Chapter 4 - Human Development

● Basic definition of human development: age related physical, intellectual, and social changes that
occur throughout the lifespan
● Prenatal stages of development
○ Germinal period (2 weeks): zygote implanted in uterine wall, conception → implantation
○ Embryonic period (2 weeks to 2 months): body shape develops, sexual differentiation
beings, stage of greatest risk of harm from environment
○ Fetal period (2 months to birth): final development of organs and muscular-skeletal
structure in preparation for birth
● Patterns of nervous system development
○ Toddler: nervous system matures in down and out fashion (crawling first, big headed
toddlers, limited coordination, lots of falls), increased hand-eye coordination
■ Stable, orderly, and predictable sequence of development
○ Child: increased hand-eye coordination, continued but slowed brain development
● Development of the brain
○ Most brain cells of cerebral cortex are in place at birth
○ Specific areas within brain mature and become functional
○ Regions of brain learn to communicate with one another through synaptic connections
■ Myelination is important way for brain circuits to mature
○ By age 2, human brain has grown to 75% of adult size
○ Brain reaches adult weight by 16 (~2.5 pounds), prefrontal cortex develops at 25
● Piaget’s Model of Cognitive Development
○ Posited that cognitive development is guided by two principles
1. Assimilation: assimilate new experienced into our existing schemata
2. Accommodation: modify existing schemata to accommodate new experiences
○ Four stages of cognitive development
1. Sensorimotor (birth to 2): learn about world through movements and
sensations, object permanence
2. Preoperational (2 to 7): begin to think symbolically, egocentric, failure to
understand principle of conservation
3. Concrete operational (7 to 11): begin to understand concept of conservation,
think logically about concrete events, use inductive logic
4. Formal operational (12+): begin to think abstractly, use deductive logic
● Kohlberg’s Model of Moral Development
○ Pre-Conventional (focus on external consequences)
■ Stage 1: obedience and punishment driven
■ Stage 2: self-interest driven
○ Conventional (focus on internalized rules)
■ Stage 3: interpersonal accord and conformity driven
■ Stage 4: authority and social-order obedience driven
○ Post-Conventional (focus on abstract reasoning, stronger cultural influence)
■ Stage 5: social contract driven
 ■ Stage 6: universal ethical principles driven
● Vygotsky and Zone of Proximal Learning
○ Difference between what a child can do on their own and what they can do with
assistance of others
○ Vygotsky posited that culture influences cognitive development
● Types of attachment
○ Secure: healthy relationship with primary caregiver
○ Resistant/ambivalent: limited parental availability
○ Avoidant: neglect from caregiver
○ Disorganized: typically result of abusive/neglectful parenting
● Erikson’s Identity Development Model: identity develops in psychosocial challenges in aging
○ Infancy (0-1 yrs): trust vs. mistrust
○ Early childhood (1-3): autonomy vs. shame/doubt
○ Play age (3-6): initiative vs. guilt
○ School age (7-11): industry vs. inferiority
○ Adolescence (12-18): identity vs. confusion
○ Early adulthood (19-29): intimacy vs. isolation
○ Middle age (30-64): generativity vs. stagnation
○ Old age (65+): integrity vs. despair
● Development of gender identity
○ One’s sense of being male, female, or non-binary is in place by 2-3 years old
○ Influenced by biology (prenatal cascade of hormones changes brain structure and
function) and gender socialization
● Five Stages of Facing Death (DABDA)
○ Denial
○ Anger
○ Bargaining
○ Depression
○ Acceptance

Chapter 5 - Sensation and Perception

● Sensation vs. Perception
○ Sensation: elementary components or building blocks of an experience
○ Perception: the collection of processes used to make a meaningful interpretation of
sensations
● Three steps involved in creating an internal representation of the external world
○ Translate the message into language of the nervous system
■ Brain communicates using electrochemicals, stimuli comes to body
○ Identify the elementary components (colors, sounds, etc)
■ Once translated into neural messages, components are extracted and sent to
processing stations deep in brain
○ Interpretation: build a stable interpretation of the components
 ■ Brain uses principles of organization and existing knowledge to “reconstruct” the
world in the brain
● Understand the processing of all five senses, especially the types of stimuli the human body can
sense (no need to memorize all the specific anatomy for each)
○ Vision
■ Retina: layer on back of eye containing sensory receptors, area of translation
■ Rods vs. cones
● Rods: receptors on sides of retina, more sensitive to light, useful at night
● Cones: receptors in middle of retina (fovea), fire action potential in
daylight (need lots of light to operate), process color and fine details
■ Visual transduction: process by which light is converted into electrical signals
that brain can interpret as sight, signals enter brain via optic nerve
○ Hearing
■ Sound: physical message of auditory system, travels as wave through air/water
■ Sound enters eardrum (tympanic membrane) which responds by vibrating,
vibrations processed and intensified through 3 small bones in middle ear,
vibrations enter cochlea & sound processor turns vibrations into neural impulses
■ Auditory nerve transmits messages to brain
■ Location of sound influences which ear hears first, informing brain on its location
○ Olfaction
■ Chemoreceptors: receptor cells that react to invisible molecules scattered about
air or dissolved in liquids that lead to senses of taste and smell
■ Airborne molecules enter nose and interact with receptor cells (cilia) to create
neural response
● Message moves to olfactory bulb at bottom of brain → sent to various
brain locations for processing
● Powerful connection between smell and memories
○ Taste
■ Bitter, sour, sweet, salty, umami
■ Taste refers to neural activity vs. flavor created by smell, taste, visual cues, etc
■ Taste buds: receptor cells on tongue that send neural signals to taste-sensitive
parts of brain
○ Touch: mechanical/physical pressure on body it disrupts receptor cells in skin
■ Pressure→neural impulse→spinal cord→ brain
■ Nerves specialized for type of touch
● Pain, Temperature, Touch
○ Temp is recorded and processed through “thermoreceptors” on skin
■ Cold fibers: neurons that respond when skin temp reduces
■ Warm fibers: neurons that respond when skin temp increases
○ Pain: adaptive reaction that body generates in response to events intense enough to
cause tissue damage…warning signal
■ Skin pain receptors = nociceptors, activated by external and internal pain
 ● Vision - Gestalt Principles of Organization
○ Gestalt psychologists argue we have innate organizing patterns of perception, dividing
visual scenes into figure (object of focus) and ground (background)
○ Law of proximity: if objects are near each other they will be grouped together, overrides
similarity of color, shape, and other factors that may differentiate objects
○ Law of similarity: items that physically resemble each other will be grouped together
○ Law of closure: even if there is a gap, people tend to perceive an object as a whole
○ Law of good continuation: if line get interrupted, people tend to still see continuous line
○ Law of common fate: if things appear to be moving in same direction, people tend to
group them together
○ Law of symmetry: human eye perceives objects as symmetrical shapes that form around
a center point, objects that are symmetrical are seen as complete/whole
● Bottom-up vs. top-down processing
○ Bottom-up processing: processing that is controlled by physical messages delivered to
senses
○ Top-down processing: processing that is controlled by one’s knowledge, beliefs, and
expectations about the world to interpret what we see
● Gate-Control Theory: neural impulses generated by pain receptors can be blocked in spinal cord
by signals produced in brain

Chapter 6 - Consciousness
● Consciousness: awareness of one’s internal and eternal states resulting from brain activity
○ Brain and mind are inseparable, and everyone experiences consciousness personally
● Attention: internal processes used to set priorities for mental functioning, focus on selective
parts of environment while ignoring unimportant parts
○ Dichotomous listening studies and cocktail party effect
■ Dichotic listening studies: different auditory messages delivered simultaneously
and separately to each ear, findings suggest focusing on one message results in
poor processing of other message
■ Humans monitor environment without conscious awareness
■ Cocktail party effect: ability to focus on specific conversation, ignoring others
○ Automaticity: fast and effortless processing that requires little to no focused attention
■ Frees up brain resources so consciousness can handle new demanding task
● Attention Disorders
○ Visual neglect: tendency to ignore things that occur on one side of body (usually left)
■ Caused by damage to right parietal lobe of cerebral cortex
○ ADHD: difficulties concentrating and sustaining attention for extended periods, can be
associated with hyperactivity, strong genetic influence and potentially diet
■ associated with lower levels of dopamine
● Stages of Sleep
○ Patterns, quality of sleep, common experiences
■ Circadian rhythms: biological activities that rise & fall in accordance w 24 hr day
 ● Regulated by hypothalamus, controlled by biological clocks
■ N1: theta waves lower in amplitude and more irregular, not fully asleep
■ N2: interruption of theta waves by sleep spindles and k complexes
■ N3: delta activity with synchronized, slow wave pattern, “deep sleep”
■ REM: body activated but fully asleep, HR increases, eyes move back and forth
● When awakened from REM, reports of emotional story-like dreams
○ K-complex and spindles
■ K-complexes: can be triggered by external stimuli
■ Sleep spindles: short bursts of brain activity, may be due to various brain
functions like memory consolidation
● Sleep Disorders
○ Insomnia: difficulty falling or maintaining sleep
○ Hypersomnia: chronic condition marked by excessive sleepiness, commonly caused by
sleep apnea (sleeper stops breathing throughout night)
○ Narcolepsy: extreme sleepiness, can enter REM directly, rare
● Key terms related to substance use (see lecture slides)
○ Drug tolerance: increasing amounts needed to produce same physical/behavioral effects
○ Drug dependence: physical or psychological need for continued use of drug
○ Withdrawal: physical reactions when drug use is discontinued
● Types of drugs and examples of each type
○ Stimulants: increase behavioral/mental activity
■ amphetamines, methamphetamine, cocaine, nicotine, caffeine
○ Depressants: decrease behavioral/mental activity
■ Anti-anxiety drugs (barbiturates, benzodiazepines), alcohol
○ Opioids: reduce experience of pain, bring pleasure
■ Heroin, morphine, codeine
○ Hallucinogens/psychedelics: alter thoughts/perceptions
■ LSD, PCP, peyote, psilocybin
○ Combination: mixed effects
■ Marijuana, MDMA

Chapter 7 - Learning
● Habituation and sensitization
○ Habituation: decline in responsiveness to stimulus that is presented repeatedly
○ Sensitization: increased responsiveness to an event that has been repeated
● Classical Conditioning: set of procedures used to investigate how organisms learn about signaling
properties of events
○ Unconditioned stimulus: automatically leads to observable response prior to any training
○ Unconditioned response: produced automatically, prior to training, on presentation of
unconditioned stimulus
○ Conditioned stimuli: neutral stimulus that is paired with unconditioned stimulus
○ Conditioned response: acquires response produced by conditioned stimulus
 ● Law of Effect: behaviors that result in positive outcome are more likely to be repeated while
behaviors that result in negative outcome are less likely to be repeated
● Operant Conditioning: procedure for studying how organisms learn about consequences of their
own voluntary actions
○ Four types of partial reinforcement
■ Fixed-ratio: number of required responses is fixed (bonus after every 5 car sales)
■ Variable-ratio: unknown and varied number of responses (slot machine)
■ Fixed-interval: rewarded for first response after set time (paid every 2 weeks)
■ Variable-interval: rewarded for first response after varied time amount (fishing)
○ Shaping: reinforcing behaviors that are increasingly similar to desired behavior
● Observational Learning

Chapter 8 - Memory
● Basic definition of memory and stages of memory process
○ Memory: capacity to preserve and recover information
○ Encoding: processes that determine and control how memories are formed
○ Storage: processes that determine and control how memories are stored over time
○ Retrieval: processes that determine and control how memories are recovered and
translated into performance
● Sensory memory: exact replica of an environmental message (lasts for second or less)
● Short-term memory: limited-capacity system that we use to hold information after it has been
analyzed for periods lasting less than a minute (~30 seconds)
○ Used to temporarily store, think about, and reason with information
● Long-term memory: system used to maintain info for extended periods, theoretically no limits
○ Episodic memory: memories of a particular event that happened to you personally
○ Semantic memory: knowledge about the world, stored as facts
○ Procedural memory: knowledge on how to do things (ride a bike, type on comp)
● Explicit vs. implicit memory
○ Explicit (declarative) memory: conscious, willful remembering
■ Relies on hippocampus, influenced by retrieval cues
○ Implicit (non-declarative) memory: remembering w/o conscious awareness or intent
■ Relies on neocortex and striatum, influenced by retrieval cues
● Decay and forgetting
○ Decay: processing in which short-term memories are lost spontaneously over time
○ Short-term forgetting is caused by interference of new information
○ Theories of forgetting
■ Decay theory: mems fade due to passage of time (nah, there’s more to it)
■ Retroactive interference: forming new mems reduces recovery of old mems
■ Proactive interference: old mems interfere with recovery of new mems
● Free recall vs. cued recall
○ Free recall: asked to recall info without explicit retrieval cues
○ Cued recall: asked to recall info after receiving a retrieval cue
 ○ Participants remember twice as many words when offered a cue
○ Forgetting is caused by failure to use right kinds of retrieval cues
● Different methods of Elaboration
○ Thinking about meaning of information
○ Relational processing: consider any relationships between new info to be remembered
○ Notice differences: find what’s unique about to-be-remembered information
○ Form mental pictures: use visual imagery
● Flashbulb memories: vivid, long-lasting about emotionally significant and surprising events
● Context-dependent memory: memories are easier to recall when context is same during both
encoding and retrieval
● State-dependent memory: people are more likely to remember information if internal state is
same when they encode and recall it
● Amnesia: forgetting caused by physical problems in brain (injury or disease)
○ Retrograde: memory loss for events prior to injury (often from accident-related injury)
○ Anterograde: memory loss for events after point of physical injury
■ Can be caused by Korsakoff’s Disease, brain infections, brain surgery
■ Implicit memory still intact, suggests deficits lie in retrieval, not encoding
● Primary brain region involved in memory
○ Hippocampus, very important for intentional retrieval of mems, especially explicit mems

Chapter 9 - Language and Thought

● Definitions of thinking and cognition
○ Thinking: processes that underlie the mental manipulation of knowledge and ideas
○ Cognition: all activities that underlie all forms of thought
● Understand how language relates to thinking
○ Language gives us the ability to communicate our thoughts, feelings, and needs to
others
○ Linguistic relativity hypothesis
■ Language not only shapes how we think, but also influences how we perceive
the world (i.e. masculine and feminine grammatical genders)
● Structure of language
○ Grammar: rules of language
■ Phonology: rules of combining sounds to make words
■ Syntax: rules of combining words to make sentences
■ Semantics: rules used to communicate meaning
○ Morphemes: smallest language units that have meaning (includes prefixes and suffixes)
■ English has 50,000-80,000
○ Phonemes: basic sounds of speech, building blocks of language
■ English has 40-45
● Surface vs. deep structure of language
○ Surface structure: literal ordering of words in a sentence
○ Deep structure: underlying meaning of the sentence (more abstract)
 ● Language comprehension: ability to derive meaning from written or oral language
○ Quick comprehension is facilitated by past knowledge, shared knowledge among
speakers, and anticipation of person’s next words (top-down processing)
● Patterns in language development
○ Cooing (3 to 5 weeks)
○ Babbling (4 to 6 months)
○ First word (1 year old)
○ Telegraphic speech (2 years old, example: “want milk”)
○ Full sentence production
● Categories - purpose and theories on how humans categorize
○ Purpose – ability to make predictions
○ Defining features: set of features necessary to make objects members of a category
○ Family resemblance: core feature that category members share
○ Prototypes: best/most representative member of a category
○ Category exemplars: specific examples of category members in long-term memory
○ Basic-level categories: category level of hierarchy offering most useful information
● Problem Solving Strategies
○ Algorithms: step-by-step rules or procedures that guarantee a solution if applied
correctly
○ Heuristics: rules of thumb to solve problems but do not offer a guaranteed solution
■ Means-end analysis: devising means to lessen distance between starting point
and goal
■ Working backwards: starting at goal and trying to move backwards to starting
point
■ Searching for analogies: working to find a connection between current problem
and previously solved task
○ Mental Set: tendencies to rely on previously successful problem-solving strategies
○ Functional fixedness: tendency to see objects and their functions in certain fixed ways
■ Can get in way of effective problem solving
● Decision-Making Biases and Mental heuristics
○ Confirmation bias: tendency to seek information that confirms a prior belief
○ Belief persistence: tendency to stick to one’s own beliefs despite contradictory evidence
○ Decision Making Heuristics
■ Representativeness: arrive at a decision by comparing similarity of object/event
to average member of each class
■ Availability: estimate odds of some event occurring on basis of how easily
examples come to mind
■ Anchoring and adjustment: judgements influenced by initial estimates

Chapter 10 - Intelligence
● Definition of intelligence: internal capacity or ability that accounts for individual differences in
mental performance, ability that enables us to adapt successfully to changing environments
 ○ Collection of separate abilities
● Theories of intelligence (know the names of the scientists associated with these
● theories)
○ The psychometric approach: SPEARMAN
■ Measuring intelligence based on how people perform on standardized
psychological tests
■ Spearman’s g - general intelligence: single factor that accounts for overall
intellectual ability
● Doesn’t account for all variability, must consider s - specific intelligence
○ Hierarchical models of intelligence: THURSTONE
■ Seven independent “primary mental abilities”
● Verbal comprehension
● Verbal fluency
● Numerical ability
● Spatial ability
● Memory
● Perceptual speed
● Reasoning
○ Fluid vs. crystallized intelligence: CATTELL & HORN
■ Fluid intelligence: natural ability to reason, solve problems and remember
● Not influenced by experience, based on genetics
● Linked to executive functions (attention, cognitive control, etc)
■ Crystalized intelligence: knowledge acquired through experience (schooling)
■ As people age, fluid intelligence declines while crystalized is stable/increases
○ Multiple intelligences: GARDNER
■ People possess a set of separate and independent intelligences
● Musical
● Bodily-kinesthetic
● Logical-mathematical
● Linguistic
● Spatial
● Interpersonal
● Intrapersonal
● Naturalistic
○ Multiple intelligence: Triarchic Theory: STERNBERG
■ Three types of intelligences
■ Analytical intelligence: ability to perform well on conventional tests that
measure reasoning and logical mathematical abilities (high g)
■ Creative intelligence: ability to create, invent, and discover
■ Practical intelligence: ability to take ideas and apply in everyday situations
● Types of tests
○ Achievement tests: measure current level of competence on a subject (psych exams)
 ○ Aptitude tests: measure one’s ability to learn a subject (business judgement test)
● Intelligence Quotient (IQ) BINET & SIMON
𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑔𝑒
○ Goal to determine one’s mental age: 𝐼𝑄 = 𝑐ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑔𝑒
× 100 , (100 is average)
○ Deviation IQ: score derived from determining where one’s performance sits in an
age-based distribution of test scores
● Extremes of intelligence
○ Most people fall between 70-130 IQ
○ Below score of 70 + deficits in daily living abilities = diagnosis of intellectual disability
■ Must be diagnosed before 18
○ Above score of 130 = gifted
○ Savants: limited intellectual/social ability but tremendous ability in one domain
■ More common in males, often associated with autism
● Concerns about IQ-related labeling
○ Labeling someone as a “genius” or “below average” leads to stereotypes and
stigmatization, fixed mindsets, inhibited personal growth, and overlooks multifaceted
forms of intelligence
● Sources of Intelligence and the evidence to support the nature approach and the nurture
approach
○ Genetics (nature), environment/experience (nurture)
○ Support for nurture
■ Flynn effect: IQ scores have been increasing with each generation due to better
nutrition, schooling, internet access, healthcare, more preschool access
○ Support for nature
■ IQ remains stable across adulthood
■ Twin studies suggest intelligence is partially inherited

Chapter 12 - Motivation and Emotion

● Definitions of motivation and emotion
○ Motivation: set of factors that initiate and direct behavior, usually towards a goal
○ Emotions: psychological events involving…
■ A physiological reaction - typically arousal
■ An expressive reaction - facial expression
■ A subjective experience - conscious feeling like “angry”, “happy”, or “sad”
● Internal factors of motivation vs. external factors of motivation
○ Internal factors
■ Instincts: unlearned characteristic patterns of responding controlled by
triggering stimuli in the world
■ Drive: psychological state that arises in response to internal physiological need
(i.e. hunger or thirst)
○ External factors
 ■ Incentive motivation: external factors in environment that have pulling effect on
behavior (goal-directed behavior)
■ Achievement motivation: internal need to succeed, possessed by all individuals
to a certain degree
● People wanting to obtain a skill more likely to retain info & succeed
● People wanting to outdo others more likely to miss learning opps
● Intrinsic motivation: goal-directed behavior that appears entirely self-motivated
○ Introducing rewards can reduce the behavior (perceived as indirect form of control)
● Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
○ Immediate psychological needs → safety → love → esteem → self-actualization
● Motivation and food
○ Brain areas important for hunger
■ Hypothalamus: sensitive to leptin and insulin
● Lesioned → overeating
● Stimulated → undereating
■ Hindbrain: integrates info from body & hypothalamus (important to start eating)
■ Hippocampus: memory related to food intake
○ Regulating weight, obesity, and eating disorders
■ Prolonged exposure to high fat diets can change the brain = inflammation of
critical brain structures important for signalling fullness
● Motivation and sexual behavior
○ Sexual Response Cycle: MASTERS & JOHNSON
1. Excitement: changes in muscular tension, increased heart rate and blood
pressure, rushing of blood to genital organs
2. Plateau: arousal increases at slower rate towards preorgasm maximum point
a. Penis fully erect, vaginal lubrication
b. Testicles rise closer to body, uterus lifts/changes shape
3. Orgasmic: rhythmic contractions of sex organs, ejaculation
4. Resolution: arousal returns to normal levels, refractory period for penis
○ Sexual scripts and mate selection
■ Sexual scripts: learned cognitive programs that instruct us how, why, and what to
do in interactions with sexual partners
■ Men more likely to pursue brief sexual interactions, younger partners, value
attractiveness, and desire variety in partners
■ Women tend to value financial stability
○ External factors and attraction
■ Sexual orientation determined by biology and environemnt
● Associated with hypothalamus - larger in gay men
● 30-40% concordance rate for identical twins
● Purpose of emotions
○ To communicate to ourselves
○ To communicate to others
 ○ To call us to action (motivate)
● Basic emotions (six basic recognized worldwide)
○ Happiness
○ Sadness
○ Fear
○ Disgust
○ Anger
○ Surprise
● Theories of emotions (first three fail to consider cognitive aspect of emotion)
○ Common sense: perception of stimulus elicits emotion which then causes bodily arousal
○ James-Lange: emotions arise from physiological arousal
○ Cannon-Bard: physiological arousal and emotion experience occur simultaneously
○ Two-factor: experience an emotion by first experiencing physical changes in our body
and then labeling those changes based on understanding of situation around us