Author Archives: Courtney Alexandria Bowden

emotions have gotten the best of me

“When you feel the rise of unpleasant emotions, take a moment and make an effort to identify their source. The answers are far more available than you may have previously believed. Accept such feelings as your own in the moment. Do not shove them underneath, ignore them or try to substitute what you think of as good thoughts.”—  Jane Roberts, Seth, “The Nature of Personal Reality”

I never took the time to stop and think about how my emotions have affected some of the decisions that I have made in my life. I can look back and honestly say that Integral immediate emotions which “are emotions that are associated with the act of making a decision” (Goldstein, 377) have affected some of my decision making. For example, when I had to make a big decision about putting my grandmother on hospice care I had experienced immediate emotions such as anxiety, trepidation and helplessness. These emotions were Integral emotions associated with having to make that tough decision. On a lighter note, having to make a decision about which outfit I was going to wear to my graduation from CCP brought on Integral immediate emotions of happiness, joy and excitement.

Usually I don’t notice the Integral immediate emotions that I may be experiencing while having to make a decision unless the decision is very important. Most of the time I’m usually trying not to think about my emotions and how I feel about a particular outcome. Often times when it comes to expected emotions (“emotions that people predict they will feel for a particular outcome” (Goldstein, 377) I have found that “a positive emotion will likely be a good outcome and one that results in a negative emotion will likely be a poor outcome” (Lowenstein et al., 2003; Wilson & Gilbert, 2003). For example, this July I had to take my PA Cosmetologist State Board theory exam. I had prepared for this exam throughout my whole time in Cosmetology School so I was already thinking about how happy and proud I would feel if I actually passed the exam. This positive emotion was followed by a good outcome because I passed the exam. In another instance, one day while driving to work in traffic I was thinking about how mad I would feel if I was late for work. Unfortunately, the outcome was that I was late for work and absolutely correct on my predicted emotion.

Looking back I have always assumed that my emotions have little association with my outcomes and decision making. Therefore, learning about the different kinds of emotions and the affects they can have on decision making and outcomes has made me realize that I should pay more attention to my emotions especially the negative and less positive emotions.

Works Cited

Goldstein, Bruce. “Introduction to Cognitive Psychology.” Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Third Edition ed. Belmont, CA 94002-3098: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Page 377. Print.

Quote taken from http://www.tumblr.com/search/psychology%20of%20emotion

Divided Attention with Automatic Processing in Automobiles

Divided Attention with Automatic Processing in Automobiles

“Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded” (2009, VTTI).

Driving has become an automatic process for most of us who drive therefore many drivers will divide their attention to a few tasks at the same time while driving. Most drivers are confident in their dual task abilities because they believe they can successfully use divided attention in the car because they have been driving for years and have a lot of practice in different driving situations. “The theory of automaticity proposed by William James suggests multiple processes can go on simultaneously, when they are habitual, involving minimal conscious control” (Iqbal, 17).

Both driving and cell phone use are automatic processes that have become habitual in the everyday lives of many. Combined and they can cause the driver to become distracted and take the drivers attention away from the road. “The cognitive, visual, and physical demands of such task can compromise the primary task of driving” (Iqbal, 18). Specifically, cell phone use while driving can increase the likelihood of missed lights, slower reaction time (RT) in applying breaks, and collisions.

There are many research experiments that investigate and measure divided attention among drivers and their driving performance under secondary tasks such as cell phone use. For example, both Strayer and Johnson had experimented and found that when drivers where talking on the phone they missed more lights (approx. .07) compared to drivers who weren’t on the phone (approx. 03). RT in applying brakes was also slower if a driver was on the phone than drivers who were not on the phone. Consequently I found this to be true in my own experience. One night my girlfriend Kenisha was driving me home from another friend’s house after doing her hair. Kenisha was talking on the phone with her mother who likes to call her every five minutes. While Kenisha was on the intense phone call with her mom she ran a stop sign. It was after midnight, no one was hurt but we had consequently got stopped by a male police officer. The officer let us girls off the hook and we continued with heightened awareness.

Cell phone use while driving can also increase the risk of collisions. In a survey of cell phone use and accidents “the risk of a collision was four times higher when using a cell phone than when a cell phone was not being used “(Redelmeier & Tibshirani, 1997). I also found this to be true in my own experience. One day when I was driving in rush hour traffic I got side swiped by another driver who was on her phone and not paying any attention to the road. She side swiped me on the side of my car at my blind spot so unfortunately I couldn’t see the collision coming.

The above experiments along with my own experiences has proven than driving and using a cell phone device can’t be done simultaneously. Divided attention among driving and cell phone use doesn’t have equal distribution of attention with both task therefore increasing the likelihood of missed lights, slower RT with breaking, and collisions. As a result of the increased dangers there have been movements that seek to eliminate cell phone use while driving. Two that I am familiar with is ATT’s screen protector that comes on each new phone you buy that says “don’t text and drive”, another is Oprah’s famous no texting while driving pledge.

Works Cited

Goldstein, Bruce. “Introduction to Cognitive Psychology.” Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Third Edition. Belmont, CA 94002-3098: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Page 94. Print.

Iqbal, S., Ju, Y., & Horvitz, E. (2010). Cars, calls, and cognition: Investigating driving and divided attention. Paper presented at the 1281-1290. doi:10.1145/1753326.1753518

Opening Quote taken from http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/facts-and-statistics.html

Courtney’s Blog Post #1

“The class of response upon which a reinforcer is contingent is called an operant, to suggest the action on the environment followed by reinforcement. We construct an operant by making a reinforce contingent on a response, but the important fact about the resulting unit is not its topography but its probability of occurrence, observed as rate of emission.” – Skinner, B. F. (1969). Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis, 7.

For my first blog post I decided to write about operant conditioning. Over the course of the first three weeks I enjoyed the topic of operant conditioning the most. Because our book didn’t give too many examples of operant conditioning I decided to look for an article on operant conditioning that I can relate back to what we briefly discussed in class. The Article that I researched is titled “The Modification of Delinquent Behavior through Operant Conditioning”.

In the article we are introduced to a 9 year old boy named Danny who struggles with disruptive antisocial behavior. Danny’s mother put him in an institution because his behavior was out of control to the point where she could no longer care for him. Danny remained in the institution for 4 years. Out of the first 2 years the professionals tried an unsuccessful regressive therapy however; in the last 2 years Danny’s treatment was modified with operant conditioning which proved to be successful. “Operant conditioning focuses on how behavior is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers, such as food or social approval (or withdrawal of negative reinforcers, such as shock or social rejection). (Goldstein, 10).  In this paper I will discuss how the use of punishment reinforcers along with positive rewarding reinforcers helped to decrease disruptive antisocial behavior.

Proper punishment reinforcers such as isolation, radio use, and extended isolation time can decrease disruptive antisocial behavior. For example, when Danny started displaying disruptive behavior as consequence he was immediately put into an isolation room. Danny would be told by staff why he was put into the isolation room and that if his disruptive behavior persist it would result in an increase in the amount of time that he would stay there. In order for the isolation to be more effective a radio was placed in the isolation room to create a communication barrier between Danny, the other patients and the staff. Consequently, the punishment reinforcers decreased Danny’s disruptive antisocial behavior. Throughout this experience Danny realized that by displaying acceptable behavior he was then able to be released from the isolation room and back into the cottage along with everyone else.

Operant conditioning/positive reinforcers such as a token system can decrease disruptive antisocial behavior as well. For example, the staff at the institution developed a token system that was used to reward Danny for displaying acceptable behavior. For every hour that Danny was able to stay out of the isolation room he was given tokens that could be used in the future towards rewards such as candy, soda, movies, recreation, etc. With the positive reinforcers Danny now had an incentive to put greater effort into having acceptable behavior. For this reason, the positive reinforcers decreased Danny’s disruptive antisocial behavior.

In Conclusion, as a result of both proper punishment reinforcers along with operant conditioning through positive reinforcers, Danny’s disruptive antisocial behavior decreased a total of 33%. Results show that Danny was able to decrease his disruptive antisocial behavior from a starting point of 40 occurrences within the first month with a regressive treatment to 12 occurrences in his last and final 5th month with operant conditioning treatment. Overall I am a fan of operant conditioning. I feel like operant conditioning is very successful an should be used more in psychological practices by therapist.

Works Cited

Goldstein, Bruce. “Introduction to Cognitive Psychology.” Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Thrid Edition ed. Belmont, CA 94002-3098: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Page 10. Print.

 

Burchard, J., & Tyler Jr., V. (2002). The Modification of Delinquent Behaviour Through Operant Conditioning. Behaviour Research and Therapy, Volume 2(Issues 2-4 (1964)), Pages 245-250. (2002, May 28). Retrieved September 14, 2014, from PSU Libary Database.