From module 1 to module 7 I learned and experienced so much! To start it off I learned all about my fellow classmates, where they came from, what they like to do, their age and so much more that would be impossible for me to remember. I was exposed to the different types of psychology that I didn't even know where out there, it was so cool to see how they all have the same goal of helping out people in need and contributing to a long and happy life. If I had to pick my favorite branch of psychology I for sure would pick positive psychology because it is so powerful and in this day and age we sometimes take positivity for granted and avoid using it. Im a finance major but I am still not sure what kind of job I will pursue when I graduate, so when we did that activity where we had to pick a branch of psychology that we think would benefit us in our future job I chose positive psychology. It is literally a universal tool that will help in anything you do, and on the plus side it has been scientifically proven to make you live longer, be happier, and comes with so many other benefits. learning about the brain was also a really interesting topic for me because it is so complex in not just how it works, but also in its structure so getting a little better understanding of the brain was definitely something that caught my attention. I like how the brain is formed of different areas that control different activities in the brain and how such a little thing in our body controls our lives. It's just so mind blowing how we make memories and how our brain transforms when we learn it's truly amazing. In one of the powerpoint that Dr.Pris shared with us It had a sentence with two "the's" in it and when I first read it I didn't notice that, she later explained that the reason my brain did't catch that second "the" was because it automatically corrects and skips that second "the" without me even realizing it, that blew my mind because I don't remember teaching my brain to do that, it just programed itself to correct errors like that after many years of reading and learning. The video of the gorilla also demonstrates that we can also at times be so focused on one point that we miss a completely obvious thing happening right in front of us. The video told us to try and count how many times the people in the video toss the ball to one another. Everyone was so focused on trying not to lose count that half way through the video a big gorilla walked right in the middle of everyone and beat his chest without many of our classmates and myself noticing. When the video was played again sure enough the gorilla was right there and I didn't even notice it!
We also learned about developmental psychology and personality. Developmental psychology was a very interesting topic because it shows how we all grows. Developmental psychology is the study of age related changes In behavior and mental processes and stages of growth. There is a lot of really interesting things in this topic such as that a baby recognizes the voice of its mother when it is still in the womb, also how fast vision develops from birth to the age of two. A really interesting thing that was shared in one of Dr.Pris powerpoint that made me realize why I used to sleep so much was that when you are a teenager you sleep so much because that is around the age that we go through puberty, and puberty is triggered by changes in the brain and the release in hormones that occur only during sleep. Also I learned about nature vs nurture which I knew nothing about. After researching and reading articles for a hour I learned all about nature vs nurture and I am more on the nurture side. Yes I believe that you will always have that personality that you were born with, but the way you are brought up and raised and the experiences you face throughout your life will mold you in a way.
Learning about learning was also very interesting. When you learn a new skill it is very beneficial for you. It not only adds a new tool for you to use in your life but it improves many other areas such as better working memory, better verbal intelligence, and increased language skills. As you would assume at first when you are taking on learning a new skill it takes your brain a little more effort to process and learn that skill, But later on as you continue to learn a practice that skill it takes your brain less work to accomplish it. The reason for this is because as your brain gets better at the skill you are learning, your brain is actually strengthening itself. The science behind how the learns is this; the more that connections between neurons in the brain are formed the more we learn and the more information we retain. We are still learning about how the brain functions and we will be for many years to come because of its complexity, but this is just some of the knowledge that scientists have accumulated by studying how the brain learns.
The little Albert baby video was so funny and really got the point of it's video across. Your brain starts making connections to things as early as when you are a baby. In the video the guy would make a loud noise whenever the little baby would reach for the rat. Little Albert's brain made a connection to the noise and the rat, so now when little Albert saw the rat he was scared to reach for it because of the new connection his brain had made.
I also learned that memory is is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. these are the three steps in creating memory. First encoding is converting information from the outside world into mental representations. In order for the encoding process to be successful you must pay attention. The second process in memory is storing. The information that you have encoded can be stored in three different places the sensory, the working, and the long-term memory. Once the information is encoded and stored it must be retrieved in order to be used which brings us to the last step, retrieving. Retrieving is the reconstruction of the stored information by the firing of the same neurons used to encode it.
I learned a lot more, but If I were to type it all I would be here forever. This was definitely a new expiernce in writing blogs for me and I kind of really like it now that I know how it all works. I loved this class and it taught me a lot that I can apply today to my life. Thanks for the great semester guys and I love all of you all.
