Textbook Chap 1
Brain func ons
Primary somatosensory cortex: sense of touch (damage = loss of touch)
Primary motor cortex: control voluntary movements—walking, speaking (damage=immobility)
Corpus callosum: exchange info between 2 halves of brain
Basal ganglia: allow brain to communicate with spinal cord to control muscles
Cerebellum: coordina on, balance, percise movements
E ects
Overcon dence e ect: overly sure of what we know—easy to bias
Con rma on bias: tendency to seek out/pay a en on to/ believe only evidence that supports
what we already are con dent we know
Di erent perspec ves
h ps://nerd.wwnorton.com/nerd/326721/r/goto/c /38!/4 (learn how to apply them)
Cultural: how culture a ects ppl’s thoughts/preferences (nurture)
Evolu onary: behaviour that result from evolu onary adapta ons (nature)
Cogni ve: memory related, learning, language, thoughts, crea vity
Biological-neuroscience: brain-imaging techniques, from biological standpoints
Developmental: How ppl change as they age
Personaility/social psychological: how ppl change & stays same across situa ons
- Personaility: how di erent personaili es react, stable behavior over me/situa ons
- Social psych: situa on in uence behavior, immediate thoughts/behaviors
Clinical: causes & treatments of disorders
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, Textbook Chap 2: Research Methods
Form conclusions based on experience or intui on: UNRELIABLE
- Personal experiences don’t show us all events (can’t rewind me to see alterna ve)
- Lots cofactors, dk what actually a ects (ex. Car crash: bc of phone? Or smt else?)
- Intu on: tend to be overcon dent, although might not be right
- bias blind spot: discount things that goes against our ideas, believe it’s correct
- Best way— scien c methods: base beliefs on systema c, objec ve observa ons
-Ex. Assess driving performance: While phoning,
follow cars closer, break slower
-Conlusion: unsafe! —> use SM rather than relying on
intui on or experience.
-theory-data cycle: develope theory abt what ppl do
& collect data to compare
Theory: Explaina on on how/why ppl act/think/feel certain way
Hypothesis: a predic on
Replica on: Study repeated on di erent batches of par cipates—achieve same results
Opera onal de ni ons: Specify ways to measure/manipulate variables
Popula on of interest: large group— smaller group of people is called a sample
- random sampling—small group can generalize big
Random sampling: who gets in; Randomly choosen
Random assignment: what group they go into once they’re in; Manipulated variable
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, 3 type of research methods
Descrip ve research: how people typically think/feel/behave w/o manipulate variables
“What do people do on average?”— usually 1 variable
- Self report: use survey — snapshot of a tudes or behaviours
- Observa onal data:
- Observa onal research — Any research where researcher observes w/o
manipula ng variables. (Could be in normal or lab environment)
- Naturalis c observa on — observe behaviour in normal environment
- Case study: one person’s experience
Correla onal research: measure 2+ variables to understand rela onship between them
- Sca erplot: (+) increase le to right, (-) decrease le to right, no rela onship
- weak, moderate, strong—but tho strong, can’t assume one cause the other
To see if one variable cause the other, meet 3 criteria:
1. Two variables must be correlated
2. Temporal Precedence: must know for certain which variable came rst in me.
3. No reasonable alterna ve explana ons for the pa ern
- third-variable problem: ex. Social life corrolate to wellbeing,but personaility a ects
- Confound: “Dk if the e ect is from X or from Z, since they went together.”
Experimental research: Support causal statements, such as “leads…increases…reduce”
- Variable: A trait of interest that varies for every person/situa on
- Measured variables: measured (independent [y-axis]—the cause)
- Manipulated!!: (dependent [x-axis],e ect) controlled what par cipant expose to
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, Experimental group: proposed cause is present
Control group: proposed cause is absent
But both groups should think they are under same condi on — the placebo e ect
Groups be randomized & variable carefully manipulated—full ll third criteria
Construct validity: Are you measuring the right thing? opera onaliza ons accurate?
- Reliability = consistency
External validity
- Careful not to overly generalize! Can the e ect apply outside the study?
- Replicate experiment to new pop. if unsure
Internal validity
- Can we rule out alterna ve explana ons?
Cri cal thinking
1. What am I being asked to believe?
2. What kind of evidence is there?
3. How strong is the result? (Graph manipulated to make data look a certain way?)
4. Mistaking correla on for causa on?
- Causal claim → needs an experiment.
5. Has the study been replicated?
Mean: Average of group
Median: middle of group
Mode: most Common of group
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Brain func ons
Primary somatosensory cortex: sense of touch (damage = loss of touch)
Primary motor cortex: control voluntary movements—walking, speaking (damage=immobility)
Corpus callosum: exchange info between 2 halves of brain
Basal ganglia: allow brain to communicate with spinal cord to control muscles
Cerebellum: coordina on, balance, percise movements
E ects
Overcon dence e ect: overly sure of what we know—easy to bias
Con rma on bias: tendency to seek out/pay a en on to/ believe only evidence that supports
what we already are con dent we know
Di erent perspec ves
h ps://nerd.wwnorton.com/nerd/326721/r/goto/c /38!/4 (learn how to apply them)
Cultural: how culture a ects ppl’s thoughts/preferences (nurture)
Evolu onary: behaviour that result from evolu onary adapta ons (nature)
Cogni ve: memory related, learning, language, thoughts, crea vity
Biological-neuroscience: brain-imaging techniques, from biological standpoints
Developmental: How ppl change as they age
Personaility/social psychological: how ppl change & stays same across situa ons
- Personaility: how di erent personaili es react, stable behavior over me/situa ons
- Social psych: situa on in uence behavior, immediate thoughts/behaviors
Clinical: causes & treatments of disorders
ff
ttff fi ti fititi ff
titiff tiff fifl ti tt
ti ti fi titi ti ti ti
, Textbook Chap 2: Research Methods
Form conclusions based on experience or intui on: UNRELIABLE
- Personal experiences don’t show us all events (can’t rewind me to see alterna ve)
- Lots cofactors, dk what actually a ects (ex. Car crash: bc of phone? Or smt else?)
- Intu on: tend to be overcon dent, although might not be right
- bias blind spot: discount things that goes against our ideas, believe it’s correct
- Best way— scien c methods: base beliefs on systema c, objec ve observa ons
-Ex. Assess driving performance: While phoning,
follow cars closer, break slower
-Conlusion: unsafe! —> use SM rather than relying on
intui on or experience.
-theory-data cycle: develope theory abt what ppl do
& collect data to compare
Theory: Explaina on on how/why ppl act/think/feel certain way
Hypothesis: a predic on
Replica on: Study repeated on di erent batches of par cipates—achieve same results
Opera onal de ni ons: Specify ways to measure/manipulate variables
Popula on of interest: large group— smaller group of people is called a sample
- random sampling—small group can generalize big
Random sampling: who gets in; Randomly choosen
Random assignment: what group they go into once they’re in; Manipulated variable
titi titi
ti fi ti
tifiti ti fi ffff ti ti ti ti ti ti
, 3 type of research methods
Descrip ve research: how people typically think/feel/behave w/o manipulate variables
“What do people do on average?”— usually 1 variable
- Self report: use survey — snapshot of a tudes or behaviours
- Observa onal data:
- Observa onal research — Any research where researcher observes w/o
manipula ng variables. (Could be in normal or lab environment)
- Naturalis c observa on — observe behaviour in normal environment
- Case study: one person’s experience
Correla onal research: measure 2+ variables to understand rela onship between them
- Sca erplot: (+) increase le to right, (-) decrease le to right, no rela onship
- weak, moderate, strong—but tho strong, can’t assume one cause the other
To see if one variable cause the other, meet 3 criteria:
1. Two variables must be correlated
2. Temporal Precedence: must know for certain which variable came rst in me.
3. No reasonable alterna ve explana ons for the pa ern
- third-variable problem: ex. Social life corrolate to wellbeing,but personaility a ects
- Confound: “Dk if the e ect is from X or from Z, since they went together.”
Experimental research: Support causal statements, such as “leads…increases…reduce”
- Variable: A trait of interest that varies for every person/situa on
- Measured variables: measured (independent [y-axis]—the cause)
- Manipulated!!: (dependent [x-axis],e ect) controlled what par cipant expose to
tt titi
titi ti tiff ft ti ff tti ttft ti ti ti fi ti ti ff
, Experimental group: proposed cause is present
Control group: proposed cause is absent
But both groups should think they are under same condi on — the placebo e ect
Groups be randomized & variable carefully manipulated—full ll third criteria
Construct validity: Are you measuring the right thing? opera onaliza ons accurate?
- Reliability = consistency
External validity
- Careful not to overly generalize! Can the e ect apply outside the study?
- Replicate experiment to new pop. if unsure
Internal validity
- Can we rule out alterna ve explana ons?
Cri cal thinking
1. What am I being asked to believe?
2. What kind of evidence is there?
3. How strong is the result? (Graph manipulated to make data look a certain way?)
4. Mistaking correla on for causa on?
- Causal claim → needs an experiment.
5. Has the study been replicated?
Mean: Average of group
Median: middle of group
Mode: most Common of group
ti ti ti ti ti ff ti tifi ti ff
