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145 Cards in this Set

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What is communication?
A way to exchange signals, common in animals (warning signals, facial expressions, becogning call)
What is language?
a formal system of symbols. There are rules to tell you how they can and cants be used together. The symbols can be written, spoken, or jestured.
What is language productivity
the ability to express new ideas. Everyday we hear and produce new sentances that have never been said before.

exp reading a book. Take a sentance 10 words or longerand think how long you would have to keep reading to find the exact same sentance again
Langiage productivity is used by what?
it is unique to humans
what is transformational grammar?
a system for converting the meaning of a deep structure into a surface structure.

eg- converting what we want to say into a sentance sequence that makes sense
what is deep structure?
underlying logic or meaning of a sentance
what is surface structure?
the sequence of words as they are actually spoken or written.

eg three sentances with the same deep structure and different surface structure
"john is easy to please"
"pleasing John is easy"
"it is easy to please John"
What is a Noam Chomsky's theroy about Language aquisition device (LAD)?
People are born with a built in mechanism for aquiring langiage.

an underlying general grammar that is the foundation for out learning language
Give some support for humans having a language aquisition device.
-all languages have some basic similarities, such as nouns, verbs, making ?s, having negatives, etc.
-incredibly fast aquisition in children
-creation of novel/unique sentances never heard before
-auditory system is system to differences in all phenomes (basic unit of language sound) across all languages at birth
-children can invent their own language if exposure to a consistant language is limited.
The research by Bickerton(1880) did reasearch on what? And what was the conclusion?
They studied thousands of immigrants in Hawaii, where there was no dominant language present. Pidgin language formed (no grammar, only name of objects but no expressive ideas). Within 1 generation a new language emerged (hawaiian creole) words formed form all the langiages there, but it has its own distint sophisitcated grammar. It happened so fast it was concluded it was created by the children.
What does this example give merit to?

Deaf children who are not taught sign language start to make their own sign language. while different all tend to have many similarities (even across different languages and cultures with different grammar)
Humans having Language aquisition device
what is a catagory or concept
a group of objects, events, qualities, or relations, that share certain features.

eg bachelor- a man who is not married. Is a priest a bachelor?
what is a logical concept?
a concept that is formed by identifying the specific features possessed by ALL things that the concept applies to.

eg "great lake states" must be a state, must border a great lake.

all members in the catagory must have these features to belong.
What are natural concepts?
A concept that typically formed through everyday experiences whose members posses some but not neccesarily all of a common set of features (less concrete then logical concepts)

eg sports football, running, car raching, ping pong, poker. All share enough of the same features that they can all be considered sports. but there is not a defining set of features they must all have.
What 2 ways do we try to catagorize an object into a catagory?
Using prototypes and classical models
what is a classical model>
all items in a catagory share defining features and must have them to be a member of a catagory. People catagorize by checking to see if an item has all features (fits with logical concepts)

eg catagory triangle follows a set of rules, 3 sides, closed form, int angles = 180 degrees.
What is a prototype?
an abstract representation you store in your head that is the most typical or representative example in a catagory. Doesnthave to be an exact match.

Like if you say sport, the first sport you think of.
We can catagorize an item quicker when?
When the example is closer to the prototype then it is quicker to recognize.

Exp if the catagory was bird, we would catagorize sparrow quicker then emu because it fits our sterotypes better.
An organization in our minds for how objects or items relate to one another is an example of what?
Conceptual networks

eg- think of the color red for 20 seconds. hard to just think of just red because it reminds you of other things.
the legnth of a link in conceptual networks mean what?
it indicates the stregnth of the connection between 2 concepts.

eg red and roses have a stronger connection, so people would be more likely to think of roses when red is mentioned.
What is spreading activation?
when you hear or think about one concept you will then accociate , or prime, all the concepts linked to to it.
Primary is stronger for concepts with a stronger link,
people are faster at recognizing a word if a similar word was preceeding it
eg wedding is faster to identify if processed by the word "bride" then no words at all.
- more likely to think of rose if both red and flower procedes it, think of it faster then if the word flower procedes it.
How can activation slow down comprehension of a word?
If the word cardinal is said, most people will likely activate the bird. But if the person activated religion then it can slow them down if the next word is bird.
What is attention?
your ability to direct your mental focus or particular information for an experience while ignoring others

eg being able to focus on material being talked about during class, focusing on reading and ignoring other stimulation, paying attention the the feeling of your toes in your shoes.
Attention can be one of two things, what are those two things?
Selective, shiftable
What is Selective attention?
you can choose what to focus on and what info to ignore.

eg at a party you can focus on one voice and ignore the noise form the rest of the party.
What is shiftable attention?
Being able to move your attentional focus from one item to another.

eg if someone calls your name at a party you can shift your attention to that person.
What is the stroop effect?
the task is to say the color of the ink, the blocks and the words are presented so word says red, but is written in yellow, and you have to say yellow.
what are the results to the stroop effect?
Results: People are much slower at saying the color of the ink, when the meaning of the word conflict.

Conclusion- your automatically attend to the meaning of the word which interferes with your attempt to say ink color.
automatic processes do not use up a lot of attention resources. Give an example of this-
riding a bicycle is automatic so dont need to concentrate as much attention on it. so you can concentrate on other things.
What is concious attention?
having direct control over where your attention is focused.

eg directing where you want to focus at any given time. I want to think about how to rearrange the furniture rather then reading.
What catches your attention depends on...
what we like (our motication and interests) especially personally important info.

eg if you are a big basketball fan you would be more likely to pay attention to an announcement about a game being on tv tonight.
What is a perceptual set?
We have a rediness to see things in a certain way (that we expect)
Novel features or stimuli usually do what (in regards to attention)?
They stand out or catch our attention. Tend to pop out. The more novel it is the faster it stands out

eg me in china vs me in england
When is attention usually pulled?
when change occurs. More likely to pay attention to a commercial that is much louder then the preceeding television show.

Movement also catches our attention.
DO we have unlimited attention?
No attention is limited, you can not attend to everything at once. You only have so much attention to allocate. If you try to attend to multiple tasks, performance on 1 task will suffer.

eg talking on phone while driving
eg studying while listening to the radio or watching tv
WHat is problem solving?
THe process by which an individual overcomes obstacles to reach a goal.
What are ill defined problems?
Problems where the rules and constraints for solution are not obvios or made clear

eg how can I emprove my friendship with my roommate?
eg what should I major in?
What are well defined problems?
Much more clear cust problems. CLear rules and methods available for a solution.

eg put a coin in the bottle with a cork in it. How can you get the coin out without pulling out the cork or breaking the bottle?
push the cork in.
What is an algorith
a rule that when followed step-by-step guarentess a correct solution to the problem.

eg solving an anagram CUPRITE
an algirithm would systematically start w/ 1 letter continue to change 1 letter and see if it is a word. Then change letter 2, etc.
What is the advantages to an algorithm?
Gaurantees a right answer
what is the disadvantage to an algorithm?
can be legnthy and inefficient when solving.
What is an heuristic?
a general strategy or technique hat can help solcve a problem

eg solving an anagram- OIULQR >> Liquor
you put Q and U together, then generally another vowel follows QU. So we try a combination of letters that are more likely to occur together.
Whats the advantages of a heuristic?
Much more efficent way of problem solving
What is the disadvantage of a heuristic approach>
No gaurantee that you will get the correct answer.
What is insight?
a mental manipulation of information that produces a sudden realization of the solution to the problem (an "a-ha" moment)
What improves insight?
Insight improves with more incubation (amount of time taking a break)
What is a mental set?
a tendance to stick w/ a problem solving strategy that has been used in the past but may not be helpful for a new problem.

eg- water jar problems
Jar Capacities
A B C Goal equation
21 127 3 100 b-a-c-c
14 169 25 99 b-A-C-C
18 43 10 5 B-A-C-C
14 37 8 6 A-C

Last one is more difficult because it went against the pattern. People get used to the strategy and have a hard time coming up with a new one.
What is functional fixedness?
Where a person tends to fixate on the typical usage of something, and causes an innability to see a novel usuage.

eg given a big box of matches, candles, and tacks and told to attach the candle to the wall so it wont drip wax on the floor.

-if the subject focuses on the box only as a contatiner (functional fixedness) and not as a platform they have difficulty solving the problem.
What is decision making?
A form of problem solving that evaluates alternatives and makes choices among them.

people weigh the cost and benefits of carious outcomes and choost the outcome with the highest expected value.

eg choosing college- determine factors such as cost, quality of education, location, social life, and pick the one you think have the best outcome.
Do people always base decidion making on the best outcome?
No, in not all decisions are made rationally.
WHat is loss aversion?
decisions are affected more by potental losses then potential gains.

egtoss a coin if it comes up heads you will get $20, if it comes up tails you lose 10. Accept?

- most people decline the bet even though the expected gain is $10, per toss, there is a strong aversion to losing $10.
what is perceived justification?
Decisions are affected by the fact that people want to be able to justify their decision to themselves and to others.
What is subject of biases?
we often so not make objective decisions.
What is confirmation bias?
a tendancy to seach for or use information that supports our ideas rather then refute them

eg- polliticians accept views that goes along with theur ideas or discounts news that is against them.
What is belief preserverance>?
If you have a particular belief you have a tendancy to hold onto it in the fact of contradictory evidence

(Bush and WMD)
WHat do we use Heuristics in Decision making for>
general guidline in making decisions
what is Representative Heuristic?
Make a decision based on how typical it is, how well it fits your idea of a good example (prototype)

eg eating at one resturant, you eat at one of a chain, and someone ask you how they are and you assume they are all equally good.
If you were to be given a description of a person who was: skilled at carpentry, proficient wrestler, owns a snake, fxes motorcylces, and has a police record people would assume
1) man or a woman> Most say man though pop is 50/50
2) more likely a salesman or in a motorcycle gange? More assume gang even though there are only about 10k members of motorcycle gangs and 100 million salesmen.

what is this an example of?
Representativeness Heuristic
What is an availablitily heuristic?
the tendancy to estimate probability of an event occuring by how easily you can recall past instances of that event.

eg: if a word of 3 or more letters is picked at random from an English text is it more likely it will have an "r" as the 1st letter or the 3rd letter?

most people say first letter because it is easier for them to recall words that start with r, then have the thrid letter an r, even though the answer is it is more likely it is in the 3rd position.
This is an example of what?

You determine how likely you will be the victim of a crime.

Estimates go up when media goes through a phase of highlighting a particular crime, though probability is actually the same.
Availability heuristic
This is an example of what?

2 groups, 1 was to they were going to read a description of 1 in 100 people. THey were told 30% of the descriptions were of lawyers, adn 70% engineers. Group B were told 70% Lawyers and 30% engineers.

Description "Jack is a 45 year old man, he is married, has 4 children. He is a conservative, not political, he spends most of his free time on his hobbies which include home carpentry, sailing, and math puzzles?
Is Jack more likely a lawyer or an englineer?

People believed there was a 90% chance that Jack was an engineer, they did not base it on the rate of %s instead used their prototype.
Representative heuristic
This is an example of what?

Which is more likely dying in a car crash or in a plane crash?

Many people are more afraid of flying even though the probability is much lower then a car accident. But since crashes are heavily reported they come to mind easier.
Availability heuristic
What is Framing effects on decision making?
The presentation od a problem or choice and alter the decision that is made,

eg deciding which course to enroll in
"Dr. Smith fails 10% of his students"
"Dr. Smith passes 90% of his students"
Though these are the same rates more students are likely to sign up igf they are told the bottom one.
This is an example of what?
When deciding to have a medical procedure you are more likely to have it if told it has a "50% pass rate" compared to a "%0% chance of failure"
framing effects on decision making
This is an example of what

You are more likely to purchase meat that says "75% lean" then 25% fat.
Framing effects on decision making
What is the definition of intellegence?
There are many definitions:
-the ability to solve problems well and to understand and to learn complex material.
-the global capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment.
-an inferred charecteristic of an indiv., usually defined as the ability to profit from experience, aquire knowledge, thenk abstractly, act purposefully, or adapt to changes in environment.
What are acheivement tests?
They Assess your knowledge of a particular subject

eg test in your classes
What are aptitude tests?
a test designed to predict a person's potential to suceed and/or benefit from instruction in a particular academic or vocational setting.

eg SATs, GRE, test you take for getting a job (like before going into tbe military)
What are intellegence tests?
Test designed to asses overall mental ability
What was Binet-Simon Scale, and what was it used for?
It was the first formal test of intellegence (1905), designed to identify children who would need special help in school (french test)
How was the Binet-Simon Scale developed?
Came up with a ton of ?s related to language, reasoning, and math. The test was given to children of all different ages. Questions were eliminated that were answered the same by children of all ages. Kept ?s that were answered more and more corecly by each sucessive age group.
eg 1st graders answered it correct 10% of the time, 2nd graders 20%, 3rd 35% etc

would give these ?s to children of all ages and could then comput their mental age based on # of ?s answered correctly for each age range of ?s.
What is Intelligence Quotent?
Originally a score derived from the formula of mental age x 100, over chronical age. So if you have the same mental age as chronological age then your IQ would be 100/
What is the problem with computing IQ as mental age x100 over chronological age?
This tends to not work for adults since your knowledge is not fluxuating w/ age in adulthood,
Whats the avg IQ
85-115
WHat IQis considered to be mentally retarded
70 and below
WHat is the most widely used intellegence test today?
Wechsler Adult Intelligence scale
WHat is spearman's concept of general intellegence?
It states that everyone has a general overall intellegence (G) that influences our abilities in many different types of tasks.

eg general guides our ability in verbal tasks, math tasks, creative tasks, etc.

If a person has a hight score in one area should have a high score in another area.
What is some Critiscm of Spearman's Concept of (G)?
People often should differences in abilities for different types of tasks. They could be good at math but not good at creative tasks.
What is Gardener's Theroy of Multiple Intelleges?
Says that there is not one intellegence, but many. People have multiple intellegences for different tasks. 7 different intellegences.
What are Garner's 7 intelegences?
Linguistic, logical, spatial, musical, movement, interpersonal, intrapersonal.
In Gardener's Theroy, what is Linguistic Intellegence?
ability in oral and written langiage.

eg ability in storytelling, teaching, public speaking, poetry, prose
In Gardener's Theroy, what is Logical Intellegence?
mathematical intellegence and ability to think quantivetately

eg pose and solve math problems in engineering and science
In Gardener's Theroy, what is Spatial Intellegence?
ability to locate and think about objects in 3-d space.

eg ability to solve a maze by using your internal map, visualize objects in your mind.
In Gardener's Theroy, what is Musical Intellegence?
ability to sing, play instruments, and compose music
In Gardener's Theroy, what is Movement Intellegence?
ability to controll the movement of your body

eg, ability to dance, play sports, and skillfully control fingers and body to play music and sports.
In Gardener's Theroy, what is Interperonal Intellegence?
the ability to understand motive and "read" other people in a way that facilitates social interaction. Sales perople, and politicians should have a high IQ in this area.
In Gardener's Theroy, what is Intrapersonal Intellegence?
understanding yourself. ability to gain insight into your own thoughts and feeling to understand the causes and consequences to your actions and apply that knowledge in making decisions.
What is the criticism of Gardener's Theroy
not all of his intellegences have to so with mental abilities, for example if a person trips and falls down, you wouldnt call them stupid, just clumsy, so calling it an intellegence is misleading or incorrect.
Horn and Cattell came up with 2 factors for intellegence, what are they?
Fluid and Crystalized intellegence.
WHat is fluid intellegence?
Natural ability, not learned, tends to decrease in age (elderly people) and reflects reasoning ability, memory, and seed of information processing.
What is crystalized intellegence?
reflects your knowledge aquired through schooling and everyday life. Tends to grow, doesnt tend to go away in late adulthood.
How is Horn and Cattells 2 factor theroy of intellegence supported?
supported by research, data supports that the seperation of fluid and crystalized intellegence for performance in late adult hood.
What is the critisism to Horn and Cattells 2 factor theroy of intellegence?
Asumes that intellegence reflects the cognitive abilities related to academic performance.
What is Componential Intellegence?
Analytic, reflects our info processesing ability which helps academic performance (what is traditionally measured in IQ tests)
What is Experiental Intellegence?
Creative- ability to solve novel problems by combining different experiences in insightful ways.
What is Contextual Intellegence
Practical ability to function practically everyday in social situations. Might be considered common sense, or street smarts.

eg having to negoritate the price of a new car.
What is the adantage to Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intellegence?
recognizes that people function outside of academic settings and people need to know how to function.
How does Nature influence intellegence, in the Nature vs Nurture debate?
intellegence is inheritted through your genes.
How does nurture mean in the, in the Nature vs Nurture debate?
intellegence is from the environment.
What did adoption studies do in determining the role or importance of the environment?
The studies showed that children who are adopted into a higher socioeconomic class, there IQ --or avg-- is 20 pts higher ( for lower SES child adopted into middle class) children in general from low SES environments have lower IQ. Environment can impact IQ scores as well
What are the current conclusions about genetics and environment?
Both Genetics and ENvironment can influence IQ. Believed genetics can set your IQ rate, and your environment can cause it to fluxuate around that general number.
What is motivation?
ones drive to accomplish something, to reach a goal. The psychological process that arouses, durects, and maintains behavior toward a goal. Can not directly observe motivation, so must infer it from people's behavior.
eg hunger- if you are hungry you are aroused to find food makes us eat until hunger goes away. However a person can not see it.
What are the 2 sources of motivation?
Drive and Need
What does Clark Hull's drive-reduction theory state?
You will try to do something until the drive reduces.
what is need?
a motivated state caused by physiological depravation

eg lack of food or water
what is drive?
the tension that results from the tension. A state ofpsychological tension caused by the need which motivates you to reduce the drive. Drive pushes you towards a goal.

eg the motivation to get food or water to reduce the need.
What is the problems with the drive-reduction theroy?
It explains drives such as thirst, hunger, or sex, however it doesnt explain something like a student wanting to get better grades, or athletes wanting to play well.
What is an incentive?
an External Stimulus that will pull someone towards a goal.

we learn that certain stimuli are desireable and others are not.

eg puppies are desireable and should be approached with positive incentives or "pulled toward the puppy"
eg elevator is undesireable and should be avoided a negative or non-incentive, pushing you away from the music/
What are the 2 types of motivation?
Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation
What is Intrinsic Motivation?
An activity that you find internally rewarding, you are motivated to do it for your own sake.
People are more motivated to do things if they are motivated how?
Intrinsically
What can diminish Intrinsic Motivation?
If someone is motivated to do something intrinsically, and they ar rewarded for it, they will stop wanting to do it for no reason, they will only want to do it for the reward. Becomes associated as a chore to them.
What is Extrinsic Motivation?
You will do an activity because some outside factor rewards you (reward or praise from others).
What can help to extrinsically motivate someone?
Rewards can increase the liklihood of a person doing an activity that they normally would not so at all (no intrinsic motication)
What can be combined to influence motivation?
Drive and incentives

eg. hunger drive motivates you to eat. Your favorite food would pull you towards a particular food (incentive)

eg plane crash in the andes. Pasagers cannabalized the bodies. Extreme hunger drive made them respond to a very weak or negative incentive (human flesh)
What is Maslow's Hierarchy of needs?
A hierarchy of need in order of their motivational priority.
What does Maslow's hierarchy state?
that our physiological needs must be satisfied first, then we can worry about our psychological needs.
eg, if you only had one choice to have food or to get get straight As which would you prefer?
What is the criticism to Maslow's Hierarchy?
sometimes people will put their emotional needs above physiological. Study of 150 students, most ranked love above everything else.
What are the body parts that primarily regulate hunger?
Moth, Stomach, and brain
How does your mouth regulate hunger?
sensations there regulates hunger
How does your stomach help regulate hunger?
-Contractions of the stomach associated with hunger pangs.
- receptor cells in the stomach detect the amount of food contained (reduc hunger feeling)
How do your intestines help regulate hunger?
the small intestine releases a hormone when food gets to it, when the hormone is released to your hypothalamus, it signals you are no longer hungry.

eg when given a dose of the hormone, people feel less hunger then if they were given placebo (hormone is called choleeystokonim)
How does the brian help regulate hunger?
with regulation of hormones from the hypothalamus, and with seratonin.
How does the ventromedial hypothalamus help regulate hunger?
The VMH regulates our hunger, stimulation of this area inhabits eating. If you destroy this area in rats they will eat until they are obese.
How does the Lateral Hypothalamus regulate eating?
If you stimulate it promotes eating, if the area is destrpyed stops eating.
How doesn Neuro Transmitter Seratonin help regulate eating?
used in these brain areas to signal when you are full.

eg when people take medication that block seratonin receptors they tend to gain weight. When people take medications that activate these receptors, they tend to lose weight.
What are some of the environmental factors that regulate hunger?
seeing, hearing about, smelling, feeling, adn thinking about food can induce hunger.

those kinds of thoughts and triggers will begin to release insulin, which triggers hunger.
What are 3 Biopsycholigical factors that have to do with Obesity?
Heredity, Set Point, and Basal Metabolic rate
What does heredity have to do with obesity?
there has been some correlation shown between heredity and weight. There is a genetic basis for thinness vs obesity. Heditay infulences our caloric intake, and amout of preference for fatty foods and sweet tasting carbs.
What does Identical twin studies and adoption studies show us about obesity and heredity?
Twin studies- there is a high correlation for weight for identical twins reared together and for those apart (environment not much influence)

Adoption studies children tend to have the same weight type as their biological parents and not adoptive parents.
What is a set point, and what does it have to do with obesity?
Set pont is the amount of fat stored in your body that your body finds easiest to maintian.

the lower the set point, the thinner the person.
Why does the set point make it difficult for obese person to lose weight?
it is hard for an obese person to lose weight because when they drop below their set point, constant hunger begins to set in.

set point hard to change, but changing metabolism may help.
What is a Basal Metabolic Rate?
rate your body burns calories ona normal day to day processes (to keep you alive)

65-75% of the calories you injest is just for BMR
slower metabolic rate coincides with obesity
can elevate metabolic rate by aerobic excercise.
What are 2 behavioral factors to obesity?
Eating cues and stress
what are eating cues and what correclation does it have to obesity?
Eating cues are how people respond to external food cues. Obese people are more likely to order dessert after a server in a resturant provides an appetizing description. Obese people tend to eat more even if they are not hungry then a non-obese person who is hungry.
How does stress effect obesity?
stress releases endorphins that stimulate eating (induces hunger and over eating in people

eg pigs given a drug that blocks endorphins ate less even when they were deprived food. Also ate more when given injection of endorphins.
What is the arousal motive?
Your motive to maitain a optimal level of physical activity.

eg when you are nervous or excited you have a higher level of physiological activation (more adrenalin) so have a hard time standing still.
-when sleepy lower levels of psychological activation
What is the optimal arousal?
Yerkes Dobson law states that performance on a task is bedt for an intermediate level of arousal, and performance gets worse for extremely low and high levels of performance.
What happens to sport performance with too much or too little arousal?
If too much arousal they will choke (play below normal level) and if there is too little arousal they will play sluggish, once again below avg level.
What is sensory Deprivation
the prolonged withdrawl of normal levels of external stimulation.
Studies show that reports from Artic explorers, prisoners in solitary confinement, and shipwrecked sailors, showed what?
-though people differ in the amt of arousal they prefer, all people require at least a minimal amt for our brains to function properly.
-if deprives of sensory stimulation we can experience hallucination, delusions, emotional instability and intellectual deterioration
- due to brians attempt to restore its optimal level of arousal.
What is a flotation restricted Environment? aka sensory depravation tank.
participants float in a dark, sound proof tank filled with warm slat water (for limited periods). Used to reduce arousal w/o causing distress or cognitive imapirment. Used for reduction in blod pressure and relief of chronic tension headaches.
What is sensory seeking?
The extent to which a person seeks sensory stimulation.

eg would you prefer ride a roller coaster or lie on a beach?
eg prefer to attend a lively part or a quiet conversation
People with high sensation seeking prefer activities that increase what? And what are some examples of these type of sctiviteies?
They look for activities that raises teir arousal levels while low sensation seekers prefer activities that decrease arousal

high sensation seelers are more likely to participate in risky activities like hanggliding, sky diving, auto racing, unprotected sex.
whats the correlation between music and sensation seeking?
McNamara and Ballard found college students who scored higher in high sensation, usually like more arousing music.