November 2008 Archives

AWAREness

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Remember the consciousness chapter and the AWAREness model. Part of consciousness is being aware of self and others. How conscious do you think this dog is? Even if you don't care - the clip is pretty funny....

Data Sets

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Here are some good data sets!

Bionic Eye

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Where Did The Extra Dollar Go?

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3 MEN GO INTO A MOTEL.

THE MAN BEHIND THE DESK SAID THE ROOM IS $30, SO EACH MAN PAID $10 AND WENT TO THE ROOM.

A WHILE LATER THE MAN BEHIND THE DESK REALIZED THE ROOM WAS ONLY $25, SO HE SENT THE BELLBOY TO THE 3 GUYS' ROOM WITH $5.

ON THE WAY, THE BELLBOY COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO SPLIT $5 EVENLY BETWEEN 3 MEN, SO HE GAVE EACH MAN A $1 AND KEPT THE OTHER $2 FOR HIMSELF.

THIS MEANT THAT THE 3 MEN EACH PAID $9 FOR THE ROOM, WHICH IS A TOTAL OF $27. ADD THE $2 THAT THE BELLBOY KEPT = $29.

WHERE IS THE OTHER DOLLAR?

 

For the answer - http://www.classbrain.com/artaskcb/publish/article_232.shtml 


Voting Machines Elect One of Their Own as President

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This is how maching will take over!


Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President

Long Box Autoshaping

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(0:46min)

Conditioning Roommate

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Autoshaping Pigeon

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Pigeon in operant chamber bing autoshaped to peck (1:26).

 

Water Maze

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A water maze is used to test learning and memory. A rat is placed in a milky water to conceal a hidden platform. The task is to find the platform. After 10 trials the rats is able to find the platform (2:10).

baby sour face

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(0:50min)

 

Habituation

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Claymation demonstration of habituation (1:42min).

 

Habituation

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Habituation of a startle response (0:36min)

1 min

Conditioned Emotional Response

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The sound is off on this video. A music symbol is presetned in the right corner when music is used for the CS, as the music symbol dissappears a lightning bolt symbol is briefly displayed indicating a brief electrical shock US. After 10 trials the rat reliably suppresses the lever indicating a conditioned emotional response. (1min)

Pavlov - O Cão de Pavlov

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Re enactment of Pavlov's research with dogs (3min)

Mice in Mazes

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This is a simple maze - the mouse manages to find they way out

This is a more complex maze and it takes quire awhile for the mouse to get out (this is its 3rd time in the maze).

Rodent racing

Hamster in a Skinner Box

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A hamster is put in an operant chamber and is free to explore the environment. When it pulls the chain food falls down. There is no shaping involved.(1:43 min)

 

testing - Slide Show

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I like the slide shows they have in the huffingtonpost site and wondered it I could use thier code to make one on this blog. I have everything except the buttons - but I can work on those.
 

Rat Agility Course

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Rat Basketball Training

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This clip shows how to shape a reat into putting a ball into a "hoop".

 

 

Toilet Trained Rat

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Emin's pouched rat toilet trained (Matisse)

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Rats Playing Basketball

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3 Chain Behavior

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Woman works with low function child to help he feed himself.

Boy Shocks Himself for Social Reinforcement

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BF Skinner - Shaping

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This clip shows a pigeon being shaped by skinner. Ultimaetly the pigoen will turn in a complete circle.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bXCdsHH6S7Q&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bXCdsHH6S7Q&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Skinner and the teaching machine

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Skinner believed that teaching can be improved with behavioral techniques. In this video he discusses how the teaching machine workds. The student gets immediate feedback. The student is free to move at his own pace. The bright student is not held back and the slower student is not pushed beyond there natural pace. The student is not being tested.

Skinner at ABA - His last talk?

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Psychology has advanced as a profession far more rapidly that it has as a science. It begans as an effort to understand what was going on in the mind. Selection by consequences of behavior.

Operant Conditioning

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Can a pigeon learn to read? On Gambling - Skinner says peoplw gamble because of the schedules of reinforcement

Thorndike - Puzzle Boxes

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Skinner's Air Bed

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Image of a Baby Sleeping in a Skinner Air Crib

Skinner built and used a special bed for raising his children. He later incorporated simiar beds to be used in his Walden Two book. I found a site that encourages people with disabilities to build thier own air beds. Here are two links from that site:

http://www.gearability.com/2007/03/25/a-better-baby-crib-for-parents-who-use-wheelchairs/

http://www.gearability.com/2007/04/22/building-a-skinner-air-crib/

This is a great comment by one of the Gearability viewers - they suggest using air beds for our ageing population - Interesting:

This is very, very cool! I read both posts then headed over to Daddytype. It certainly makes me wish I'd had one when I was a kid. It almost (but not quite) makes me wish I'd had kids, just so I could watch what appears to be their uninhibited play and sleep in such an environment. It also makes me think about adults who are put in crib-like beds in hospitals and nursing homes...wouldn't an adult adaptation of this be a better idea?
I vaguely remember reading about Skinner Boxes in a few of those introductory psych classes in college...I didn't pay much attention. I think the problem was, the idea wasn't presented like this.
Good show, Marty!

Santos - Virtual Soldier Research

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Santos is a digital human model that lives on our computers.  He is a typical soldier that is capable of accomplishing tasks on his own, unaided.  The ultimate goal is to enable Santos to evaluate systems, components, and products before they are built, thus reducing significant costs associated with making prototyoes.  It is the dream of every industry...to test, analyse, and check for safety and human factors all components before they are made.

http://www.digital-humans.org/santos/

 

This is really cool - this avatar can interact with CAD designs such as cars and houses and provide feedback. Imagine having your own avatar that has you own body dimensions and physiology. Imagine your avatar going on virtual testdrives and reporting back to you how the car handled, how much room it had in the driver's seat, how easy the radio (ipod) was to adjust while driving at high speeds, etc. Imagine that this is now not very far off!

CNN Holograms Debut With Jessica Yellin Figure

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CNN debuted its holographic correspondents Tuesday night shortly after 7PM Eastern. The first hologram was one of reporter Jessica Yellin, who was reporting from Chicago.

Why Academics Should Blog

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By Hugh McGuire

 

1. You need to improve your writing
2. Some of your ideas are dumb
3. The point of academia is to expand knowledge
4. Blogging expands your readership
5. Blogging protects and promotes your ideas
6. Blogging is Reputation
7. Linking is better than footnotes
8. Journals and blogs can (and should) coexist
9. What have journals done for you lately?

Visit the following site to get the reasons...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-mcguire/why-academics-should-blog_b_138549.html

545 People - This is a Great Essay!

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My sister Laura sent this....

 

*545 PEOPLE
 *By Charlie Reese
 
 
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, *if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?*

Have you ever wondered why, *if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?*

You and I don't propose a federal budget.  The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices  545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.   In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority.   They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing.  I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much o f their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault.   They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
 
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.   No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.   The president can only propose a budget.   He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.    Who is the speaker of the House?  Nancy Pelosi 

 
She is the leader of the majority party.   She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility.   I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.  When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
 
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they w ant it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ .

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.   Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation,' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing w hat they take an oath to do.
 
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
 
They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

 Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

 We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
 
 Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the
Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

545 People - This is a Great Essay!

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My sister Laura sent this....

 

*545 PEOPLE
 *By Charlie Reese
 
 
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, *if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?*

Have you ever wondered why, *if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?*

You and I don't propose a federal budget.  The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices  545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.   In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority.   They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing.  I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much o f their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault.   They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
 
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.   No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.   The president can only propose a budget.   He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.    Who is the speaker of the House?  Nancy Pelosi 

 
She is the leader of the majority party.   She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility.   I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.  When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
 
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they w ant it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ .

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.   Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation,' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing w hat they take an oath to do.
 
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
 
They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

 Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

 We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
 
 Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the
Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

Flying Airplane

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In about 30s this guy has to realize there is a problem and solve it! That is a lot of cognitive processing.

What Racism Does....

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My sister Laura sent this - I posted it becasue it deals with race issues we are examining in the lab (not becasue I feel one way or another towards a political candidate - although I do).

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes
positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in
another when there is a color difference.

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including
a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe
disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while
he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain
killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption
in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings
and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline
problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many
occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer
distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality,
do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes
positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in
another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in
International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in
the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.

National Poll

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I was pretty much playing around to see if I could embed this thing. I guess I can. Map can be found at - http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com

Some Illusions

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Ames room - although the room is not square and out of align, the mind's eye relies on memory to reconstruct the room to appear square. As a result the depth cues are all messed up so a person changes size depending on their location in the room.

The brain relies on our memory of houses to make this cutout look like a real house. Even when we start to see it at a different angle the mind still holds to memory and make it appear that the angles are square and the lines are parallel.

Your brain is constantly interpreting the world

Depending on viewing angle, the shape appears (is interpreted) as a triangle.

"Our brain is filling in a vast amount of additional information. The brain doesn't just allow us tp see what's out there it actually invents much of it." Has interview with Kosslyn. "There is an enormous amount of information flowing backwards."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrAwr-ReuVA

Part of our perceptual and cognitive system tasks is to identify objects and to avoid colliding with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAnKvo-fPs0

Test Your Awareness

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Also see: