1. Introduction to Course Web Site: www.psy.cmu.edu/~kotovsky/85102/home.php Instructor TA’s Major Instructional Strategy and Goals –Depth, higher educ., focus, purpose(s) Major Activities: highly varied Methodology

2. Questions For the first recitation, bring a significant or “big” and real question about psychology, one that psychology might (or perhaps might not) have an answer to, and be prepared to discuss it a bit and also turn it in to your TA. It should be something that you are genuinely interested in and curious about. Save a copy for yourself—it might come in handy when generating a paper topic!

3. Methodology: Some Basic Issues Why Psychology? (vs. other sources of wisdom) Focus on actual data Observation vs. experimentation Independent and dependent variables Experimental control-getting rid of spurious variables Correlation and causation “Unusualness” of a result: statistics Distributions (the statistical nature of our data)

4. Basic Methodology Observational vs. Experimental studies Causation vs. Correlation (storks, scz, food) Experimentation Independent vs. Dependent Variables Experimental “Control” & Confounds (Hawthorne)

5. Making Observations Scientific observations often begin with a question or hypothesis. The hypothesis must be testable. This calls for an operational definition of key terms to specify the study’s dependent variable. Data must also be systematically collected. Researchers ignore anecdotal evidence.

7. Defining the Sample Based on observations of a sample, psychologists want to draw conclusions about a broad population. Random sampling All members of the population have an equal chance of being picked to participate. Researchers also use other procedures, including stratified sampling and case studies.

8. The Power of Experiments The two groups must be matched at the outset of the experiment. To ensure matching groups, researchers use: random assignment (ex. Clinical trials) within-subject comparison. taking precautions to address problems created by the sequence of conditions

9. The Control Condition

10. Assessing External Validity Researchers want their study to mirror circumstances of the broader world. external validity External validity depends on many factors. The study should not change behaviors the researchers hope to understand.

11. Assessing External Validity One concern here involves the study’s possible demand characteristics: Cues to participants/experiments about how they’re supposed to behave (Rosenthal) One way of avoiding this problem is to use a double-blind design.

13. Measurement The Description of Data –Central tendency Mean, median, mode –Variability Variance Standard deviation –Correlation & significance level

15. Measurement

16. TH HT THHHTT T = tails H = heads

17. Correlation Coefficients (0 – 1)

18. Sleeping The ignored behavior!

19. Defining/describing sleep Decreased awareness & interaction with world Decreased motility & muscular activity Characteristic posture Partial or total decrement in voluntary consciously directed behavior Decreased forebrain activity & cortical input from lower centers

20. Sleep as a behavior Quietude Life span decrease Brain activity/EEG & reactivity

27. Theories of sleeping Motivation Energy conservation Restorative Memory consolidation Adaptive

31. Brain Control Hypothalamus: Rostral/Caudal sleep areas –Rostral (stimulate --> sleep, extirpate --> wake) –Caudal (stimulate --> wake, extirpate --> sleep) –Reticular activating system & monitoring –Melatonin (& superchiasmatic nucleus of hypothalamus) and diurnal rhythm “zeitgrabbers” –Dement in a cave!

32. Arguments for Necessity/Functionality of sleep! –Regularity –Motivation/crummy feelings –Health involvement -Fatal Familial Insomnia (30+ families/thalamic/death) -Some linkage to other disorders (depression, cold susceptibility) -Check out CMU Psych study at: http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/ 2015/august/sleep-and-sickness.htmlhttp://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/ –Hallucination argument –REM recovery –Restorative: increase in SWS in sleep-deprived & athletes, increase anabolic/decrease catabolic activity –Memory consolidation REM block->poor memory function

33. Deprivation/human & animal Exceptional sleepers Hallucination explanation Dement study 11 days deprv. Then 16/8 REM recovery: limited Programmatic reduction-->1-2 hr. decline 5.5/6, 1/2 hr per 2 weeks->4.5-5.5 ok and year later slept 1 to 2.5 less! Cats in a puddle! Arguments Against Necessity

34. Conclusions Adaptive theory seems to win! –The function of sleep is sleep! –Ungulates sleep much less than meat eaters Five hours or less (opossums 19-20 hours) –Accounts for life span decrease as well –But still a bit of an open question

37. One Last Theory About Sleep “Basic Satisfaction” Theory –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUw3s4evhTE

38. Dreaming: What & Why? Multiple perspectives and much speculation!

39. Outline Dream behavior Theories of Dreaming Conclusions –What can we learn from our dreams? –Are they meaningful? True / predictive?

40. Dream behavior & description Within sleep Amount Brainwave activity & bodily quietude:the paradox REM

44. Dreams & REM sleep Aserinsky-REM Dement & Kleitman-Stages REM amount & periodicity Brainstem cholinergic & adrenergic promoting & inhibiting areas for REM

46. Some Questions: Are Dreams meaningful--what do they mean? Are the predictive or “true”? How do they differ from other states? What is their function do they even have one? Are they brain functions or mind functions?

47. Outline Characteristics and Descriptions Theories of Dreaming Conclusions –What can we learn from our dreams? Are they meaningful? True / predictive?

48. Theories of Dreaming Dreams as meaningful events: Freud (& Jung) Aserinsky, Dement & Kleitman implications Hall/Cartright Dreams as random activity (Hobson +) Synthesis (perhaps)

49. Psychoanalytic Theory Mental conflict Unconscious motivations Two forces: impulses & defenses Dreams as a release Dreamwork and its results –Latent dream –Manifest dream –Remembered dream Dreamwork and forgetting as protective mechanisms Poetzel Effect

50. Freud & Neuroimaging Michael Anderson- Validates Repression: Forebrain active in inhibiting hippocampus on repressed items Allen Braun: Limbic system-emotion active during REM Prefrontal cortex (working mem. Attention, logic & self- monitoring) inactive during REM Above consistent with dream bizarreness & emotional disinhibition/wish fulfillment Visual cortex inactive but higher visual areas active so we see w.o. visual input- one of the amazing things about dreaming!

51. Freud & Neuroimaging (Mark Solms) Injured Pons vs. injured Forebrain -Pons-disrupts REM but dreaming goes on. -Forebrain-lose dreaming but REM goes on. -Also, some dreaming outside of REM Role of Motivation (in addition to emotional areas) -Prefrontal leukotomy (white matter in ventro-medial forebrain area) decreases dopamine release. It’s a motivational area “seeking” behavior. -Hartmann: administering dopamine supercharges dreaming! Supportive of Freudian tie between motiv. & dreaming.

52. Variations on Psychoanalytic Explanation + Challenges Aserinsky, Dement & Kleitman: REM & implications Hall and Cartwright: Dream Series Challenging Views Dreams as random activity (Hobson +) Synthesis (perhaps) as Hobson accepted imaging results

53. Other Neuroscience Views Crick: Purge extraneous connections Evans: Sorting function on day’s events Winson: Sorting for survival Wilson: Rat Dream article- maze learning during dreams Hobson: random activity & activation- synthesis hypothesis

54. Hobson: Dream Transformations From: Inanimate Animate Character To: Inanimate 210 0 Animate 20 7 Character 0014

55. Dream Characteristics Lack of active volition Absence of ongoing reflective judgment Limited to phenomena of the immediate present Diffuse cognitive slippage--dreamlike confusion- transformations of perception, thought, memory, emotion, relationships, etc. Gaps in experience: 20% Confusion of thought & irrational intuitions: 41% Problems in sustained attention: 5% Memory deficiencies within the dream: 15% Overall, even 51% of "clearest dreams" had clouding of cs. --Usually not radical (scz, psychedelic) but rather more like that of waking life Can even have hallucinations or psychedelic exper. in dreams (as in waking life!) ex. flying 4%, bizarre figures,4%, changed identity 3%, LSD-like transformations of vision 13%. Mostly visual 47%. Somatic 10%, audit. 14%.

56. Conclusions Can we obtain meaningful insights about ourselves through our dreams? What can we learn from our dreams? Are they meaningful? true / predictive/useful? Dream problem-solving (Lowie, Kekule)!