Psych 202 6 8 15 4 18 PM Brain Imaging Electrophysiology is a data collection method that measures electrical activity in the brain They use the machine EEG to conduct this experiment Positron emission tomography PET is the computer aided reconstruction of the brains metabolic activity by injecting radio active substance into the body Magnetic resonance imaging MRI is the most powerful imaging technique In a scanner a person lays Like the PET we use up the brains blood flow to map the working brain Transcranial magnetic stimulation TMS uses a very fast but powerful magnetic field to disrupt brain activity momentarily in a specific brain region Institutional review boards Groups of people responsible for reviewing proposed research to endure that it meets the accepted standards of science and provides for the physical and emotional well being of research participants Good data Internal Validity The extent to which the data collected in a study address the research hypothesis in the way intended Must measure what you want to measure Reliability The stability and consistency of a measure over time in similar conditions Accuracy the extent to which the measure is error free Descriptive Statistics Statistics that summarize the data collected in a study Central Tendency A measure that represents the typical response or the behavior of a group as a whole In class 4 11 6 8 15 4 18 PM Decision making We need psychological theories for many kinds of decisions choices under uncertainty some or all outcomes are probabilistic decisions that involve subjective value forecasting future emotions Kinds of decision making models normative models what people should do rational economic expected value to evaluate an option take every possible outcome multiply each possibly outcome by its probability and calculate the sum descriptive models what people actually do maximizing gather all relevant information and try to make the best possible decision satisficing try to quickly reach a good enough solution Heuristics mental shortcuts used to make decisions save time and effort sometimes can lead to systematic errors availability heuristic making a decision based on how easily and answer or example comes to mind representativeness heuristic making a decision about a person or object based on how closely it matches a prototype of some larger category Anchoring and adjustment the tendency to make a numerical judgments by starting with a reference point and the adjusting upward or downward The clustering illusion the tendency to see patterns in random data Heuristics are fast and frugal let us make decisions quickly and with little thought Researchers still debating when and how much they produce errors outside the lab Shortcuts can be useful when number complexity of options is too large to maximize the paradox of choice Prospect Theory proposed by Danel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1970s describes how people convert objective event into subjective value when making decisions under uncertainty expected utility calculate how happy each options will most likely make you in the future rational calculation framing effects of how the information is presented Three Principles 1 Change sensitivity people think about value as a difference or change from some reference point 2 Gain and loss framing when choosing between options with different levels of uncertainty risk gain framing make people risk averse loss framing make people risk seeking 3 Loss aversion losses feel larger than gains The Endowment effect the amount you will pay for something vs what will it sell for Affective forecasting valence will I feel pleasure or unpleasant intensity how strong will the feelings be duration how long will I feel that way impact bias the tendency to overestimate the intensity and duration of future emotions focalism the tendency to overestimate how much you will think about a future emotion eliciting event and to underestimate how much you will think about other things immune neglect coping and defense mechanisms form a psychological immune system People are not fully aware of how effectively they will be able to come with bad experiences In class 4 16 6 8 15 4 18 PM Intelligence What is intelligence and how do we measure it Intelligence is a very general mental capability that among other things involves the ability to reason plan solve problems think abstractly comprehend complex ideas learn quickly and learn from experience Gottfredson Origins of intelligence research Alfred Binet 1857 1911 Late 19th century France influx of kids from farms moving into cities Alfred Binet commissioned by minister of public education to identify children who would benefit from remedial education Gave children mental tasks looked at overall performance Found that performance on widely different mental tasks was positively correlated Test was later revised by Louis Terman at Stanford became known as the Stanford Binet Test The Intelligence Quotient IQ Original definition from Binet mental age what is the average age of people who received a score chronological age what is your actual age IQ 100X MA CA Most IQ scoring is based on the normal distribution EX Stanford Binet used primarily with children Wechsler tests different versions for children and adults Ravens Progressive Matrices used no language only abstract figures intended to be free of cultural biases Evaluating Tests Reliability Reliability is the degree to which a test produces consistent results There are different ways of assessing reliability The test retest method examines how well people s scores from two different testing occasions are correlated The internal consistency examines how well different items from a test correlate with each other Evaluating Tests Validity Validity is the extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure Predicative validity is the extent to which a test predicts important outcomes in the future For IQ this might be School achievement Job performance Future income Spearman s g Factor Theory Charles Spearman analyzed different tests of mental ability and found that they were all positively correlated Proposed that a single general ability g is a necessary for all kinds of problem solving The score on a particular test is determined by g plus specific ability s Cattell s two components Cattell proposed that two components contribute to Spearman s g fluid intelligence info processing in novel or complex circumstances Raven s Matrices