Psych Connection 1 (15%)

Psychology is all around us; all day, every day.  One of the learning outcomes of Introduction to Psychology is for students to apply psychological concepts to their personal and professional life, and the Psych Connections will help you do this.

This Psych Connection will help you connect concepts from the Memory chapter, the Learning chapter and the Brain, Mind and Behaviour chapter of your ebook to your personal and/or future professional life.  Please answer these questions with support from the content you learned in the course, and then submit this to the D2L dropbox before the due date and time noted on your Weekly Schedule.

1. Consider the different memory techniques you learned about in our Memory content (the ebook and mini lecture). Describe 3 specific techniques you can use to improve your study habits as a student and briefly discuss how one of these could be helpful in your future career (8 marks total. 2 marks each for the three techniques and 2 marks for how it might be helpful in your future career).

Use retrieval clues. Having methods that I can use to recall information that I know in moments that I may feel more stressed than usual can help me with school tests or exams as well as beneficial to my mental health overall.

Space out study times. Spacing out study times can prevent me from burning out feeling tired or stressed out which are all things that can decrease my performance when it come to studying as a student.

Encode deeply. Memory is shaped by how you choose to encode information. Making the material meaningful by elaborating on it and connecting concepts to my own life and what I already know. Will help make studying easier.

2. Please complete each of the following:

1. a) In your own words, differentiate (what is similar and what is different) between Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning.
   1. Classical conditioning involves an involuntary behavior and a response.
   2. Operant conditioning involves tying a reward or consequence to a behavior.
   3. In both classical conditioning and operant conditioning conditioned responses diminish when conditioning factors are withdrawn. The same behaviors will also recover spontaneously when conditioning is reapplied.
   4. In classical conditioning the learner is the object, while in operant conditioning the learner is subjected to the consequence.
   5. classical conditioning associates two stimuli while operant conditioning associates an action with a consequence.
2. b) Describe how you have learned something in your life through each of the four types of operant conditioning. Please provide your own example (not one from the ebook or mini lecture) for each of the 4 types of Operant Conditioning (positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment). (12 marks total. 4 marks for part a, and 2 marks for each of the types of OC in part b).
   1. Positive Reinforcement – good grade after a test
   2. Negative Reinforcement – Received money to keep secret for sibling.
   3. Positive punishment – Lecture or time out for bad behavior
   4. Negative punishment – getting phone taken away, for bad behavior.

3. Consider the structures and functions of the brain covered in the course content. Please pick 3 structures and discuss how these structures (and their accompanying functions) apply to your current life, or to your future professional life. For example, how might the frontal lobe apply to your current life, or to your future professional life? (6 marks – 2 marks per structure)

Occipital lobe – Affect vision. Eyes communicate light to this part of the brain; this means serious damage to this part of the brain could potentially lead to blindness. It would affect the way a person moves from place to place due to the inability to see. A person who used to drive for example will no longer be able to.

Frontal Lobe – is essential for movement, planning and complex thoughts. Damage to this area of the brain will impact a person’s ability to make decisions for themselves as well as their movement. This could make it hard for a person to work almost any job as most require the ability to think and process information if serious damage is done.

Insular Lobe – Allows us to sense the inside of our mouth (Taste) and the inside of our body like racing heart or pain form chest or appendix. Damage to this part of the brain can affect the ability to taste, which could make it hard for some people to manage their nutrition. It could also affect a person’s ability to sense when their body is in danger (not feeling chest pain or pain from an appendix) that would normally require emergency attention.