Weekly Assignment #6

Today in class we took an intelligence test that shows many of our intelligences. I discovered many of my strengths and weaknesses. The results from the test were very similar with what I had believed about myself prior to the test. I seem to be very strong in the interpersonal area and the nature area. I believe that this is true about myself because I love to be outside. I also care about nature and try to help the world stay clean. I also believe that I am interpersonal because I am good at picking up on peoples emotions. I am a good person to talk to when people have problems and need advice, or if they just need someone to listen. Overall, I believe that this intelligence test turned out to be pretty accurate. I would like to take more tests to be able to find out more information about myself.

6 terms from ch. 9 & how I applied them today

Cognition deals with mental activities that involve thinking, remembering, knowing, and communication. Today when I woke up and started getting ready for school I remembered that today was the last day to bring in money to help Hatti.

Concept is when we mentally put things in groups of similar people, events, objects, or ideas. Today when I was walking into the lunch room I saw a table that parents were selling prom tickets at. In my head I grouped the people going to prom as the juniors.

Mental Set is when we tend to solve a problem a certain way because it has worked in the past. This morning I was really tired and couldn't get up. My mom came in to try and get me up by opening my shades and turning the lights on. This woke me up and my mom has does it in the past because she knows it works and that I can't sleep with the lights on or when it is bright out.

Language the way we combine words, written or spoken, to communicate meaning. Today at lunch the girls at the table were telling stories and I put my opinion in and I did this by speaking and communicating verbally by using words to express the meaning that I had involving a story.

Grammar is used in language and involves a system of rules to help us communicate and understand others. In class today we watched an advocacy video and it showed a man with a sign that said "like Obama, I ain't the only one who wants change" ain't isn't correct grammar and it is a rule that it is not used correctly in society to understand others.

Linguistic determinism is Whorf's thought that language determines the way we think. When we hear people say certain words we connect certain meanings with them that if someone from another country who spoke a different language heard that word it wouldn't have any meaning to them. Today in foods class we presented information on other countries and people explained what some of the words meant in other languages. To me, not knowing that language, it didn't mean anything to me so i thought about it differently than someone who actually spoke the language. However, when i hear the translated word, i start thinking and making connections to my life.

Weekly Assignment #5

Today in class we read articles on memory. One of the articles touched more on Alzheimer's disease. In the article is talked about how a man couldn't remember a recent event (hitting his golf ball off the tee) He didn't remember an incident right after is happened. The information was even important enough for him to encode but because of this disease, Alzheimer's, he was unable to. I have experienced communicating with someone in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. My great grandma is 96 and we went to visit her is the nursing home last time i went to visit my family, which was during the summer) When i started talking to her she recognized me and remembered who i was, however, she had the tendency to ask some of the same questions. She would ask me where i was thinking of going to college next year and i was give her an answer and then 5 minuets later she was repeat the same question, forgetting that she had asked it the first time. She also asked my brother what grade he was in a multiple number of times.

weekly assignment #4

In class yesterday we talked about intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In the article that my group read it talked about how sometimes rewards make us become lazy. Someone could love doing something but once they get a reward for it, it doesn't have the same affect on them. For example in the article the basketball player had loved the sport when he was younger but not would only play if he got paid, and for only a certain amount. This shows that his passion for the sport is gone and it seems that he plays because he has to or only for money. I agree with this in the sense that pretty much anyone would rather do something and get a reward for it rather than do the same thing and get nothing out of it. However, we all do things for a reason and the intrinsic motivation and reward is sometimes more important and much stronger than the extrinsic reward.

Weekly Assignment #3

Today in class we talked about Operant Conditioning. When talking about operant conditioning we discussed types of reinforcement. There are positive and negative reinforcers. Negative reinforcers are when you take away an undesired stimulus. I can relate to this in class material because the other week I experienced a negative reinforcer. I had a bad headache and my mom gave me some medicine to take away the pain. The medicine was the negative reinforces because it took away the undesired headache.

PSA

My PSA is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F09d5fzO44

One PSA that I enjoyed was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXGchM91NNU I liked the humor that this PSA had to offer.

Another PSA that i enjoyed was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Cz6l2IL2I I liked how in this video the students took it to the next level by incorporating themselves in the pictures. They actually went out into the community and took pictures.

Weekly Assignment #2

In class today we talked about sensory adaptation. Sensory adaptation in when we have the ability to develop a tolerance to any given stimulus. I have personal experiences with this all of the time. My friends say that my house has a very distinct smell, not a bad one though and that they love the smell of my house. One time I was at dance practice and our teacher said that someone had left their costume at one of the performances that we had. A few people took the costume and looked at it and right away everyone said it was mine. They all smelled it and said they knew it was mine because of the distinct smell of my house. I smelled it and it didn't seem distinct to me at all. This happens to me a lot where my friends can tell if something is mine based on the distinct smell of my house. I however don't smell the distinctness because i have adapted to it.