Week 9 · Readings & resources

Week 9 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Psychology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 9 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 72–83 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more practice, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (19–21 min total)

① How do fast judgments go wrong? Heuristics and the availability trap

Chapter 9, Section “Judge by memory and by resemblance: availability and representativeness” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Availability and representativeness” · Remember: availability judges how often something happens by how easily examples come to mind, and representativeness judges by resemblance while ignoring the base rate.

Cognition - How Your Mind Can Amaze and Betray You: Crash Course Psychology #15 — CrashCourse — a quick tour of concepts, prototypes, algorithms, and heuristics, and of the judgment errors that fast thinking produces. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
The Availability Heuristic (Intro Psych Tutorial #92) — PsychExamReview — a short tutorial on judging how common something is by how easily examples come to mind. This builds on Week 7's work with memory and retrieval. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)

② Can you catch a bias in yourself? Framing and confirmation bias

Chapter 9, Section “Catch three more biases: confirmation bias, framing, and overconfidence” · Session 1, Segment 4, “Confirmation bias, framing, and overconfidence” · Remember: 90% fat-free and 10% fat state the same fact, so any difference in how they feel comes from the wording.

Why Do We Fall For The Framing Effect? — BrainFacts.org — a brief explainer on why the same choice can feel different depending on how it is worded; use it while working through the Week-9 module overview. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
The Most Common Cognitive Bias — Veritasium — people on the street try to discover a hidden number rule, and most only test guesses that fit what they already believe; watch for confirmation bias in action. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Overconfidence Bias — Ethics Unwrapped — a short glossary entry on being more confident in our own abilities, such as driving or spelling, than the facts justify; it then applies the bias to ethical choices, which goes beyond this week. (reading, 2–3 min)

③ How do children build language? From babbling to sentences

Chapter 9, Section “Build language from small parts: phonemes, morphemes, and grammar” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Phonemes, morphemes, and grammar” · Remember: children typically move from babbling to one-word, then two-word, then telegraphic speech.

Language Development (Intro Psych Tutorial #85) — PsychExamReview — a longer tutorial on how children build language, useful for putting babbling, one-word, two-word, and telegraphic speech in order. (video, 12 min) (captions: automatic)

④ What is intelligence, and what does a score mean? Theories and the IQ scale

Chapter 9, Section “Read the IQ scale: what a score says and what it does not” · Session 2, Segment 8, “Reading the IQ scale” · Remember: an IQ score places a person on one standardized scale with a mean of 100, and it is not a measure of a person's worth.

Controversy of Intelligence: Crash Course Psychology #23 — CrashCourse — the debate over what intelligence is and how it has been tested, including one general ability versus several kinds. (video, 13 min) (captions: creator)
Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences — Simply Psychology — read the opening and skim the list of intelligences, then read the critical evaluation for why researchers still debate the theory. (reading, 10–15 min)
More Proof That IQ Levels Are Rising — Association for Psychological Science — a short research news story on the rise in average test scores across generations, the Flynn effect. (reading, 3–5 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Speech and Language Developmental Milestones — National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders — a federal health agency's plain-language reference; read the part on how speech and language develop and the milestones list, and skip the sections on disorders unless you are curious. (reading, 5–8 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com