Psychology is the scientific study of the mind brain and behavior Psychology spans multiple levels of analysis Low level is tied to most biological influences Higher level is tied to social influences We cannot just examine just one level Ex Depression Molecular Neurochemical Mental Challenges for psychology 1 Human Behavior is difficult to predict 2 Individual differences among people 3 Reciprocal determinism people influence one another Difficult to predict causation 4 Cultural differences can limit conclusions scientists can draw about human nature Pseudoscience lacks the safeguard against confirmation bias and belief perseverance that characterize science Warning signs of pseudoscience 1 Ad hoc immunizing hypothesis Ex ESP 2 Lack of self correction in science incorrect claims tend to get discarded for better theories Types of psychologists 1 Clinical cannot prescribe medication 2 Counseling work with people experiencing temporary or self contained problems 3 School assess and develop intervention programs 4 Developmental study why and how people change over time 5 Experimental uses sophisticated research methods to study memory language and 6 Biopsychologists examine physiological bases of behavior Most work in research thinking setting 7 Forensic assess diagnose and assist with rehab and prison inmates Cognitive economy is the combined simplicity and relevance of a categorization scheme or representation 1 Heuristics mental shortcuts Mental shortcuts increase our thinking efficiency Draw quick inferences 2 Top Down processing Concepts are knowledge about objects actions and characteristcs Schemas are concepts we have stored about the relation of certain events Heuristics and biases prevent us from thinking scientifically Hindsight bias I knew it all along Overconfidence tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions Decision making is the process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives Various decisions are made subconsciously Framing has an impact on decisions even when the underlying relevant to these decision is identical Common problem solving strategies Algorithms are step by step learned procedure used to solve a problem Breaking a problem into sub problems Drawing analogies Challenges to problem solving Salience refers to how attention grabbing something is We tend to focus our attention on the surface level properties of a problem Mental sets once we find a solution we have trouble thinking of alternatives Functional fixedness difficulty conceptualizing an object that is typically used for one purpose for another purpose Explain the importance of science as a safeguard against biases Na ve realism is the belief that we see the world precisely as it is Works well in ordinary life but can lead to false beliefs Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and deny dismiss or distort evidence that contradicts them Belief perseverance is the tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them Scientific skepticism is the approach of evaluating all clams with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them Six Principles of scientific thinking 1 Ruling out rival hypotheses Ask yourself whether we ve excluded other plausible explanations for it 2 Correlation vs causation Correlation doesn t necessarily mean a connection 3 Falsifiability Ask yourself whether one in principle disprove it or whether its consistent with any conceivable body of evidence 4 Replicability make sure claims aren t a one time only fluke 5 Extraordinary claims Whether this claim runs counter to many things we know already and if it does whether the evidence is extraordinary as the claim 6 Occam s razor Whether the explanations offered is the simplest explanation that account for the data or whether simpler explanations can account for the data equally well Just because two things are related does not mean that one causes another Random assignment of the participants Experimental group receives the manipulation Control group does not receive the manipulation Pitfalls of Experimental Design Placebo effect is the improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement Nocebo effect is the placebo effect s EVIL TWIN harm resulting from expectation of harm Experimenter expectancy effect is when researchers hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study Demand characteristics is from an experiment that allow them to generate guesses regarding the experimenter s hypotheses Disguising the purpose of the study using filler items can help decreases thesed Ethical obligations of researchers toward research participants Institutional Review Board Protection from harms and discomfort Justification of deception Debriefing Describe both sides of the debate on the use of animals as research subjects Researchers must weigh both the potential scientific gains and the costs in death and suffering they produce Memory is the retention of information over time Memory can be surprisingly good and bad in some situations Memory illusions Three systems Sensory iconic visual Much input never enter conscious processing Short term Keeps information active and accessible Helps coordinate ongoing mental activities We can lose info through STM in two ways Decay fades over time Interference loss of information due competition of new incoming information Long term Explict memory is the memories we recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness ex Semantic and episodic we try to recall info Implicit memory are memories we don t deliberately remember on consciously Procedural memory refers to motor skills and habits Priming is out ability t identify a stimulus more easily or more quickly after we ve encountered similar stimuli Methods of connecting information Encoding we must first attend to it most events we experience are never encoded Mneumonic ROY G BIV Roles that schemas play in memory storage Schemas are organized knowledge structures gives us frames of reference for new experiences Schemas are useful but tend to oversimplify information memory illusion and incorrect interpretations Ways of measuring memory Recall reproducing information learned earlier Recognition identifying items previously learned Relearning faster learning of previously learned information Relation between encoding and retrieval condition influences memory Context dependent learning State dependent
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