Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ivan Pavlov and John Watson

Ivan Pavlov

1. He wanted to know how if he could make a dog salivate without the presence of food.

2. First he gave the god food and made him salivate. Then, he gave the dog food and rang a bell. After a few times of doing this, the dog started drooling when the bell was rang, even if food was not present.

3. The conditioned stimulus was the bell, the unconditioned stimulus was the food and the conditioned response was the salivation of the dog.

4. Extinction is a gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of the conditional response tendency. Extinction occurs from many presentations of conditioned stimulus.

5. stimulus generalizations means a response to a specific stimulus and becomes associated to other stimuli and occurs to those other stimuli.

6. Stimulus discrimination is learning to respond to one stimulus and not another

7.-Pavlov had to change the route of the salivary glands.

- that the results of this experiment could be different with humans.

8. Pavlov theorized that we learned through association.


John Watson 


1. John Watson made an experiment that proved behaviors on humans, he used Little Albert and exposed him to a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool, burning newspapers, etc. Two months later, Little Albert was placed near a laboratory rat and he was allowed to play with the rat. Little Albert was not scared. While he was playing with the rat, Watson and his assistant made a loud noise by striking a steel bar. After this, Little Albert cried and showed fear. Every time he was shown something close to a rat he cried.

2. The conditioned stimulus was the white rat, the unconditioned stimulus was the loud noise, and the conditional response was crying of little albert. 

3. The limitations were that it was unethical and that it could never be done again. 

4. The law of frequency states that the most often events are linked, the more powerful will be the association.

5. The law of recency states that the response that has most recently occurred after a particular stimulus is the response most likely to be associated with that stimulus.

6. Watson thought behaviorism was almost all of psychology since he believed that psychology was the study of human behavior. He believed that he could turn someone into whatever he wished to if he could controlled the behavior.


http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/pavlov.html
http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/pavlov/readmore.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/watson.htm

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Selected Articles about Sleep


Delayed School Start Time Associated With Improvements in Adolescent Behaviors

ScienceDaily (July 8, 2010) — A short delay in school start time appears to be associated with significant improvements in adolescent alertness, mood and health, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

They made this experiment in order to tell wether the late start of school affected the students in a negative or positive way. The results given say that students are happier at school and not mad so, delaying the time to enter school had a positive impact in all the students in high school.

In my opinion, I completely agree with this source because of my personal experience. When we have a late start in school i get to sleep two hours more  than normal and the next day i feel with more ability to learn and in a happier mood. This way it is easier for me to remember things and be succesful in all my school work. 







Being A Night Owl In High School Is Linked With Lower College GPA

ScienceDaily (June 11, 2009) — According to a research abstract that will be presented on June 9, at Sleep 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, students who consider themselves to be evening types (that is someone who feels more alert and does their best work later in the day) have poorer sleep hygiene scores than morning and intermediate types. Sleep hygiene is the group of behaviors linked to good sleep and alertness. Examples include having a regular bedtime routine, a regular wake time, a regular bed time, and sleeping in a comfortable bed.

 An experiment was done in order to see if lack os sleep can affect you GPA. The less people sleep the lower their grade will be because students are not capable of learning and being successful while they have not rested for a while. The results were the GPA of students in highschool diminished for students who don't sleep enough each night. 


In my opinion, I agree that if you don't sleep well you grades will decrease do to the fact that you are not rested and your brain needs rest in order to function in the correct way. By personal experience, when I don't sleep well the next day i am very tired and not willing to do anything but sleep. 


















Starting High School One Hour Later May Reduce Teen Traffic Accidents


ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2008) — A new study shows that after a one-hour delay of school start times, teens increased their average nightly hours of sleep and decreased their "catch-up sleep" on the weekends, and they were involved in fewer auto accidents.

An experiment was done, that when students sleep more there is less probability of car accidents happening. When school started late data was recorded and 50% of students slept  even 9 hours.

In my opinion, I believe that if there is a late start in school there will be more car accidents because the kids would like to go to party the night before since they will still be getting the same amount of sleep they usually do.  So during the night before there might be more car accidents.