Based on your topic from week #13, I would like you to find one more source of information.
Next:
State your topic.
List source four (the new one) and briefly discuss why it is a good source and what you learned about your topic from that source.
Based on your four sources (3 from week #13 and 1 from this week), list three aspects (things) that you found interesting about your topic. These would be like sub topics.
List the first aspect of your topic and briefly discuss it using the terms and concepts were have learned so far in class as well as those you learned from your research.
List the second aspect of your topic and briefly discuss it using the terms and concepts were have learned so far in class as well as those you learned from your research.
List the third aspect of your topic and briefly discuss it using the terms and concepts were have learned so far in class as well as those you learned from your research.
At the bottom of your post provide links or reference for the new source sources.
List the terms and concepts you used in this post.
Let me know if you have any questions.
--Dr. M
The fourth source I found for this topic was a site that provides information on the topic from the psychology department at Stanford University. I feel this is a good source because of Stanford being an elite school and their psychology department being well regarded. The site provides lecture slides from a professor in the psychology department. This site gives a more detailed explanation of the disorder than the other two sources. According to the author, synesthesia is a very rare condition with only 1 in 25,000 people having it. Often the perception is of very basic and generic images, sounds and colors. The perception is very stable and will occur every time the associated object is present. However, the perceptions may be different between people. Two people who see letters in color may disagree on which letter is what color. Interestingly enough twice as many women are “synesthetes” as men and are almost exclusively left-handed people. Synesthesia is a neurological disorder but its exact cause is not known. However, there are some theories such as the role of the hippocampus, decreased activity in the cortex, additional activity in sensory areas, etc. The site is a few years old so more information may be available on the cause.
The first subtopic I was interested in was the McGurk effect. The McGurk effect occurs when our sight and expectations of the way sounds should look take over our perception of the sound being emitted. The second subtopic that I was interested in after completing these posts was how we perceive flavor of food. I always assumed it was based on the basic tastes of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. However, I learned that a major part of flavor is the retronasal olfaction where we receive smell information from the back of out mouth which helps perceive flavor. The third subtopic I was interested in was synesthesia. Synesthesia, is an involuntary mix of senses that is perceived to be reality. I learned that the condition is not especially burdensome and that it can be different between persons with the same type of synesthesia.
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/psych115s/notes/lecture14/
Terms: synesthesia, synesthetes, McGurk effect, flavor, basic tastes, retronasal olfaction
The fourth source that I found for this topic was an article on music perception in psychology. This was from the Annals of General Hospital Psychology. This article talked about psychoacoustics (psychology of music) and music as a complex sound in the environment. It talked about how music plays a part in communication and evokes certain emotions as well. Psychology of sound is based on the perception of its characteristics. As stated before, music has the ability to influence emotions and moods depending on the perception of the physical or mental aspects of music. Music can change blood pressure and heart rate. It was also noted that heart rate changes according to the different perceptions of music as well. These perceptions can be due to age, gender, and other things as well. This article also stated that psychiatric patients would also react differently to music than others depending on their mental state. It is easier to analyze the perception of music by breaking it down into components such as frequency or pitch, or even heart rate and blood pressure.
The first topic I discussed in topic 13 was the way we can break down different components in an orchestra such as the violin or the flutes. I also talked about tones, pitches, and octaves in this section which help break apart the orchestra. The second topic I discussed in 13 was melody, rhythm, harmony, and repetition. These are all put together to make many different types of music. My third topic more relates to today's. I talked about how different people react differently to music. They may feel certain emotions differently than others portrayed by the music. They may bring up some memories along with this music that can change their perception as well. Overall, I believe the topic of music is very interesting and a big part of life!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC400748/
Terms: psychoacoustics, frequency, pitch, tones, pitches, octaves, melody, rhythm, harmony, repetition, perception
I had a friend that went to a college that band music. Could you image coming from a church where the praise and worship was huge and then being completely cut off from it, I would drive around a lot.
My topic from week 13 was Synesthesia. For my fourth source, I chose an article that I found using the Psychinfo database on the rod library website. The article is titled, Synesthesia and Memory: Color Congruency, von Restorff, and False Memory Effects. The researchers in the study are replicating a study that was previously done over synethesia and memory. The main purpose of the study was to determine if synethesia can disrupt ones normal pattern of thought and cause problems with memory. Previous studies that were similar to this one found that if words are placed on a colored piece of paper, those who have synesthesia will take longer to comprehend the words than if those same words were placed on a white piece of paper. One thing that I learned from this article that I had not previously known about synesthesia is the two different ways in which it can be experienced. In associative synesthesia,the synesthetic sensory experience occurs as being in the mind of the synesthete, whereas in projective synesthesia, the sensory experience occurs as if it were out in the world.
The study that I read about in the article also tested how synethesia affects the von Restorff isolation effect. This is a classic finding in
research on memory that, when given a list of words, if one of the words is uniquely defined along a given dimension it will be remembered better than the others. For example, a word printed in red has a greater probability of being remembered on a later
memory test if the other words are printed in black. To test this, researchers tested a control group for their memory on a list of words that were all black, except for one which was red, and compared their results to the same test results of those with synesthesia. The researchers found that those who had synesthesia did not remember the word that was written in red any better than the words that were in black.
The first subtopic that I found interesting was the von restorff isolation effect. Before reading this article this was not something that I have ever heard of before. Now that I know this, I may try writing words that I do not always remember how to spell in a different color so that I will remember it better. The second subtopic that I found interesting is the DRM false memory task which the experimenters used in their study on synesthetes. In this task, people are presented with a list of words that are all strong semantic associates of an additional, critical unmentioned word. At the end of the list, people are asked to recall as many words as possible. The primary finding is that people often recall the critical unmentioned word as if it were on the list. I found this interesting because I have also not heard of this test before reading this article. The third and final subtopic that I found interesting was the simple findings that having synesthesia can affect your memory. It is interesting to think about remembering a letter by the color it is represented by instead of the sound that it makes. And then if the color of the letter is altered, the person would have a hard time thinking about what letter it is.
Terms: synesthesia, von Restorff isolation effect, associative synesthesia, projective synesthesia, DMR false memory test
Sources: http://psycnet.apa.org.proxy.lib.uni.edu/journals/xlm/37/1/219.pdf
The topic that I picked was psychology and music. I learned from source four that students who had high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle school and high school years had higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12. Another benefit of music is higher SAT scores. Students with coursework and experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT. Another key benefit was that both music and language are processed in the same area of the brain. This leads to youth who develop greater language capacity. This was a good source because it came from the association for natural psychology. This organization is a non profit organization that advocates the treatment of psychological problems with out drugs. While this is not as good as a university website, I feel that it still presents good information.
The first sub area that I found interesting was areas of research in the field of music and psychology. There are a surprising number of fields that research is being conducted in. Perception of musical sounds, Perception of sound patterns, memory for music, everyday music listening, and the specific skills and processes involved in learning a musical instrument, just to name a few. This research extends to biopsychology, perception, cognition, motivation and emotion, health, personality and individual differences, and social psychology.
The second sub area is the benefits that music provides. Music provides benefits in school, with children that are involved in music having greater math and language skills, as well as higher SAT scores. Playing an instrument involves vision, hearing, touch, motor planning, emotion and symbol interpretation, which all activate different parts of the brain. So, music is kind of like a workout for your brain. Another benefit to music is that it is often a key aspect of the early parent child connection.
The third sub area is the treatment of illness with music. Music therapy is one treatment that is helpful in creating pleasant thoughts and to calm the mind. This is done through a therapist who designs music sessions for individuals based on their individual needs. These sessions can include music improvisation, receptive music, song writing, and lyric discussion just to name a few. Music is often used in preschool and kindergarten to help calm the children down, for lessons or nap time.
Terms Music therapy, perception of musical sounds, Perception of sound patterns, memory for music,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_psychology
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200009/music-the-mind
http://www.uni-graz.at/richard.parncutt/musicpsychology.html
http://www.winmentalhealth.com/music_psychology.php
http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20100624/sense-of-touch-affects-our-world-view
I found very interesting article about connections between sense of touch and making decisions.Based on that article, our sense of touch can make a difference on how we perceive world, other people, and behavior. specifically, texture, shapes, and weights have the most influence on out judments and decisions that we make.The author gives us interesting examples of it: for instance, according to him, people who sit on hard, less uncomfortable chairs are less likely to compromise in prce negotiation than people who sit on softer chairs.after the study, researchers got to the conclusion that the theory about dualism is not true because our minds are linked to our bodies.
Also, the researchers found in their studies that people judge other people better after warm coffee than after a cold drink.
Touch and physical experiences influence on behavior towards others.
Also, the first impression,meeting someone for the first time comes with either shaking hands or in cheeks kisses are extremely impotant for negotiators, job seekers, and other interested in interpersonal communication.
Interesting aspects that i found about my topic are about influence touch on our behavior and world's perception. Also, I like the disussion on how touch is connected to our emions and feelings.Since we born we can already feel the warmth and love just by touching; that touch is a great medicine.
sense of touch extremeyl important thing for blind people; they are able ot "see" by touching.
Sources:
http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/touch/touch.html
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/skin-touch/a/1388/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTiQKB8p-IY
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/science/09angi.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
My topic was attention
The third source I used was a good one because it was from a book from a well respected neurologist with experience with prosopagnosia. I feel like it provided a case study example of what it might be like to have prosopagnosia which added to my essay and would allow someone who might not initially have interest in the topic to become intrigued.
Source: The Man who mistook his wife for a Hat- Oliver Sacks
My fourth source was a good one because it was published by well respected researchers at Princeton University and was subsequently published. I learned about the contrast between the way attention occurs in normal individuals and individuals with Balint Syntdrome.
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692340/pdf/9770223.pdf
The first aspect I discussed in my essay was the importance of attention in perceiving the world
I then discussed a unique example of attention in the fusiform face area.
I followed this up with examples of Prosopagnosia and related it back to the fusiform face area.
I then talked about Balint syndrome, attention and contrasted normal individuals with individuals with the disorder.
Finally I concluded with talking about change blindness and how it related to attention
Terms: prosopagnosia, Balint syndrome, attention, change blindness
I recently had dinner at a very authentic Chinese restaurant; the family that I was eating with ordered the food in a family style fashion. Although I really liked most of the food, the dessert was a black beans dish. This was not really what I consider to be dessert, however the party I was with really enjoyed the dish. The book states that there is a genetic difference between tasters and nontasters, in other words, people taste things differently. However, i think it is also interesting to think about how culture/ environment has changed our tasters, resulting in preferences for favor.
The article I first read, PTC: Genes and Bitter Taste the fact that people have a difference in tasters was discovered in the 1930s. One chemist could taste the bitterness of PTC, while another could not. They tested others finding similar results and additionally that people almost tasted different levels of PTC. Later researchers found that there are alleles of the PTC gene. The PTC gene has been passed on because bitterness helps and prevents us from eating poisonous plants.
The article “World of flavor: ethnic taste preferences and wine” discuss how tasters can make flavor. “taste is relative”, the article states that evolutionally, the sense of taste was used for survival and that there is a difference between the taste perception that different races inherited creating culture in foods.
I wanted to read more about why there is a difference in flavor preference within the US between the south and the Midwest. The website “United States Midwest Region” states that foods of the Midwest are simple and heaty( brought by the german and irish), well the south has more influence from Latin American.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3488/is_1_85/ai_113312579/pg_3/?tag=mantle_skin;content
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/ptc/
http://www.foodbycountry.com/Spain-to-Zimbabwe-Cumulative-Index/United-States-Midwest-Region.html
Taste and culture is very interesting to me. In my hometown in Illinois there is a large Hispanic population and a lot of Hispanic grocery stores. Sometimes I just go in to see the different types of food they have. I bought some candy and didn't realize that they like a lot of salty bitter candy. I did not like it and am all about the sugar!
My topic of choose is on the cognitive effects of odor perception. And my fourth source is:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=armpit-psychology-body-odor
In chapter 13 topic I talked about odor perception in my everyday life and olfaction. This fourth source talks about “Armpit Psychology: The Science of Body Odor Perception; Researchers explore how other people's smells are processed by our brains.” This is a good source because it follows my choice of topical information, everyday life happenings. This source taught me that men’s body odors tend to be more pungent than women’s, and this peculiarly strong punch can communicate a lot of information about the individual’s genetic quality. Women, in turn, have an almost preternatural olfactory sense, one that appears designed for unconsciously sniffing out the mate value of prospective reproductive partners. But back to human armpits. One of the most important target chemicals believed to play a role in modulating people’s attraction toward others is called androstadienone, a compound found in axillary secretions. When women are exposed to this “chemosignal,” it activates regions of their brains associated with attention, social cognition, emotional processing and sexual behavior. The effects of androstadienone on female arousal were clearly documented in a 2008 article in the journal Hormones and Behavior. Researcher Tamsin Saxton from the University of Liverpool.
Based on my four sources I found the complexity of how dominant peoples smell ,can be, compared to others, the ability to measure the difference between people’s abilities and how these abilities can be manipulated to your advantage or disadvantage.
The first aspect of my topic is how dominant peoples smell, can be, compared to others. I would like to focus on the difference between men and women. In my fourth source it states that women, in turn, have an almost preternatural olfactory sense, one that appears designed for unconsciously sniffing out the mate value of prospective reproductive partners.
The second aspect of my topic is the capabilities to measure olfactory abilities. Olfaction has the capability to have different smelling abilities based on the different sides of the brain. The fact that both olfaction and emotion are processed in the right hemisphere while language is processed in the left has some important consequences. When you sniff an odor, for example, coconut extract, you will evaluate it as more, if you sniff it through your right nostril than if you sniff it through your left nostril. However, you will be more likely to correctly name the odor as being “coconut” if you sniff it through your left nostril rather than your right. In other words, our emotional responses to odors are heightened by smelling with our right hemisphere where emotion is more dominant, and our verbal labeling abilities with odors are improved by smelling with the left hemisphere where language is more dominant.
The third aspect of my topic is how these abilities can be manipulated to your advantage or disadvantage. The smells of someone generates a perception of them called the “ambient odors” that are paired in our minds with that person can modulate our feelings of attraction toward them. This is where the advantage and disadvantage come into play. If a person smells lovely to us we may find them very attractive. But say we take the same person and cover them with an awful smell would we feel the same way. I think not.
TERMS: Odor Perception, androstadienone, olfactory sense, receptor adaptation, cognitive habituation, odor hedonics, cognitive manipulation,
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=armpit-psychology-body-odor
Last week I wrote about sensory integration disorder (SID).
The new source I find might not be considered great information in itself but in conjunction with my other sources I believe it is very helpful. The website I chose is a checklist of signs and symptoms. It goes through each sense and talks about what symptoms may be present for a child who has SID. I'm going to vover just a few of the senses.
The first sense thats listed is the tactile sense. The website refers to this as tactile defensiveness. For those who are hypersensitive symptoms include: getting fearful, anxious, or aggressive with touch, didn't like to be held or cuddled as an infant, gets bothered by certain fabrics, doesn't like new/stiff clothes, avoids using hand while playing and becomes very distressed when hands are dirty, eats only certain tastes and textures, and may only walk on toes. For those who are undersensitive the symptoms are: craves being touch and likes to touch everyone and everything, doesn't notice when they get cuts and bruises, some are self-abusive (biting, pinching), and likes surfaces and objects that have strong tactile feedback.
Next is vestibular sense. Some of the symptoms of over-responsiveness of vestibular dysfunction are: avoiding or disliking playgrounds, moves slowly and cautiously, and excessive fear of heights. Signs of under-responsiveness are: can't sit still, loves spinning or other intense movements, jumps on everything, and doesn't walk but instead always jumps or hops.
The next topic is auditory dysfunction with no diagnosed hearing problems. Signs of hypersensitivity are: easily distracted by "white noise", fearful of common sounds (flushing toilets, vacuum), and sometimes judges whether they like people by the sound of their voice. Some signs of hypo-sensitivity to sound are: doesn't always respond to verbal cues, sometimes makes noise just to make noise, prefers tv and music to be extremely loud, and often talk to themselves when completing a task.
Next is oral input dysfunction. Signs of hypersensitivity are: often pick eaters, sometimes gag with food that is textured, has trouble sucking, inedible objects in their mouth, likes intense flavors, eats an excessive amount of condiments, and may enjoy going to the dentist.
The last one I'll cover is olfactory dysfunction. Some signs of hypersensitivity to smell are: often tells people they smell, refuses to eat foods because of scent, and bothered by the smell of perfumes or even normal household smells. Signs of hypo-sensitivity are: difficulty noticing unpleasant odors, sniffs things or people that are new, and uses smell when interacting with objects.
The first subtopic I chose was the "sensory diet". The sensory diet is a structured therapy method that is developed for each child and is designed for each child's nervouse system. A sensory diet provides each patient with the sensory input that they need to get through the day. If a child has hypersensitivity the therapy is set up with calming stimulation so the patient can function in their environment.
The second subtopic I chose was body brushing. When I worked in a residential treatment facility we had a client who had a body brush. The brushes are used to make firm, brisk movements over the patients body. Some people need body brushing up to 8 times a day. This treatment is used for tactile dysfunction and is used until the patient responds to touch appropriately.
The third subtopic I chose was other conditions that are often present with SID. The two that seem to come up the most are anxiety and OCD. Other disorders are pervasive developmental disorder, and learning disabilities. Along with these disorders SID often results in low self-esteem. Children with SID often have academic problems and show disruptive behaviors. They also often have problems being part of a group. My niece who has SID was almost held back in the second grade because the school believed she was behind her classmates. She showed many of the symptoms of SID and she struggled in school because of it. She was taken out of the public schools and put into a classroom with lower levels of stimulation and after testing it was found that she is actually ahead of her class in academics. I think SID is often overlooked and children receive other diagnosis because of it.
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processing-disorder-checklist.html
Terms: Sensory integration disorder, tactile, tactile defensiveness, vestibular sense, auditory dysfunction, oral input dysfunction, olfactory dysfunction, sensory diet, body brushing, pervasive developmental disorder
My fourth source is a website titled, "Eyewitness Testimony." This website took a different approach in that it talked about jurors being uneducated in the subject of eyewitness testimony. I am surprised this is the first website that I came across that took this angle. This is very crucial because the jury is what really matters. The website talks about all the outside factors that the jury is not aware of when it comes to eyewitness testimony. The website states that jurors overestimate how acurate eyewitness testimonies are.
Putting my four sources together I have come up with the sub topics:
Human Visual system:
As we have read throughout the book the human visual system is very complex. Huamns simple cannot pay attention to more than one thing going on at once. We saw this as evidence from videos on attention such as the gorilla video when you are asked to count the number of passes. Videos like the one in my first source also reveal that humans simply do not pay very close attention. The visual system is complex. Our brain fills in what we miss. Our brain does not always fill in the truth.
Truth about eyewitness testimony:
The truth about eyewitness testimony is that is is not accurate. Eyewitness tesitimony should be thrown out of courtrooms. It is too easy to implant false information into someones head. Information processing is simply not always true. Even things like motion perception play a key role in eyewtiness testimony. Our brains cannot pay attention to scene perception the way we like to think it does.
Science behind eyewitness testimony:
The science behind eyewitness testimony is abundant. The science behind behind the human visual system is enough to dispell the validity of eye witnesstestimony. As I stated earlier motion perception has to be talked about when talking about eyewitness testimony. The way we use motion information in eyewitness testimony is very important. Attention is the key part of eyewitness testimony. The phsyciological science behind attention is clearly enough to say that eyewitness testimony is not accurate.
Uneducated Jury:
Finally, the last thing I researched which is very important is how educated the jury is on eyewitness testimony! This is an aspect that cannot be left out. If more people on jury were more educated on this subject I do not believe it play such a vital part in the courtroom. I know for sure I would never send someone to prison based on what other people saw.
http://psy2.ucsd.edu/~hflowe/eyetest.htm