Unit 3, Chapter 2 - Hair Length, Shoe Size, Height Correlation Blog Post Assignment. Due Wednesday 10/4 by midnight.

Here is the data folks submitted to the Google Form in class today. I sorted according to each variable so you can easily figure out mean, median and mode etc. Use this data to complete the handout you received in class on Friday. THEN... read below to learn how to complete this assignment on in a comment on this blog post. I wonder why some folks are missing from the data... 

NOTE: There are two people who listed their height as 63 and 64 cm. Since nobody in our class is around two feet tall, I assume those are errors. Before I graphed the data I added a "1" to each so they became 163 and 164 cm. In psych or any type of research, our conclusions are only as good as the data we use to form them. How we deal with errors in data collection is an important issue. 

In a comment to this post, please discuss each of the graphs below. Be sure to address the questions under each graph. Please don't copy the questions or number your answers, rather, you should write a paragraph or two in complete sentences so your reader knows what you are talking about. Be sure to sign in as "anonymous" but put your first name and last initial in the post so I know to whom to give the credit. If you have any questions please e-mail me. Review the "how to e-mail a teacher" post on my blog before you send your e-mail.(click on the graphs to enlarge)

I strongly suggest you write the comment in Word or another program and then copy and paste it into the comment section below. This way, if the comment doesn't go through or is accidentally deleted you'll have a record of your work. Please also remember that I have to approve all comments, so it may take a while for it to show up on the blog. You don't need to resubmit it over and over. 

Click on graphs to enlarge. 

Graph 1  Hair vs. Height

Hair Length vs. Heigh
Correlation Coefficient -0.57

What can we see from the above scatter plot of hair length vs. height? Is there a correlation? How strong is it? If so, is it positive or negative; strong or weak?

What information about the students in our class does this graph give you? Are there a few "outliers" or extreme data points that seem unusual? If you throw outliers out of the data set what does the correlation look like? What other information would be helpful to interpret the data? 

Graph 2
Height vs. Shoe Size 

Height vs. Shoe Size
Correlation Coefficient 0.61

Above is the data we collected about our shoe sizes vs our heights. Can you see a relationship? Is there a correlation? If so, is it positive or negative? How strong is it?  Does shoe size cause height to change? Does height cause shoe size to change? Why are some values so common? 

Graph 3 

Shoe Size vs. Hair Length 

Shoe Size vs. Hair Length
Correlation Coefficient -0.82

Finally, the above graph shows the relationship between shoe size and hair length. Is there a correlation?  If so, is it positive or negative? How strong is it? Are the points clustered in an interesting way? What third variable which is not shown on any of the graphs might be causing the relationship between shoe size and hair length?  Does correlation imply causation? Why or why not? 

And a video about ice cream and polio... 

Hank on Research Methods

And... more about the Standard Deviation



While you don't need to calculate the Standard Deviation on the AP exam, this video explains how to do it. You may find it helpful to go through the math to help you understand the concept better.

Unit 2, Chapter 1 - History of Psychology

Psychology started as people began to scientifically observe and experiment to try to understand human behavior and mental processes. Prior to psychology, philosophers used their imagination and logic to attempt to explain things like thought, emotion and behavior. This chapter is about how psychology began, and the different "schools of thought" that have made up the field from the past to the present. 

Bernstein Chapter 1  Pg. 1-26

Reading assignment notes check (10 pts): Due Tues 9/19  (How many pages per day?)

Flashcard check (10 pts): Due Thurs 9/21

History of Psych Quiz on Friday 9/22

Objectives (think about these as you read and review– KNOW THE ANSWERS!!

            1. What is psychology?

            2. What are the major subfields of psychology and how are they different?

            3. How is psychology related to other fields like philosophy and biology?

            4. What is empiricism and what is empirical research?

5. Describe the history of psychology by comparing psychophysics, structuralism, Gestalt psychology, psychoanalysis, functionalism, behaviorism and humanism.

6. Compare and contrast the basic assumptions of six major approaches to understanding psychological phenomena: Biological, Evolutionary, Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive, Humanistic.

7. What is the “eclectic” approach to psychology?

8. How does culture influence behavior and mental processes?

9. What is “diversity” in psychology – how might bias affect the field of psychology?

Bernstein Text Chapter 1 Pp. 1 – 26 –

Read and take Cornell notes based on your reading instructions. Write down how long it takes you to complete the reading and notes so you can know what to expect in terms of studying for future chapters.

             

Flashcards  - 

1.     Key Term Flashcards: Make Flashcards of the Key Terms that are bolded in the text in addition to cards for the following terms:  Gusav Fechner, Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchner, Structuralism, Gestalt, Freud, Psychoanalysis, William James, Functionalism, Mary Whiton Calkins, John B. Watson, Behaviorism, Humanism, Social Psychology

If you're ready to have your big brain explode, our friend Hank Green does a great job of laying out the basics of the history of psych too... be ready for some rapid-fire knowledge with this one.



You can watch it directly on Youtube too.


And while this video about the history of psych is not a snappy as Hank's, it covers more people and movements in the history of this most interesting field.





Some really helpful timelines of the history of psychology:

http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/history/history_nonflash.html

http://allpsych.com/timeline/#.VgioYGRViko

http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/psychistory.htm

And... a sample from a comic called Action Philosophers

http://www.actionphilosophers.com/eviltwin_actionphilosophers_preview.pdf

Unit 1 Chapter 7... MEMORY!!

Unit 1 Chapter 7 - Memory

Unit 1 Chapter 7 Memory

Key ideas from Memory Unit:

Encoding, episodic vs. semantic and procedural memory, explicit vs. implicit memory, maintenance and rehearsal strategies to improve memory, various models of how memory works such as PDP and Info Processing, understand the difference between sensory, short term, and long term memory, compare recency and primacy effects, understand what affects memory retrieval, understand the limits of eye-witness testimony, Herman Ebbinghauss , compare retroactive and proactive interference,  compare retrograde and anterograde amnesia,

*****Use mnemonics and distributed practice to learn all this stuff and know why you are remembering and forgetting.

Good overview of basic memory concepts.

http://allpsych.com/psychology101/memory.html

A whole site dedicated to human memory... very helpful. It has this very complete concept map.
http://www.human-memory.net/types.html

Crash Course Psychology with our friend Hank!
How we make memories...  https://youtu.be/bSycdIx-C48 

Remembering and Forgetting 
  

Some fun memory games you can do online

http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/dont_forget/index.html

Elizabeth Loftus's Ted Talk - The Fiction of Memory... the rape conviction of an innocent man... 

NOVA: How Memory Works

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/how-memory-works.html 

Article - What Science Says about Ferguson: Hacked memory.  We may all be working from different sets of "facts" about the same event.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/fayeflam/2014/12/01/what-science-says-about-the-ferguson-case-memory-can-be-hacked/

This is not specifically about memory, but about implicit associations we make about people.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/ You can take some of the Implicit Association Tests to see what some of your implicit associations about people and groups are. I’m putting it with this unit as an example of implicit vs. explicit thought processes.

Story from National Public Radio (NPR) about H.M., the man who had the bilateral removal of his hippocampus (What is the plural of hippocampus?) and ended up with the nearly complete inability to form new memories. Find out why he had his hippocampus removed and learn about this amazing case study of anterograde amnesia. 

 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7584970

And an article from Psychology Today about H.M.

This video clip was made based on 2000 slices that were made of H.M.'s brain after he died in 2008. 

The movie Memento was the first feature film by star director Christopher Nolan who went on to direct The Dark Night and Inception. It is a fictional film about a character who, like H.M.,  loses the ability to create any new memories, but still tries to solve a horrible crime.

It is rated R due to some very violent content and adult language. If that sort of film is acceptable to you and your parents, you can stream it on Netflix or rent it. It's definitely not appropriate for younger siblings. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/