Law of Effect and Opperating Conditioning

Edward Thorndike
 The box experiment was that he placed a cat in a puzzle box and the cat was encouraged to escape. He put a cat into the box and timed how long it took to escape. The cats experimented with different ways to escape the puzzle box and reach the fish. Then he continued putting the cat in the box and each time it finds his way faster. Thorndikes law of effect stated that Responses that are closely followed by satisfying consequences become associated with the situation, and are more likely to recur when a situation is subsequently encountered. The law of exercise Stated that behavior is more strongly established through frequent connections of stimulus and response.

B.F. Skinner
The Skinner's operating conditioning states that it is the use of behavior’s antecedent and its consequences to influence the occurrence and form of behavior. Reinforcemtn causes  a behavior to occur with greater frequency. Punishment Consequences that cause a behavior to occur with less frequency. Positive is followed by a stimulus that is appetitive or rewarding while negative reinforcement is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning

Pavlov and Watson

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist that at first was studying the digestive system. He was studying digestive enzymes when he developed his theory.  Dogs where brought food to measure the salivation. Dogs salivated before the food arrived because the dog was associating the noise as the food was brought in with the actual food. The condition stimulus was the bell, the unconditioned stimulus was the food and finally the unconditioned response was the salivation that the dog created. Extinction means a gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of the CR tendency. Extinction occurs from the multiple presentations of CS without the U.S. Stimulus Generalization means a response to a specific stimulus becomes associated to other stimuli and now occurs to those other similar stimuli. Stimulus Discrimination means learning to respond to one stimulus and not another. Some limitations of this experiment where that he only tested 2 different dogs and he had to reroute the dog’s salivary glands. Pavlov theorized in his experiments that we learn by association.

Source: http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/misc_topics/pavlov.html

John B. Watson

John B. Watson was a behaviorist. He conducted the experiment called “little Albert”. A little kid that was barely some months old was exposed to rat and other furry objects and didn’t react worried or cried he stayed calmed. Then they presented the same objects that they showed the first time but this time adding a strange sound made by hitting a metal pipe with the hammer causing little Albert to cry. After rapidly paring the rat and other fury objects with the loud noise Albert now had feared for them and immediately cried when he saw the harry animals and objects. The unconditioned stimulus was the loud noise, the conditioned stimulus was the white rat and the conditioned response was the fear. Some limitations of this study where that he only used one child and it is unethical meaning that it can’t be replicated. The law of frequency stressed the importance of repetition. The law of recency is the response that has most recently occurred after a particular stimulus is the response most likely to be associated with that stimulus. Watson believed that psychology was the study of human behavior. He believed that he could change who he wanted to only if they changed their behavior.

Source: http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/little-albert-experiment.htm

http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~Lynda_abbot/Behaviorism.html  

Article #3 High School Students With A Delayed School Start Time Sleep Longer, Report Less Daytime Sleepiness

This study was conducted by Zaw W.Htwe, MD, of Norwalk Hospital’s Sleep Disorder Center in Norwalk,Conn. They focused on 259 high school students who completed the School Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Prior to the delay, students reported sleeping a mean of 422 minutes per school night, with a mean bedtime of 10:52 p.m. and a mean wake-up as 6:12. The results of this experiment where that total sleep on school nights increased 33 minutes due to a later rise time. Student’s bedtime on school nights was very late, and weekend night sleep time decreased a little. The majority of students reported no problem with sleepiness after the schedule change. The report demonstrated that students given the opportunity to sleep longer would definitely do it rather than extend their wake activities on school nights. This research demonstrated that students really like to sleep during school nights and prefer to stay on bed rather than make activates. It was interesting because it cleared my idea that I had about this same research and could clarify my doubts. 

Source: http://news.discovery.com/human/accent-race-children.html

Article #2 Performing Under Sleep Deprivation: Its In Your Genes

The study was made in the New York, which is a multidisciplinary research team consisting of biological scientists and psychologists. They compared how individuals possessing only the longer gene variant and those possessing only the shorter one coped with being kept awake for 2 days, including night. The researchers found out that although some participants had problems to stay awake, others experienced no problems in staying awake. The result of the research were pronounced during the early hours of the morning, during which individuals with the longer variant of the gene performed very poorly on test fro attention and working memory. The findings where that the effects of this gene on the performance may be mediated by its effects on sleep. I think this article was very interesting because we found out how a gene could drastically affect sleeping and your ability to work when they have had a small amount of sleep.  

Source:http://www.wect.com/Global/category.asp?C=179817

Article's of Sleep#1 "Being A Night Owl In High School is Linked With Lower College GPA"

The study was conducted by researchers who will present their study at the 23^rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. The method of this research was to research students who consider themselves being evening types have a least amount of sleep hygiene scores than morning and intermediate types.  The study was based on data from 89 students mostly between 17 and 20 years old preparing to begin their freshman yearn and 34 of those students as they completed their freshman year at a liberal arts collage. The results of this experiment were that sleep hygiene was related to poorer academic performance causing a decline in the grade point average during the transition from high school to collage. In my opinion this article is very interesting and clearly shows how poor sleep affects you GPA and that sleep is very important especially if you want to succeed in your grades. 

Source: http://sleep.lovetoknow.com/OTC_Sleep_Aids, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090609072813.htm

Teenager's Video

The present video we watched in class mainly focused on adolescents and how they feel and the changes they are constantly going through. During the video I got the opportunity of learning many things about the teenage life that I am also going through. I learned between many things that mainly this is the hardest phase of your life you go through and that you start to see constant big changes and its like the person has another brain. This is one of the hardest phases a person goes through because they are constantly changing there moods and feel like no one really understand them, specially there parents. Also I learned that if the teenagers constantly do not use there muscles they may possibly loose it and the more you use a certain part of your brain the more advanced it gets and as a result you become more intelligent. Sleeping is a main thing that adolescences need for their brain to function well. Adolescence need an average of 9 and a half hours of sleep to make their brain function to the best of its ability. Also sleeping is a main thing to rejuvenate your brain cells that are commonly needed for someone to have a good day and work and also give the best of him or her. 


Source: http://www.enasco.com/product/SB38579G 

How Brain Works

1. Hemisphere regarding the brain is the 2 sides in which the brain is divided in left and right. Usually the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right part of the human body.
2. The right and left side of the brain are both responsible of controlling certain functions on the human body. The major differences are that the right side controls more the understanding of things and remembering them and also your body position and the position of things. The left side by the other hand controls the understanding and use of language like listening, reading, speaking and writing. 
3.   .  The corpus callosum is a huge bundle of nerve fibers found in mammalian brains. It is the connection between the hemispheres the right and the left sides of the brain.
4.     .      Broca’s area was discovered by Pierre Paul Broca and was named after him in 1861. Broca discovered the area after studying the brain of a patient with speech impairment after his death. The study included a patient Broca had called Tan who died and was speechless. Broca perfomed a detailed post-moterm examination on his brain.
5.             Split-brain evidence came to be during the 1960s by Roger Sperry and his colleagues. In the 19^th century researches made on certain peoples brain injuries made it possible to suspect that the “language center” in the brain was located on the left hemisphere. People with lesions in two specific areas on the left side lost their ability to talk.
6.       .     Karl Wernicke a German neuroanatomist, pathologist, and psychiatrist made fundamental discoveries about the brain and its functions. The Wernicke’s area involved understanding of language, in the posterior portion of the left temporal lobe. Wernicke’s area is associated with the processing of words that we hear being spoken, or language inputs.
7.          The Occipital Lobe
8.     .    The Temporal Lobe
    9. Parietal Lobe 
    10. .Frontal Lobe 
   Sources: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/lobes-of-the-brain-and-their-function.html, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/135877/Broca-area, http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/split-brain/background.html