Midterm Project: Memory

Fatima bah

Angel Dominguez

Group #7

Article #1

10/25/16

The Memory Illusion by Julia Shaw

Memory is the ability of the mind to store and recall past sensations, thoughts,knowledge, and other valuable things. In the short passage the memory illusion the author Julia Shaw haves us questioning if our memory is really real. She believes that our memory can play tricks on us and we may not be who we think we are, which is really  interesting but also creepy. As stated in the article, Memory Illusion by Julia shaw, “We can come to remember seeing and doing things that never happened, and the sneaky part is that in our minds these errors look and feel just like our other memories. These kinds of memory errors are called “false memories,” and they are the subject of considerable study around the world”. This means that the more you try to remember a certain memory, every time you try to remember what it is exactly that happened, little things are switched up and this is due to the memory distortion as explained in the quote above.  We become increasingly confident in our ability to recollect that certain memory, because we’ve done it hundreds of times before so we can’t possibly be wrong, right? Everybody remember things differently about certain situations that happened,  as such we as humans are prone to having our memories hijacked. There is a show called Brain games, there was an experiment where a woman was put into a jury case and said things that weren’t true about the thief and everybody believed her and took her word for it. Had this been an actual case, the wrong person would have been sent to jail, little things that can be changed up like the color from the coat from red to black, the skin color from light to dark, we all remember things differently and that is memory hijacking.

It’s crazy to think that you can say your name to a dozen people but you’ll only remember the names of the people that caught your eye.  I went through this and I can verify that this is true because, aside from any experiments that they conducted, I have a better track record of remembering the names of the girls who I found to be most pretty or the guys who were funny or interesting. Brains are a funny thing because we remember important details, and toss aside those details that we perceive as meaningless,or in other cases, boring. Memories are easily susceptible to distortion, as stated later on in the article, Julia Shaw conducted an experiment where she created false memories and made about 70% of the people ended up thinking that they committed an actual crime. She also found that, and this really interests me, those that created a false memory even went on to describe smells, things they saw, felt as well as tasted when trying to remembering that particular moment. Of course, this isn’t always a bad thing, without the flexibility of our memories, however easy it is to distort them, can also be a good thing because without that flexibility, we would always be stuck remembering old memories. Having flexible memories allows us to update our memory banks whenever we come across better information,we are able to learn from our mistakes and improve.

Ricardo Condado

Meshal Muhammad

Group #7

Article #2

“Examining Sleeps Roles in Memory

and Learning” by Ashley P. Taylor

Sleep is known to aid memory and learning. Sarah Mednick, a sleep researcher from the University of California, posed the question, ‘What else might be going during that sleep period that helps people’s memories?’ Mednick and her group measured the electrical activity of the brain and heart. They didn’t think that the heart would have a role in the aid of one’s memories. They found a difference of heart beats between those who did well on the test and those who did poorly on it. Rebecca Spencer, sleep and cognition researcher, stated that people focused more on the role that central nervous system (CNS) and ignored the role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). People didn’t focus too much on the ANS because this part of the nervous system is responsible of the control of bodily functions that we can’t consciously direct, in this case, our heartbeat. Jared Saletin from Brown University wrote to an email to explain that what the brain and body do during sleep are both important in determining the correlation between sleep and memory. Mednick’s group tested a group of people on the Remote Associates Test (RAT). They were given three words and were asked to come up with a fourth word which related the all of them. There were two groups, one group were able to take a 90 min nap before retaking the test again and the second group had to remain awake until they took the test again. It was concluded that only napping participants who entered REM sleep showed improvements on primed questions. No one improved during novel questions. Other groups have found a relationship between memory and the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system and others found that the more a heart beats the harder it is working therefore causing the participant to be more stressed out. Overall it was found that nappers were found to do better on primed questions.

Elu Saif

Group #7

10/26/16

What is memory? According to the Heald Colleges Edition it defines memory as “the ability to keep things in one’s mind or to recall them at will.” Interestingly I just read two articles the first one was “The Memory Illusion” by Julia Shaw and the other was “Examining Sleep’s Roles in Memory and Learning” by Ashley P. Taylor. Both of them dealt with the topic of “memory” however the first one was strictly based on the author Julia Shaw experience and the second article was research from different sleep researchers from over the world.

 “The Memory Illusion” has a short phrase at the beginning “If you think all of your memories are real and accurate, think again” basically it is saying that if we assume that everything we can remember or recall is true and correct then we need to think twice. While reading through the article it shows how our minds works in terms of the things we recall and different situations we handle mentality. It also states how other people can influence us into something or create a false story and make us believe that it did in fact happen when the person created it on the spot and brought it across like it is real. It also talks about as years seems to go by our memory of a particular event or situation that took place, we start forgetting or leaving pieces  of the story out and we become “confidently wrong” as it states in the article but the way our minds work we still think that we have the perfect memory in our minds.

“Examining Sleep’s Roles in Memory and Learning”  states at the beginning ” Autonomic nervous  system activity during the sleep may help explain variation in the extent to which the behavior aids memory consolidation, a study shows.” The research that the sleep researchers conducted was to find out if a student who learn an assign material,sleep on it if they perform better than a student who learn it then just went and do the exam or test. They referred to the two groups as nappers and non-nappers. From the research that was conducted majority of the researchers said that students who study, sleep and execute perform better than students who just study and execute. This article eventually started to get scientific because it also started to deal with the heart-rate while sleeping. It is also common knowledge that sleeping gives the brain food and also in the article it states that “sleep is known for aid memory and learning. Researchers also explains how different test was given to the two different groups of students and at times when both groups were tested it was both equal and when they made it more challenging the students who took a nap before the test improved at times and sometimes none of the two groups showed improvements.

After reading both articles it showed me how our memory work from different angles and how we think or act can affect our minds. The first article shows how our memory can be full or illusions at times and the second article explained what we do with our body can have an effect on your memories. The second article would of have mixed views seeing that it consisted of researchers from different parts of the United States and also in Europe. To conclude the both articles dealt with memory and it showed it works in different ways.

Research Project #1 Learning

 

Introduction to Psychology 1101

9/28/16

Angel Dominguez

How do babies learn?

Babies are one of the most fascinating creatures, the way they absorb information like sponges absorb water. They retain information a massive rate. Whether they perform the task as well as humans, is another story entirely. I was observing my nephew Joey the last time I was there, a couple months ago. I was throwing out the trash and he was asking why i would do that, to throw paper plates out. I could tell he thought I was doing something wrong. I told him that once you  finish eating, it becomes trash that needs to be thrown out. I had to explain this to him quite a few times until he finally started incorporating it into his to do lists. He finished eating a couple hours later, and he looked at me is he wanted me to remind him of something, so I told him to throw out his food and He asked me to accompany him to make sure he did it right. I opened the trash bin for him and he dumped it out, asking if he did it right once the food was disposed of. Every once in awhile, he won’t even ask me to go with him, he just walks up and I find him throwing away the food after he’s done.  It amazes me how awesome my nephew is, because there was a point where I got lazy after eating a lot of food, and he tells me that I have to throw away the food because it’s trash.

There was another observation I made which I believe is quite fascinating, I have a pet lizard who my nephew was scared of because it was so small. I tried to get him to put it on his hand for quite a while repeatedly telling him that he won’t hurt him and he was always scared of him. It’s crazy because, in my case at least, you don’t just get over your fears out of the blue.Last Monday, the 19th of September, I had it with me and he just walks up to me and asks if he can hold it. I say yes and he holds out his hands the way I’ve been showing him for the past few months before. It fascinate me, because I think he’s so scared of the lizard that he completely forgets what I taught him, here we are a few months later and he just does everything I’ve been showing him as if I just taught him yesterday. I tried something different the very next day, I visited him after my college class, the 20th of September. I showed him different pictures of lizards and I told him what specific type of lizards they were, I showed him bearded dragons, leopard geckos, the African fat tailed Gecko, and then I showed him a picture of my lizard, who just so happened to be a leopard gecko. He immediately said that it was my lizard and he a made  motion with his hands, as if he was recalling when he held the lizard the day before.

While the other two observations I made were based on experiments I made,this last one I tried was how babies try to lie to get out of things they don’t want to do. Every single time I sleep over at my brothers house, Joey needs to sleep at a certain time so that a pattern can be established. I was in the next room about to sleep, and Joey comes in saying that his gave him permission to sleep with me. In comes his father not long after, telling Joey that he needs to go to bed in his room. !0 minutes later, he wants milk, but while his father is preparing it for him, he sneaks off to hang out with me. He sent my brother to make milk for him, so that he could be distracted long enough to see me just a little bit more. It’s crazy how at such a young age, babies manipulate people so that they can get a desired outcome. He lied to me, saying that my brother gave him permission to sleep with me for the night, but it was a lie. He asked my brother to make him milk, only for him to sneak off and talk to me for a bit, only when my brother gave him the milk he said he wasn’t hungry. He was just trying to find any excuse to go off and talk to me more before he sleeps. Babies, learning at such a young age, that this item is hot, or that item is cold. They know they aren’t allowed to go to a certain section of the house by themselves because of the dangerous things inside it, such as kitchens and the knives inside them.  They manipulate to get what they want and they learn this as at a very young age. It amazes me how smart they can get and the information they retain when they haven’t even been enrolled in Pre-k.

 

Elu Saif

For everyone that knows me I’m an unofficial soccer analyst so when I am viewing a soccer match is not just a game for me. When everyone is watching to see their favorite team win I’m observing to see how the teams playing technically, tactically and strategically, so when is time to give an observation it will not be based on being biased it will be an open minded opinion with logic and reason. While I was watching the game I started to see a lot of flaws in both teams from the minute the whistle was blown from Trinidad and Tobago perspective there were a lot of miscommunication and tactical errors defensively that the Trinidadian team was making hence the reason Guatemala scored the first goal. On the other hand Guatemalans strikers were not technically good in front of goal because they did not capitalize on the errors that their opponents was making hence for all the miss opportunities the Trinidadians were able to scrape through and score to make both teams level before the first half ended. During the halftime both teams had their work cut out to come and give a better second half showing because it was a nail biting clash and who ever won was going through to the next round and the other team was being eliminated.
In the second half the Trinidadians came out fresh all hyped the team was much more composed the defenders were very tight at the back the coach made some adjustments and the communications was on point the way the team was possessing the ball because of that they were able to score and lead 2-1. Guatemalans on the other hand was baffle on the field the chemistry that the Trinidadian team was playing with because the composure in which they were playing with was flawless. Guatemalans started to play aggressively and to dirty which resulted in players getting sacked from the game because of their ridiculous challenges on the Trinidadian players. The game started to get so dirty that the Trinidadian team started to make changes with different players which affected their chemistry that they started with in the second half and the miscommunication started back again and they stared to do what the Guatemalans was doing in the first half started to create a lot of miss opportunities and therefore Guatemala got right back into it and scored a goal in the last minute when the game was near end. The game actually ended 2-2 which both teams earning a point and because Trinidad and Tobago had one point above them before the game the Trinidadian team advanced and the Guatemalans were eliminated and the move on to the next round.
 From the game I observed a lot of things from a football fan perspective when you miss a lot of opportunities the next team will make use of them and both teams had the price to pay for that. The other thing is when something is not badly broken do not fix it because when the Trinidadian team started to make changes it started to affect them and it also had an effect on the outcome of the game. Sometimes when you are confused you do not have to start playing dirty or aggressive to win it will only result in your team getting hurt more and you are hurting other people at the same time.
Meshal Muhammad
Observational learning is a form of cognitive learning in which new responses are acquired after watching others’ behavior and consequences/ out comes of their behavior. An example of this type of learning occurs is when long time prisoners come out of prison and are faced with the challenge of adapting to society. Majority of the prisoners who get out of jail end up going back or committing suicide  because they revert to their old ways and were unable to adapt to the new environment due to the gap between life; before and after they’re release. Many prisoners forget previously learnt skills such as driving and have to relearn. Technology, seems to be a big hurdle for many prisoners. Something that is now unconscious like turning on a smartphone takes focused learning for these freshly released prisoners. Prisoners also have very little contact with outside world during their sentence and as soon as they are released, bombarded with changed culture  and complex political agendas. Prisoners are forced to throw out all they know and adapt to a whole new environment to merely get by. We all learn how to adapt to society and how to be a productive member of it at an early age, making us forget how difficult and demanding it can be to relearn such a basic thing. Such in the movie Shaw shank redemption where the librarian decides to take his life because he is unable to coup with being treated like as an inferior . Minuscule tasks which would usually take very little time to perform take extra focus which can make one feel lesser than and exhausted.
Fatima Bah
Though the dog mind is way different than human mind, dogs can learn up to 10 skills a day depending on the type of dog. All dogs go through the same series of processes when learning a new behavior. Dogs have a short attention span and learn best with short, 5 minute, bouts of teaching, several times a day. Start teaching a new behavior somewhere with no distractions. When your dog is FLUENT, introduce distractions gradually, so that GENERALIZATION takes place. The quickest learning will take place when your dog can focus on you and the task in hand. I took some time out of the week to sit in a dog park near my house to observe the behaviors of a dog and how they learn. I witnessed a lady with a German shepherd training, she would throw a ball on the other side of the park and the dog will fetch coming back to a reward such as a treat. As well as picking up what you teach do a lot of learning of their own. They learn from other dogs that they see, and imitate their actions. There are more complex tasks that dogs seem to learn by observation as well. Some are of sufficient complexity that it would be difficult to design a program to train dogs to do effectively.
Ricardo Condado
Learning is to naturally apply new information. Everyone has different ways of learning. For example, in my math class during my junior year in high school, I sat at the back of the class. There was a group of friends who would always talk through the teachers lectures. Eventually, the teacher got tired of it and decided to separate them throughout the classroom. One of them sat next to me. He usually got lower than 50 out of 100 on his quizzes. But as soon as the teacher switched his seat, his grades started going up to a 70’s and 80’s.
This student didn’t focus at all in class because he was distracted in his conversation with his friends. His mind blurred out everything in his surroundings, including the teacher, and put all his focus on his friends. The mind works in a very interesting way, as it focus into what seems to be most important at the moment.
This is an example of behaviorism. Due to this students surroundings, which are his friends, he became oblivious to his teacher’s lectures. His behavior also changed in the class, as he used to be one of the loudest students in the class. But after being separated from his friends he became really quiet. Again, another sign of Behaviorism. This can also be a form of negative reinforcement, as he was taken away from his group of friends and it benefited him by having higher test scores.
There are many ways a person can learn. It would all just depend on the situation and the type of person they are.
Group 7
Angel Dominguez
Ricardo Condado
Meshal Muhammad
Fatima Bah
Elu Saif
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Observation on Learning

My little nephew, who is about 3 years old, would always follow me around and ask what is it that I am doing. I remember one day I was washing the plates, since I have chores. He asked me why I was washing the plates, since he didn’t know what it was that I was doing. I explained to him that we need to keep the plates clean so we could eat, he would ask me this every day and little by little he would start getting the hang of what it was to clean plates. I saw him at one point, he wanted to clean his plate so he went to the kitchen, and he started putting water on the plate and washing it with his hand, granted he’s a baby so he still doesn’t know how to clean the way grown ups do. there were still bits of food stuck to the plate,  he was there for a while and I asked him if he needed help, he said he couldn’t do it, so I proceeded to use the sponge and I saw the way his eyes lit up like he just saw magic for the first time. The food wiped away by some object that absorbs water, he’s like a sponge in a way too, he’s learned so many things and absorbed them in a relatively short amount of time. Still, it was amazing to see him absorb this information and try to clean the plate for himself. Needless to say, every time I have to clean piles of plates at the end of the day, he always helps me clean them. At the age of 3, he doesn’t really know to clean plates properly, but its remarkable to see the progress he’s made with only about a weeks worth of explaining the art of cleaning.

Observation on Learning

Ricardo Condado

Psychology 1101

 

 

Learning is the ability to obtain a skill through the process of experience or it being taught. I personally experienced an example of learning. I own a dog named, skipper. We took him from a family friend since they didn’t want skipper. Before owning him, he didn’t know how to cover himself in his blanket. Skipper loved to sit next to my father. Every time skipper sat next to my father, my father would cover him up with his own sheets. Eventually, skipper learned to cover himself up in his blankets. And hasn’t been cold since then.

Ricardo Condado – Attention Assignment

Attention can make one focus on one thing and distract them from their surroundings. For example, I’ve personally experienced this. This happened in June. I was on my way home, meanwhile I was in an argument with my friend through text. I was very focused on the conversation. As I got into the bus I took a quick glimpse to see if there were seats available. As soon as I get in a spot on the bus I receive a text from my father. It read, “look at the back of the bus.” I quickly turned my head and see my father sitting down. I didn’t notice him at all as I was focused on the argument I had with my friend.