Edward Thorndike:
1. Explain Thorndike's puzzle-box experiment.
He put a cat inside a puzzle-box, and a plate of food outside the box. the cat, trying to get to the food, broke up the procedure of escaping from the box, into several steps until reaching the goal. The cat learned by trial and error. Every time, the process became faster.
2. Explain Thorndike's "Law of Effect".
"Law of effect: If the response in a connection is followed by a satisfying state of affairs, the strength of the connection is considerably increased whereas if followed by an annoying state of affairs, then the strength of the connection is marginally decreased."*
3. Explain Thorndike's "Law of Exercise".
"Law of Exercise: We learn by doing. We forget by not doing, although to a small extent only.
a. Connections between a stimulus and a response are strengthened as they are used.(law of use)
b. Connections between a stimulus and a response are weakened as they are not used.(law of disuse)."*
B.F. Skinner:
1. Explain Skinner's concept of Operant Conditioning
Skinner's Operant Conditioning states that it is simpler to break a complex, long procedure into small and simple steps to achieve a greater goal
2. What does reinforcement always do?
Reinforcement always makes a behavoir continue and it makes it seem as something good.
3. What does a punishment alsways do?
A punishment always makes a behavoir vanish and it makes it seem as something bad.
4. Explain the difference between "postive" and "negative" as they are used in opernat conditioning.
Negative means to take something away, and positive means to give something.
* = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike#Thorndike.27s_theory_of_learning
miércoles, 1 de diciembre de 2010
viernes, 26 de noviembre de 2010
Classical Conditioning Research
Ivan Pavlov:
1. He was studying the role of salive in a dog's digestion.
2. He had a dog in an chamber and led him to starvation. He attached a tube into the salivary glands of the dog to measure how many saliva the dog used to digest. Later on the process, he discovered that the dog started salivating even when the meat was not presented.
3. The bell is the conditioned stimulus, the meat is the unconditioned stimulus, and the result was that both stimulus recieved the excat same response from the dog, when paired.
4.Extinction means that is conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus are stopped being paired, after a series of trials, the stimulus is forgotten by the animal or human.
5. It means that stiumuli that look alike often recieve the same respone.
6. It is when an animal or human learn to diferenciate between the alike stimulus, he learns to respond and not to respond to certain stimulus.
7. Two limitations are that it was done with dogs, not humans and that the tubes were surgically inserted and may affect the dog's salivation.
8. He Thought that when you pair an unconditioned stimulus with a neutral stimulus, both will produce the same response.
John B. Watson:
1. Watson showed "Little Albert" a white rat and at the same time he hit a metal behind the babies head. The metal made an annoying noise so the baby cried. Watson hit the metal every time the rat was shown to the baby. "Little Albert" soon paired the rat with the noise so he cried every time he was shown the rat. Then, he generalized the fear to rats, to any similar objects.
2. Conditioned Stimulus: The rat.
Unconditioned Stimulus: The noise.
Conditioned response: Baby crying.
3. Two limitations where that the experiment is considered unethical so it can not be done again. and another one is that the hypothesis was only tested in one child.
4. The law of frequency said that "The more frequent a stimulus and response to occur in association with each other, the stronger that habit will become."
5. The law of recency said that "The response that has most recently occurred after a particular stimulus is the response most likely to be associated with that stimulus."
6. The basic assumptions of behaviorism are that our behaviors depend on our environment, all behavior can be reduced to their basic components, and that may species learn in similar ways.
Sources:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-stimulusdiscrimination.html
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/John_B._Watson
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm
1. He was studying the role of salive in a dog's digestion.
2. He had a dog in an chamber and led him to starvation. He attached a tube into the salivary glands of the dog to measure how many saliva the dog used to digest. Later on the process, he discovered that the dog started salivating even when the meat was not presented.
3. The bell is the conditioned stimulus, the meat is the unconditioned stimulus, and the result was that both stimulus recieved the excat same response from the dog, when paired.
4.Extinction means that is conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus are stopped being paired, after a series of trials, the stimulus is forgotten by the animal or human.
5. It means that stiumuli that look alike often recieve the same respone.
6. It is when an animal or human learn to diferenciate between the alike stimulus, he learns to respond and not to respond to certain stimulus.
7. Two limitations are that it was done with dogs, not humans and that the tubes were surgically inserted and may affect the dog's salivation.
8. He Thought that when you pair an unconditioned stimulus with a neutral stimulus, both will produce the same response.
John B. Watson:
1. Watson showed "Little Albert" a white rat and at the same time he hit a metal behind the babies head. The metal made an annoying noise so the baby cried. Watson hit the metal every time the rat was shown to the baby. "Little Albert" soon paired the rat with the noise so he cried every time he was shown the rat. Then, he generalized the fear to rats, to any similar objects.
2. Conditioned Stimulus: The rat.
Unconditioned Stimulus: The noise.
Conditioned response: Baby crying.
3. Two limitations where that the experiment is considered unethical so it can not be done again. and another one is that the hypothesis was only tested in one child.
4. The law of frequency said that "The more frequent a stimulus and response to occur in association with each other, the stronger that habit will become."
5. The law of recency said that "The response that has most recently occurred after a particular stimulus is the response most likely to be associated with that stimulus."
6. The basic assumptions of behaviorism are that our behaviors depend on our environment, all behavior can be reduced to their basic components, and that may species learn in similar ways.
Sources:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-stimulusdiscrimination.html
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/John_B._Watson
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm
jueves, 4 de noviembre de 2010
ARTICLE 1: Why Does Lack of Sleep Affect Us Differently? Study Hints It May Be in Our Genes
The American Academy of Neurology was the institution incharge of performing this research. The eseriment was about finding out what causes everyone of us to have a diferent lack of sleep effect. They found out that some of us have a sleep variant called DQB1*0602. They got participants with the variant and participants without it. The diference they showed in the process was that the people with the variant sleep much more, but woke up a lot of times and was not rested. The ones without the variant were totally opposite. People without the variant, they sleep less or at least they do not suffer of excess of sleep hours. They feel rested and don`t wake up a lot. Also they have more sleep drive. This was a very interestin gresearch because I did not knew that this variant existed and that it could cause a lot of difference.
ARTICLE 2: Delayed School Start Time Associated With Improvements in Adolescent Behaviors
Judith A. Owens, M.D., M.P.H., of the Hasbro Children's Hospital was incharge of this investigation. She surveyed 201students at a private school on Rhode Island when they started at 8:00 am. The school, for research purposes delayed the start time 30 minutes, to 8:30 am. The same 201 students were also surveyed on the same things, but the difference was their sleep time. All the results were positive. Students showed more motivation in participation in class such as in school activities. Also, students complained less sbout fatigue. They stated to fell less sleepy in class and to feel less depressed about going to school. I think that experts should continue doing these expriments so that we understand the mportance in our lifes of sleeping the whole 8-9 hours that our body needs. ARTICLE 3: Starting High School One Hour Later May Reduce Teen Traffic Accidents
This research is conduced by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. In the article they intend to explain that starting school just one hour later can reduce car traffic accidents, can improve grades in a significantly way, and can even improve attendence. In this research, researchers surveyed 9,966 students in a school on year one, which they started every day at 7:30 am high school and at 8:00 am middle school. The next year they were surveyed again, but this time they were starting school at 8:30 am high schol and at 9:00 am middle school. The results of both surveyes were observed and compared. What researchers found out was that students were geting better grades when they get full-time sleep than when they had to wake-up one hour earlier. Also, traffic accidents decreased. In my opinion, this research was very important because we can see how one hour sleep may change our academic excellence, even our life.miércoles, 29 de septiembre de 2010
Teenage Brain
During adolescence and teenage years it is common that teenagers fight and argue with their parents. Aside from being common, it is normal also. This is because the brain is passing through several and important changes. For example, the Prefrontal cortex, which is in the frontal lobe, is the part of your brain responsible for planning behavior, solving problems, and controlling emotions. Teenagers do not have this part of the brain fully developed so they behave bad, and always want to do things their way instead of following parents instructions and hearing their advices. Most of the teenagers think that their parents hate them because they punish them, but they do that because they love them.
One great quote that I could relate to this topic is, "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years," from Mark Twain. Obviously his father did not learn so much in seven years, it's only that when he was fourteen he was immature and thought that he was ignorant. However when he grew up he found out that he was the one who was wrong.
On the other hand, I learned that teenagers need to sleep around 8 to 9 hours daily. Sleeping that time will help you develop correctly, it will help you in school also because you will go with more energy to work. Getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep will improve your memory. I liked looking at this video because I learned great things.
One great quote that I could relate to this topic is, "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years," from Mark Twain. Obviously his father did not learn so much in seven years, it's only that when he was fourteen he was immature and thought that he was ignorant. However when he grew up he found out that he was the one who was wrong.
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| Source |
On the other hand, I learned that teenagers need to sleep around 8 to 9 hours daily. Sleeping that time will help you develop correctly, it will help you in school also because you will go with more energy to work. Getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep will improve your memory. I liked looking at this video because I learned great things.
domingo, 26 de septiembre de 2010
Intelligence: Nature or Nurture?
During a long time people use the term "Nature vs. Nurture" to compare if a personal trait or ability of a person comes from our genes, or does it form from our environment. Nature meaning genes, and nurture meaning environment. Today i will research intelligence. I think intelligence comes from our genes but if we are not in an environment in which we could use it, it could decrease. Therefore I would consider that intelligence comes partially from one side and partially from the other. 65 percent depends on nature, or our genes, and the other 35 percent depends on nurture, our environment, I would say without doing research.
After doing a long and detailed research I found 6 important bullet points, which I think it is important to quote them; "1. Nature refers to your potential to achieve a certain level of intelligence, 2. Nurture refers to whether your potential intelligence will be developed or inhibited, 3. Feral children show that nurture important in developing intelligence at an early age, 4. Mental stimulation at an early age is needed to fully develop intelligence, 5. Nature and nurture are interactive variables, which results in more than the sum of their parts (intelligence), 6. Intelligence is the result of nature and nurture, and both are needed for intelligence to fully develop." So as we can see, I was very wrong about the fact that nature played a more important role on intelligence than nurture, but now we can say that nurture plays a fairly equal role in intelligence. An example of this is the example of the two brother. They both are raised by the same parents, in the same environment but they later in life choose two different careers. One is a doctor and the other one is a car salesman. Since they were raised in the same environment so the differences in intelligence should be blamed to nature. "However some would argue that these brothers did not have the same environment, as one child may have been given more love and attention than the other. This may then explain why one brother grew up to become more successful than the other." According to psychologist Alfred Adler, believed that the environment in which we are raised as children has a big influence on our intelligence and how we develop it later in life. Therefore, according to this man who proposed the "birth-order" argument, nurture is the most important factor in intelligence.
As you can see, different people think differently and come up with their own conclusions. So this topic is a very expense and complex one. I think there is not, and there will never be a conclusive answer for this debate and all we are left to do is to continue doing researches and experiments that might, with great luck, lead us to a good answer.
Source
After doing a long and detailed research I found 6 important bullet points, which I think it is important to quote them; "1. Nature refers to your potential to achieve a certain level of intelligence, 2. Nurture refers to whether your potential intelligence will be developed or inhibited, 3. Feral children show that nurture important in developing intelligence at an early age, 4. Mental stimulation at an early age is needed to fully develop intelligence, 5. Nature and nurture are interactive variables, which results in more than the sum of their parts (intelligence), 6. Intelligence is the result of nature and nurture, and both are needed for intelligence to fully develop." So as we can see, I was very wrong about the fact that nature played a more important role on intelligence than nurture, but now we can say that nurture plays a fairly equal role in intelligence. An example of this is the example of the two brother. They both are raised by the same parents, in the same environment but they later in life choose two different careers. One is a doctor and the other one is a car salesman. Since they were raised in the same environment so the differences in intelligence should be blamed to nature. "However some would argue that these brothers did not have the same environment, as one child may have been given more love and attention than the other. This may then explain why one brother grew up to become more successful than the other." According to psychologist Alfred Adler, believed that the environment in which we are raised as children has a big influence on our intelligence and how we develop it later in life. Therefore, according to this man who proposed the "birth-order" argument, nurture is the most important factor in intelligence.
As you can see, different people think differently and come up with their own conclusions. So this topic is a very expense and complex one. I think there is not, and there will never be a conclusive answer for this debate and all we are left to do is to continue doing researches and experiments that might, with great luck, lead us to a good answer.
Source
How Our Brains Work
1. It refers to the halves of the brains. Left hemispheres and right hemisphere.
2. Left side controls logic, and everything of the right side of the body, and right side controls creativity, and everything of the left side of the body.
3. It is what communicates the right side of the brain with the left.
4. Broca's area is in the left frontal lobe. He discovered that this area was responsible for pronunciation of words and that if someone had damage here, it will be difficult for him to form words.
5. "Split Brain" is the process in which your corpus collasum is cut, in a surgery.
6. Wernicke's area is in the posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus in the dominant cerebral hemisphere (which is the left hemisphere in about 90% of the people). If damaged, it could provoke aphasia.
7. The occipital lobe
8. The temporal lobe
9. The frontal lobe
10. The frontal lobe
2. Left side controls logic, and everything of the right side of the body, and right side controls creativity, and everything of the left side of the body.
3. It is what communicates the right side of the brain with the left.
4. Broca's area is in the left frontal lobe. He discovered that this area was responsible for pronunciation of words and that if someone had damage here, it will be difficult for him to form words.
5. "Split Brain" is the process in which your corpus collasum is cut, in a surgery.
6. Wernicke's area is in the posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus in the dominant cerebral hemisphere (which is the left hemisphere in about 90% of the people). If damaged, it could provoke aphasia.
7. The occipital lobe
8. The temporal lobe
9. The frontal lobe
10. The frontal lobe
martes, 21 de septiembre de 2010
Phineas Gage
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| Source 2 |
Phineas Gage was a man who lived in the mid 1800's. He was a railroad worker, and his job was seal the hole with sand with a tamping iron, where the dynamite was placed. One day, while he was working on this job, somehow the dynamite caught fire and exploded while he was tamping the sand. The tamping rod went directly from his left cheekbone, threw his eye socket and out on the frontal lobe. After his injurie it was obvious that his frontal lobe was severely damaged and that his left eye did not work. It is also said that after this event, his manner changed ahd he become more rude with people. Scientists and doctors determined that every part of the brain controls a specific thing of the body, and that you can live without pieces of your brain but you would loose a funciton of your body.
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| Source 3 |
Acording to Source 1, the idea of brain localization is "This means that different parts of the brain carry out different fucntions (e.g., vision, control of voluntary movement, understanding speech, etc.) and, conversely, that not all parts of the brain do the same thing. This may seem obvious, but other organs, such as the liver, do not exhibit localization of function; one part of the liver does the same thing as another part six inches away."
sábado, 4 de septiembre de 2010
Nature vs. Nurture?
The term "Nature vs. Nurture" means that if one of your traits or characteristics comes from your genes (Nature) or comes from the environment that you live in(Nurture). This term was first used by Sir Francis Galton in 1874. Some topics used in this debate are intelligence, homosexuality, criminal mind, appearance, personality, and abilities on athletics. The general consensus about the topic (Nature vs. Nurture) is that everything comes from the genes, in other words most people think that every single trait that you have comes from nature instead of nurture. 
My opinio about this debate is not a biased one. I think that every single aspect that you analyze comes from a different place, nature or nurture. Also something can come partially from one and partially from another one. Everything in life needs to be balanced. viernes, 27 de agosto de 2010
Charles Darwin in the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin was a British naturalist, born the same day Abraham Lincoln was born; February 12, 1809. He was son of Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood, the fifth of their children, and their second son.
Charles Darwin, in 1831, he went on a British science expedition all around the world. He found in South America, fossils of extinct animals that had very similar characteristics to some of present day animals. The same discoveries happened in the Galapagos Island. He studied animals and plants from wherever he went. When he returned to London, 5 years later in 1836, he came up with 4 important theories: "one, evolution did occur; two, evolutionary change was gradual, requiring thousands to millions of years; three, the primary mechanism for evolution was a process called natural selection; and four, the millions of species alive today arose from a single original life form through a branching process called speciation."*
Darwin became famous for his theory of natural selection and the theory of evolution. According to a website I found, "Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to adapt to its environment."* He published a book with this theories called, The Origin of Species.
Some of the cultural issues that Darwin had was, that people said that with his theory he was "killing God." Still in present day, people think this theory contradicts what the Bible said, and what the theory of Divine Creation states.
Darwin had anguish on developing his theory because he knew there was another scientist who was developing the same idea and if the other scientist published it first, no credit was given to Darwin.
This great naturalist after developing his idea, he kept on writing on botany, zoology, and geology until 1882, the date of his death. His remains are buried in Westminister Abbey.
*: Source
**: Source
***: Source
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| ** |
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| *** |
Darwin became famous for his theory of natural selection and the theory of evolution. According to a website I found, "Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to adapt to its environment."* He published a book with this theories called, The Origin of Species.
Some of the cultural issues that Darwin had was, that people said that with his theory he was "killing God." Still in present day, people think this theory contradicts what the Bible said, and what the theory of Divine Creation states.
Darwin had anguish on developing his theory because he knew there was another scientist who was developing the same idea and if the other scientist published it first, no credit was given to Darwin.
This great naturalist after developing his idea, he kept on writing on botany, zoology, and geology until 1882, the date of his death. His remains are buried in Westminister Abbey.
*: Source
**: Source
***: Source
lunes, 16 de agosto de 2010
What and why?
What is Psychology? Acording to http://www.dictionary.com/, Psychology is:
1.the science of the mind or of mental states and processes.
2. the science of human and animal behavior.
Why is it important to study it?
I think it is important to study psychology so that you know how a human mind functions, the consequences of things as in human minds, and this could work for you to learn to interact with people and have the results you want to have.
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