  about 72 hours, slip
  unwillingly into brief, repeated periods of
  microsleep

Latin circa means about and diem day
2
Theories on Sleep

• There is no physiological reason found for sleep
• Sleep is a state of consciousness
• Evolutionary/Circadian Theory Sleep evolved so
  that
• Adaptive Species need a certain time awake
  to survive. Sleep protects by keeping out of
  trouble.
• Conserving Energy Less calories burned
• Repair/Restoration Theory Restore body and
  nervous system, heal wounds, recover from
  emotional and intellectual fatigue

3
Sleep as a change in consciousness

• Sleep Stages
• Stage 1
• Stage 2
• Stage 3
• Stage 4
• REM

Collectively called NREM stages
4
Brain Waves
5
Sleep Stages 1 2

• Stage 1
• Theta Waves, irregular, breathing slows, light
  sleep, easily awakened, lasts about two minutes,
  may have sensory experience without stimulus

• Stage 2
• About 20 minutes long
• Characterized by sleep spindles (bursts of rapid,
  rhythmic brainwave activity) and K Complexes
• Easily awakened but clearly asleep

6
DEEP Sleep stages 3 4

• Stage 3
• A purely transitional stage
• Marked by 20-50 delta waves
• Stage 4
• About 30 minutes long
• Hard to awaken
• Delta waves gt than 50 of the time
• Walking or talking in sleep, wetting the bed, and
  night terrors can occur during this stage
• Still attend to external stimuli
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vz2BgjH_CtIA

7
Sleep Stages REM

• REM
• Occurs the first time about an hour into the
  sleep cycle
• Brain waves rapid
• Breathing and heart rate rapid
• Arousal of genitals
• Rapid eye movement
• Essentially paralyzed during this stage
• Cannot easily be awakened

8
The Cycles of Sleep

• Repeats about every 90 minutes, 4-7 times
• REM sleep increases as the night moves on
• About 25 of sleep is REM

9
Specific Sleep Disorders Dyssomnias
Parasomnias

• Sleep Apnea irregular breathing or periods of
  many seconds without breathing during sleep,
  snoring, repeated awakenings
• Narcolepsy Sudden, irresistible onset of sleep
  during waking hours, cataplexy is sudden attack
  of muscle weakness/paralysis
  http//video.google.com/videoplay?doc
  id2204446853653695027
• http//insideedition.com/
  videos.aspx?videoID3
• Insomnia persistent difficulty falling asleep or
  staying asleep (note sleeping pills can be
  helpful for short-term, but create more problems
  than they solve for more than that)
• REM without Atonia Atonia is loss of muscle tone
  when we dream without means we can more easily
  act out our dreams can be dangerous
• Restless leg leg discomfort during sleep, which
  is only relieved by frequent movements of the
  legs, no known cause
• Sleep walking, talking Walking tend to accompany
  night terrors and occur during NREM, talking an
  happen at any stage
• Night Terrors (NREM), children, sudden terror,
  may be difficult to waken
• Nightmares Usually during REM sleep, bad dreams
• Sleep Paralysis strikes as person is moving into
  or out of REM sleep. During REM body is largely
  disconnected from brain leaving the body
  paralyzed.

10
The Function of Dreaming

• Function Why do we dream?
• Wish Fulfillment (Freud)
• - Freud believed that dreams let us see into
  repressed memories and unacceptable desires
• - Dream of beating up a bully wish
  fulfillment
• - Manifest Content (actual, story line of
  dream) Latent Content (symbolic, meaning behind
  dream)
• - The Interpretation of Dreams (1913)
• Information Processing (Cartwright)
• The need to continue processing the days
  activities. Solves problems
• Activation - Synthesis Hypothesis (Hobson
  McCarley) Triggered by neural activity from the
  brainstem, biological view, brain guides how
  dream is constructed around brain activity

According to Freud Journey death Horseback
riding sex Dancing sex Gun, cigar, etc penis
11
Factors Influencing Drugs Effects
Psychoactive Drugs Chemicals that change
conscious awareness, mood and/or perception

• Tolerance
• Weight
• Physiology
• Amount and strength
• Mood
• Personality
• Age
• Gender

12
Drugs and Consciousness

• Concepts in Drug Use
• Tolerance The need to use more more of a drug
  to continue to get the same effects
• Reverse Tolerance taking same or less amount of
  drug produces bigger effect b/c combines with
  drugs still in system
• Dependence
• Physiological Showing a withdrawal syndrome once
  removed from the drug regimen
• Psychological An emotional need for the drug
  (craving)
• Co-dependence When another person enables the
  drug dependent person (Ex wife calls husband in
  sick when he is actually hung over)
• Withdrawal A distinct set of physiological
  symptoms associated with the removal of the drug
  from the system (headaches, cravings, anxiety,
  depression, seizures, delirium tremens DTs)

Delirium -Acute debilitating decline in
attention-focus, perception cognition -
Produces altered form of semi-consciousness
Hallucinations delusions are often present
13
Classifications of Drugs
Did you know? Tobacco kills more than AIDS,
legal drugs, illegal drugs, road accidents,
murder and suicide combined

• Stimulants
• Drugs that stimulate CNS activity (activity
  responsiveness)
• Ex amphetamines, methamphetamine (cyrstal
  meth),
• caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, MDMA or Ecstasy,
  Speed, Ritalin
• Depressants (Sedatives)
• Drugs which decrease CNS activity (relaxation,
  sedation, loss of
• consciousness even death)
• Ex - Alcohol, Barbiturates (Seconal, Valium),
  Minor tranquilizers (Rohypnol or roofies),
  Ketamine or Special K
• Hallucinogens (Psychedelics)
• Drugs that change perception and self-awareness
• Ex - LSD, PCP, marijuana
• Opiates (Narcotics)
• Drugs derived from opium that numb the senses and
  relieve pain
• Ex Morphine, heroin, codeine

14
Classical Conditioning

• Definition A type of learning that occurs when
  an association is made between a meaningful
  stimulus a non-meaningful stimulus
• Ivan Pavlov (1903 Pavlovian Conditioning)
• Russian physiologist/digestion in dogs
• John Watson (1925)
• Little Albert

15
Terminology

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) Stimulus that
  evokes an unconditioned response (automatic)
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) Previously neutral
  stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired
  the capacity to evoke a conditioned response
• Unconditioned Response (UCR) Unlearned reaction
  to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without
  previous conditioning
• Conditioned Response (CR) Learned reaction to a
  conditioned stimulus that occurs because of
  previous conditioning

To the food (UCS)
To the bell (CS)
16
Classical Conditioning another version
17
Second-Order Conditioning
18
Procedures in Classical Conditioning

• Conditioning or Acquisition
• Presenting the CS and the UCS together
• Testing and Extinction
• Presenting the CS alone

19
Processes in Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition initial stage of learning
• Extinction the gradual weakening and
  disappearance of a conditioned response tendency
  (does not mean unlearn)
• - CS repeatedly presented without UCS
• Spontaneous Recovery a reappearance of an
  extinguished response after a period of
  nonexposure to the conditioned stimulus
• Stimulus Generalization a similar CS makes a CR
• Classic Study Little Albert
• Stimulus Discrimination no CR with a similar CS

20
Acquisition, Extinction Spont. Recovery Curve
21
Operant Conditioning modification of voluntary
behavior based on consequences

• Thorndikes Law of Effect
• Behavior before positive reinforcement ?
• Behavior before punishment or no reinforcement ?
• Puzzle Box
• Skinner
• Skinner Box
• Shaping Reinforcing small steps toward more
  complex behavior (easiest to build on animals
  existing behavior)
• Discriminative Stimulus signals availability of
  reinforcement or punishment (light, sound, parent)

22
Skinner Box
23
Consequences ? Reinforcement

• Reinforcement consequences that strengthen
  responses
• Positive Reinforcement A response is
  strengthened because it is followed by the
  presentation of a rewarding stimulus (Money,
  praise, food, stickers, candy, smile)
• Negative Reinforcement A response is
  strengthened because it is followed by the
  removal of an aversive stimulus (buzzer for seat
  belt)

()add/give (-)subtract/remove
Note positive negative are not
synonymous with good
bad or nice mean

• Conditioned Reinforcement
• Primary Reinforcers Inherently reinforcing
  satisfy biological needs (food, water, shelter)
• Secondary Reinforcers Acquire reinforcing
  qualities by being associated with primary
  reinforcers (money, stickers, praise)

24
Consequences ? Punishment

• Punishment consequences that weaken responses
• Positive Punishment addition of a stimulus that
  decreases the likelihood of the response
  occurring again. (Adding chores for getting home
  late)
• Negative Punishment taking away a stimulus that
  decreases the likelihood of the response
  occurring again (grounding, no car, no
  scholarship)

()add/give (-)subtract/remove
The Big Bang Theory Clip
Note positive negative are not
synonymous with good
bad or nice mean
25
Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforce every time (fastest, but
  quickest to extinction)
• Partial Schedules
• Variable Ratio Reinforcer after a variable
  number of nonreinforced responses
• Variable Interval Reinforcer is given for the
  first response after a variable time interval has
  elapsed
• Fixed Ratio Reinforcer is given after a fixed
  number of nonreinforced responses
• Fixed Interval Reinforcer is given for the first
  response that occurs after a fixed time interval
  has elapsed

26
Schedules of Reinforcement
27
Extinction

• Variable schedules are most resistant to
  extinction
• Ratio schedules cause the greatest amount of
  response

28
Observational Learning

• Definition Occurs when an organisms responding
  is influenced by the observation of others
  (model)
• Four Processes (Bandura)
• Attention watch closely
• Retention remember what was taught
• Reproduction demonstrate what we learned
• Motivation have desire to learn and repeat what
  was learned
• Applications of Observational Learning
• - prejudice, domestic violence, media
  influences, prosocial behavior
• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-458646581
  3762682933 (bobo)
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v5hzh-gW-CO8

29
Bobo Doll Visual
30
Other Forms of Learning

• Insight Sudden understanding of a problem that
  implies the solution
• Cognitive Mapping A mental representation of
  spatial orientations that may not require direct
  experience to be learned
• Latent Learning Learning that has occurred but
  has not been expressed (often appears when reward
  for displaying it)

31
History of Intelligence Testing

• Francis Galton
• Believed that intelligence was related to visual
  acuity and reaction time
• Alfred Binet
• French Government
• Mental age
• Fear test would be abused

32
History of Intelligence Testing

• Terman (Stanford-Binet Scale)
• revised the Binet scale
• created the term IQ
• IQ determined by taking MA/CA x 100
• Extended the test to also assess IQ in adults
• The normal distribution of intelligence scores

• Wechsler
• Developed a more accurate test for adults
• First to use standard deviation, bell curve
• Examples of some of the test developed by
  Wechsler include
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

33
Kinds of Intelligence

• Spearman - g and s
• g-general intelligence
• s-specific abilities

34
Kinds of Intelligence

• Gardner - Theory of Multiple Intelligences
• He believed that intelligence could be broken
  down into seven categories

35
Kinds of Intelligence

• Sternberg - Triarchic Theory
• He believed that intelligence could be broken
  down into three categories
• creative intelligence-ability to solve problems
  with novel solutions
• practical intelligence-common sense
• analytical intelligence-ability to analyze a
  problem into its integral components

36
Kinds of Intelligence

• Raymond Cattell
• Fluid Intelligence innate, inherited
  intelligence including reasoning and problem
  solving abilities, memory, and speed of
  info-processing
• - relatively independent of education
• - tend to decline with age
• Crystallized Intelligence specific knowledge and
  skills gained through experience education-
  tend to increase over life span

37
Types Characteristics of Tests

• Types
• Aptitude persons capability, potential for
  future
• Achievement persons knowledge of subject, what
  they have learned

• Characteristics
• Validity the ability of the test to measure what
  you say it will measure
• Reliability the ability of the test to measure a
  construct with consistency
• Standardization the use of reference scores for
  interpreting an individuals performance

38
Types of Validity Reliability of Tests

• Validity
• Content Complete range of material to test
  concept
• Criterion Compare to other tests of the same
  measure (high on SAT, high on ACT)
• Predictive future performance (MCAT)
• Construct theoretical or hypothetical construct
  (depression, intelligence)

• Reliability
• Test-retest take the test again same score?
• Alternate form give similar, but alternate form
  same score?
• Inter-rater do all graders give the same score?

39
Chapter 16 Social Psychology

• Definition Sub-field of psychology that studies
  of how others influence our thoughts, feelings
  and actions
• Focuses on- How large social forces such as
  groups, social roles and norms bring out the best
  and worst in all of us
• - Explaining why people act differently in the
  same situation, and why the same person may act
  differently in different situations.

40
Conformity and Obedience

• Conformity going along with a group yielding
  to social pressure
• Aschs Conclusions
• 1) subjects often conform to a group, even when
  the group states clearly inaccurate conclusions
• 2) conformity to a group increases with the size
  of the group, up to five or six, but only when
  the group is unanimous in its beliefs
• Obedience going along with a direct command,
  often from figure of authority
• Milgrams Conclusions
• 1) situational pressures can make people obey
  instructions that go against their belief systems

http//www.france24.com/en/20100317-disturbing-tv-
docu-game-tests-limits-small-screen-power-france-g
ame-of-death
41
Attribution Theory

• Definition Inferences that people draw about the
  causes
• of events, others behavior, and their own
  behavior
• Dispositional Attribution we attribute a
• persons behavior to an internal state
• (personality, abilities, etc.)
• Situational Attribution attributing a
• persons behavior to an external state
• (stress, abuse, hardship, wealth, etc.)
• Function People like to explain and understand
  behavior and the events that impact their lives
• Attributions are made when an event is unusual
  and personal
• Just world phenomenon

42
Bias in Attribution

• Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) Observers
  bias in favor of internal attributions in
  explaining others behavior but external
  attributions in explaining their own (Ex
  Someone else drops out of college because they
  couldnt handle the pressure or work load
  internal. You drop out of college because
  tuition was raised and you had to help support
  your family external)
• Defensive Attribution Tendency to blame the
  victim for their misfortune, so that one feels
  less likely to be victimized in a similar way
• Self-Serving Bias Tendency to attribute ones
  successes to personal factors and ones failures
  to situational factors

43
Attitudes Attitude Formation

• - When we observe respond to the world around
  us, it is never without the influence of our
  attitudes (even if we dont realize it).
• - Advertisers spend millions because they know
  that
• attitudes can be shaped changed.to their
  benefit
• Definition
• Positive, negative, or mixed feelings, based
  on our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in
  a particular way to objects, people, and events.
• Ex A friend tells you that they believe Coach
  Stove is a mean teacher. You may feel dislike for
  Coach Stove, and act unfriendly.
• Components of Attitudes
• Cognitive What you believe
• Affective How you feel about it
• Behavioral What you are willing to do about it

44
Cognitive Dissonance Social Facilitation

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory When we act in a
  way not consistent with our beliefs we feel
  tension. We then revise our beliefs to align with
  our behavior.

• Social Facilitation
• Improved performance of tasks in the presence of
  others
• ? better on simple tasks
• ? worse on complex tasks

Example ? Asked to do hour long boring task ?
Offered 1 or 20 to say its fun ? Results
Larger payment led to less dissonance b/c high
payment could account for lying. 1 was not
enough to justify lying so those people changed
their attitude to saying they enjoyed the task
Example After you go to all the trouble of
buying a new house you start to like it more
45
Person Perception

• Definition The process of forming impressions of
  others
• Impressions are influenced by
• Physical appearance
• good looking people are seen as intelligent,
  friendly, and confident
• Schemas Organized clusters of ideas about
  categories of social events and people
• 1st Impressions self fulfilling prophecy,
  primacy
• Stereotypes gender, race, job

46
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

• Stereotype Thoughts and beliefs held about
  people strictly because of their membership in a
  group
• Prejudice A negative attitude held toward
  members of a group
• Discrimination Negative actions towards a group

Explanations

• These often arise from learning, personal
  experience, mental shortcuts,
• economic political competition, displaced
  aggression
• Scapegoat Blame other groups without as much
  power
• Social Identity (in-group bias) Favor own group
• Outgroup Homogeneity Judge members of outgroup
  as more alike
• Learning Theory Classical or operant
  conditioning
• Cognitive Easier to organize our world if we
  categorize

47
Social Influence

• Chameleon Effect our tendency to unconsciously
  mimic those around us
• Yawning when others yawn
• Picking up the mood of a happy or sad person
• Dress like your friends
• This automatic mimicry is an ingredient in our
  ability to empathize with others

48
Behavior in Groups

• The power of group membership affects us in many
  ways
• Social Roles (as mentioned before with Zimbardo
  study)
• Deindividuation Feel less self-conscious, less
  inhibited, less personally responsible as a
  member of a group than when you are alone this
  can be increased by requiring use of uniform,
  mask, same haircut, etcfeeling of anonymity
• Bystander Effect less likely to help others when
  in groups than when alone
• Diffusion of Responsibility when more people are
  around we feel less personally responsible to
  help
• Social Loafing individuals produce less work
  (reduced efficiency effort) when working in
  groups than by themselves
• Decision Making
• Group Polarization - when group discussion
• leads to a more polarizedpoint of view by
• the group
• Groupthink - when feel pressure to conform to
  the group, stops critical thinking to avoid
  dissention in the group
• Ex Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs

Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs Failed attempt to
assassination Fidel Castro in Cuba. All of the
1400 men were captured or killed within three
days. The drive for consensus among Kennedy's
advisors was believed to have precluded crucial
information from being discussed, and has been
blamed for the invasion's failure. The flawed
decision of President Kennedy and his advisors to
authorize the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba is the
example commonly used to illustrate the
phenomenon of groupthink. Symptoms of groupthink
include group members' tendency to (i) believe
the group to be more invulnerable than it is
(ii) rationalize the group's decisions and
believe stereotypes about its enemies and (iii)
feel increasing pressure to agree with others in
the group.
49
Group Polarization
50
Memory

• Memory
• persistence of learning over time via the
  storage and retrieval of information
• internal record or representation of some prior
  event or experience
• Flashbulb Memory
• a clear memory of an emotionally significant
  moment or event

51
Memory

• Memory as Information Processing
• Similar to a computer
• write to file ? encoding
• save to disk ? storage
• read from disk ? retrieval

Encoding the processing of information
into the memory system (perception) Storage
the retention of encoded information over
time Retrieval process of getting information out
of memory
52
Memory

• Sensory Memory
• the immediate, initial recording of sensory
  information in the memory system
• Iconic Memory
• - a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli
• - a photographic or picture image memory lasting
  no more that a few tenths of a second
• - registration of exact representation of a
  scene
• Echoic Memory
• - momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

53
STM LTM

• Short Term Memory
• activated memory that holds a few items briefly
• look up a phone number, then quickly dial before
  the information is forgotten
• Long Term Memory
• the relatively permanent and limitless
  storehouse of the memory system

54
Encoding- Getting Information In

• Unconscious encoding of incidental information
• space
• time
• frequency
• Well-learned information
• word meanings
• We can learn automatic processing
• reading backwards

• requires attention and
  conscious effort
• Maintenance Rehearsal
• conscious repetition of information
• - to maintain it in consciousness
• - to encode it for storage

55
Encoding

• Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables
• TUV ZOF GEK WAV
• Found the more times practiced on Day 1, the
  fewer repetitions to relearn on Day 2
• Spacing Effect
• distributed practice yields better long term
  retention than massed practice

56
Encoding- Serial Position Effect
Recency effect
Primacy effect
57
Forgetting

• Ebbinghaus- forgetting curve over 30 days
• initially rapid, then levels off with time

58
What Do We Encode?

• Semantic Encoding
• encoding of meaning
• including meaning of words
• Acoustic Encoding
• encoding of sound
• especially sound of words
• Visual Encoding
• encoding of picture images

59
Encoding

• Imagery
• mental pictures
• a powerful aid to effortful processing,
  especially when combined with semantic encoding
• Mnemonics
• memory aids
• use of acronyms
• HOMES- Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
• ARITHMETIC- A Rat In Toms House Might Eat Toms
  Ice Cream
• Chunking
• organizing items into familiar, manageable units
• - like horizontal organization 1776149218121941
• often occurs automatically

60
Storage- Long Term Memory

• How does storage work?
• Karl Lashley (1950)
• rats learn maze
• lesion cortex
• test memory
• Synaptic changes
• Long-term Potentiation
• increase in synapses firing potential after
  brief, rapid stimulation
• Strong emotions make for stronger memories
• some stress hormones boost learning and retention

61
Storage- Long Term Memory

• Amnesia- the loss of memory
• Explicit Memory
• memory of facts and experiences that one can
  consciously know and declare
• hippocampus- neural center in limbic system that
  helps process explicit memories for storage
• Implicit Memory
• retention without conscious recollection
• motor and cognitive skills
• dispositions - conditioning

62
Retrieval- Getting Information Out

• Recall
• - ability to retrieve info learned earlier and
  not in conscious awareness-like fill in the blank
  test
• Recognition
• ability to identify previously learned items-like
  on a multiple choice test
• Relearning
• - amount of time saved when relearning previously
  learned information
• Priming
• - activation, often unconsciously, of particular
  associations in memory

63
Retrieval Cues

• Deja Vu- (French) already seen
• cues from the current situation may
  subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier
  similar experience
• "I've experienced this before"
• Mood Congruent Memory
• tendency to recall experiences that are
  consistent with ones current mood
• memory, emotions or moods serve as retrieval
  cues
• State Dependent Memory
• what is learned in one state (while one is high,
  drunk or depressed) can more easily be remembered
  when in same state

64
Forgetting

• Forgetting can occur at any memory stage
• As we process information, we filter, alter, or
  lose much of it

• Encoding Failure
• Information never enters the memory system
• Attention is selective
• we cannot attend to everything in our
  environment
• William James said that we would be as bad off if
  we remembered everything as we would be if we
  remembered nothing

65
Forgetting as Interference

• Learning some items may disrupt retrieval of
  other information
• Proactive (forward acting) Interference
• - disruptive effect of prior learning on recall
  of new information
• Retroactive (backwards acting) Interference
• - disruptive effect of new learning on recall of
  old information

66
Forgetting as Interference

• Motivated Forgetting
• people unknowingly revise history
• Repression
• defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing
  thoughts, feelings, and memories
• Positive Transfer
• sometimes old information facilitates our
  learning of new information
• knowledge of Latin may help us to learn French

67
Memory Construction

• We filter information and fill in missing pieces
• Misinformation Effect
• incorporating misleading information into one's
  memory of an event
• Source Amnesia
• attributing to the wrong source an event that we
  experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined
  (misattribution)

68
Language

• Definition Symbolism used to
  communicate ideas concepts to
  problem solve
• All Language shares 3 things in common
• Semanticity True language conveys thoughts in a
  meaningful way by use of symbols and sounds
• Generativity Ability to combine words in new
  ways
• Displacement Ability to talk about objects that
  are not present

69
Parts of Language

• Phonemes Smallest unit of sound that can be
  understood as part of a language, basic speech
  sounds (40 in English) - Ex The m of mat, the
  b of boy, or the ch in church
• Morphemes Smallest meaningful units of language.
  Can be individual or combinations of phonemes
• - Ex Unit consisting of a word, such as
  man - Ex A word element, such as -ed in
  walked - Ex Phoneme such as I cannot be
  divided into smaller meaningful parts
• Grammar Set of rules that enables us to use our
  language
• Semantics Refers to aspects of meaning assigned
  to language(Ex adding ed means it happened
  in the past)
• Syntax The system of rules we use to string
  words together into proper sentences (Ex
  adjectives come before nouns)

70
Theories of Language Acquisition

• Skinner Learned through association,
  reinforcement and social imitation
• Chomsky Believed that language acquisition is
  innate from his observations that children create
  sentences they have never heard before and
  learning is too rapid to be explained solely by
  learning principles
• Possibly a combination of the two

71
Language Acquisition as we get older
72
Components of Thinking - Concepts

• Concepts
• Definition A mental grouping of similar objects,
  people, events, etc.
• Function Help us to order our world into
  categories and communicate with fewer words
• Prototypes Our best example of a concept
• Ex concept dog prototype your
  Poodle (the image that pops into your head when
  you think of dog)

73
Components of Thinking - Problem Solving

• Trial and Error Trying one solution after
  another in no particular order
• Ex Thomas Edison light bulb
• Means-Ends Analysis Given a current state and a
  goal state, an action is chosen to reduce the
  difference between the two. Ex Used often in
  computer programming and artificial intelligence
• Insights Sometimes answer just comes to us out
  of nowhere when we are not focusing hard on it
• Ex Coming up with a jumbled word ITIGKHNN

74
Components of Thinking - Problem Solving
Algorithm A systematic procedure
which guarantees a solution, although it may
take longer than a Heuristic approach.
-Like a recipe to solve something Heuristics
Using a rule of thumb strategy to problem solve
and make decisions. -Often comes from our past
experiences and personal judgments. -Usually
quicker, but more error-prone, than algorithms.
-Sometimes calledmental shortcuts Ex If you
are having difficulty understanding a problem,
try drawing a picture. If you can't find a
solution, try assuming that you have a solution
and seeing what you can derive from that
("working backward"). If the problem is
abstract, try examining a concrete example.
75
Decision Making

• Definition The process of choosing among a
  number of alternatives
• Representativeness Heuristic When we make a
  decision based on how much a new situation or
  object resembles our old prototypes
• (Ex truck driver vs. Ivy League professor)
• Availability Heuristic When we base a decision
  on what we have most available in our memory.
  Things that come to mind are presumed to be more
  common.
• (Ex letter kmore frequent 1st or 3rd letter)
• (Ex casino noises)
• Comparison When we measure the value of two
  alternatives by comparing them on a
  point-by-point basis

76
Errors Made in Problem Solving

• Functional Fixedness Inability to use familiar
  objects in new ways
• Ex Need a flashlight? Use your cell phone.
• Ex Someone who does not show functional
  fixedness is a robber who uses womens hosiery
  placed over his head to distort his facial
  features ?
• Mental Set When people continue to use
  problem-solving strategies that have worked in
  the past
• Irrelevant information When someone becomes
  fixed on information that is given in the problem
  that does not impact the solution
• Unnecessary Constraints The inability to solve a
  problem because we place constraints on the
  solution that really dont exist

77
Faulty Decision Making

• Confirmation Bias A tendency to seek out
  information that confirms our previously held
  beliefs
• Belief Perseverance The tendency to hold onto
  our belief even in the face of evidence against
  our beliefour beliefs distort our logic
• Overconfidence The tendency to count on our own
  estimates and beliefs too much
• Framing Decisions The way we are presented the
  information needed for making the decision can
  impact what we decide Ex coat for 100 or
  same coat for 150 at 33 off