Month: October 2019

What is it?

In lecture eight of our psychology class we learned about binocular and monocular cues. Binocular cues are something I have really had to focus on over my last couple years of life. What these cues relate to is the way that both of your eyes work together to display an image as we see it and also, it is what helps us focus on something that is either close to us, or farther away. When the topic of how our eyes work together comes into play when dealing with seeing things in 3-D, it is the idea of retinal disparity that conveys this.  Since our eyes are located slightly apart from each other and depict a slightly different image, both eyes are needed to make a full picture. On the other hand, when we are talking about how our eyes work together to focus on objects that are close or farther away, the involves the idea of convergence. Both of these different binocular cues are vital in the way that our eyes need to work together in order for our vision to be the way it should be.

My story Involving Binocular Cues.

A few years ago, I experienced a dangerously severe concussion while playing in a basketball game. It was to the point that they were checking me for brain bleed-age and I could not stand to look at something for more than a couple seconds before I would get a massive headache.  Fortunately, slowly but surely, as time went by I gained my full motor-skills back, although, there was one problem that was not getting better, my vision. My right eye was not moving fast enough to keep up with my left, which caused me to not be able to focus on anything and feel as if I did not have the correct depth perception. In order to correct these issues, I had to attend ocular therapy for several months until I finally gained my full set of vision skills back.

How does this relate?

My story of vision issues due to my concussion directly correlate to the binocular cues that we learned about in lecture eight. It makes much more sense to me now as to why I was having so much trouble focusing on certain objects. When you get a concussion and your brain is thrown around, it can really take a toll on a lot of major functions in your body, including your vision. Convergence and retinal disparity were the two biggest issues I was having when I was concussed, although fortunately, I bounced back. It is amazing that once you learn something it is so easy to tie it into an experience you had before, without even knowing it.

While studying in college, I find cramming information into my brain is the least effective method when trying to do well for an exam. Elaborative Rehearsal is when you transfer information from Short Term Memory into Long Term Memory by making the information meaningful. Some people have used acronyms or phrases to remember information. I on the other hand, put words into songs to make sure I remember the information I need.

In eighth grade, I had a music teacher who was absolutely crazy. Everything was sang to the classroom by a song, she never was able to just speak. One of our lessons was “The African Song”. This song had every single African country in it. At first I was like “how the heck am I going to learn every country in Africa?”. After two weeks of singing the song, with repetition and putting it to a beat, I actually knew every country in Africa. To this day, I still sing it and remember all the words. “Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique, Eritrea, Sudan, Burundi…”.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1426&bih=673&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ACYBGNRp9gODVITIgb9vGqgwHHC-4BA2zA%3A1571240356193&sa=1&ei=pDmnXfmwC8vU5gKzmKH4AQ&q=acronyms&oq=acronyms&gs_l=img.3…38535.38535..38794…0.0..0.0.0…….0….1..gws-wiz-img.mrwyoXqWasw&ved=0ahUKEwj5kqa6jqHlAhVLqlkKHTNMCB8Q4dUDCAc&uact=5#imgrc=thQD_ByjGFOwGM:

Along with songs, acronyms are a way to remember information needed. We all grew up remembering the colors of the rainbow by saying ROY G BIV. We use acronyms every day when we text people, because this is something just stuck in our brains.

Instead of cramming words and information into my brain, I now use songs and acronyms because doing this helps the information store better in long Term Memory which helps when you need it for exams, etc. Using these tools makes the information you are learning personally meaningful and by relating it to prior knowledge, it will lead to overall stronger Long Term Memory. Make a song for your next exam and I promise you will thank me later!

One of the most easy ways to remember information, especially for young students, is to use acronyms to learn and understand concepts in school. Most students probably learned PEMDAS in math class or ROY G BIV in art class, as well as acronyms you made up on your own. Whether you made them up on your own or used the acronyms your teacher presented for you, they most likely stuck with you and helped you to remember this information.

Using acronyms to remember information is an example of Elaborative Rehearsal, which is when a person transfers information from your Short-Term Memory to the Long-Term Memory by making this information meaningful. In your short-term memory, you hold a few items for a short period of time, which is why you can use elaborative rehearsal to relate these memories in your short-term memory in order to keep it stored in the long-term memory. If you were to just try to memorize certain information, you might be able to recall it for a short period of time, but it would not be stored in your long-term memory or allow you to recall this information later in life, it would only be temporary.

In your long-term memory you have almost limitless storage and the information stored is relatively permanent, hence why you apply these acronyms in school. The information is stored in long-term memory because you have made this memory meaningful or related the acronym to prior knowledge you know. I know personally that I still remember specific things like symmetric shapes because of a song my teacher taught me in second grade which I can still recall today, retrieving it from my long-term memories because she made the song meaningful, not just straight memorization.

During lecture 8 we learned all about monocular cues and how they differ. I found this lecture to be very interesting but I have some difficulty knowing which one is which. To tell the difference I wanted to break down a picture which many students have experienced or at least seen here at Penn State and then discuss one of the cues.

 

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In honor of the white out this weekend I wanted to take a classic fan photo of a past PSU white out.

The first thing I wanted to point out in this picture is the difference between the people who were close to the picture and the people whom were farther away. The people close as you can see have some blue hats (and even a green hat). along with this you can see the people and their skin tones. Finally you can notice that there are people wearing different shades of white. Some whites are dull some are shiny and some are a little greyer. Now if you look towards the 50 yard line maybe even closer all you can see is layer of white. you no longer are able to distinguish one person from another. You are now unable to tell if anyone is wearing a blue hat or anything else that would stand out. If you wanted to at the opposite end of the stadium you could tell a handful of people to wear colors that would stick out, like black, red, blue, green, pink, or pretty much any color that isn’t white, and from this view you would still think everyone is wearing white and only white.

Everything I just described is a phenomena called texture gradient. This is a monocular cue which tells us that we see less detail in objects that are further away. This is why we can’t see the blue hats or the skin tones of people at the opposite end of the stadium. If you ever wonder why the people broadcasting the game always include images from high up or far away it’s because those pictures look more dramatic than they actually are.

 

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Cumberland Valley will face State College in Penn State’s Beaver Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 26

These are some classic examples of pictures that will be shown to you by the people covering the game. In these pictures it looks perfect as if everyone is wearing the correct color and we percieve it this way due to texture gradient.

 

When I was in high school, I was told to do a presentation  about illegal drugs, which is a totally unfamiliar topic for me. The proper nouns are difficult for me to remember and say them out. After finishing doing the power point, I began to practice it. At first I practiced it in my dormitory. I remember every sentences and points I want to talk about very well and I felt confident about the upcoming presentation. The day before the presentation date, I went to the classroom where I would give the presentation to practice for the last time. However, when I stood in front of the classroom, my mind was suddenly like a blank paper. I forgot nearly everything I planned to talk about. I felt really weird because I clearly remember I can recite everything in the dorm. So I practiced it again and again in the classroom. To my surprise, that night when I came back to the dorm, I can recall the presentation successfully again.

The example above can be explained by a psychology concept called retrieval cues. Retrieval cues are stimuli that assist in memory retrieval. In other words, retrieval cues help people access memories stored in long-term memory and bring them to your conscious awareness. The presence of retrieval cues can make recalling memories much easier.

In the example, the reason I can do the presentation well in my dorm is that the initial practice place is the dorm. The environment of the dorm is the retrieval cue. Therefore, it helped me to recall what I want to say. When I stood in front of the classroom, where the environment is totally different, I lost my cues that help me recall the words I want to say, so I seemed to forget everything. Although I have those feelings, the fact is that the presentation was already stored in my long-term memory. I did not really forget it, but hard to activate it from the long-term memory. The only difference that cause me to recall successfully and forget is with the retrieval cues or not. However, retrieval cues are not necessary. It is just a tool help people recall easier and faster. Without the dorm environment, I can still give the presentation in classroom, but it might be harder than with a retrieval cue.

Definition referred to:  https://study.com/academy/lesson/retrieval-cues-definition-examples-quiz.html

When I was young, I always went to my grandparents’s home playing, which is near the airport. Each time I stood on the balcony, I can see planes flying through the sky. I asked my mother:”Why is the plane flying so slowly? I think I can run even faster than the plane. Did you say that planes are the fastest transportation in the world?” At the time my mother just told me that is because the planes are too far from us. Soon after that, I had a chance to travel by plane. During the take off and landing processes, I looked outside the window. Through the fast moved trees and buildings on the ground, I get to know how fast the plane was moving. (That is even the slowest speed during the whole flight because it is only the beginning)

The experiences showed above can be illustrated by a psychology concept called motion parallax. Motion parallax is a monocular depth cue arising from the relative velocities of objects moving across the retina of a moving person. It is what we always refer to as the object moving near us seems to move faster than the object moving farther from us.

In the example above, when I sit in the plane, objects on the ground are near to me. We can just assume it as we are near to the objects because motions are all relative. So we feel like the objects move so fast because of the small distance. Assuming that the real flying speeds are the same when it is nearly to land and during the landing period. When we see a plane in the sky, the distance between us and the object is a lot farther than what it is when we are in the plane. Because of the big distance, we feel like the plane moves very slow. But in fact, we know, the real speeds are the same. It is just we have different feelings when observing objects from different distances.

Definition referred to: https://study.com/academy/lesson/motion-parallax-in-psychology-definition-lesson-quiz.html