“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.” -John Wolfgang von Goethe
When I was first searching for a topic to write this blog on I saw the words 'higher-order' and I got super excited because I thought it was higher order thinking, turns out it was conditioning. But either way, I still chose to write on the topic because it is interesting enough. Higher order conditioning, second-order conditioning, is the association a person makes between a variable and stimulus. Through classical conditioning, by using our five senses (sight, smell, touch, hear, and taste) we can make an association between one of them and something else. For example, seeing the blaze orange color and camouflage combination, makes me think of hunting. Or, smelling a chocolate chip cookie, can emanate within you and make it appear as though you can actually taste the cookie.
An example was presented about Vietnam war veteran's coming home with supposed large heroin addictions, but most of them disappeared upon entering the United States because their setting changed. Vietnam was the setting for heroin and when it changed, their desires did as well. This idea makes sense in the reverse as well. Just being around, or any sense of heroin for recovering addicts can bring them right back into using. But if the addiction broke so well for 86% of the veterans, then why has this same scenario not been replicated for other addictions or phobias? Is something as simple as moving, can break an addiction being able to harness the same idea of higher order conditioning has the potential to save many lives.
Higher order thinking is supposed to be harder to achieve than first order, which makes sense because of the extra association that has to be made. And though it may be difficult to execute correctly advertisements and children are perfect master minds behind the idea. Advertisements and media because they can create an image or jingle, which every time you see or hear will automatically be associated with the product. There is a commercial which represents Internet Explorer 9 and they use a popular song in the background. The song is popular enough on its own, to not be played with the commercial, but when I hear it on KDWB all I picture is the TV commercial Internet Explorer 9. Children, obviously, have become genius in the art of throwing a temper tantrum. And most parents can just not say no. And so by saying yes, the child associates getting what they want by throwing a tantrum.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Post #9 Extra Credit #1
As an extra credit post, I chose to read two articles, 'Why is Yawning Contagious' and 'Pet Dogs Can Catch Human Yawns,' to relate the two as well as relate them to personal experiences.
Before reading either one of the articles, I thought the act of yawning came from your body telling you, you were tired. But it turns out, according to a new study found the purpose of yawning is to cool the brain so it operates more efficiently and keeps you awake. In a way this hypothesis does make sense, but at the same time it contradicts everything I thought about it in the past of it being a sign I needed to rest and sleep. Which means my whole childhood life was a sham, when ever I would yawn my mother would send me off to take a nap or go to bed for the night. Of course I would protest the entire way too. However, according to the dog article, a yawn can either mean you are tired, or it can be stress induced.
The idea of a yawn being stressed induced it fascinating to me, because this would mean high schoolers and college aged kids would yawn much more than a five year old child or an infant. From personal experience, I feel I yawn more late at nights. Now whether that is from being up late or being stressed from procrastinating on my homework, I have no idea. But neither article seemed to mention the idea of boredom, because I feel that is the main reason I yawn during the day. During a typical school day I will yawn about tent times because I am bored sitting in class doing nothing or something I find irrelevant to my learning.
As for the idea of a dog being able to catch a human's yawn, I feel this is very much true. The original reason I chose to read this article, was because I do have a dog and I know I have caught yawns from him. He'll yawn right as I look over him, and I end up needing to yawn immediately after. The study demonstrates how a human would yawn in front of the dog and see if the dog would yawn back, and 21 out of 29 times it would. To boost the legitimacy of the study another test would involve a human just opening and closing their mouth to see a response, and there was no response at all. And apparently humans can catch dog's yawns too, well, at least I can.
The act of catching a yawn, records back to the idea of, not exactly natural selection, but rather instinct. It is part of something called the 'herding principle,' which relates yawning to be in the same concept is a flock of birds all flying together. In coordination with the cooling theory, yawning was thought to have to do with human vigilance. While yet another study believes it historic periods, it was used to maintain sleep cycles as well as a way to communicate their alertness levels with one another.
This of course all seems prehistoric to me, so I think for now I will just try and communicate to my dog how stressed I am with his behavior late at nights; that way I have my bases covered.
Before reading either one of the articles, I thought the act of yawning came from your body telling you, you were tired. But it turns out, according to a new study found the purpose of yawning is to cool the brain so it operates more efficiently and keeps you awake. In a way this hypothesis does make sense, but at the same time it contradicts everything I thought about it in the past of it being a sign I needed to rest and sleep. Which means my whole childhood life was a sham, when ever I would yawn my mother would send me off to take a nap or go to bed for the night. Of course I would protest the entire way too. However, according to the dog article, a yawn can either mean you are tired, or it can be stress induced.
The idea of a yawn being stressed induced it fascinating to me, because this would mean high schoolers and college aged kids would yawn much more than a five year old child or an infant. From personal experience, I feel I yawn more late at nights. Now whether that is from being up late or being stressed from procrastinating on my homework, I have no idea. But neither article seemed to mention the idea of boredom, because I feel that is the main reason I yawn during the day. During a typical school day I will yawn about tent times because I am bored sitting in class doing nothing or something I find irrelevant to my learning.
As for the idea of a dog being able to catch a human's yawn, I feel this is very much true. The original reason I chose to read this article, was because I do have a dog and I know I have caught yawns from him. He'll yawn right as I look over him, and I end up needing to yawn immediately after. The study demonstrates how a human would yawn in front of the dog and see if the dog would yawn back, and 21 out of 29 times it would. To boost the legitimacy of the study another test would involve a human just opening and closing their mouth to see a response, and there was no response at all. And apparently humans can catch dog's yawns too, well, at least I can.
The act of catching a yawn, records back to the idea of, not exactly natural selection, but rather instinct. It is part of something called the 'herding principle,' which relates yawning to be in the same concept is a flock of birds all flying together. In coordination with the cooling theory, yawning was thought to have to do with human vigilance. While yet another study believes it historic periods, it was used to maintain sleep cycles as well as a way to communicate their alertness levels with one another.
This of course all seems prehistoric to me, so I think for now I will just try and communicate to my dog how stressed I am with his behavior late at nights; that way I have my bases covered.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Post #8
"As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge." -Henry Van Dyke
Circadian rhythm is our own internal clock which allows for us to have certain routines through our life that we have to follow. There is certain times when we must sleep, and there is reasoning behind our drowsiness in the early afternoon. But the circadian rhythm runs the motion of sleep, our peak of energy, hunger, and release of hormones. Our need for sleep, does not come from one specific hidden reasoning, but rather form many uncertain ones. Either way, our body needs to rejuvenate and be of use so we do not crash the next day from a lack of. The hormone melatonin is at its highest level, when it is dark outside, which triggers feelings of sleepiness.
Our circadian rhythm can be thrown off because of jet lag and travel to different parts of the world. Because of the different time zones, and time the sun will set our sleep schedules are put on skew and so is our rhythm. This idea makes me wonder about people who live in Alaska and how their circadian rhythms have adjusted to the climate change and sun exposure times.
During the winters in Juneau, Alaska there are about five hours of light and in the summer twenty. To adjust to these light changes, most Alaskans will apply darkened shades in their bedrooms as well as participating in a great amount of exercise in order to be tired when it is time to sleep. In an essence, they are tricking their bodies into following a routine circadian rhythm.
I remember last year taking regular psychology with Mr. Van De Hinz, he had a light on his desk which produced an artificial real light, or something along those lines. But it was suppoesed to give him Vitamin D, and I suppose it is also similar to people's need to be kept awake and to have low levels of melatonin during the work day.
Circadian rhythms not only occur in humans, but also in animals. Birds possess it through their ability to know when it is time to migrate. They sense the climate change as well as the shortened days of fall and winter. In a study done, arctic animals possessed circadian rhythms in all season with the exception of summer. The adaption the reindeer and ptarmigan make is truly incredible.
Circadian rhythm is our own internal clock which allows for us to have certain routines through our life that we have to follow. There is certain times when we must sleep, and there is reasoning behind our drowsiness in the early afternoon. But the circadian rhythm runs the motion of sleep, our peak of energy, hunger, and release of hormones. Our need for sleep, does not come from one specific hidden reasoning, but rather form many uncertain ones. Either way, our body needs to rejuvenate and be of use so we do not crash the next day from a lack of. The hormone melatonin is at its highest level, when it is dark outside, which triggers feelings of sleepiness.
Our circadian rhythm can be thrown off because of jet lag and travel to different parts of the world. Because of the different time zones, and time the sun will set our sleep schedules are put on skew and so is our rhythm. This idea makes me wonder about people who live in Alaska and how their circadian rhythms have adjusted to the climate change and sun exposure times.
During the winters in Juneau, Alaska there are about five hours of light and in the summer twenty. To adjust to these light changes, most Alaskans will apply darkened shades in their bedrooms as well as participating in a great amount of exercise in order to be tired when it is time to sleep. In an essence, they are tricking their bodies into following a routine circadian rhythm.
I remember last year taking regular psychology with Mr. Van De Hinz, he had a light on his desk which produced an artificial real light, or something along those lines. But it was suppoesed to give him Vitamin D, and I suppose it is also similar to people's need to be kept awake and to have low levels of melatonin during the work day.
Circadian rhythms not only occur in humans, but also in animals. Birds possess it through their ability to know when it is time to migrate. They sense the climate change as well as the shortened days of fall and winter. In a study done, arctic animals possessed circadian rhythms in all season with the exception of summer. The adaption the reindeer and ptarmigan make is truly incredible.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Post #7 Reflection
After going to the University of Minnesota, I simply cannot wait to head off to college. As if I wasn't already excited to leave home, going to an actual college lecture with actual college students surrounding me was truly amazing. It is funny, however, the Wiley Hall lecture room we were in, was the exact same one as I went to for my CIS Literature class last year. And so I knew going into the building what to expect of the room size and presentation set up. Before arriving, Ms. Osmundson told us to look for the students who were on Facebook or other social media sites, and there were surprisingly less than I expected. Granted there were the few students checking Facebook, and the annoying group of people behind who would not stop laughing at some video they were watching, but other than that, very little.
From going to this lecture, I found I will need to sit up more towards the front of the lecture hall and not sit by any of my friends if we are taking the same class. Sitting up in the front will be because, from the man who gave the lecture on Friday, he was very difficult to hear in the back of the hall and so I was straining myself the entire time trying to hear better. As for sitting separately from my friends, I will need to do this because if I don't I will not pay attention at all to the lecture. Sitting by myself will force me to pay attention to the professor and then I will be able to learn better.
I enjoyed the collegiate feel of the campus, obviously, because at the end there was the video played of the cutting of a corpus collosum, and many students left as it was starting. This was basically because, I felt, they thought they were not going to benefit from the video or that portion of class. Seeing people leave, was a really neat aspect for me because I can almost relate, there are many times I would just like to get up and leave because I feel certain classes are not beneficial to sit in on certain days.
The lecture itself, I felt did not provide a lot of information however. It seemed to drag on and did not give anything I felt necessary for me to dwell on or look more into. I felt as though he was just covering the basics and his examples took far too long without getting to the actual point. They were rather good examples, but did not need to take up as much time as they did. Overall, I felt the lecture was rather boring and simplistic but the atmosphere was great and it made it all worth while.
From going to this lecture, I found I will need to sit up more towards the front of the lecture hall and not sit by any of my friends if we are taking the same class. Sitting up in the front will be because, from the man who gave the lecture on Friday, he was very difficult to hear in the back of the hall and so I was straining myself the entire time trying to hear better. As for sitting separately from my friends, I will need to do this because if I don't I will not pay attention at all to the lecture. Sitting by myself will force me to pay attention to the professor and then I will be able to learn better.
I enjoyed the collegiate feel of the campus, obviously, because at the end there was the video played of the cutting of a corpus collosum, and many students left as it was starting. This was basically because, I felt, they thought they were not going to benefit from the video or that portion of class. Seeing people leave, was a really neat aspect for me because I can almost relate, there are many times I would just like to get up and leave because I feel certain classes are not beneficial to sit in on certain days.
The lecture itself, I felt did not provide a lot of information however. It seemed to drag on and did not give anything I felt necessary for me to dwell on or look more into. I felt as though he was just covering the basics and his examples took far too long without getting to the actual point. They were rather good examples, but did not need to take up as much time as they did. Overall, I felt the lecture was rather boring and simplistic but the atmosphere was great and it made it all worth while.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Post #6 Reflection
Unfortunately, I did not do as well as I had hoped for my first CIS Psychology exam. But I did receive the grade I deserved. This being said, I did not put forth any effort into studying for the test, and did poorly on the exam as I should. Now, I may not have failed which is always a relief, but I did not do as well as I wished I had. Throughout the unit, I did read all of the chapters, which are so dense, that for me just reading them is no longer enough for me to do well. In the past I have been able to retain most information indefinitely after one read through and I am also a fast reader which comes in handing for most classes. But these chapters were very and difficult, so the strategy I have been able to get by with for the past ten years is no longer in effect.
For the next exam, I do plan on actually studying. And to be more specific, I will watch the lectures (all of them), and reread portions of the chapters assigned. I will also make better use of the study guides and practice quizzes given to us. I started off the unit well going through the study guide and looking back on portions I missed, but I will just have to continue that pattern along further this time around. Hopefully I will do much better on this upcoming, unit test because I know what to expect and will be better prepared.
For the next exam, I do plan on actually studying. And to be more specific, I will watch the lectures (all of them), and reread portions of the chapters assigned. I will also make better use of the study guides and practice quizzes given to us. I started off the unit well going through the study guide and looking back on portions I missed, but I will just have to continue that pattern along further this time around. Hopefully I will do much better on this upcoming, unit test because I know what to expect and will be better prepared.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Post #5
There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance. -Albert Einstein
Lately I have been catching up on the re runs of the show Switched at Birth, shown on ABC Family. One of the episodes I recently watched was about the son's, Toby, gambling addiction and how he employed his new found sister and her best friend, who are both deaf, to help him win back some money. They claim, by being deaf they are capable of better seeing competitors tells and basically have a knack for winning a lot of money playing poker against hearing people. This instance reminded me of the section in chapter four where it talks about ESP, subliminal messaging, and psychic connections. Of the three, extrasensory perception is what really interested me and how variable it is in sensing things and how much it can affect people.
Extrasensory perception can be split into three categories; precognition, telepathy, and clairvoyance. Precognition is when a person can predict events before they occur. Telepathy is the act of reading other people's minds, and clairvoyance is being able to detect the presence of objects or people who are hidden from view. In different trials, no aspect of ESP could be replicated and so lost much of its poignancy fast. It is still something of huge interest today, but the validity and reliability of it is lacking. It being still of interest causes many people to ask why, including myself; why someone could believe so whole heartily about such a lost cause. It seems as though people tend to believe in the practice so earnestly because of coincidence. People can see all the coincidences between events in their own lives, and are blind to the many times nothing happens.
Extrasensory perception involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed through the mind. It can also sometimes be referred to as intuition. Intuition is something I can more so relate to than telepathy or one of those other specifics. Everyone, including myself, has those moments where you think about doing something for a split second and doing something in its place, and then regretting not doing the split second thought. For example, I was debating between two knitting needles to buy today at JoAnn Fabric Store, and my gut was telling me to go with the larger one but I went with the smaller one because it was cheaper. When I got home and was about to use them, one of the sticks I had bought had a huge crack down the center of it. This was a situation where my intuition was pulling me in the right direction.
I think trusting my intuition will definitely be something I will be following from now on. It tends to pay off more in the long run. And although I still do not believe in ESP I can see the benefits and drawbacks from all angles.
Lately I have been catching up on the re runs of the show Switched at Birth, shown on ABC Family. One of the episodes I recently watched was about the son's, Toby, gambling addiction and how he employed his new found sister and her best friend, who are both deaf, to help him win back some money. They claim, by being deaf they are capable of better seeing competitors tells and basically have a knack for winning a lot of money playing poker against hearing people. This instance reminded me of the section in chapter four where it talks about ESP, subliminal messaging, and psychic connections. Of the three, extrasensory perception is what really interested me and how variable it is in sensing things and how much it can affect people.
Extrasensory perception can be split into three categories; precognition, telepathy, and clairvoyance. Precognition is when a person can predict events before they occur. Telepathy is the act of reading other people's minds, and clairvoyance is being able to detect the presence of objects or people who are hidden from view. In different trials, no aspect of ESP could be replicated and so lost much of its poignancy fast. It is still something of huge interest today, but the validity and reliability of it is lacking. It being still of interest causes many people to ask why, including myself; why someone could believe so whole heartily about such a lost cause. It seems as though people tend to believe in the practice so earnestly because of coincidence. People can see all the coincidences between events in their own lives, and are blind to the many times nothing happens.
Extrasensory perception involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed through the mind. It can also sometimes be referred to as intuition. Intuition is something I can more so relate to than telepathy or one of those other specifics. Everyone, including myself, has those moments where you think about doing something for a split second and doing something in its place, and then regretting not doing the split second thought. For example, I was debating between two knitting needles to buy today at JoAnn Fabric Store, and my gut was telling me to go with the larger one but I went with the smaller one because it was cheaper. When I got home and was about to use them, one of the sticks I had bought had a huge crack down the center of it. This was a situation where my intuition was pulling me in the right direction.
I think trusting my intuition will definitely be something I will be following from now on. It tends to pay off more in the long run. And although I still do not believe in ESP I can see the benefits and drawbacks from all angles.
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