This Week (5??? [I don't know where four went])...

Learning about how memory and how we think really interested me this week. I've always felt like I have a fairly poor short term memory so to learn why that is kept me attention. Perhaps when people are telling me things or I am telling others things, I tend to lose focus causing me not to encode the full message. I am trying to make a concerted effort to pay more attention in all aspects of my life. But connecting this info to class, I defintely noticed that because of the netbooks I tend to lose focus with what the discussion is in class. Its almost like I have to be 100% on task to fully grasp what is going on, this definetely holds true in Spanish. In that class too, I tend to zone out and it is super hard to get back on track especially because it is a different language.

Stations:

Priming - when I was first told of the "nail activity," I didn't know what I was supposed to do, but as soon as I saw the device, I remembererd what was needed to be done

Insight - during the human jumping activity, I didn't really know what to do. But after looking at it for a while, the solution suddenly came to me

Algorithms - the step by step instructions/clues that were given to us in the puzzle helped me figure it out. Well it at least was supposed to, I'm still trying to figure it out...

Mental Set - I was in DI this year and we do a lot of things that are similar to the record activity. So when I started messing around with it, I thought I knew what I was doing because it had worked for me in the past

Cognition - to do all of these activities, much less live our every day lives, we need to think and that is exactly what cognition is

Overconfidence - with the puzzle that was given to us; I was positive that I was right with one of my answers, turns out after being shoed a different thought process, I was actually wrong

This Week (3)...

This week, the topic that got me thinking most was when we were discussing whether or not whawt we do is intrinsically or extinsically motivated. I am involved in a lot of things, but I am both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to do just about everything. I have been involved in swimming for a very long time. I am in it not only because I want to stay in shape, but also because I want that feeling knowing that I am doing something good. I'll admit, the main reason I am in AP Psych is to get college credit. Thats how it is with most AP classes. However, with a class that I took last semester, CCE 101, I was actually in it because I wanted the knowledge of how to write a good paper, because in college it is highly probable that I will be writing many many many papers. Overall, I'm really starting to like what we are doing in this class because now it seems more like Psychology instead of Biology.

This week (2)...

We did a lot of things this week. Monday, W's dad came in and I thought that it was very interesting. I remember hearing about some of those things when I toured Madison, but I didn't know what exactly they were talking about. Tuesday was the test, besides the fact that it was kind of ridiculous that there were 15 or so questions from the last test, I thought it went well. The past two days, we have talked about learning. For some of the examples for both classic and operant conditioning, I was a little confused. At home, there are definitely examples of conditioning. The best example would be with my cat. My cat likes food, actually he REALLY likes food. His food dish is in the bathroom which is right by the garage. Whenever someone in our family walks to fill up his dish, the floor creaks. Now whenever we walk to the garage, causing the floor to creak, he comes running because he thinks he is getting food.

I understand that this is conditioning, but what kind, operant or classic?

This week...

This week was probably the most interesting, yet confusing. All of the biology and anatomy things was somewhat new and interesting, but I especially enjoyed learning all about perception. All of the pictures in the book were awesome to look at. I had either seen those pictures before or had heard about a certain theory, but I never actually realized just how fascinating some of it may be. Like the blindspot, where we would hold the paper out in front with one eye close and depending on where you held the paper, the X would disappear. I thought that was very cool. The other thing that I learned that was very cool was the green and yellow flag. I've always noticed before how when you look at red for a long period of time, that green would show up after. But I never knew why. Overall, even though I did pretty bad on the quiz, I definitely enjoyed this week and I REALLY hope the test goes better.

ASG's PSA

Ali, Stevie's, and Grace's PSA was also done very well. The beginning caught my attention so that must mean it was a good hook. Each one of their slides was very timely so that kept me interested. And each one of the stages was described both so someone that is scholarly (like me) and someone who is not could understand them.

Noah's PSA

Noah's PSA was done very well. It was very comical, with a lot of dry humor so that was entertaining. He used the scholarly words that I think would appeal to the parents wanting to move into Ashwaubenon. The slideshow was very timely, because as soon as the topic was done, a new picture was brought up. Every single one of the slides had humor, yet the humor made sense because it talked about all about Erikson's stages. All in all, very entertaining.

MAITE - Enough Said

After watching Mariahs, Patricks, and Katie's PSA announcement, I'll admit I am a little embarrassed the way ours turned out. We thought ours was good, but the commentary was probably not what it could have been. I think the thing that confused us the most was the fact that it was hard to decipher whether or not we should talk more scholarly, or more basic. Because most of the public doesn't know who Erik Erikson is. Anyways...

The PSA that Mariah and co. made was very well done. They incorporated the information needed so that it sounded scholarly while also talking about the places in basic terms. I liked the use of going around town to various places to tell which places in Ashwaubenon are for various places. Even the basic ones, like drawing, were different because most people don't think of that as an activity.

Although I am kinda confused as to why Mariah was wearing her swimsuit outside, while you were wearing clothes inside the pool area...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qoY_5ymOo&feature=related