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BEHAVIOR GENETICS

BEHAVIOR GENETICS . “Thanks for almost everything, Dad”. Genetics – study of how living things pass on traits from one generation to the next Take a minute to think and share with a neighbor the characteristics you have in common with your parents and the characteristics you do not.

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BEHAVIOR GENETICS

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  1. BEHAVIOR GENETICS “Thanks for almost everything, Dad”

  2. Genetics – study of how living things pass on traits from one generation to the next • Take a minute to think and share with a neighbor the characteristics you have in common with your parents and the characteristics you do not. • Genotype – Our unique genetic makeup • Phenotype – outward expression of a trait – determined by both genetics and experience

  3. Mirror Neurons: Seeing ourselves in Others • Read page 75 • With Neighbor – Thinking Critically About Mirror Neurons questions • Answer questions page 76 • 1. Design an experiment • Methods, what are you doing and how? • IV, DV, Experimental Group, Control Group • Answer number 3

  4. Behavior Genetics • Study psychology from a genetic perspective • Animal Behavior Genetics • Strain Studies – Close relatives are inbred • Why? • Selection studies-breeding animals with other animals that have the same trait • Human Behavior Genetics • Family studies – if genes influence trait – close relatives should share the trait more often than distant relatives

  5. Average risk of schizophrenia among biological relatives of people with schizophrenia

  6. Sensation and Perception

  7. Subliminal Perception • Subliminal – below our level of awareness • Read ‘The Roots of Subliminal Perception’ • Underline supporting evidence • circle disproving evidence • Independent scientific studies show that hidden messages OUTSIDE the laboratory have no significant effect on behavior • In a controlled laboratory setting people can process and respond to information outside of awareness http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking/

  8. Sensation • Sensation – • begins when energy stimulates a receptor cell in one of the sense organs • Absolute threshold – • least amount of energy that can be detected as a stimulation 50% of the time. • Hearing – tick of a watch from 20 feet in quiet conditions • Vision – A candle flame seen from 30 miles on a clear, dark night • Taste - .0356 ounces of table salt in 500 L of water • Smell – One drop of perfume diffused throughout a three-room apartment • Touch – the wing of a bee falling on the cheek from a height of 1 cm

  9. Changes in stimuli • Difference threshold (jnd) – • the smallest change in stimulation that can be detected 50% of the time • Would adding 1 pound to 5 pounds be the same as adding 1 pound to 100 pounds? • Weber’s law – • different threshold is a constant fraction or proportion of the original stimulus • To produce a JND - • Hearing – very sensitive – change in sound .3% • Taste – 20% • Weight – 2%

  10. Apply your understanding • According to Weber’s law – if you are lifting a 50-pound weight, how much must the weight change before you will notice that it is lighter or heavier? • A. 1 ounce • B. 8 ounces • C. 1 pound • D. 2 pounds

  11. Writing Response If you had to give up one of your senses what would it be and why would you choose this sense?

  12. Vision According to psychologists For humans, vision is the most important sense – so it has received the most attention from psychologists. 1. Why is it the most important sense? 2. It has been suggested that in humans, vision is such a powerful sense that it will override information from other senses – humans will respond to visual stimuli even when hearing (taste or touch) tells them otherwise. Have you had experiences of this sort?

  13. The Visual System light enters through the cornea (transparent protective coating over front part of eye) light then passes through Pupil– opening in center of iris Iris – colored part of eye Retina lining of the eye Containing receptor cells That are sensitive to light

  14. Receptor Cells • Retina contains receptor cells that are responsible for vision! • 1. Rods: • Responsible for night vision and perception of brightness • 2. Cones: • responsible for color vision • Work in a more limited area of our visual field

  15. Seeing with one eye is difficult • With partner – try to quickly touch the tip of a pencil with one eye close – then with both eyes • Easier to accurately judge depth with two eyes – with only one eye the brain knows what it is seeing, but it does not give an accurate indication of depth perception

  16. I cdnuoltblveieetaht I cluodaulacltyuesdnatnrdwaht I was rdanieg. The pweor of the hmuanmnid! Aoccdrnig to a rseaerch at CmabrigdeUinervtisy, it deson'tmttaer in wahtoredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olnyiprmoatnttihng is taht the frist and lsatltteer be in the rghitpclae.The rset can be a taotlmses and you can sitllraed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamnmniddeos not raederveylteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

  17. My eyes are playing tricks on me Do you have "X-Ray Vision?" You may be able to see through your own hand with this simple illusion. Roll up a piece of notebook paper into a tube. The diameter of the tube should be about 0.5 inch. Hold up your left hand in front of you. Hold the tube right next to the bottom of your left "pointer" finger in between you thumb (see figure below). Look through the tube with your RIGHT eye AND keep your left eye open too. What you should see is a hole in your left hand!! Why? Because your brain is getting two different images...one of the hole in the paper and one of your left hand.

  18. Optical Illusions: Tricking the brain with misleading visual effects, through arrangement of images, effect of colors, impact of light source or other variables. • http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fun-senses-tests-visual-hearing-reaction-disgust/ • http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/ • Julian Beever side walk 3D art

  19. Hearing • Writing Response Individually: • First, create a list (5) how losing your hearing would impact your life • Second, create a list (5) how losing your sight would impact you • Circle the one you would choose to live without if you had to

  20. Hellen Keller – blind and deaf – regretted her inability to hear more than anything else • “I am just as deaf as I am blind. The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus – the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in the intellectual company of man.”

  21. Echolocation – high pitched chirps that bounce off nearby objects – neurons in auditory system collect information from echoes • Some animals depend more on their hearing than on their sight

  22. Deaf Culture • Should doctors do everything possible to restore hearing in children who are born deaf or become deaf at an early age? • National Association of the Deaf – argues no because many procedures only partially restore hearing • What would their argument be against partially resorting hearing? • Deafness is not a disability but form of human diversity – can lead to a sharpening of other senses

  23. Chemical Senses Recall – Researches focus mostly on vision and then hearing – humans rely primarily on these two senses to gather info about their environment Chemical senses – smell and taste Smell – weaker in humans than most animals but still 10,000 more acute than taste

  24. Taste • Taste buds- receptor cells for sense of taste located here • Sweet, sour, salty, bitter • Decreases with age • Adaptation • Tip of tongue- sweetness and saltiness • Back- bitterness • Sides- sourness • Supertasters

  25. Smell Adaptation – odors gradually become less noticeable Anosmia– complete loss of smell (usually under estimated) Consequences?

  26. Pheromones • Chemicals that communicate information to other organisms through smell • Mammals have this second sensory system used for communicating sexual, aggressive, or territorial signals. • Writing Response: • Independent and dependent variable • Experimental and control group • Results

  27. Sensory Interaction Flavor – complex interaction of taste and smell Plug nose when you eat – only experience taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter)

  28. The Skin Senses • Largest sense organ – if you are 6 feet tall you have about 21 square feet of skin! • Protects us from the environment • Receptors for sense of touch – important role in human interaction and emotion • Most comforting sense • Skin receptors give the rise to sensations of pressure, temperature, and pain

  29. Touch • Found to be beneficial: • Infant studies • Importance of affectionate touch

  30. Phantom limb: 85% amputees – patient continues to feel the missing limb is still there (itch, tickle, cramp, pain) • Biopsychosocial theory • Biological mechanisms – degree to which tissue is injured & Genetics play a role • Psychological mechanisms – thoughts, beliefs, and emotions affect pain • Social mechanisms – degree of family support • Cultural expectations

  31. Alternative Treatments • Placebo effect: pain relief that occurs when a person believes a pill or procedure will reduce pain • Source of relief – endorphins

  32. No sense of pain • A positive or negative thing? • Article • Video • Writing response: Report the consequences and implications on someone’s life.

  33. Age and Sensation • Taste buds decrease with age • Odor sensitivity – • Gender: Female • Age: 20 – 40 years old • Sound: • Males greater noise exposure – explains why men’s hearing on average less accurate than females • Mosquito sound: older people cannot hear above 13-14KHz range (frequency) • Cell pones & stores to discourage young folks

  34. Perception Perception vs Sensation Perception: the brain’s process Of organizing and making sense of sensory information -(recall) While sensation – raw sensory date the brain receives from our senses

  35. Selective Inattention • Inattentional blindness: failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere • Test your awareness • Card Trick • Change blindness: failing to notice changes in the environment • Movie perception • Gradual change • Choice Blindness

  36. Personal Factors • Emotions & Motivation • Examples: • Walking destinations look farther away to those who have been fatigued by prior exercise • A hill looks steeper to those wearing a heavy backpack, or just exposed to sad, heavy classical music rather than light, bouncy music. • A target seems farther away to those throwing a heavy rather than a light object at it. • Softball appears bigger when you are hitting well

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