SOLVING PROBLEMS

All of the objects and ideas we use each day are automatically categorized in our brains into concepts. These concepts put characteristics of different object, emotions, and ideas into categories which include other objects with similar traits. Much like the classification of species and phyla in the biological sciences. Based on these preexisting concepts, our brains form what is called a prototype, or an image of what we think something should look like. This sometimes causes us to react more slowly when faced with something that isn't necessarily our idea of a concept, but still is part of one. An example of this would be when asked to name a dog many people would jump to familiar names such as Labrador or Dalmatian, but not as many people would say Rhodesian Ridgeback (a South African dog) because it is not part of the prototypical image of a dog that they have.

To figure out different problems, humans react in two ways: trial and error or through algorithms. Trial and error is as simple as the name implies, but it does not guarantee results. Algorithm is a logical way to proceed and analyze all of the possible outcomes. This however is time consuming and can lead to a lot of data. A quicker way uses the brain's concepts to make things and ideas fit together and then assemble them logically, this is called heuristics. While playing hang man you could go through and say all of the letters of the alphabet, but then you would most likely lose before figuring out the word. Instead you first name vowels and then associate consonants based on common pairs and length of the word. This is an example of your brain using heuristics to solve a problem.

Sometimes things seem to just come to us and become clearer. This is called insight. When all of the puzzle flashes before our eyes and we feel as if we now can solve the whole problem, it defies the ideas of logic. This brings confidence and feelings of happiness, such as are found after understanding a joke or funny story.

Unfortunately, humans like to be right. We sometimes look for information that will make out opinions and ideas seem right, while looking over any evidence that disproves them. We convince ourselves that we cannot be wrong. This is called Confirmation Bias.

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MEMORY

Memory is what shows that something that was learned can last over time. It is the ability to store information and knowledge in the brain and later be able to retrieve it. The memory works somewhat like a computer, encoding data into our brain through the hippocampus and then being stored in either short term or long term memory. Then once the data is needed again it is found in the "storage" area and brought forward for use. The hipposcampus processes information and sorts it into either long or short term memory information.

Sometimes memory deteriorates after a person's hippocampus becomes damaged during a stroke, heart attack, or any other form of injury. Then people can forget certain events while still remembering others. Sometimes people can remember past events but non from recent times. Sometimes is it the opposite. Some people have extreme recall and can recite long chains of numbers in perfect order or even remember events with every minute details decades after they have happened. A type of extreme recall is called Flashbulb Memory. When an emotionally stimulating event happens, a person will most likely remember all of the details. The birth of a child, a wedding day, a natural disaster, a death, etc, all of these events can be emotionally stirring and can implant themselves onto the brain's long term memory.

Memory is divided into different categories. First comes Sensory Memory. This is the first recording of some kind of touch or sensory information. A sight, smell, sound, or taste. This then gets transferred to either long term memory or short term memory, depending on what is relates to.

Long term memory is where data that has permanent use or important content is stored. This is a mostly permanent storage of information and can occupy as many memories as is needed.

Short term memory is a more day to day memory, sometimes lasting no more than five seconds. Here information which does not enduring importance is stored, such as remembering what you ate for breakfast or what you wore the day before.

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Do you think either plays a role in how you respond to teachers and your academic role here at Wilson?

I believe that OC and CC definitely play a role in how I learn. I am a very visual person and I can easily grasp a pattern, so if something is repeated once or twice I will usually remember it. I would say that I learn best with Classical Conditioning. I am not a fan of rewards or punishment. If the will to learn does not stem from myself, then I don't think someone else should have to push me into it. I would not do so well with Operant Conditioning.

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OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING IN MY LIFETIME

An example of OL from my lifetime could be learning to make crêpes. I've watched my mom do it numerous times and after a while was able to reproduce the same recipe and actions without any help.

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How do punishments impact your learning here in school? Consider what you know about punishment systems from the learning chapter to guide your response.

Punishments create negative associations to certain behaviors and students begin to either unconsciously or consciously suppress those behaviors. Punishment can also eliminate a behavior altogether, forcing students to maybe act in ways which they do not like. The punishment could also motivate a student to achieve better results or show more of the desired action to prevent further punishment, therefore creating a sort of fear that it could happen again. Then the learning is done forcefully rather than naturally.

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In your normal day here at school, explain a time when you have seen the use of positive reinforcement and one of negative reinforcement. For each one analyze the impact that it had on you or the class you were in.

An example of PR would be a teacher giving extra credit on a test because every person in the class completed the homework assignments. This is giving something to the students and generally the mood and vibe of the class is happier and less tense. An example of PR which could negatively affect students is the giving of extra homework because of poor test grades. This would frustrate and make the students less happy.

An example of NR would be to get rid of an assignment because of proficiency in a subject. This would make the students feel less stressed and more grateful for the teacher. Another example of NR would be to take away computer privileges because of misuse, this would anger the students and make them less respectful toward the teacher.

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How can understanding classical and operant conditioning help us to understand the way we learn? Provide two examples that help illustrate your point.

Understanding how the brain creates relationships and associations is key to being able to improve how much and how efficiently a person can learn. People who can easily learn by example and patterns will most likely fall under a category of Classical Conditioning. Those who need help and guidance to learn will be more Operant Conditioning learners. Once a person knows which category they fit into they can find out what kind of stimulus be it reward or negative/positive reinforcement works best to help them retain knowledge.

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BEHAVIORISM

Behaviorism is a view that psychology should study behavior without consideration of the mental processes. It is used objectively by some scientists today while others believe that the whole picture is needed to fully understand actions and behaviors.

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CONDITIONING

There are two main types of conditioning, which is a form or learning. Classical Conditioning is the process of learning to associate events and actions based on prior experience. An example of CC would be expecting the someone to be at the door when the dogs start to bark toward the front of the house. CC can happen naturally or through training.

Operant Conditioning, however, is aided by reinforcements. Through OC, behaviors are are suppressed or eliminated with punishment while desirable behaviors are encouraged with reward. OC is a voluntary change on the organism's behalf. The reinforcements used can be either positive or negative. Positive reinforcement is giving something (whether it be good or bad) to the subject. Negative reinforcement is taking something away (once again be it good or bad). An example of OC would be the training of an animal. It can be rewarded with being freed from a pen or crate for good behavior (negative reinforcement) or punished with a muzzle or leash for bad behavior (positive reinforcement).

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IVAN PAVLOV AND CONDITIONING

By definition, Conditioning is the process of learning associations (Associative Learning) and anticipating events based on what is learned. Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov became famous for experimenting with this idea. His experiments used dogs who responded to the sound of a bell associated with food. The goals of these experiments were to gain better understanding of learning.

During the experiment, Pavlov first rang a bell then blew meat powder in the mouth of the dog. This made the dog salivate naturally. Soon though, the dogs began salivating just upon hearing the bell ring, without even receiving food.

Pavlov then found that an Unconditioned Response (the salivating) paired with an Unconditioned Stimulus (the bell), eventually led to learning with a Conditioned Response and a Conditioned Stimulus (salivating at the sound of a bell).

it was also discovered though that when learning is discontinued, the conditioned response becomes less and less present, eventually going away, which is called Extinction. But this can be counteracted by Spontaneous Recovery which is the reappearance of a certain response after a time of no conditioning, which shows that Extinction is not completely present.

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LEARNING

Learning is described as a "relatively permanent change in and organism's behavior due to experience." This means that through various experiences, animals or humans learn to show certain types of behaviors or suppress others, depending on whether the consequences are positive or negative. Some learning happens but is not demonstrated until there is an incentive for it, such as sitting in a language class but not speaking the language until you are in a country in which that language is spoken.

Some other types of learning are: Associative Learning and Observational Learning.

Associative Learning is the process of learning by associating two different events or stimuli. These stimuli could be a response and its consequence such as seeing a dark sky and preparing for rain.

Observational Learning is the process of learning by watching the actions of others. This method is especially used by children, who mimic things that their parents or other role models do. An example of OL is learning to tie your shoe by watching someone else do it.

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PHASE TWO

All posts above this message are from Phase Two!
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METHODS FOR RESEARCHING THE BRAIN

There are numerous methods in place to research the brain. One of the most common ways to conduct research is to conduct Clinical Studies. In CS, research can alter the brain of the subject (usually animals like rats and mice) and observe what each area affected changes. This manipulation of the brain can help pinpoint what each area does. Another method to research the brain is to record its eletrical activity. This is done with an electroencephalogram or EEG. This device graphs brain waves are researchers can analyze the waves according to different stimuli. Other types of scans are CT and PET scans. Both create images of the brain and its activity levels. PET scans show activity by analyzing where the brain consumes glucose. The last type of scans, and MRI,  scans the head with a magnetic field to affect the brain's atoms which upon returning to normal state release signals, which are then analyzed by a computer. MRI scans can help to see areas where there is soft tissue and an abundance of fluid. 

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NEUROTRANSMITTERS AND NEURAL COMMUNICATION

Neural communication is the basis of human senses. Each nerve is made of neurons, microscopic units which look somewhat like sideways trees composed mainly of dendrites, axons, and axon terminals. Neurotransmitters are like chemical messengers that create signals between neurons to achieve some kind of reaction. The signals are perceived through an event called a synapse when the axon terminal of one cell touches another cell's dendrite end, sending electricity-like signals along the chain of neurons. These signals can increase or decrease a cell's functions according to the type of reaction felt. 

Unfortunately, neurons and neurotransmitters are very affected by drug use or disease. Drugs can interfere with comunication between neurons, can change the synapses, can bond to other neurotranmitters, altering the signals and changing the perception of feelings and senses of the human body. Some of this damage can even be permanent. 


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How do gender roles play a role in how we study human beings and how they think?

Gender roles are an important factor as to how humans are studied. For many years, women were deemed biologically and intellectually inferior to their male counterparts. This led to women not being able to attend universities and hold the same job positions as men. Now gender roles are less strictly defined but they still do exist. Women are perceived as caretakers and nurturers and are said to be more sensitive. When younger girls observe their mothers displaying such characters, they themselves begin to exhibit them. Men are supposed to be the tough and defending heads of the family. It is deemed "not manly" for a man to display his feelings and this further enhances the idea of gender roles. Because such traits are exhibited, men and women are treated differently in experiments and are considered to be two different subjects. Some experiments even separate men and women because they are expected to react differently.

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How do the brain and body work together to explain how humans think, feel and act?

The brain and the body can be pictured as a network of power lines. The brain would be the power plant from which the electricity is produced and the nervous systems would make up the power lines. When something "activates" a nerve, an electrical current runs through the nervous system up to the brain, which analyzes the reaction, then another signal is sent back down to the location of the reaction with a response on what the cells in that area should do. These responses cause humans to act in different ways, for if the touch is causing pain, a defensive reaction will ensue, if the touch is pleasing, then a positive reaction will come out of it. The thought process that comes from analyzing these reactions is proportional and is driven by the small electrical impulses sent through the nerves to the brain and back. 

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What is the difference between cognitive psychology and neuroscience?

The difference between cognitive psychology and neuroscience is quite simple. Cognitive psychology focuses on how the brain learns, retains, and retrieves information while neuroscience is the biological aspect of how the brain and nervous systems work in the human body. It could be said that cognitive psychology is beneath the umbrella of neuroscience, since it borrows on ideas and findings from neuroscience.

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How does Neuroscience help or hinder the credibility of psychology as a science?

Neuroscience helps the credibility of psychology as a science in numerous ways. To begin, neuroscience is more related to biology than to psychology, and biology has been recognized as a hard science. Because there is concrete evidence in the form of nerves, parts of the brain, and reflex reactions, it is hard to imply that neuroscience is based on ideas instead of factual information. Various experiments have been performed to find out which parts of the brain affect different aspects of human abilities such as speech, hearing, and even memory. The fact that some psychological ideas can now be backed up by scientific findings further proves that psychology is indeed a credible science.

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THE PARTS OF THE BRAIN

The brain is the most important organ in the human body. It controls the nervous systems, all of the bodily functions, and almost every single process in the entire human body.

Here are diagrams of the major areas of the brain and their functions. The area of the Frontal Lobe labeled as speech is also known as Broca's area.


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THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM

The Endocrine System (ES) is the part of the nervous systems which controls the secretion of hormones through a set of glands spread out within the human body. This diagram illustrates the the location of the different glands.

The Pineal gland secretes Melatonin which induces sleep and lowers body temperature. Beneath this gland is the Pituitary gland which produces a variety of hormones and is known to control puberty and the production of growth hormones.

Next in the throat region are the Parathyroid glands. These glands are responsible for monitoring the amount of calcium in bones and in the blood. Beneath them is the Thyroid gland which controls metabolism and bone growth. 

In the abdomen is the Pancreas which controls the production of insulin and regulates the levels of sugar in the blood. The Adrenal glands are responsible for the breakdown of fat, the synthesizing of proteins, regulates kidney processes, and controls the Androgen hormone which controls masculinity. These glands also control oxygen and blood flow the the brain and regulate pain.

Finally the Ovaries and Testes regulate growth, the reproductive cycle, secondary growth characteristics (breasts, body hair, etc.) and control many of the body's key processes. 


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