Perceptual Development

In the past couple weeks of Psychology, we've been talking a lot about our senses and our sense of perception. The details of infant perception I feel we didn't cover too much, so I decided to do a little extra research. I knew that infants were born with very poor vision but I didn't realize how bad it really was. Infants are born with 20/120 to 20/400 vision which basically means that they perceive objects to be 6-20 times larger than they actually are. Also, if they were to look at an eye chart and try to distinguish which letters are which, they would only be able to distinguish the large "E" at the top of the chart. What I didn't know (or possibly pay enough attention to) is that infants are already born with developed senses of smelling and hearing. Infants are known to like familiar songs or tunes that their mothers sing to them prior to birth because the patterns of the tune are familiar to them. The more infants make contact with their mothers, the less they cry and the more relaxed they tend to be. Now whether we covered all this and I didn't pay enough attention, I don't know, however, it was great to have a recap of all of this as well as some possible other new information that I learned from this video!

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amnKsLaFsGA

Perfect Pitch

Perfect Pitch, also known as Absolute Pitch, is a rare ability that only one in ten-thousand people obtain. People with perfect pitch (such as myself) are able to identify a note simply from hearing it or are able to produce a note from memory. People with perfect pitch can also generally tell if a pitch is too sharp or flat. Just like how a person can see a color and immediately know that it is "red" or "green"  etc, the same concept goes with perfect pitch. A person can hear a note and know that it's an "A" or an "Eb" and etc. Many neuroscientists argue that people with perfect pitch have larger than average temporal lobes. After much research, scientists can conclude that most people can identify sounds as easily as colors, however, many people aren't able to place the name of a sound or frequency when it is heard. Many non-musicians have perfect pitch but are unaware of it because they don't think much about it or are unaware of what perfect pitch actually is. Many scientists still argue as to whether perfect pitch is something someone is born with, or whether it is something that a person can develop. Personally, I believe anyone can develop perfect pitch. It would require a lot of training and auditory development, but I do believe it is possible. Take my sister for example. She's just beginning to learn guitar and if I sing her a note that she may play on the guitar, she's able to think about what note it is and is accurately able to tell me that it is a "G". Does this mean she has perfect pitch? Not necessarily, but does this show evidence that she could develop it? Perhaps it does.

Link: http://www.audiology.org/news/editorial/pages/20081117a.aspx

Personality Throughout Life

During chapter 5, we've read a lot about developmental psychology and how it affects our lives. Everyone goes through the stages of life (however in some cases, they are cut short) but what I wanted to learn more about was how a child's personality will affect their adulthood. The article showed that a child who was very verbal and social as a child tended to be the same as an adult. They tended to have a higher self-esteem and were very enjoyable to be around. However, a child who was not verbal tended to remain that way as they grew older. As adults, they tended to be less social and sometimes awkward in highly social events. This article shows the positivie and negative correlations of how a child's behavior can affect their personalities in adulthood.

Link: http://www.psyarticles.com/development/childhood-personality.htm

The Nice Ice Experiment

When I was told that we were to "get addicted" to ice, I was really confused. Although I wasn't able to actually get addicted to the ice, it was fun to see what lengths I would go to to obtain it. There were some situations which were easier than others, such as getting ice at home. Other situations like getting ice at school were difficult, however. Surprisingly at home, no one in my family noticed my ice stealing skills. There was a situation in which a non-ice user offered my ice and I had to decline without being able to come with legitimate reason as to why. I found myself going to lengths that even involved eating icicles or snow because that was the closest thing I could get to in some situations. I found this experiment to be rather silly but also interesting as to what myself and others would do to get ice. While writing my hourly journal of my ice addiction, I found myself writing as though ice were a hard drug and as though I was going through withdrawal symptoms and what not. Because ice is so easy to obtain, I found that this experiment was a little too easy and didn't really portray the full effect of what hiding drugs or an addiction is like. However, I will admit that seeing what some people did and went through to simply get ice without suspicion, was really what made this experiment that more enjoyable.

Second Blog - Rats On Drugs

Rats on Drugs

As of now in class, the human brain I believe we have all learned, truly is an incredible thing. After viewing the Mouse Party online game/experiment, the effects of drugs on rats alone is truly incredible seeing as what really goes on. I thought it would be an interesting idea to research some videos and experiments about what happens in real life when rats are on drugs. In the video I watched, there were three rats. One rat was injected with marijuana, another rat was injected with cocaine, and the third rat was injected with saline, which is a salt water solution. Upon viewing the video, the scientists noticed that each rat reacted differently. The marijuana rat was acting quite mellow, the cocaine rat was fidgety and trying to escape, and the saline rat was acting completely normal. All of these rats were specially trained to count time. In an experiment, the rat would have to press a lever after 12 seconds, no more and no less, and would receive a food pellet if they timed it correctly. They received nothing if timed incorrectly. The saline rat was able to press the lever within the correct time frame and therefore, received a pellet. The drugged rats however faced complications. Time seemed to go by much quicker for the cocaine rat and they pressed the lever after only eight seconds. For the marijuana rat, however, time drifted on by and after 16 seconds, they pressed the lever. This experiment can conclude that various drugs affect brain activity and ones ability to tell time.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLlIdEWco4M

Funny Picture I thought people may enjoy :) msin374l.jpg (click on link)

Drug Assignment - Zoloft

Potential Immediate Side Effects:

• abdominal pain
• headache
• sore throat
• anxiety
• agitation
• fatigue
• insomnia
• sleepiness
• nervousness
• constipation
• diarrhea
• nausea
• gas
• bloating
• indigestion
• tremors
• tingling in hands and feet
• decreased sex drive

Neurons and Neurotransmission Process:

Zoloft belongs to a class of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is made by nerve cells in the brain that is used by various nerves to communicate amongst each other. A nerve releases a the serotonin and is produced into the space around it. The serotonin will either attach itself to a receptor on the nerve that produced it or it will travel across the space it's in. Selective serotonin inhibitors block the reuptake of serotonin and will then change the levels of serotonin in the brain.

 Long-Term Side Effects:

Long-term side effects that can occur from taking Zoloft can result in insomnia, which can either be long-term or short-term, weight gain,  and possible sexual dysfunction. In a small number of patients, there is the possible result of liver and/or heart disease.

mah first blog

Expectations and what not

Overall for this course, I was really surprised by how fast things are moving as far as the learning goes. This being my first AP course makes it difficult, but also interesting. A few things I'm hoping to learn more about is what our dreams have in accordance to why they happen. I'm also interested as to why various people have different sexual preferences such as homo, bi, and heterosexuality. Is it genetic, cultural, behavioral, or is there another reason or are we just "born that way"? I'm really hoping that this course will answer these questions as well as the various other questions I'm hoping to obtain as the course continues.

Weekly Blogging Assignment

I decided to research an article that had to do with phobias and methods to get rid of them. This article closely relates to the behavioral perspective in which a person reacts a certain way to a situation. On this article, it talked about how the treatment, known as flooding, is a general method in curing people of unrealistic phobias. An example of flooding is by putting a person in a room with the thing that they have a phobia of. Of course, the general reaction is that they will be terrified but after a series of a couple hours generally, they will calm down and learn to realize that there is nothing to be truly be afraid of. Flooding isn't a very ethical method of treatment but it does however, work. You probably wouldn't find a therapist or psychiatrist that would perform this treatment today but in the 1960s, this was a common method. Psychologist Thomas Stampfl created a technique known as implosion therapy. In this therapy session, a person was exposed to sounds and detailed descriptions of the thing they feared most. Their reactions as well as the sounds/descriptions were recorded for the person to take home and listen to as 'homework'. By doing this, a person can learn to cope with the fear and in good time, it's concluded that a person can overcome their unrealistic, traumatic fears. 

Link:  http://www.psychologistworld.com/behavior/flooding.php