psyu1101

• Psychology


  The study of the mind, brain, and behaviour
• Psychology is scientific since a systematic, well-established method is used to investigate and explain our thoughts, feelings, and actions in response to various situations and stimuli
• Confirmation bias


  The tendency to seek and interpret information in a way that confirms preexisting beliefs
• Naive realism


  Individuals believe they perceive the world as it truly is, without recognising the subjective nature of perception and interpretation
• Naive realism can lead to misunderstanding and conflicts
• Pseudoscience


  Practices, beliefs, or claims that are presented as scientific but lack the essential characteristics of genuine science
• Pseudoscience


  • Extrasensory perception (ESP)
  • Facilitated communication
• Principles for evaluating claims scientifically

  • Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
  • Claims must be testable
  • Occam's razor - the simplest explanation is more likely to be correct
  • Replication - if a claim is supported by only one set of research findings and not been duplicated by other researchers then those findings may have occurred by chance and are not considered strong evidence of the validity of the claim
  • Exclude rival hypotheses - other rival explanations should be eliminated through further investigation before the claim can be confidently validated by itself
  • Correlation vs causation - if two variables change under similar conditions then they have a correlation. However, this does not mean that the change in one variable caused the change on the other
• The Mozart effect: in the 1990s, a popular study led by Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Katherine Ky found that listening to Mozart's music could temporarily boost spatial-temporal reasoning abilities
• Power posing


  A self-improvement technique in which people stand in a posture that they mentally associate with being powerful, in the hope of feeling more confident and behaving more assertively
• Levels of psychological analysis

  • Molecular level
  • Neurochemical level
  • Physiological level
  • Mental level
  • Behavioural level
  • Social level
• Disciplines in psychology


  • Social psychology
  • Personality and individual differences
  • Developmental psychology
  • Cognitive psychology
  • Perception psychology
  • Learning psychology
  • Biopsychology
• Learning


  The process of acquiring new information
• Types of learning


  • Simple learning
  • General learning
  • Specialised learning
• Simple learning


  • Tends to be specific to one biological system
  • Biological systems involved are often reflexes
  • It is usually involuntary
  • It does not usually last long (minutes or hours, a few days max)
  • The change in behaviour is usually of very restricted form
• Habituation


  Repeated stimulation produces a smaller response each time
• Sensitisation


  Repeated stimulation produces a greater response each time
• Event → consequence learning

  Also known as Pavlovian conditioning, associative learning, or classical conditioning
• Action → consequence learning


  Also known as Skinnerian conditioning or operant conditioning
• The law of effect by Thorndike states that some behaviours occur by chance. When such an action is followed by a positive consequence, that action will become more likely in the future
• Shaping


  The process of getting a rat to start lever pressing in a Skinner box
• Skinner believed that if the cause for all human behaviour in the environment could be located, it means we have no free will. It is the history of our learning that dictates our behaviour
• Domestic cats are able to open fridge doors because they have a general learning ability
• Reasons for specialised learning

  • Some forms are restricted to only certain species
  • Some forms only occur at specific times in an animal's development
• Similarities between action → consequence and event → consequence learning


  • The nature of consequences (reinforcers, pleasant/unpleasant consequences, presenting/avoiding/removing)
  • The importance of prediction (contingency)
  • When things change (extinction)
• Unconditioned stimulus (US)


  The bowl of food in event → consequence learning
• Unconditioned response (UCR)


  The dog's salivation response in event → consequence learning
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)


  The bell in event → consequence learning
• Conditioned response (CR)


  The dog's salivation response to the bell in event → consequence learning
• Types of intermittent reinforcement schedules

  • Variable ratio schedule
  • Fixed interval schedule
  • Variable interval schedule
• Reinforcer


  Consequence that strengthens a behaviour
• Reinforcement schedules


  The relationship that the experimenter sets up between the response (action) and the reinforcer (consequence)
• Intermittent reinforcement


  Actions are not always followed by consequences. The behaviour produced tends to resist extinction (hard to change)
• Types of intermittent reinforcement schedules

  • Variable ratio schedule
  • Fixed interval schedule (FIR)
  • Variable interval schedule (VIR)
  • Fixed ratio schedule (FRS)
• Variable ratio schedule


  Food is delivered after a variable number of lever presses, on average
• Fixed interval schedule (FIR)

  Food is delivered after a set amount of time, irrespective of how many lever presses the animal makes
• Variable interval schedule (VIR)


  Food is delivered after a variable interval of time, irrespective of how many lever presses the animal makes
• Fixed ratio schedule (FRS)

  Food is delivered after a certain number of lever presses
• Case studies


  • Maureen's chemo
  • Scott's tabs
  • Audrey's public speaking contest
  • Eileen's tantrum
  • Ernie's awful boss
  • Rosie and sitting
  • Loyalty programs
  • Meet Mr Idiot the street racer
  • Charle's mobile
  • Go!
• Event → consequence learning


  The event predicts the consequence