Monday, May 18, 2015

Sleep
-sleep is a state of consciousness
-we are less aware of our surroundings 
'Conscious
'Subconscious
'Unconscious
Biological Rhythms
annual cycles: seasonal variations (bears hibernation, seasonal affective disorder)
 28 day cycles: menstrual cycle
24 hour cycle: our circadian rhythm
90 minute cycle: sleep cycles

Circadian Rhythm
-Our 24 hour biological clock
-our body changes temperature and awareness changes throughout the day.
-it is best to take a test or study during your circadian peaks

Sleep Stages 
-there are 5 identified stages of sleep
-it takes about 90-100 minutes to pass through the 5 stages 
-the brains waves will change according to the sleep stage you are in
-the first four stages 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 ounce a night
-eyes begin to roll slightly 
-your brain produces Theta Waves((high amplitude, low frequency))

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 & 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. 

Insomnia
-recurring problems 

Narcolepsy 
-characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks 
-lapses directly into REM sleep (usually during times of stress or joy) 

Sleep Apnea
-a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and consequent momentary reawakening

Night Terrors
-a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified 
-occur in stage 4, not REM, and are not often remembered 

Sleep Walking 
-sleep walking is aa sleep disorder affecting an estimated 10 percent of all humans at least once in their lives.
-sleep walking most often occurs during deep non-REM sleep (stage 3 or stage 4 sleep) early in the night.

Dreams 
-a sequence of images, emotions and thoughts passing through as a sleeping persons mind
 Manifest Content:that remembered storyline of a dream

Latent Content: the underlying meaning of a dream

Why do we dream?
 Frued's wish-fulfillment Theory
-dreams are they key to understanding our inner conflicts 
-ideas and thoughts that are hidden in our unconscious 
-manifest and latent content 
 
Information-Processing Theory
-dreams act to sort out and understand the memories that you experience that day
-REM sleep does increase after stressful events 

Activation-Synthesis Theory
-during the night our brainstem releases random neural activity, dreams mat be a good way to make a sense of that activity 

Operant Conditioning
-a type of learning un which behavior is strengthened if followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed by punishment 

Classical v. Operant 
-they both use acquisition, discrimination, SR, generalization and extinction 
-Classical conditioning is automatic (respondent behavior). Dogs automatically salivate over meat, then bell-no thinking involved 
-operant conditioning involves behavior where one can influence their environment with behaviors which have consequences (operant behavior).

Shaping
-a procedure in Operant Conditioning which reinforces guide behavior closer and closer towards a goal 

Reinforcement
-any event that STRENGTHENS the behavior it follows 
-two types of Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement 
*strengthens a response by presenting a stimulus after a response 
Negative Reinforcement 
*strengthens a response by reducing or removing an aversive stimulus

Primary Reinforcer
-an innately reinforcing stimulus

Conditioned (secondary) Reinforcer
-a stimulus that gains it reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer

Memory
The persistence of learning over time through the process of storage and retrieval of information 
Three parts 
Encoding 
The processing of information into the memory system
ex. corny jokes to pull a girl
Storage
The retention of material over time
ex.
Retrieval
Getting the information out of memory storage 

Recall vs Recognition 
recal: trying to retrieve info from your memory 
ex:fill in the blank 
Recognition: identify the target from possible targets
ex: multiple choice tests 

Flash bulb memory
Where you have a clear moment of an emotionally significant moment or event 

Three types of memory 

-sensory memory
-short term memory
-long term memory

Sensory
The immediate initial recording of sensory information
It Is stored for just an instant and most of the information goes unprocessed

Short term memory
you only hold a few items briefly
if it does not stay in short term memory it goes to long term or is forgotten
(aka working memory)
three parts to that: audio, visual, integration of audio and visual 

Long term memory
permanent and lintless store house of memory



Thinking
Cognition-another term if thinking knowing and remembering 
Does the way we think really matter?
Maybe by studying think better
In order ti think about the word we form 
A mental grouping of similar objects events ideas it people we base our concepts on Proto type same mental image or best example of a category 
If a new job object is similar to our prototype we are better able to recognize it
How we solve problems?
Trial and Error
Algorithms
A methodical logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
What are the benefits and detriments of algortihms
Heuristics 
A rule of thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently a shortcut that can be prone to errors
Insight
A sudden and often all the realization of the solution to a problem no real strategy involved
Obstacles to problem solving
Confirmation bias the tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions
Match problem
Can you arrange these six matches into four equilateral triangles
Match problem
Fixation-The inability to see a problem from my perspective

Mental set is a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way especially if it has worked in the past may or may not be a good thung

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

Types of Heuristics (that often led to errors)
Representativeness heuristic
It will lift him for judging likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype can cause us to ignore important for nation
Availability heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory if it comes to mind easily and maybe a vivid is that we presume it is common

Over confidence 
The tendency to be more confident than correct to overestimate the accuracy of your beliefs and judgments

Framing is the weight and issue is posed it can have drastic effects on your decisions and judgments

Believe bias
Democrats support free-speech dictators are not Democrats conclusion dictators do not support free-speech the tendency for once pre-existing beliefs to distort logical reasoning sometimes making in valid conclusions valid or vice versa

Believe perseverance clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discrete discredited
Artificial intelligence
Intelligence what makes us intelligent or not so intelligent
Intelligence the ability to learn from experience solve problems and use knowledge to adapt to new situations socially constructed that's can be culturally specific

This intelligence one thing or several different abilities
To find a scientist use factor analysis a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test

Charles Spearman used if a discovery his G or general intelligence

Multiple intelligences Howard Gardner disagreed with Spearmans g and instead came up with the concept of multiple intelligences

He came up with the idea by studying seventh a condition where a person has limited mental ability but is exceptional in one area

Gardners multiple intelligences visual spatial verbal linguist stick logical mathematical model he can miss that it can musical with medic interpersonal intrapersonal natural

Sternberg's three aspects of intelligence
Gardener simplified 
Analytical academic problem-solving
Creative generating novel ideas
Practical required for every day tasks were multiple solutions exist

Emotional intelligence first called social intelligence the ability to perceive express understanding regulate emotions some studies so EQ to be a greater predicted for future success than I Q

Brain size and intelligence is there a link small +.15 correlation between head size and intelligence scores relative to body size using an MRI we found +.44 correlation with brain size of an IQ score

Brain function and intelligence higher performing brains use less active than lower performing Brent use less glucose

Neurological speed is also a bit quicker

How do we access intelligence
I'll Alfred bennet and Theodore salmon set out to figure out a concept called a mental age what a person of a particular age should know

They discovered that by discovering someone's mental age they can predict future performances hope to they could use tests to help children not labeled

Terminate his IQ test a eight-year-old has a mental age of 10 but what is her IQ
A 12-year-old has the mental age of nine what is his IQ
A boy has a mental age of 10 and an IQ of 200 how ild is he

Used Bennetts research to construct the modern-day IQ test called the Stanford Bennett test
I Q equals mental age/chronological age times 100

Problems with IQ formula
It does not really work well on adults why if a 60-year-old man does as well as an average 30-year-old then his IQ would be 50 that makes no sense

Modern tests of mental abilities
Wechsler Adult intellegence Scale 
Consist of 11 subtests and cues as us into strength by using factor analysis

Aptitude versus achievement tests
Aptitude a test designed to protect a person's future performance the ability for that person to learn
Achievement a test designed to assess what a person has learned
How do we construct intelligence test test must be standardized to reliable and valid

Standardization
The test must be pretested to a representative sample of people and for my normal distribution or bell curve
Reliability the extent to which a test yields consistent results over time split have score test three test method

Validity the extent to which a test measures what is supposed to measure content validated he does it the test sample a behavior or interest

Predictive value T does the test predict future behavior

Does intelligence change over time by age 3 a child IQ can predict a docent IQ scores depends on the type of intelligence crystallized or fluid

Extremes of intelligence

Group differences in intelligence test scores the bell curve is different for white versus black math scores are different across genders and the highest scores are for Asian males why nature or  nurture


Test biased?
Tests do discriminate but some argue that their sole purpose is to discriminate we have to look at the type of discrimination