Week 6

I really enjoyed AP Psych and everything about it! I found that reading the chapters was not a chore, but it was actually quite interesting. I loved Ms. Halfen's enthusiasm and all of the fun videos in between notes that we had. My favorite project had to be the soundtrack, because I really have a passion for music and it allowed me to express it in an educational way. In choosing what to do during review week, I think I would like to watch the video about the woman with 16 personalities. I'm so glad that I took AP Psych this year!

Week 4

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pathological-relationships/201212/triggers-and-knee-jerk-reactions-during-the-holidays

Triggers and Knee Jerk Reactions During the Holidays

The pathological relationship never lies dormant during the holidays.

This article explains how the holiday season can stress a lot of women out. With shopping, decorating, and caroling to do, this time of year can be a little less than wonderful for working moms. The woman who wrote this article did a study on women during the season and found that many women were not only stressed, but also sentimental.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/not-born-yesterday/201312/its-wonderful-life-the-sequel
The Sequel to It's a Wonderful Life
This article talks about the rumored new sequel to the christmas classic, It's a Wonderful Life. The author explains that this is an affect of what they call to be the "copycat" syndrome. He claims that the writers of this new movie have simply run out of ideas, so they played on the idea of nostalgia because it is something familiar.

Week 5

VERBAL MEMORY TEST

Your recall score was 2. Your recognition score was 40.

This test showed my ability to recall vs. recognize words that were given to me earlier in the test, as you can see, my recall score is much lower than my recognition score, which was almost perfect. This means that I am like the majority of the population in that I am about to recognize information more than recall information. 

MEMORY TEST USING NUMBERS

You did not remember that 9 digit number
Today's Score: 8

This test measured my ability to remember certain numbers. It gave me the number and 10 seconds to remember it, and then I had to type the number in. The highest score I could get to was 8 numbers. 

TEST YOUR SHORT-TERM MEMORY

Okay, out of a possible score of 12, you scored 8 . 

In this test, I was quizzed on my ability to remember certain words. Only remembering 8 of the 12, I tended to remember the first and last of the words, and less of the middle. This is because of a human tendency to remember the first and last words or first and last information that is processed

MEMORY FOR AN EVERYDAY OBJECT

In this test, I was quizzed on my ability to recognize everyday objects. I was given pictures of pennies, with only one being a real penny, and asked which one was right. I ended up picking the right penny, showing that I have good recognition skills.

Week 3

A Mother's Stress During Pregnancy Affects the Baby's Gut and Brain
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24586-pregnant-mothers-stress-affects-babys-gut-and-brain.html#.Uosu6mTwInh

I thought this was quite interesting because we have discussed prenatal development in class and how it can affect sexual orientation and overall physical help, but this is more specific on the gut and brain. The experiment that was done was also very intriguing.

Synthetic Alcohol Substitute
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_12-11-2013-9-59-20

This article discusses and introduces a new synthetic drug that produces some of the effects of alcohol without the nasty side effects. Though this seems like a good idea, would people buy it? or would they stick to having hangovers and alcohol poisoning?

Week 2

My Life Story 

My mom has always told me that I was the "easy" one. I was a fairly quiet, well behaved baby, but that is, in comparison to my sister, who, as a three year old, managed to find a way to destroy every toy she ever owned. Born to Patty and Kirk Newton, I came into existence on September 16th, 1995 at, what's debated to be either 9:45 or 10:45 AM. My dad swears he was looking at the clock. To my parents' surprise, they would be taking home a screaming, crying, annoying little girl. Refusing to learn the sex beforehand, they were almost sure that I was a boy from the pounding, hard kicks that plagued my mother at night. I guess that would just foretell my future of my dad's "boy he never had," but that comes later. 

The first thing that I can actually remember is sitting on some Jamaican guy's lap. Now, from that statement you could conclude a number of things: 1. my dad is Jamaican or 2. this is a start to a really bad story, but actually, this memory comes from my third birthday. Although I don't remember our repeated visits to "It's a Small World" or my failed attempts at creating the number 3 with my fingers, my first trip to Disney World held this small, blurred memory of a Jamaican man singing me Happy Birthday.

Years later, I would join soccer. I devoted most of my life to sports as a kid. Coaching me for 5 years until I joined club, my dad encouraged me to improve my soccer skills from the early age of 6. Though I decided to play volleyball in high school, my 9 total years in soccer is a large part of who I am today.

I then ended up somehow in the notorious days of middle school, truly embodying the awkward stage, with short hair and big lens glasses. In spite of my awkward looks and unsettling MySpace comments, middle school was not terribly horrible. It was during this time that I met some of my best friends today. During the later years of middle school, I focused on volleyball and was in club for 2 years.

Beginning high school, I had a certain idea of what my future life would be like. I would graduate from high school in the top ten percent and then go to UCLA to prepare myself for medical school. Even though at the time, this seemed like a good plan for me, I soon realized that my goals would be tough to reach. Joining the Math and Science Academy half way into freshman year, I would soon have to double up courses for both math and science curriculum. As I fought the challenging coursework of Sophomore year, the idea of going to school for another ten or so years became less and less appealing. My plans were shattered, but a new sense of optimism was gained.

Now, my goals are more practical. I believe I will be able to get my bachelor’s in some sort of biological science, hopefully neuroscience, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. After college, I would like to go to physician’s assistant school. By the time I am done with school, I hope to live in a nice condo or apartment in Boulder. Though I wish to live in Boulder for the next couple of years, I look forward to travelling with my significant other or maybe even by myself. 

   

Spotting Fake Smiles

For this test, I judged smiles to be either fake or genuine. First, I was asked how optimistic I am on life. Then I judged 20 different videos of people smiling as to whether they were genuine or fake. My results show that I am fairly good at judging people's smiles, which I usually believe to be true.

Find Your Hogwarts House

In this test, I was given a personality test to determine which house I would most likely fit into from the fictional books of Harry Potter. The personality test consisted of a series of statements and I rated them from 1-9 based on how much I believed they applied to me. Even though this was an accurate way of test, I believe I answered the questions with a bias, hoping to be in either the Gryffindor house or the Hufflepuff house. For this reason, I do not believe this test is fully accurate.