Sleep

- a state of conciousness
- less aware of our surroundings
- Conscious
- Subconscious
- Unconscious

Biological Rhythms
- Annual Cycles: seasonal variations (bears hibernation, season affective disorder)
- 28 days: menstrual cycle
- 24 hour cycle: our circadian rhythm
- 90 minute cycle: sleep cycles

Circadian Rhythm
- 24 biological clock
- body temp and awareness changes throughout the day

Sleep Stages
- 5 identified stages
- 90 to 100 mins to pass through the stages
- Brains waves will change according to the sleep stage you are in
- First four are known as NREM sleep
- The fifth stage is called REM sleep



Stage 1
- Kind of awake and kind of asleep
- Only lasts a few minutes, and you usually only experience it once a night
- Eyes begin to roll slightly
- Your brain produces Theta Waves (high amp, low frequency) (slow)

Stage 2
- This follows Stage 1 sleep and is the "baseline" of sleep
- This stage is part of the 90 minute cycle and occupies approximately 45-60% of sleep
- More Theta Waves that get progressively slower
- Begin to show sleep spindles.. short bursts of rapid brain waves

Stage 3 and 4
- Slow wave sleep
- You produce Delta waves
- If awoken you will be very groggy
- Vital for restoring body's growth hormones and good overall health

Stage 5: REM Sleep
- Rapid Eye Movement
- Often called paradoxical sleep
- Brain is very active
- Dreams usually occur in REM
- Body is essentially paralyzed
- Composes 20-25% of a normal nights sleep
- Breathing, heart rate and brain wave activity quicken
- Vivid dreams can occur
- From REM, you go back to Stage 2

Learning

How do we learn?
- Most is associative learning
- certain events occur together

Three Main types
- Classical conditioning / operant conditioning
- Observational learning / latent learning
- Abstract learning / insight learning

Classical
- Started with Ivan Pavlov
- 5 critical terms
1. acquisition
2. extinction
3. spontaneous recovery
4. generalization
5. discrimination

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
- stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response

Unconditioned response (UCR)
- the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the UCS

Conditioned stimulus (CS)
- an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with the UCS, comes to trigger a response

Conditioned Response (CR)
- the learned response to a previous stimulus

Acquisition
- Initial stage of learning
- Phase where the neutral stimulus is associated with the UCS so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit the CR thus becoming the CS
- Does timing matter?
-- CS should come before the UCS
-- They should be very close in timing

Extinction
- The diminishing if a conditioned response
- Will eventually happen when the UCS dows not follow the CS

Spontaneous Recovery
- The reappearen after a rest period of an extinguished conditioned response

Generalization
- The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the CS to elicit similar responses

Discrimination
- The learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other stimuli that does not signal UCS

Memory

- persistence of learning over time through the process of storage and retrieval of information
- 3 parts

Encoding 
- processing of info into the memory system

Storage
- retention of material over time

Retrieval 
- the process of getting the information out of memory storage
- Retrieval failure: forgetting something, or not getting the info out of storage

Recall vs. Recognition

Recall
- retrieve info from your memory
- ex: fill in the blank test

Recognition
- identify the target from possible targets
- ex: multiple choice tests

Flash Bulb Memory
- A clear moment of an emotionally significant event

Three types of Memory

Sensory
- the immediate initial recording of sensory information stored for just an instant and most info goes unprocessed

Short Term
- memory that holds a few items briefly
- can hold 7 digits
- if not stored here, goes to long term or its forgotten
- AKA working memory
- three parts: audio, visual, intergration of audio and visual



Long Term
- permanent and limitless storehouse of memory
- explicit memories
- implicit memories

Explicit Memories
- episodic memories
-semantic memories

Implicit Memories
- procedural memories
- conditioned memories

Encoding Information
- Primary Effect
- Recency Effect
- Serial Positioning Effect

Spacing Effect
- DO NOT CRAM
- Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve



The way we can encode
- Visual: the encoding of picture images
- Acoustic: encoding of sound, especially sounds of words
- Semantic: encoding of meaning

Constructive Memory
- Memories are not always what they seem
- Elizabeth Loftus
- Constructed memory is a created memory
- Misinformation effect

Forgetting
- Retroactive Interference: new info blocks out old info
- Proactive Interference: old info blocks new info

Storing Memories
- Long term Potential: long lasting enhancement in signal transmission between two neurons that results from stimulating them synchronously
-- In other words, they learn to fire together and get better at it, creating a memory

IQ TEST EXAMPLES

Intelligence

- The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
- Socially constructed... can be culturaly specific

Is intelligence one thing or several different abilities?
- Factor Analysis: statisticsl procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test
- charles Spearman ised FA to discover his G or general intelligence

Multiple Intelligence
- Howard Gardner disagreed with Spearmans g and instead came up with the concept of this
- Came up with this by studying savants (condition where a person has limited mental ability but is exceptional in one area)

Gardner's Multiple Intelligence
- Visual/Spatial
- Verbal/Linguistic
- Logical/Mathematical
- Bodily/Kinesthetic
- Musica/Rythmic
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Natural

Sternberg's 3 Aspects of Intelligence
- Analytical: academic problem solving
- Creative: generating novel ideas
- Practical: required for everyday tasks where multiple solutions exist

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
- First called social intelligence
- Ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions
- EQ is a greater predicter than IQ

Brain Size and Intelligence (link?)
- Small .15 correlation between head size and intelligence scores

Brain Function and Intelligence
- Higher performing use less active than lower performing brains
- Neurological speed is a bit quicket

How do we Assess Intelligence?
- Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon set out to figure out a concept called mental age
- By discovering this they can predict future performance
- Help children and not label them




Therman and his IQ test
 - Used Binet's research to construct the modern day IQ test called the Stanford Binet Test
- IQ= Mental Age/Chronological Age X 100

Problems with IQ formula
- Doesnt work well on adults

Modern Test of Mental Abilities
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) consists of 11 subtests and cues us into strengths by using factor analysis

Aptitude v. Achievement Tests
Aptitude
- Test designed to predict a persons future performance
- Ability for that person to learn

Achievement
- Test designed to assess what a person has learned

Construct Intelligence tests by:
- Standardized
- Reliable
- Valid

Standardization
- Test must be pre tested to a small rep sample of people
- Form a normal distribution or bell curve

Flynn Effect
- Intelligence test performance has been rising

Reliability
- Extent which a test yields consisten results over time
- Split halves or test retest method

Validity
- Extent to which a test measures what is supposed to be measured
- Content validity: does the test sample a behavior of interest
- Predictive Validity: does the test predict future behavior

Intelligence change over time?
- By age 3, a childs IQ can predict adolescent IQ scores
- Depends on type of intelligence (crystallized or fluid)

Extremes of Intelligence

Group Differences in Intelligence Test Scores
- Bell curve is diff for Whites v. Blacks
- Math scores are diff across genders and highest scores are for Asian males
WHY? Nature vs Nurture

Test Bias
- Tests discriminate
- Sole purpose is to discriminate?
- Look at the type of discrimination

Language and thinking

Language
- Our spoken written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Phonemes
- In a spoken language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
- Chug has three phonemes ch, u, g

Morphemes
- In a language the smallest unit that carries meaning
- Can be a word or part of a word (prefix or suffix)

Grammar
- A 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 language
- Adding ed at the end of words means past tense

Syntax
- The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Language Development
- Babbling Stage: starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds. not limited to the phonemes of the infants household language
- One-Word Stage: 1-2 year old, uses one word to communicate big meanings
- Two Word Stage: at age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings - called telegraphic speech

Skinner
- Skinner thought that we can explain languge development through social learning theory

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 (not vice versa)

Thinking Without Language
- We can think in words
- But more often we think in mental pictures

Thinking
Cognition
- Another term for thinking, knowing, and remembering

Concepts
- A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas or peopl
- Concepts are similar to piaget's idea of Schema

Prototypes
- A mental image or best example of a category
- If a mew object is similar to out prototype, we are better able to recognize it

HOW DO WE SOLVE PROBLEMS

Trial & Error
- 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 solve problems efficiently
- A short cut (that can be probe to errors)

Insight
- A sudden and often novel realizatipn of the solution to a problem
- No real strategy involved

Obstacles to problem solving

Confirmation Bias
- A tendency to search for info that confirms ones perconceptions

Match Problem
- Fixation: The inability to see a problem from a new perspective

The Jug Problem
B - A - 2C = desired amount of water
- For problems 6 and 7 (20 and 18) there are easier ways than using your formula from your mental set

Mental Set
- A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, esp if it has worked in the past
- May or may not be a good thing

Functional Fixedness
- The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

TYPES OF HEURISTICS (often lead to errors)

Representative
- A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype
- Can cause us to ignore important info

Availability
- Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in out memory
- If it comes to mind easily (maybe a vivid event) we presume it is common

Overconfidence
- The tendency to be more confident than correct
- To overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgements

Framing
- The way an issue is proposed
- It can have drastic effects on your decisions and judgements

Belief Bias- Tendency for ones preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning
- Sometimes making invalid conclusions valid or vice versa

Belief Perserverance
- Clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited