Learning
 A relatively
permanent change in
behavior due to experience
 A type
of learning where a stimulus
gains the power to cause a response
because it predicts another stimulus that
already produces that response
 Form of learning by association
 Stimulus
- anything in the environment
that one can respond to
 Response – any behavior or action
 The
view that psychology should
restrict its efforts to studying observable
behaviors, not mental processes.
 Founded by John Watson
 A stimulus
that triggers a response
automatically and reflexively
 The
automatic response to the
unconditioned stimulus
 The relationship between the UCS and
UCR must be reflexive and not learned
 A stimulus
that through learning has
gained the power to cause a conditioned
response
 The CS must be a neutral stimulus
before conditioning occurs.
 The
response to the conditioned
stimulus
 Usually the same behavior as the UCR
 The
process of developing a learned
response
 The subject learns a new response (CR)
to a previously neutral stimulus (CS)
 The
diminishing of a learned response
 In classical conditioning, the continual
presentation of the CS without the UCS
 The
reappearance, after a rest period, of
an extinguished conditioned response
 A Russian
physiologist who discovered
classical conditioning while doing
experiments on the digestive system of
dogs
 Process
in which an organism produces
the same response to two similar stimuli
 The more similar the substitute stimulus
is to the original used in conditioning,
the stronger the generalized response
 A process
in which an organism
produces different responses to two
similar stimuli
 The subject learns that one stimuli
predicts the UCS and the other does not.
 11-month-old
infant
 Watson and his assistant, Rosalie
Rayner, conditioned Albert to be
frightened of white rats
 Led to questions about experimental
ethics
 Subjects
become classically conditioned
to avoid specific tastes, because the
tastes are associated with nausea.
 John Garcia (1917- )
 Developed
a theory emphasizing the
importance of cognitive processes in
classical conditioning
 Pointed out that subjects had to
determine (think) whether the CS was a
reliable predictor of the UCS
 We
are predisposed to learn things that
affect our survival.
 We are predisposed to avoid threats our
ancestors faced--food that made us sick,
storms, heights, snakes, etc.--but not
modern-day threats--cars, water
pollution, etc.
A type of learning in which the frequency of
a behavior depends on the consequence that
follows that behavior
 The frequency will increase if the
consequence is reinforcing to the subject.
 The frequency will decrease if the
consequence is not reinforcing to the
subject.

 Author
of the law of effect
 Behaviors with favorable consequences
will occur more frequently.
 Behaviors with unfavorable
consequences will occur less frequently.
 Created puzzle boxes for research on
cats
 Developed
the fundamental principles
and techniques of operant conditioning
and devised ways to apply them in the
real world
 Designed the Skinner Box, or operant
chamber
 Reinforcement
- Any consequence that
increases the likelihood of the behavior
it follows
 Punishment - Any consequence that
decreases the likelihood of the behavior
it follows
 The subject determines if a consequence
is reinforcing or punishing
 Anything
that increases the likelihood
of a behavior by following it with a
desirable event or state
 The subject receives something they
want
 Will strengthen the behavior
 Anything
that increases the likelihood
of a behavior by following it with the
removal of an undesirable event or state
 Something the subject doesn’t like is
removed
 Will strengthen the behavior
 Immediate
reinforcement is more
effective than delayed reinforcement
 Ability to delay gratification predicts
higher achievement
 Something
that is naturally reinforcing
 Examples: food, warmth, water, etc.
 The item is reinforcing in and of itself
 Something
that a person has learned to
value or finds rewarding because it is
paired with a primary reinforcer
 Money is a good example
 An
undesirable event following a
behavior
 A desirable state or event ends
following a behavior
 Doesn’t
prevent the undesirable
behavior when away from the punisher
 Can lead to fear, anxiety, and lower selfesteem
 Children who are punished physically
may learn to use aggression as a means
to solve problems.
 Punishment
can effectively control
certain behaviors.
 Especially useful if teaching a child not
to do a dangerous behavior
 Most still suggest reinforcing an
incompatible behavior rather than using
punishment
 Reinforcement
of behaviors that are
more and more similar to the one you
want to occur
 Technique used to establish a new
behavior
 The
ability to distinguish between two
similar stimuli
 Learning to respond to one stimuli but
not to a similar stimuli
 In
operant conditioning, the loss of a
conditioned behavior when
consequences no longer follow it.
 The subject no longer responds since
the reinforcement or punishment has
stopped.
 A schedule
of reinforcement in which a
reward follows every correct response
 Most useful way to establish a behavior
 The behavior will extinguish quickly
once the reinforcement stops.
 A schedule
of reinforcement in which a
reward follows only some correct
responses
 Includes the following types:
◦ Fixed-interval and variable interval
◦ Fixed-ratio and variable-ratio
 A partial
reinforcement schedule that
rewards only the first correct response
after some defined period of time
 i.e. weekly quiz in a class
 A partial
reinforcement that rewards the
first correct response after an
unpredictable amount of time
 i.e. “pop” quiz in a class
 A partial
reinforcement schedule that
rewards a response only after some
defined number of correct responses
 The faster the subject responds, the
more reinforcements they will receive.
 A partial
reinforcement schedule that
rewards an unpredictable number of
correct responses
 This schedule is very resistant to
extinction.
 Sometimes called the “gambler’s
schedule”; similar to a slot machine
 Learning
that takes place in absence of
an apparent reward
 A mental
representation of a place
 Experiments showed rats could learn a
maze without any reinforcements
 The
effect of promising a reward for
doing what someone already likes to do
 The reward may lessen and replace the
person’s original, natural motivation, so
that the behavior stops if the reward is
eliminated
 Research
suggests some species are
biologically predisposed to learn
specific behaviors
 Learning
by observing and watching
others (the model)
 In
observational learning, the person
whose behavior the subject watches and
imitates
 The
process of observing and imitating
a specific behavior
 American
psychologist who has done
major studies in observational learning
 Studies the consequences a model has
on subjects
 Bobo Doll experiments
 Children
watched an adult model show
aggressive behavior toward a bobo doll
 Three experimental conditions:
◦ The model was praised.
◦ The model was punished.
◦ The model received no consequences
for the aggressive behavior.
 Learning
by seeing the consequence of
another’s behavior
 Bandura
suggests four requirements for
effective modeling to occur:
◦ Attention
◦ Retention
◦ Ability to reproduce the behavior
◦ Motivation
 Antisocial
behavior - negative,
destructive unhelpful behavior
 Prosocial behavior – positive,
constructive, helpful behavior
 Both types of behavior can be modeled
effectively.
Chapter 08
 Encoding
- getting information into the
memory system
 Storage - the retaining of encoded
information over time
 Retrieval - getting encoded information
out of memory storage
 The
unconscious encoding of some
information without effort
 Usually information on space, time and
frequency
 Encoding
that requires attention and a
conscious deliberate effort
 The best processing is through rehearsal
or practice.
 The
conscious repetition of information
in order to encode it
 The more time spent on rehearsal, the
more information one tends to
remember.
 German
philosopher who did early
memory studies with nonsense syllables
 Developed the forgetting curve, also
called the “retention curve” or
“Ebbinghaus curve”
 Continuing
to rehearse after the point
the information has been learned
 Rehearsing past the point of mastery
 Helps ensure information will be
available even under stress
 The
tendency to recall the first and last
items in a list
 Primacy effect – the ability to recall
information near the beginning of a list
 Recency effect – the ability to recall
information near the end of a list
 The
tendency for distributed practice to
yield better retention than is achieved
through massed practice
 Spreading
rehearsal out in several
sessions separated by period of time
 Usually enhances the recalling of the
information
 Putting
all rehearsal together in one long
session (cramming)
 Not as effective as distributed practice
 The
encoding of meaning
 Encoding information that is meaningful
enhances recall
 Encoding
information based on the
sounds of the information
 Encoding
information based on the
images of the information
 The
enhanced semantic encoding of
information that is personally relevant
 Making information meaningful to a
person by making it relevant to one’s
life
 A memory
trick or technique for
remembering specific facts
 “Every good boy does fine” to
remember the notes on the lines of the
scale
 “People say you could have odd lots of
good years” as a way to remember how
to spell “psychology”
 A mnemonic
device in which the person
associates items to be remembered with
imaginary places
 A mnemonic
device in which the person
associates items to remember with a list
of peg words already memorized
 Goal is to visualize the items to
remember with the items on the pegs
 Organizing
information into meaningful
units
 More information can be encoded if
organized into meaningful chunks.
 Three
distinct storage systems :
◦ Sensory Memory
◦ Short-Term Memory (includes
Working Memory)
◦ Long-Term Memory
 The
brief, initial coding of sensory
information in the memory system
◦ Iconic store – visual information
◦ Echoic store – sound information
 Information held just long enough to
make a decision on its importance
 Conscious,
activated memory which
holds information briefly before it is
stored or forgotten
 Holds approximately seven, plus or
minus two, chunks of information
 Can retain the information as long as it
is rehearsed
 Also called “working memory”
 The
relatively permanent and limitless
storehouse of the memory system
 Holds memories without conscious
effort
 A vivid,
clear memory of an
emotionally significant moment or event
 Can be personal memories or centered
around a shared event
 An
increase in a synapse’s firing
efficiency
 Believed to be the neural basis of
learning and memory
 Memory
of facts and experiences that
one must consciously retrieve and
declare
 Processed through the hippocampus
 Memory
of skills and procedures that
are retrieved without conscious
recollection
 Processed through the cerebellum
 Damage
to the hippocampus would
result in the inability to form new
explicit memories, but the ability to
remember the skills of implicit
memories
 The
process of getting information out
of memory storage
 Two forms of retrieval
◦ Recall
◦ Recognition
 A measure
of memory in which the
person must retrieve information
learned earlier
 Essay, fill-in-the-blank, and short
answer test questions test recall
 A measure
of memory in which a person
must identify items learned earlier
 Multiple choice and matching test
questions test recognition
 The
enhanced ability to retrieve
information when you are in an
environment similar to the one in which
you encoded the information
 The
enhanced ability to retrieve
information when the person is in the
same physical and emotional state they
were in when they encoded the
information
 The retrieval state is congruent with the
encoding state
Chapter 08
 Encoding
- getting information into the
memory system
 Storage - the retaining of encoded
information over time
 Retrieval - getting encoded information
out of memory storage
 The
unconscious encoding of some
information without effort
 Usually information on space, time and
frequency
 Encoding
that requires attention and a
conscious deliberate effort
 The best processing is through rehearsal
or practice.
 The
conscious repetition of information
in order to encode it
 The more time spent on rehearsal, the
more information one tends to
remember.
 German
philosopher who did early
memory studies with nonsense syllables
 Developed the forgetting curve, also
called the “retention curve” or
“Ebbinghaus curve”
 Continuing
to rehearse after the point
the information has been learned
 Rehearsing past the point of mastery
 Helps ensure information will be
available even under stress
 The
tendency to recall the first and last
items in a list
 Primacy effect – the ability to recall
information near the beginning of a list
 Recency effect – the ability to recall
information near the end of a list
 The
tendency for distributed practice to
yield better retention than is achieved
through massed practice
 Spreading
rehearsal out in several
sessions separated by period of time
 Usually enhances the recalling of the
information
 Putting
all rehearsal together in one long
session (cramming)
 Not as effective as distributed practice
 The
encoding of meaning
 Encoding information that is meaningful
enhances recall
 Encoding
information based on the
sounds of the information
 Encoding
information based on the
images of the information
 The
enhanced semantic encoding of
information that is personally relevant
 Making information meaningful to a
person by making it relevant to one’s
life
 A memory
trick or technique for
remembering specific facts
 “Every good boy does fine” to
remember the notes on the lines of the
scale
 “People say you could have odd lots of
good years” as a way to remember how
to spell “psychology”
 A mnemonic
device in which the person
associates items to be remembered with
imaginary places
 A mnemonic
device in which the person
associates items to remember with a list
of peg words already memorized
 Goal is to visualize the items to
remember with the items on the pegs
 Organizing
information into meaningful
units
 More information can be encoded if
organized into meaningful chunks.
 Three
distinct storage systems :
◦ Sensory Memory
◦ Short-Term Memory (includes
Working Memory)
◦ Long-Term Memory
 The
brief, initial coding of sensory
information in the memory system
◦ Iconic store – visual information
◦ Echoic store – sound information
 Information held just long enough to
make a decision on its importance
 Conscious,
activated memory which
holds information briefly before it is
stored or forgotten
 Holds approximately seven, plus or
minus two, chunks of information
 Can retain the information as long as it
is rehearsed
 Also called “working memory”
 The
relatively permanent and limitless
storehouse of the memory system
 Holds memories without conscious
effort
 A vivid,
clear memory of an
emotionally significant moment or event
 Can be personal memories or centered
around a shared event
 An
increase in a synapse’s firing
efficiency
 Believed to be the neural basis of
learning and memory
 Memory
of facts and experiences that
one must consciously retrieve and
declare
 Processed through the hippocampus
 Memory
of skills and procedures that
are retrieved without conscious
recollection
 Processed through the cerebellum
 Damage
to the hippocampus would
result in the inability to form new
explicit memories, but the ability to
remember the skills of implicit
memories
 The
process of getting information out
of memory storage
 Two forms of retrieval
◦ Recall
◦ Recognition
 A measure
of memory in which the
person must retrieve information
learned earlier
 Essay, fill-in-the-blank, and short
answer test questions test recall
 A measure
of memory in which a person
must identify items learned earlier
 Multiple choice and matching test
questions test recognition
 The
enhanced ability to retrieve
information when you are in an
environment similar to the one in which
you encoded the information
 The
enhanced ability to retrieve
information when the person is in the
same physical and emotional state they
were in when they encoded the
information
 The retrieval state is congruent with the
encoding state
Chapter 09
 Awareness
of oneself and one’s
environment
 Periodic
physiological fluctuations
 Can affect physiological functioning
 Fall into three main categories
◦ Circadian Rhythms
◦ Ultradian Rhythms
◦ Infradian Rhythms
 Biological
rhythms that occur
approximately every 24 hours
 Example: Sleep-wake cycle
 Biological
rhythms that occur more than
once each day
 Example: Stages of sleep throughout the
night
 Biological
rhythms that occur once a
month or once a season
 Example: Women’s menstrual cycle
 Decreases
efficiency of immune system
functioning
 Safety and accident issues
 Contributes to hypertension, impaired
concentration, irritability, etc.
 Sleep
control center in the brain
 Monitors changes in light or dark in the
environment
 Changes levels of hormones in the body
 A hormone
that helps regulate daily
biological rhythms
 Linked to the sleep-wake cycle
 Melatonin level increases during the
night and decreases with exposure to
morning light
 Two
primary reasons:
◦ Preservation: keep us protected from
the dangers of the night
◦ Restoration: recuperate from the wear
and tear of the day
 A machine
that amplifies and records
waves of electrical activity that sweep
across the brain’s surface
 Electrodes are placed on the person’s
scalp to measure the waves
 Used as a means to measure the stages
of sleep
 Breathing
is slowed.
 Brain waves become irregular.
 It is easy to wake the person, who will
insist they are not asleep.
 Person will report they have dreamlike
sensations, such as falling.
 Brain
wave cycle slows.
 EEG spindles (small brain wave bursts)
develop.
 First time through stage 2 last about 20
minutes.
 Increase
in delta waves (large and slow
waves per second)
 First time through stage 4 is about 30
minutes and is where one gets
rejuvenated
 Stages
1 - 4 considered N-REM (nonREM sleep)
 Rapid eye movement (REM Sleep) as
eyes move quickly back and forth
 Most dreaming occurs in REM sleep
 During
REM sleep brain wave patterns
are similar to when a person is awake
 Pulse and breathing quickens.
 REM sleep is sometimes called
paradoxical sleep as one’s physiology is
close to that of being awake but the
brainstem blocks all muscle movement
 Dreams
serve an important memoryrelated function by sorting and sifting
through the day’s experiences
 Research suggests REM sleep helps
memory storage.
 Neural
activity during REM sleep
provides periodic stimulation of the
brain.
 Dreams
are the mind’s attempt to make
sense of random neural firings in the
brain as one sleeps.
 Recurring
problems falling asleep or
staying asleep
 Sleeping pills tend to inhibit or suppress
REM sleep; worsen the problem
 Alcohol suppresses REM sleep; also
worsens the problem
 Studies show most people overestimate
how long it took them to get to sleep
 A sleep
disorder characterized by
temporary cessations of breathing
during sleep and consequent momentary
reawakenings.
 Tend to be loud snorers
 Continuous Positive Airway Pressure
machine
 A sleep
disorder characterized by
uncontrollable sleep attacks
 Person goes directly into REM sleep
 Nervous system getting aroused tends to
trigger the sleep attack
 Formal
name for sleepwalking
 Starts in the deep stages of N-REM
sleep
 Person can walk or talk but remembers
nothing of the experience
 Sleep
disorder characterized by high
arousal and appearance of being
terrified
 Happens during stage 4 sleep; mostly
children
 The children seldom remember the
event.
– teeth grinding
 Enuresis – bed wetting
 Myoclonus – sudden jerk of a body part
occurring during stage 1 sleep
◦ Everyone has occasional episodes of
myoclonus
 Bruxism
Module 21
 A social
interaction in which one person
(the hypnotist) makes suggestions about
perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or
behaviors, and another person (the
subject) follows those suggestions
 Powerful
social influences produce a
state of hypnosis.
 This theory notes that a person’s
physiological state does not change
under hypnosis.
 Social factors influence people to
believe hypnosis will work.
 During
hypnosis our consciousness
splits so that one aspect of
consciousness is not aware of the role
that other parts are playing.
 Promoted by Ernest Hilgard (19042001)
 The
process by which a hypnotist
creates a state of hypnosis in a subject
 Usually done by voicing a series of
suggestions
 Voice is usually calm and of a rhythmic
tone
 Differences
in the ability of people to
become hypnotized
 Varies from person to person
 Varies from situation to situation
 Suggestions
usually involve sensations,
thoughts, emotions, and a wide variety
of behaviors.
 Hypnosis does not cause behaviors.
 Hypnosis can lead people to certain
behaviors but so can ordinary
suggestions.
 A suggestion,
made during a hypnosis
session, that the subject will carry out
when no longer hypnotized
 Technique can be used to encourage
helpful behavior changes, such as
stopping smoking or losing weight.
 Inability
to remember what happened
during hypnosis because the hypnotist
suggests that the subject will have no
memory of that period of time
 There
are isolated cases of hypnosis
helping recall.
 Cannot be sure if the memory came
back due to hypnosis
 Cannot be sure if the memory is
accurate or one that is created to please
the hypnotist
 Hypnosis
does work as a means to
control pain.
 Has a number of practical applications
 Improvement
due only to the power of
positive expectations
 People think they will get better so they
do
 Many
feats of strength done under
hypnosis can be accomplished without
hypnosis.
 Under
hypnosis, the supposed ability to
remember earlier periods of time in
one’s life
 Psychologists consider age regression
demonstrations unreliable.
Module 22
 A chemical
substance that alters
perceptions, mood, or behavior
 Three common psychoactive drugs:
◦ Caffeine
◦ Alcohol
◦ Nicotine
 Induce an altered state of consciousness
 A state
of physiological and/or
psychological need to take more of a
substance after continued use.
 Withdrawal follows if the drug is
discontinued
 The
discomfort and distress that follow
when a person who is dependent on a
drug discontinues the use of the drug
 Withdrawal symptoms are usually the
reverse of the drug’s effects.
 Reduced
responsiveness to a drug,
prompting the user to increase the
dosage to achieve effects previously
obtained by lower doses of the drug
 The
process whereby neurons
communicate with each other
 Neurotransmission, especially in the
brain and spinal cord, helps explain the
effects of psychoactive drugs.
 Psychoactive drugs interfere with
normal neurotransmission.
 Chemical
messengers that cross
synaptic gaps between neurons
 When released by the sending neuron,
neurotransmitters travel across the
synapse and bind to receptor sites on the
receiving neuron, setting up the next
link in the chain of communication.
 The
junction between the tip of the
sending neuron and the receptor sites on
the receiving neuron
 Call the synaptic gap or cleft
 Process
where the unused
neurotransmitter chemical is reabsorbed
by the sending neuron
 Psychoactive
drugs affect synapses and
neurotransmitters in three ways:
◦ Binding with receptors
◦ Blocking receptor site
◦ Blocking neurotransmitters’ reuptake
 Five
different categories we will study:
◦ Depressants
◦ Opiates
◦ Stimulants
◦ Hallucinogens
◦ Marijuana
 Drugs
that reduce neural activity and
slow body functioning
 Includes alcohol and sedatives
 Found
in beer, wine, and liquor
 The second most used psychoactive
drug (caffeine first)
 Slows thinking, and impairs physical
activity
 A measure
of how much alcohol is in a
person’s bloodstream
 BAC of .8 considered legal intoxication
in most states
 Alcohol
impairs the parts of the brain
responsible for controlling inhibitions
and making judgments
 Studies
have shown that alcohol impairs
memory by suppressing the processing
of events into long term memory.
 Alcohol impairs REM sleep, further
disrupting memory storage.
 Drugs
that reduce anxiety or induce
sleep
 Also called tranquilizers
 Include barbiturates and
benzodiazepines
 Drugs
that depress the activity of the
central nervous system and thereby
reduce anxiety
 Can be lethal in overdose and interact
with other drugs, especially alcohol
 Impair both memory and judgment
 Can create tolerance and dependence
 Drugs
that depress that activity of the
central nervous system without most of
the side effects associated with
barbiturates
 Include Valium and Xanax
 Can create dependency
 Drugs
that depress neural activity,
temporarily lesson pain and anxiety
 Include: opium, morphine, and heroin
 Strong
sedative and pain-relieving drug
derived from opium
 Works by preventing pain neurons from
firing or releasing pain-signaling
neurotransmitters into the synapse
 Natural,
opiate-like neurotransmitters
linked to pain control and to pleasure
 Body’s natural pain killers
 Drugs
that excite neural activity and
speed up body functions
 Include: caffeine, nicotine,
amphetamines, and cocaine
 Stimulant
found in coffee, chocolate,
tea, and some soft drinks
 Provides user with a sense of increased
energy, mental alertness, and forced
wakefulness
 Blocks neurological receptor sites that ,
if activated, sedate the central nervous
system
 Stimulant
found in tobacco
 Effects similar to those of caffeine
 Very addictive and does not stay in the
body very long
 Stimulant
derived from leaves of the
coca plant
 Crack – cocaine crystals
 Blocks the reuptake of certain
neurotransmitters
 Dependency is quick and severe; places
extreme strain on cardiovascular system
 Drugs
that stimulate neural activity,
speeding up body functions, with
associated energy and mood changes
 Includes: speed, uppers, and
methamphetamines
 Mimic adrenaline
 Can cause irreversible changes in mood
 Drugs
that distort perceptions and evoke
sensory images in the absence of
sensory input
 Include: LSD and ecstasy
 Sometimes called “psychedelics”
 Powerful
hallucinogenic drug
 Also known as “acid”
 The effects vary from person to person
 Users can be dangerous to themselves
and others.
 Hallucinogenic
drug that produces
lower inhibitions, pleasant feelings, and
greater acceptance of others
 Also called MDMA
 Even moderate users may experience
permanent brain damage.
 Leaves,
stems, resin, and flowers form
the hemp plant that, when smoked,
lower inhibitions and produce feelings
of relaxation and mild euphoria
 THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) is
the active ingredient
 Disrupts memory; lung damage from
smoke
Thinking, Language,
and Intelligence
 All
the mental activities associated with
thinking, knowing and remembering
 A mental
grouping based on shared
similarity
 Categorizing items in one’s environment
 A typical
best example incorporating the
major features of a concept
 The closer a new object is to our
concept prototype the easier it is to
categorize it
 A means
to keep mental information
organized from basic concepts to
specific ones
 A problem
solving strategy that
guarantees the solution to the problem
 Not always the most efficient method
 A rule-of-thumb
problem solving
strategy that makes a solution more
likely and efficient but does not
guarantee a solution
 These can be handy shortcuts, or they
can get us into trouble
 The
sudden realization of the solution to
a problem
 A tendency
to approach a problem in a
particular way
 The set may or may not be helpful in
solving a new problem
 A mental
set that hinders the solution of
a problem
 One needs to think beyond the mental
set to solve the new problem
 The
tendency to focus on information
that supports one’s preconceptions
 Uses
information from our memory to
judge the likelihood of events
 Can be correct or incorrect
 The
tendency to be more confident than
correct when estimating the accuracy of
one’s beliefs and judgments
 The
way an issue is worded or presented
 Can influence decisions and judgments
 Clinging
to one’s initial beliefs even
after new information discredits the
basis on which they were formed
 The
spoken, written, or gestured words
a group uses to communicate
meaningfully
 The
smallest distinctive unit of sound of
a spoken language
 English has about 40 phonemes.
 A young baby produces all the
phonemes of all the languages of the
world.
 The
smallest unit, in a language, that
carries meaning
 May be a word or part of a word
 English has about 100,000 morphemes.
 A system
of rules governing how one
can combine morphemes and words and
arrange them in sentences to
communicate with others
 Argues
that children have a
predisposition to learn language
 A person’s brain is hard wired to learn
vocabulary and the rules of grammar
 Skinner
believed language was the
result of learning through:
◦ Association : linking certain sounds
with certain people
◦ Imitation
◦ Rewards or punishments
 Three-step
process:
◦ Babbling
◦ One-Word Stage
◦ Two-Word Stage
 Babies
spontaneously babble phonemes.
 Will babble all the phonemes of the
world
 Will begin to babble only the phonemes
of the child’s native tongue at about 1
year of age
 Child
uses one word to convey a
complete thought or idea
 Two
word sentences showing an
appreciation of the rules of grammar
 Child
will generalize grammar rules so
they apply the rules too broadly.
 Example: “I dugged in the sandbox”
rather than “I dug in the sandbox”
 Hypothesis
that one’s language
determines the way a person may think
 Proposed by Benjamin Whorf (18971941)
 Use of inclusive language
Charles T. Blair-Broeker
Randal M. Ernst
Module 24: Intelligence and Intelligence Testing
 The
ability to learn from experience,
solve problems, and use knowledge to
adapt to a new situation
 Is intelligence one thing or are there
multiple intelligences?
 Author
of a contemporary theory of
multiple intelligences consisting of eight
separate kinds of intelligence
 Author
of a contemporary theory of
multiple intelligences consisting of:
◦ analytic,
◦ creative, and
◦ practical intelligence
 The
ability to perceive, express,
understand, and regulate emotions
 People high in emotional intelligence
are more in touch with their feelings and
the feelings of others.
 Theorized
that a general intelligence
factor (g) underlies other, more specific
aspects of intelligence
 General
intelligence factor that
Spearman believed underlies specific
mental abilities and is therefore
measured by every task on an
intelligence test
 Developer
of the first test to classify
children’s abilities using the concept of
mental age
 Assumed children’s intellectual abilities
grew every year
 The
chronological age that corresponds
to the difficulty of the questions a child
can answer
 An average 8-year-old child should have
the mental age of 8 years.
 The
actual age of a person
 Adapted
Binet’s tests for use in the
United States as the Stanford-Binet
intelligence test
 The test reported intelligence as a
calculated IQ score.
 The
number that results from Terman
and Stern’s formula for computing the
level of a person’s intelligence
 IQ = (MA/CA) X 100
 A score of 100 would be considered
average
 Formula has been replaced with modern
versions
 Developed
the Wechsler intelligence
scales which included:
◦ Different tests for different age groups
◦ Separate verbal and nonverbal scores
◦ Subtests and subtest scores
 Originally
designed for the army in
World War I
 Can be given to large numbers of people
 Those supervising the test do not need
extensive training
 Are very easy to score
 Not the most reliable
 Tests
that attempt to measure what the
test-taker has accomplished
 i.e. classroom tests at the end of a unit
 Tests
that attempt to predict the testtaker’s future performance
 Examples: ACT and SAT
 The
extent to which a test yields
consistent results
 Test-retest
reliability - taking the same
test and receiving a similar score
 Split-half - the score on one half of a
test’s questions is similar to the score on
the other half
 Scorer reliability – the score of the test
should be similar no matter which
scorer is scoring the test
 The
extent to which a test measures or
predicts what it is suppose to
 Does an achievement test accurately
measure accomplishments?
 Does an aptitude test accurately
measure the person’s future
performance?
 One needs to know the purpose of the
test
 A number
of studies show scoring
differences between different racial,
ethnic, and gender groups.
 Are these differences due to nature or to
nurture? Studies suggest environment is
playing a heavy role.
 Heredity and environment interact to
produce intelligence in individuals.

The End