Bethany Deibler

Spring 2008

Psychology 101
Essay Test #2
Question I. (From Chapter 5, 30 points)
1. Sleep:
a. Describe the stages of sleep. What happens during REM sleep?
The first stage of sleep is when a person briefly transitions into a light sleep that
occurs for 1-7 minutes. Body temperature and muscle tension decrease while the
breathing and heart rate slows down. Occasionally, hypnic jerks occur during this time
period. These are short muscle contractions.
The second stage of sleep is when a person experiences bursts of higher frequency
brain waves. These are called sleep spindles and appear over a mixed EEG activity. An
EEG is a device to record the rhythm of cortical activity in the brain. This stage lasts
from 10 to 25 minutes.
Gradually, the body moves into a state of slow-wave sleep. This is when the brain
waves become higher in amplitude and slower in frequency. Stages three and four are
during this time. During this time, the low-frequency delta waves become prominent in
EEG recording. This can take up to 30 minutes and an individual will often stay in these
stages for 30 minutes as well.
REM sleep is when a person should go back to stage one, instead they developed
a fifth stage. REM stands for rapid eye movement. In REM sleep, a person is in a deep
sleep are hard to awaken. However, during REM, the EEG activity consists of highfrequency beta waves. These are similar to the ones that occur when people are awake.
Dreaming is most likely to occur during REM sleep.
A person can go through all of these steps several times during the night. In all of
the other stages besides REM sleep, dreaming is less likely to occur, there is no rapid eye
movement and there are different levels of EEG activity.
b. How do the stages of sleep change with age?
Age is definitely an important factor on how long a person sleeps. A newborn
baby can sleep 6 to 8 different times during a 24 hour period. They can sleep 16+ hours,
but never all at the same time. As they grow older, infants will eventually grow into the
habit of sleeping during the nighttime. A baby will spend about 50% of its sleeping time
in the REM stage. This is 30% more than adults. Later, after they are about one year old,
this will generally decline to 30% REM sleep, which eventually ends up at 20% and stays
there.
While REM sleep tends to stay the same, other habits change as people get older.
It also may depend on the gender as to how long and what types of sleep a person gets.
Men have a slight decline of slow-wave sleep and a slight increase of time spend in stage
1. This shift in lighter sleep is the same for women, but a little less noticeable and
prevalent. The average amount of sleep also declines as a person ages in some cases. In a
minority of other cases, the amount of sleep increases as a person ages.

Bethany Deibler
Spring 2008
c. What role does sleep play, from an evolutionary perspective?
From an evolutionary perspective, sleep is adaptive. It is possible that it evolved
among birds and mammals separately. One hypothesis suggests that sleep evolved to
provide a time to conserve energy. All creatures cannot keep going on and on forever
without rest and energy. Sleep is said to have evolved millions of years ago in the warm
blooded creatures.
A different hypothesis suggests that sleep is adaptive because the immobilization
that occurs during sleep makes it harder for predators to find their prey when they are not
moving. They will not be so exposed while sleeping.
Another hypothesis is that sleep is adaptive as it helps restore resources in the body such
as energy. When the body is not walking around, it can restore energy to keep going when
the creature wakes up.
2. Alcoholism-- is alcoholism a disease or does it represent a personal failure by the
alcoholic? Can research be used to determine which is the case? If so, what kind of
research might be used?
Alcoholism can be interpreted either way, as a disease or as a personal failure.
According to the definition of disease in dictionaries, alcoholism falls under the category
of what it describes. However, I would personally say that it is a personal failure. A
disease should be something that you have no choice about. However, this is a tough
issue to resolve. My grandfather has diabetes. Do I blame him for it? I honestly dont
know what to think. I think that if a person gets a warning about their eating habits, then
it should be on their shoulders to control what goes into the body. If they have no idea
that their habits are hurting themselves, they cant really do anything about it. Most
people know what happens when a person gets drunk or over doses. There are several
consequences. Thus I would say that alcoholism is a personal failure.
Alcoholism has been researched to the max. There is no more research to be done. We
know the symptoms, causes and cures to it. But who or what do we blame for it? People
do not want to be blamed for their own sicknesses, but they usually could have done
something to avoid it. A person made the definition for what a disease is, but we each
have our own definitions about what it is as well. From the Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary, a disease is a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its
parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs
and symptoms. In this case, a disjointed finger would be a disease as that impairs normal
functioning. I think a better definition of disease should be developed.

Bethany Deibler
Spring 2008
Question II. (from Chapter 6, 40 points)
A. Explain what is meant by Classical Conditioning and give a practical example. Based
on this theory, why do you think manufacturers of athletic equipment pay sports figures a
small fortune to endorse their products? Identify the basic elements of classical
condition involved in this type of advertising. (Note: this is not an easy question. Check
your text closely for assistance.) Is this the same reason that car ads often include a
young woman in a bathing suit? (20 points)
Classical conditioning is a type of learning. In this type of learning a stimulus
achieves the capacity to evoke a response that was originally brought to mind by different
stimulus. This affects both over behavior as well as psychological processes. Conditioned
responses can result in fear, pleasure, nervousness, or joyfulness. It is a response to
something that the person perceives. Ivan Pavlov was the first to experiment with these
theories. He used dogs, meat powder, and a tone to examine his theory.
There are unconditioned stimuli that seem to occur without any previous
experience or training. The example given in the book is that dogs arent taught to
salivate when they smell meat. Similarly, we arent taught to eat when we are hungry.
The conditioned stimuli are when the person (or dogs in the case of the book) is taught
that when a certain thing happens, a certain thing will follow. Pavlovs dogs, for example,
learned that when a tone was heard, meat powder would follow. This caused the
salivation to start when they heard the tone as the two were always paired together. There
are millions of conditioned stimuli in the world today. We dont even think about them. A
persons expectations are conditioned stimuli. If I go to a meal, I expect there to be food.
Words, for example, can be conditioned stimuli. For example, when my sister was
younger, my mother would ask if she wanted to take a nap. She knew that word and
didnt like taking naps and would start having a fit. If my mother used the word rest, she
didnt know what that meant and did not make a fuss at all until she was led to the
bedroom. The bedroom was also a conditioned stimulus.
People come to conclusions about things very rapidly. We are creatures of
suspicion as well emotion. If someone sees that Michael Jordan is on a box of cereal, they
will assume that he eats that and it will make them play basketball just like he did. Or
perhaps Michael Jordans jersey is for sale. People would pay a ridiculous amount of
money because of their suspicions that it will make them better players. A sports store
may pay him to model their clothes to get the same reaction that his real jersey did. If
Michael Jordan wears it, it must be good. Beer and car commercials often use beautiful
women to advertise their products. On television, this will capture the attention of the
viewer and they might be drawn to buy that product. The emotion of things also captures
the attention of people.
B. Operant Conditioning (20 points)
1. Explain what is by Operant Conditioning. How does it differ from Classical
Conditioning?
Another type of learning is Operant conditioning. This is when responses
eventually are controlled by their consequences. Classical conditioning causes
involuntary actions while operant conditioning causes voluntary actions. For example,

Bethany Deibler
Spring 2008
we work because there is the promise that we will get paid. When we do get paid it
strengthens the trust in that promise and we continue working.
2. What is a reinforcer? What are schedules of reinforcement and how do they affect
behavior (include extinction).
Reinforcement is when an even following a response increases the tendency to
make that response. It leads to a reward and favorable consequences. Perhaps you get a
raise for working so efficiently, so you continue the process. This is how we can teach
animals to do tricks and obey us. This is the fundamental principle in operant
conditioning.
Primary reinforcers are the things we need to live. These include food, water,
shelter, warmth, and human contact. Secondary reinforcers are things that make us feel
good. These include good grades, money, attention, compliments, and praise.
A schedule of reinforcement is when only certain occurrences result in the
reinforcer or award. Continuous reinforcement is when the action is rewarded every
single time it happens. Intermittent or partial reinforcement is when the action is
rewarded only some of the time. This might be equivalent to being paid a higher rate for
working on the weekends rather than weekdays. There are several ways to do an
intermittent reinforcement. These include using different ratios and intervals, either
random or fixed, to issue the desired stimulus. However, placed too far apart, these can
end up weakening the response.
Extinction is when the stimulus dies out to completely get rid of the reaction to
the stimulus. After a short while, the organism will no longer expect something out of a
certain action.
3. Apply your knowledge of operant conditioning by describing how you would set up
the payoff schedule for a slot machine at a casino. In other words, using theory from
operant conditionin, how often would you set your slot machine to pay off?
In order to keep people playing slot machines, you have to make sure that people
dont give up and never play again. A good way to measure this is to see how long an
average person will play before giving up. Then, set the slot machine to win one or two
times less than the average person will spend before giving up. This should create
excitement in the person right when they were going to give up and they will continue
playing.
Question III. (from Chapter 7, 30 points)
A. Describe/define each of following aspects of memory and then give a specific example
of how you could use that aspect of memory or memory information to get ready for a
test. For maximum points on the question make sure that each type of memory has both a
description/definition and a specific example of what you would do to make use of that
type of memory in your learning. (15 points)
1. Encoding

Bethany Deibler
Spring 2008
Encoding is when a person makes a memory code. A person might examine the
length, look or sound of the object he or she is trying to encode. This process requires
attention. While you may recognize a certain person, you probably would not be able to
tell in detail their physical attributes while the person is not in sight. Things such as eye
color, freckles, and other small details would not be remembered without the encoding
process. Encoding is being so familiar with the object that you could draw it while it is
not in view.
2. The role of Attention
Attention is when you focus on a small, narrow range of events or stimuli. Things
that are done without attention are usually easily forgotten. We, as humans naturally
choose which things we pay more attention to. As a student, I attempt to pay most
attention to my studies so that my grades will be rewarding. But as life changes, so do
roles of attention. If a woman has just had a baby, most of her attention will be focused
on her new child. Things that you want to remember should be paid attention to. This
increases the chance of memory later on.
3. Deep processing
Deeper levels of processing result in longer lasting codes. Three levels of
processing include structural, phonemic, and semantic encoding. These are in the order of
deepness, semantic being the deepest level of processing. This is when a person thinks
about the sentence and analyzes the objects and the actions that the words represent.
Questioning the sentence or the meaning of the sentence can also enhance the encoding
process. Students who think about what the teacher is saying and ask questions are
known to be paying more attention and retaining things better than students sitting and
listening.
4. Self-referent Encoding.
Self-Referent Encoding is when a person decides whether the information he or
she is processing has any personal applications or meanings. This process can help the
encoding process. Something that is personal is remembered much easier than random
facts about other people you might not even care about. The video that was online about
Jill Price mentions that she only remembers things that she personally had interest in, or
things that she actually did herself. This is a prime example of how self-referent encoding
helps cement the information and memories in our brains.
5. Flashbulb Memories
Flashbulb memories are short and vivid memories. They are often detailed
recollections of momentous occurrences. While these memories may seem like they can
never fade, this is not true. They do fade and can become incorrect over time. These
memories occur because of sudden unexpected events. Events such as a car crash, 9/11,
and other unexpected occurrences will be stored in the flashbulb memories.

Bethany Deibler
Spring 2008

B. There is a considerable controversy around the issue of recovered memories,

especially in the context of adults remembering incidents of child abuse that they had
apparently forgotten for many years. What is the controversy about this issue? When
people testify in court about recently remembered incidents of child abuse are they
generally mistaken or correct? How might this controversy be related to the research on
reconstructing memories and the misinformation effect? (15 points)
Memories are not a good source for history. People tend to me more confident
than they actually are. This confidence grows and sometimes becomes the truth for some
people. These can sometimes be false imaginations or dreams that have become reality
for these people. We occasionally even have trouble discerning what is reality and what
happened in a dream.
Hindsight bias is when a person changes what really happened to how they
perceived it. It might have been the same as what really happened but it most likely isnt.
Overconfidence can also mess up the witness of people. After a few questionings, they
decide that what was uncertain the first few times is the truth now. While it may convince
the judge, it is not the truth no matter how confident they seem.
Psychologists and scientists also sometimes probe too deeply to discover if these
things actually happen. So many questions occasionally start to build the belief in the
person that things such as child abuse or rape did happen to them. Too many questions
can be overpowering and just confuse the person even more. Generally, people end up
creating stories about how they were abused during their childhood.
Extra Credit: How would you explain why many graduates of prestigious universities
might think they understand why the earth is warmer in summer and colder in winter, but
actually dont have a clue?
Students, no matter how smart, always have their moments when they dont want
to learn anymore. They sit in class staring at the clock, waiting for the class time to be
over. This is because we lose focus, are not interested, or are falling asleep due to the lack
of sleep the night before. While some people have been taught these things, others make
up a sensible solution for themselves. Like one person mentioned on the video, she didnt
need any science courses to graduate. Also, unless people actually think about what they
have learned in the lesson, they are not actually going to remember or care about it. It is
not until we actually think about things or are put on the spot to remember things, that we
know it.