Illusions

Stepping Feet, Motioned Induced Blindness, Stereokinetic Phenomenon, Rotating Snake Illusion, Snake Illusion Ab Lib, Pinna-Brelstaff Illusion, Motion Aftereffect (waterfall illusion), Spiral Aftereffect are all of the illusions I looked at.
I learned that the ones that seemed like they were moving when you didn't look directly at them, they were stationary. Most of the illusions dealt with the color coordination, the speed at which it spiraled if it did, and any other moving objects within the illusion.
What surprised me is how distracted, sick and dizzy it can make you. The spiraling ones really got me. They are so distinguished it just makes you want to hurl after a while of looking at it. 
I don't necessarily think these illusions change much on how we sense and perceive the world in any drastic way. It does however get you to look at things in another view. 
These experiences won't really effect me on a day to day basis. I don't see many illusions like these on a daily basis.

Sensations & Perceptions

Size Constancy, Benham's Top and Fetchner Colors, Induced Motion, Emmert's Law, Figural Aftereffect, Proximity and Similarity, Good Continuation, The Effects of Shadows. 

I learned pretty much the same things as I did with our other illusion outline we had to do. This one actually wasn't very good in my opinion.

What surprised me was how many different things can influence a picture. For instance the size constancy sensation and perception experiment was really good. 

What I experienced won't influence me very much for the simple fact I don't see weird illusions like these all the time. 

Some induced motion ones are possible, but in general this won't change how I view the world in any drastic life-changing way. 

The one, like I stated just a sentence ago, induced motion animations are probably more likely in every day life than any others. 

Chapter 5 Blog

I actually didn't find this chapter as interesting as the previous one. Nevertheless I did find a few intriguing things throughout it. One was that teratogen is an agent that causes most birth defects. I have always had some interest towards the genetic side of things for personal reasons and for knowledge. I also thought Piaget's Theory was pretty nifty. Despite the fact that most theories prove out to have their flaws, it is the simple fact of how he thought of such things that interest me. His ideas were complex and thorough for the most part. How did he come about this despite the few corrections needed? The last thing I thought was cool was the Harry Harlow experiments with the rhesus monkeys. I remember this being brought up in my last year's sociology class. The fact that warmth and attention have such a huge part on any mammal rather significantly is astounding. It can question so many things. From analyzing the mental and emotional state of a creature, how every mammal is related and evolution sprawling off from that. I could come up with so many questions from such a simple experiment Harry Harlow brought to light.

Blog Time Chpt 4

When we had to check out The Nurture Assumption review of Judith Harris, I thought it was quite interesting to think about. I mean you never really think, where would I be and how would I be without my parents? What if I was raised by someone else? I know I have thought of it maybe once or twice but I never really broke it down. There are so many things that could change if you had different parents but your social life was the same. Your morals, ethics, and the way you think or act would be different. I still am debating on all that to this moment. Trying to think of any other variables I may have skimmed over that wouldn't necessarily be a major impact on who you are now. Judith definitely got me thinking. I loved that.
Secondly I got intrigued by the Twin Studies. My dad is actually a fraternal twin, he has a twin sister. I doubt they are actually identical but then again if I read that article correctly I believe even opposite sex twins can be identical in a sense. It was just odd to think that twins that look not too much alike or act alike, etc. could be identical twins due to checking their blood.
Also after being into almost the second week of my sleep activity, I've realized quite a bit about my sleeping habits. Me and another student in psych have discussed it a bit and analyzed it together. We both kinda think maybe we don't get enough REM sleep which is kind of fascinating. I have to change a few variables in my activity and such but after I check it out some more I will hopefully understand my circadian rhythm a little better. It is just so cool that our bodies are so complex. I wish I understood it even more.

Heritability

If I compare myself to my biological parents I can definitely see where I get my physical features from. Others can tell too. For example: I have my mother's teeth, smile, hair color, and face structure. From my father I have his coloring, eye color, heighth, and nose. However, if I go into environment and personality heritability, I get my opinionatedness from my step father and a few other characteristics from my grandmother. I honestly think though that I have more heritability through my environment than I do genetics. I have been impacted by many people in my life and only two people created me so I only have so much genetically. Everyone is influenced and impacted by people everyday and that's mainly why I believe I have more environmentally.
The exercises on the website given was kind of confusing. I prefer lamen's terms most of the time. When you try and break down the explanations of it though, it can really expand on heritability pretty well. You can quite predict heritability by knowing one of the geno-phenotypes. It's somewhat unpredictable and unreliable. When the exercises moved on to the environmental stuff it really opened another realm, I guess you could say. Adding education and such and having different variables to either red or blue can show you the difference which helps to understand. You can compare the two and see what each thing from the environment does to the blue and red variables.


Criteria
Instructor Rating Self Rating
Learner has followed all of the guidelines of the assignment
? 54320
Learner went beyond simple answers to demonstrate insight
? 54200
Learner has answered each of the 3 questions (statements)
? 54320

Learner’s assignment contains correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling
? 54320

Twin Studies

Twin Types—What Type Are You?

Do you know what kind of twins you are?

Basically this is about twins that were told since birth they were fraternal twins. However, due to DNA testing they found out they were actually identical. It told of how the twins' relationship was strengthened and that even though twins may seem to be fraternal they could actually be identical.

Twins Reared Apart--But Together Again

Twins reared apart from birth

This was about how twins were separated at birth, mostly due to being sent to foster or adoptive homes. One set of twins were nearly one hundred miles apart. When they did get to see each other you could tell their connection despite the fact they live with different people. It also explained why a lot of families don't adopt more than one child and how twins just sometimes get separated.

Loss of a Twin

Loss of a twin is a devastating life event

This one was talking about how someone lost their twin. It told of their grief and how it could be compared to the loss of another relative didn't compare. It just elaborated on that more.

Why are twin studies important as we study the concept of nature and nurture and their influence on human behavior?
Well simply understanding how and why twins are formed are one thing. We understand that now. The next step would to understand the mental and emotional factors of twins. Do they experience things the same way, do some genes go to one and other genes to the other and why? There are many other questions you can ask. Learning about that area of twins can greatly explain human behavior on twins, identical or fraternal.

What can twin studies tell us about Gene environment interaction?

That the genes of a human is very intense and complex. It is a challenge to understand how and why one gene went to one than the other. Figuring this out will take quite awhile, I doubt they will fully find the answers to this for quite a while.

What can twin studies tell us about Child rearing?
It can show that whether they are raised together or separate, how they are. Most times when twins are separated throughout their childhood there is quite a bit of resentment. It's the fact of more or less missing their other half in my opinion. They strive to know their twin. If they are raised together a lot of the time they are really close and are inseparable.

What can twin studies tell us about ourselves?
It can show our curiosity of the human anatomy and its complexities. Also the fact that humans would want to know if someone else out there was like them and knowing who their family is is important. It doesn't necessarily have to be about twins, what we learn of them can also teach us about ourselves.

What can twin studies tell us about the concept of heritability?
Well sometimes you can see what genes are inherited from who. If mom has blue eyes, brown hair, and dad has green eyes, blonde hair, and one of the kids is brown hair with green eyes and vice versa. That one is obvious. It could also go deeper than that into the genetics. Learning about twins heritability can really show the complexity of the punic square.

I Learned...

This chapter wasn't really that new in my opinion. We've learned this before but I will say it did expand on it a little more. I enjoyed to learn the complexities of how we sleep and what cycles we go through. It really helps to explain why we sleep restlessly or soundly, and why we need sleep at all. With doing the association tests, I found it quite interesting and surprising on the whole subconscious vs. conscious stuff. I don't necessarily thinks it is one hundred percent accurate but the percent that is I find fascinating. I expanded on why I agree and disagree with the association test in a previous blog called the association test. In a general overview, I thought the test and the idea of the subconscious being portrayed in anything for that matter, is a touchy situation. You have to be careful on how you are testing it and how people will look at it. I looked at it as organizing and trying to be accurate. It was a test of what skin color you prefer over others. Its definitely nifty how the creator came up with it and all but I just think it has slight imperfections. Otherwise the test was really intriguing and a good representation for your subconscious thoughts.
Overall I thought this chapter was really informative and fun to learn.

I took the Skin Test (Light to Dark). My score turned out to be a preference towards those of lighter skin to darker skin.

I suppose this test just kind of showed how fast you place the faces of different color and the words. However, I think it is an ineffective test to show you about your unconscious mind. I personally was concentrating on getting it to the side it needed to be on and the game kept switching them. So once you could quickly do it right the first round you had to start all over again which was a challenge in general. The length of time didn't really have a play in your prejudice or unconscious thoughts about the color of the face's skin or what the word was. That is just how I see it though, your opinion may differ.

In our society there is a lot of association to certain races with derogatory terms. However, not everyone may have a prejudice. We also have to remember though, that the media of any sort has quite the impact on us. Both consciously and subconsciously. You may not necessarily agree to the statement made in the media but you still have it in your memory, which possible could play a role somehow, somewhere.

I honestly think this generation of teenagers are significantly unaware of their attitude and how it affects others. I could name multiple scenarios in my own high school where this happens. To the person, what they say is possibly meaningless but if you look at it at another perspective you could see how it can hurt someone. I myself can say I have said things wrongly and had others be affected by it and I never intended on that happening. Today the saying "think before you speak" has lost itself.

Even so, trying to be as open minded about these tests as possible I could understand why and how these tests go about and could be considered somewhat effective. I personally don't think it is one hundred percent accurate but the simple fact most races prefer their own race kind of has a play. I don't see myself as any different after taking the test. I kind of know where I stand when it comes to controversial stuff like that. I suggest people in Psych to take this one though and let me know how it pans out for you.