Hello my dear fellow classmates,
So we just started chapter 12 about motivation today and watched a wonderful video. In the video there was one fact that simply baffled me. The video explained that when we are given a mechanical task, the greater the reward we receive the better our performance due to our motivation. However, for cognitive skills, the greater the reward the lower the performance. Isnt that interesting? why do you think that happens?
Furthermore, this reminds me of an article from the time magazine a while ago. The article spoke about anxiety and that some sort of anxiety is actually a good motivator for our performance. So do you think that perhaps the people mentioned before did so poorly because they were so anxious due to the fact taht there was such internal pressure on them to win that large amount? if so, why did taht not happen to those people who had to do a mechanical task?

What's My Beef?

"Standardized tests are believed to be one of the most effective tools for predicting student success in college." Whether you believe that or not, it’s a fact that many colleges require either the ACT or SAT before granting your admission to their schools and an impressive score on one of these tests is what ultimately sets you apart from other applicants. Every Wednesday on my dad's radio show, he has "What's your beef Wednesday" where listeners call in to express what is really getting to them. One Wednesday I would love to call in and discuss my beef with standardized tests. Why are they such a big deal? Why do parents pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for their kids to be tutored on the SAT/ACT, for a test!?! Many people say that the best way to study for these tests is to actually KNOW how the test works, not the material. After everything we have learned this week, we've realized that there is actually more to intelligence than just school smarts. You may get straight A's your whole life, but you may have no sense of communicating. I don't care if you are as smart as Albert Einstein, if you cannot have a conversation with someone then you probably won't be successful in life. My mom always tells me that it's so interesting to be a teacher because now that her students have families and are part of the working force, she can really see who is successful. She always tells me that people who were not necessarily the smartest in the class grade wise are now successful in all fields of life. So does it really matter what college you go to? I guess not. As long as you do well, you are bound to find success somewhere. I like hearing Mrs. Tsuna say that each year colleges are caring more about extra curriculars, volunteer work, etc. These are things that you are specifically talented in and colleges want to know that you have talents because grades and scores are not what sets you apart from everyone else. However, these scores are still extremely important, and if you have a low SAT score then you are almost guaranteed to be put into the 'NO' pile. It is a sad truth, but maybe in the near future there will be some other sort of test such as an emotional/creative/social test that can really show how successful you will be in life because colleges ultimately want students who will be successful and make a difference in the world.

Sensing Smells

Good evening my friends,
As I was reading through chapter 11, I found something funny that reminded me of our school. I find that I, and many other girls, tend to comment on the smells in school. Whenever I walk into a classroom it seems to smell different every time! Whether it is the smell of chulent cooking for mishmar in the halls, or the smell of coffee or dirty socks or anything, I notice the smell! Well, the section that discusses the gender differences mentions that girls are more sensitive to touch, taste and odor, along with many other things. I thought of our school right away and realized that this makes perfect sense! As the chapters go on I continue to find myself learning things that explain why I behave in certain ways.

Intelligence

Chapter 11 is all about intelligence. Before we started the chapter, Mrs. Perl asked us what we thought intelligence was. I said an IQ test, others said social intelligence and street smarts. After learning the chapter we know that there are different types of intelligence. You can be academically smart, creatively intelligent, etc. However, sometimes we look at someone and we think that they really aren't intelligent, not in the slightest.

Autism is a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by great difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using abstract language and abstract concepts. It is also characterized by restricted and repetitive behavior. To us, it seems that autistic people aren't intelligent in any areas.

The following is a video about a girl who is autistic, and her parents never gave up on trying to help her. For years, it seemed that there would be no improvement, and that she was "stupid." One day she went to a computer and started typing... Watch the video!!

It shows us that intelligence comes in all forms...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg

Psychology at the Zoo

Last week, I went to the zoo with a family and I realized that everything we learn in psychology pops in our lives. Obviously it does, and I know it does, but it was just so very obvious that I thought I would share my experience with you all.

The family has a daughter who is maybe two, and we were walking along when she asked if she could see the doggies. We went to the giraffes, and she clapped for the doggies. The zebras, elephants, bears and wolves were all doggies as well. She has not yet learned to accommodate the information that tells her not all four-legged animals are dogs.

Then, we went to the seal show, and I noticed that every-time the seal trainer made a certain hand motion, the seal would do something and then get fish. I watched and thought I was so smart because I knew that they had used operant conditioning to train the seal. Then the woman actually told the crowd they used operant conditioning, and she explained what it was.

Don't you think it is interesting how psychology class "lives at the zoo?"

Hello my dearfellow classmates,
so this week we are leaning about intelligence.
Gardener recently claimed taht intelligence comes in many diffrenet ways. Even if you score low on an IQ test you can still be considered intelligent. Although many people would state that Michael Jordan isnt intelligent unless he scored highly on the IQ test, theyre assumptions are inccorect. According to Gardener Michael jordan is actually highly intelligent, just in a very different way than the intelligent test tests. I am inclined to agree withz him. Michael Jordan is definitely a genius since he can play basketball better than alsmost anyone we know! My question is the following: Why do you think that so many people incorrectly assume that there is only a certain type of intelligence(mostly school intelligence)? Do you think its fair and accurate to emasure someones inteliigence based on an IQ test? If not, why do we do it?

Riddles, Framing...

Chapter 10 was one of many interesting things. We discussed language, cognition, and problem solving.

I will discuss riddles, ways to solve them, and framing. Here is the riddle: A group of people stumble across a body. After examining the corpse, the group notes that the body is missing internal organs, but maintains that the victim died a natural death. What is the people's occupation, and in what country did they find the body? (answer will be at the bottom of this post)

Now, how would one go about solving this? There are 3 different approaches when it comes to problem solving: Algorithms, Heuristics, and Insight. An algorithm is a methodical, logical rule that guarantees a solution. Would you use an algorithm to try and solve this riddle?

Heuristics are educated guesses made from experience. Most likely you decided that you wouldn't use an algorithm, so perhaps a heuristic is the way to go. Did you at first try to use an algorithm?

Next we have insight, which is an AHA! moment, where the answer seems to just come to you in a flash of genius. Maybe the answer just came to you?

Think- if you solved the riddle without peaking at the answer, how did you first approach this problem?

The answer is -the people are archaeologists in Egypt who have just found a mummy.

If you didn't get the answer- what stopped you? Were you so focused on it being what you thought, based off other experience, that you couldn't get it?

It is interesting to note that sometimes we try and overcomplicate- we might say that the police found a man who had died in sleep but was missing his kidney or tonsils. Or something. The way this riddle was phrased didn't give anyone reason to think of Egypt and archaeologists- we try and leap to something drastic. It is a dead body! The way we frame riddles, and other things in life, can change the outcome entirely. For instance, the riddle Mrs. Perl gave about the father and son in the crash, and the mother surgeon. She stressed dad and son, and because we already don't tend to think of women as surgeons, we never guessed the mom!

If you tell someone "You're idea is stupid and dumb, I hate it!" they might get mad, but if you say "Maybe we can do something a little different, because I disagree with the idea," the person won't get mad. A doctor should say you have 90% chance of living rather than a 10% chance of dying, because although it is the same thing, how we word things makes a difference!

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
so today we learned about certain things that will cause us to simply be unable to solve certain problems. One of teh reasons why we are often unable to solve a problem and come to a wrong conclusion is due to teh fact that we tend to stereotype. We tend to only think of certain prototypes in our mind and are therefore unable to come up with the correct answer. Today we were faced with a lovely little riddle and of course nobody was able to come to the simple and what in hindsight seemed like such an obvious answer. I decided to presnt you guys with another riddle that will cause you to try to not think in a stereotypical manner and will cause you to ahve to think outside the box. I think taht now taht its the second riddle you will find teh answer!!! let me know what teh answer is and why you might have been mislead in teh past had you not been exposed to this type of riddle before.
A father and his son enter an airplane. They get to go to teh front of the plain and see the pilot. When the co-pilot sees taht a child has come into the area where only the pilots are allowed to be he asks for an explanation. The pilot explains to the co-pilot:"do not worry, hes supposed to be here, thats my child who just wanted to say bye to me before i fly the plane." How is taht possible?

Problem Solving in SAT and ACT

In class we learned that there are different things involved with Problem Solving such as either guessing and checking or following a systematic way of doing it. When I used to solve problems such as in the ACT or SAT math, I always followed the steps that we learned it class (not being aware of them). Now that I have thought of it though, I realized that I follow these steps and I therefore think that most people do too( Tel me if I am wrong). Therefore I guess, if someone knows how to solve a problem systematically, he has learned from exerience how to do it, or remembers how to solve something like that since he has done something simliar to that before.
I now do not understand anymore, how the ACT or SAT can measure ones intelligence by looking at their past problem solving skills if that mostly shows if you have done something like that before (Which does not show much, but that you remember that you have done something like that before). Maybe we will learn this in the next chapter, since it speaks about inteligence, but do you guys agree with me, or want to enlighten me about something?

My Grandfather

Imagine sitting at your shabbos table with all of your friends and family around the table. Someone makes a joke, and everybody bursts in to laughter. Yet, the person at the head of the table sits there silently because he cannot hear. This is my grandfather, or pawpaw. My grandfather wears a hearing aid. When I went to Florida for winter vacation, I started asking my grandparents a lot about pawpaw's hearing loss because of my recent knowledge on this topic from psychology class. I learned that my grandfather has sensorineural hearing loss. This is hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves. Occasionally, disease causes sensorineural hearing loss, but more often biological changes linked with aging and prolonged exposure to ear splitting noise or music that culprits. I learned that my grandfather fought in the Korean War (1950-1953) and the frequent, loud gunshots damaged his cochlea's hair cells. Though I was sad to learn this, I was very pleased when we all went to a movie together and I saw all of the accommodations that are made for the hearing impaired. Listening devices are available at the theater for the hearing impaired, AND there is now a new device where the bottom is put in the cup holder and a black wire juts out with a screen. On the screen, the words of the movie appear. This way my grandfather can read the words and watch the movie at the same time. It was very cool, and he even made a lot of friends because people kept coming up to him and asking him what that weird looking device was!
When I got back home, I researched more on hearing loss caused by war. I found out that hearing loss is now a silent epidemic in U.S. troops. "Hearing damage is the No. 1 disability in the war on terror, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs." The military has responded recently with better and easier-to-use earplugs, greater efforts to educate troops about protecting their hearing, and more testing in the war zone to detect ear injuries. Hopefully through time, this issue will be resolved!