Intro
What is a theory?
A possible explanation for an event/phenomenon. Can never be proven.
What is the scientific method?
An empirical method for acquiring knowledge
What is the difference between language and communication?
Language is the intentional transfer of knowledge. Language uses the grouping of spoken, written/gestured symbols to convey information.
Communication is the transfer of information from one organism to another.
What is intelligence?
The ability to solve new problems and learn from experience
This person proposed that the pineal gland was responsible for connecting the mind and the brain.
Descartes
What is a hypothesis?
A prediction about the outcome of research based on previous knowledge/theories
What makes a good theory?
- It should conform to the law of parsimony
- Be consistent with prior observation (predictions are backed by research)
- Specific
- Measureable
- Establish causality
- Falsifiable
A pigeon is most likely a ______ of a bird compared to an ostrich.
Prototype
What is deviation IQ?
(Hint: How would you solve for a person's deviation IQ?)
An individual's IQ score is divided by the average test score of people in a similar age group and multiplied by 100.
This psychologist is best known for the use of operant conditioning
Skinner
What is an operational definition?
Defining a variable in terms of specific procedures that were used to measure it... exactly what did you measure/how are you quantifying it?
Why are correlational studies misleading?
Just because they imply that a relationship exists between 2 variables does not mean that a CAUSAL relationship exists!
After experiencing damage to the brain, patient X has the physical ability to speak but fails to produce language that actually makes sense. Patient X most likely has ______ aphasia.
Wernicke's
What are the three levels in the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence? Who proposed it?
Proposed by Robert Sternberg who declared that there were 3 levels of intelligence.
- Analytic
- Creative
- Practical
This psychologist is best known for the use of classical conditioning
Watson... influenced by the work of Pavlov (for the sake of this course)
What is wrong with the following statement?
Janette conducts a survey to figure out the effects of screen time on attention. She posts the survey to her eClass forum and collects the results. She concludes that screen time causes a drastic reduction in attention span.
A survey is a method of descriptive research. Descriptive research cannot imply causation.
If results of an experiment can be generalized across settings, time, and the population, than an experiment is said to have _____ validity
High external validity
People tend to be way more afraid of flying on an airplane than driving in a car, even though the likelihood of dying in a car accident is far higher than dying as a passenger on an airplane. This is a(n) ______ heuristic
Availability
Shelly believes that she is going to be bad at driving because society has made her feel that women are bad drivers. As a result of this fallacy she becomes a bad driver! What is this an example of?
Stereotype threat... certain stereotypes cause people to fulfill them if they are aware the stereotype exists.
This person believed that there is an innate capability of children to learn language
Chomsky
What type of error has occurred in the following situation?
A group of Psychology students decided to create an experiment to determine if attending MSG sessions causes better scores on exams. They conclude that there is a causal relationship between the two variables when there is not!
Type I Error!
(Although I do recommend attending my sessions)
Jennie tells her professor, "If there was a relationship present in the population I am confident that my findings would be consistent with this conclusion!" Jennie's experiment has high ______.
Power
Leyla is trying to solve a practice problem for her GENET 270 course. She gets very frustrated and decides to go to bed rather than continuing to study. Leyla is in which phase of problem solving?
Incubation
Sameer is a 65 year-old man reflecting back on his life. He realizes that he can no longer solve riddles the way he used to. He is sad that this abstract concept puzzles him so much as a result of a decline in ______ intelligence
Fluid
These psychologists developed the language relativity hypothesis
Sapir & Whorf