Unit 6

Language: our spoken, written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate.

• Phonemes: in a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
• Morphemes: in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning. Can be a word or part of a word(prefix or suffix).
• Grammar: system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others.
• Semantics: the set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language. Adding -ed at the end of words meaning past tense.
• Syntax: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentence.
• Language Development
• Balling Stage (3-4 months): the infant make spontaneous sounds.
• One-word Stage (1-2 years): uses one word to communicate big meanings.
• Two-word Stage (2 years): uses two words to communicate meanings-called telegraphic speech.
• Skinner: though that we can explain language development through social learning theory.
• Psychologist
• Chomsky: we acquire language too quickly for it to be learned. We have this "learning box" inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language.
• Whorf's Linguistic Relativity: the idea that language determines the way we think.

Thinking

• Cognition: another term for thinking, knowing, and remembering.
• Concepts: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, dead, or people.
• Prototypes: a mental image or best example of a category.
• Algorithms: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
• Heuristics: a rule-of-thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgements and sole problems efficiently. 
• Insight: a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem.
• Confirmation Bias: a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions.
• Match Problem
• Fixation: the inability to see a problem from a new perspective.
• Mental Set: a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if it has worked in the past.
• Functional Fixedness: the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions.

Types of Heuristics (That often lead to errors)

• Representativeness Heuristic: a rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype.
• Availability Heuristic: estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory.
• Overconfidence: the tendency to be more confident that correct.
• Framing: the way an issued is posed.
• Belief Bias: the tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning.
• Belief Perseverance: clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.
• Artificial Intelligence

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

• Visual Capture: the tendency for vision to dominate the other senses.
• Gestalt Psychology: Gestalt means "an organized whole." These psychologists emphasize our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
• Gestalt Philosophy: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Figure-Ground Relationship: the organization of the visual field into objects(figures) that stands out from their surroundings(ground).
• Grouping: the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into groups that we understand.
• Proximity: where we group similar figures together.
• Similarity: we group similar figures together.
• Continuity: we group continuous patterns together.
• Connectedness: we group together uniform and linked figures.
• Depth Perception: the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional.
• How do we transform 2D objects to 3D perception?
• Binocular Cues: depth cues that depends on two eyes.
• Retinal Disparity: a binocular cue for seeing depth. The closer an object comes to you the greater the disparity in between the two.
• Monocular Cues: depth cues that depends on two eyes.
• Interposition: if someone is blocking our view, we perceive it as closer.
• Relative Size: if we know that two objects are similar in size, the one that looks smaller is farthest away.
• Relative Clarity: we assume hazy objects are farther away.
• Texture Gradient: the coarser it looks the closer it is.
• Relative Height: things higher in our field of vision, they look farther away.
• Relative Motion: things that are closer appear to move more quickly. Linear Perspective: parallel lines seem to converge with distance.
• Light and Shadow: dimmer objects appear farther away because they reflect less light.
• Phi Phenomenon: an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in succession.
• Perceptual Consistency: perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images changes.

Smell, Taste, and Touch

• Tongue
• Papillae: those bums on our tongue. Help grip food while your teeth are chewing. Contain taste buds.
  
• Sweet is located on the tip of your tongue and it is sensed when our tastebuds come into contact with sugar.
• Salty is sensed when salty sensitive tastebuds come into contact with salt. It is located on the front side of the tongue.
• Sour is sensed when our tastebuds comes into contact with acid. Located on the back side of the tongue.
• Bitter is sensed when our tastebuds come in contact with an alkali metal. Located on the base of the tongue.
• Spicy is sensed when the no receptors in our mouth come into contact with a chemical that irritate it.
• Smell
• Pheromones: chemical messengers that are picked up through our sense of smell.
• Touch: receptors are located in our skin.
• Gate Control Theory of Pain: the nervous system blocks or allows pain signals to pass to the brain.
• Vestibular Sense: tells us where our body is oriented in space. Our sense of balance. Located in our semicircular canals in our ears.
• Kinesthetic Sense: tells us where are body parts are. Receptors located in our muscles and joints.

Vision and Hearing

• Vision
• Wavelength: the distance from the peak of one light wave to the peak of the nest. The distance determines the hue(color) of the light we perceive.
• Intensity: the amount of energy in a light wave. Determined by the height of the wave. The higher the wave the more intense the light is.

• Parallel processing: the processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously.
• Two Major Color Theory
• Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic(three color) Theory: realized that any color can be created by combining the light waves of three primary color.
  Rods facilitate black and white vision.
  Cones facilitate color vision.
• Opponent-Process Theory: we cannot see certain colors together in combination (red-green, blue-yellow, and white-black). These are antagonist/opponent colors.
• Hearing
• Frequency: the number of complete wavelengths that pass through point of a given time. This determines the pitch of a sound.
• Amplitude: how loud the sound is. The higher the crest of the wave is the louder the sound is. Measured in decibels.
  
• Helmholtz's Place Theory: we hear different pitches because different sound waves trigger activity at different places along the cochlea's basilar membrane.
• Frequency Theory: we sense pitch by the basilar membrane vibrating at the same rate as the sound.
• Hearing Loss
• Conduction Hearing Loss: caused by damage to mechanical system of ear.
• Sensorineural Hearing Loss: caused by damage to cochlea's receptor cells or to auditory nerves.

Unit 5

Sensation and Perception

• Sensation: your window to the world. The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive stimulus from the environment.
• Perception: interpreting what comes in your window. The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events. Perception is essentially an interpretation and elaboration of sensations.
• Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Processing
• Bottom-Up Processing: analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.
• Top-down Processing: information processing guided by higher-level mental processes. As when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.
• Absolute Threshold: the minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
• Difference Threshold: the minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli. Also known as Just Noticeable Difference.
• Weber's Law: the idea that, to perceive a difference between two stimuli, they must differ by a constant percentage, not a constant amount.
• Signal Detection Theory: predicts how we detect a stimulus amid other stimuli. Assumes that we do not have an absolute threshold, we detect stuff based on our experiences, motivation and fatigue level.
• Subliminal Stimulation: below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
• Transduction: transforming signals into neural impulses. Information goes from the senses to the thalamus, then to the various areas in the brain.
• Sensory Adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimulation.
• Selective Attention: the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
• Cocktail Part Effect: ability to listen to one voice among many.

Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian Parents: they have strict standards for children behavior.
• Permissive Parents: they allow freedom, lax parenting, and don't enforce rules.
• Authoritative Parents: they set reasonable standards and encourage independence.

Stage Theorist

• Sigmund Freud: we all have a libido (sexual drive). Our libido travels to different areas of our body through out our development.
• Oral Stage (0-1): seek pleasure through our mouths. Psychological task: weaning.
• Anal Stage (1-3): libido is focused on controlling waste and expelling waste. Psychological task: toilet training
• Phallic Stage (3-6): children first recognize their gender.
• Latency Stage (6-11): libido is hidden.
• Genital Stage (11 and up): libido is focused on their genitals. Experience sexual feelings toward others.
• Kohlberg's theory of moral development
• Pre-conventional morality (0-6): Morality based on rewards and punishments.
• Conventional morality (7-11): Look at morality based on how others see you.
• Post-conventional morality (12-Up): Based on self-defined ethical principles.
• Criticisms of Kohlberg: Carol Gilligan pointed out that Kohlberg only tested boys. Boys tend to have a more absolute value of morality.
• Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Basic Trust vs. Mistrust (0-1): care givers who reliably meet the infant's needs foster a sense of trust in others.
• Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt (1-3): Reasonable limits by caregivers lead to a basic sense of independence in exploring the world.
• Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6): Child has a sense of purpose and is able to initiate play and reach goals without violating the rights of others.
• Industry(Competence) vs. Inferiority (6-12): Child develops a sense of competence and accomplishment.
• Identity vs. Role Confusion (Teens): Individual achieves a stable sense of identity and makes realistic plans for adult life.
• Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adult): Individual establishes meaningful and satisfying close relationships.
• Generativity vs. Stagnation (Mid-Adult): Individual attains a sense that he or she is making useful contributions to the world and the future through family and work activities.
• Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adult): Individual looks at like and decides that it has been meaningful and satisfying.
• Adolescence: the transition period from childhood to adulthood.
• Puberty: the period of sexual maturation during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
• Primary Sexual Characteristics: body structure that make reproduction possible.
• Second Sexual Characteristics: non-reproductive sexual characteristics.
• Landmarks for Puberty: menarche for girls. First ejacuation for boys.
• Adulthood: all physical abilities essentially peak by our mid twenties.
• Physical Milestones: menopause- the natural ending of a woman's ability to reproduce. Men do not experience anything like menopause.
• Types of Intelligence:
• Crystallized Intelligence: accumulated knowledge. Increases with age.
• Fluid Intelligence: ability to solve problems quickly and think abstractly

Developmental Psychology

The study of YOU from womb to tomb.

• Nature Versus Nurture
• Nature: The way you were born.
• Nurture: The way you were raised.
• Physical Development: focus on our physical changes over time.
• Prenatal Development: conception begins with the drop of an egg and the release of about 200 million sperms.
• Once the sperm penetrates the egg- we have a fertilized egg called a zygote.
• The first stage lasts about two weeks.
• About 10 days after conception, the zygote will attach itself to the uterine wall.
• The outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta- structure that allows oxygen and nutrients
• After two weeks, the zygote develops into an embryo.
• Last about 6 weeks. Heart begins to beat and organs start to develop.
• By nine weeks we have a fetus.
• Teratogens: chemical agents that can harm the prenatal environmental.
• Reflexes: inborn automatic responses.
• Rooting (cheek): when a newborn infant is touched on the cheek, the infant will turn its head toward the source of simulation.
• Grasping: if an object is placed into a baby's palm, the baby will try to grasp the object with his or her fingers.
• Moro (startle): when startled, a baby will fling his or her limbs out and then quickly retract them.
• Babinski (foot): when a baby's foot is stroked, he or she will spread their toes.
• Maturation: physical growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, regardless of the environment.
• Cognition: all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering.
• Cognitive Development- Jean Piaget
• Schemas: ways we interpret the world around us (concept)
• Assimulation: incorporation new experiences into existing schemas.
• Accommodation: changing an existing schema to adapt to new information.
• 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2): experience the work through our senses. Object permanence developed around 6-8 months of age.
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): begin to use language to represent objects and ideas. Egocentric: early in this stage they cannot look at the world through anyone's eyes.
• Conservation refers to the idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and it part of logical thinking.
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years): can demonstrate concept of conservation. Learn to think logically.
4. Formal Operational Stage (12 years and up): abstract reasoning. Hypothesis testing. reasoning with metaphors and analogies.

• Criticisms of Piagets
• Information-Processing Model: says children do not learn in stages but rather in a gradual continuous growth pattern.
• Social Development: at about a year, infants develop stranger anxiety.
• Attachment: attachment (a bond with a caregiver). Konrad Lorenz discovered that some animals form attachment through imprinting.
• Origins of Attachment: Harry Harlow showed that monkeys needed to touch or body contact to form attachment. For many animals that there is a critical period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper development.
• Secure Attachment: children show some distress when parent leaves, seek contact at the reunion, explore when parent gone, play and greet when parent present.
• Stranger Anxiety: fear of strangers, beginning by about 8 months of age.
• Separation Anxiety: distress the infant shows when object of attachment leaves. Peaks between 14 and 18 months.