November 2010 Archives

How Weird Is Consciousness?

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"Consciousness used to be the crazy aunt in psychology's attic. Behaviorists and cognitive scientists alike practiced denial, but the squeaking floorboards troubled our dreams of a truly scientific discipline. Now, the old lady has been given pride of place in the parlor, with all the respectable scientific furnishing of societies and journals. But let's face it--she's still weird."

http://www.slate.com/id/2275645/pagenum/all/

 

Web Divergence Week #14 (Due around Thursday)

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This is similar to last week's assignment.

Think of the material you covered in the reading assignment for this week. Next find an interesting topic related to the chapter you read this week and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. I would like you to use quality informative website though.

Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it in an informative manner so the reader will learn about the topic through your writings (not by referring them to a website) . At the end, please include working URLs for the websites used.

Please use at least 3 references (links or articles).

Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in psychology.

Please use spaces between your paragraphs to make your post easier to read - thanks in advance

Include a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post. (example - Terms: memory, cortex, visual system....)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Reading Activity Week #14 (Due around Tuesday)

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This is similar to last week's assignment.

Of the chapters we have left to cover in your text - please pick one that is most interesting to you and read that for this assignment.

Briefly discuss why you picked this chapter and how it might build on your interests of cognitive psychology.

Of the various aspects of cognitive psychology presented in the chapter, which did you find the most interesting? Why? Which did you find least interesting? Why? What are three things you read about in the chapter that you think will be the most useful for you in understanding the cognitive psychology? Why?

How does this chapter build on and extend what you have been learning this semester in the cognitive psychology class and other class you have taken?

Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in cognitive psychology.

Please use spaces between your paragraphs to make your post easier to read - thanks in advance.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Web Divergence Week #13 (Due around Thursday)

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Think of the material you covered in the reading assignment for this week. Next find an interesting topic related to the chapter you read this week and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. I would like you to use quality informative website though.

Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it in an informative manner so the reader will learn about the topic through your writings (not by referring them to a website) . At the end, please include working URLs for the websites used.

Please use at least 3 references (links or articles).

Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in psychology.

Please use spaces between your paragraphs to make your post easier to read - thanks in advance

Include a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post. (example - Terms: memory, cortex, visual system....)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Reading Activity Week #13 (Due around Tuesday)

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Of the chapters we have left to cover in your text - please pick one that is most interesting to you and read that for this assignment.

Briefly discuss why you picked this chapter and how it might build on your interests of cognitive psychology.

Of the various aspects of cognitive psychology presented in the chapter, which did you find the most interesting? Why? Which did you find least interesting? Why? What are three things you read about in the chapter that you think will be the most useful for you in understanding the cognitive psychology? Why?

How does this chapter build on and extend what you have been learning this semester in the cognitive psychology class and other class you have taken?

Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in cognitive psychology.

Please use spaces between your paragraphs to make your post easier to read - thanks in advance.

Let me know if you have any questions.

If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don't roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter."

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/02/22_naps_boost_learning_capacity.shtml

Perception Trick

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What do we know about perception and cognitive psychology that allow us to be fooled by this trick?

Web Divergence Week #12 (Due around Thursday)

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There are a variety of really great lectures called TED Talks. Go to http://www.ted.com/talks and look around for a lecture that relates to a topic discussed so far in our text - preferably related to the representation of knowledge. This might take some doing, if you can't find one that directly relates - find one that is close.

After you watch the video discuss how your text discusses the material covered in the Ted Talk?

Next, briefly discuss including 1) Why you picked that video, 2) What you expected to see, 3) What you actually saw and if you liked it or not, 4) What interested you the most?, and 5) What will you remember from the video.

Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.

Let me know if you have any questions,

--Dr. M            

 

Reading Activity Week #12 (Due around Tuesday)

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Please read the chapters from your text that deals with the material covered in the powerpoint notes I sent our earlier as an email attachment (Verbal Representation of Knowledge and mental Representation of Knowledge). Next, find three topics from the notes that are of interest to you (and something that you haven't posted on already) and discuss what your text has to say on those topics. Next indicate two topics that you would like me to cover in more depth in class.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Human 2.0 Video - (Due Tuesday)

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Based on the video we saw in class please respond to the following questons:

1)  what did you find most interesting about the video and why?

2)  Choose one of the sections (video rat, joystick monkey, quadripelegic (sp?) kid learning language, etc.) and explain what it was (what were they doing) and what we may learn about the human brain and human cognition.

3) drawing on ideas in the video as well as class discussion, web tasks, and readings, make a few educated predictions about what topics may be included in a Cognitive Psychology class after the singularity (or 20-30 years in the future).

Web Divergence Activity Week #11 (Due Tuesday)

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Think of the material we have covered so far in class. Next find a topic related to your interest and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. I would like you to use quality informative website though.

Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it in an informative manner so the reader will learn about the topic through your writings (not by referring them to a website) . At the end, please include working URLs for the websites used.

Finally, find one of your ealier web divergence tasks and briefly discuss how your writing about cognitive psychology has changed sicen then.

Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in psychology.

Please use spaces between your paragraphs to make your post easier to read - thanks in advance

Include a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post. (example - Terms: memory, cortex, visual system....)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Reading Activity Week #11 (Due Thursday)

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Please read the chapter from your text that deals with the Verbal Representation of Knowledge. Next, find three topics from the chapter that are of interest to you and discuss what your text has to say on those topics. Next indicate two topics that you would like me to cover in more depth in class.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.