Exam 2 Flashcards

Question

Hallucinogens (psychedelics)

Answer 1

produce perceptual distortions (visible, audible, or tactile); low likelihood of dependence; powerful emotional response (euphoria to panic) occurs in nature (psilocybin & mescaline/peyote cactus); tolerance develops slowly Neurotransmitters – increased serotonin & decreased glutamine 1. LSD – laboratory made a. triggers unusual sensory experiences b. Increased activity in visual brain areas - also activates non visual areas – visual areas are getting input from other areas creating illusions c. reduced connectivity between temporal and parietal lobes – feelings of ‘losing self’ and finding ‘altered meanings’ d. medicinal - used to treat anxiety associated with terminal illnesses 2. ketamine – originally develop as short term surgical anesthetic a. induces dream like state, memory loss, dizziness, confusion, distorted sense of body ownership b. glutamine antagonist – blocks receptors; important for memory - very common nt – many brain processes are interrupted 3. DMT – occurs naturally in some tree bark & skin surfaces of toads; small amounts are naturally produced in human NS a. Intense spiritual experiences – feelings of connectivity to universe and other around you b. Medicinal – used to help reduce tobacco and alcohol addiction 4. Salvia divinorum – herb is grown in central and south America a. Induces intense but short lived hallucinogens when smoked or chewed b. Dissociative experiences – separation of self and body

Answer 2

reduce pain and induce extreme and intense feelings of euphoria; high likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops quickly Ex. heroin, morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone (oxytocin) Endorphin direct agonist – binds to endogenous endorphin receptors i. Endorphins – reduce pain and increase pleasure ii. We have natural receptors

Answer 3

depressive of CNS; high likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops quickly a. Barbiturates – early form of medication; used to treat anxiety and promote sleep - ‘downers’; high potential for abuse - targets brainstem to reduce activity – high doses shut down brain functions b. Benzodiazepines – newer; Xanax, Ativan, valium - GABA agonist – inhibitory function - Rarely fatal – doesn’t target brainstem - Does impair attention, reaction time, coordination

Answer 4

moderate to high likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops gradually a. Cyclic process - Initially – stimulates GABA receptors; relaxation; causes impaired balance and coordination - Inhibition of frontal lobe – decision making and impulse control; lowered inhibition - Subsequently – stimulates opium/endorphin & dopamine; euphoria and reward seeking b. Alcohol myopia – nearsightedness; don’t think about future, only moments occurring

Answer 5

produces a combination hallucinogenic, stimulant, relaxing (narcotic) effects; low likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops slowly a. Anandamide agonist - Anandamide – endogenous cannabinoid; chemical that occurs naturally in brain and PNS - Cannabinoid receptors – for endocannabinoids/anandamides - THC – mimics anandamide & stimulates cannabinoids receptors b. Effects - euphoria, relaxation, reduced pain, heightened and distorted sensory experience, stimulates appetites c. Memory and cognition – impairs short term and long term memory & executive functions (decision making and attentional control) i. Frontal lobe – decreased activity; decision making ii. Wider network of brain regions required to perform memory task at equal levels iii. Cannabinoid receptors are in hippocampus and medial frontal lobes - Hippocampus – memory - Frontal lobe – memory retrieval d. Teen brain i. Impairs development of frontal lobes – mature later in brain development ii. Disrupts white matter pathways in the brain iii. Impairs cognitive abilities such as memory and executive function

Answer 6

process by which behaviour or knowledge changes as a result of experience Occurs at neuronal level o Limb coordination and controlling mvmt Not just learning and understanding facts – we must learn to navigate the world

Answer 7

1. Classic conditioning 2. Operant conditioning 3. Cognitive and observant learning

Answer 8

learning by association Pavlovian conditioning – Pavlov’s dogs i. Noticed dogs would salivate when he prepared things in labs associated with food ii. Introduced metronome – dogs associated with food & would salivate Event A and B occur together – forms associative learning in which we learn to associate a neutral stimulus with a biologically relevant stimulus; changes response to previously neutral stimuli Components i. Unconditioned stimuli – produces reflexive response without prior learning (ex. food, pain, sex) ii. Unconditioned response – reflexive, unlearned reaction caused by US (ex. salivation) iii. Neutral stimuli – doesn’t automatically produce (or prevent) a reflexive response; no learned relationship and doesn’t produce UR iv. Conditioned stimuli – a once neutral stimulus now produces conditioned response due to historical association with US (ex. metronome) v. Conditioned response – newly learned response to the conditioned stimuli (ex. salivation) Hebb’s rule – if a weak connection between neuron A and B fire at the same time as a strong connection between C and B, the weak connection (A and B) becomes stronger i. Wire together fire together ii. Ex. blinking (UR) due to puff of air (US) – associated with beep (CS); blinking becomes CR iii. Neurons initially associated by third party will now have a stronger connection and fire without the third stimuli Terms – associated with strengthening synapses i. Acquisition – initial phase of learning in which a response is established; NS is repeatedly paired with US - Predictability is important – paired often, sometimes, rarely ii. Extinction – reduced CR with CS and US are no longer paired - Networks in the brain may be preserved - Spontaneous recovery – reoccurrence of a previously extinguished CR iii. Generalization – a response that originally occurred for a specific stimulus also occurs for similar but different stimuli - May result when activation of our brain’s representation of the stimulus also activates representation of a related stimulus - Ex. if food still appears when beep is slightly different – will produce stimulus generalization iv. Discrimination – responds to one original stimulus but not to different stimuli that may be similar - If related stimuli are presented without the US – discrimination is more likely - Ex. if food does not appear with different sounding beeps – will discriminate which beeps are associated with food and which are not

Answer 9

component of classical conditioning emotional and physiological responses that develop from specific object/situation (not a biological response) Ex. little albert experiment – made baby afraid of white rats by associating with loud noise - Baby generalized to other white furry things (ex. bunnies, santa claus mask) - Generalized stimulus – emotional, not biological response - Loud noise was US, fear was UR, white rat was NS turned CS that produced CR (fear) Contextual fear conditioning – amygdala and hippocampus - Associating emotions with particular places (ex. revisiting place of trauma)

Answer 10

component of classical conditioning facilitated survival; put ourselves in danger less frequently 1. Preparedness – biological disposition to quickly learn a response to a particular type of stimuli; we establish fear response to something that has been evolutionarily dangerous Ex. administered shocks with specific CS a. 3 types i. Non-threatening ii. Acquired threat – relatively new iii. Biological threat – around historically b. Measured sweat on palms related to fear of shock i. Non-threatening – low CR ii. Acquired threat – moderate CR iii. Biological threat – high CR Ex. cats are scared of cucumbers without ever having seen a snake (biological response) 2. Conditioned taste aversion – acquired dislike or disgust of food or drink because it was paired with illness - Ex. food poisoning; black listed alcohol - Evolutionary – distaste for foods that made us ill facilitate survival

Answer 11

learning through consequences of voluntary actions 2 components i. An action/response to a situation ii. Consequence of action (reward or punishment) required for learning terms – associated with patterns of dopamine release i. Discriminative stimulus – a cue that indicates whether or not a response will be reinforced - Ex. tag with name on it ii. Discrimination – responding to one original discriminative stimulus, but not to new stimuli that may be similar - Ex. tag with your name on it will give you reward; tag with brothers name will not iii. Generalization – operant response occurs in response to a new stimulus that is similar to the stimulus present during original learning - Ex. tag with sisters name who you are similar to will also give reward iv. Extinction – weakening of operant response when reinforcement is no longer available; motivation to response lessens without reward

Answer 12

associated with operant conditioning consequence depending on action Effect of law – responses followed by satisfaction will occur again in the same situation; responses not followed by satisfaction will be less likely to occur again - Pos – reward/punishment is added - Neg – reward/punishment is taken Reinforcement – increases behaviour; event or reward that follow a response increasing the likelihood of that response occurring again - Reinforcer – a stimuli/reward that is presented after a particular response that increases the probability of responding that way again a. Pos – strengthens behaviour by increasing/adding stimuli (ex. money; praise) b. Neg – strengthens behaviour by removing/decreasing stimuli (ex. taking medication; getting out of jail) i. Avoidance learning – removes possibility that stimulus will occur; avoiding negative consequences (ex. presumptively taking advil before game) ii. Escape learning – removes a stimulus that is already present; escaping current neg consequences (ex. taking advil after game) 2 types of reinforcers a. Primary – satisfies basic motivational need that effects ability to survive and reproduce (ex. food, water, sexual contact) b. Secondary – become reinforcers after we learn they have value (ex. money, likes on social media) Punishment – decreases behaviour - Punisher – a stimuli/punishment that is presented after a particular response that decreases the probability of responding that way again a. Pos – behaviour decreases because unpleasant stimulus was added (ex. being scolded) b. Neg – behaviour decreases because it removes a desirable stimulus (ex. getting toy taken)

Answer 13

component of operant learning Shaping – reinforcing successive approximations of a specific operant response; step by step to desired fully learned response - Ex. training dog to get into car by giving successive treats throughout the process Chaining – linking together two or more shaped behaviours into a more complex action or sequence of actions Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) – uses close observation, prompting, and reinforcement to teach behaviours - Often used with difficulties experienced due to developmental conditions (ex. autism)

Answer 14

Nucleus accumbens – becomes activated when processing any kinds of rewards; lots of dopamine - Variability in this area – differences in motivational drives (ex. thrill seekers skydiving) Reward also triggers dopamine release in - Basal ganglia – lateral to thalamus - Medial frontal lobe

Answer 15

rules that determine when reinforcement is available/provided 1. Continuous reinforcement – every response is reinforced 2. Partial/intermittent reinforcement – only some responses are reinforced 4 types (*intervals take longer to learn than ratio*): a. Fixed ratio – reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses has been completed b. Variable ratio – number of responses required to receive reinforcement varies according to an average - Highest rate of response in animal studies – mechanism behind slot machines - Ex. average is 5: 7+2+6 = 15/3 = 5 c. Fixed interval – reinforces the first response occurring after a set amount of time passes - Affects behaviour leading up to response/action - Ex. exam every 3 weeks – you study for 1 week before (you know exam is coming) d. Variable interval – first response is reinforced following a variable amount of time; varies around an average - Ex. every 3 days average – 4 days + 2 days = 6/2 = 3 days

Answer 16

organisms that have been conditioned under partial reinforcement resist extinction longer than those conditioned under continuous condition a. Continuous – quicker to assume they will not get reinforcement in the future if reinforcement is absent once b. Partial – not as quick to assume; may just need to learn new ratio/interval Involved in gambling – you don’t assume you won’t win at all if you don’t win once

Answer 17

Stimulus response (S-R) theory – thoughts were based on stimulus response pattern that is learned throughout life a. Individual differences in responding can be explained by different learning histories - Classic conditioning & operant learning b. Thinking is a form of behaviour (behaviourism) - Internal processes were studied – thoughts are based on stimulus - Incomplete Stimulus organism response (S-O-R) theory – each organism will think about a situation in a different way, based on their cognitive interpretation a. Differences are based on unique interpretation of an even or stimulus (ex. mood, alertness, presence of others) b. We are constantly changing – something may have changed internally since we last responded

Answer 18

component of cognitive and observant learning 1. learning that is not immediately expressed by a response until organism is reinforced; suggests more ‘thinking’ than classic or operant conditioning studies - Organisms may possess certain behaviour/ability but does not express until reward is available - Ex. mice going though maze – showed they knew the maze after food was offered for completing it 2. changes in behaviour and knowledge that result from watching others; important in child development 4 processes: a. Attention – focussing b. Memory – remembering what they did c. Reproduction of behaviour – immediate practice - Imitation – recreating behaviour or expression; usually to accomplish goal d. Motivation – must be motivated to learn 3. associated with planning actions; become active when performing an action and when observing others perform action (ex. neurons to reach for cup are firing when you watch someone else do it) - Are sensitive to purpose or goal of imitated action – different neurons fire with different intentions even if action is the same - Ex. reaching for cup to drink from vs to clean up - Facilitates observational learning – if mirror neurons firing allows us to easier imitate them - Tied to empathy and theory of mind – understanding’s someone’s sadness, emotional states

Answer 19

Memory – collection of several systems that store info in different forms for differing amounts of time 1. Atkinson-Shiffrin model (1960s) – basic framework 2. The working memory model: an active STM system

Answer 20

basic framework Control process – shifts info from one store to another o Attention – moves from sensory to STM; selects important info o Rehearsal – manipulation that assists in encoding o Encoding – moves from STM to LTM o Retrieval – moves from LTM to STM 3 memory stores – retains info in memory without using for a specific purpose 1. Sensory – collecting input; much is lost (retaining everything is too complicated) a. Temporary retention - Iconic/visual memory – 0.5s - Auditory/echoic memory – 5-10s b. Spotlight for attention – small amounts of info from sensory sent to STM for processing - Outside of spotlight – unlikely to remember - Only captures what we are focussed on and unlikely to notice change - Ex. change-blindness – focussing on counting balls; miss the gorilla suit 2. Short term – limited capacity and duration (approx.. 30s) a. Magic number: 7 (+/- 2) units of info that is passed on from sensory info to STM b. Techniques to retain more info – won’t necessarily assist in LTM, but longer and more accurately in STM - Chunking – organizing smaller units of info into larger, more meaningful units (ex. phone number groupings) 3. Long term – holds info for extended periods, sometimes permanently a. Info is organized into • Semantic (meaningful) categories • How the word “sounds” and “looks” categories (Tip of the tongue – able to retrieve similar sounding words/start with the same letters, but not correct word)

Answer 21

Serial position effect – people are generally able to recall first few and last few items, but not middle 2 types of interference 1. Proactive interference – first info learned occupies memory and is processing moving into LTM; leaves less resources for new info to be remembered - First words are encoded 2. Retroactive interference – recently learned info blocks older memories that have not yet been fully encoded into LTM; new words replace older ones too quickly - Last words are still in STM

Answer 22

an active STM system Working memory – a model of STM that includes a combination of memory components that can temporarily store small amounts of into for a short period of time (pieces and types of info are important) Stimuli are encoded simultaneously in a number of ways – not a single unit of info 3 storage components in STM 1. Phonological loop – storage components that rely on rehearsal; stores info as sounds/auditory code • Ex. remembering phone number on radio station 2. Visuospatial sketchpad – storage component that maintains visual images and spatial layouts in a visuospatial code; what is going on around you • Ex. driving while listening to radio 3. Episodic buffer – combines the phonological/sounds and visuospatial/images into a story like episode; allows you to organize and make sense of incoming stimuli (editor – splices the sound with images) Central executive – control center of working memory o Coordinates attention and exchange of info among 3 storage components o Focusses attention on the component that is most relevant to goals, interests, and prior knowledge o Controlled by frontal lobe regions (executive control and decision making) Explains how we process input into STM to create experience (not LTM) – processing as it happens

Answer 23

1. Declarative/explicit memories – we are consciously aware of and can speak about a. Semantic memory – facts about the world (trivia; the sky is blue) - Semantics – meanings b. Episodic memory – personal experiences; organized into episodes; first person perspective - Episodes – tells the story of your life 2. Nondeclarative/implicit memories – unconscious behaviour a. Procedural memory – learned patterns of muscle mvmt (walking and talking) b. (Classical) conditions – potentially unconscious learned associations between two paired stimuli/events

Answer 24

Long term potentiation (LTP) – increase in connectivity and communication between nerve cells that fire together (Hebb’s law) a. Strengthening synapses – may be underlying mechanism for memory formation; allows memory to be retrieved - Connecting the dots – new connections related to other concepts and ideas (associative retrieval) b. Use it or lose it – if you don’t use the connections, you lose the memory Consolidation – converting STM to LTM of brain (made stronger) o Cellular consolidation – connections between neurons becoming more permanent (via LTP)

Answer 25

a significant loss of at least one form of memory 1. Anterograde amnesia – inability to form new memories for events occurring after a brain injury (STM to LTM) a. Ex. patient H.M – medial temporal lobes removed due to seizures (inc. hippocampus and amygdala); couldn’t transfer new declarative memories from STM to LTM; knew who he was and could retain things from his past 2. Retrograde amnesia – memory for events preceding trauma (LTM) is lost; often episodic memory (semantic is usually maintained); nondeclarative is usually still intact a. Memory loss depends on area of brain damaged

Answer 26

time and manner in which info is retained between encoding and retrieval Active process – stored memories can be updated, changed, reformed, and reconstructed - Reconsolidation – hippocampus functions to update, strengthen, or modify existing long-term memories - Not necessarily permanent or accurate Cross-cortical storage – long term declarative memories are distributed throughout the cortex, not localized to one region (you will not lose all your memories with damage to one area) - New memories – not yet established networks; are more likely to be lost

Answer 27

octothorpe Attaching meaning helps us recall info – extending network within memory; more connection make retrieval easier - Octo = 8 - Thorpe = group of houses in village (looks like map zoomed out)

Answer 28

repeating info in STM; assists in encoding; manipulation of ideas How we rehearse is more important than how long • Maintenance rehearsal – simply repeating; not as good for encoding • Elaborative rehearsal – thinking about the meaning of info; better for encoding

Answer 29

ability to recall info is most directly related to how that info was initially processed 1. Shallow processing – encoding superficial properties of stimuli (ex. sound or spelling of word) 2. Deep processing – encoding info about an item’s meaning or function; extra steps integrate meaning • Self reference – how does the info relate to you

Answer 30

Recognition – identifying a stimulus or piece of info when it is presented to you (ex. multiple choice questions) Recall – retrieving info when asked but without that info being present during retrieval process (ex. short answer)

Answer 31

retrieval is most effective when the conditions at the time of encoding and retrieval are the same Retrieval cues – the environment/context in which you’re trying to retrieve a memory; matching components to bring info our of LTM 3 perspectives (improves recall, not recognition) 1. Context dependant memory – retrieval is more effective when it takes place in that same physical setting as encoding - Activity in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex - Studying in same place as testing 2. State dependant memory – retrieval is more effective when your internal states matches time of encoding - Ex. study drunk, test drunk 3. Mood dependant memory – retrieval is more effective when your mood matches during encoding - Study sad, test sad

Answer 32

Emotion related aspects can enhance memory for events – especially negative emotions (better able to remember emotional context of sad photos - We tend to focus on emotional context of scene over physical attributes - Ex. weapon focus – we remember the gun, not the person holding it - Emotion likely contributes to memory consolidation Temporal lobes a. Hippocampus b. Amygdala – activated by emotional responses - Influences activity in temporal lobes – info to hippocampus - Sends info to cortex – plays a role in how memories are processed Flashbulb memories – extremely vivid and detailed memory about an event and conditions of how we learned of event (emotionally charged snapshot) o Not necessarily more accurate than ‘regular’ memories – more confident they remember it entirely accurately o Impactful historical events – where they were, things about the scene Ex. 9/11 – people remember where they were

Answer 33

most forgetting occurs immediately Rate of forgetting eventually slows to the point of usually not forgetting o As more time passes, the things you remember you will not likely forget

Answer 34

technique intended to improve memory of specific information; memory, not understanding 1. Method of loci – connects words along a familiar path - Ex. assigning meaning to things in your house; ‘walk through’ your house during text 2. Acronyms – pronounceable words whose letters represent the initials or a phrase - Ex. SCUBA, NASA, CBC 3. First letter techniques – using first letter of a set of items to create another sentence - Ex. north, east, south, west -> never eat soggy waffles 4. Dual coding – info is saved in more than one form; leads to deeper processing; making connections that allow activation in other areas

Answer 35

making studying slower and more effortful; results in better overall remembering and understanding Ex. making your own practice questions for exams

Answer 36

organized clusters of memories that constitute a person’s knowledge or beliefs about events, objects, and ideas; has clusters and connections within our thoughts A conceptualized idea of how we retrieve information – no particular neurons in an area of brain that activate certain schema o Personal collection of concepts and memories o Not ‘one box one memory’ – a schema is activated, and we find pieces of info we want within the activated schema Ex. ‘do you have a dog’ – activates dog schema; remembering dog, previous dogs, what is a dog, your parents dog Self schema – used to organize and encode self relevant info; process info about ourselves and understand ourselves o Ex. depression – influences self schema; may only be able to activate schema with negative concept Constructive memory – process of remembering events; first recall generalized schema, then recall more specific details o Ex. seeing dad – remembering what you last talked about, what time he finishes work, etc.

Answer 37

unstable and have the potential to change; not photographs

Answer 38

influence what schema we access; can bias our memory reconstruction Ex. you had a fight with friend and are buying them a birthday present – they like clothes vs ‘they were interested in this one jacket …’

Answer 39

remembering events that did not occur; incorrectly recalling details Misinformation effect – info encoded after an event can later become part of your memory of original event ex. ‘eye witness testimonies’ – flaws in judicial system

Answer 40

1974 study – showed video of car accident a. How fast do you think cars were going – asked using different words (When cars smashed, bumped, collided, made contact) - Smashed – faster - Made contact – slower b. The way it was asked influenced how fast they recalled them going - Judicial system – leading questions leak into memory schemes and cause false recollection 1975 study – video of car stopping at stop or yield sign; asked what colour sign was & where did they stop - It was a stop sign – experimenters used the word “yield sign” and participants remembered there being a yield sign - Same with reverse

Answer 41

Imagination inflation – increased confidence in a false memory of an event following repeated imagination of an event - Does not increase accuracy, only confidence (like flash) Guided imagery – technique used to help people recover details of events they are unable to remember - Clinicians & judicial system - Can create new or false memories with leading questions - Incorrect shifts – imagination reinforces; they remember it happening that way

Answer 42

1. Participants studied a list of related words with missing ‘critical lure’ (obvious word missing) • Participants remembered critical lure as part of the list – intrusion 2. Photoshopping image of you as a child into a hot air balloon – you remember it; especially if your parents are there

Answer 43

a true (?) memory of a traumatic event that is suddenly recovered after blocking the memory of that event for a long period of time; our subconscious tends to block out traumatic events Controversy – debate regarding validity - Leading questions, imagination, influence – can create false memories - Applying added focus to ‘recovered memory’ – solidifies false memories

Answer 44

Concept - mental representation of an object, event, or idea Category – clusters of interrelated concepts; connections based on interrelatedness o Can be broad or specific o Conceptual idea – not anatomical; no specific neurons connecting different concepts together

Answer 45

1. Rule based categorization – categorizing objects or events according to rules & features; criteria that make them related a. Dictionary definition – right angle within triangle within shape category 2. Comparison based categorization a. Prototype – mental representation of an average category member; not real Ex. mental image of a dog b. Exemplar – specific and real example that best represents a category; matches prototype very well Ex. dog that closely matches our prototype dog c. Graded membership – some concepts appear to make better category members than others; doesn’t match prototype as well as exemplar does Ex. 3-legged dog

Answer 46

‘meaning’; interconnected set of nodes/concepts joined by links to form a category with different levels/hierarchies of specificity Hierarchical organization tested using reaction time – you are faster to make associations to closer hierarchal levels o Ex. a robin is a bird is faster than a robin is an animal (greater degree of hierarchal separation) Priming – activation of individual concepts in long-term memory; can influence which concepts and categories are referenced depending on level of familiarity o You may reference a specific concept faster than others in the same category due to previous experience; creates modified connections with some relationships being stronger than others Basic level categories – the level of hierarchy that people are most familiar with and that people will reference most often in conversation and is easiest to pronounce; not too specific or vague o The level at which most thinking occurs o Ex. bird instead of animal or robin

Answer 47

1. Experience and categorization – our experiences help us compare and categorize stimuli quickly and accurately a. can lead to bias – different cultures have different relationships, you will reference your concepts and categories 2. the brain and categorization a. temporal lobe damage – difficulty identifying objects, still able to describe features; functions in recognition (attaching meaning/representation to objects) - category specific visual agnosia – difficulty identifying stimuli from a specific category; contradicts idea of specific area in brain for specific category but suggests specialized networks for categories that have been important for evolutionary success (not seen with recent developments) ex. animals, fruits, same species members, tools 3. culture and categorization a. ex. ‘folk biology’ – how the natural world is conceptualized and categorized differently across cultures - categories are similar – basic level categories may differ (ex. hunter gatherers will have more specific basic level categories for nature) b. differences in perceived relatedness of objects ex. north americans focus on single object characteristics (individualistic thinking); Japanese tend to focus on objects in relation to their environment ex. cow, chicken, grass a. Americans – cow and chicken go together b. east Asian – cow and grass go together neuroimaging shows different areas are activated a. object area – more active in east Asians b. background area – more active in westerners

Answer 48

accomplishing a goal when the solution or path to the solution is not clear; overcoming mental hurdles 2 strategies – useful to switch between; start with logical and later heuristic when we are more familiar 1. algorithms – more logical; problem solving based on a series of rules; time consuming and inefficient 2. heuristics – problem solving strategies that use prior experiences to provide an educated guess about the most likely solution; using shortcuts from previous experience from encounters

Answer 49

- component of problem solving a cognitive obstacle (problem solving a specific thought) that occurs when you try to solve a new type of problem using a routine, familiar, and incorrect solution - previously established problem solving rules and strategies can impair problem solving if the new problem is slightly different than the old one ex. showing two types of people ‘tough love’ – can help one, can hurt other - functional fixedness – identifying an object or technique that could solve a problem, but only thinking of its most obvious function o functional flexibility – opposite; using for other than its intended purpose o ex. 2 string problem

Answer 50

the mistaken belief that finding a specific member in 2 overlapping categories is more likely than finding any member of one of the larger, general categories o ex. linda – more likely a bank teller than a bank tellers who is a feminist

Answer 51

making judgements of likelihood based on how well an example represents a specific category rather than logical or mathematical probability; still mathematically more likely to be apart of one larger, general category ex. linda sounds like a feminist – represents category of bank tellers who are feminist - still mathematically more likely a bank teller because there will always be more bank tellers (base rate) than there are feminist bank tellers (feminist bank tellers are included in our count of bank tellers)

Answer 52

estimating the frequency of an event based on how easily examples of it come to mind; if examples are readily available, we assume it is a frequent occurrence o mean world syndrome – if you spend a lot of time on the internet, you’ll get the sense that people are bad/the world is scary because that is what is reported (ex. dying in plane crash; blood clots due to covid vaccine)

Answer 53

belief perseverance – remaining committed to a decision or belief even when provided with evidence against it; occurs when information is presented confirmation bias – searching for/only paying attention to evidence that will confirm a belief instead of evidence that may disconfirm your belief; actively finding info that backs your claim

Answer 54

language disorder caused by damage to brain structures that support using and understanding language/producing speech - Broca’s Aphasia – damage to Broca’s region of the left frontal lobe that controls our ability to articular speech sounds that compose words; motor area (Paul Broca) - Wernicke’s Aphasia – damage to Wernicke’s area; most associated with understanding words and language; comprehension and coherent speech (Carl Wernicke) o Still able to speak but words often don’t make sense – implies a feedback loop between ability to understand others and ability to make sense to others

Answer 55

form of communication that involves the use of spoken, written, and gestural symbols combined in a rule based form - Discrete units of differing complexity - Allows us to combine units of sound into an infinite number of meanings and combinations (human vocal tracts can produce approx. 200 sounds)

Answer 56

Phonemes – most basic units of speech and sound; typically do not have meanings themselves; English contains approx. 40 sounds o ex. t = ‘tuh’ Morphemes – smallest meaningful units of language; combined phenomes; can’t break it down into more than once meaning o ex. box, mail, er = boxer, mailbox (not morphemes) semantics – study of how people understand the meaning of words

Answer 57

Syntax – rules for combining words and morphemes into meaning phrases and sentences o Basic units – nouns (person/place/thing) and verbs (action/occurrence) o Rules for combination determine message delivery – question vs statement o We understand intuitively and unconsciously – not constantly calculating how to combine words to form sentences Pragmatics – the study of non-linguistic elements; emphasizing the speaker’s behaviour and social situation; how something is said is more important that what is said - Inferences – what you mean vs what you say (metaphors) - Flouting – disregarding language rules in an obvious way • Ex. ‘the goalie stood on his head’ – not literal; hockey metaphor - Speaker and listener must understand when rules are being flouted and agree on what type of rules are being used

Answer 58

2 months – show preference for speech over non-speech sounds (human voice vs coffeemaker); prefer to hear words that follow the rules of their language; hear what people say and pick up on the sounds that are used 6 months – infants show preference for content/meaningful words; words they can interact with; nouns and verbs (ex. bottle & home vs the & is) 8-10 months – infants begins perceiving sounds in a way consistent with their native language; recognizing sounds of that which were raised in (differ across languages) o There are different ways we make certain sounds in the same language but it has no relevance to actual meaning; later on we no longer perceive those differences 20 months – children are able to use newly developed perceptual categories to quickly learn new words a. ‘naming explosion’ – rapid increase in vocabulary size at this stage - Fast mapping – the ability to map words onto concepts or objects after only a single exposure (2 biological explanations) - Localization of language related functions in left hemisphere – Broca’s and Wernicke’s; more specialized - Increase in axon myelination – increased speed of neuronal communication

Answer 59

Early psychologists – behaviourism; language is learned by imitating sounds and the associated reinforcements - Doesn’t fully capture complexity of language development in infants ex. Children often mispronounce things • They do not learn this from parents (imitation doesn’t explain) • they are corrected but continue to mispronounce (pos and neg reinforcement doesn’t explain) language acquisition – instead of language ‘learning’; they acquire rules and conventions; developmental and more than just a skill that is learned a. children acquire skills around same time regardless of language (milestones) – some languages are much more complex - 1-2 months – cooing - 4-10 months – babbling (consonants start) - 8-16 months – single word stage - 24 months – two word stage - 24+ months – complete; meaningful phrases together b. we acquire language as children; we learn language as adults

Answer 60

Children – smaller vocabulary in each language than unilingual; same overall ‘quantity’ Adults – slower at naming pictures/alphabetical word lists; more than one way of saying something Benefits o Greater executive functioning and attention (infancy to old age) – better divided attention and fine tuned inhibition control o Greater frontal lobe connectivity – protects against dementia and alzheimer’s; more pathways allow for thoughts to be formulated in multiple ways

Answer 61

led to development of brains capable of language o increased efficiency, information transmission, communication of social needs and desires FOXP2 gene – related to language function o Mutations – difficulty turning thoughts to words; know what they want to say but difficulty saying it; requires greater activation in other areas, less localized activity in Broca’s area o Found in many species o May play a role in a component of language

Answer 62

many of our language related components are found in other species Shows potential: a. Songbirds – similar language related genes as humans b. Monkeys – connections between brain areas analogous to Broca’s and Wernicke’s area - Control of facial and throat muscles; other monkey vocalization (understanding noises and making noises in return) c. Chimpanzees – able to learn sign language (up to 200); communicate using symbols (lexigrams) representing complex ideas and phrases (up to 350); can recognize up to 3000 spoken words - Ability to learn and communicate using similar rules humans use in language Limitations: a. Limited evidence of syntax – using symbols doesn’t communicate as adequately to convey meaning b. Apes don’t pass on skills to other apes/children – we use language to converse and pass on c. Limited productivity - Productivity – creating new words (gestures) or using existing gestures to name new objects/events d. Suggests they aren’t learning language – only repeating back (monkey see monkey do)

Exam 2 Flashcards

(86 cards)