Month: October 2023

Sensory Adaption is diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. My roommate and I have an air freshener plug-in device in our room. The first time we plugged it in, the room smelt amazing all day. Even though the perfume wasn’t as strong the following day, we could still detect it. Over time, as we smelled it less and less, we began to believe it stopped working or had run out of smelling juice. However, when we checked, it was still functioning and still had a lot of smelling juice left. One day when our friends visited, they instantly commented, “Wow, it smells really good in here, what is that.” My roommate and I couldn’t understand why they could smell it but we couldn’t until something clicked in my brain. Our senses had become so accustomed to the smell of the air freshener that it eventually seemed to vanish. This is an excellent example of a sensory adaptation that really helped me understand this idea. We were constantly stimulated by the smell of the air freshener, so over time our sensitivity to it diminished. Our nose’s sensitivity to this particular fragrance decreased as a result of the frequent stimulation that came from smelling it every time we were in our room. Other people’s sensitivity to that smell persisted because they weren’t always in our room and didn’t have that constant stimulation. Similar to this is how some people claim that your house might smell a certain way, but you don’t immediately recall any particular smell when you think of your home. There can be a specific scent you sense when entering a new place or an environment you don’t visit frequently. The “scent” of your home may start to fade if you spend a lot of time there due of the constant stimulus. Someone who visits your home might still smell the scent since they are more sensitive to it than you are because they aren’t continually in the house and smelling it. Those are examples of sensory adaptation in relation to smell. Here is an example of a hearing sensory adaptation. While riding the train with mom I said to her, “Wow, I would never want to live right near the train tracks; that would be so loud.” she responded with. “After a month or two in the house, you don’t really hear the train anymore, so it’s not really that horrible.” This mad no sense to me at the time, how could that loud sound just go away? Now I realize that once your sensory system has adapted to the continual stimulus of hearing the train for several months, you will no longer be impacted by its loud noises. Most of the time you don’t even realize that that sense has gone away, it just isn’t there anymore. This is the power of sensory adaption, its all in your mind, it doesn’t even click as to why these senses have just gone away. These examples have fully helped me understand this concept, and I can now apply it to so many things in my life.

-I posted my response in the wrong place over at first

The serial position effect, which shows how our memory and recall of items in a list are affected by their position or order within that list, is a well-documented cognitive phenomenon in the field of psychology. This idea affects us greatly in our daily lives, frequently without our even being aware of it. The primacy effect and the recency effect are the two main halves of the serial position effect. In contrast to the recency effect, which claims that we recall items at the end of a list more readily, the primacy effect contends that we prefer to remember items at the top of a list more easily. Our educational system is where one of the serial position effect’s most frequent occurrences occurs. a lecture by a teacher is going place in a classroom, and the pupils are taking notes. During the lecture, the instructor may introduce a number of crucial ideas or terminologies, and while the students take notes, they are more likely to recall the concepts and phrases that were introduced at the beginning and end of the presentation. The serial position effect is being directly applied in a learning environment here. The primacy impact applies to the ideas introduced at the start of the lecture, whereas the recency effect applies to those addressed later. The notions that are introduced in the middle of the presentation, however, could be more difficult to recall. Making shopping lists is a common activity that demonstrates the serial position effect. Imagine you have to make a list of the things you need to get from the grocery shop. When you are at the store, you are more likely to remember the goods you first consider and write down. These things are covered by the primacy effect. Similar to the recency effect, when you are about to leave the store and you recollect a few things you overlooked, those things are more likely to be remembered as well. The things you need to buy but remember in the course of writing the list might not be as easily recalled.

Blog Post 1

Have you ever learned something and not remembered how you learned it? What about when it was taught to you? These are the questions I stumbled on last week when trying to help my niece with her homework. My niece is 6 years old and is just beginning to recognize and remember letter sounds and names. While trying to help her put the sounds together I began to think back to when I learned to read, except I couldn’t. I was hoping to find some memory of my parents, teachers, or a sibling who gave me lessons but I drew a blank. I had no recollection of learning to read, sounding out letters, or even the time frame to when I truly became literate. 

This inability to remember when and how I learned to read is because of a phenomenon called source amnesia. Source Amnesia is the inability to recall the source of information. It could be information we have experienced, seen, heard, or read that we regard as facts in our head even though we cannot remember where or when we found them. This can lead people to forget whether certain information is true or false. It could also lead to the misinformation effect, where we incorporate misleading facts into our memories of an event. This is our brain’s way of filling in the gaps we think make sense.

At some point in my youth, someone (most likely multiple people), helped teach me about letters. I have no doubt that I spent lots of time learning the skill and memorizing the ABC’s. However, without my parents’ help I will never know the exact time frame of when I began reading. This is all because of source amnesia. Perhaps if I had put my attention on the task or had the event celebrated I would have more of a memory, but since I did not all I am left with is the learned skill without the how or when. 

Childhood Development

The topic I chose to talk about in my blog post in Childhood Development. Childhood Development can be described as a complex and dynamic process through which a child grows physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively from infancy to adolescence. It encompasses various stages, each marked by significant milestones. Early childhood lays the foundation for later life, as children rapidly acquire basic motor skills and language abilities. As they progress, emotional and social development becomes crucial, fostering empathy, self-awareness, and interpersonal relationships. Cognitive development, including memory, problem-solving, and critical thinking, also advances, enabling children to learn, adapt, and thrive. The environment, including family, peers, and educational experiences, plays a pivotal role in shaping a child’s development, making it a field of study and intervention vital for nurturing healthy, well-rounded individuals.

In my personal life I have witnessed this concept applied in many children watching how they grow but the situation that stands out to me most is my nephew. My nephew Luis is 6 years old and has Autism which has slowed and deferred this process both cognitively and physically. Over the years he has experienced change at a slower rate and has not come close to gaining the consciousness of a regular kid. During the sensorimotor stage (birth-2), Luis did not experience all that he was supposed to such as object permanence and did not remember much of what he ate or played with. He would be presented with toys which he used multiple times and could not figure out how to use them or what they were. He also showed how excited he was when receiving a gift then was given the same gift later in the day and was excited as if he never got it before. Moving forward into the preoperational stage (years 2-6/7), most children start to learn language, form theory of mind, and become egocentric. Being autistic means that he will not gain these traits right away. Luis has barely been able to speak, let alone perform everyday tasks that an ordinary child could perform. It is questionable if he has his own mindset because he won’t know what he’s thinking based on how small of a reactive personality he shows but it can be seen and proven that he is not able to perform the tasks of a normal child. This is why I chose Child Development because this not only proves that this concept is true, it proves that it can differ from person to person and change based on the brain capacity of each individual.

In psychological terms there are three different types of parenting methods, authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Every parent uses a different type of method to parent their children without knowing what specific method they are using. The authoritarian method is when parents impose strict rules and expect perfect obedience from their children. Permissive parenting is when there is absolutely no rules or control of the children, and the parents seemingly submit to their children and follow their lead. The final parenting method is authoritative parenting. This is when parents can be demanding and have rules for their children, but they also listen to what their kids have to say and take that into consideration. The type of parenting I will be focusing on is the authoritative method of parenting. Not only do I believe it is the best style of parenting, but studies have also proven that an authoritative style of parenting leads to the best results in children’s behavior and relationship with their family. Some examples of an authoritative parenting method are when parents enforce rules and express their expectations of their children, but they also help supply them with resources that will help them reach their goals and support them through the process. They also listen to what their children has to say. If the child expresses that something is not working for them, the parent pivots and finds a way to satisfy both of their needs. It has been proven that parents that use an authoritative method of parenting raise kids that will be more independent, academically successful, and well-behaved. There have also been signs of less of a chance of depression and anxiety in children with authoritative parents.

After learning about the different parenting methods and reflecting on how my own parents raised me, I can say with certainty that they used an authoritative method and that paid off well for me. My parents set clear expectations for me on how I should do in school and what I should do with my time outside of school. They emphasized that it was important for me to do well in school, but that I could always reach out to them if I needed help and that they would not punish me for not always doing well on something if they knew that I was trying my absolute hardest. They also emphasized that if I wanted to have all the liberties of having a car and my license, that I had to get a job when I turned 16. I think that was one of the smartest things they could have done for me. Since I have been working for so long, I have developed a strong sense of independence. I never really asked for help with school, asked for money to buy something I need/wanted, and never felt like I was being criticized for the way I handled myself. They enforced rules and expectations for me, but made it clear they would still support me and listen to what I had to say if I thought that I was struggling. After learning more about the authoritative parenting style and reflecting on my own parents and how I have turned out, I believe that this is the best parenting style and should be used the most so that kids feel supported, but also encouraged by their parents to succeed in the best way possible.

James Latrechiano 

10/22/23 

Proactive Interference 

Interference is a problem many people face when trying to retrieve information that was learned from their past. There are two forms of interference, proactive interference, and retroactive interference. Both interferences affect the retrieval of information due to past or added information that was learned. Retroactive interference describes the memory of recent information making old information that you learned hard to remember. However, I will be focusing on proactive interference, which causes information learned earlier in life to interfere with more recently learned information. An example would be not remembering a friend’s new phone number after recognizing his old phone number for such a long time. Trying to remember related topics is when interference mostly comes into play because you cannot fully tell the difference between old and new memories.  

One of the times I experienced proactive interference was when I was a junior in high school. A bridge that I drove on multiple times a day, located directly outside of my neighborhood, was shut down for construction purposes. Growing up, I took this bridge every day to school, friend’s houses, and sports practice. My brain was wired to take this route as an instinct, and breaking this habit was quite difficult. I found myself still attempting to take this route from time-to-time, even weeks after it was shut down. Following the closing of the bridge, it caused my sister and I to be late to school a couple times because of my second instinct taking over my actions. This bridge was my main route of transportation to many places throughout my whole life, so it was a noticeably substantial change. Constantly obtaining information and storing new things into your brain, on top of having to suddenly learn something new, takes a big toll on the brain. My experiences took a while to get used to, which shows the true power of long-term memory and proactive interference.  

Sources: 

Mcleod, Saul. “Proactive and Retroactive Interference | Simply Psychology.” Simplypsychology.org, 2018, www.simplypsychology.org/proactive-and-retroactive-interference.html. 

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There have been many instances where I’ve been talking to people and I couldn’t quite get the word out. This phenomenon is considered the tip of the tongue state or “TOT”. The Tip of the Tongue is a state in which an individual cannot quite remember a familiar word, but recall words of similar form and meaning. This is a form of Retrieval failure. It’s concluded that people have the knowledge of some of the letters, number of syllables, and location of stress.  It’s like when the answer to a question is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t quite remember it. 

This phenomenon happens when there is a temporary disruption in the retrieval process. Our memories are organized in a network of associations, and sometimes the connection to the desired information becomes weakened or blocked, leading to retrieval failure. One common explanation for retrieval failure is the interference theory. This theory suggests that forgetting occurs when new information interferes with the retrieval of old information. For example, if I am  trying to remember someone’s name, but other similar names keep coming to mind, it can hinder my ability to recall the correct name.This is one of the reasons why I can’t remember the specific word when talking to someone. I believe it’s very common and happens all the time because I say “ I can’t remember the word” or “it’s on the tip of my tongue”. Whenever this happens, I begin to throw out definitions or synonyms to the word. 

Retrieval failure, or the tip of the tongue phenomenon, is a common experience where we temporarily struggle to recall information that we know we have stored in our memory. It can be caused by interference from new information and the absence of effective retrieval cues.  Understanding the mechanisms behind retrieval failure can help us develop strategies. It’s something that every one goes through, sometimes every once in a while, or daily.

A teratogen is any substance such as alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, bacteria, and viruses. If these substances are ingested by a woman during pregnancy it can interfere with the development of the fetus and can lead to multiple issues during or after the pregnancy. These issues could be a miscarriage, preterm labor, stillbirth (birthing an infant that has died in the womb after 20 weeks of pregnancy), or birth defects. While all of these things can happen it depends on different factors such as the toxin that the fetus is being exposed to, how long the exposure lasted, the amount/ dosage of the substance, and how long the pregnancy has been going on. One of the birth defects is called fetal alcohol syndrome. This is where alcohol could cause a baby to have a misproportioned head, lifelong brain abnormalities, or mental retardation and that is just due to alcohol, there are different side effects for each substance. Now I will get into the story about one specific teratogen.

There was a woman that lived down the street from me and when she found out she was pregnant she was about 7 weeks into the pregnancy. Before she became pregnant this woman was a consistent smoker. She had been smoking for years and there was no sign of stopping, but once she found out about the pregnancy she claimed that she would stop. For the first 2 weeks she knew about the pregnancy it was going well but stopping cold turkey can be difficult. Eventually, she fell back into her old habit and could not give it up. Sadly this ended up affecting the baby and her child was born with a cleft lip (a birth defect in the baby’s upper lip that doesn’t completely form and has a hole in it). This was due to the cigarettes that she was smoking in this case the teratogen is nicotine. Luckily a cleft lip can be fixed surgically but can cost a lot of money. Eventually, the baby’s lip got fixed and now looks normal with a little scar below the nostril. Also the mother ended up quitting smoking has not smoked again since.

A term from unit three that relates to a personal experience of mine is source amnesia. Source amnesia is when a person attributes an event to the wrong source; usually something we have either experienced, heard, read, or imagined. Source amnesia is related to the misinformation effect, incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event. An experience I had this past Thanksgiving with my grandmother came to mind when learning about source amnesia. Every Thanksgiving it is a tradition to sit at the table for hours talking and reminiscing on our favorite memories together. When it was my grandmas turn to share, she said that her favorite memory from this past year was when we watched fireworks on the beach in Outer Banks during our summer trip. She did indeed have a memory of watching fireworks, however we never watched fireworks on the beach, nor in Outer Banks.

Originally my family just thought that my grandma was confused, as she was almost 80 years old and people often say that your memory fades with age. My grandma usually had a very accurate memory, despite her age and could recall memories from when my mother was a small child and even when she herself was a child. It was not until this lesson that I realized that she may have been experiencing source amnesia. My grandma did indeed watch a firework show during the summer she was referring to; however, it was at her state fair in Missouri on the Fourth of July. Our trip to the Outer Banks was the week following that firework show so it is likely that she attributed the firework show to the wrong memory.

Basically, what we originally believed was caused by her being confused based on her age, could have potentially been source amnesia and not related to her age at all. Many of us have experienced source amnesia in some way and likely blamed it on something different. Ultimately this lesson has opened my eyes to the idea of source amnesia, rather than just pure confusion of an event.