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Chapter 4; The Mind & Consciousness

Consciousness

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Refers to moment by moment subjective experiences o Thoughts and observations about our immediate surroundings o Two components; Contents of consciousness level of consciousness o completely personal and subjective; everyone experiences the world in their own way qualia o describes the properties of our subjective experiences and our perceptions of things o difficult to study empirically

fMRI Dualism Rene Descartes: the mind is separate from the body Modern day psychological scientists now reject dualism and state that the brain and mind are inseparable Did a study of the relationship between consciousness and neural responses in the brain Participants were shown images in which houses were superimposed on faces Neural activity increased within the temporal lobes fusiform face area when participants reported seeing a face, but neural activity increased within temporal lobe regions associated with object recognition when participants reported seeing a house FINDINGS: suggested that different types of sensory information are processed by different brain regions One of the first American psychologists Conscious experience is a continuous stream of thoughts that often floats from one thought to another Cannot focus on multiple things at once Automatic tasks- driving road you know very well, mind wanders and you forget you are even driving but you still do it without an issue-- > automatic processing Paying too much attention can actually interfere with these actions researches can use it to tell whether a person is looking at a striped pattern that is moving up or a sentence, etc .

Frank Tong (1998)

William James

Difficult and unfamiliar tasks require much greater conscious effort-- > controlled processing Steven Laureys (2007) Cognitive neuroscientist Persistent vegetative state (comas): the longer you are in this state the less chance there is of you waking up o E.g. Terri Schiavo (15 years in a coma) Minimally Conscious State: people make some deliberate movements, such as following an object with their eyes, may attempt to communicate o E.g. Jan Grzebski woke up from a 19 year long coma; he remembers events that went around him while he was in his coma Ethical Issues Whether or not brain evidence should be used in determining the end-of-life decisions o Emerging evidence indicates that stimulating the thalamus increases awareness among those in minimally conscious states, but when to use this procedure is still debatable Corpus Callosum Split Brain When the corpus callosum is severed and the brains halves are almost completely isolated form each other The major connection between the hemispheres o Sometimes cut in order to treat epilepsy

Split-brain patients do not immediately appear to have any problems Michael Gazzaniga & Roger Sperry Series of tests on the first split-brain participants Results: found that just as the brain had been split in two, so had the mind Two pictures flashed on a screen briefly and simultaneously, the patient will report that only the picture on the right was shown This is because the left hemisphere sees only the picture on the right side, so it is the only picture a person with a split brain can talk about Mute right brain cannot articulate a response Right brain can act on perception however, if the picture on the left was a spoon, the right hemisphere can easily pick out an actual spoon from a selection of objects using the left hand (which is controlled by the left hemisphere)the left hemisphere still doesnt know what the right one saw

Splitting the brain- produces two half brains- each with their own perceptions, thoughts and consciousness Left Hemisphere Dominant for language Hopeless with spatial relationships The Interpreter Blindsight Person who experiences some blindness because of damage to the visual system that continues to show evidence of some sight, but is unaware of being able to see at all o Typically only loses a portion of the visual field Visual information arrives here One theory suggests that the amygdala processes visual information very crudely and quickly to help identify potential threats A left hemisphere process that attempts to make sense of events o Interprets/ explains the right hemispheres actions Strongly influences the way we view and remember the world Left Brain: tends to compress its experiences into a comprehensible story and to reconstruct remembered details based on the basics of the story Right Brain: seems to simply experience the world and remember things in a manner less distorted by narrative interpretation

Amygdala

FOUR Fs Global Workspace Model Posits that consciousness arises as a function of which brain circuits are active You experience your brain regions output as conscious awareness No single area of the brain is responsible for general awareness Hemineglect This type of patient is not aware of missing part of the visual world Patients unawareness of their visual deficits supports the idea that consciousness arises through the brain processes active at any point in time Prefrontal Cortex- I understand plans Frontal Motor Cortex- Im all about movement Parietal Lobe- Im aware of space Temporal Lobe- I see and hear things Occipital Lobe- I see things

Sleep Many brain regions are more active during sleep than during wakefulness Conscious experience of the outside world is largely turned off, but to some extend people remain aware of their surroundings when you sleep your mind is at work, analyzing potential dangers, controlling bodily movements, shifting body parts to maximize comfort o e.g. when you sleep next to a small child or petyou never roll onto them

EEG Machine used to reveal that the brain does not go to sleep itself- it is active 1920s this was discovered Beta Waves Alert wakefulness Alpha Waves Just before sleep Stages of Sleep Stage 1: o Theta waves o Have the feeling where you are falling, or jerking o If awakened would probably deny you were even sleeping Stage 2: o Breathing becomes more regular o Less sensitive to external stimulation o Now actually asleep EEG would still show theta waves, but also show occasional bursts of increased activity called sleep spindles and large waves called kcomplexes K-complexes can be triggered by abrupt noise As people age and sleep lighter, EEGs show less sleep spindles Stage 3 and 4 o Progression into deep sleep o Delta waves: large regular brain patterns o Slow-wave sleep Hard to wake Mind does still process some information in stage 4 (mind evaluates potential dangers) REM sleep (paradoxical sleep)

o Rapid eye movement after the sleep cycle reverses and a flurry of beta wave activity ensues o Sleeping body--- active brain o Neurons in occipital cortex and brainstem regions are more active during REM sleep than during waking hours o Usually as morning approaches Sleeping Disorders Insomnia A disorder characterized by an inability to sleep, usually associated with depression Preferred treatment is cognitive-behavioral therapy: helps patients overcome their worry of lack of sleep Pseudo insomnia Dreaming that you are not sleeping Sleep apnea A person stops breathing for temporary periods of time while asleep o Leads to lack of oxygen and sleep disruption o Most common for middle aged men and with obesity Narcolepsy A sleep disorder in which people fall asleep during normal waking hours Muscle paralysis that occurs with REM sleep- may just collapse or go limp Genetic condition that affects the neural transmission of a specific neurotransmitter in the hypothalamus REM Behavior Disorder Normal paralysis that accompanies REM sleep is disabled so that people act out their dreams while sleeping o Most often seen in elderly males Somnambulism Sleep walking Stage 4 sleep Unihemispherical sleep Dolphins cerebral hemispheres take turns sleeping

3 General Explanations for Sleeps Adaptiveness restoration circadian cycles

facilitation of learning

1. Restoration a. Restorative Theory: sleep allows the brain and body to rest and repair themselves b. Sleep allows the brain to replenish glycogen stores and strengthen the immune system c. Over a long period of time sleep deprivation causes: i. Mood problems, decreased cognitive performance, inattentiveness, reduced short-term memory, etc. o Microsleeps: when people fall asleep during the day for periods ranging form a few seconds to a minute, caused by chronic sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation can however help people overcome depression, lack of sleep leads to increased activation of serotonin receptors brain/ physiological processes that are regulated into patterns o e.g. body temperature, hormone levels, sleep/wave cycles operate according to circadian rhythms o controlled by the cycles of light and dark circadian rhythm theory: sleep has evolved to keep animals quiet and inactive during times of the day when there is greatest danger, usually when it is dark

2. Circadian Rhythms

3. Facilitation of Learning sleep is involved in the strengthening of neural connections that serve as the basis of learning o circuits wired together during the waking period are consolidated and strengthened during sleep Stickgold & Colleagues Found participants improved at a complex task only if they had slept for at least 6 hours following training Researchers decided that learning the task required neural changes that normal occur only during sleep

Sleep, especially REM sleep, promotes development of brain circuits for learning is also supported by the changes in sleep patterns that occur over the life course Pineal Gland Tiny structure Secretes melatonin, which travels through the bloodstream and affects various receptors in the body and the brain

SLEEPLESS Gene that influences sleep This gene regulates a protein that reduces action potentials in the brain Loss of the protein leads to an 80% reduction in sleep

Giusseppe Moruzzi & Horace Magoun Found that stimulating the reticular formation in the brainstem leads to increased arousal in the cerebral cortex Low levels of activity in the reticular formation produce sleep and high levels produce awakening

RETICULAR FORMATION= TRIGGERS AROUSAL What triggers sleep? Dreams The basal forebrain is involved in inducing non-REM sleep

Altered state of consciousness Images and fantasies are confused with reality Average person spends six years of his/her life dreaming REM Dreams Likely to be more bizarre Involve intense emotions, visual and auditory hallucinations Illogical contents REM is more likely linked with the dreams content than producing the dream state Dream contents come from activation of brain structures associated with motivation, emotion and reward and visual association areas Non REM Dreams Dull Mundane activities Manifest Content Freud The plot of a dream, the way dreams are remembered Latent Content What a dream symbolizes Hobsons Activation Synthesis Hypothesis Claimed random neural stimulation can activate mechanisms that normally interpret visual input

Theory of dreaming that says neural stimulation from the pons activates mechanisms that normally interpret visual output Using this perspective, dreams are epiphenomenal= the side affects of mental processes

Amygdala activation= source of dreams emotional content Deactivation of frontal lobe= dreams delusional and illogical aspects Antti Revonsuo Evolutionary account wherein dreams sometimes simulate threatening events to allow people to rehearse coping strategies Altered Consciousness Disturbances in a persons sense of control over their body Diminished or enhanced levels of self awareness Level of awareness changes as a result of the time of day as well as the persons activities

Types: 1. Hypnosis A person responding to suggestions, experiences changes in memory, perception, and/or voluntary action Post Hypnotic Suggestion: usually accompanied by an instruction not to remember anything Post hypnotic suggestions can at least subtly influence behaviors Study done by Wheatley & Haidt o Hypnotized into feeling a strong dislike for a neutral word, participants judged stories more harshly that contained this word more often than others NO RELIABLE EVIDENCE THAT PEOPLE WILL DO THINGS UNDER HYPNOSIS THAT THEY FIND IMMORAL OR OTHERWISE OBJECTIONABLE The dissociation theory of hypnosis: hypnotic state as an altered state (trancelike) in which conscious awareness is separated from other aspects of consciousness Hypnotic Analgesia: a form of pain reduction o In clinical settings, hypnosis is effective in dealing with immediate pain o May work more by changing peoples interpretations of pain than by diminishing pain ;people feel the sensations associated with pain by they feel detached from these sensations

2. Meditation a. mental procedure that focuses attention on an external object or on a sense of awareness

b. Two forms i. Concentrative meditation 1. focus attention on one thing a. breathing pattern, mental image, or a specific phrase (mantra) ii. Mindfulness meditation 1. Let your thoughts flow freely, paying attention to your thoughts but not recognizing them iii. Transcendental Meditation 1. Best known 2. Meditation with great concentration for 20 minutes twice a day a. Reduces blood pressure b. Decreases stress c. Changes in hormonal responses underlying stress o Results: Long-term meditation brings about structural changes in the brain that help maintain brain function over the life span One study found that the gray matter in the brain that contains the neurons did not diminish over time (as the patient aged) in participants who practiced Zen meditation 3. Immersion in an action a. During most of our daily activities, of course, we are consciously aware of only a small portion of both our thoughts and our behaviors b. Runners High: due to endorphins and a shift in consciousness i. Music when exercising= distraction from physical exertions c. Religious Ceremonies= decrease consciousness/ awareness of outside world o lose themselves in religious ecstasy (dancing/ chanting/ prayer, etc.)

Flow: o an experience that is so engrossing and enjoyable that is worth doing for its own sake even though it may have no consequence outside itself An optimal experience in that the activity is completely absorbing and completely satisfying; person will lose track of time, problems, etc. Escapist Entertainment Simple entertainment people use to escape themselves and their daily lives, o E.g. World of Warcraft, alcohol, unsafe sex, and extremes such as suicides

Drugs & The Consciousness Psychoactive Drugs: mind-altering substances that change the brains neurochemistry by activating neurotransmitter systems Common types: o Stimulants o Depressants o Narcotics o Hallucinogens Most widely used illegal drug in America Psychoactive ingredient: THC THC produces a relaxed mental state, uplifted or contented mood, and some perceptual and cognitive disorders Users must learn how to appreciate the drugs affects o First time users wont notice affects as much as veteran users Cannabinoid receptors: activated by naturally occurring THC- like substances o Activation of these receptors enhances mental activity and can alter pain perception o * large concentration of these receptors are in the hippocampus (why it affects our memory) Stimulants Increase behavioral and mental activity o Caffeine o Nicotine o Amphetamine o Cocaine Effects o Activate the sympathetic nervous system (increases heart rate and blood pressure) o Improves mood o Restlessness o Disrupts sleep Works by interfering with the normal reuptake of dopamine by the releasing neuron, allowing dopamine to remain in the synapse and prolonging the effects

Marijuana

Cocaine

John Pemberton (pharmacist) who initially put cocaine in soda water for easy ingestion, creating Coca Cola Amphetamines Meth First developed as a nasal decongestant in the early 20s Easy to make from OTC drugs Blocks the reuptake of dopamine o Increases the release of dopamine and yields much higher levels of dopamine in the synapse o Meth stays in the body and the brain much longer than other drugs o Damages the various brain structures and ultimately depletes dopamine levels o Damages temporal lobe and the limbic system= leads to memory loss and emotional instability in long term users MDMA (Ecstasy) Opiates Heroin, morphine, codeine Increase dopamine activation in the nucleus accumbens and binding with opiate receptors o Produces feelings of relaxation, analgesia, and euphoria o Rush of intense pleasure Used to be used to relieve pains Overall cost of problem drinking in the U.S. is more than $100 billion annually Men drink a lot more Women Energizing effect similar to those caused by stimulants, but also causes slight hallucinations Less dopamine release and more serotonin release Serotonin release is what causes the ecstasys hallucinogenic properties Long term use leads to memory problems and a diminished ability to perform complex tasks Synthesized using simple lab methods History of use for weight loss and staying awake Negative side effects: o Insomnia, anxiety, heart problems & hair loss Extremely addictive; seldom used for legitimate purposes

Alcohol

o Do not metabolize alcohol as quickly as men and have generally smaller body volumes so they consume less alcohol than men 4 Factors that Affect Gender Related Drinking Differences: 1. Power o symbol of male power 2. Sex o expect doing so will enhance sexual performance 3. Risks o men enjoy taking risks much more than women do

4. Responsibilities o men can ignore their social responsibilities when drinking Emotional Effects of Alcohol Moderate doses of alcohol are associated with a more positive mood, larger doses are associated with a more negative mood Alan Marlatt (199) People view alcohol as a magic elixir o Capable of increasing social skills, sexual pleasure, confidence and power Jay Hull & Charles Bond (1986) Study on how expectations about alcohol profoundly affect behavior Some participants received tonic water and alcohol others just tonic water RESULTS: o The belief that one has consumed alcohol leads to letting go of any inhibitions regarding various social behaviors such as sexual arousal and aggression, whether or not the person has consumed alcohol Physical Dependence Physiological state in which failing to ingest a substance leads to symptoms of withdrawal

Withdrawal Characterized by anxiety, craving and tension Tolerance Physical dependence is associated with tolerance Dopamine Insula Addiction researchers now widely accept that dopamine activity in the limbic system underlies the rewarding properties of taking drugs and is central to addiction

Important for craving and addiction, this region becomes active when addicts view images of a drug use Psychological Dependence FINAL: Refers to habitual and compulsive substance use despite the consequences We cannot ignore environment when we try to understand addiction

Chapter 6; Learning
Learning

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relatively enduring change in behavior, on that results from experience understanding how events are related Associations Develop through conditioning: a process in which environmental stimuli and behavioral responses become connected Conditioning 1. Classical Conditioning o (Pavlovian Conditioning) o when we learn that two types of events go together e.g. we watch a movie and our heart beats faster 2. Operant Conditioning o (Instrumental Conditioning) o when we learn that a behavior leads to a particular outcome e.g. studying leads to better grades Founded behaviorism (school of though based on the belief that animals and humans are born with the potential to learn just about anything) Argued that Freudian theory was unscientific and ultimately meaningless, scorned science that wasnt based of observations

Watson

Environment and its associated effects on animals were the sole determinants of learning Pavlovs Experiments Classical Conditioning o Neutral Stimulus unrelated to the salivary reflex, such as a ringing bell is presented along with a stimulus that reliably produces the reflex, such as food This pairing is known as a conditioning trial (repeated a certain number of times) Critical Trials: bell sound is presented alone and the salivary reflex is measured Under these conditions the sound of the bell on its own produced salivation Classical Conditioning

Unconditioned Response o The salivation elicited by the food Unconditioned Stimulus

o Food Conditioned Stimulus o Ringing bell produced salivation only after it was associated with the following appearance of food

Conditioned Response o Salivary reflex that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is present to the CR The conditioned response is usually weaker than the unconditioned response Acquisition Extinction A process in which the conditioned response is weakened when the conditioned stimulus is repeated without the unconditioned stimulus Gradual formation of an association between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli

Inhibits the associate bond of the CR and CS Type of learning that overwrites previous association Spontaneous Recovery A previously extinguished response reemerges following the presentation of the conditioned stimulus

Stimulus Generalization when stimuli similar but not identical to the CS produce the CR o this process is adaptive because in nature the CS is seldom experienced repeatedly in an identical fashion Stimulus Discrimination Animals learn to differentiate between two similar stimuli if one is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus and the other is not Second-Order Conditioning Phobia An acquired fear out of proportion to the real threat Amygdala and Fear Most important brain structure for fear conditioning When a CS becomes directly associated not with an unconditioned stimulus but rather with other stimuli associated with the US, a phenomenon Powerfully influences many of our beliefs and attitudes, most of it occurs implicitly without our awareness or intention

Watson proposed that phobias could be explained by simply learning principles such as classical conditioning ii Counterconditioning o A technique based on exposing people to small doses of the feared stimulus while having to engage in a pleasurable task Systematic Desensitization o Formal treatment developed by Joseph Wolpe o Based on counterconditioning; believed that repeated exposure to the feared stimulus is more important than relaxation in breaking the fear connection Drug Addiction o Presenting heroin addicts or cocaine addicts with cues associated with drug ingestions leads to cravings o Brain imaging studies have found that such cues lead to activation of the prefrontal cortex and various regions of the limbic system, areas of the brain involve din the experience of a reward Shepard Siegel o Conducted research showing that drug tolerance is a process by which addicts need more and more of a drug to experience the same effects o Research has shown that tolerance effects are greatest when the drug is taken in the same location as pervious drug use, presumably because the body has learned to expect the drug in that location and then to compensate for the drug by altering neurochemistry or physiology to metabolize it o Siegels findings imply that if addicts take their usual large doses in novel settings, they are more likely to overdose, because their bodies will not respond sufficiently to compensate for the drugs Classical Conditioning o Pavlovs explanation for classical conditioning was that any two events presented in contiguity would produce a learned association

o The associations strength was determined by factors such as the intensity of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli o Greater intensity would increase learning Challenges to Pavlovs theory: some conditioned stimuli would more likely produce learning than others and that contiguity was not sufficient to create CS-US associations Evolutionary Significance o Not all stimuli are equally effective in producing learning

Conditioned Food Aversion o Eating a novel food and getting sick, even when the illness occurs hours after eating is so strong that a food aversion can be formed in one trial o Easy to produce with smell or taste but not easy to produce with light or sound Martin Seligman (1970) o Argued that animals are genetically programmed to fear specific objects; refers to this programming as biological preparedness People in conditioning experiments where average stimuli are paired with members of their own racial group and an outside racial group, people are more likely to associate the negative stimuli with the other racial group o People are predisposed to wariness of other-group members Gender Differences in Learning Women will more likely use landmarks and memorize a series of terms when navigating through space; males will more likely keep track of cardinal directions The Cognitive Perspective Classical conditioning is a means by which animals come to predict the occurrence of events

Psychological scientists increasing consideration of mental processes such as prediction and expectancy is called the cognitive perspective of learning Robert Rescorla (1966) One of the first studies highlighting cognitions role in learning Argued that for learning to occur the conditioned stimulus must accurately predict the unconditioned stimulus o A stimulus that occurs before the US (unconditioned stimlulus) is more easily conditioned than the one that comes after it o Even though the two are both contiguous presentations with the US (close to it in time) the first stimulus is more easily learned because it predicts the US

Across all conditioning situations, some delay between the CS and the US is optimal for learning Rescorla-Wagner Model The strength of the CS-US association is determined by the extent to which the US is unexpected or surprising

The greater the surprise of the US, the more effort an organism puts into trying to understand its occurrence so that it can predict future occurrences Blocking Effect

Once learned a conditioned stimulus can prevent the acquisition of a new conditioned stimulus Occasion Setter A trigger for the CS Classical vs. Operant Conditioning Classical conditioning=passive process in which a person or animal associates events that occur together in time Instrumental Actions Actions done for a purpose Instrumental Conditioning/ Operant Conditioning Not behaving in other ways keeps us from punishment, and behaving in certain ways gets us rewards

Learning process in which an actions consequences determine the likelihood that the action will be performed in the future B.F. Skinner Psychologist most associated with this type of learning selected the term operant to express the concept of animals operating on their environments to produce effects 30 years after James & Thorndike- developed more formal learning theory based on their law of effect o Reinforcer: describe an event that produces a learned response Reinforcer is a stimulus that occurs after a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated The Skinner Box o Asses operant conditioning o An animal in a cage is taught to press one lever or key to receive food, the other lever or key to receive water Early stages Skinner used a maze and had a rat take specific turn to get access to the food (the reinforcer)

After the rat completed the trial- he returned it to the beginning of the maze Operant chamber: was developed because Skinner got tired of retrieving the rats came to be known as the Skinner Box William James & Edward Thorndike Puzzle box= small cage with a trapdoor o Trapdoor would open if the animal did a specific action

E.g. pulling a string

Purpose: to assess learning in animals Results: developed a general theory of learning o Law of effect: any behavior leading to a satisfying state of affairs will more likely occur again, while any behavior leading to an annoying state of affairs will less likely occur again A process of operant conditioning Involves reinforcing behaviors that are increasingly similar to desired behavior o E.g. trying to teach your dog how to roll over, you reward your dog for any

Shaping

behavior that even slightly resembles rolling over, once this behavior is established you then reinforce behavior more selectively Successive Approximations Reinforcing these similar behaviors and then reinforcing more selectively produces the desired behavior by teaching the animal to discriminate which behavior is being reinforced Shaping People Been used to teach mentally ill people appropriate social skills Autistic people language

Parents and educators use shaping techniques when educating children in both academics and in ways of life Primary Reinforcers Those that satisfy biological needs, i.e. food and water Secondary Reinforcers Events or objects that serve as reinforces but do not satisfy biological needs o i.e. compliments, money, or good grades Reinforcer Potency David Premack theorized that a reinforcers value could be determined by the amount of time an organism engages in a specific associated behavior when free to do anything o i.e. children would choose to spend more time eating ice cream than eating spinach, so ice cream is clearly more reinforceable can account for differences in individuals values Premacks Principle: a more valued activity can be used to reinforce the performance of a less valued activity

Positive & Negative Reinforcement Positive Reinforcement Increases the probability that a behavior will be repeated o Usually involves a reward Negative Reinforcement Increases behavior through the removal of a stimulus o Decreases the likely of a behavior Positive Punishment Decreases the behaviors probability through the administration of a stimulus o i.e. a rat getting shock for pressuring a lever is an example of positive

punishment Negative Punishment Decreases the behaviors probability through the removal of a pleasurable stimulus o i.e. teens whose driving privileges are revoked for speeding may be less likely to speed the next time they are driving Continuous Reinforcement fast learning behavior might be reinforced each time it occurs Partial Reinforcement used more commonly; reinforcing behavior intermittently Ratio Schedule Based on the number of times the behavior occurs, as when a behavior is reinforced on every third or tenth occurrence Interval Schedule Based on a specific unit of time, when a behavior is reinforced when it is performed every minute or every hour Ratio Reinforcement o Leads to greater responding than does interval reinforcement

Fixed Schedule Reinforcer consistently is given after a specific number of occurrences or after a specific amount of time o E.g. whether factory workers are paid by the piece or by the hour They usually are paid according to a fixed rate, earning the same for each piece or for each hour Rate of reinforcement is entirely predictable Variable Schedule

Reinforcer is given at different rates or at different times Responder does not know how many behaviors need to be performed or how much time needs to pass before reinforcement will occur o i.e. a salesperson receives a commission only when a customer agrees to purchase a product Partial-Reinforcement Extinction Effect The greater persistence of behavior under partial reinforcement under continuous reinforcement o Less frequent reinforcement during training, the greater resistance to

extinction Parents use this with toilet training Behavior Modification Use of operant-conditioning techniques to eliminate unwanted behaviors and replace them with desirable ones Token Economies Prisons, mental hospitals, schools use this Tokens reinforce behaviors; receive tokens for good behavior and lose them for misconduct

o Tokens can be traded in for objects or privileges Biology and Cognition Influence Operant Conditioning B.F. Skinner believed all behavior could be explained by straightforward conditioning principles Marian & Keller Breland (1961) Husband & wife team of psychologists who used operant-conditioning techniques to train animals for commercials Robert Bolles (1970) Argued that animals have built-in defense reactions to threatening stimuli Conditioning is the most effective when the association between the behavioral response and the reinforcement is similar to the animals built in predispositions Randy Gallistel (200) Argues that various learning mechanisms have evolved to solve specific problems Point: learning consists of specialized mechanisms (rather than universal mechanisms) that solve the adaptive problems animals face in their environments Acquisition/ Performance Distinction Cognitive Map

A visual/ spatial mental representation of an environment Latent Learning Learning that takes place in the absence of reinforcement Edward Tolman Early cognitive theorist o Argued that reinforcement has more impact on performance than learning o Experiments in which rats had to learn to run through complex mazes to obtain food o Believed that the rats developed cognitive maps that helped them learn to find food quickly To test this he studied 3 groups of rats who task was to travel through a maze to a goal box containing food (the reinforcer) o 1st group: no reinforcement; wandered aimlessly around the maze o 2nd group: reinforcement on every trail and learned to find the goal box quickly o 3rd group: started receiving reinforcement only after the first 10 trials, then showed an amazingly fast learning curve and immediately caught up to the group that had been continuously reinforced

Results: implies that the rats had learned a cognitive map of the maze and used it when the reinforcement began Latent Learning Tolmans term Refers to learning that takes place without reinforcement Insight Learning Form of problem solving in which a solution suddenly emerges after either a period of inaction or contemplation of the problem o Focus on a problem for a while and then suddenly you know the answer

Meme The term evolutionary psychologists use for transmitted cultural knowledge Analogous to genes- they are selectively passed on from one generation to the next Can be conditioned through association or reinforcement, many are learned by watching others behaviors Observational Learning Acquiring or modifying of a behavior after exposure to at least one performance of that behavior = a powerful adaptive tool Banduras Observational Studies

Albert Bandura in the 1960s conducted many observational studies Showed preschool kids a film of an adult playing with a large doll called Bobo o In the film, the adult would either play quietly with Bobo or attacked the doll furiously, whacking it and throwing it around the room o When the kids were allowed to play with a number of toys (including the inflatable Bobo doll) those who had seen the more aggressive display were more than twice as likely to act aggressively toward the doll

Results: exposing children to media violence may encourage them to act aggressively Susan Mineka Lab monkeys do not fear snakes, whereas monkeys in the wild do Set out to determine whether or not monkeys could develop a phobia of snakes Monkeys after putting them among wild monkeys and having the lab monkeys witness their reactions to snakes- quickly developed a fear of snakes

Social forces play an important role in the learning of fear Vicarious Reinforcement Key distinction in learning is between the acquisition of behavior and its performance Modeling Imitation of observed behavior Models influences on behavior often occur implicitly; without our being aware that our behaviors are being altered Vicarious Learning Learning that occurs when people learn the consequences of an action by observing others being rewarded or punished for performing the action Mirror Neurons Neurons that are activated during observation of others performing an action o E.g. a study showed that when a monkey observes another monkey reaching for an object, mirror neurons in the observing monkeys brain become activated Also activated when the observing monkey does this observed behavior

Every time you observe another person engaging in an action, similar neural circuits are firing both in your brain and in the other persons Some theorists speculate that mirror neurons may help us explain and predict others behavior o Mirror neurons may allow us to step into the shoes of people we observe in order to better understand those peoples actions

One speculation is that mirror neurons are the neural basis for empathy Mouth Movements People also have mirror neurons for mouth movements which are stimulated when observers see a mouth move in a way typical of chewing or speaking o Are important for humans ability to communicate through language Rizzolatti & Arbib (1998) Proposed that the mirror neuron system evolved to allow language Mirror neurons may create a link between the sender and receiver of the message Media & Violence Adolescents who played certain types of violent video games showed decreased activation in the prefrontal brain region (which is involved in inhibition, concentration and self control) and more activation in the amygdala (which is involved in emotional arousal) Dopamine Activity Underlies Reinforcement Generally positive reinforcement works because it provides the subjective experience of pleasure o Neural basis of this reinforcement is the release of the dopamine o Dopamine is involved in motivation and emotion plays an important role in the experience of reward and is crucial for

positive reinforcement Peter Milner & James Olds Early 1950s Were testing whether electrical stimulation to a specific brain region would facilitate learning Wanted to see whether the learning they observed was caused by brain activity or by the aversive qualities of the electrical stimulus Intracranial Self-Stimulation: (ICSS) wanted to see whether the rats would press a lever to self-administer shock to specific sites in their brains o The rats did do this, pressing the level hundreds of times per hour o Referred to brain regions that support ICSS as pleasure centers ICSS Acts on the same brain regions as those activated by natural reinforcers Dopamine serves as the neurochemical basis of positive reinforcement in operative conditioning ICSS was a powerful reinforcer

ICSS activates dopamine receptors, interfering with dopamine eliminates selfstimulation as well as naturally motivated behaviors Nucleus Accumbens Activations Subcortical brain region that is part of the limbic system Experience of pleasure usually results from activation of dopamine neurons in the nucleus accumbus o Enjoying food depends on dopamine activity Hungrier you are= the more you enjoy food This is because more dopamine is released under deprived conditions

Drugs & Dopamine Drugs that block dopamines effects often disrupt operant conditioning Dopamine blockers decrease the value of the reinforcement o Often given to individuals with Tourettes syndrome to help them regulate their involuntary body movements Habituation and Sensitization Are Simple Models of Learning Learning involves relatively permanent changes in the brain that result from exposure to environmental events Richard Semon 1904 proposed that memories are stored though changes in the nervous system Engram: storage of learned material Donald Hebb Proposed that learning results form alterations in synaptic connections Said that when one neuron excites another, some change takes place so that the synapse between the two neurons strengthens

Summed up as cells that fire together wire together LTP process also supports this claim Eric Kandel Used the aplysia (small marine snail- simple vertebrae) to study the neural basis of two types of simple learning o Habituation: a decrease in behavioral response following repeated exposure to non threatening stimuli o Sensitization: an increase in behavioral response following exposure to a threatening stimulus

E.g. you are studying and smell something burning- you do not get used to this smell, you focus greater attention on the smell in order to determine whether or not there is an actual fire Leads to heightened responsiveness to other stimuli

Orienting Response: when an animal encounters a new stimulus and pays attention to it Research on Aplysia o Shown that alterations in the functioning of the synapse lead to habituation and sensitization o For both types of simple learning, presynaptic neurons alter their

neurotransmitter release o Reduction in neurotransmitter release leads to habituation o An increase in neurotransmitter release leads to sensitization Long-Term Potentiation is a Candidate for the Neural Basis of Learning Long-Term Potentiation Is the strengthening of the synaptic connection so that postsynaptic neurons are more easily activated Demonstrate: o Researchers establish the extent to which electrically stimulating one neuron

leads to an action potential in a second neuron o Then provide intense electrical stimulation to the first neuron o Then a single electrical pulse is re-administered to measure the extent of the second neurons activation o LTP occurs when the intense electrical stimulation increases the likelihood that stimulating one neuron leads to an action potential in the second neuron LTP as the Cellular Basis for Learning & Memory LTP effects are most easily observed in the hippocampus The same drugs that improve memory also lead to increased LTP and those that block memory also block LTP

Behavioral conditioning produces neurochemical effects nearly identical to LTP NMDA Receptor type of glutamate receptor opens only if a nearby neurons fires at the same time involved in LTP process Fear Conditioning & the LTP Recent evidence proves that fear conditioning may induce LTP in the amygdala

Joseph LeDoux Demonstrated that the auditory fear conditioning and LTP induction lead to similar changes in amygdala neurons, a finding that suggests fear conditioning might produce long-lasting neurons through LTP induction

Chapter 7; Attention & Memory


Memory

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The nervous systems capacity to acquire and retain usable skills and knowledge, allowing organisms to benefit from experience Attention & What is Remembered To get information into a memory; a person needs to attend We have the ability to direct something in ourselves (attention) to some information at the cost of paying less attention to other information Visual Attention is Selective & Serial Anne Treismann Theory on attention and recognition: we automatically identify primitive features such as color, shape, orientation, and movement within an environment

Separate systems analyze objects different visual features Parallel Processing Serial Effortful Takes longer and requires more attention o E.g. imagine trying to find all the red Xs in a display of differently colored Xs and Ys= would be called a conjunction task Conjunction Task Because the stimulus you are looking for is made up of two simple features Auditory Attention Allows Selective Listening Attention is limited so it is hard to perform two tasks at the same, especially if they rely on the same mechanisms E.C. Cherry Cocktail phenomenon o You can focus on a single conversation in the midst of a chaotic cocktail party, yet a particularly pertinent stimulus, such as hearing your name mentioned in another conversation can capture your attention Searching for two features o You need to look at the stimuli one at a time Allows us to process information from different visual features at the same time by focusing on targets over distractors We can attend selectively to one feature by effectively blocking the further processing of the others

Shadowing: a technique Cherry used to examine selective-listening Selective Attention Can Operate at Multiple Stages of Processing

Donald Broadbent Filter theory to explain the selective nature of attention, he assumed people have a limited capacity for sensory information and let only in the most important information

Attention=a gate that opens for important information Change Blindness The common failure to notice large changes in environments Demonstration of how inattentive we can be Proves that we can only pay attention to a limited amount of information and that large discrepancies exists between what people think they see and what they actually

see Basic Stages of Memory Memorys processes can be thought of as operating through three distinct phases over time o 1. The Encoding Phase occurs at the time of learning o 2. The Storage Phase can last a fraction of a second or as long as a lifetime 3 storage systems (depending on how long they store information)

o 3. The Retrieval Stage reaching into our memory storage to find or retrieve a memory Richard Atkinson & Richard Shiffrin in 1968 Psychological Scientists and Memory o Describe it as a 3 part system Sensory memory Short-term memory Working memory Long-term memory

o Modal Memory model Sensory Memory is Brief Temporary memory system Lasts only a fraction of a second and closely tied to the sensory systems Occurs when a light, a sound, an odor, a taste or a tactile impression leaves a vanishing trace on the nervous system for a fraction of a second George Sperling (1960) Provided the initial empirical support for sensory memory

Concluded: the visual memory persisted for about one-third of a second, after which the sensory memory trace faded progressively until it was no longer accessible

Sensory memories allow us to experience the world as a continuous stream rather than in discrete sensations Working Memory is Active Short-term memory A limited capacity memory system that holds information in awareness for a brief period Working Memory An active processing system that keeps different types of information available for current use

Memory system that combines information from different sources also called immediate memory consists of our fleeting thoughts, changing feelings, etc. lasts for about 20 to 30 seconds then disappears unless you actively prevent that from happening by thinking about or rehearsing the information Memory Span and Chunking Chunking Process of organizing information into meaningful units to make it easier to remember Working Memorys Four Parts WM is not a single storage system but is an active processing unit that deals with multiple types of information o Alan Baddeley developed model of an active memory system Central executive Presides over interactions among the phonological loop Is the boss; encodes information from the sensory systems filters important information and stores it Phonological loop Encodes auditory information Active whenever a person tries to remember words by reading them Visuospatial sketchpad George Miller noted that the limit is generally 7 items (known as memory span) More recent research says that estimate may be too high, and varies among individuals

Processes visual information; objects features and where they are located Episodic buffer Holds temporary information about oneself Drawing heavily on long-term episodic memory

Long-Term Memory The relatively permanent storage of information Only information that helps us adapt to the environment is typically transformed into a long-term memory0

LTM VS WM They are different in two important ways; duration and capacity Serial Position Effect: involves two separate effects Ability to recall items from a list depends on the order items are presented with o 1. Primacy effect: the better memory people have for items at the beginning of a list o 2. Recency Effect: peoples better memory for the most recent items, the items at the end of a list

Overlearning: when you go over material multiple times (a.k.a exams) leads to improved memory Distributed Practice: material studied in multiple sessions over a longer period of time Mass Practice: cramming- not as effective Explicit Memory Involves Conscious Effort most basic distinction between memory systems is the division of memories we are consciously aware of from memories we acquire without conscious effort or intention and do not know we know Implicit Memory we have memories of which we have no conscious knowledge of does not require conscious attention but happens automatically without deliberate effort Explicit Memory Involves the processes we use to remember information we can say we know Can be divided into episodic and semantic memory Declarative Memory Cognitive information received in explicit memory o Knowledge that can be declared; can involve concepts, visual images, or both

Episodic Memory Memory for ones personal past experiences o Includes information about a time and place Semantic Memory Represents the knowledge of facts independent of person experience Implicit Memory Occurs without Deliberate Effort Classical conditioning employs implicit memory False Fame Effect o Psychologist Larry Jacoby had research participants read aloud a list of made up names o Participants were told it was a project about pronunciation but the next day he had the same people participate in an apparently unrelated study They were asked to read a list of names and decide whether each person was famous or not Participants misjudged some of the made-up names from the pervious day as being those of famous people Knew they had heard the names before but could not remember where implicit memory lead them to assume the familiar names were those of famous people Procedural Memory/ Motor Memory o Example of implicit memory that involves motor skills, habits and other behaviors employed to achieve goals (e.g. muscle movements) Riding a bike Prospective Memory Remembering to do something at some time in the future Temporal Codes Representations of what our perceptual experiences are transformed into Time based

*Memories are stored as representations Retrieval often involves an explicit effort to access the contents of memory storage Retrieval is involved in explicit and implicit memory systems Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart Developed an influential theory of memory based on depth of elaboration Levels of processing model

o More deeply an item is encoded them ore meaning it has and the better it is remembered o Proposed that different types of rehearsal lead to differential encoding Maintenance Rehearsal Simply repeating the item over and over Elaborative Rehearsal Encodes the information in more meaningful ways, such as thinking about the item conceptually or deciding whether it refers to oneself Schemas Provide an Organizational Framework Schemas o Structures in long-term memory that help us perceive, organize, process, and use information o Help us sort out incoming information and guide our attention to an environments relevant features o We construct new memories by filing in holes within existing memories; interpreting meaning based on past experiences Networks of Association Node A unit of information Retrieval Cue Can be anything that helps a person sort through the vast data in long-term memory to access the right information One highly influential set of theories about memory organization is based on these networks Activation one node increases the likelihood that closely associated nodes will also be activated The closer the nodes the stronger the association between them and the more likely that activating one will activate the other

Easier to recognize than to recall information o E.g. Is its easier to recognize a correct answer than to recall it on a multiple choice test Encoding Specificity Almost anything can be a retrieval cue Endel Tulvings Encoding Specificity Principle: any stimulus encoded along with an experience can later trigger a memory of the experience Context Dependent Memory

When the recall situation is similar to the encoding situation Based on things such as physical location, odors and background music State Dependent Memory Enhancement of memory when internal states match during encoding and recall What Brain Processes Are Involved in Memory? Karl Lashley o Spent much of his career trying to localize memory o Engram: refers to physical site of memory storage o Did a study on rats in a maze, after removing certain parts of their cortices (all different) o He tested how much of the maze learning the rats retained after surgery o RESULTS: the size of the area removed rather than its location was most important in predicting retention o Concluded that memory is distributed throughout the brain rather than confined to any specific location= equipotentiality o Partially right Donald Hebb neurons that fire together wire together different brain regions are responsible for storing different aspects of information

Studies of H.M; o Regions within the temporal lobes are important for the ability to encode new memories Temporal Lobes Are important for declarative memory (being able to say what you remember) Less important for implicit memory (such as motor learning and classical conditioning) Cerebellum How motor actions are learned and remembered Amygdala Responsible for one type of classical conditioning, fear learning

The Medial Temporal Lobes Are Important for Consolidation of Declarative Memories Middle Section of Temporal Lobes important for declarative memory (also known as medial section) Consists of numerous structures relevant to memory (including amygdala and hippocampus)

Damage to this region= anterograde amnesia (inability to store new explicit memories)

Responsible for coordinating and strengthening the connections among neurons when something is learned Consolidation How immediate memories become lasting memories Hypothetical process involving the transfer of contents from immediate memory into long-term memory Reconsolidation Neural processes involved when memories are recalled and then stored again for later retrieval o E.g. taking a book out of the library

Our memories change when we use them and are not accurate reproductions of what was experienced Spatial Memory Important memory function of the hippocampus Spatial memory is the memory for the physical environment o E.g. directions, locations of objects, cognitive maps o Morris Water Maze Test

Role of the hippocampus in spatial memory is supported by place cells o Place cells (in the Morris Water Maze Test) are neurons that only fired when a rat returns to a specific location * In both humans and rodents one important role of sleep is to consolidate memoires Frontal Lobes Involved in Memory Encoding: Episodic memory, working memory, spatial memory, time sequences, and various aspects of encoding and retrieval Brain imaging studies have provided evidence that the frontal lobes are crucial for encoding

Deep encoding= higher chance of frontal activation o Activation of frontal lobes= higher chance of being remembered Working Memory: WM holds information temporarily so it can be used to solve problems, understand conversations and follow plans

Frontal regions become active when information is being retrieved from long-term memory into working memory or encoded from working memory into long term memory Neurochemistry Underlies Memory Research has shown that various of neurotransmitters can weaken or enhance memory o Memory modulators: what these neurons are known as Epinephrine Glucose When we learn something new, we drain glucose from key parts of the brain that are associated with memory and learning Role as a memory enhancer was proven in a study in which old people received a memory test after consuming lemonade with sweetener (glucose) Secreted into the bloodstream from the adrenal glands (near the kidneys) o Is the hormone that is secreted when a person/ animal is excited or scared Initially believed that epinephrine affected memory because it causes a release of glucose, which enters the brain and influences memory storage

Those who drank the lemonade better remembered what they studied Amygdala & Neurochemistry of Emotion Amygdala has norepinephrine receptors and is involved in the memory of fearful events Emotional Memory PTSD Mental health disorder that involves frequent and recurring unwanted thoughts related to the trauma, including nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks o Hyper vigilant to stimuli associated with their traumatic event Activates the right amygdala in men and the left amygdala in women Women have better memory than men for emotional events

Forgetting Inability to retrieve memory from long-term storage We forget far more than we remember Not being able to forget is as maladaptive as not being able to remember Normal forgetting helps us remember and use important information Hermann Ebbinghaus Provided compelling evidence that forgetting occurs rapidly over the first few days but then levels off

(late 19th century study on the individual level) the difference between the original learning and relearing is savings= time and effort saved because of what you remembered Daniel Shacter (1999) seven sins of memory o Transience: reduced memory over time forgetting o Absentmindedness: reduced memory due to not paying attention forgetting o Blocking: inability to remember needed information o o o o forgetting Misattribution: assessing a memory to the wrong source distortion Suggestibility: altering a memory because of misleading information Distortion Bias: influence of current knowledge on our memory for past events distortion Persistence (PTSD): resurgence of unwanted or disturbing memories that we like to forget

Undesirable Transience is Caused by Interference Proactive Interference: when prior information inhibits the ability to remember new information

Transience is the pattern of forgetting over time Retroactive Interference: new information inhibits the ability to remember old information o If you memorize a new locker combination you may forget the old one Blocking is Temporary Drawing a blank Often occurs because of interference from words that are similar in some ways o Such as the sound or meaning and that keep recurring E.g. calling an acquaintance Margaret when her name is Melanie Absentmindedness Results from Shallow Encoding Absentmindedness: the inattentive or shallow encoding of events o E.g. forgetting where you left your keys o Cultures and Change Blindness

Amnesia

East Asians live in highly independent societies so they are more likely to attend to an events context than U.S. citizens

Is a deficit in long term memory resulting from disease, brain injury or trauma Result from damage to the medial temporal lobes, damage to other subcortical areas(e.g. the thalamus) can also lead to amnesia Two basic types o Retrograde People lose past memories for events, facts, people, or even personal information

o Anterograde Inability to form new memories E.g. when someone wakes up from a coma and has no idea where they are Flashbulb Memories Refers to vivid memories for the circumstances in which one first learned of a surprising and consequential or emotionally arousing event o Brown and Kuliks term Martin Conway Shown that better memory for the flashbulb experience occurs among those who found the news surprising and felt the event was important o E.g. students in the UK experienced stronger flashbulb memories for the Thatcher resignation than students in the U.S. Von Restorff Effect When a distinctive event might simply be recalled more easily than trivial events however inaccurate the result Source Misattribution The misremembering of the time, place, person or circumstances involved with a memory o Examples: false fame effect sleeper effect Cryptomnesia example of source misattribution when a person thinks he or she has come up with a new idea, but really has retrieved an old idea from memory and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source

Cross-Ethnic Identification People showed better memory for same-race faces Difference in participants performances were associated with the degrees of activity in the fusiform face area Elizabeth Loftus Conducted a series of important studies demonstrating that people can develop biased memories when provided with misleading information Source Amnesia Occurs when a person has a memory for an event but cannot remember where he or she encountered the information

o Absence of early memories (childhood amnesia) may be due to the early lack of linguistic capacity as well as to immature frontal lobes o Memories from events when we were very young may seem real, but they are more likely constructed from information learned later in life False Recognition Basic paradigm produces false recollections extremely reliably People are often extremely confident in saying they have seen or heard the words the recollect falsely Confabulation Associated with some types of brain injury Morris Moscovitch calls it honest lying The false recollection of episodic memory o People recall mistaken facts and add facts that make the story more coherent dramatic example is Capgras Syndrome, where patients delusionally believe their family members have been replaced by imposters; even when confronted with contradictory evidence they persist in inventing facts that support their delusions patients with Capgras often have damage to the frontal lobes and the

limbic brain brains brain region involved in emotions is separated from the visual input, so the images of family members are no longer associated with warm feelings Repressed Memory Syndrome Controversial Convincing evidence indicates that methods such as hypnosis, age regression, and guided recall can implant false memories

Evidence also shows that children can be induced to remember events that did not actually occur ( in lab settings ) Memory Bias In which peoples memories for events change over time to be consistent with current beliefs or attitudes Mnemonics Strategies for improving memory Ways to study more effectively o Practice o Elaborate the material o o o o Overlearn Get adequate sleep Use verbal mnemonics Use visual imagery

Chapter 8; Thinking & Intelligence


Thinking Ability to use information rapidly Cognition

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Brain represents information and that the act of thinking (cognition) is directly associated Representations Form the basis of human thought, intelligence and the ability to solve everyday lifes complex problems Analogical Representations Type of representation Have characteristics of actual objects o Include maps which correspond to geographical layouts, and family trees which depict direct relationships between relatives Symbolic Representations Usually words or ideas Are abstract and do not have relationships to physical qualities of objects in the world Reasoning Using information to determine if a conclusion is valid or reasonable Decision Making Attempting to select the best alternative among several options Problem Solving Finding a way around an obstacle to reach a goal Deductive Reasoning Using a belief or rule to determine if a conclusion is valid (Follows logically from the belief or rule)

Use logic Inductive Reasoning Using examples or instances to determine if a rule or conclusion is likely to be true o You reason from the specific to the general

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