I'm Getting Nervous Because I Forgot To Blog

Hello hello!
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yq-FDdLYHBc )
If I had a dollar for every time the boys said hello in that song, I'd have $39.
Herr Dreier told us to talk a bit about the upcoming AP Psych exam so I suppose that's what I'll do. I won't say I'm nervous because I'd be lying, but I definitely plan on studying more as the date approaches. I think the hardest part for me will be keeping all the people straight. Maybe I'll make flashcards or something. I think group studying is a great thing and I'm looking forward to doing more of that. I think we all know more than we know we know. It's just a matter of recalling the information we have stored in our brains. I think the best thing Mr. Dreier can do at this point is give us a few review days. I think the coolest thing of all would be to have a sheet outlining the main points of each chapter, but I suppose the response to any request of that nature would be make your own. I'll probably do that sometime. I think the practice questions and the online quiz practice will be very helpful in the coming days. Other than that, I don't have much to say about anything.


In preparation for the test, here is the weirdest AP Psych Review song video ever (it's Ke$ha):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcd66jLbtc&feature=player_detailpage

My favorite lyric is "if you're bipolar take salty lithium tonight it'll help your mania plight".

Make sure you take the salty lithium, not the regular stuff.

Enjoy!

A Suspicious Quiz

Okay so I finally took the personality quiz and here are my results:

Extroverted (E) 50% Introverted (I) 50% Sensing (S) 50% Intuitive (N) 50% Feeling (F) 52.94% Thinking (T) 47.06% Perceiving (P) 56.76% Judging (J) 43.24%

Your type is: ISFP
"Artist" Interested in the fine arts. Expression primarily through action or art form. The senses are keener than in other types. 8.8% of the total population.
Alrighty then. Although I'm not entirely convinced a website can give you an accurate personality assessment with just a few questions but it's a rough estimate I suppose. I guess I see where this website is coming from. I definitely agree with the introvert part. Sensing was a source of slight confusion for me; I consider myself to be a bit more intuitive. I'd say that my perception rather than my senses are "keener" but that's a personal opinion. I'm definitely interested in the fine arts; they're definitely a source of inspiration for me even though I will not be pursuing them next year. Perhaps a little bit more shocking is the fact that I wish I was more artistic. I often have the strong urge to express myself artistically but I am not physically able to draw/paint anything beyond stick people. It's definitely a source of frustration but I've learned to compensate in other ways. I think the thing I'd like to know most about this survey is where these population percentages are coming from because it seems like most of the people I talked to about it have received a percentage that puts them in the minority of the population. Which personality type is the majority falling under? I wonder...

Sugru

This week Mr. Dreier gave us a product called Sugru and told us to be creative with it. Sugru is a rubber-like substance used for fixing or improving things. Naturally I had no idea what to use it on. I searched the house and finally settled on some drumsticks in my basement. I decided to put the rubber on the tips of the sticks for a whole new sound when it dried! I also asked my dad if he needed anything and he asked me to make rubber feet for his guitar pedal. I did, and had fun doing it. I think this product is really ingenious in that it can be whatever you need it to be. I'm interested to see what my classmates did with it! Although I found it difficult, I think the creative aspect of this project is what made it the most fun. Hopefully it lasts a long time!

Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

Sugru was fun; everyone should try it! In the meantime, here is an article about how to improve your creativity from a psychological point of view. Love it, hate it, I don't care...just read it for the interesting points it makes!

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=an-easy-way-to-increase-c



WOW

Another BBC gem was an article I found on how this millionaire wants to send some old people to Mars! I couldn't believe when I read this! He's a former space tourist and he's using his own money to send an elderly couple on a year and a half long trip to Mars! Imagine the psychological effects of living in a small ship with death knocking on your door, going where no one has gone before, living alone for a year and a half! Your brain would explode (if the radiation didn't hurt you first)! This is crazy! Science! Let's all try and think about what it would be like to do this! AND THEN, to further blow my mind, the article mentions that one of the possible travelers is Jane Poynter, who "knows what it's like to live that closely with someone for an extended period of time" because she took part in a biosphere project that kept her locked away in a sealed ecosystem for two years! I don't know which is more crazy- the fact that they're sending old people to Mars, or the fact that Biosphere 2 existed without my knowledge and that people actually lived in that self-sustaining ecosystem (which contains an ocean, rainforest, and desert) for two years! Biosphere reminds me of Jurassic Park! Who even comes up with stuff like that! Can you imagine the psychological effects of living that way?? Try and think about these things for a while! This would make a killer sci-fi novel!
Here is the Mars article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21603490
Here is information on Biosphere 2:
http://www.b2science.org/who/fact

READ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

 

Random Thoughts

A couple of days ago I was browsing the BBC news website, a new habit of mine, and I came across an interesting article on "the psychology of Tetris", and just what it is about the game that has made it so appealing for so many years. I found this article fascinating. I myself have always wondered why sometimes I just can't seem to put down the smartphone or close out of that one game I just love to play (currently Bubbleshooter). Basically the gist of the article was that the game takes advantage of our psychological need to tidy things up, and uses it against us by constantly creating new "messes" we need to solve- fitting the pieces together. The game is indeed highly addictive and, as the article mentions, can cause the "Tetris Effect", which is basically when you dream in Tetris. I have, admittedly and to my own embarrassment, experienced the Tetris Effect with the game Bubbleshooter. It is very frustrating to me because dreaming about the game is an overload and leaves me feeling slightly nauseous. I don't know why...

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121022-the-psychology-of-tetris

Here is a link to the Tetris Effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect

At the same time, I tend to draw a line between playing games on phone apps and "gaming". It probably is very hypocritical of me to be judgemental of so-called "gamers", but even I can't justify spending 6+ hours playing one game. I just don't understand the draw. I consistently get bored at around the 1 hour mark. Regardless, I was reading more about actual video game "addiction" and I found this blog post which explained much of what I was skeptical about, though I must admit that when I first read this article, I misread a portion of it and thought it said that a child died because they weren't allowed to play video games, and that just totally ruined the credibility of this whole article. In fact, the author said that a child died due to neglectful parents who spent most of their time playing video games...I'm definitely still suspiscious/unsure of this, but I let it slide because the article actually does do a good job explaining the science behind video game addiction. Read it! I'm not sure I buy into the actual "addiction" description of this whole thing, but there definitely is some reason so many kids just get sucked into that world....

http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/02/19/the-psychology-of-video-game-a/

PSA Review

1. Abby and Katie- I really felt like you were advertising something, good enthusiasm
2. Jared, Bailey, and Mackenzie- I like how you actually listed the stages of development, it was very easy to follow
3. Jennifer and Sarah- very informative, I liked how you had a lot of information about each place

Not really sure what else I'm supposed to say so good job on your PSAs everyone!

More Psychology-Related Material

After starting our chapter about senses and perceptions, I was reminded of something I'd heard about previously- a condition in which people "hear" in color. I decided to do a little research and found that it was more than that. Synesthesia is a condition in which stimulation in a sensory pathway leads to stimulation in an autonomic pathway as well. The result is mixed perceptions. The author talks about how babies, as we've learned, have more neural connections than adults, and that scientists have suspected this could result in synesthesia. The article contains a video that I found to be far more interesting and informational than the article itself.

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/video/crisscrossing-senses.html

Kids These Days

I found the stuff we learned in psych this week to be very interesting, although the chapter was rather long. I particularly enjoyed learning about cognitive development of babies. I saw a young child tonight and I found myself trying to figure out what stage of development she was at (pre-operational was my guess). The information we learned about in class regarding babies learning language was probably the coolest thing we talked about. It has always been a goal of mine to, when raising my own children, talk to them in two languages from day 1 in order for them to become bilingual. I think that would be so useful and I wish I could have had that when I was young. It would certainly make German class a little more awesome. Here is an article supporting this, and the fact that babies are capable of learning more than one language from birth. I quite enjoyed it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130214111606.htm

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

It's late and I'm tired so I found a good article about sleep. We learned a lot more than I expected to about sleep this weak, and now I'm all worried about my sleep debt. This chapter has really made me aware of how little sleep I actually get, and, call me paranoid I've noticed some of the mentioned effects. Very troublesome. Regardless, I've found a way to solve all of our problems: learn while you sleep. I found this interesting yet simple article online that talks about a topic many people think they are familiar with: classical conditioning. It entails learning a specific piece of information using association while you're asleep. I think Mrs. Niemela mentioned using techniques similar to this to learn some information in college....suspiscious. Her type of information is significantly more difficult to grasp than smells (read the article to understand). The only fair conclusion I can draw is she is not of this world. The End.


A link for  your reading torture (but really, read it):
http://www.nature.com/news/how-to-learn-in-your-sleep-1.11274

Is It Alright to be All Left?

We've been talking about neuroplasticity in class, and today we talked about split brain patients. I think The split brain idea is slightly creepy. I think it would be cool to observe a patient like that but I don't think I'd ever want to be one. I feel like those patients are at a serious disadvantage because our brain halves communicate so frequently. I can't imagine what it's like to not have that. Then again, I've also never had a seizure so... maybe the surgery would be worth it. Anyway, I was watching the videos Mr. Dreier put on moodle and I found a video in the recommended videos. It's a news story about a girl who had half of her brain removed when she was young to combat a crippling epileptic disease. The video discussed plasticity and how the remaining half of her brain took over the functions of the missing half. I found it fascinating to see such an extreme case dealing with brain hemispheres, and to see how normal the girl appeared. I'd really like to know what, if any, functions her brain did not compensate/adapt for. I think this would be an interesting lifelong study. Are there more people like this out there...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MKNsI5CWoU

Blog 1

I am very excited to start AP Psychology. I'm really looking forward to learning more about psychology in general. I haven't been able to take a psychology class until now, and the subject has always interested me. I'm particularly interested in learning more about neuroscience. I think the human brain is one of the most fascinating things in the world because it's still so much of a mystery to even the smartest people on the planet. I'm not really sure when this whole subject area started to intrigue me, but I vaguely recall watching a NOVA episode one night on PBS about something brainy and being really impressed. I can definitely see myself working in that field someday. I also think it will be interesting and/or awkward learning about twins. I feel like twins shouldn't interest me because I didn't plan on being a twin, but they do. From what I have learned already, the psychology of twins is a very interesting and creepy (for me) subject. While reading the prologue, I also found it interesting to think about psychology from an evolutionary standpoint. We talk a lot about evolution in biology and integrated science, but we never really address the psychological aspects of it. Nature vs nurture is evidently a huge debate in the psychological world and I would love to hear some of the evidence supporting both sides. I'm definitely expecting this class to be perhaps my most interesting class this year and so far I haven't been disappointed. I guess it makes a big difference when you're actually interested in what you're learning...

Speaking of interesting, I found an article today on how to "take over a brain". The article is from CNN (I love CNN?) and it focuses on a recent development in neuroscience. The article is from January 7th so it's actually pretty revelant, which I appreciate. It definitely goes to show you that new advancements in the field are occurring as we speak and that's one of the coolest things about this science. It seems as though psychology is one area where we can really see change and research happening as we learn about it. Physics and chemistry definitely have their set rules and conclusions, while psychology seems to be changing every day, but perhaps this is just due to the fact that I haven't been exposed to much "soft science" yet. Regardless, this article is interesting. It focuses on a new technology called optogenetics that allows researchers to control cells in an animal brain. Fiber-optics tools are inserted into an animal's brain, and pulses of light are used to trigger neurons. Scientists engineered a light-sensitive protein, inserted via a virus, and use the protein to control the neurons. Scientists are using it to find out more about dopamine production, Parkinson's, and schizophrenia. The technology may help scientists figure out what these conditions do and how they can be treated. My personal questions on the subject are:
1. How/where is the fiber-optics tool inserted and is it permanent?
2. How exactly are the light-sensitive proteins in the neurons affected by the light?
3. What are the side effects, if any?
4. Has this been tested on humans/ will it be tested on humans?
5. What other ways can this technology be used? (Outside the brain??)
Hopefully research pertaining to this new technology will continue to be published so we can all see the effects of this new discovery!

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/06/opinion/mlodinow-science-frontier/index.html