Psychology Snow Fort Progress

We had a small, but dedicated work crew turn out for our snow fort building project. I must admit, I was very impressed with our progress. Not only did we complete several tunnels, but we planted a psychology flag and decorated the fort with pro-psychology propaganda. Some videos of our progress below...



After about 30 minutes of digging we had joined three tunnels. This next video is a little dark because our daylight was fading, and I was trying to film in a tunnel.

New Quizlet Links Added!

Just in time for this unit's vocabulary review, links to two new Quizlets (online flashcard sets) have been added to this site. From here on out, they will be accessible through the "Commonly Used Course Links" section on the left-hand side of the blog page.

Here they are:

Quizlet -Learning

Quizlet- Memory


With 99 terms between the two of them, there's plenty to review!

Hope to see you at the review session this evening. Otherwise, best of luck on tomorrow's test!

Study Sessions and Possible Snow Fort Building

As we discussed last week in class, there will be two after-school opportunities for you to review for your upcoming Learning & Memory Unit Test:

Monday, December 13 - Right After School

and

Tuesday, December 14 - 5:30 PM

However, due to our amazing good fortune of having a massive snow drift right outside the classroom window, from 4:00 to 5:30 on Tuesday we will be meeting to build a masterpiece snow fort outside my classroom window.

This is assuming that the snow does not fall victim to the numerous snow plows and blowers roaming school properties today. Or to envious elementary school students. If our supply is taken, maybe we can find another drift...?

Dress warmly - it's supposed to be super cold tomorrow - and bring your best ideas and supplies for snow fort construction.

Oh...the possibilities!

Winter in AP Psych

Over the weekend a big storm system dumped 22 inches of snow in our area. Returning to the classrooms today we found big snow drifts outside all of the classroom windows, including in AP Psych. What a lovely winter scene to contemplate during these last school days before the holidays!

Book Review: Out of Our Heads by Alva Noe

Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness by Alva Noe

Some of my students are chomping at the bit this year, eager to study the topic of human consciousness. We will get there in a few weeks, and I don't blame them for their enthusiasm. It's hard to imagine a more fascinating subject. If you are looking for some outside reading consciousness that will bend your mind to some degree, I'd recommend this book.

Alva Noe's basic thesis in Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness is that neuroscientists hoping to uncover the "seat" of consciousness in the brain via fMRI's and similar techniques are bound to be disappointed.

Noe presents - with convincing support - the idea that consciousnes is a process created by our experiences with the world, including the reactions of our sensory systems. In essence, the disembodied brain would be unable to have a "conscious" experience because consciousness is tied up in all of the other things that make us human.

I appreciate the argument, and it is interesting to consider. But I did find myself feeling a little defensive about how easily Noe dismissed the work of neuroscientists and neuroimaging. Certainly, consciousness might be a more slippery concept than we first imagine. But that doesn't mean that neuroimaging studies of the brain are unimportant to our understanding of human consciousness, and sometimes I felt Noe was moving toward that idea.

View all my reviews

Notes - For Class 11/22/10

Here's the link for Notes...for today. My 6th and 7th hour classes will not be graced with the honor of my presence today, since I have to attend a committee meeting.

But that shouldn't mean that they have to miss out on the exciting information we were going to discuss! Click on the link and opening the file should get you a powerpoint slide show with narration. It runs on its own...just sit back and enjoy.

2010 Visual Illusion Contest

By request from my students, here is the link to the Neural Correlate Society's Visual Illusion of the Year contest.

We looked at some of the 2010 finalists and winners in class, but from the site you can view finalists from previous years as well. Definitely worth a look.

For example, the image below is one of the finalist entries. By looking the dot in the colored image for about a minute, and then shifting your gaze to the dot in the white grid, you can create two different perceptions of after-images. For the full story, see the original entry.