Psych 211 Midterm 2

Front 1

What are the two premises of behavior genetics?

Back 1

1) To extent that genetics is important: Genotypic similarity -> phenotypic similarity
"similar genes, more likely they are similar"
2) To extent environment is important: similar environment -> phenotypic similarity
"same environment, same genes shown"

Front 2

What are family studies?

Back 2

Trait correlation between individual and close relatives or more distant - which correlations are higher?

Front 3

What are Adoption Studies?

Back 3

The correlation between adopted person and adopted family or biological family to determine which correlation is higher

Front 4

What are twin studies? what does it tell us if MZ twins show a stronger correlation?

Back 4

Looking for correlations between Monozygotic twins and Dizygotic twins. If MZ shows a stronger correlation, it implies the importance of genetics

Front 5

What is the adoption twin study?

Back 5

Determining if there is a correlation between twins that were reared apart, or together

Front 6

Define: Heritability Statistic

Back 6

Statistical estimate of proportion of variance on a given trait among individuals in a given population that is attributable to genetic differences (focus on differences is crucial)

Front 7

What are 4 limitations on the heritability statistic?

Back 7

1) Heritability scores apply to particular group in particular environment at particular time
* height in rich vs poor countries, genetics might play more of role in height in rich country since environment doesn't really vary*
2) Heritability doesn't inform about % contributions to individuals, just to variance in group
3) High heritability doesn't imply immutability
4) Low heritability does not imply non-inherited

Front 8

What are environmental effects? What is an example of shared and non-shared effects?

Back 8

Proportion of variance not attributed to genetics. Shared effects could be education level of parents, non shared (making families differ) could be birth order

Front 9

True or False: Biological siblings have higher correlation than adopted siblings living in same house, therefore this implies it is all heritability.

Back 9

FALSE. This does not imply all heritability; kids can be influenced by friends and society

Front 10

What is Facultative Adaptation?

Back 10

Adaptations that respond developmentally to specific environment conditions or stimuli, preparing organisms for varying conditions in EEA
(ie - a sun tan)

Front 11

What are Obligate Adaptations?

Back 11

Develop reliably as long as individual is developing in species typical environment; contrast facultative
(ie- sugar tastes sweet regardless of environment)

Front 12

What are the two "experience" learning mechanisms?

Back 12

1) Experience Expectant: depend on stimuli and experiences reliably encountered in species typical environment; respond to S-T environment input for normal brain development to result
2) Experience dependent: Depend on stimuli/experiences unique to individual; includes mechanisms designed to optimize relationship between brain and one's own environment

Front 13

What is an example of experience expectant learning?

Back 13

Chicks will eat mealworms in species typical environments. If shoes are put on immediately after hatching, they become oblivious to them. In order to develop ability to perceive and pursue worms, must see feet (chicks toes look like mealworms)

Front 14

What is an example of experience dependent learning?

Back 14

Not just learning attachment, but who mother is
Learning not just language, but vocab of community

Front 15

Explain the Rhesus Monkey experiment.

Back 15

The monkeys did not possess a fear of flowers or snakes. They were then shown a video of a monkey being scared by a flower or a snake. A researcher put food just on the other side of either a flower or snake, and saw if they would be more hesitant to get past the "scary" thing. They concluded that the monkeys had not developed a fear of flowers, but a fear of snakes. (They also tried crocodiles vs rabbits and got similar results).

Front 16

Explain the experiment done on 3+ year olds, using snakes and flowers.

Back 16

Shown 9 pictures; 1 was a flower and 8 were snakes, and vice versa. The goal was to touch targets on the screen ASAP. They found that the children were able to identify snakes faster in a group of photos.

Front 17

Explain the infant study, similar to the studies about snakes.

Back 17

Two movies (one snake movie and one non-snake) and one soundtrack were played at the same time. The soundtrack was either a happy or a scared voice. When the scared voice was played, the snake movie was watched more, and when the happy voice played, they watched the other screen more. This showed how infants had a predisposition to a fear of snakes.

Front 18

What is prepared learning?

Back 18

Learning that is stronger than would be expected by pure associations.

Front 19

What is Naive Realism and how is it disproved?

Back 19

It is the view that your senses give you the world the way it really is. Optical illusions prove we aren't directly perceiving reality.

Front 20

What is exposure learning?

Back 20

Exposure to a stimulus without a reward modifies behavior

Front 21

Explain the poem experiment.

Back 21

While pregnant, mothers recited a poem 3x/day from weeks 33-37. After 4 weeks, it was shown that there was a greater heart rate deceleration towards poem as opposed to new poem, showing the fetus was excited to hear the poem.

Front 22

Explain the Neighbors experiment.

Back 22

Mothers watched the show Neighbors and played the theme song for the fetuses. Once they were born, they were tested at 2-4 days old, and they were played the song. Their reaction was that they became alert, stopped moving and their heart rate decreased, proving they remembered the song. Non-Neighbors mother's children had no reaction.

Front 23

Explain the Carrot Juice experiment.

Back 23

Group 1: Mom who drink carrot juice during last trimester of pregnancy; Their children showed preference for carrot juice.
Group 2: Mom drinks carrot juice during breast feeding; Their children Also showed preference for carrot juice, however less than group 1.
Group 3: (Control group) Mom only drinks water, their children showed a dislike for carrot juice.

Front 24

Explain the cat in the hat pacifier experiment.

Back 24

While fetus was in the womb, they were constantly read The Cat in the hat by their mothers. At 4 days old, they hooked the babies up to special pacifiers that measured their rate of sucking. If they sucked faster, it would play the cat in the hat; if slower, a different poem would be recited. They found that the babies worked for Dr. Seuss poem. They also preferred the mother's womb voice, and mother's voice over other women

Front 25

Explain the Korean Melody Study

Back 25

People with permanent amnesia were played 5 traditional korean melodies. They were then played them again, along with 5 other ones. Although they did not remember hearing the first 5 melodies, they reported that they liked them better. This proved that remembering hearing something and feeling familiar with something are different types of memory.

Front 26

Discuss infant visual scanning

Back 26

Infants are attracted to motion. Their movements are initially jerky, but they are smoother from 2 months on.

Front 27

Discuss infant object segregation (identification of separate objects in a visual array)

Back 27

They are shown shapes, one covering each other. The top one is removed, reveling either a complete or broken bottom shape, and their looking time is measured. The conclusion is that infants at an early age, when seen objects sitting on top of each other, realize they are separate objects and one is blocking another. This can be done by 2 months.

Front 28

Explain the cube experiment (size constancy)

Back 28

Infants are shown one cube, and we move the cube closer then further (so they habituate to the cube in all possible apparent sizes).
They are then shown the two cubes together, one close, one further, so that the two, although different in actual sizes, appear the same size to the infant.
The infants prefer looking at the new block.
Thus they are able to tell that objects are the same size if they move closer or further.
They’re able to tell apart the objects’ sizes even though they appear the same on their retina.

Front 29

What are modalities of senses?

Back 29

Touch, smell, taste, ect.

Front 30

What are intermodal expectations?

Back 30

When you see something, you have expectations for what it sounds like

Front 31

Do infants transfer info across modalities? How is this proven?

Back 31

YES. This is proven by Audio Visual matching experiments (done at 4 months).
Ex 1 - they are shown 2 different movies and one sound track - one was hand drumming and one peekaboo, and they watched the correct one to correspond with the soundtrack
Ex 2 - watching videos of hopping toy animals, one in sync with soundtrack and one not; watched the correct one
Ex 3 - Watching lips for "A" and "I" sounds; watched the correct video

Front 32

Explain the nubby vs smooth pacifier experiment

Back 32

This one done at 1 month old. The infant was given a pacifier to suck on, which was either smooth or bumpy, then taken away. They were shown both a smooth and bumpy pacifier, and preferred the one that they had previously been sucking on to look at. The visual expectation matched the touch information (is this info innate? possibly.)

Front 33

Discuss Biological motion and 1-3 day olds

Back 33

Biological motion is the point light walker. Newborns showed looking preference for biological motion. They were also able to differentiate biological vs random motion, and discriminate upside down vs right side up

Front 34

What did the "Babi" experiment prove?

Back 34

Because there was a release from habituation (a reaction when hearing biba as opposed to babi), it showed early signs of memory and learning and also being able to differentiate between the same syllables in a different order.

Front 35

What is the SSSM (standard social science model)?

Back 35

A summary of current thoughts about human nature, including the assumptions that underlie mist undergrad curriculum and press reports on issues.

Front 36

What are 3 assumptions of the SSSM?

Back 36

1) The mind is more or less a blank slate at birth - everything is learned
2) Biology is irrelevant to human behavior and psych - influence on culture is minor
3) There aren't many learning mechanisms, but rather few, general ones - only acknowledge operant and classical conditioning

Front 37

Define: Associationism

Back 37

Learning happens by associating one stimulus with another, or by associating a behavior with a reward/punishment

Front 38

True or False: Genes don't always support nature vs nurture, due to the fact that environment can also change a person.

Back 38

TRUE

Front 39

What is Fallacy of exclusive determinism?

Back 39

A strong intuition that we should be able to identify a single cause for any event (this is hard to do)

Front 40

True or False: The Heritability statistic does NOT tell you how much of a trait was caused by genes or environment

Back 40

TRUE

Front 41

True or False: The Heritability statistic does NOT tell you how malleable a trait is or whether the trait is unchangably "determined" (therefore, a higher number does not mean deterministic outcome).

Back 41

TRUE

Front 42

True or False: Heritability can be computed for an individual.

Back 42

FALSE

Front 43

What was IQ testing initially used for? What kind of test is common today?

Back 43

It was used to measure intelligence as a way to identify school children who needed special education. The Wechsler test is commonly used today.

Front 44

What is the only part of the Heritability statistic that can be directly measured?

Back 44

Variance in the expressed trait. There is no way to measure variance in genes or environmental factors, but can measure everyone's height (for example).

Front 45

What are some examples of psychological facultative adaptations?

Back 45

Language learning, developmental differences from parenting styles, and development of attachment styles

Front 46

Discuss how parental investment can impact early childhood.

Back 46

Parental investment is affected by ecological situations and varies across cultures (such as how involved a father is). The level of parenting in early childhood signals to the developing child which life cycle strategy will be the most fruitful, and psychological and physiological adaptations develop.

Front 47

True or False: Storing information in the environment may be an efficient way to pass regularity onto the next generation, in cases where reliable info is available in more species- typical environments.

Back 47

TRUE

Front 48

Give an example of an environmental cue that is reliable enough to depend on for development.

Back 48

The sun rising - rises reliably over many generations so it is therefore efficient to calibrate internal schedules rather than have self contained timing devices in our neural system.

Front 49

What is a critical period?

Back 49

Time period in development during which a specific kind of learning can take place if the necessary stimuli are present

Front 50

What is a sensitive period?

Back 50

Time period in development during which a specific kind of learning takes place

Front 51

What is the Norm of Reaction?

Back 51

Relationship between a specific environmental factor and a measurable phenotypic expression.
(Ie- a plant may grow taller in lower but not higher altitudes)

Front 52

What is prepared learning?

Back 52

Learning that is easier to induce rather than a random paired association would be because of its importance in our evolutionary history.

Front 53

What is the function of perception (overall)?

Back 53

To allow us to behave sensibly in the world with respect to our survival and reproductive interests

Front 54

True or false: Perception is knowledge, rather than adaptive behavior

Back 54

FALSE - it is adaptive behavior (for example, if you are fatigued, a hill will seem much steeper).

Front 55

What is instinct blindness?

Back 55

Our inability to appreciate the complexity of our mental processes because they seem automatic and inevitable to us

Front 56

Beauty is determined by our own minds. How does this benefit us?

Back 56

Our visual system is designed to perceive something as beautiful and it benefits us because our attraction to them increases our reproductive success

Front 57

Why must the developing infant have specialized mechanisms?

Back 57

To orient to, interface with and exploit the regularities and potential observations in the environment

Front 58

Very young children pay attention to eyes. What happens at 3 months and 6 months?

Back 58

3: Shift gaze in adult direction
6: Look in direction of adult eye gaze

Front 59

In regards to face tracking, what happens at 1 and 2 months old?

Back 59

1: Tracks outline of the face
2: Internal Details of the face

Front 60

In Prenatal Perceptual Development, which sense is the least developed in the uterus?

Back 60

Vision

Front 61

Prenatal Perceptual Development: Discuss hearing within the womb

Back 61

Ambient sounds can pass through clearly, especially voices. The fetus can learn the mother's tonation and stress patterns, even if they are pre-linguistic. Movement can also change due to external noise

Front 62

True or False: In Prenatal Perceptual Development, touch is developed due to the fetus sucking its thumb and holding the umbilical cord.

Back 62

TRUE

Front 63

Why does the fetus develop a sense of taste in the Prenatal Perceptual Development?

Back 63

Due to drinking amniotic fluid

Front 64

During the Prenatal Perceptual Development, can the fetus smell?

Back 64

YES, it can smell what the mother has ingested, despite not breathing

Front 65

In Postnatal Perceptual Development, which two structures are not fully developed pertaining to vision at birth?

Back 65

The occipital cortex and the eye. Development happens quickly over first 6 months.

Front 66

Postnatal Perceptual Development: Discuss visual acuity

Back 66

When the infant is first born, there is underdeveloped visual acuity (20/600), and focus cannot change. Underdeveloped fovea makes fine detail impossible. By 6 months, they can focus on objects at different distances, and by 5 years old, near adult acuity is reached.

Front 67

In Postnatal Perceptual Development, describe the infant's color vision

Back 67

Color vision is not developed at birth. At 4 months, it is almost perfect and the child prefers saturated colors. Red and green are the easiest colors seen, as they were likely needed by ancestors.

Front 68

Explain the Depth Perception experiment (Visual cliff paradigm)

Back 68

The infant was placed on the shallow side of a "cliff" and called by mothers to go to the other side. Children aged 6-14 months showed fear at the edge of the shallow and deep side, indicating knowledge of depth perception. A child was even more likely to show fear towards the deep side (and therefore depth perception) if they were more experienced with self-propelled motion.

Front 69

How old is a child when they first blink as an opject is brought to their face (thus detecting distance)?

Back 69

1 month

Front 70

Name 3 points about hearing in Postnatal Perceptual Development.

Back 70

1) Prefer voices over pure tones
2) Not as sensitive hearing as adults
3) Better at detecting high pitches

Front 71

In Postnatal Perceptual Development, where is the most sensitive spots for touch?

Back 71

Mouth, palms of hands and soles of feet

Front 72

True or false: in Postnatal Perceptual Development, babies do not respond to temperature changes, including below body temperature.

Back 72

FALSE

Front 73

List 3 points about taste in the Postnatal Perceptual Development

Back 73

1) Prefer sweet liquids over water
2) Adult like facial expressions to bitter and sour foods
3) like salty tastes around 4 months, and solid food at 6 months.

Front 74

What smells are preferred in the Postnatal Perceptual Development?

Back 74

Banana and chocolate, human milk, mother's amniotic fluid, and smell of mother (at 2 weeks).

Front 75

What are contancies?

Back 75

The perception of like objects as like despite radically different projections on the retina

Front 76

Describe SIZE constancy

Back 76

They allow the visual system to see an object as the same size despite being viewed at radically different distances, thus casting wildly different proximal images on the retina

Front 77

Describe SHAPE constancy and give an example (*happens at 2 mos).

Back 77

As objects move and rotate, you have no problem seeing them as the same.
ex - looking top-down at an ice cream cone, still have no problems seeing cone despite retina image

Front 78

With regards to constancy, describe BRIGHTNESS and give an example. (*evidence at 7 weeks)

Back 78

Ability to perceive brightness across incredible range of illuminations
ex - coal reflects with sunlight more than white paper reflects with indoor lighting, but object colors don't change (black, white)

Front 79

What does COLOR actually measure?

Back 79

Measures the wavelength of light that is reflected off of an object such as grass or particles in the sky (perception produced by visual system).

Front 80

Describe COLOR CONSISTENCY (*evidence at 4 months)

Back 80

Our ability to perceive an object as the same color despite tremendous changes in the wavelength of light reflected from it (sunrise -> dusk)
* It cannot be achieved from artificial light that differs too dramatically from natural terrestrial light

Front 81

What were the main findings from Hubel and Wiesel's experiments on cats?

Back 81

- some visual system cells (or simple cells) respond t vertical or horizontal lines
- Complex cells receive input from a number of simple cells and integrate the info received
- Because of this, it might respond to a line of particular orientation in a number of different locations in a visual field, or to a line that is in motion in a particular direction

Front 82

What is the Occular Dominance Column (ODC)?

Back 82

A column of neurons in the visual system that responds to input from either the right or the left eye; one is dominant in the column.

Front 83

How does the ODC work? (*only in children 2 months and older)

Back 83

Neurons (rods/cones) -> specific cells in visual cortex (Left/Right)
One column will respond to the right eye, neighboring one the Left eye
It is created when existing connections are eliminated

Front 84

True or False: Development of ODC Is dependent on experience; depriving one eye will change the entire visual system

Back 84

TRUE

Front 85

What is a Natural Experiment?

Back 85

A situation in which 2+ groups exist through no action of the experimenter, allowing a comparison between these naturally occurring groups.

Front 86

Give an example of a natural experiment

Back 86

Cataracts in babies - effect on development of face perception, but not facial expressions or eye direction (could mean different psych processes?)

Front 87

What is the Sleeper Effect?

Back 87

A developmental effect that is evident only dome time after exposure to particular environmental cue

Front 88

Give an example of the sleeper effect

Back 88

Children with cataracts had them removed from 1 month to 1 year old - however, they still show defects in holistic face processing. (effects of experience can manifest years later in development of individual).

Front 89

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
What proportion of the trait of extroversion is attributable to experience and what portion due to genetics?

Back 89

This is not a reasonable question

Front 90

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
The snowflake analogy in the text is meant to illustrate

Back 90

We may understand which factors contribute to an outcome without understanding how an outcome occurs

Front 91

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
The study of intelligence has always differed from other developmental topics in that it has been

Back 91

Ideographic

Front 92

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
The heritability of IQ increases or decreases with age?

Back 92

Increases with age

Front 93

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
Which of the following is not true regarding IQ correlations?

Back 93

Correlations between siblings raised apart are higher than between adopted siblings

Front 94

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
The heritability estimate is best used for

Back 94

Providing clues for testing a hypothesis

Front 95

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
When did the modern enterprise of measuring intelligence start?

Back 95

Early in the last century

Front 96

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
As environments become less uniform, heritability increases or decreases?

Back 96

Decreases

Front 97

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
what must you need to have in order to calculate the heritability statistic

Back 97

There must be appreciable variance in the trait

Front 98

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
What was NOT discussed in the textbook in terms of differences in IQ scores between different groups?

Back 98

genetic differences

Front 99

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
Does language learning involve experience expectant learning or experience dependent?

Back 99

BOTH

Front 100

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
Why is it not a good idea to map out the norms of reaction?

Back 100

Because it is costly and time consuming

Front 101

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
Prepared learning is the result of ?

Back 101

evolutionary history

Front 102

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
In order for the perceptual system to attend to, select and use developmentally relevant info, _________ is/are necessary.

Back 102

orienting devices

Front 103

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
DeCasper and Spence (1986) found that newborns preferred a story that had been read to them prenatally to an unfamiliar story. What does this demonstrate?

Back 103

It doesn't make sense to categorize things as "influenced by environment" or "develops at birth"

Front 104

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
What do teller acuity cards rely on to test acuity?

Back 104

preferences

Front 105

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
Which constancy develops last?

Back 105

colour

Front 106

True or false: Nature relies on nurture

Back 106

TRUE

Front 107

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
Contemporary Associationists contend that the development of low-level visual processes is a matter of_______

Back 107

Learning about statistical regularities

Front 108

*STUDY GUIDE QUESTION*
What aren't Contemporary Associationists entirely clear on?

Back 108

why an individual should rely only on info they have encountered in their lifetime

Front 109

What is the take home message from the tiger example at the end of the chapter?

Back 109

All that is required to learn from a bad tiger experience and act adaptively in subsequent tiger encounters could not be accomplished from a blank slate perspective