Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov:
1. What was Pavlov actually studying when he developed his theory of classical conditioning?
=  He was studying salivation in dogs.                                                         
2. Explain (in detail) how Pavlov's experiment was conducted.
=Pavlov put his dogs in an experimental chamber, were presented with meat powder and they had their saliva collected via a surgically implanted tube in their saliva glands. Over time, he noticed that his dogs who begin salivation before the meat powder was even presented, whether it was by the presence of the handler or merely by a clicking noise produced by the device that distributed the meat powder.
Fascinated by this finding, Pavlov paired the meat powder with various stimuli such as the ringing of a bell. After the meat powder and bell were presented together several times, the bell was used alone. Pavlov’s dogs, as predicted, responded by salivating to the sound of the bell without the food. The bell began as a neutral stimulus. However, by pairing the bell with the stimulus that did produce the salivation response, the bell was able to acquire the ability to trigger the salivation response.
3. Identify the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response from Pavlov's experiment.
= The meat powder is considered an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the dog’s salivation is the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell is a neutral stimulus until the dog learns to associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) which produces the conditioned response (CR) of salivation after repeated pairings between the bell and food.
4. Explain what extinction means in relation to classical conditioning.
= In relation to classical conditioning extinction is when Classical Condition is absence from the unconticional statement. The Conditional statement loses the capacity to cause conditional response. This is also called spontaneous recovery.
5. Explain what stimulus generalization means in relation to classical conditioning.
= Stimulus generalization is when the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to suggest similar responds for the ones who have been conditioned.
6. Explain what stimulus discrimination means in relation to classical conditioning.
= Stimulus Discrimination means that the organism's ability to perceive differences among stimuli and respond to only one or a few such stimuli. Discrimination produces signals the behavioral course proper to the situation.7. Explain at least two limitations of this experiment.= -He only worked with dogs
   -He required surgical procedure
8. Explain what Pavlov theorized about how we learn.= Pavlov said that when a natural stimulus is paired with a neutral the neutral is learned providing the natural stimulus evoking the responds of the neutral.


John B. Watson:
1. Explain (in detail) how Watson's "Little Albert" study was conducted.
=Watson studied Albert, an 11 month old infant child. The goal of the study was to condition Albert to become afraid of a white rat by pairing the white rat with a very loud, jarring noise. First, Albert showed no sign of fear when he was presented with rats, but once the rat was repeatedly paired with the loud noise, Albert developed a fear of rats. It could be said that the loud noise induced fear. The implications of Watson’s experiment suggested that classical conditioning could cause some phobias in humans.
2. Identify the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response from Watson's study
= (CS)— Rat
   (UCS)- Loud noise
   (UCR)-Fear
3. Explain at least two limitations of this study.= -He only used one baby.
    -There were other sounds around.
4. Explain Watson's law of frequency.= Watson’s law of frequency stated that the more often two things are linked the association will be       more powerful.
5. Explain Watson's law of recency.= Watson’s law of recency states that responds occur immediately after the stimulus.
6. Explain the basic assumptions of behaviorism according to Watson.=   He said that all behavior can be reducing to its basics components.


http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Pavlov's_Classical_Conditioning-definition
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1423074

Articles about sleep

Article No. 1

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080609071202.htm

The study was conducted by Barbara Phillips, MD, director of the UK Healthcare Good Samaritan Sleep Center in Lexington, Ky. The study was developed making two surveys, the second one two years later of the first one. School times during the first year were 7:30 a.m. for high schools and 8 a.m. for middle schools. In the second one high schools and middle schools started one hour later at 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. The results when school started one hour later was that students had from 12  to 30 minutes more self-reported nightly sleep. The percentage of students who got at least eight hours of sleep per weeknight increased significantly from 35.7 percent to 50 percent. Students who got at least nine hours of sleep also increased from 6.3 percent to 10.8 percent. I personally prefer to start school earlier for having an earlier dismissal, but it is true that starting one hour later will allow me to sleep more.

Article No.2

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100705190532.htm

Judith A. Owens, M.D., M.P.H., of the Hasbro Children's Hospital, Providence, and colleagues was responsible for conducting thsi study. She studied 201 students in grades 9 through 12 attending high school in Rhode Island. For the purposes of the study, class start time was procrastinated from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Also, students were required to complete the online retrospective Sleep Habits Survey before and after the change in school start time. Students reported more satisfaction with sleep and experienced improved motivation. Daytime sleepiness, fatigue and depressed mood were all reduced, the percentage of students getting less than seven hours of sleep decreased by 79.4 percent, and those reporting at least eight hours of sleep increased from 16.4 percent to 54.7 percent. I personally like to be satisfied with my sleep and also things are done better with motivation, so I like this study because it suggests school directives a simple way of havin happier students.

Article No.3

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070308121912.htm

The study was conducted by Antoine Viola, Derk-Jan Dijk, and colleagues at the University of Surrey's Sleep Research Center. In the study scientist and psychologists compared how individuals possessing only the longer gene variant and those possessing only the shorter one coped with being kept awake for two days, including the intervening night. Researches found that a genetic difference in  gene in period 3, makes some people particularly sensitive to the effects of sleep deprivation. The results were shown mostly between 4 and 8 a.m., during which individuals with the longer variant of the gene performed very poorly on tests for attention and working memory. I personally didnt know about this, its interesting and I hope they continue doing this type of works.

Depression

1. The biological causes of depression are physical changes in the brain, which can be caused by problems with the neurotransmitters and neurons. Also changes in the body's balance of hormones, which can be a result of problems in the thyroid, menopause, or other condition. Inherited traits are also involved in causes of depression.

2. The environmental causes of depression are life events such as the death or loss of familiars of loved ones, financial problems, and high stress. Early childhood traumas can be also a cause of depression, traumatic events during childhood such as abuse or loss of a loved one which can cause permanent changes in the brain.

3. Cognitive causes of depression are learned through relationships, unfavorable life situations often in childhood and the formative years. People view the world in a negative way, this negative view is usually a distortion of reality.

4. The Cognitive Triad is based in 3 beliefs that can cause depression and affect each other. These things are negative views of the self, the world, and to the future. As an example if a soccer player fails a penalty will believe he is a failure, then will believe everyone is against him, and finally he will believe he will fail in a future and would never be good at something.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=564306
http://www.md-phc.com/puntil/ccausesof.htm
http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/allen.html
http://www.allaboutdepression.com/cau_04.html

Articles on Depression

Article #1

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100609083221.htm

The study was conducted by Dr. Mahmood I. Siddique, clinical associate professor of medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J. It was presented June 9, 2010, in San Antonio, Texas, at SLEEP 2010, the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC. The study involved 262 high school seniors with an average age of 17.7 years who were attending a public high school in Mercer County, N.J. Participant show socio-demographic characteristics using a cross-sectional survey. Too much daytime sleepiness was indicated by a score of 10 or higher on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and mood was evaluated with a validated depression scale. The results indicated that high school seniors were three times more likely to have strong depression symptoms if they had excessive daytime sleepiness.

Article#2

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100802165402.htm

The study was conducted by Lawrence T. Lam, Ph.D., of the School of Medicine, Sydney, and the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia, and Zi-Wen Peng, M.Sc., of the Ministry of Education and SunYat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China, in August 2010. It will appear in the October print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.  1,041 teens in China were assessed for depression and anxiety using previously validated scales. They also completed a survey to identify pathological Internet use, including questions that reflect typical behaviors of addiction. At the beginning of the study, 62 participants  were classified as having moderately pathological use of the Internet, and 2% were severely at risk. Nine months later, the adolescents were re-assessed for anxiety and depression; 2%  had significant anxiety symptoms and 84% had developed depression. The risk of depression for those who used the Internet pathologically was about two and a half times that of those who did not. No relationship was observed between pathological Internet use and anxiety.

Article#3

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091117094933.htm

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College led by Dr Robert Stewar. The study consisted of a survey of over 60,000, complemented with already existent records. Researchers found that over the following 4 yearsusing the survey, the mortality risk was increased to a similar extent in people who were depressed as in people who were smokers.

The Basics of Schizophrenia

1. A person with paranoid-type scizophrenia usually has mistaken beliefs or delusions, that makes him suspect that one or more people are plotting against him or his loved ones. As a result they become socially isolated, have auditory hallucinations, and often feel tense, suspicious, guarded, and reserve.

2. A person with disorganized-type scizophrenia tends to have speech problems, he lacks of emotion and motivation, often experiences hallucinations and delusions, and shows silly behavior.

3. A person with catatonic-type schizophrenia should have the following symptoms: Stupor, excitement, posturing, negativism, rigidity, and wavy flexibility. These may cause in a person behavioral, health, and financial difficulties.

4. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia include things that a normal person can't experience and are proper characteristics of the illness. Some of them are delusions, illusions, hallucinations and having nebulous thinking.

5.Negative symptoms of schizophrenia are the ones that can occur in any healthy individual in response to certain emotional or physical setback, and are not directly linked with this illness but are more secondary effects. Some of them are depression, loss of apetite, lack of concentration in activities, and violent behavior.

6. The difference between an halucination and a delusion is that the first one is a false mental image produced by misinterpretation of things that actually exist while a delusion is a persistent false belief.

7. Some cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia are difficulties attending to and processing of information, understanding the environment, and in remembering simple tasks.

8.The symptom of avolition consist of a psychiatric distress characterized by a lack of motivation for doing anything. People with avolition have difficulty starting and completing tasks, and may be disinterested in what is happening around them.

9.The symptom of catatonia is basically having psychomotor disturbance, and interruption of body’s  normal movement. Catatona often occur with major depression, bipolar disorder.

10. A delusion of grandeur is when a personal has the false belief that  he or she has a special relationship with, a deity or a famous person, or has great importance, power, wealth, intellect, or ability.

11. A delusion of reference is when normal events, things, or behaviors of others have particular and unusual meaning.

12. A somatic delusion is when you believe something is wrong with you or your body when actually it is not.ith you or your body when actually it is not.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000936.htm

http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/000937sym.htm

http://organizedwisdom.com/Schizophrenia_Catatonic_Type

http://ezinearticles.com/?Differences-Between-Positive-and-Negative-Schizophrenia-Symptoms&id=5090632

http://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/guide/schizophrenia-symptoms
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/delusion

The Teenage Brain

When children reach teenage some series of physical changes take place causing emotional problems. What I didn´t really know was the fact that through this period brain also experiences some modifications that are the actual reason for teen mood and temperament alteration.  After watching “the teenage brain” program I learned and improved my knowledge in this area. The adolescent annoying and impulsive attitude is understandable and is part of growth and development process. There are also some patterns that can be appreciated in most of the cases. Changes in sleeping hours, relationship with parents, and redistribution of time spent alone, with friends, and family is a characterizing trait seen in several persons passing through this age.

 

All the previous variations can be attributed to the alterations taking place in the teen brain. As body, brain develops during puberty, letting behind a kid and becoming more like an adult. The Prefrontal Cortex which is in charge of personality, behavior, solving problems, and controlling emotions, is the last part to develop. During teenage this brain section suffers many changes that can be observed in teen’s attitude.  Also, I find out how teenagers are often taking big risk by putting in practice danger activities where a bad move can finish in an accident that can affect the head. In general this video helped me to understand and be aware of the importance of brain development during these ages.

Journal: How our brain works?

1. When talking of the brain the word hemisphere refers to one of the two sides of this organ which is divided by the corpus callosum from the otherone.
2. The major diferences between the left and right side of the brain is that the first one is in charge of exact things as math, language, logic, and also the right side of the body, while the second one deals with the left side of the body and things as emotions, art, music, and intuition.
3.The corpus callosum is  is a group of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and is responsible for most of the communication between the two.
4.  Pierre Paul Broca was a French surgeon that studied the brain of a patient with a speech impairment after his death. He concluded that there is an specific part of the brain in charge of speech production, whic was called Broca's Area.
5. Roger Sperry was a northamerican neuropsychologist, and neurobiologist who won the Noble prize for his studies. He developed the idea of "split brain" which was about cutting the corpus callosum for curing epilepsy patients.This practicing brought problems because each side of the brain complement, and the result was two different brains with no communication.  After this activity the idea that the left and right side of the brain are responsible for different tasks was confirmed.
6.Carl Wernicke was a polish psychiatrist and neuropathologist who studied a patient thet had suffered a stroke and although the man was able to speak and his hearing was ok, he could not understand what was said to him. This study led to the discoverment of the Wernicke's Area which is located in the left hemisphere and works with the broca´s area. It is in charge of language comprenhension.
7. The occipital lobe is most responsible for vision.
8. The temporal lobe is most responsible for hearing and language.
9. The fronl lobe is most responsible for performing math calculations.
10. The frontal lobe is most responsible for judgment, reasoning and impulse control.

http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/652/Carl-Wernicke.html#ixzz10bmgWe8w
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/split.html
http://morphonix.com/software/education/science/brain/game/specimens/hemispheres.html
http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/split-brain/background.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/windex/g/def_wernickesar.htm