Author Archives: Laura Peterson

Parenting and Conditioning

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While we were discussing conditioning in class, we mostly talked about animals and how with the use of repetition, rewards, and punishments, we can shape behavior. Animals aside, I began to wonder where else conditioning might show up in my life. I realized that as I was growing up, many of these techniques were actually used by my parents in order to prevent bad habits and encourage other behaviors.

Classical conditioning is a type of learning that happens when we connect involuntary responses to certain stimuli other than the original natural stimulus. Similar to Pavlov’s experiments with the dogs, I remember salivating and going downstairs automatically whenever I heard dishes being set on the table. I’m sure that my natural response to dishes being set on the table didn’t make me salivate and expect dinner. However, after years of conditioning to pair the neutral stimulus (dishes) to the unconditioned stimulus (salivating), I expected delicious home-cooked meals when I heard clanking downstairs.

My parents also liked to use operant conditioning when training me as a young child. Operant conditioning, contrary to classical conditioning, shaped my behavior with the use of positive and negative reinforcements and punishments to encourage voluntary behaviors. Learning in operant conditioning depends on the antecedent stimuli, or stimuli after the action, whereas classical conditioning depends on what comes before the response. For example, my parents liked to give me candy after a doctor’s visit so that I wouldn’t scream as loudly and actually get in the car to go. Other times, they would deprive me of television or tell me to go to my room in order to get me to behave myself in social situations. It was extremely effective. In order to avoid the negative punishment, or something pleasant being removed from my life, I was apt to obey my parents and stop hitting my brother.

I never realized the psychological theories behind my childhood, but I suppose it’s natural to know how people react to certain actions. Conditioning is definitely an effective means of getting a child to behave.

Oreo O’s and Stingrays

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When I was four, my family took a trip to the exotic Cayman Islands. I remember eating Oreo O’s and applesauce at the kitchen table. I remember trying to feed the birds with white bread just to come home in the evening and see the slices crawling with ants. Most vividly, I can remember the day that my dad took me swimming with stingrays. My grandparents waited with my mom and brother on the open deck of a boat as my dad and I entered the crystal clear blue water teaming with slithery creatures. I remember gripping my dad with all my might so that he wouldn’t drop me. I can almost hear myself let out a scream to wake the dead when I had decided I had had enough.

I remember it all so clearly. But do I really?

In class we discussed how people are completely capable of making up their memories without even knowing it, and how the accuracy of our own memories is usually very faulty. After conducting a little more research on the matter, I came across this article, which highlighted the phenomena of false memory even in those with superior memory stores. Even in those with exceptional memories (I’m taking about those who can remember everything that happened on any date you ask them about), people frequently confused events and ideas that they had heard in passing with things that had actually happened to them. The conclusion to the study conducted in the article claimed that all people construct memories in the same way, so that even those with exceptional recall are prone to making errors.

While it is possible that my memories from the vacation are true, I actually assume that my memories have been lost due to infantile amnesia. While you are young, you experience changes in brain structure. Your encoding (getting information into your memory system), storage (retaining information), and retrieval (getting information out of memory) processes also develop. This makes it extremely difficult for people to recall information from when they are younger, especially under the age of 4.

And if my original memories have indeed been lost, I’m going to bet that I have reconstructed and falsely imagined many of the memories that I have based on what I have been told by others. This is called “source amnesia,” where we don’t know where our memory is coming from yet can imagine an instance perfectly. It could also be due to “misinformation and imagination effects,” where people’s memories can be influenced by misinformation, such as stories and images that people see and hear after the occurrence.

In this interesting article, memory construction is detailed. It explains how that even if you are certain that something has occurred, you should be as skeptical with yourself as you should be with someone else because of the faulty tendencies of the brain. If a memory was encoded improperly and then recalled incorrectly later on, that memory will stick with you incorrectly and be more likely to influence false memories in the future.

So can I actually remember Oreo O’s and swimming with the stingrays? There is no way of telling if a memory is true or false. I’m going to bet that my brain is playing tricks on me—but as the memories are pretty sweet, I don’t mind fooling myself.

The Psychology of Love

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Songs are written about it. Movies revolve around it. There is an entire day dedicated to it. What am I talking about?

Love. It’s everywhere, in everything, virtually inescapable. And just when you think you may be the last person on earth to find it, it slaps you in the face and you’re swept up in its romantic embrace. Your heart beats faster when your sweetie is around, you can never catch your breath, and somehow that special someone always manages to give you butterflies when they’re near. It is exactly what everyone said it would be.

Along with many people, I’ve experienced love, or at least extreme like, many times. I can remember my first date, when I had the sweatiest palms and driest mouth I can remember. I felt like I had enough energy to run a marathon and somehow couldn’t make my voice sound normal. Even now, when I have a crush on someone, I can’t get my thoughts together. My body makes it impossible for me to act cool, calm, and collected like I want to.

As it turns out, that nervous response that individuals experience on that first date, first kiss, or even just reaching for a hand is actually a result of the sympathetic nervous system, or SNS. The SNS is responsible for regulating heart rate, blood flow, breathing and digestion. It is an “arousing” system, meaning that it can mobilize the nervous system to experience a “fight-or-flight” response. Because the SNS is a part of the autonomic nervous system (or automatic), it’s very difficult for individuals to control their bodily responses around their significant other. Opposite of the sympathetic nervous system and also part of the autonomous nervous system is the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the body down and allows it to “rest and digest.”

Even though it’s hard to control how you might appear to your crush or sweetheart, it’s also interesting to note that it could be possible to judge whether or not you are liked by the other person. Because the sympathetic nervous system triggers the “fight-or-flight” response, you can watch their eyes to see whether their pupils dilate. You can also keep an eye out for sweaty palms and fidgeting, sure signs of nervousness.

So if you along with so many others are going through the sweaty palms, can’t catch your breath sort of phase, just blame it on your nervous system for sending signals through your body, ultimately triggering your primal “fight-or-flight” response.