I am going to talk about cognitive processes of memory and how biological factors may affect the onset of Alzheimers disease.
3. Explain how biological factors affect one cognitive process The mind can be conceptualized as a set of mental processes that are carried out by the brain. Cognition refers to mental processes such as perception, thinking, problem solving, memory, language and attention. Cognition is based on one's mental representations of the world, such as images, concepts and words. Biological factors affect cognitive processes. I am going to talk about cognitive processes of memory and how biological factors may affect the onset of Alzheimer's disease. A distinctly psychological process, memory, is determined to a very great extent by the state of identifiable brain structures like the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and forebrain. Memory is the job of the brain. There are two different models of memory: the multi-store model and the working memory model. The multi-store model of memory was first suggested by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). The model is based on two assumptions: firstly, memory consists of a number of separate stores, and secondly, the memory processes are sequential. The model contains several stores: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). Firstly, information enters into sensory memory through our five senses (iconic, echoic, olfactory, gustatory and haptic) where it will stay for a few seconds and is then lost by decay. A very small part of
Shift work and circadian rhythms
Shift work and circadian rhythms Recent technological advances have meant that it is now possible for people to be 'active' for 24 hours. According to Coren (1996) we now sleep approximately one and a half hours less than we used to 90 years ago, and we are permanently in a mild state of sleep deprivation. Shift work There are many institutions such as hospitals, factories and airports that are open 24 hours a day, and many supermarkets are following this trend. The majority of these institutions work 8 or 12-hour shift cycles, which involve their employees going against their biological clocks (shift workers are those which work outside of the 'normal' day). Shift workers often have digestive problems and insomnia. They become tired, irritable, and can suffer from depression. It is not just lack of sleep that causes these problems, but a general disruption in their circadian rhythms (e.g. body temperature). Research has found that body temperature is slow to change, and seems to adjust after three weeks. Heart rate and blood pressure change more quickly. The internal disagreement between circadian rhythms can cause physiological problems. In addition to this, it is harder for night shift workers to get the same amount and quality of sleep as day workers. This is due to the fact that there is much more noise during the day, making it even harder to sleep when one's
Testing the effect of different types of music on memory.
. Design .1 Focus Question Listening to music is a technique that many students use to relax and/or improve their concentration. However, many students 'fall into the trap' of listening to music while they study. But are they really traps? Does listening to music while studying create distractions which weaken memorization, or is it an effective method for memorization? This leads us to the focus question: Does the type of background music (rock, jazz, orchestral, strings and no music) played during the memorization and recollection processes have an effect on students' ability to memorize and recall a list of words? .2 Hypothesis The more dissonant the background music is, the more it weakens the student's ability to memorize and thus, the less number of words are recalled. Therefore, no music will have the highest memory recall; followed by strings, orchestral, jazz and rock (lowest memory recall). In other words, yes, music does create distractions which weaken memorization during memorization and recollection processes. .3 Background Information .3.1 Dissonance In music, the term dissonance means a combination of notes that sound harsh or unpleasant to most people. Dissonance is based on beating and roughness. These conditions are caused due to sound signal's amplitude fluctuations which describe variations in the maximum amplitude to a reference point due to
History of Cognition
The cognitive perspective was formed in opposition to behaviourism, as it had supposedly reached a dead end, and it was too narrow minded and reductionist. The main assumption of behaviourism was hat only observational behaviour can be studied scientifically, and that humans are shaped by their environment. The cognitive perspective rejects these theories, and the main assumptions of the cognitive perspective are; * Internal mental processes can and should be studied scientifically * Cognitive processes actively process and manipulate the information we receive * Psychological processes like memory can be modelled and these models can be the base of experimentation * Animals can be studied to further understand the human behaviour The five main parts of the cognitive perspective are; * Perception * Attention * Language * Memory * Thinking Important parts of cognitive perspective; * Computer science and artificial intelligence * Linguistics * Studies on the development of knowledge Philosophical Roots of the cognitive perspective * For more than 2000 years people have wondered where our knowledge comes from, where it is stored, how we represent it in our minds. Although people have wondered about it for a long time, it has only been scientifically studied for the past 50 years or so. Before the rise of the cognitive perspective, several theories
IB Psychology HL Take Home Final - The biological level of anaylsis. Most human traits show influence by more than one gene pair. Psychological traits are likely to depend on multiple genes; any single gene would influence many different behaviors.
Maham Ahmed Period 5 IB Psychology HL Take Home Final The Biological Level of Analysis . Complex human behavior is not caused by a single gene. Using high tech methods, researchers have identified the sequence of nearly all 3 billion units of DNA and have been able to determine the boundaries between genes and how the genes are arranged on the chromosomes. Even when the researchers located a gene, they were not right away aware of its role in physical or psychological functioning. Locating a gene was the first step in understanding what the gene is and how it works. Also due to the media reports some implied that some gene would be the only one which shows involvement in a complex psychological ability or trait, for example being shy or smart. Most human traits show influence by more than one gene pair. Psychological traits are likely to depend on multiple genes; any "single" gene would influence many different behaviors. 2. There is in fact a genetic/environmental correlation. During cell division if an error occurs in the copying of the original DNA sequence, genes can change spontaneously, and during the formation of one member of a chromosome pair to another, prior to the final cell division. As genes spontaneously mutate and recombine during the production of sperm and eggs, new genetic variations and new traits arise. In a particular environment, individuals
PLAN - Discuss three sampling techniques appropriate to qualitative research
Discuss three sampling techniques appropriate to qualitative research * The purpose is to generate samples that are representative through random selection of participants * Classified as either probability (related to statistical probability and representativeness) or non-probability sampling. * Presents key characteristics of a population which can then be evaluated * Samples are small and not intended to be statistically representative. The three types of sampling: Purposive Sampling * Targets a particular group of people * The participants are chosen on the basis of particular characteristics that will help the researcher to explore their chosen topic. (Important to have diversity) * Useful in situations where the researcher needs to obtain a sample quickly to investigate an urgent problem. * May also be the only option, if the desired population for the study is rare or difficult to locate. * A big problem is that the sample may be biased * Believe that if the sampling process is based on objective criteria, and these are clearly documented or explained, the bias is limited. * Population Validity - cannot generalise from a particular group of people Snowball Sampling * A way of sampling which is used to get hold of participants without investing a lot of time and energy. * Researcher simply asks participants in the study if they know potential
To what extent is psychodynamic effective in its application to everyday life?
To what extent is psychodynamic effective in its application to everyday life? Psychodynamic is the systematized study and theory of human behaviour emphasizing the interplay between unconscious and conscious motivation. The original concept of psychodynamic is developed by Freud who believes that id, ego and super-ego are the three parts of psyche; the uncoordinated instinctual trends are the id, the organised realistic part of the psyche is the ego and the critical and moralising function the super-ego. Freud engaged in dream analysis and until his work on them, educated Europeans had thought of dreams as leftovers of the day prior to the dream and dreams were meaningless while other cultures interpreted dreams differently. In his book The Interpretation of Dream, Sigmund Freud suggests that the content of dreams is related to wish-fulfilment, i.e. the id manifests its desires through dreams. One of his the most famous case studies were on Ida Bauer - Dora. Dora was an upper-middle class 18 year girl and her family was composed of father, mother and brother. Father was a dominant figure and was adored by Dora; mother suffered from housewife psychosis (obsessed with order and cleanliness in the household) and brother was emotionally detached from his father. Dora was very intelligent and verbal so she took quickly to free association and seemed to understand Freud's
Understanding Childrens Behaviour. The purpose of this writing is to explore the theoretical perspectives of Operant Conditioning Theory developed by B.F. Skinner, Classical Conditiong Theory of I.Pavlov and Social Learning Theory developed by A.
Understanding Children's Behaviour .1 Theories of I.Pavlov, BF. Skinner and A. Bandura Three prominent researchers, I.Pavlov, B.F. Skinner and A.Bandura, have developed theories which provide differing perspectives and explanations regarding the learning behaviour of individuals. The purpose of this writing is to explore the theoretical perspectives of Operant Conditioning Theory developed by B.F. Skinner, Classical Conditiong Theory of I.Pavlov and Social Learning Theory developed by A.Bandura. An overview of theories is presented, followed by a discussion of their similarities and differences. I.Pavlov (1849-1936) Key Point- I.Pavlov was the first experimenter to research classical conditioning. In what started as a simple, physiological experiment with a dog, turned out to be the discovery of what came to be known as conditioning, more specifically, classical conditioning. He was performing some experiments on a dog, and found that he could "condition" the dog to salivate on the sound of a bell. After repeatedly ringing the bell, and introducing food. Eventually, the bell alone was sufficient to make the poor pup drip. Compare and Contrast - Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus. He did not necessarily agree with behaviourism or
Explain and evaluate one key concept from the Cognitive Perspective
Explain and evaluate one key concept from the Cognitive Perspective The Cognitive Perspective describes the mental processes affecting emotion and the causes of behaviour; one key concept in this important passage is memory in which much of our previous remembered events are stored. The memory section of the Cognitive Perspective demonstrates the ability of thinking in order to perceive information and how to store the information properly in order to remember them when necessary. There are many studies that show different processes as of how we store and manage the stimulus input that we perceive from our surroundings. One of the most common theories nowadays is he Working Store Model developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. The model divides the data that we store in our memory into three "stores". The first stage is the Sensory Store; here data is subdivided into different sections depending on what sense we perceived the data (i.e. visual and acoustic). The next step in the store model is the Short Term Store (STS) where we store the memory that we think we will need temporarily by the process of coding. In order to remember the data for longer time we must passed on to the last page, Long Term Store (LTS), where the data is remembered for a longer time, possibly for the lifetime, we can pass the memory into LTS by rehearsing or chunking information into groups. The
Critically evaluate the Learning Perspective in terms of the following categories: a) Reductionism vs. non-reductionism b) Structuralism vs. functionalism c) Objectivity vs. subjectivity d) Nomothetic vs. ideographic
0/1/2009 Written Assignment in Psychology Critically evaluate the Learning Perspective in terms of the following categories: a) Reductionism vs. non-reductionism b) Structuralism vs. functionalism c) Objectivity vs. subjectivity d) Nomothetic vs. ideographic The learning perspective and its study have given birth to numerous issues and debates in the world of psychology. There happen to be four main debates which arise from the behaviorist approach, one of the five major approaches in psychology. The particular issues are i) reductionism vs. non-reductionism, ii) structuralism vs. functionalism, iii) objectivity vs. subjectivity and iv) nomothetic vs. ideographic. In this short report, we will be examining these four major debates and attempt to evaluate the learning perspective based on the ideas hidden behind the issues studied. The first debate we are examining is reductionism vs. non-reductionism. We are going to go over the main arguments of this debate. On one hand, we have the approach of reductionism. Reductionism revolves around the idea that behavior can be reduced to minute (tiny) units of analysis such as connections between various stimuli and responses; neuron activity, muscle movements and any larger units of analysis are utterly pointless in this case. Reductionists also state that explanations of complex wholes in terms of the units of which those