All PSY Notes (Slides)
All PSY Notes (Slides)
All PSY Notes (Slides)
Modern Psychology
Nature vs. nurture debate
Gender differences in how we think
o Focuses on variation of aspects of thinking, feeling, and acting
o Relative influence on genes and environment on individual differences
Psychology’s three main levels of analysis
o Biological influences
o Psychological influences
o Social-cultural influences
Psychology used for everything (ex. in workplace to boost morale and positivity)
Cross-Cultural and Gender and Positive Psychology
o Cross-Cultural
Emphasizes cultural influences on thinking, feeling, behaviour
Culture: behaviours, ideas, attitudes, values, tradition
o Gender
Role our gender plays on thinking, feeling, behaving
o Positive
Focuses on factors that influence positive human functioning
Biopsychosocial Approach
o Behaviour or mental process
Biological influences
Social-cultural influences
Psychological influences
Theory: Observations
Observations of the animal world
o There exists a large variety of living organisms in the world
o Each organism is equipped with traits that are ideal for surviving in their natural
habitats
o Some organisms seem related to others in terms of appearance and/or behaviour
Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection (don’t need to know for final exam or
midterms)
Naturalistic Observation
From watching chimp societies in the jungle to videotaping and analyzing parent-child
interactions in different cultures
The study of things in the natural world (without interference, because actions change
when people/animals know they’re being watched)
The Survey
Looks at many cases in less depth (asks people to report behaviour or opinions)
Wording of questions on survey can affect people’s answers/responses
Random sampling: when you get a sample of a certain group of people that is supposed to
be representative of the whole
Correlation
Naturalistic observations and surveys often show that one trait or behaviour is related to
another, meaning they correlate
Statistical measure (the correlation coefficient) helps us figure out other points by seeing
how previous points relate to one another (imagine a scatterplot with a pattern)
o Measure the relationship between two attributes or behaviours
Ex. The younger children watch TV, the less they read
Ex. The longer children are breast-fed, the greater the later academic
achievement
Correlation: Strength of Relationship
o Correlation Coefficient
Value ranges between -1 and +1
o Positive Correlation
Ranges between 0 and +1
+1 is a perfect positive correlation
o 0 means no correlation at all
o Negative Correlation
Ranges between 0 and -1
-1 is a perfect negative correlation
Regression towards the mean
o We think that everyday we wore pink we were unlucky and all of a sudden we can
only remember days when we wore pink that we were unlucky (when we were
lucky other days in pink but just didn’t remember)
Illusory correlation
o After weird/unusual events in the pattern, things tend to go back to normal (the
mean)
Correlation and Causation
o Correlation does not prove causation
o Correlation indicates the possibility of a cause-effect relationship but does not
prove such
o Correlation: this will probably happen next
o Causation: this will happen next
o If low self-esteem causes depression
Should see a negative correlation
o If depression causes low self-esteem
Should see a negative correlation
o If some third attribute (ex. biological disposition) causes both low self-esteem and
depression
Should see a negative correlation
Experimental Control
1) Confounding Variables
o A variable/factor that could influence the dependent variable
o A) Must keep all experimental conditions constant except for the independent
variable
Ex. Study of the effect of room temperature on test performance
Independent Variable
Room temperature
Potential confounding variables
Seat comfort
Text font size
Room lighting
Instructions
Time
o B) Must ensure that groups are equivalent in terms of all characteristics except for
the independent variable
Potential confounding variables
Age
Innate memory ability
Familiarity with material to be learned
Thus, any differences between the groups can only be due to the
independent variable
Control for group equivalence with random assignment
Participants are randomly assigned to experimental or control groups
Maximizes the possibility that the groups are equivalent
Random assignment (SECOND):
How you maximize the likelihood that your variables are random
and achieve precise results
So that if you have good memory, 50% of good memory people
will be in one group, and 50% will be in the other, hence no biased
results
Random sampling (FIRST):
Law of Large Numbers applies to both random sampling and
assignment
FIRST: Take random sample of population and THEN put the
random sample into random groups BY random assignment
DIFFERENT from random assignment
o Law of Large Numbers
As the size of the sample grows, its average gets progressively closer to
the expected value
2) Placebo effect
o When response to treatment is due to expectation rather than the actual treatment
o Control group gets a placebo
An inert substance
3) Experimenter Bias
o Experimenter’s preconceived notions influence the behaviour of the participant
o Ex. tone of voice, gestures, facial expressions
To control for both, use the double-blind technique
o Neither the participants nor those who administer the drug and collect the data
will know which group (experimental/control) is receiving the treatment
Statistical Significance
When conducting experiments, looking at mean (arithmetic average) differences between
groups
o Through a statistical procedure, you can estimate the likelihood of obtaining
differences between groups by pure chance
o Groups will always have different means
But is the difference statistically significant?
That is, is the difference unlikely to occur by chance?
Or, is the difference so big, that it is unlikely to have occurred by chance,
and is likely to have occurred because the independent variable had an
effect
Neurons
Brain cells, or nerve cells
Anatomy
Cell body
Dendrites
Axon
Terminal branches (terminal buttons)
Myelin sheath
Glial Cells
Nutrients
Clean up debris (ions, neurotransmitters)
Help in guiding neural connections
Myelin
Participate in information transmission
Neuron at Rest
Selectively permeable membrane
o Some things can pass through, while others cannot
o Relatively impermeable to sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) at rest
Na+ in higher concentration outside the cell
K+ in higher concentration inside the cell
Chemical or concentration gradient
Overall, inside of the cell is negatively charged, compared to the outside of the cell
o Electrical potential (gradient)
o Resting (membrane) potential
Synapse
Synapse
o The junction between an axon terminal and a dendrite/cell body
o Synaptic gap (cleft)
Axon terminals release neurotransmitter
o Synaptic vesicles
Neurotransmitter binds to a receptor
o Dendrite or cell body of a receiving neuron
o Lock and key type relationship
Trigger the opening (or closing) of ion channels
o NOT an action potential
Neurotransmitters
Several dozen
o May operate in more than one brain pathway
Ex. Endorphins
o Areas related to mood and pain
Ex. Acetylcholine
o Ach
o Learning and memory
o Junction of motor neuron and muscle
Ach stimulates muscle to contract
The Thalamus
Thalamus
o On top of brainstem
o Two distinct but connected sides
Major relay station of the brain
Relays information from the senses of touch, taste, sigh, and sound to the appropriate
areas of higher processing (the cortex)
o Relays return information from the cortex to the medulla and cerebellum
Relays information from the cerebellum to the cortex
Relays information from one area of the cortex to other areas of the cortex
Cerebral Cortex
Cerebral Cortex
o Sensation and perception
o Thinking (ex. reasoning, problem solving, planning for the future)
o Language
o Voluntary movement
o 3 mm of grey matter
o 20-23 billion (of 40 billion) neurons
The outermost covering of the cerebrum
o Made up of two cerebral hemispheres
Four main lobes, separated by prominent fissures
o Frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital
Motor Cortex
Responsible for voluntary muscular movements
Rear border of the frontal lobe
Contralateral control
No direct correspondence between the size of the muscle and the size of the area of
cortex which controls it
o More cortical real estate means finer motor control
Brain-Computer Interfaces
Predicting Movement
o 100 tiny electrodes attached to a computer
Individual neurons
o Measure motor cortex activity that occurs right before a movement
o Train monkeys on a task
Joystick for moving a cursor
o Computer program interprets neural signals
Determines pattern of firing that corresponds to particular movements
o Program can now predict the movement before it happens
Controlling robotics with the brain
o Task now involves a joystick moving a robotic arm
o Computer program again interprets neural signals
o The computer that interprets the signals is then linked up with a robotic arm
Computers move robotic arm in response to the pattern of neural firing
Also done with humans
Cognitive neural prosthetics
Somatosensory Cortex
Responsible for sense of touch
Front border of the parietal lobe
Contralateral sensation
No direct correspondence between the size of the sensory area and the size of the area of
cortex which receives its sensory neurons
o More cortical real estate means greater sensitivity
Association Areas
Higher cognitive functions
o Interpret the incoming sensory information
Compare incoming information to memories
Determine what is in the environment and its relevance to you
o Determine an appropriate response
Frontal lobes
o The prefrontal cortex
o Judgement, planning, memory formation
o Inhibition
o Integration of emotions in decision making
Parietal lobes
o Mathematical and spatial reasoning
Temporal lobes
o Facial recognition (right)
Plasticity
Neurogenesis
o The formation of new neurons
o High rate in the hippocampus
Plasticity
o The brain’s ability to reorganize itself in the face of different environmental
stimulation
o Genes provide a first draft organization in the absence of experience
For example:
o Monkey fingers
o Stroke
Constraint-induced therapy
o Visual or auditory impairment
o Hemispherectomy
Lateralization of Function
The two cerebral hemispheres are intricately connected through the corpus callosum
o Hemispheres work in coordination
o But different functions, or different aspects of the same function are served by
different hemispheres
General distinction
o Left hemisphere
Analysis
Focus is on the parts
Processes information sequentially
o Right hemisphere
Synthesis
Focus is on the whole
Processes information holistically
Spoken language, calculation = sequential
Facial, emotional recognition = holistic
Left hemisphere
o Verbal communication (language)
Reading, writing, speaking
Comprehending speech
Including sign language
Right hemisphere
o Non-verbal communication
Tone of voice, intonation
Figurative meaning
Ex. metaphors
Good at interference
Implied meaning
Face recognition
Emotion
Split Brains
A condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain’s two hemispheres by cutting
the fibres (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them
Personality and intellect virtually unaffected
The integration of perceptual information is interrupted
The ability of the right hemisphere to express itself verbally is compromised
Vision
The stimulus input
o Electromagnetic radiation
o Packets of energy given off by all things, particularly things that are high in
energy (ex. sun)
o Different kinds of electromagnetic radiation
Ex. X-Rays, UV radiation, infrared radiation, microwaves, radio waves,
light
What we call “light” is the portion of the spectrum that our eyes can detect
The Eye
Detect and transduce electromagnetic radiation (light)
o Transduction is the conversion of one form of energy into another
Cornea
Pupil
Iris
Lens
Retina
The Retina
Several layers of cells
Photoreceptors
o Rods and cones
o 130 million rods and cones
Mostly rods
Bipolar cells
Ganglion cells
o 1 million
o Axons form the optic nerve
Blind Spot
Axons from the ganglion cells converge and leave the eye on the nose side of the retina
There is a hole in your retina where there are no receptor cells
o Brain has no direct information about a small area of your visual field
o But it has indirect formation
The other eye
Eye movements
Close one eye and keep the eyes still to notice the blind spot
o The brain fills in the information by making its best guess based on the adjacent
areas of the retina
Feature Detection
Optic nerve carries information to the visual cortex
o Thalamus
o Areas of the visual field have corresponding areas of the visual cortex
Feature detection cells (feature detectors) for each area of visual field
o Form (edges: lines, angles), movements, colors, depth
Parallel processing
o All features are detected simultaneously
o Different brain regions for form, colour, movement, depth
o Damage can impair perception of particular categories of features
Ex. motion
Supercell clusters in association cortex
o Respond to complex patterns constructed from the combination of individual
features
o Ex. A gestalt
o Ex. Faces or objects
Specific examples of these gestalts are housed in long-term memory (cortex)
o Damage can interfere with perception
o Ex. Prosopagnosia
Colour Vision
Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory
o Any colour created by combining light waves of three primary colours
Red, green, blue
o Theory was that brain worked the same way
o Hypothesized that retina will have three different types of colour sensitive cells
Confirmed with research
Colour blindness
o Typically, missing red, green, or both red and green cones
Red and green look similar
Problems with trichromatic theory
o Missing cones but perceiving yellow
o Yellow seems pure
Not a combination of red and green
Colour vision is the result of opponent processes
o Processes in which colour processing cells are stimulated by some cones, but
inhibited by others
o Afterimages
Red and green are opponent colours
Blue and yellow are opponent colours
Black and white also
Opponent Process Theory
o Opposing retinal processes enable full colour vision
o Ex. red and green
Some cells stimulated by green, inhibited by red
Others stimulated by red, inhibited by green
Thus, there is no reddish-green
Motion Perception
Brain infers motion by the change in images on the retina
o Same imagine taking up progressively more retinal space
Approaching object
o Same image taking up progressively less retinal space
Retreating object
o Same image displaced on the retina to the left, right, up, or down
Movement right, left, down, or up, respectively
Illusory Motion
Phi phenomenon
o An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and
off in quick succession
o Ex. Moving arrow, marquee lights
Stroboscopic motion
o The perception of movement in a rapid series of varying images
Ex. flip books, movies
Perceptual Constancy
Perceptual Constancy
o Perceiving objects as unchanging, even as retinal image or illumination changes
o Shape, size, brightness, colour
Shape Constancy
o Perceive the shape of familiar objects as unchanging, even though the image on
the retina changes
Size Constancy
o Two objects of the same size that differ in terms of how far away they are will
cast images of different sizes of the retina
However, we don’t perceive the objects that cast a smaller retinal image as
actually smaller
o Experience allows our brains to make assumptions
Objects of the same kind (ex. cars, people) are roughly the same size
o Thus, if we assume that two objects are roughly similar in size, then the one that
takes up the least amount of retinal space will be perceived as farther away, rather
than smaller
Thus, depth perception cues play a role in size constancy
o Illusions of Size Constancy: Ames Room
Room Shape
Peep-hole eliminates binocular depth cues
Linear cues altered
Experience with rooms (Top-down)
Size distortion
Since room seems cubed, two corners seem about the same
distance
Two people, same distance, but one takes up more space on retina
Thus, must be bigger
Illusion overrides size constancy assumption
Colour Constancy
o Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent colour, even if changing
illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the objects
o Different sources of light emit different relative amounts of different visible light
wavelengths
Ex. incandescent vs. fluorescent light bulbs
Ex. The sun at noon vs. the sun at dusk
o Thus, the proportions of the different visible wavelengths that hit your retina—
determining the colour you see—also depend on the light source
o Your brain takes into account the light being reflected by all the objects in the
scene
o Failure of colour constancy: The Dress
Blue/Black or White/Gold
Depends on what your brain assumes about the illumination
Brightness Constancy
o The total amount of light reflected influences brightness perception
Ex. White paper reflects a greater proportion of the light that hits it
compared to black paper
o Black paper in sunlight reflects more light than white paper indoors
But the paper still appears black
o Brightness of something depends on relative luminance
The amount of light something reflects relative surrounding objects
Colour/Brightness Constancy
o Amount of light reflected influences brightness perception
o But dull blue does not become bright blue in sunlight
o Relative luminance
Everything is brighter
Hearing (Audition)
Stimulus Input
o Sound waves
o Alternating series of compressed and expanded (rarified) air
Sound Wave
o Sound can be represented as a two dimensional wave
o Number of wavelengths per second is the frequency (Hertz)
The longer the wavelength, the shorter the frequency
Frequency determines the pitch
o Amplitude of wave determines the loudness
Measured in decibels
Loudness: Decibels
o Sound loudness is measured in decibels
A measure of the amount of pressure that the waves exert
o Decibels are a logarithmic scale that allows you to describe the magnitude of
different sounds relative to a reference magnitude
o Reference magnitude for sound is the absolute threshold for sound
The smallest magnitude of sound that can be detected 50% of the time
o Every 10 decibels correspond to a 10-fold increase in sound intensity
Relative to a threshold stimulus
The Ear
Transduces the sound wave energy into electrical energy
Outer ear
Auditory Canal
Eardrum
Middle Ear – 3 bones
o Hammer
o Anvil
o Stirrup
Cochlea
o Oval window
o Basilar membrane
o Hair cells (receptor cells)
Cilia
16,000 receptors
o The more hair cells that are stimulated, the louder the sound
Hearing Loss
o 2 general kinds:
Conduction hearing loss
Damage to either the eardrum or bones of the middle ear
o Infection, trauma
Sensorineural hearing loss
Damage to the hair cells
o Or the auditory nerve
o Prolonged exposure to loud noises, age, infection
o Cochlear Implant
A device for converting sound waves into electrical signals and
stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea
Perception of Pitch
Place Theory
o Best explains how we sense high pitches (depending on what area of the cochlea
membrane is stimulated)
Frequency Theory
o Best explains how we sense low pitches (depending on the frequency of neural
impulses (the same as the frequency of the sound wave)).
Limitation
o Can hear 20Hz to 20,000Hz
o But neurons fire at 1000Hz maximum
Middle frequencies still not represented
Volley Principle
o Frequencies of adjacent hair cells added together
o While some neurons shoot, others reload
Sound Localization
Left-Right localization
o Different arrival times of stimulus at different ears
Also a difference in the magnitude of the sound wave at different ears
o Sound magnitude weakens as it travels
o Head dampens the sound
Sound shadow
What about front, back, above, and below localization?
Taste
Chemical sense
Bumps all over your tongue
o Papillae
About 200 taste buds inside each papilla
Each taste bud consists of:
o A) A pore that captures food molecules
o B) 50 to 100 receptor cells that have little hairs that detect food molecules
Basic Taste Sensations:
o Sweet
o Sour
o Bitter
o Salty
Research confirmed receptors for these 4, and another taste sensation
o Umami
o Savory, meaty taste
Ex. Monosodium glutamate (MSG), beef broth
o Things that contain amino acids
Ex. Meats, cheese, soy sauce, grains, beans
Each taste sensation is related to a survival function
Smell/Olfaction
Like taste, smell is a chemical sense
o Sensory receptors detect airborne molecules emitted from a stimulus
20 million receptor cells at the top of each nasal cavity
o Each with many hair-like cilia
o Bathed in mucous
Embedded on the surface of the cilia are 350 different receptor proteins that recognize
particular odour molecules
o Combine to account for the many different scents we can detect
Olfaction is the only sense that bypasses the thalamus
o It is the most primitive sense
o Animals use smell to track prey, avoid predators, navigate, mark territory, identify
family, detect potential mating partners
Intimately connected with the limbic system
o Thus, ability to evoke emotions and memory
o Critical function of smell is to sample food before we ingest it
Ex. Disgust, happiness
o Smells can trigger old memories, typically with an emotional content
Flavour
Flavour is a combination of taste, smell, and texture
o Taste and smell meet up in the frontal lobe
o Temperature, spiciness, coolness, dryness
o Hunger, thirst, vision, audition
Smell plays a large role in flavour
o Food has little taste with your nose plugged
Both have direct connections with the amygdala
Sensory Interaction
Sensory Thresholds and Reaction Times
o An accompanying sound can lower the absolute threshold for vision
o Reaction times are faster to combinations of sights and sounds
Closed captioning
o Visual information clarifies auditory information
McGurk Effect
o Brain’s tendency to perceive sound that is consistent with mouth movement
o Auditory-Ba and Visual-Fa
Hear Fa
Vision dominates
o Auditory-Ba and Visual-Ga
Hear Da?
Rubber Hand Illusion
Consciousness
“Our awareness of ourselves and our environment”
…and the awareness that we are aware
The ability to experience or feel
o The state that involves experiential properties, often referred to as “qualia”
A state with a particular subjective character
o If you are in a conscious state, then there is a “what it is like” to be in that state
o So, an organism is conscious if there is something that it’s like to be that organism
o That is, there is some subjective, first-person way that the world seems or appears
o What it’s like to be drunk? Meditating? Hypnotized? Asleep? Dreaming? A bat?
Blindsight
A condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously
experiencing it
o A) Knowing the direction of moving targets
o B) Slipping post cards into mail slots
o C) Appropriately grasp a block
o D) Accurately navigate a cluttered hallway
o E) Detect emotions in faces
Can replicate this in those with intact brains with magnetic stimulation
o A) Guess the colour and orientation of an object
o B) Detect emotions
Ex. Hollow face illusion
Two systems for visual processing
o One system controls conscious visual perception
Allows us to recognize and plan
o The other controls visually guided actions
Knows location, orientation, movement
Selective Attention
Conscious awareness involves attention
Selective Attention
o The focusing on conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
o Determines the contents of consciousness
Spotlight analogy
o You attend to some information, but ignore the rest
0.00036%
o But processing of the rest of the information is happening at a shallow level
Ex. the cocktail party effect
o Multitasking
Dividing attention between 2 tasks
Switching of the attentional spotlight
There is a cost
Ex. distracted driving
Selective Inattention
Attention to one thing means inattention to other things
Inattentional blindness
o Failure to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
Inattentional deafness
Change blindness
o Failure to notice changes in the environment
Change deafness
Chapter 3 Part 2
Brainwaves
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
o Measurement of brain waves
Alpha waves
o The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state
o Lower arousal
o Lower frequency than when awake
Delta waves
o The larger, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep
Stages of Sleep
Four stages
o 3 non-REM stages and 1REM stage
REM = rapid eye movement
Stage 1 (NREM-1)
o Slower brain waves
o Hypnagogic sensations
Hallucinations
Ex. Sounds and images
Ex. Feel like you’re falling, floating, being weighed down
o Brief (5-10 mins)
Stage 2 (NREM-2)
o Brain waves become more irregular
o Ex. Sleep spindles
o Deeper than stage 1
o About 20 minutes
Stage 3 (NREM-3)
o Stage 3 is the deepest sleep
o Indicated by low frequency delta waves
o Young children spend more time in this stage
o About 30 minutes
Rapid Eye Movement (REM)
o Often termed paradoxical sleep
Brain waves speed up
Heart rate and breathing speed up
o Every 30 seconds, eyes dart around
Indicates dreaming
o Sleep paralysis
o Genital arousal
o 10 minutes
Cycles take about 90 minutes
o First cycle
1, 2, 3, 2, REM
o Then repeat, skipping stage 1
Stage 3 becomes progressively more brief
REM and stage 2 become progressively longer
Total about 20-25% (100 minutes) in REM sleep
Chapter 3 Part 3
Dreams
A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind
Vivid
Narrative (story)
o Often bizarre, but accepted
Not remembered well
Dreams: Content
Relation between waking and dreaming attributes
o Dreams often contain parts of the day’s events
Ex. People, places, objects, personal anxieties, work/school
More negative than positive content
o 80% of dreams have at least one negative event or emotion
o Repeatedly falling in an attempt to do something; being attacked, pursued or
rejected; experiencing misfortune
Little sexual content
Real stimuli can be incorporated
o Sounds, scents, physical stimuli
o Thus, brain is still analyzing incoming sensory information
Psychoactive Drugs
Chemicals that change perceptions and moods
Through their action at the synapse
Substances with similar chemical structure to neurotransmitters
Tolerance
The diminishing effect of a drug after repeated use
Require larger doses to obtain the same effect
Tolerance is the results of neuroadaptation
o Attempt to maintain homeostasis by counteracting the effect of the drug
o Ex. Heroin mimicking endorphins
Reduce the production or release endorphins
Reduce endorphin receptors
Alcohol
Slow neural processing
o Low doses
Anxiolytic effect
Inhibits anxiety (SNS), thus, elevates mood, mild euphoria
o Large doses
Physical impairment
Cognitive impairment
Memory Disruption
o REM disturbances
o Hippocampus depression
o Long term damage
Cognitive and memory impairment
Reduced self-awareness
o Ex. Failures or shortcomings
Expectancy Effects
o Aggression, increased friendliness, self-disclosure, sexual arousal
Stimulants
Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up bodily functions
o Ex. Caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy
Cocaine
o HR, BP, BR increase
o Euphoria
o At larger doses anxiety, delusions of persecution
o Quick transition from euphoria to crash
Hallucinogens
Psychedelic drugs that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of
sensory input
o Ex. LSD, marijuana
LSD
o Lysergic acid diethylamide
o Variable emotional experiences
o Strong visual and auditory hallucinations
Marijuana
o A mild hallucinogen
o Amplifies sensory sensitivity
Colours, sounds, tastes, smells
o Can also cause euphoria, relaxation, disinhibition
o Can intensify depression or anxiety
Chapter 7 Part 1
Learning
Learning
o The process of acquiring through experience new information behaviours
Associative Learning
o Learning that certain events occur together
I.e. Learning to predict
Brain naturally connects events that occur in sequence
o Adaptive
Cognitive Learning
o The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, watching
others, or through language
Ivan Pavlov
Russian Physiologist
o Digestion
Secretion of digestive juices
Ex. Salivation (secretion of saliva)
A biological response to the stimulus of food
Noticed salivation before the food arrived
o Recognized associative learning
o Dogs learned to predict the food was coming
Classical Conditioning
o A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate
events
Pavlov’s Experiments
Classically conditioning dogs to salivate to a tone
Creating an association between:
o 1) A stimulus that naturally elicits a response
o 2) A stimulus that doesn’t naturally elicit a response
Presents food (stimulus) alone
o Salivation (response)
o Unlearned response
o Unconditioned Response (UR)
An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus
o Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
A stimulus that unconditionally – naturally or automatically – triggers and
unconditioned response
Present a tone (stimulus) alone
o No salivation (no response)
o Neutral stimulus (NS)
A stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning
o Pair the tone with food (pair 2 stimuli) for several repetitions
Salivation (response)
Learned response
Conditioned response (CR)
A learned response to a previous neutral (but now conditioned)
stimulus
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
An originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an
unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response
Classical Conditioning
Before Conditioning (Before Learning)
o Food (in mouth) = Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
Unlearned stimulus
o Salivation = Unconditioned Response (UR)
Unlearned response
o Tone = Neutral Stimulus (NS)
No response (no salivation)
During Conditioning (Acquisition)
o Pairing of tone (Neutral Stimulus) and Food (Unconditioned Stimulus)
Neutral stimulus must come first
o Salivation (Unconditioned Response)
After Conditioning (after several pairings of tone + food)
o Present just the tone
Salivation
o Tone = Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
o Salivation = Conditioned Response (CR)
An anticipatory response
Extinction
The process of reversing the classical conditioning
o Changed Conditioned Stimulus back to Neutral Stimulus
Present the Conditioned Stimulus without presenting the Unconditioned Stimulus
Example
o Present the tone (CS), but without the food (US)
o Salivation (CR) to the tone will stop
Spontaneous Recovery
The recovery of a Conditioned Response
o Extinguish salivation (CR)
o Wait a few hours
o Present tone again
Some recovery of the salivation (CR)
o The learning hasn't been erased
Suppressed
Practical Applications
Advertising
o Advertising your product with something happy so that the product will get
associated with happiness, hence making the customer want to buy it
Phobia Therapy
o Someone afraid of dogs because they were bitten by one in childhood, put them in
a room with a really friendly dog to make them face their fear
o Easiest psychological therapy (show them that what they think is going to happen
isn’t going to happen)
Farm Animals
o Coyotes that eat your farm animals, instead of killing them (and upsetting the
natural ecosystem), poison the sheep meat so that the coyotes will associate sheep
with vomiting and poison and hence won’t want to eat your farm animals
Drug programs
Operant Conditioning
A type of learning in which behaviour is strengthened if followed by a reinforce or
diminished if followed by a punisher
A form of associative learning
o An association between behaviour (response) and its consequences
Reinforcers (rewards) and punishers
Operant conditioning relies on operant behaviour
o Behaviour that operates on the environment to produce some consequence
o Voluntarily chosen behaviour
Reinforcements
Any event that strengthens the behaviour it follows
Tangible
Activity
Attention
Relative Reinforcers
o Personal preferences
Something reinforcing to one person may not be so to another
o Situation
Can of coke or $100 bill for person who does best on midterm (chooses
$100), vs. can of coke or $100 bill for the stranded survivalist who first
builds a fire (chooses can of coke)
Discriminative Stimulus
o Stimulus that signals that a response will be rewarded (ex. sit)
Reinforcement Schedules
Continuous versus partial (intermittent) reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement
o Present a reward every time after a target response
o Faster learning
o Faster extinction
Partial (intermittent) reinforcement
o Present a reward after several responses or after a particular amount of time
o Slower learning
o Slower extinction
o Examples
Fishing
Slot machines
Child tantrum
1) Fixed Ratio
o Provide a reward after a particular number of responses
o 1 food reward for every 10 pecks (1:10)
o This results in a high rate of responding
As the number of responses increases, so does the reward
2) Variable Ratio
o Provide a reward after a variable number of responses
o Sometimes after 10 responses, sometimes after 30 (1:10, 1:30)
Unpredictable
o Again, get a high rate of responding
Again, as the number of responses increases, so does the reward
3) Fixed Interval
o Reinforce the first response after a fixed time period
o Get high responding when the time period approaches, but little or no responding
right after a reward
4) Variable Interval
o Reinforce the first response after varying time intervals
o Sometimes right away, sometimes after 20 seconds, etc.
o Produces slow, steady responding
Shaping
An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behaviour toward closer
and closer approximations of the desired behaviour
Ex. rats pressing a lever
Ex. monkey waterskiing
Ex. rats sniffing out land mines
Punishment
Punishment
o An event that tends to decrease the behaviour that it follows
o Ex. spanking, a scolding, bad grade, being laughed at, being fired, speeding ticket
o Ex. taking away a toy, a timeout, being grounded, losing your license
Positive or Negative
o Positive: Administer something aversive
o Negative: Take away something desirable
Observational Learning
Bobo doll experiments
o Young child works on a drawing
o An adult in the same room is working with some Tinkertoys, but then gets
frustrated
o Gets up, starts pounding, kicking, and throwing a Bobo doll
“Knock him down”, “kick him”
o Child then taken to another room and given some appealing toys to play with
o After playing with them briefly, the experimenter interrupts the child playing and
tells the child that he is saving these good toys for some other children
Frustrate the child
o Take the child to another room with a Bobo doll and leaves them alone
o Another group followed the same procedure, except the model played with the
Tinkertoys only, and ignored the Bobo doll
o Those children who had witnessed the aggressive behaviour towards the Bobo
doll
Mimicked the specific behaviour sand utterances
Observational Learning
o Learning by observing others
Modeling
o The process of observing and imitating a specific behaviour
o Some neonates will imitate tongue sticking out
o By 8-16 months infants will imitate novel hand and finger gestures
o By 12 months they will look where an adult is looking
o By 14 months they will imitate acts modeled on TV
o Culture
o Vicarious learning
Vicarious reinforcement and punishment
Brain reward system becomes active
Ex. Olympics
Mirror Neurons
Frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or
when observing another doing so
o Frontal lobe involved with planning movement
First discovered in monkeys
o fMRI research with humans
Some believe that these neurons provide the neural basis for imitation
May be the basis for empathy
Chapter 8 Part 1
Memory
The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of
information
Cognitive psychology
o Create information-processing models
Stages of Memory
o Sensory Memory
o Short-term memory
Working memory
o Long-term memory
Processes of memory
o Encoding
o Storage
o Retrieval
Sensory Memory
First stage of memory
Relatively exact representation of a sensory experience
All sensory information
Stored very briefly
o Required attention or lost
o 40/11,000,000
Duration
o Depends on the sensory system
o Ex. Vision
Sperling study
Sperling Study
o Recall about half when trying to recall whole array of letters
o Recall almost perfect when trying to recall only one row
Visual Sensory Memory
o Iconic memory
o About half a second
Auditory Sensory Memory
o Echoic memory
o About 3-4 seconds
Incoming information briefly scanned for relevant/important information
o Ex. Cocktail party effect
Levels of Processing
Refers to the degree of processing of meaning
Craik & Tulving Study
o 1) Physical structure (visual encoding)
o 2) Phonemic analysis (acoustic encoding)
o 3) Semantic analysis (semantic encoding)
Shallow Processing
o Encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words
Deep Processing
o Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words
The self-reference effect
o Gives something personal meaning
Long-Term Memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system
Minutes to years
Explicit Memory
o Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare
o Declarative memory
Implicit Memory
o Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned association independent of
conscious recollection
o Non-declarative memory
o Memory of how to do things
Procedural memories
Ex. ride a bike, type
o Distributed neural networks
Memories stored across large networks
Memory Storage
Explicit Memory System
o Explicit memories are processed and stored by the frontal lobes and hippocampus
Frontal lobes
o Working memory processing
Hippocampus
o Saving and retrieving the processed information
o Damage disrupts memory consolidation and retrieval
o Memories not stored in hippocampus
Registers and holds information to be remembered
But passes it on to the cortex
Implicit Memory System
o Implicit memories are processed and stored by the cerebellum and basal ganglia
Classically conditioned memories
o Ex. hand prick
o Disrupted with cerebellum damage
Procedural memory
o Involves the basal ganglia
Motor control
Measures of Retrieval
Recall
o A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned
earlier
o Ex. Facts or definitions
What is the name of the second stage of memory?
o Ex. Fill in the blank
The _______ is responsible for storing explicit memories
o Ex. Peterson & Peterson study
Remember 3 consonants while counting down by 3s
Recognition
o A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously
learned
o Ex. Multiple choice
o Ex. Craik and Tulving
Questions that elicited different degrees of semantic processing
Relearning
o A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning
material again
Ex. The final exam
Ex. Ebbinghaus
Nonsense syllables
BAZ, FUB, YOX, SUJ, VUM, PID, KEL
Chapter 8 Part 2
Long-Term Potentiation
Long term memory formation involves synaptic changes
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
o An increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation
o Strengthening of the efficiency of neural transmission at the synapse
Potentiate = to make potent or strengthen
o An increase in the number of synapses
Interfering with LTP interferes with memory
o Manipulating the chemical processes involved
Drugs that interfere with LTP or mutant mice jacking an enzyme for LTP
interfere with learning
Drugs that enhance LTP facilitate learning
Improving memory in humans?
o Manipulating the neurotransmitters involved
Ex. Glutamate
o Increasing CREB production
Memory Retrieval
Encoding
o Getting information in
Storage
o Retaining information
Retrieval
o Getting information out
Memories are triggered by retrieval cues
o Anything that is associated with the thing that you are trying to remember
o Ex. The context of memories
Smells, sights, sounds
Mnemonics
Memories exist as a web of associations
o Items that share characteristics are related in memory
Priming
Priming
o The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory
o Ex. Word completion
o Ex. Rabbit – hare
o Ex. First expose some people to happy music, others to sad music
Mourning/morning
Die/dye
Pain/pane
Thus, priming can also influence perception
Priming (Ch6)
o The activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing
one’s perceptions, memory, or response
o The context in Chapter 6 is unconscious priming
In the section covering thresholds
o Ex. Subliminally present inaction words like still or stop
Evokes brain activity associated with inhibiting behaviour
o Ex. Subliminally present nude images
Participants attention is unconsciously drawn to the side of the screen with
the image
Forgetting
Forgetting
o The loss of information that was previously stored in memory
Forgetting and the Two-Track Mind
o Damage to brain areas related to explicit memories can still leave people able to
encode implicit memories
Retrograde Amnesia
o An inability to retrieve information from one’s past
Anterograde Amnesia
o An inability to form new memories
o Specifically, explicit memories
o Can still encode implicit memories:
Memories for how to do things
But no memory of the learning experience
Remember their way to the bathroom
Where’s Waldo
Read mirror-image writing or mirror tracing
Jigsaw puzzles
Storage Decay
Storage Decay
o Unrehearsed (unrecalled) memories fade over time
o Neural connections fade
Ebbinghaus study
o Nonsense syllables
Spanish vocabulary
Retrieval Failure
Encoding failure and storage failure
o Memory is absent or too weak
Interference
o Memory is there, but another memory is interfering with retrieval
o Competition
Similar memory
Similar retrieval cues
Proactive Interference
o The forward-acting disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new
information
o New memory is interfered with by an old memory
Retroactive Interference
o The backward-acting disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old
information
o Old memory is interfered with by a new memory
Motivated Forgetting
o Consciously
Suppression
o Unconsciously
Repression
But, flashbulb memories
Memory Construction
All memories are reconstructions
o Memory is not an exact replica of the event
o Some details are omitted, while others are imagined
Some fragments of memories get lose
o Fill in the gaps with what seems to make the most sense
Ex. word lists, stories
Misinformation Effect
When misleading information has corrupted one’s memory of an event
Ex. Study (video of car crash)
o “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”
o “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?”
o Any broken glass? Study shows that more people say there would be broken glass
if the word ‘smashed into’ was used instead of ‘hit.’
Imagination Inflation
Imagining an experience makes a person more likely to report that it really happened
Ex. Imagining childhood events
Ex. Digitally altered photos
o Richer details days later
Improving Memory
1. Study Repeatedly
2. Make the material meaningful
3. Activate retrieval cues
4. Use mnemonic devices
5. Minimize interference
6. Sleep
7. Test yourself
Motivation
Motivation
o A need or desire that energizes and directly behaviour
Motivation Conceptualizations
o Answer the question, “At any one time, why do we behave the way we do?”
o Because we are genetically predisposed
o Because we need to satisfy internal drives
o Because we need to attain the right level of arousal
o Because we need to satisfy needs, with some having priority over others
Instinct Theories
Influenced by Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
o Motivations evolved
Instincts
o A complex behaviour that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is
unlearned
Imprinting, display behaviors, spider webs
Rooting and sucking reflexes
Eating and drinking, staying warm, social contact, sex, build shelters
Criticism
o Explaining by naming
o Doesn’t explain complex human behaviour
Social patterns aren’t rigid across cultures (diversity)
Optimal Arousal
Criticism of Drive Reduction Theory
o Only explains basic survival behaviours
Behaviours related to survival and homeostasis
o Not all behaviours decrease arousal
Doesn’t explain curiosity
Doesn’t explain thrill-seeking
o People are motivated to attain optimal arousal
Need for stimulation
Vary from person to person
Motivated to be in a state of optimal arousal
Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow
o Specific human motivations
o Priority of motivations
Hierarchy of Needs
Criticisms
o Biased towards individualistic cultures
o Not everyone seeks self-transcendence
o The order is often violated
Self-transcendence comes earlier for many
Hunger strikes
Parents protecting children
Those in war zones still seek belongingness
Hunger: Physiology
What causes/stimulates the motivation to eat?
1) The Stomach: Hunger Pangs
o Pain or gnawing sensation in the abdominal region
The feeling of hunger
o Stomach contractions
There is correlation between feeling of hunger (pangs) and contractions
o However, hunger persists with stomach removal
2) The Brain: The Hypothalamus
o Integrates hunger information from several sources
o Several hypothalamic nuclei involved
Ex. Arcuate nucleus
Hunger Hormones
Hypothalamus stimulates hunger through the release of orexin
Hypothalamus monitors several signals related to food consumption
Glucose levels
o Low levels stimulate hunger
o Glucostatic theory
Hunger is triggered by the drive to restore optimal blood glucose levels
(homeostasis)
Receives signals from the liver
Ghrelin
o Stomach (empty)
o Stimulates hunger
Obestatin
o Stomach (full)
o Suppresses hunger
PYY
o Intestines
o Suppresses hunger
Leptin
o Fat cells
o Suppresses hunger
Set Point
Leptin associated with long-term satiety
o Fat cells can hold limitless amounts of fatty acids
o The more they hold, the more leptin they release
o Related to the set point
Set Point
o The point at which your “weight thermostat” is set
o As weight increases, hunger decreases
o As weight increases, basal metabolic rate increases
o Basal Metabolic Rate
The body’s resting rate of energy expenditure
The rate of energy expenditure for maintaining basic body functions when
at rest
Ex. 29% drop in one semi-starved sample
Physiology of Obesity
Definition of Obesity
o Body mass index over 30
Body Mass Index (BMI)
o Standard for classifying weight categories
o Significant increase in health problems at BMI over 30
High blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, diabetes
Gallstones, arthritis
o Doesn’t account for activity level
o Psychological effects
Late-life cognitive decline
Increased rates of depression
Lower life satisfaction
Social Consequences
o Bullying
o Weight discrimination
Sexual Motivation
Evolutionary Perspective
o Sexual motivation supports procreation
Sexual Motivation Influences
o Biological, psychological, cultural
Sex Hormones
o Testosterone and estrogens
(Non-Human) Mammals
o Females
Only sexually receptive during periods of fertility
Estrogens (ex. estradiol) peak during ovulation
Can stimulate receptivity with an injection of estrogens
o Males
Testosterone is more stable
Injections have little influence
Castrated rats will lose interest in sexual activity
Injections will re-establish the motivation
Psychological Influences
External Stimuli
o People
o Seeing, hearing, or reading erotic material
o Males and females similar reaction
Males slightly more activation in the amygdala
o Adverse effects
Increases men’s acceptance of the false idea that females enjoy coercive
sex
Leads to devaluing of partners and relationships
Decreases satisfaction with own partners
Internal Stimuli
o Imagined stimuli
Sexual fantasies or memories
o Males slightly more or less romantically
Same with books or videos
Sexual Orientation
Sexual Orientation
o An enduring sexual attraction towards member’s of one’s own sex, the other sex,
or both sexes
Sexual Orientation Statistics
o Estimated that 3-4% of men and 2% of women
Numbers go up 1-2% when using surveys that absolutely guarantee
anonymity
o Estimated that less than 1% are actively bisexual
Although 13% of women and 5% of men report some same-sex contact
during their life
o A “tiny fraction” identify as asexual
o Similar rates across Western countries
Sexual orientation is neither willfully chosen nor willfully changed
o “Efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve
some risk of harm”, American Psychological Association
Women tend to display more erotic plasticity
o Men are less sexually variable in terms of drive and interests
Women’s desire goes up and down more than men
Women are more likely than men to feel and act on bisexual attraction
o Ex. when shown pictures of heterosexual couples in either erotic and non-erotic
contexts, the men look mostly at the women, while the women look more equally
at both
o Ex. Physiological responses to sexually explicit videos (and subjective arousal) is
to the preferred target for men, while women respond more to both males and
females
A high sex drive in men:
o Associated with greater attraction to women (if hetero) and greater attraction to
men (if homo)
A high sex drive in women:
o Associated with increased attraction to both men and women
Achievement Motivation
Achievement Motivation
o A desire for significant accomplishment; for mastery of skills or ideas; for
control; and for attaining a high standard
Biological theories of motivation fail to explain why we continue to be motivated after
our physiological needs have been satisfied
High achievement motivation characterized by being more ambitious, energetic,
persistent, tenacious, self-disciplined
o Varied hobbies and activities
o Self-discipline better predicts school performance, attendance, and graduation
honours than IQ
Grit
o Passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals
Emotion
A response to some stimulus that involves:
1) Arousal component
o Physiological arousal
o Ex. HR, BP, BR
o Ex. Losing a child
Accelerated HR; running around searching, facial expression of fear;
thoughts of loss; feeling of fear
2) Behavioural component
o Expressive behaviours
o Facial expression and body mannerisms
o Ex. Seeing a loved one after a long separation
Accelerated HR; embracing, kissing, smiling; affectionate thoughts;
feeling of joy
3) Cognitive component
o A) Thoughts or Interpretations
Interpretation of the consequences or relevance of the stimulus
o B) Feelings
The subjective experience of an emotion
o Ex. Being insulted
Accelerated HR; yelling, aggressive body stance, angry facial expression,
thoughts of threat; feeling of anger
Physiological Arousal
Autonomic nervous system
o Sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions
o Sympathetic division responds to challenge
Fight or flight
Arousal also necessary for cognitive challenges
o Emotions signal either a physical or cognitive challenge
o The amount of arousal that is optimal depends on the task
Yerkes-Dodson Law
o In general, moderate arousal leads to optimal performance
o But less for difficult tasks, and more for easy tasks
Physiological Similarities and Differences Among Particular Emotions
o Similarities
Sympathetic nervous system responses
o Slight differences in physiological response
Fear and joy similar HR increase
Differences in brain circuits
o More amygdala activation with fear than anger
o Negative emotions (ex. disgust, depression) more activation of right frontal lobe,
and vice versa
Differences in facial muscles
Theories of Emotion
A response to some stimulus that involves 3 components:
o 1) Arousal
o 2) Behaviours
o 3) Cognition
Early theories of emotion concerned with:
o Which occurs first?
The physiological arousal or the conscious experience and labeling of the
emotion?
o Or do they occur at the same time?
Later theories of emotion concerned with:
o What is the relationship between cognition and emotions
Facial Expressions
Characteristic patterns of facial muscle contraction
o Fake smiles last longer and start and stop more abruptly
Distress or worry
o Lifting of inner eyebrow
Surprise
o Raised eyebrows
o Eyes open widely
Disgust
o Wrinkling of the nose
Consistent across cultures
Seen in infants
Seen in the congenitally blind
Cannon-Bard Theory
Criticism of James-Lange Theory
o 1) Mechanism is too slow
o 2) Physiological responses not distinct enough
Cannon-Bard Theory
o The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers:
1) Physiological responses
2) The subjective experience of emotion
The detection of a stimulus causes the physiological response (and expressive
behaviours) and he conscious experience (the feeling) at the same time
The neural signal from the stimulus goes simultaneously to the SNS (physiological
arousal) and to the cortex (conscious experience)
Also, no explicit emphasis on the cognitive appraisal
Schachter and Singer’s Two-Factor Theory
Two-Factory Theory
o The Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must:
1) Be physically aroused
2) Cognitively label the arousal
Physiological arousal comes first
o But physiological responses are not distinct enough
Require a cognitive appraisal of the situation
o Physiological arousal
o Consciously explain the source of the physiological arousal
o The two together cause the consciously experienced feeling
Spillover effect
o Heightened levels of arousal impact how one perceives other events
Study: Reported feelings after injection of adrenaline
Study: Bridge phone number
Thus, conscious cognitive labels can influence the felt component of an emotion
Lie Detection
Polygraph
o A machine that measures emotion-linked changes in breathing, cardiovascular
activity (HR & BP) and perspiration
o Asked baseline questions
Probable-lie questions
“In the last 20 years, have you ever taken anything that belongs to you?”
“Have you ever lied to get out of trouble?”
o Then asked the critical questions
Compare physiological measures to the baseline questions
Criticisms
o Anxiety, irritation, guilt result in similar physiological arousal
The victim can fail the test
o Can be beaten
Guilty Knowledge Test
o Ask them questions about a crime that would not be known to an innocent person
o Sequential multiple choice
o Measure the physiological reaction to the individual choices
EEG recordings
o Brain wave patterns that reveal familiarity
fMRI
o Left frontal lobe (prefrontal cortex)
o Anterior cingulate cortex
Anger
Response to some perceived misdeed
o To oneself or someone one cares about
o Particularly if perceived as willful, unjustified, or avoidable
Adaptive function
Catharsis
o Emotional release
Catharsis Hypothesis
o Releasing aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
o Ex. Screaming, hitting pillows, kicking garbage cans
Catharsis Research
Ex. Bushman (2002)
o Make people angry by insulting their essay
o Some hit punching bag, others not
If hit bag, show more aggression
o Rumination vs. distraction
Story about student treated unfairly by professor
Those who ruminate show more anger
Sometimes acting progressively temporarily leads to calming
o A) When the provoker is the target
o B) The retaliation seems justifiable
o C) The target is not intimidating
Happiness
Happiness
o A state of well-being and contentment
o A response to some perceived fortune
Positive Psychology
o The scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals of discovering and
promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities thrive
o Studying the factors related to happiness
o Ex. brain correlates of happiness, genes, personality characteristics, effects on
health, how to teach happiness, behaviours
Determinants of Happiness
Genes
o Twin studies
Wealth?
o 82% of American college students think “Being very well off financially” is very
important
o People with lots of money are happier than those who struggle to afford life’s
basic needs
o People in rich countries experience greater well-being than those in poor countries
o However, while incomes continue to increase, happiness has not
o Once people have their basic needs met, happiness ratings tend to level out