Blog Post #3

The first activity I did was called Contrast/Color "Illusions". It showed me that the brain doesn't pick up on light given off by an image. It had an activity where there appeared to be two very contrasting colors at different angles and when you brought the colors together you were able to discovery that they were the same color. It was really cool to see that a dark gray square and a light gray square at two different angles, when at the same angle the brain was able to distiguish that they were the same colors. The second activity I did was called "Competative and Cooperation," this was also very interesting. I was able to play a game called Prisoner's Delemia and it was a game of odds. It was really interesting to find out that even in a game where the outcome is completely unknown until the game is over, our brains still comprehend that there is a plausable way to win the game. Our minds make a strategy even when there are win-win odds.

I was very suprised about how our mind works and trys to figure things out without us even knowing that we are critically anaylizing what we are looking at. It's intersting on how our mind depicts light and colors and how we process what they look like. It's also intersting that our minds try to find the answer to questions that have no answers or we come up with reasons why something happened even though it was chance.

I can apply this to daily life because we see things everyday that puzzle us and cause us to think about what it is. There are many pictures and sites that look different due to the angles or the amount of light given off and if we look at them at different times or angles they look different. The compete or cooperation can be applied to daily life because it allows our minds to think that we have a chance of winning something when the odds aren't there. We try to come up with strategies everyday to get work done or get out of doing something, even though there is only chance it could work.

This changes how I look at object and I'll try and see if they are decieving my mind or eyes. Now I will think about the odds and chances I have on winning or doing something. This opens up about how wide our mind travels and makes me think about how complex our mind is.

I've learned about the brain and its actual compenents and how the neurons in the brain transfer signals. I've learned about how the signals are transferred to different parts of the body and how fast they move in order to keep us alert and moving. The brain transfers signals so fast that it amazes me on how fast we can think and how quickly our reflexes can be just because of tiny little nueron in our bodies that transfer signals. I also learned that your brain is what you see with. You don't actually see things your brain sees it and makes us think about what we are seeing thus giving us the illusion that we are seeing things with our eyes.

I think the video about he man with two brains was extremely interesting. The expirements they did to tell which side of the brain is controling which body function. I thought it was so cool that they were able to show different images or words to one side of the brain and have it register on the opposite of the brain. How one side controls the words that we speak, while the other side control the pictures we draw or the images we think about when we see the word. It was really interesting to see how a normal brain works by bouncing signals off each other causing us to connect what we see on both sides. Where as if you have your brain split and they are unable to communicate that they can control completely different objects. This would be a very intersting study to do expirements on and would be a lot of fun finding out new things on how the brain functions.

Blog Post #2

I believe that research is very important, not only to me, but everyone. Research helps us find answers to our question. It allows us to increase our knowledge so that we can better understand things. Research helps in all fields of work, especially Psychology. There are so many new and interesting discovers that are found during our lifetime about people that the research is needed to fully understand. Research has been around for many years and many great things have come because of it. Things like advances in technology and understanding to deeper depths of our minds.

Research that I found very relevant to my life on psyblog was an article called “How to Avoid Procrastination: Think Concrete.” Being a senior this year there is a lot of things that need to be done things like; college applications, school club/programs, scholarships, and school activities. On top of that I have my daily homework and working at my job after school and the weekends. There is so much to remember it’s easy to procrastinate and push things back until the last minute. The article mentioned the studies that they did; I found it very interesting that you’re more likely to get things done if you think more about the details. I figured that if you thought more about details it would cause more frustration and make it harder to concentrate and get the job done. I guess when you think more about the detail and set yourself a reasonable time to achieve your goal; you’re less likely to procrastinate. This really helped me; I think I may try this technique to procrastinate less.

There are many things I have learned in the past week that I didn’t know. I have learned a lot about human attitudes and how people can be pushed into believing false or untrue ideas or facts because they were told it was true. I found out overconfidence can affect how well you perceive things and how long it takes you to do problems. I have also discovered that the scientific method is very important in psychology with research and discovering how the mind works with behaviors. I’ve also learned a lot about the different experimental approaches like surveys or random assignments.

Blog Post #1

Before I started this class I had a very plain idea about what Psychology is. The very simple: Psych- equals mind and -ology equals the study of. My first understanding of Psychology was that it was only the study of the mind. When I thought about what a Psychologist did, I imagined a man or women sitting in a chair with a client lying down, asking them how they felt. Now that I have read the first chapter, I'm actually shocked about the extreme content involved in Psychology. Not only does Psychology deal with the mind it deals with everything from your emotions to why you behave or act the way you do. Psychology vastly involves everything from a biology stand point to a visual recording and experimental stand point. I never thought there were so many subfields and categories associated with the study of the mind.

Psychology, I now know, affects my life a lot. It's in accordance with everything I do, say, or think. It tells me everything from how data is collected and how useful the data is. How easily I can be pushed into believing something completely false. Why I remember certain things and forget others. Psychology as a whole is my life completely, if you think about it, what ever you do, think, say, act, or anything you do using your mind, is Psychology. It's very essence deals with the mind and the mind controls your entire body, which controls what you do with your life. It affects my life because it tells me why and how things are.

I thought the experimental use of psychological science was very interesting. How doctors and researchers can test a product by using the double-blind procedure. Allowing there to be an expiremental group and control group and each giving them the product. However, the experimental group recieves the treatment, where as the control group recieves a false or fake treatment. I found it interesting that when doing this kind of experiment the control group can see results from not even taking a medication, but seeing results just from the pyschological standing that they think they are receiving a treatment. Which is called the placebo effect, which I find very intriguing.
I also found it very interesting that they compare everyone and everything together. From animals and humans to the different races and genders. It shows how no matter how different you may seem from either animals or act different than other races, our minds still think and operate the same. The study of the everything was quite interesting how they are all linked. Psychology in way brings everything together.

Introduction Post

Hey, my name is Rebecca Kellner. I'm 17 years old, I'll be 18 in about 3 month. I currently attend Stratford High School. My whole life has shaped me into the person I am today. I have had a lot of experiences with family and other stuggles that have taught me about being strong and moving on. My parents have taught me to work hard at whatever I do and that happiness is key. This has helped shape me into the person I am today. Psychology-the study of the mind (literally). A fascinating part of us that can be so simple, but yet so complex. I think psychology is very important because you need it in order to understand not only yourself, but others, as well. It helps us understanded human nature and the reason why we do certain things. Psychology is also important in the understanding of how to communicate and react to situations. Our minds are powerful things!