Author Archives: Trevor Scott Beahm

Observational learning being monitored

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The definition of observational learning is learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others.  As a child I was a perfect example of observational learning looking back on it today.  Whether it was being a classic boy and playing army in the back yard, or trying to be the center of attention at family gatherings, the television had a huge impact on how I act due to always wanting to grow up as the superhero, action star, or rugged actor in a movie or TV show.  When it came to violent television shows and video games my family made sure that I knew the consequences and the repercussions to those actions.  As a child you can never fully understand the concept of what happens in violent movies and dying.  Having Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, beating up cops and shooting at whoever was in the way was so exciting to watch, but as a child trying to perceive that people aren’t going to come back after they die is too difficult and too complex of an idea to handle as a kid.

Having my parents monitor how I behave myself after these kinds of movies I believe is a very critical part to growing up. Parents have been alive for much longer and have so much more knowledge to share with their children on what is acceptable and inappropriate.  The other thing that parents have is they have the control and you don’t want to anger them.  Having a parent give you a glare and saying in a stern voice, “don’t do that,” is a perfect indication and signal that I took my actions too far and should stop immediately if I would like to stay out of trouble.  Having the extra set of eyes watching moves made me more aware of how to take my ideas after watching a movie and how to handle them appropriately.  As you get to an older age though, having your parents fully explain what can happen in real life is so important for encoding the images correctly.  My parents shaped the way I perceive information and I believe for the better.

False memories?

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Being nineteen years old now the baby ages are basically forgotten but I want to believe that I can still remember significant stories from that age.  When I was three years old I lived in Orlando Florida and I was doing my normal routine of playing with my yellow plastic ABC blocks in my basement.  From my memory, I remember sitting in the middle of the basement on the white carpet with my whole family downstairs hanging out.  I don’t remember why I thought it would be a good idea to stick the block in my mouth but I did the normal child thing and took the challenge.  As I accomplished the goal, the block was half way in my mouth and I attempted to pull out the block, but it was stuck… I remember running up to my mom crying and screaming in different tones since I couldn’t form words with this object in the way. My mother squeezed her right hand in between the block and the edge of my lips.  I asked my parents last weekend to find out what was real about this story and found out the real truth of it.  I was in the basement and the block was lodged in my mouth, but my dad was the only one in the room,  I was four and by then I had moved to my house in Pittsburgh and my father laughed at me as I struggled to yank the block back out.  I was dead set that this story in my mind was so detailed that it had to be real and my memory was set in stone but instead the more I thought about it I guess the more skewed the story became.  Now with the new story in my head I vaguely remember it, but waiting for me to alter that story.

Corpus callosum tsb5226

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfGwsAdS9Dc

Epilepsy is a long-term neurological disorder that can cause epileptic seizures.  An option to reduce or stop the amount of seizures is to cut the corpus callosum, which is the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain.  Although cutting the corpus callosum can stop epileptic seizures, the connection between the two sides of the brain becomes more difficult to send information to each other.  Now after the brain is severed, the brains can think independently.

In the link above is a video a egg factory worker Joe, a man with epilepsy who has had his corpus callosum cut to stop the seizures.  They first show Joe being given the task to draw two different shapes at the same time with both hands.  As he is given the two shapes, Joe’s two hemispheres are able to think independently and draw each individual shape at the same time.  With cutting the corpus callosum, psychologists were able to determine that language is held in the left hemisphere of the brain using the experiment to close the left eye and have an image shown on the right side of the computer.  As the word was shown, the left side of the brain responds and tells Joe to correctly say the word.  With attempting the other eye and the left side, the brain perceives the word given but can have the body speak the word.  The special trick with the right brain is that even though it doesn’t know language, it can use the left hand to draw what the word was to indicate to the right side of the brain.

Cutting the corpus callosum really explains the brain into more depth showing how the left side of the brain can show language and giving Joe the ability the desire to explain.  With the right side of the brain, it has the ability to recognize faces.  Joe does not have his epileptic seizures reduced and continues to work in an egg factory, so having his corpus callosum cut does not affect his daily life in the egg factory a negative way.