Exam 2

Exam 2

Chapter 5 (20 pts total):

1. Interpret the following dream using TWO of the three major dream theories. Be sure to use AND define the terms associated with each theory, and explain the dream in those terms. (6 pts/ dream theory application)

“The night before my final exam, I dreamt I was on a desert island. All of a sudden, a boat appeared on the horizon with my teacher and parents in it. I became quite anxious as the boat came closer. Just before it landed, I awoke.”

Using Sigmund Fraud’s dream theory, the person who was dreaming had a repressed longing and desire to go to a desert island. His other repressed longing was boarding a boat. This person had all these desires that maybe, could not express within his social setting. So, when he went to sleep, his brain was allowed to act on these desires.

An activation-synthesis hypothesis theory by Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley, the dreaming person was only reflecting on his previous experiences. He had visited an island, boarded a boat, and not necessarily with his parents and the teacher. The brain was now bringing the imagery and making sense of what he had experienced.

2. While dreaming, your brain is highly active. Recalling what you learned in Chapter 2, identify which parts of the brain would be active when dreaming that you are (1) playing the piano, (2) late for your final exam and afraid you will be late, (3) listening to a concert, and (4) walking on a tight rope. (2 pts/part).

When dreaming that you are playing the piano, the active brain is the prefrontal cortex, and the amygdala part of the limbic system is active when you dream that you are late for your final exam and afraid that you will be late. In a dream that you are listening to a concert, the active brain is the auditory cortex, and in dreaming that you are walking on a tight rope, the active part of the brain is the cerebral cortex.

Chapter 6 (30 pts): 

1. Use a personal example from your life to describe your knowledge of classical conditioning and its process. Be sure to utilize all relevant terminology and parts of classical conditioning. (10 pts)

Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which a conditioned stimulus (CS) becomes associated with an unrelated unconditioned stimulus (US) for it to produce a behavioral response known as a conditioned response (CR). The conditioned response is the learned response from the previously neutral stimulus.

My personal experience of classical conditioning is of my one-year-old daughter that is still breastfeeding. So, I have noticed that whenever I pull my rocking chair to sit, my daughter starts crying to breastfeed. She is associating the rocking chair with breastfeeding.

The Unconditioned stimulus (breast milk) produces an unconditioned response: salivation and a neutral stimulus (rocking chair) that does not trigger any response on its own. In the conditioning process, the unconditioned stimulus (breast milk) is given to the baby repeatedly after pulling the rocking chair, which is a neutral stimulus. After conditioning, the neutral stimulus alone produces a conditioned response (salivation), thus becoming a conditioned stimulus.

There are four factors of classical conditioning;

The conditioned stimulus (rocking chair) that had no association with breast milk previously.

The conditioned response is salivation of the baby in response to pulling the rocking chair even when I don’t want to breastfeed.

The unconditioned stimulus is the sight of the breasts.

The baby’s unconditioned response is when she starts salivating (crying for breast milk) in response to seeing the breast.

2. Imagine that you are a behavioral psychologist who wants to help a father increase his daughter’s compliance in mowing the backyard without being reminded. Develop a plan that will include both positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment. Make sure to include how each consequence will impact the behavior. (5 pts/operant conditioning consequence application)

Operant conditioning is a process through which learning occurs by a behavior being rewarded or punished. As a behavioral psychologist who wants to help a father increase his daughter’s compliance in mowing the backyard, without being reminded, we put a plan with the father that whenever she mows the backyard, that action will be reinforced. Whenever she misses doing that, she will be punished.

Reinforcements are used to increase the occurrence of a behavior. Both positive and negative reinforcements led to increased behavior.

For example, the father will be giving the daughter $20 every time she mows the backyard. This is positive reinforcement.

Negative reinforcement is when the daughter doesn’t mow the backyard, she is the one to give the father $20.

Punishments are used to decrease the chances of behavior from happening again. Positive punishment involves adding an aversive consequence. In this case, the father will increase the backyard’s size to be mowed every time the daughter misses to mow.

Negative punishment involves taking away a given reinforcing item. For example, if the daughter uses the family car to go to school, the father withdraws the car from her when she doesn’t mow the backyard and forces her to use the bus to go to school.

All these will increase the daughter’s tendencies to mow the backyard without being reminded.

Chapter 7 (25 pts): 

1. An individual comes forward with a report of an assault years before. Some people do not believe them because they do not remember all the details of the event, yet the individual clearly remembers all the details. Given what we know about emotional arousal and memory, how would you respond to people questioning the accuracy of this individual’s memory?  Be sure to mention what types of memory this situation involves in terms of the three-stage memory model. Be specific. (15 pts)

Emotional arousal and memory are co-related. For instance, emotional arousal increase memory for high priority information and reduces memory for low priority information. Studies have shown that emotional arousal leads to memory narrowing in which arousal enhances memory for central details at the cost of peripheral details. In this case, the individual reporting assault can easily remember the details because of the number of emotions invested in the event. The others doubting him marked the event as unremarkable.

The individual is having a better memory of the assault because he encoded more information in the first place. He was more open to details and more actively processing his surroundings than those who were psychologically absent when the assault was happening. In this case, the individual stored the events in his long-term memory, while the others stored some of the information in the short-term memory.

2. Describe sensory, short-term, and long-term processes of memory and their interrelationships. For each,  include the following:
   1. Length of time or duration
   2. How much information can it hold?
   3. Original example with an explanation of each

Then a tie-in of how memory would flow between each. (10 pts total)

Sensory memory is a type of memory that allows individuals to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimulus has ceased, and it happens in seconds.  Short-term memory lasts for a very brief time, usually 15 to 30 seconds, with a capacity to store about seven items. Items in short-term memory are kept by repeating them verbally in a process known as a rehearsal. Long-term memory can hold substantial amounts of information and can last a very long time, say years. Using the example in question, the individual reporting an assault that happened years back saw the event, encoded the information, stored it first in the short-term memory, and then transferred the information to the long-term memory. He finally retrieved the information by locating it in the long-term memory where he had stored it and then returned it consciousness. The other individual, while encoding, did not receive, process, and combine all information. Therefore, they only stored some of the information in the short-term memory and eventually in the long-term memory. That is why when they retrieved the information, only what was stored came to the conscious mind.

Chapter 8 (25 pts):

1. Explain how the availability heuristic and confirmation bias might influence your thoughts and feelings about whether people with mental illness are violent or dangerous. (9 pts)

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that people use daily to make decisions. Even though heuristics are important shortcuts that help people to make daily judgment calls, it sometimes leads people to make hasty and incorrect decisions on complicated issues. Confirmation bias is the people’s tendency to focus and give more credence to evidence that fit our existing beliefs. The availability of heuristic and confirmation bias has contributed to my belief that people with mental illness are dangerous and violent. Seeing a mentally challenged person who may not have dressed well or could be dirty makes my brain use shortcuts (heuristic) to conclude that he/she is a violent person. This shortcut cements my already existing belief that all mentally challenged people are violent and dangerous. This belief is caused by confirmation bias that prevents me from evaluating evidence.

2. Explain how the forms of learning from chapter 6 (classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning) might be used in learning a language (Chapter 8). (12 pts)

Classical conditioning can be used in language learning through the association of a stimulus, for example (fire) that gives a natural response (behavior) with a neutral stimulus (a tone). The behavior is produced by the previously neutral stimulus after the association is learned. The conditioned stimulus (CS), which is the neutral stimulus (a tone), after it has been presented frequently before the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., fire), produces a similar response as the unconditioned stimulus. When a child is told not to touch fire, Unconditioned stimulus (US)using a given atone, the conditioned stimulus (CS), when used repeatedly it reaches a time when the tone is used alone, the same response will be exhibited even when the unconditioned stimulus is not present.

Operant conditioning in language learning states that a child can learn a language by being rewarded. For example, when a child is hungry and is given food, food in this scenario is the reward, and therefore the child will not forget to use the term food when hungry, and thus the language is developed. Still, in operant conditioning, language is learned through exposure. A child learns a language that is being used in the environment she lives in.  Language is also learned through imitation; for example, a child develops the first language by imitating their mothers, thus mother tongue.

Language is learned through observation. A child can learn a language through people’s behaviors. For example, a mother can correct a child by using facial expressions without verbal communication—a child associates certain facial expressions with particular mistakes (e.g., frowning). Observational learning can also be achieved by associating a tangible object to a word; for example, when a child is told, A- for Apple, every time she sees an apple, she will remember the alphabetical letter A. Observational learning in a discriminative context is achieved when a child can identify a physical object after having seen it in books or pictures.

3. Describe the evidence for genetic and environmental influences on intelligence. How should this evidence be used by schools or parents to determine educational choices for students? (4 pts)

Genetics and environmental factors play a big role in determining intelligence. Intelligence can be passed to children from their parents through genes. Studies show that a combination of several genes contributes to 50%of an individual’s intelligence. The environment also strongly affects intelligence. A child’s home environment, parenting, nutrition, and availability of learning resources are some of the environmental factors that affect intelligence. These factors determine the educational choices for students. For parents to use this evidence, they have to choose a good environment for students to study to improve their intelligence.