PSY 101 1st EditionFinal Exam Study Guide: Lectures 1-24Lecture 1- ESP and precognition: when you know something is going to happen before it happens-History of psychology:1. Intuition, thinking, logic2. Observation3. Psychological research, testing hypothesis-Process of psychology:1. Theory2. Descriptive research3. Correlational studies/experiments-Limits of intuition: how does intuition fail?-Hindsight bias: tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it-“I knew it all along”-Overconfidence: we tend to think we know more than we actually do -Detecting patterns in random data-Confirmation bias: we need to look for disproving evidence, not just approving evidence-Scientific attitude: intuition can often be wrong; we need to move beyond intuition to observation-Types of descriptive research:-Case study: one person is studied in depth in the hopes of revealing universal principles-Survey: ascertaining the self reported attitudes or behavior of people-Naturalistic observation: observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation-Using intuition and observation as a starting point-Theory: organize what we know about a phenomenon-Hypothesis: a testable prediction, after implied by a theory, agreed upon by (almost) all-Conducting research: -Operational definition: a statement of procedures (or operations) used to define research variablesLecture 2-The research process: circle of theories, hypothesis, and research and observations-Observations: two problems1. We can draw flawed conclusions from observations2. We are naturally bad statisticians-Correlation coefficient: a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together and thus how well either factor predicts the other-Indicates direction of relationship (+/-)-Indicates strength of relationship (0-1.0)-Closer to zero = less strong-Closter to one = more strong-Major theme number one: correlation does not mean causation-Solution: experiments, the investigation manipulates one or more factors (independent variable) to observe their effect on some behavior or mental process (dependent variable) while controlling other relevant factors by random assignment of subjects. By random assignment of participants the experiment controls other random factors. Lecture 3-Inputs and outputs to the brain-Input lines: arteries and afferent (arrive) nerves-Output lines: veins and efferent (exit) nerves-Overview of nervous system-Central nervous system (CNS): made up of brain and spinal cord-Peripheral nervous system (PNS)-Somatic nervous system: control voluntary movement of skeletal muscles-Autonomic nervous system: controls self regulated actions of internal organs or glands-Sympathetic: arousing, stop salivating, increase heart rate, fight or flight response-Parasympathetic: calming, salivate, slow heart-Major theme number two: antagonist systems push against each other to reach a shifting balance point-Example: heat vs air conditioning-Neurons and synapses-Axon: transmits message-Cell body: integrate message-Dendrites: receive messages from other cellsLecture 4-Synapse: area between axon of one neuron and dendrite of other-Major structures of the CNS-Spinal cord-Brain: lower level structures and cerebral cortex-Lower level structures/old brain: features we share with primitive creatures-Thalamus-Reticular formation-Medulla: breathing, heart rate, salivation; autonomic nervous system -The limbic system-Hypothalamus: critical for motivations, ie “four f’s: feeding, fighting, fleeing, f***ing”-Hippocampus: processes memory-Pituitary gland: “master gland”-Amygdala: aggression/fear-Cerebral cortex: new brain, neurocortex-Frontal lobe: abstract thinking, planning, social skills, personality traits-Parietal lobe: touch, special orientation, nonverbal thinking-Occipital lobe: vision-Temporal lobe: language, hearing, visual pattern recognition-Plasticity: brain reorders, some people can live with half of a brain, some parts adapt to new functions-Major theme: the divided self: you may feel like a unified person, but you contain several “intelligences” that sometimes conflict-Example: you want to eat a chocolate cake but at the same time you don’t because you want to lose weight-Handedness-90% are right handed, left brain is more skilled-99% of righties have language located in the left hemisphere of their brain-70% of lefties do too-Corpus colluseum: largest bundle f nerve fibers, connects two brain hemispheres, carries messages between hemispheres-Split brain: not much happens to the person, some epilepsy patients get this doneLecture 5-Review of material thus farLecture 6-Begin reading chapter 5 of book-Introduction to developmental psychology-Big issue: nature vs nurture: where do our knowledge and traits come from?-Empiricism: knowledge (and traits) comes from experience…-vs nativism: knowledge is innate (built-in). Personality and cognitive variables are fixed before birth-Big methodological challenge: how can we tell what they’re thinking?-Prenatal development: -we all start off as generic vertebrates-then we all become girls-if androgens kick in around week 8, girl becomes boy, if not, girl stays girl-brain development is EXTREMELY easy to disrupt in utero by teratogens, ex. Alcohol, cocaine, some medications, radiation, stress hormones-then we are all born 6 months premature-think it might be because the size of human heads compared to the rest of our body, our brain is much larger (triple in volume while other mammals double in size)-Postnatal development: -infant’s brain has high plasticity, low functionality-one big short circuit (although it is smarter than it seems)-recovers well from physical damage-all the brain cells we will have, already have at birth; they get linked up in a useful way as we grow-different sections get myelinated at different times-born with hearing skills-speech skills develop-sections come “on-line”-environment shapes and tunes dendric growth, guides neuronal pruning-related to critical periods for language (periods outside of which learning is impossible)-sensitive periods for other skills (periods when learning is easier)-enriched environments stimulate neural growth-after puberty, brain has low plasticity, high functionality-has all adult skills, including abstract thought-poor recovery from damage-Cognitive development:-cognition: mental activities associated with