Amanda+Hicks

October 28, 2015

Chapter 6 was all about learning, defined as a long lasting change in behavior resulting from experience. The first section was about classical conditioning. It was discovered by Ivan Pavlov, who noticed that dogs will salivate when exposed to noises they usually hear before being fed. Extinction is when the conditioned stimulus no longer elicits the conditioned response. Learning based on the association of consequences with one's behavior Is what is considered operant conditioning. This brought up the question of whether punishment or reinforcement was more effective. Depending on how it is used, both can be effective. Punishment is most effective if it is harsh and it is delivered immediately after the unwanted behavior. Reinforcement is most effective if it is consistent and positive.

Chapter 7 is about cognition and memory. Long term memory is interesting because it is unlimited. Also, once information is within the long term memory, it is usually is there forever. Short term memory consists of everything you are thinking. If nothing is done with the information, it usually fades within 30 seconds. Retrieval is the ability to get information out one's memory by recognition or recall or recognition. Recognition is the process of matching a current event or fact with one already in memory. Recall is retrieving a memory with an external cue. October 16, 2015

Jessie and I have completed chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 was about transduction, sensory adaptation, perception, and the cocktail party phenomenon. Transduction is all about the nervous system and how impulses are sent to the brain. The only exception to this is the sense of smell. However, if there is constant stimuli, the response lessens. We also learned that the degree of the response is related to how focused we are on the stimuli. In other words, if you have a paper cut, it will hurt more if you focus on it. Lastly, we learned that the cocktail party effect is when you're in a room full of people and someone in a completely different conversation says your name and your attention is immediately directed towards that person.

Chapter 5 was mostly about thought and matter and the idea that people are made up of thought and matter (dualism) or that thought and matter are aspects of the same substance (monism). In terms of dualism, thought arises from but is independent from the persons brain which means it is nonmaterial. In terms of monism, if the body dies, so does thought. Without the body, thought ceases to exist.

October 5, 2015

This past week, Jessie and I studied chapter 3. This chapter was about the biological bases of behavior. The first half of the chapter was about the nervous system and how neurotransmitters work. Basically an impulse starts at the dendrites (root like part) of the cell, and travels through the nuclei containing cell body, and through the axon. The axon is covered with a fatty shield that speeds up impulses. This coat is called the myelin sheath. The impulse then passes through the terminal buttons and is translated into neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters pass through the synapse (gap between neurons) and are accepted by the dendrites of the next neuron and the cycle starts over.

The next part of the chapter was about the brain. The most interesting part of this to me was the part about lesions. This is the removal or destruction of part of the brain. Psychologists have studied the effects of this. Since I was interested, I looked a little bit further into it and learned that there was a study that may have linked migraines with brain lesions. I learned that women are twice as likely as men to have migraines and that the researchers found that people with migraines ran a higher risk of brain lesions, abnormalities in brain white matter, and altered brain volume. These problems have been linked with multiple sclerosis and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

September 23, 2015

This past week, Jessie and I have completed studying chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1 was about the history of psychology. The major people and ideas included Wilhelm Wundt, who set up the first psychological laboratory, and Sigmund Freud and his theories about the unconscious mind. The chapter also discussed neuroscience. I found this particularly interesting because it was all about explaining the way the human mind works strictly through biological processes. It explained how human cognition and reactions are caused by genes, hormones, and neurotransmitters. Chapter 2 was very heavy in statistics procedures. Most of this was review from AP Stat last year but there were a few new things such as the ways the statistics are used in explaining the human mind and how it works. The end of the chapter was basically the rules and safety precautions for human research.

September 11, 2015

This year Jessie and I will be preparing to take the AP Psychology exam in May of 2016. We have decided that for the first semester, we will finish the material in the textbook. Since there is 14 chapters we worked around Thanksgiving and Christmas break and have left room for snow days. If we stick to the schedule relatively closely, we should be done with a week or so before midterms. For the second semester we will be going back through and using Ms. Basia's wiki space to take practice tests and review for the exam. The following is our tentative schedule for the first semester.

September 14-18 Ch. 1: History and Approaches

September 21-25 Ch. 2: Methods

September 28- October 2 Ch. 3: Biological Bases of Behavior

October 5-9 Ch. 4: Sensation and Perception

October 13-16 Ch. 5: States of Consciousness

October 19-23 Ch. 6: Learning

October 26-30 Ch. 7: Cognition

November 2-6 Ch. 8: Motivation and Emotion

November 9-13 Ch. 9: Developmental Psychology

November 16-20 Ch. 10: Personality

November 23- December 4 Ch. 11: Testing and Individual Differences

December 7-11 Ch. 12: Abnormal Psychology

December 14-18 Ch. 13: Treatment of Psychology Disorders

January 4-8 Ch. 14: Social Psychology

January 11-22: Presentation Preparation

January 13, 2015

For my final journal entry, I have decided to put together a list of things I did well this semester and things I could've done better. Hopefully this list of pros and cons will help me finish my presentation.

Things I could've done better:

1. Time management was probably my biggest struggle this semester. I tended to not be productive as much as I could've with my class time and that ended up leaving me with a lot of work to do at home. I found that it was easier to work at home, however, but I still think that I could've gotten more done if I had stayed more on top of things.

2. The second hardest part to manage was my direction. In the beginning it was easy learning the basics because I learned the alphabet and how to count, etc. Most of that stuff is what I learned of French in the first year I took French. After that I didn't really know what to do besides download more apps and try to use them. The problem with that was trying to decipher which apps were reliable or not.

3. The last major thing I could've done better was to stay on top of working with my moms class. If I hadn't waited until the last few weeks of the semester I probably would have been able to actually get stuff done with them.

Things I think I did well:

1. The first half of the semester went pretty well for me work wise. I used various apps and websites to learn certain things based off of the direction that we went in French I. Even if I worked more at home than I did in class, I still got a decent amount of learning done.

2. A few weeks ago I put together a rough schedule for how the rest of the semester, and with the exception of not being able to work with my moms class, I have basically stuck to the schedule I originally made.

3. The last thing I believe I did well was that I have stayed true to my original idea from the beginning of the semester of learning a song to present for my final project.

December 19, 2014

My mother's schedule has proved to be very difficult to work with especially with my cheer schedule. I have practice a lot and I've recently began tutoring on days that I don't have practice so it's hard to find days that I can go to her classroom. With that being said, I don't really think I have time to teach and videotape her class. I have decided I will most likely do the video myself. I also decided I'm probably going to put together a prezi or keynote as well to show what I learned other than the song. There are a few more things I hope to learn by the end of the semester. Most of what I learned this semester was baby sign language and songs (including nursery rhymes). Overall, other than not being able to work with my moms class, mostly everything has been on schedule and has worked out for me. I have tried my best to stay on the rough schedule I created last week.

December 9, 2014 This week I finished my posters for the video. I only have the last verse of the song to learn. I've found that the hardest part of learning this song is the very end of the chorus is much faster than I anticipated and I worry that if I'm struggling with it, the fourth graders will as well. This is where I hope to bring other people into the video because of time and learning abilities. I'm still working with my mom to try and work out times that I can come to her classroom and teach. Hopefully we can iron that out ASAP because I need as much time as possible to teach the students and especially to film and edit. I've come up with a rough schedule of how the rest of the semester should go in order for me to finish.

Now until end of Christmas break: finish learning the song, make more pictures, possibly edit the song so it's not as long

January 5th until January 16th: teach and videotape

January 16th until end of semester: edit and finalize video

November 25, 2014 I have continued to learn the song that I will be using for my video. I decided that I will definitely be including people other than my mom's class in the video. My original goal to finish learning the song before Thanksgiving was not achieved. However, I am almost done.

In the beginning of the song there is a part with no words. When choosing the song, I watched countless youtube videos of similar projects and a lot of these wordless parts were filled with pictures. I plan to have pictures with the kids holding signs saying things like "Make a Difference" and "Change Starts with You". So, I have began to make the posters and hope to have them done soon.

My my biggest concern with this video is lining up the video with the song. I already know that's goIng to take a long time. I struggled with that when I made my video for AP euro last year. hopefully iMovie makes it a little easier on me! November 14, 2014 For my final project I will be working with my mom's class (and possibly others) by teaching them a song in sign language. I have picked the song "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. I chose this song because it's about realizing that making a change starts with oneself. I wanted to pick a song that everyone could understand the meaning of and one that had a meaning that everyone could relate to.

My goal with this is not only to put together an iMovie and teach children some sign language, but I also want to teach them the life lesson behind the song. It's important for them to learn that at an early age. Teaching them the sign language will also be beneficial. The students will learn a new way of communication, improve their motor skills, etc. hopefully my project will result in all of these things.

Lastly, I have started to learn the song. There are multiple videos on YouTube of people signing along with the song. I've covered about the first thirty seconds and hope to finish the rest before thanksgiving so I can begin to work with my mom's class after break. October 28, 2014 I have been working with the app called Marlee signs. It has proved to be very useful. I can now sign questions and answer questions. These questions aren't anything complicated just yet but they are good for conversation starters and survival skills. They're similar to the types of questions you'd learn in the first year of a language class such as "what is your name?" and the response such as "my name is.." Originally, I thought sign language was universal but most of the apps I've been using say "American Sign Language." This made me curious to see if there were different versions of sign language for different languages. So I did some research and I learned that it is not, in fact, the same for the whole world. In an encyclopedia called The Ethnolouge, all of the world's languages are listed. This list includes almost 7,000 spoken languages and 130 signed ones. There are more known sign languages but they are not documented. Lastly, I have decided to begin my final project. For the second marking period I'm going to start going to Nottingham and teaching the song. I figure it's going to take a while to teach it and then I have to film it and edit, etc. it could likely take the entire marking period. Hopefully it will work and I'm giving myself enough time.

October 15, 2014 I have found that the app I have been using recently may not be reliable. Previously, I have learned the alphabet and when I looked in the alphabet tab of the app, the videos of the letters were absolutely nothing like the actual sign language alphabet. This made me question whether or not the rest of the app was reliable and if everything I learned so far was correct or not. This led me to download two other apps. One of them is baby sign language. This app is easy to use but it has very few words and phrases because it is designed for children, specifically babies, that aren't going to know many words to begin with. The second app I downloaded was an app called Marlee Signs. This app is the most useful of all of them because not only does it have clearer videos, it allows the videos to be played in slow motion. The videos also automatically replay themselves without having to press anything which allows me to sign along with the video. The app also includes more useful phrases instead of simple vocab lists. It has actions words which are much more useful in everyday life. Hopefully I can stick with this app and I don't have to relearn much.

October 3, 2014 This past week I have been in touch with Liz Walker. Liz Walker knows sign language and is willing to meet with me at some point during the semester. I also downloaded an app called Sign it Lite. The app has colors, numbers, food, etc. when you click on the word it shows a short video of a person signing the word. I have been working on animals and have learned that I'm having the same struggle with animals as I did with letters and numbers. Some of the animals either have very similar signs or the exact same sign. For example, the way to sign "bird" is the same way to sign "chicken" I'm curious to see how to specify between the two. Other words such as "ostrich" are easier to spell out than to use the specific sign for it. Ostrich is very complicated to sign and the video makes it even harder because it goes very fast. I am going to continue looking for more apps that are similar to this joke but hopefully with less complicated videos.

I have decided that for my final project I am going to teach my mom's class sign language and make a video of them signing a song. My mom has previously done this with a class before so I am going to pick a new song and go to her class after school to teach and film the kids. I plan to film with my iPad so I can use iMovie to make the final product. September 16, 2014 This past week and a half I have practiced learning and teaching sign language. I learned the alphabet and have been practicing spelling words and names. Recently, I taught Jessie how to spell her name in sign language. I also have learned how to sign simple phrases such as "I love you" and "how are you?" I have begun to learn small words like cup, ball, book, dog, and cat. I am beginning to learn prepositions such as in, under, etc. I can now sign action words like sleep, walk, and give. I attempted to learn numbers, however it has proven to be difficult because some of the numbers are very similar to other numbers and even letters. I plan to begin working with apps on Thursday when we get our iPads.

What apps do you plan on using? Are there websites that could be helpful?

September 4, 2014 For my independent study I plan to learn sign language. Once we get iPads, I will be able to use apps to assist me. I have already looked in the app store and there are various free apps that can help me. I also plan to get help from Liz Walker, a person in our community that already knows sign language. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to work with my mom's class at Nottingham and teach them some sign language. I am not entirely sure what I want to do for my final project.

What resources will you use for your independent project? Create an outline of what you intend to accomplish week-by-week.