Transcript Memory - HomePage Server for UT Psychology

Boot Camp
2/24/04
Sea Biscuit
Racing Heart?

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Intelligent Salivary Glands
The role of salivation on digestion
Saliva production = automatic, no conscious control or
learning
–
Unconditioned Reflex

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Consistent within species
But, learned from experience in lab to expect food following
signals
–
Conditioned Reflex

Extremely variable
How it all began…
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) = FOOD
Unconditioned Response (UCR) = SALIVATION
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) = FOOTSTEPS
Conditioned Response (CR) = SALIVATION
3 Simple Steps
UCS
NS + UCS
1.
2.
•
3.
UCR
UCR
REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT
CS
CR

Classical Conditioning
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
–
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Unconditioned Response (UCR)
–

Automatic response
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
–

Reflex-like, non-learned, automatically causes response
Previously neutral, repeatedly precedes US
Conditioned Response (CR)
–
Transferred: now associated with CS
Pavlov ring a bell?
salivation (UCR)
1.
Food (UCS)
2.
Metronome (NS) + Food (UCS)
salivation (UCR)
REPEAT * 5-20 times
3.
Metronome (CS)
AND:
Vanilla odor + acid
Rotating Object + food
salivation (UCR)
salivation
salivation
Key Points

Can explain a wide range of behavior
–
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Advertising, food aversion, phobias
Focuses on reflexive behavior
–
–
Not under voluntary control
Any reflex can be conditioned
to air
NSinto eye)
(puff of
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Eye blink—door bell
Sexual arousal—strawberries
HR increases– flashing blue light
(romantic caresses)
(sudden noise)
Real Life
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Advertising (sexy images, music, celebs)
Phobias, addiction
Food Aversions
Credit cards, Logos & spending
Ranchers
–
–

Coyotes & wolves killing sheep
UCS = lithium chloride; UCR = nausea
Health & well being?
Reflexes
&
emotions


Ader & Cohen (1985)
Drug (cyclophosphamide) – Weakened
immune system
Saccharine H2O + Drug --- W.I.S
–
Repeated…

Saccharine H2O --- W.I.S

Chemotherapy (environmental cues– W.I.S)
What about enhancing?

–
Smell of camphor, sherbet & adrenaline…
But usually we buy, study, work…

We “OPERATE” on the environment to produce an effect

Voluntary, complex, goal-directed behaviors

Any behavior that leads to a “satisfying state of affairs” is
more likely to occur again; those that lead to an “annoying
state of affairs” are less likely
– Law
of Effect
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Animal problem solving
Thorndike’s Puzzle Box
Hungry Cats in cage
Trap door operated by lever
Raw fish outside cage
Sniff, scratch, push, dig… bang on lever
Repeat… efficiency
Thorndike (1911)

Just like socialization

Through rewards and punishment, parents
train kids

Learning how to produce desirable outcomes
= adaptive
Operant Conditioning
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Skinner Box
Stimulus light
Response bar/ pecking key
–
Dry food pellets, water

Metal grid for electric shocks
Recording instrument

Reinforcement (instead of reward/ satisfaction)

–

Any stimulus that increases likelihood of response
Punishment
–
Any stimulus that decreases likelihood

Behaviors considered uniquely human can
be learned by lowly creatures like rats and
pigeons

Not superstition!
–
Thinking, knowing, reasoning, belief
Good luck charms?

People presume connexn between behavior &
reinforcing consequence

Behavior must have been accidentally reinforced
–
Rolling dice certain way – good roll…

40% college athletes!

Pigeons
Non-contingent rewards

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Several days
Highly motivated pigeons
Do what pigeons do
For a few minutes… every 15 seconds =
pellets
They became “superstitious”
“One bird conditioned to turn counter
clockwise, making 2-3 turns between
reinforcements.”
“Another thrust its head into corner of cage”
“One developed a tossing response as if
placing its head beneath an invisible bar and
lifting it repeatedly”

“Human bowler who has released a ball, but
continues to behave as if he was controlling it by
twisting and turning his arm…”
–

Rationally – no effect, food comes every 15 seconds
“The bowler’s effect has no behavior on the ball,
but the behavior of the ball has an effect on the
bowler”
Problem- must wait for behavior to reward…

E.g. training dog to roll-over

Shaping
–
–
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Reinforcing behaviors increasingly similar to
desired behavior
E.g. making me lecture from corner
Extinction
–
–
Without reinforcement, behavior fades
(in C.C. repeat CS w/out US)
More problems- not enough pellets!
Partial Reinforcement

–
Coke Machine vs. Slot Machine

–
–
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Not EVERY response must be reinforced
If don’t get rewarded… walk away?
Strengthens later resistance to extinction
4 different schedules
Vary time of interval
Fixed-Interval Schedule
1.
–
Studying starts slow, increases @ midterms,
trails off after, picks up @ finals
Variable Interval Schedule
2.
–
Pop quizzes
Vary # responses required
Fixed-Ratio
1.
–
Administer reinforcement after a fixed number of
responses

Frequent flyer programs, payment based on fixed # products,
CD clubs…
Variable Ratio
2.
–
Reinforced after average # of responses

Lotteries, radio call-ins, slot machines
Punishment
Strong, immediate, consistent & inescapable

–

1.
2.
3.
4.
Suppresses unwanted behaviors
BUT
Temporary inhibition (smoking)
Replacement behavior (jail)
“aversive” stimuli = rewarding?
Negative emotions lead to retaliation
Learning by Doing AND by SEEING

Don’t we sometimes learn without direct
experience?

Think about 1st time danced, drove a car,
programmed a VCR
–
Learn by watching and imitating others
–
Observational Learning
Bandura’s (1960) Bobo Doll Study

Expose children to adult models that are
aggressive vs. nonaggressive
–
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36 boys & 36 girls 3-6 yrs old
3 groups
–
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Will they imitate the aggressive behavior?
Control, aggressive, non-aggressive
All in playroom, adult joins game, highly
interesting activities
Tinker Toys, Mallet & Bobo Doll

Aggressive condition
–
–
–
Laid bobo on side
Sat on it, punched it, struck it w/ mallet, kicked it about room
“sock him in the nose; hit him down, throw him in the air;
kick him; Pow!”
Test
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After 10 minutes…
Frustrated children
New play room with
–
–
–
–
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Tea set, crayons, farm animals, dolls
Dart guns, mallet, Bobo Doll
Physical aggression
Verbal aggression
Non-Imitative aggression
Results

Instances of imitative physical aggression
–
–
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Verbal aggression
–
–
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38.2- male
12.7 females
Boys -17 times
Girls- 15.7 times
Never with nonaggressive models or control
Observational Learning is not simple
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Attention
–
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Retention
–
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Memorable, rehearsed
Reproduction
–
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To behavior and consequences
Motor ability
Motivation
–
Expectations for reinforcement
Good Models
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Attractive
High Status
Similar to selves

LEARNED behavior
Expectations about alcohol as “magic elixir”
–
–
–
–
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Increase social skills
Sexual pleasure
Confidence
Power
Aggression

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LEARNED early in life: drinking is fun
Can we separate the learned beliefs from
pharmacological effects?
Pretending to be drunk
TOLD
TONIC
ALCOHOL
CONTROL
EXPECTANCY
EFFECTS
TRUE PHYSIO
EFFECTS
EXPECTANCY
+ PHYSIO
TONIC
GIVEN
ALCOHOL
TOLD
TONIC
TONIC
GIVEN
ALCOHOL
CONTROL
Impairs motor &
information
processes, improves
mood
ALCOHOL
Disinhibition of social
behaviors
(aggression, sexual
arousal)
EXPECTANCY +
PHYSIO
Persisted Learning: Memory
Lecture 9
2/25/04
Memento

Inspired by the condition of anterograde
amnesia that he learned about in a
Georgetown psychology class, Nolan wrote a
short story entitled “Memento Mori” about a
man with this illness trying to deal with a
traumatic event in his past.
H.M., 8/23/53
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Epileptic Seizures
Bilateral medial temporal lobe removal
–
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Including hippocampus
IQ, personality, perceptual abilities
Memory prior to surgery = ok **
Severe ANTEROGRADE amnesia
–
–
Every new moment = new & fresh
Any delay between presentation & recall =
impaired
H.M. continued
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Doesn’t know where he lives, who cares for him,
what he ate at his last meal, what year it is, who the
president is, how old he is…
In 1982, failed to recognize picture of himself on 40th
birthday
BUT, can learn some new things and not know it
–
–
Mirror-drawing task
Classical conditioning*
What did we learn…

Structures that store are separate from
mechanisms that encode

Declarative and Procedural memory are
distinct
–
–
D: conscious knowledge of facts/ events
P: implicit memory for motor skills/behaviors
Memory as information processor
• Encode, store & retrieve
Overview
Sensory Memory

Registers incoming information; leaves trace
on NS for split second
Short term memory

We pay attention to and encode important/
novel stimuli
Long term memory

If rehearsed (stare) long enough, or deemed
important, encoded for long-term storage &
can be retrieved
The Sensory Register: George
Sperling
Testing for Iconic Memory

P’s recalled more letters
when signaled to recall
only one row compared
to trying to recall all the
letters
Short-term Memory: Capacity
Chunking
iujhgyegdbnjkofiutyhs
Iuj hgy egd bnj kof iut
Short-term Memory: Duration

Can hold things for ~20 seconds
–
–
Rapidly decays UNLESS actively rehearsed
E.g. 1hr per day X 3-4 weeks

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Digit span from 7 to 80
Interference
–
Example (consonants & counting)
Short-term Memory: Function

Working memory
–
–
–
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ACTIVE
Access to senses AND LTM
“inner voice”
Serial Position Curve
–
–
Primacy
Recency
AND
Long-Term Memory

Elaborative Rehearsal
–
–
–
–
–
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Tree
LION
Shoe
APPLE
Turquoise
Is the word printed in capital letters?
Does the word rhyme with ____?
What does the word mean?
More thought = Better memory
Are any of these self-descriptive?

Number 1-20

Circle the numbers of self-descriptive
adjectives
Self-reference effect
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Retrieval superiority for info related to selfschema
–

REMINDER:
Password
Deeper processing of self-relevant terms
Schema = useful framework to help us
perceive, organize, process and use
information
LTM: Access
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“Mild torment, something like the brink of a
sneeze”
Definitions, line drawings, odors, faces
Occur ~1/wk, increase w/age
Words related in spelling, then meaning
First letter guessed 50-71% time
Number of syllables 80% time
~40-666% resolved after 1 minute
Quick note: Storage***
Long Term Memory: access

Retrieval cues
–
Encoding specificity

Any stimulus encoded with experience can later trigger it
When learn & retrieve in same context…
 Divers
–
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Beach vs 15ft under
Cafeteria Noise
Scent of Chocolate
Russian/ English bilinguals
State-dependent memory

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On alcoholics and their keys…
Marijuana & Alcohol
–
–

NOTE: BEST SOBER ON BOTH
–

Tested sober vs. high
Memory best when tested in same state in which
studied
Worst performance by intoxicated then sober!
Internal state = retrieval cue
–
Emotions & moods…
Implicit Memory

Amnesics may know more than they think…
–
Memory during amnesia

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“cancer”
“you will not feel any pain”
“beached whale”
In everyday life
Implicit memory…

Déjà vu
–
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The false-fame effect
–
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Names presented only once, familiarity but no real
memory, assume person is famous
Eyewitness transference
–
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A sense of familiarity but no real memory
Face is familiar, but situation in which they remembering
seeing face is incorrect
Unintentional plagiarism
–
Take credit for someone else’s ideas without awareness
Autobiographical Memory

Recollections of personal
experiences and
observations
–

Most vivid for times of transition
In college, memories from the
beginning of the first year and end
of the last year.
Autobiographical Memory
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Flashbulb Memories
–
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Childhood Amnesia
–

Highly vivid and enduring memories, typically for events
that are dramatic and emotional
The inability of most people to recall events from before
the age of three or four
Hindsight Bias
–
The tendency to think after an event that one knew in
advance what was going to happen
How to Improve Memory
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Mnemonics
Increase Practice Time
Increase the Depth of Processing
Hierarchical Organization
Method of Loci
Peg-Word Method
Minimize Interference
Utilize Context Effects
Imagery & Mnemonics
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One is a bun
Two is a shoe
Three is a tree
Four is a door
Five is a hive
Six is sticks
Seven is heaven
Eight is a gate
Nine is a line
Ten is a hen
Memory II: Not remembering
3/1/04
Mr. Short Term Memory

Think H.M.
–
Bilateral medial temporal lobe resection
–
Anterograde amnesia

–
New info goes in one ear, out the next
Storing is different from encoding

Knows name, hometown, but…
Plan: Errors in Memory

Sins of forgetting, distortion, and
suggestibility (false memory)
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Ways to improve memory
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How’s your memory?
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7 Sins of (normal) Memory
Absentmindedness
Transience
Blocking
Misattribution
Suggestibility
Bias
Persistence

Can occur at any stage
– Encoding
– Storage
– Retrieval
Which is the real deal?
Tatiana Cooley
“I’m incredibly absentminded… I live
by post-its”

99 photos w/names
–
–
–
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15 minutes
Same photos, different order
85 correct!
Also: strings of 4,000 numbers, 500 words, lines of
poetry and deck of cards
“Visualization & association”
The Name Game

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1102/features/name_g
ame.htm

Absentmindedness
Much of what we sense, we never notice
–
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Encoding failures
–
–
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Change blindness (even while in our presence)
Lack of attention OR,
Don’t process well enough for consolidation
Ineffective encoding
–
Imagine reading aloud to yourself while distracted…

Consolidation
Changes
in strength of neural connxns

Originally, Lashley & “Engram”
–
Rats in maze, more area removed, worse memory

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No specific location
Equipotentiality
Wrong, wrong, wrong

Specialization: “Bark” sound vs. “Dog” picture

Structure: Black-capped chickadees with vs. Monkeys
w/out.

Neurochem– epinephrine (stress) & glucose
–
–
–
22 seniors: Country Time vs. Crystal Light
36 teenagers: normally -8%, unless glucose
Breakfast before tests…
Transience: decay over time

Competing information displaces information
attempting to retrieve

Interference
–
Sleep study, 1924: 1, 2, 4, 8 hours

–
–
Not as much decay as interference, inhibition, obliteration of old by
new
Proactive- already known intf’s with new
Retroactive- new material intf’s with old

Stanford President: fish & names
Memory as Reconstructive

Filling in missing pieces

Disadvantages of schemas
–
–
–
Office Study
Confidence & accuracy NOT well correlated (sleep list, 2
voices, remember vs. know)
Memories for early events = reconstructions

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Misinformation Effect
False/ misleading information given after
eyewitness event incorporated into account of
event
Loftus & Palmer (1974)
–
How fast was the car going when it…

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–
Contacted- 31.8
Smashed- 40.8
Did you see any broken glass…
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Hit- 14%
Smashed- 32%

Experiment 1
Film of 5-car chain-reaction accident
–

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Accident = 4 seconds
Driver runs stop sign into oncoming traffic
10 questions
How fast was Car A going when it ran the stop sign?
– How fast was Car A going when it turned right?
10. Did you see a stop sign for Car A? (53% vs. 35%
–
Experiment 2

After short video:
–
–

How fast was white car going when it passed the
barn while traveling along the country road?
How fast was the white car going while traveling
along the country road?
1 week later
–
–
Did you see a barn?
17% vs. 2% said “Yes”
Experiment 3

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Did you see a truck in the beginning of the
film?
 0%
At the beginning of the film, was the truck
parked beside the car?
 22%
ACCURACY is VERY important

Tell me about the time you got a hand caught
in a mousetrap and had to have the trap
removed at the hospital?

Commercial…
“My brother Colin was trying to get Blowtorch from
me and I wouldn’t let him take it from me, so he
pushed me into the wood pile where the mouse
trap was. And then my finger got caught in it. And
then we went to the hospital, and my mommy ,
daddy and Colin drove me there, to the hospital in
our can, because it was far away, and the doctor
put a bandage on this finger”

False
Memory
Implantation
Present 4 childhood events

3 provided by parents as true
–
1 created by experimenter, verified as false

Describe all 4 events

29% adults recall being lost in mall
20-30% hospitalized with ear infection, spilling punch at
wedding, evacuating store with activated sprinklers, releasing
parking brake & rolling into object
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Case study* *
164
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Remembered feeling frightened
Described store was lost in
Recalled scolding when found
Remembered looks of man who found him
(blue flannel, glasses, old, bald)
Clarity rated at top of scale
Chose true experience as false
Application

Eyewitness Testimony (see clip)
How to improve your memory
How to Improve Memory: Mnemonics

Increase Practice Time
–
–
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Increase the Depth of Processing
–
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More time spent studying, better
Remember more from 4- 2hrs than 1-8hr
Think actively and deeply (how is it linked? Ask, think
,talk)
Hierarchical Organization
–
Outline: Broad categories, subcategories
How to Improve Memory: Mnemonics
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Method of Loci
–
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Peg-Word Method
–
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List of words = “pegs”; Hang items on pegs; imagine interaction
Minimize Interference
–
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Mentally place in familiar locations. Memorize familiar route, then
place visual images.
Study before sleeping; review all material right before exam
Utilize Context Effects
–
Setting, mood, time, smell, etc.
Imagery &
Mnemonics
 One
is a bun
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Two is a shoe
Three is a tree
Four is a door
Five is a hive
Six is sticks
Seven is heaven
Eight is a gate
Nine is a line
Ten is a hen
PTSD

Persistence of unwanted memories

Film clip
Altered Consciousness
Lecture 11
3/03/04
Sleep
Are you morning person (lark)
or an evening person (owl)?
People perform better during “preferred”
time

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
Larks > owls take morning classes and…
Memory tests at 9am, 2pm, & 8pm… larks suffered
Older people tend to be high in ‘morningness’;
younger in ‘eveningness’
Your internal clock is individually set
–
Circadian rhythm= cycle occurs every 24hrs

BP, temp, K+, hormones, pulse, etc.
Is it endogenous or light dependent?

Stefania Follini, Italian Interior designer
Volunteered, 1989 for 4 months
20 x 12 ft windowless room, cave, NM
Monitored by hidden cameras & microphones

Days = 25 to 40hrs; sleep = 14-22hrs

Stopped menstruating, ate less, lost 17lbs

131 days = 2 months

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“Free-Running Environments”

Most people tend toward 25hr cycles

More common source of disruption…
–
–

Preventing jet lag
Shining lights on back of knees, shifts clock to regulate
sleep-wake cycle
Interplay between environment & hypothalamus
Sleep

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Microsleeps
–
56% long haul truck drivers
–
http://www.livejournal.com/users/thefowle/221510.html
–
~ 200,000 traffic accidents a year are sleep related
Simulated car experiment
–
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Drive 1 hour; break 30 mins.
Brief naps & coffee
How to Stay Awake When Driving
Sleep Sorority: alpha, theta, delta
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Presleep
Stages 1-4
–
–
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You’re getting drowsy…
Hypnagogic state- flashes of color, light, “fall”
Slower HR, Eye movement, muscles, breath…
–
–
Tone register– 95% awake, 47% stage 1, 3% stage 2
Stage 3 &4 = “out like a light”
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Bed-wetting & sleep walking
1: 10min; 2: 20min; 3 & 4: 30 mins
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After an hour…
Rather than maintain your deep sleep, cycle
back to 3, then 2, then…
REM
High frequency beta waves, activity, bloodflow,
breath, pulse, genital arousal
Complete paralysis
–

Internally active, externally immobile
Dreaming of a ping-pong match?
Sleep and Dreams
Stages of Sleep
A Typical Night’s Sleep

Dreaming
When awakened in NREM, dreaming 50% of
time;
–
–
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Adaptive: 50% newborn; 30% 6mos.; 25% 2yrs
As night wares, more time spent in REM
–

REM- 80%
More visual, vivid, detailed, story-like
Why we feel need to finish dreams when alarm
sounds
Rebound effect when deprived
Need = powerful & irresistible
WHY?

DJ Tripp
–
–
–

200 hours on-air fundraising
Day 5: slurred speech, hallucinations, paranoia
13 hours, recovered
Randy Gardner
–
–
264 hours (11 days)
Thinking fragmented, speech slurred, concentration &
memory lapses, hallucinations

“Mind over matter”
Restoration Theory
–
–
Recharging Battery for cognitive, physical, emotional
demands
Rats after 2-3 weeks


Metabolism, temp, food intake, weight loss, immune system…
Evolutionary
–
Conserve energy, minimize exposure to predators

We couldn’t search for food well at night or protect ourselves
form nocturnal predators
Evolutionary Theory
Cross-species Comparisons of Daily Hours of Sleep

Dreams are adaptive
Everyone dreams, WITHOUT exception, several
times a night
–
Electrochemical events (Brainstem & Cortex)

Longer REM, more words used to describe
dream & more elaborate story

What do we dream about?
1.
2.
3.
Dream
Content
Falling
Being chased or attacked
Repeatedly trying, but failing to do something
Also: flying, unprepared or late for big event, rejected, and…
being naked in public
64% sadness, anger, fear
18% happy or exciting
29% in color
Other fun facts…


68% report having a recurring dream
 28% report dying in a dream
 45% dream of celebrities
Westerners assume, when analyzed, tell us
something about past, present, future…
Dreams reflect cultural Beliefs

Messages sent from evil spirits

Messages sent by the Gods

One’s soul leaves body, enters another world

Kurds & Zulus: dreaming of adulterous affair is an
offense
–
If gift received, must compensate when awake
What are the influences
Everyday concerns
1.
•
Finances, new relationships, exam anxiety, etc.
External stimuli
2.
•
•
Ever incorporated alarm in your dream?
Slumber parties- “pinky trick”

Dement, 1992: 42% waterfalls, rain, leaking roofs, swimming, etc.
Yourself (Lucid Dreaming)
3.
•
‘Half in, half out’, aware while dreaming

What do they tell us?
Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams, 1900
–
–
–
Unconsciously motivated to satisfy sexual and
aggressive urges
Too threatening to express or recognize
Psychological defense mechanism



BUT, during sleep, defense is down!
Would be shattering to come face-to-face w/
deepest, darkest urges…
We construct dreams that express fulfillment in
ways too confusing to recognize

Activation-Synthesis Theory
Random neural signals firing in brainstem spread to
cortex
–
Drawing on past experiences, brain creates images and
stories to make sense of randomness
–
–
Sensory neurons = color, clarity, brightness, etc.
Motor neurons = flying, climbing, falling, etc
–
Why they make no sense: Limbic, not frontal!
Sleep disturbances

30% population complains of insomnia

People can’t pinpoint the “moment of sleep”

Try this tonight:
–
Spoon in hand over plate
Tips to Avoid Insomnia





Do not nap during the day.
Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and cigarettes within
five hours of bedtime.
Avoid exercise within two hours of bedtime.
Keep a rigid schedule.
If awake and anxious, leave bed and return
when sleepy.
Hypersomnia


5% complain of sleeping too much
E.g. Narcolepsy
–
Sudden, irresistible attack of drowsiness, w/out
warning



playing b-ball, eating, conversing, having sex
Lasts 5-30 mins
Right to REM

Parasomnia
Sleep apnea affects 4% of Americans
–
–

Fall asleep normally…
Can occur up to 400 times per night
Nightmares
–
–
–
Only dangerous for RBD!
Skeletal muscles aren’t paralyzed
Have mobility to act on nightmares

75% have injured selves; 44% partners
Clearly brain is active during sleep

Night Terrors
–

B/C NREM, don’t know source of bloodcurling
scream
Sleepwalking
–
Not acting out dreams, occurs during deep, slowwave sleep; seldom recall travels

Sometimes… “sleepsex”



Can we control what’s in spotlight of
consciousness?
Lucid dreamers can sometimes control dreams…
Meditators thought could discipline the mind…
But, mind often wanders, we daydream, distracted when
trying to concentrate
–

Sometimes the harder you try to control your own thoughts…
Disregard inadmissible testimony, chocolate cake in fridge,
trying not to laugh, noticing how long it takes to fall asleep…
For the next 2 minutes…
Try not to think of a white bear
Consciousness and Control

Ironic Processes
–
The harder ones tries to control a thought or
behavior, the less likely one is to succeed,
especially if distracted, tired, or under stress.
For the next 2 minutes…
Go ahead and think of a white bear
Rebound Effect
GROUP
PHASE 2
Rings
PHASE 3
Rings
Experimental
6
16
Control
---
11
Phase 1: 5min Verbalization.
Phase 2: Don’t think of White Bear (experimental only)
Phase 3: Think about White Bear
Trying to control our minds



Don’t think of a white
bear
Don’t swing the pendulum
on the forbidden axis
Don’t eat chocolate
"They mentioned a white bear about once a minute,"
“Then, if I asked them to think about anything at all, they would
mention white bears more often than if I had initially asked
them to think about white bears on purpose.“
Irony: Easy to change our mind, get new ideas, see new
perspective, but when we try NOT to think about something…
Motivation:
What directs and energizes your
behavior?
Lecture 12
3/8/04
The Pyramid of Human Motivation
Self Actualization
Need to live up to one’s fullest and unique potential
Happy, absorbed, capable of greatness

“Think about the most wonderful experiences
of your life; happiest moments, ecstatic
moments, moments of rapture, perhaps from
being in love, or from listening to music, or
suddenly being hit by a book or a painting or
some great creative moment.”
Peak Experiences

Open to new experiences, spontaneous, playful,
loving, creative, self-accepting, energetic…
FLOW:
An activity totally absorbs one’s focus
Forget normal worries & self-consciousness
Lose track of time
Feel confident & clear-headed
Emerge with sense of satisfaction & growth
Esteem Needs = Power & Achievement
–
accomplish difficult tasks, outperform others, and excel
–
acquire prestige and influence over other people
Motive Arousal: Typical Stories Written
Establish, maintain, further relationships
Energy, attention, stimulation,
information & emotional support

When?
–
Stress, fear, embarrassment???

HIGH: “These shocks will hurt…In research of this
sort, if we’re to learn anything at all that will really
help humanity, it’s necessary that our shocks be
intense”

LOW: “I assure you that what you will feel will not in
any way be painful. It will resemble a tickle or a tingle
more than anything unpleasant”
“10 minute delay”
Do you want to wait: alone, w/ others, no preference?

Do we always want to be with others?

Not just anyone will do
–
P’s preferred to be alone than w/ students not in study
Stress doesn’t always motivate affiliation…
 Embarrassment: Sucking on large nipples and
pacifiers…
–

P’s preferred to be alone than with others
Naturalistic study: waiting for open heart surgery
–
Prefer post-operative than pre-operative room-mate
“We won! They lost!”


Students wear more university-affiliated
apparel after varsity football wins
Conducting a survey of student knowledge of
campus issues…
–
–
–
Can you tell me the outcome of that game?
Win: 32%
Loss: 18%
One step further…
Human sexual feelings and behaviors are
powerful motivational forces
Evolutionary Psychology:
an explanation
Gender differences in mate preference are a
product of natural selection
–
Favored mating behaviors that promote the
conception, birth and survival of offspring

Men & women attracted to different characteristics and
have different strategies
Ensuring reproductive success
Men
Women

Possibility to father
unlimited # of children

Careful selection of mate
with resources for wellbeing

Rely on external cues like
attractiveness to serve as
guide for youth, & good
health

Value commitment, health,
ambition, financial security
The dating marketplace: in 37 countries
(N = 10,047)




Men’s values
Physical
attractiveness
“good looks”
Being older than
spouse
Low hip to waist ratio




Women’s values
Socioeconomic status
“good financial
prospects”
“ambition and
industriousness”
Being younger than
spouse

Dev Singh Video
Big Misconception

Only thing that defines body = weight
–


SHAPE is not captured
Mind is designed to look for health based on
LOCATION of fat, not just Fat vs. Skinny
1991 Singh developed series of figures from
.7 to 1.0
Ideal Body Image


Which image is ideal for your sex?
Which comes closest to your own body?
Sex differences in perceptions of
desirable body shape
Another problem with dieting: The “what the
hell effect”