Methods
Brain Development
Personality
Neuroscience
Intelligence, AI, & Stats
Memory & Learning
Conditioning & Learning
100
Define descriptive research, and name 2 kinds
1. Case Studies (H.M)
2. Naturalistic Observation
Descriptive research describes phenomena rather than manipulating variables.
100
What is myelination and what does it do?
Formation of a fatty myelin sheath around the axon of the neuron to make electrical signaling faster & more efficient.
100
What are the core definitional features of personality?
Consistency (across situations), stability (across time), individual differences
100
Describe monism and dualism
Dualism (brain ≠ mind)
The body functions according to physical laws
• The mind functions according to non-physical laws
• So brain and mind are built on fundamentally different principles
Monism (biological determinism)
Everything we think, feel, and do is a product of complex interactions of:
• Genes, hormones, neurotransmitters, action potentials, post-synaptic potentials, ion channels…etc.
• Sociocultural influences
• What you ate for breakfast this morning
100
What are the two features of human intelligence?
Fluid intelligence (reasoning) and crystallized intelligence (concrete knowledge)
100
What are the different types of memory?
Lots of options
- Sensory (<1sec, short-term (<1min), long-term (vast, virtually unlimited)
- Implicit (unconscious), explicit (conscious)
- Declarative (facts, events), procedural (skills, tasks)
- Semantic (facts, concepts), episodic (events, experiences)
Extra:
- Encoding, storage, retrieval
- Recall vs. recognition
100
What is Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning?
• Unconditioned stimulus (US) → unconditioned response (UR)
• Conditioned stimulus (CS) + US → conditioned response (CR)
200
What is operationalization?
The process of turning an abstract concept into an observable and measurable phenomena/variable.
200
What is synapic pruning and why does it happen?
The removal of unused neural connections (synapses).
200
What are the Big-5 traits?
& What are some critiques of the Big 5?
O: Openness to Experience
C: Conscientiousness
E: Extraversion
A: Agreeableness
N: Neuroticism
Culture matters! and HEXACO
200
Describe neuron structure and function
Neuron = basic functional unit of the brain
Dendrites (receives input from other neurons), axon (passes along info through neuron and out through axon terminal), action potentials (how neurons communicate with each other, synapse (intercellular distance between two neurons, neural connection). What chemical messages are released by neurons?
200
What is the Turing test, and what's wrong with it?
Test: Can a human tell the difference between a response generated by a human, and one generated by a machine that's imitating a human?
Problem: tells us as much about the judge as it does the machine. The test is subjective.
200
Neural bases of learning: difference between Synaptogenesis & Neurogenesis
Creation of new synapses between neurons vs. new neurons
Neurogenesis typically happens in utero/prenatally and infancy (it also continues to a much smaller extent in certain parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus, into adulthood), whereas Synaptogenesis happens every time we learn something new (occurs throughout life, particularly in response to learning and experience).
200
Describe Watson & Rayner (1920) findings (Little Albert exp.)
US - Loud noise --> UR - Little Albert afraid
NS - White rat (or similar) --> NR - Little Albert not afraid
Intervention: White rat paired with loud noise
CS - White rat --> CR - Little Albert afraid
300
What is the purpose of random assignment?
Helps to equate groups on every dimension except the manipulated variable (to isolate its effect)
300
What are some risk factors to prenatal brain development?
malnutrition
drugs & alcohol
environmental toxins
maternal stress
300
What is the "lexical hypothesis"?
The idea the most important differences between individual people will be coded in the language that we use to describe people.
300
How does Phineas Cage's case study relate to the localization of brain function?
Cage had robust damage to his prefrontal cortex, altering his behavior. This indicates the PFC might control some of these behaviors.
300
Give two examples of how AI alters student learning
1. Generation Effect: When students generate an answer (retrieve a word, complete a sentence, solve a problem), they remember it better than when they simply read the same information presented to them.
2. increases rate of HW completion, but lowers test scores (according to a study in the slides)
300
System 1 vs System 2?
System 2 (explicit)
• Conscious
• Voluntary/deliberate
• Effortful (requires cog. resources)
• Slow
System I (implicit)
• Nonconscious
• Involuntary
• Effortless
• Fast
300
What are the three components of Watson's behaviorism?
1. Psychology is the science of observable behavior, not internal processes (emotion, cognition)
2. The sources of behavior are external (in the environment), not internal (in the mind)
3. Human and animal behavior is learned through conditioning
400
What characteristics must be present in order for research to be "experimental"? What does experimental research tell us?
1. Manipulation: Independent variable(s), dependent variable(s)
2. Random assignment to conditions
Often, experimental studies include a:
3. Control group
Does X cause Y?
400
What's neuroplasticity and what are the two types?
The ability for the brain to reorganize and adapt in structure and function.
experience-expectant - the normative wiring of the brain that develops via "typical" "human" experiences
experience-dependent - your brain changes based on your unique experiences
400
What is the Person-Situation debate?
Are personalities based on "traits" or the "person," or rather are they based on the "context" of which the person developed and/or is currently existing in.
400
What are the main functions of each of the four main brain regions?
Occipital lobe: Vision
Parietal lobe: Touch
Temporal: Hearing
Frontal lobe: Movement, planning, self-awareness, self-control
400
Name two statistical tests/measures of mean differences
1. T-test
Reports p value. What's the significance cutoff?
2. Effect size
Difference between means/std. dev. Most basic is Cohen’s d:
• small: d = .2
• medium: d = .5
• large: d = .8
400
How to get information from working memory into LTM?
Rehearsal is not enough (need for structure/organization) --> Deeper processing enhances memory
Examples:
– Chunking (e.g., chess masters)
– ‘Deep’ (semantic) versus ‘shallow’ (surface)
encoding
– Deeper processing facilitates encoding (e.g.,
vivid imagery)
–Mnemonics (get around on campus with my hippocampus OR CPR "Stayin Alive")
400
Describe: Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning
a learning method that uses rewards and punishments to modify behavior. It's based on the idea that behaviors that are rewarded are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors that are punished are less likely to happen again.
500
What is one way we could operationalize "cognitive load"?
Amount of information to keep in your mind.
Ex. 7 numbers or 2 numbers
500
What is a sensitive period and how does it relate to experience-expectent plasticity?
A period of profound neuroplasticity. If a normative human developmental process that's meant to occur doesn't, that can cause maldevelopment.
500
What is test-retest reliability? And how does it support the idea of personality traits?
T-R Reliability: consistency of a measure given to the same participants on different occasions
This supports the central idea that a "trait" should remain similar (stable) across time and situations
500
Which neuroimaging techniques are best and worst on temporal and spatial resolution?
EEG - great temporal, poor spatial
PET - poor temporal, great spatial
NIRS - decent at both
MRI - great spatial, poor temporal
500
What do correlations tell us? What is small, medium and large?
1) direction of relationship (positive or negative)
2) magnitude of relationship (-1 to 1)
small: 0.2, medium: 0.3, large: 0.5
500
What's anterograde amnesia?
Memory disorder where people cannot form new long-term memories after a brain injury or triggering event, while older memories from before the event usually remain intact
500
What are the different types of reinforcement schedules? Which is most effective?
Patterns of delivering a reward (reinforcer) to strengthen a behavior
• Continuous reinforcement
OR
• Partial reinforcement (fixed vs. variable)
600
Fill in the following blanks:
In _____ research, we specify a manipulation that defines the variable.
In _____ or _____ research, we define our variables by their measurement.
1) Experimental
2) Observational; Correlational
600
Give a few examples of specific sensitive periods.
- Prenatal period
• Infancy: 0-3 years
• Adolescence: 12-25
• Matrescence (transition to motherhood)
• Patrescence (transition to fatherhood, depending on involvement in caregiving)
600
Give one example from Soto et al. (2011) of how one of the OCEAN traits changes over time.
O: Generally consistent, but increases with age
C: decreases around 15 and then increases with age
E: decreases around 15 and then remains consistent with age
A: decreases around 15 and then generally increases with age
N: Generally decreases with age
600
What are the differences in function of the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain?
Hindbrain - vital functions (HR, respiration)
Midbrain - processing + neurotransmitters
Forebrain - cerebral cortex
600
Name one problem with using correlations?
Third-variable problem: is there another variable that may be causing the results we found? (A mediating variable, but also could be a moderating variable)
Directionality problem: Which causes what?
600
Use your class activity from Monday to explain how memory performance based on brain functions.
Difference in instructions showed differences in memory performance. Why?
600
Describe the findings from the London Cab Driver study.
Cab drivers have larger hippocampal volume than controls. Why?