PSYC 472 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Logical Reasoning
Document Summary
Fear behaviors in wgta: observer monkey paired with snake or flower, watch video of another monkey that is either freaking out or not. Observer monkey only has fear response to snake if observes monkey freaking out paired with snake (but not for flower) Mechanism only creates fear response if stimulus meets input requirements. Prepared social learning of children: stimulus meeting input requirements (idea above) tested with humans. Children told what each predator eats and how dangerous they eat with their picture. Children don"t learn what the name of the organism is very well, but learn much better what they eat and best how dangerous they are. Shows there are mechanisms to recall certain types of info over others (info that was useful in the ancestral past) Logical reasoning study: modularity vs. general logicality of human mind (are there mechanisms/predispositions to what types of knowledge/skill systems we can learn/acquire, or do we apply the same overall logic to everything we encounter)
