Law of Effect and Operant Conditioning

Edward Thorndike:

1. Explain Thorndike's puzzle-box experiment.
He put hungry cats on a puzzle box, and a plate of fish on the outside, and the cat by trial-and-error achieved to open the box and get the food.
2. Explain Thorndike's "Law of Effect".
An organism will relate a behavior with its reward, and the closer they are it is most likely that they are connected.
3. Explain Thorndike's "Law of Exercise".
That if a behavoir is used, it will continue and it will reinforce, but if it is not used, it will disapear.
B.F. Skinner:

1. Explain Skinner's concept of Operant Conditioning He said that it is sinmpler to break a complicated procedure into small steps, to achieve a greater goal.
2. What does  reinforcement always do?
It makes a behavoir continue. 
3. What does a punishment alsways do?
It makes a behavoir to disapear.
4. Explain the difference between "postive" and "negative" as they are used in opernat conditioning.
Positive means to give something, and negative means to take something.



Source:

http://psychology.about.com/od/lindex/g/lawofeffect.htm

Ivan Pavlov and John Watson Classical Conditioning

1. What was Pavlov actually studying when he developed his theory of classical conditioning?
digestive enzymes
Explain (in detail) how Pavlov's experiment was conducted.
Measured amounts of food where brought to dogs, the dogs salivated before the food was brought because they associated the food with the noise.
3. Identify the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response from Pavlov's experiment.
conditioned stimulus: the bell; unconditioned stimulus: food; conditioned response: the dog's saliva
4. Explain what extinction means in relation to classical conditioning.
a weakening and dissapearance of the CR tendency
5. Explain what stimulus generalization means in relation to classical conditioning.
a response to a stimulus that is associated to other stimuli that occurs to other stimuli.
6. Explain what sstimulus discrimination means in relation to classical conditioning.
to learn how to respond to one stimulus
7. Explain at least two limitations of this experiment.
he had to re-route the dogs salivary glands, and he only tested 2 dogs
8. Explain what Pavlov theorized about how we learn.
that we learn by associating things.

Source:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1904/pavlov-bio.html


http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/misc_topics/pavlov.html

John B. Watson:
1. Explain (in detail) how Watson's "Little Albert" study was conducted.
he got a small kid and exposed him to rats and other furry objects, the kid did not have any reaction. Then they put the same things but they made a sound by hitting a metal pipe, this time the boy cried. After this, the little boy got scared by just seeing the object.
2. Identify the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response from Watson's study
conditioned: rat; unconditioned: the sound; conditioned response: fear.
3. Explain at least two limitations of this study.
he only tested one kid and that it can not be replicated
4. Explain Watson's law of frequency.
it talks about the importance of repetition
5. Explain Watson's law of recency.
the response that occured most recently
6. Explain the basic assumptions of behaviorism according to Watson.
that you could change anyone if they changed their behavior.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Watson


http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/watson.htm

Summary Article #3

This article says that according to a research students who feel more alert and do their best work later in the day, have lower sleep hygiene scores. Sleep hygiene is the group of behaviors linked to good sleep and alertness. This includes having a regular bed time routine, a regular wake and bed time, and a comfortable bed to sleep in. According to the research students that have a poor sleep hygiene, have low GPA (grade point average). Results indicate that evening types had a significantly lower grade point average that morning and intermediate types. The evening types slept forty one minutes less than the other types. Many students have deterioration in sleep hygiene during their transition from high school to college. The authors of the study stated that educating high school students about poor sleep hygiene will improve academic performance.

Summary Article #2

This article says that students with a delayed start time sleep longer, and report less daytime sleepiness. This study was focused on 259 high school students who completed a School Sleep Habits questionnaire. Before the school delay, the students sleeping mean was of 7.03 hours per school night, with an average bed-time of 10:52 p.m. and an average wake-up time as 6:12 a.m. According to the results, the school started 45 minutes later than usual, the students slept a significantly longer amount of time. These changes were on all age groups of the school. Many students reported no sleepiness during school days. The students utilized 83 percent of the 40 minute delay given sleeping. It is recommended that teenagers get at least nine hours of sleep per night.

Summari Article #1

A recent study shows that when schools start one hour later, students increased their hours of sleep, and decreased their catch up sleep in the weekends. This created fewer automobilistic accidents with students. The percentage of students who got at least eight hours of sleep per weeknight increased from 35.7 % to 50%. Students who got at least nine hours of sleep also increased from 6.3 % to 10.8 %. There were many more crashes prior to the change in class start time.

The Teenage Brain

After watching this movie I learned many things. I now know that a regular teenager needs from 9-12 hours of sleep every day. Also, I learned that during those years, teenagers tend to feel bothered by their parents and usually go against what they say. Some schools think that it is convenient to start classes later than normal, this is so that students get enough resting time. I  believe that it is better for students that school starts later than normal because in that way students will have more rest and get better grades. This will help students improve their grades and be more active in class. Even though this plan can have a negative effect on after school activities, I believe that this is indeed convenient. Also, it is normal for teens to feel that their parents hate him or go against him. This is because parents are trying to guide their children in the right direction, while they believe that they hate him or go against him for punishing him. All of this is caused because the teenager's brain is developing and it has not fully developed into an adult's brain. It was very interesting to watch this video and I learned many things.

source:

http://www.posterlovers.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/6180

How our Brains Work

1. What does the word "hemisphere" refer to when talking about the brain?
The brain  is divided into two hemisphere, the left side and the right side.

2. What are the major differences between the left and right sides of the brain?
The right side controls remembering, understanding, and the positioning of things. While the left side controls the use of language and understanding it.


3. What is the corpus collasum?
It is what connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

4. Explain the study performed by Paul Broca in which he discovered "Broca's Area."
The Broca Area is named after Pierre Broca when he made a study on a patient that died without having the ability to talk. He examined the patients brain. 


5. Explain the study conducted by Roger Sperry in regard to "split brain."
The split brain was discovered in a research made by Roger Sperry and his colleagues who discovered that people with specific areas damaged would not be able to speak. 

6. Explain the study conducted by Karl Wernicke which led to the discovery of Wernicke's Area."
Karl Wernicke discovered that this area of the brain is involved in the understanding of language. It  has to do with the processing of things that we hear.

7. Which lobe is most responsible for vision?
Occipital Lobe

8. Which lobe is most responsible for hearing and language?
Temporal Lobe

9. Which lobe is most responsible for performing math calculations?
Parietal Lobe

10. Which lobe is most responsible for judgment, reasoning and impulse control?

Frontal Lobe






Source:




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain