Author Archives: mij5237

About mij5237

I originally started college as a Psychology major back in January 2006. I then transferred to the University of Maryland-College Park in January 2009 and changed my major to English. Throughout my education several teachers have thought that I wanted to be a teacher because I am very helpful at providing feedback and helping my fellow classmates. I then re-enrolled at Prince George's Community College in 2015 as a Elementary Education major, when an adviser pointed out that I was only about 5-7 classes away from receiving an Associate's degree in Psychology and urged me to finish it up. While taking courses in Psychology I fell back in love with it and dropped Elementary Education as a major and went back to Psychology. I started working as a substitute teacher in Fairfax County public schools back in November 2014 and still work there now. I often work with special needs children and really enjoy this because I can tell that I am making a difference. After Penn State I plan to go on to graduate school and recently took my GRE the first week of Classes (Fall 2016). After my credit evaluation is complete I will hopefully be graduating next Summer semester with my Bachelor's degree in Psychology B.A, I want to get my PhD in Counseling Psychology and be a practicing Psychologist counseling troubled youth and young adults ages 14-24. I would like to some day do research as well and get something published in a notable journal.

Analogical problem-solving and teaching

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The other day when I was teaching I made a connection with analogical problem solving and place value. As a substitute teacher, I generally teach special needs children and do my best to help them understand material. The other day I worked with children with emotional disorders/behavioral problems. We worked on place values, some of the students got frustrated and gave up before they started, and others took some time and figured it out on their own. There was an example given at the top like such:

7,570,987 seven million five-hundred seventy thousand nine hundred eighty-seven
7,570,987 seven million five-hundred seventy thousand nine hundred eighty-seven
7,570,987 seven million five-hundred seventy thousand nine hundred eighty-seven

And so on…

Their task was then to look at the number underlined to come up with a solution, what place value was underlined. The example given to them at the top of the paper was the source problem. They were given the following instructions:

Find the place value of the underlined number.

Example: 4,509, 789 Solution: Hundreds place

So, the target problem and the source problem were similar in what they asked, but the slight variation was that they needed only to write the place value of the underlined number and not the actual number itself. The structural features are similar, both examples ask to find the place value, but differ slightly because the example includes the number and place value while the question only asks for place value. This slight change in structure confused some of the students. So, I had to help them to see the similarities and how to compare the two and find an answer by asking probing questions (guided practice). So, after they explained to me what they did I realized that they were getting overwhelmed with finding the place values. They did not know where to start, so I said to them, “Let’s look at the example”, then I proceeded to go over it with them. Next I had them look at one of the problems then asked, “What place value is underlined?”, the boy shrugged his shoulders. I said, “Okay, so let’s look at the example. Find the example with the same place value number underlined.” When they find it I then point out the bolded words and ask what place value is this. They say it (ex. five-hundred thousand) then I ask again so take the number out and tell me the place value and they do that. And I say this problem has the same place value as that example, so it would be the same answer. Then they have an aha-moment and it becomes obvious to them how to solve the problems. Analogical reasoning is an important educational tool because it can help people learn to solve real world problems by using comparison between two different situations to solve the present one (Goldstein, 2011) (Vendetti, Matlen, Richland, & Bunge, 2015).

References

Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience
(Vol. 3). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Vendetti, M. S., Matlen, B. J., Richland, l. E., & Bunge, S. A. (2015). Analogical reasoning in the classroom:
Insights from cognitive science. Mind, brain, and education. 9 (2). Doi: 10.1111/mbe.12080

Reconsolidating and Recuing memories for Sexual Assault Victims who suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

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I found it intriguing the phenomenon of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) patient’s memories being reconsolidated after the retrieval of the memory was followed by an injection of Probanolol. Psychologist Alain Brunet did an experiment that proved that Probanolol ability to block the amygdala release of a stress hormone reduced the amount of stress caused to PTSD patients when the memory was recalled a week later (Goldstein, 2011).

A former sufferer of PTSD caused by recurrent sexual assault by various individuals caused me to form a belief system which made it hard for me to trust that others had my best intentions in mind. Most victims of sexual assault and rape suffer at the hands of someone they know or are familiar with (not a first-time encounter, prior knowledge of the preparator). This experience made it hard for me to form intimate relationships because of mistrust; it also made it hard for me when I reached adulthood to separate intimacy from flashbacks of sexual assault because it became associated with feelings of terror, hopelessness, helplessness, and confusion (EDC Institute, 2014). PTSD, according to Goldstein (2011) is “ a condition that ‘flashbacks’ of the experience, often accompanied by extreme anxiety and physical symptoms (occurs).” Retrieval cues can trigger flashbacks from something like “a current smell (for example, cologne), sight (a person, place, or thing), sounds (raised voice, slamming door, music), taste (chocolates), or touch (a hand on your shoulder)”, this experience can bring the person back to that/those traumatic moments (Laurel House, 2015).

A method recommended by many professionals is to create new associations and stop the train of thought that flashbacks cause. Part of this involves reconsolidation of previous (episodic) memories. An example of this would be when someone kisses your neck and whisper in your ear to stop associating this with your prior experience and begin to associate it with your intimate partner. Remind yourself that you are not in that moment by using your senses. Does this environment look different? Are there different smells? Realize that this is not the same person who hurt you and that this is someone who loves you. I think that in time with more and more exposure to situations that cause memory cues (retrieval) of prior situation (sexual assault) can be replaced by new memories (intimate partner respects my wishes and stops when I ask them to). This reconsolidation of the memory for the retrieval cue (i.e. when someone kisses my neck and whispers in my ear this is a sign of affection and not trauma) can help to reduce stress and anxiety (Laurel House, 2015) (RAINN, 2016) (Goldstein, 2011).

As more research is done on this issue, we will know more in the future and better ways to help treat sexual assault victims who suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

References

EDC Institute. (2014, Feb. 2). Flashbacks during intimacy. Retrieved from
https://www.edcinstitute.org/we-are-survivors/flashbacks-during-intimacy.html

Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience
(Vol. 3). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Laurel House. (2015). Flashbacks. Retrieved from

Flashbacks

RAINN. (2016). Flashbacks. Retrieved from
https://www.rainn.org/articles/flashbacks

Is Perception Reality?

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As human beings we all can perceive the same incident or occurrence differently than each other. So what is reality? Is one person wrong and the other person right? The example I would like to focus on now is something that took the internet by storm a couple of years ago and is still much debated today. Is it a white and gold dress or black and blue dress? Bottom-Up Processing is at play in determining the color of the dress. What we see is light rays that are transformed into a sensory experience via the retina, which travels to the optic nerve and creates an electrical signal, then sends this signal to the processing center in the brain. Once at the processing center in the brain it determines what color we perceive and thus creates our version of reality (Goldstein, 2011, p. 38, 50).

How we perceive the color of the dress depends on if we see it as a bright background light with a shadow cast over the dress or as very bright light making the dress appear lighter when it is actually darker (Corum, 2015). The cornea is responsible for letting light rays into the eye, in fact, 65 percent of the eye’s refractory ability to reflect light from an object comes from the (center of the) cornea (Davidson, 2015). That being said whether or not we perceive the dress as black and blue or white and gold is determined by top-down processing, whether or not we perceive it as a shadow cast over the dress or a bright light reflected onto. Since it is just a picture online, our brains use prior knowledge to determine the color, for example, when a shadow is cast over an object it appears darker or when a bright light is shined on an object it appears lighter (Goldstein, 2011, p. 57).

The color we see an object as is the color that is reflected off the item. For example, if all colors are reflected off an item then we see white, but if all colors are absorbed by an item then we see black (Idaho Public Television, 2016). In the dress example when we see a bright light coming from behind the brighter light makes the dress appear darker (i.e. black and blue). But when we see a shadow cast over the dress the darkness of the shadow makes the dress appear lighter (i.e. white and gold). Color constancy is the ability of color to appear the same in different contexts (i.e. a lot of light or little to no light). Color is subjective, since it can change color in different environments (Brainard, 2004). In Image 3 (link at bottom) the dress is seen as definitely black and blue, with other context clues such as the fair skin color of the woman wearing the dress, the white wedding dress of the bride, and the dark curtains in the background. With all these things to compare the color of the dress too, it makes it obvious its true color (Corum, 2015).

Whether or not the dress is black and blue or white and gold is still a heavily debated topic because everyone believes that the way they see it is real or reality. The fact that they perceive this as reality makes them believe that something is wrong with the other person who sees a different perception. When viewing the photograph, I see it differently because sometimes I see it as white and gold and other times I see it as black and blue. Since my reality changes I understand how different people can see the dress differently. Color constancy is at play and is not something that is 100 percent accurate, since other things can affect the color reflected by light off an object, such as colors reflected off other nearby objects and background light. Top-down processing is also at play as we use clues from things we have previously seen to draw conclusions on the color of the dress, is it a shadow casts over a white and gold dress or a bright background light reflected onto a black and blue dress. So in conclusion, reality is not something that always holds true to everyone, but is rather subjective and determined by the individual.

References

Brainard, B. (2004). “Color constancy: David Brainard Lab” [PDF Document]. Retrieved from

Click to access ColorConstancySage.pdf

Corum, J. (2015, Feb. 27). “Is that dress white and gold or blue and black”. New York Times. Retrieved
from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/28/science/white-or-blue-dress.html

Davidson, M. W. (2015). Human Vision and Color Perception. Molecular Expressions. Optical Microscopy
Primer : Physics of Light and Color. Retrieved from
https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/humanvisionintro.html

Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience
(Vol. 3). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Idaho Public Television. (2016). “Light & color: Facts”. Retrieved from
http://idahoptv.org/sciencetrek/topics/light_and_color/facts.cfm