PSYC 1000 Lecture 1: Psychology 1000 - ALL
1.1
● The Scientific Method:
scientific method - learning about the world through collecting observations, developing theories
to explain them, and using these theories to make predictions
Hypothesis - is a testable prediction about about processes that can be observed and measured
● You do not prove a hypothesis
● must be testable
● they are eager to test this, not to convince you that they are the only ones that are right
pseudoscience - something that is pretending to be science but isn’t actually science
theory- an explanation created from a set of hypotheis
● also generates new hypothesis
● falsifiable
● self-correcting because bad ideas are weeded out as they are proven wrong
● can be more than one theory
● number of people who have agreed with a theory does not correlate to how correct the
theory is but instead the number of times that people have proven it right
Biopsychosocial model
● explaining behavior as a product of social, psychological, and sociocultural factors.
September 29th
Read up on 4.1, 4.2
Subliminal Perception - Stimulus so weak or brief that, you may not notice, but affects impulses.
Supraliminal Perception - eg. Advertising
● eg. Auditory Stimulus = Very quiet, Visual Stimulus = Very Dim
○ 1956
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● Famous Study = Apparently pretended to flash coke/popcorn sign, tried it,
apparently increased 58% on popcorn and coke increased 18%
● Subliminal stimulus, put the slight messages into specific frames of
movie, moves 60Hz.
● Public was not happy
● But it was a LIE
● 1958
● Did another study
● Put words call now on screen 352 times
○ nothing changed
○ no-one knew what the correct message was
○ not 1/500 guessed right ^
○ Half claimed to be hungry/thirsty
● Despite these two studies there is still a fear of subliminal messaging/ persuasion
● Subliminal Self-help (weight loss tapes)
● Backwards messaging in Rock music
○ If you hear music backwards and it implies or is trying to convince you to
commit suicide etc.
○ famous examples
1. Another one bites the dust
2. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
3. Help - Beatles
● If people are asked to listen to this and they are told what to hear for they will listen for it
and hear it, otherwise you won’t.
Echoic Memory - you can hear things echo, right after hearing something
Sensory Memory - you remember what you just saw although you don’t really really remember it
● They assumed that backwards messages are subliminal,
● Assumption that our vulnerability to these messages is more because we aren't aware
that it’s happening
● Assuming that the bad kids are the ones who listen to this music.
● People also went bonkers and thought they saw virgin mary grilled cheese.
● Bottom-up Processing
● Interpretation of stimulus in environment, it is the first interpretation of what
you’ve said
● basically no previous judgement
● And you base it off your perception only
○ eg. when you first heard the music
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find more resources at oneclass.com
● Top- down processing
● Able to guess based on expectations/ knowledge
○ eg. able to hear the sentences told to listen for.
● Effects of this all:
○ Judas priest got into shit for this
○ Didn’t get sued
○ it was funny
● Supraliminal > Subliminal
● Subtlety important, but subliminal is unnecessary and kinda pointless tbh
● Subliminal stimuli do affect behavior tho
○ unlikely to create new motivations
○ however can enhance current desire to do the thing
■ can put you over edge
○ Eg. Two patient Groups
■ 1. Thirsty
■ 2. Non - thirsty
● Subliminally presented to two types of words, ones related to
thirst, and ones not related to thirst
■ Both group were offered drinks
■ the only ones who did unusual things were the group that was: thirsty
group & thirst words group.
Attention & Perception
pg.140-141
● Divided Attention = Multitasking
○ Tasks: driving & Texting
○ Stimuli: TV & Conversation partner
■ Consequence: Performance of 1 or more tasks suffers
● Selective attention = focusing
○ Reading in a loud crowded environment
■ Consequences: Blindness to other things
● Inattentional Blindness
○ THINK MOONWALKING BEARS
○ original was by the uni of illinois
○ we are blind to things that aren’t in the focus of our perception
● Change Blindness
○ Blind to changes during scene cuts of during eye movements
○ Why?
■ Failure of short term memory
■ Potentially adaptive: why should we store something that is right uin front
of us?
Oct 1
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The scientific method: scientific method - learning about the world through collecting observations, developing theories to explain them, and using these theories to make predictions. Hypothesis - is a testable prediction about about processes that can be observed and measured. Self-correcting because bad ideas are weeded out as they are proven wrong. Number of people who have agreed with a theory does not correlate to how correct the theory is but instead the number of times that people have proven it right. Explaining behavior as a product of social, psychological, and sociocultural factors. Subliminal perception - stimulus so weak or brief that, you may not notice, but affects impulses. Eg. auditory stimulus = very quiet, visual stimulus = very dim. Famous study = apparently pretended to flash coke/popcorn sign, tried it, apparently increased 58% on popcorn and coke increased 18% Subliminal stimulus, put the slight messages into specific frames of movie, moves 60hz.
