Learning Psychology in English. Учебно-методический комплекс

UNIT 2

UNIT 2

SEVERAL IMPORTANT THEMES OF PSYCHOLOGY

We now introduce four important themes of psychology. The first concerns the role of heredity and environment in

jointly shaping behavior. In regard to nature versus nurture, research on learning has clearly and repeatedly demonstrated the enormous power of the environment and experience in shaping behavior. Indeed, many learning theorists once believed that all aspects of behavior could be explained in terms of environmental determinants. In recent decades, however, evidence on instinctive drift and conditioned taste aversion has shown that there are bio-

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logical constraints on conditioning. Thus, even in explanations of learning—an area once dominated by nurture theories—we see again that heredity and environment jointly influence behavior.

The controversy about how children acquire language skills replays the nature versus nurture debate. The debate is far from settled, but the accumulating evidence suggests that language development depends on both nature and nurture, as more recent interactionist theories of language acquisition have proposed.

The second pertinent theme is the empirical nature of psychology. For many decades, psychologists paid little attention to cognitive processes, because most of them assumed that thinking is too private to be studied scientifically. During the 1950s and 1960s, however, psychologists began to devise creative new ways to measure mental processes. These innovations fueled the cognitive revolution that put the psyche (the mind) back in psychology. Thus, once again, we see how empirical methods are the lifeblood of the scientific enterprise.

Third, the study of cognitive processes shows how there are both similarities and differences across cultures in behavior. On the one hand, we saw that thought processes are largely invariant in spite of sharp differences in cultures' linguistic heritage. On the other hand, there are cultural variations in cognitive style that reflect the ecological demands of one's environment. And, although the evidence does not support the strong version of the linguistic relativity hypothesis, a culture's language may make certain ways of thinking easier or more difficult. Thus, cognitive processes are moderated—albeit to a limited degree—by cultural factors.

The fourth theme is the subjective nature of human experience. The reconstructive nature of memory should explain people's tendency to view the world with a subjective slant. When you observe an event, you don't store an exact copy of the event in your memory. Instead, you store a rough, “bare bones” approximation of the event that may be reshaped as time goes by. With the passage of time, people tend to put more and more of a personal, subjective imprint on memories. You will see further that decision making is also a highly subjective process.

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UNIT 2

Dense interconnections exist between psychology and events in the world at large. The history of research on conditioning shows how progress in psychology can seep into every corner of society. For example, Skinner's ideas on the power of positive reinforcement have influenced patterns of discipline in our society. Research on operant conditioning has also affected management styles in the business world, leading to an increased emphasis on positive reinforcement. The fact that the principles of conditioning are routinely applied in homes, businesses, schools and factories clearly shows that psychology is not an ivory tower endeavor.

I. Read the text and translate into Russian.

II.Answer the following questions.

1)Is human behavior influenced by heredity or by environment?

2)What does language development depend on?

3)When did psychologists turn to empirical methods for measuring mental processes?

4)How do cultural factors influence thought processes?

5)What explains the subjective nature of human experience?

6)How is an image of the event in human memory changed with the passage of time?

7)What aspects of psychology are applied in everyday life?

III.Give your opinion on the subject.

What is more important for vocational success: heredity or

nurture?

IV. Translate these sentences into English, using words from the text.

1)Исследования в области обучения продемонстриро- вали влияние окружающей среды и опыта на фор- мирование поведения.

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2)В прошлом многие теоретики считали, что все осо- бенности поведения можно объяснить влиянием ок- ружающей среды.

3)Экспериментальные данные позволяют предпола- гать, что приобретение языковых навыков зависит как от среды, так и от наследственности.

4)В течение многих десятилетий психологи обращали мало внимания на познавательные процессы.

5)Изучение познавательных процессов показывает, что культурные факторы влияют на поведение людей, но в ограниченной степени.

6)Реконструктивная природа памяти объясняет тен- денцию людей рассматривать мир с субъективной точки зрения.

7)С течением времени люди склонны накладывать свой личный отпечаток на образы, хранящиеся в их памяти.

8)Принятие решений является чрезвычайно субъек- тивным процессом.

9)Между психологией и событиями в мире существует тесная взаимосвязь.

10)История исследования условных рефлексов показы- вает, как психологическая наука может проникать во все уголки нашего общества.

V. Find in the text synonyms to the words given below.

tendency, recollection, discussion, bringing up, surrounding, point of view

VI. Derive adjectives from the following nouns by means of suffixes ive, -ic,-al.

instinct, subject, science, culture, person, biology, ecology, nature, behavior

VII. Choose the noun which can follow this verb.

1) to shape a) event 2) to measure a) process

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TEST

I.Put the words from the box into the sentences

1.Heredity and … jointly influence behavior.

2.Language development depends on both … and nurture.

3.For many decades psychologists paid little attention to … processes

4.During 1950s and 1960s psychologists began to devise new ways …mental processes.

5.Empirical methods are the lifeblood of … enterprise.

6.Thought processes are largely … in spite of differences in cultures’ linguistic heritage.

7.Decision making is a highly … process.

8.The principles of … are routinely applied in homes, businesses, schools and factories.

9.The reconstructive nature of memory should explain people’s tendency … the world with a subjective slant.

10.Skinner’s idea on the power of positive … have influenced patterns of discipline in our society.

II. Match the term with the definition.

LEARNING PSYCHOLOGY IN ENGLISH

III. Choose Russian equivalents for the English words.

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UNIT 3

UNIT 3

A.REPRESENTATION OF KNOWLEDGE IN MEMORY

Over the years memory researchers have wrestled endlessly with one major question relating to memory storage: How is knowledge represented and organized in memory? In other words, what forms do our mental representations of information take? Most theorists seem to agree that our mental representations probably take a variety of forms, depending on the nature of the material that needs to be tucked away in memory. For example,

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memories of visual scenes, of how to perform actions (such as typing or hitting a backhand stroke in tennis), and of factual information (such as definitions or dates in history) are probably represented and organized in very different ways. Most of the theorizing to date has focused on how factual knowledge may be represented in memory.

Schemas

Imagine that you've just visited Professor Smith's office, which is shown in the photo. Take a brief look at the photo and then cover it up. Now pretend that you want to describe Professor Smith's office to a friend. Write down what you saw in the office (the picture).

After you finish, compare your description with the picture. Chances are, your description will include elements — filing cabinets, for instance — that were not in the office. This common phenomenon demonstrates how schemas can influence memory.

A schema is an organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or sequence of events. For example, college students have schemas for what professors' offices are like. People are more likely to remember things that are consistent with their schemas than things that are not. This principle was quite apparent when Brewer and Treyens tested the recall of 30 participants who had briefly visited the office. Indeed, the tendency to recall things that are consistent with a schema can lead to memory errors. For instance, nine subjects in the Brewer and Treyens study falsely recalled that the office contained books. Information stored in memory is often organized around schemas. Thus, recall of an object or event will be influenced by both the actual details observed and the person's schemas for these objects and events.

I.Read text A and translate it into Russian.

II.Answer the following questions.

1)What does the form of our mental representation depend on?

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UNIT 3

2)What is a schema?

3)How can schemas influence memory?

4)What tendency can lead to memory errors?

III.Translate these sentences into English using words from the text.

1)Какие формы принимает наше мысленное отобра- жение информации?

2)Память о том, как выполнять действия, и память о фактической информации, вероятно, организованы по-разному.

3)Схема – это упорядоченная совокупность знаний о конкретном предмете или событии.

4)Люди скорее запомнят те факты, которые соответст- вуют их схемам, чем те, которые не соответствуют.

5)Привычка вспоминать факты, соответствующие схе- мам, может привести к ошибкам памяти.

6)Информация, которая хранится в памяти, часто ор- ганизована в соответствии со схемами.

7)На воспоминание о предмете или явлении влияет как реальная обстановка, так и схематическое пред- ставление человека об этом предмете или явлении.

IV. Find in the text synonyms to the words given below.

news, group, outline, mistake, ordinary, compatible, to remember, to stock.

V.Derive nouns from the following verbs by means of suffixes -er,-or, -age, -ion.

to research, to store, to act, to err, to contain, to describe.

B.RETRIEVAL: GETTING INFORMATION OUT OF MEMORY

Entering information into long-term memory is a worthy goal, but an insufficient one if you can't get the information back out again when you need it. Fortunately, recall often occurs with-

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out much effort. But occasionally a planned search of LTM is necessary. For instance, imagine that you were asked to recall the names of all 50 states in the United States. You would probably conduct your memory search systematically, recalling states in alphabetical order or by geographical location. Although this example is rather simple, retrieval is a complex process.

Using Cues to Aid Retrieval

We’ll now discuss the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon—the temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that it's just out of reach. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is a common experience that occurs to the average person about once a week. It clearly represents a failure in retrieval. Fortunately, memories can often be jogged with retrieval cues— stimuli that help gain access to memories. This was apparent when Roger Brown and David McNeill studied the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. They gave participants definitions of obscure words and asked them to think of the words. Brown and McNeill found that subjects groping for obscure words were correct in guessing the first letter of the missing word 57% of the time. This figure far exceeds chance and shows that partial recollections are often headed in the right direction.

I.Read text B.

II. Say if these sentences are false or true.

1)To retrieve factual information from long-term memory is always very easy.

2)The tip-of-the tongue phenomenon is a very rare event.

3)Failure in information retrieval happens quite often.

4)A planned search of long-term memory is necessary when you want to retrieve a lot of factual information.

5)Retrieval cues can help in the search of information.

III.Think and answer.

What retrieval cues can be used to help gain access to memo-

ries?

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