Exam
Part A: Mulitple choice out of 55
- 110 multiple choice worth half mark
- bring pencil for scantron
- all questions from textbook, could be from APLIA
- in textbook: focus on box with important terms (glossary terms) at bottom of
pages, study and know concepts and chapter summaries
Part B: Short Answer
- 9 questions worth 5 marks each, total 45 marks
- information said by john in lecture, if its in the textbook too know it
Gestatt Organizing Principles
N eatness
S imilarity
C ontinuation
C losure
C ontiguity
C ommon
R egion
Never Swim Close Cause of Crabby Crab Regions
Read chapters:
1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,11
Not 5, not 10
Galstri items and end of chapter summaries
Only focus on aprts that overlap with lecture (ex. In chapter 1, history of psych was not
talked about I lecture)
Chapter 1:
- goals of psychology
- pseudopsychologies
- three contemporary perspectives
- *the experiment
- *non-experimental methods
Chapter 2:
- Neural networks
- Parts of the nervous system - Cerebral hemispheres and lobes
- Handedness
Chapter 3:
- Heredity/environment
- Theory of moral development
- Erikson’s psychosocial development
Chapter 4:
- Sensory processes/psychophysics
- Gestalt organizing principles
- Perceptual constancies
Chapter 6:
- Observational learning
Chapter 7:
- Mnemonics
Chapter 8:
- Problem solving
- Creativity
- Intuition
Chapter 9:
- Variations in intelligence*
Chapter 11:
- Sexual development
- Sexual orientation 1. Experiential Cognition: effortless and automatic, does not apply logical
rules or symbolic codes, relies on learning and experience, acquired
over time, learn by doing
a. Promotes process of self –reflection – experience, review, translate
and apply
b. Hands on approach rather than logical analysis
Reflective Cognition: requires effort and concentration, relies on logic
• Enhances critical thinking as one is able to make connections
between learned theories and apply them, testing of your own thinking
process
• Able to understand implications, find a reason for why something
happened
• Able to plan, research, infer, judge and organize, think critically,
reasoning, problem solving, decision making
a. Promotes critical thinking as one evaluate ideas through reasoning
and analyzing evidence
b. Promotes self reflection as it helps you to get better at what you do
and actively reflect on what you are doing
Reflective cognition is more important for good academic performance.
2. Two criteria for critical thinking in psychology
a. Does it make sense? (Is there a compelling explanation, is there a
simpler alternative or explanation)
b. What is the empirical evidence? (evidence for or against)
• Empirical evidence is the most important as psychologists are
empiricists
• Psychology takes a critical thinking based, scientific approach to the
creation of informed opinion
• If a data theory has conflicts – psychologists adjust the theory
• a procedure exists for answering empirical questions
3. Three types of representativeness:
a. Experimenter Bias – experimenters are blind to the true pose of the
study
b. Research participant bias – research participant are kept blind to the
true purpose of the study
c. Double-blind – research participants and experimenters are unaware
of the true purpose of the study, both participant and experimenters
are unaware of who is the experimental or control group
They are all concerned with representativeness because there is the
tendency to select the wrong answers because they appear to match
pre-existing mental categories (all are biased).
4. reality = our own experience vs. Reality = measure of math, science &
acceptance theories
• Karl Popper believes that psychology accepts the principle of
falsifiability and that is theories that cannot be proven true but they can
be proven false
• A theory can only be scientific if it is falsifiable and therefore reality there can be the jump from reality to Reality
• Falsifiable does not mean that something it false, it means that is
must be at least be possible and therefore is a property of all empirical
statements
• Wundt believes that psychology is the science of conscious
experience and that trained observers could accurately describe
thoughts, feelings, and emotions (reality is immediate experience)
5. Triune Brain: made up of 3 layers (3 brains in one)
a. Brain One: Reptilian (R Complex) – brain we share with birds and reptiles
• Centre of the brain – controls the body’s vital functions such as heart rate,
breathing, balance and body temperature, survival
b. Brain Two: Limbic – Wrapped around brain one
• Records memories of behaviours, responsible for emotions
c. Brain Three: Cortex – consists of two large hemispheres
• Responsible for language, imagination, thinking, learning, high order
thinking
Competing Operating Systems: These three parts of the brain do not operate
independently of one another. They have built up numerous interconnections
through which they influence one another. The three minds have competing
needs. Each brain will compete for control and thinks that it is the most
important part. They will interfere and manipulate each other in order to
achieve control.
6. Localize function in the brain: specialization of function among
regions of the brain
• Hippocampus is a structure that occurs in each brain hemisphere and
plays a vital role in forming and retrieving memories
• CAT Scan (high resolution imaging) takes a detailed image from
different perspectives and is able to show if there is structural damage
7. Assimilation: part of Piaget’s theory and involves the application of
existing mental patterns to a new situation (a form of top-down
processing)
Accommodation: part of Piaget’s theory and involves the modification of
existing mental patterns to fit new demands (a form of bottom-up
processing)
Schema: part of Piaget’s cognitive theory and is the building blocks of
knowledge, a way of organizing knowledge. Units of knowledge that each
related to one aspect of the world, linked representations of the world
All of the above combine to produce cognitive growth as knowledge is
constructed and knowledge changes as cognitive processes develop.
Thought changes through the environment and intelligence results from
successful adaptation to one’s environment. Each stage comes from the
previous stage, adds to that stage and prepares for the next stage.
Assimilation and accommodation are known as “functional invariants”
because their purpose is stable and does not change over the course of
development and remains the same throughout all stages as they work to
make sense of the environment. 8. Object Permanence: A child’s ability to understand that objects still exist
even if they are no longer visible.
• Object permanence is part of the sensory-motor stage (birth to 2) not the
preoperational stage because this is the period where a child relies on seeing,
touching, sucking, feeling and using their senses to learn about themselves
and the environment. Intelligence appears from sensory perceptions and
motor activities and objects are not represented. In young infants, when a toy
is covered by a piece of paper, the infant immediately stops and appears to
lose
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