CW for Friday, February 26th: It's FRQ Friday! You've seen parts of the first FRQ below. Now that we've finished the cognition chapter, write the full FRQ essay, covering both the components you did last week and the new components. Also, the second one I made up last night. You'll notice it's autobiographical in nature -- and a true story!

If you finish during class, during in the essay. If not, complete it over the weekend and turn it in at the beginning of class Monday.

HW: Begin working on your Chapter 9 project this weekend. We will use Monday as a "workshop" period to work on your individual projects. You can bounce ideas off classmates, get help from me, etc. If anyone is finished by Tuesday, we can begin sharing them, and we'll finish sharing on Wednesday.

FRQs:

1. In a study, researchers use a photograph taken in a public park to examine how people perceive, learn, and remember information. In the photograph, a woman is standing near a man who is seated on a park bench. The woman appears to be shouting at the man.

Participants int he study are exposed to the photograph for ten seconds and then are shown, each for ten seconds, several other photographs of people interacting. When all the photos have been shown, the participants are asked about what they saw in the "public park" photo. A significant number of participants describe the man as being the aggressor in an apparent disagreement with the woman.

Describe how each of the following concepts helps explain the perception of these participants.

A. Schema
B. Retroactive interference
C. Representative heuristic
D. Confirmation bias
E. Framing


2. On her first night of her trip in San Francisco (last night) Mrs. Davies woke up with a start in the middle of the night. She had the sensation of been shaken and heard a loud screeching noise. She immediately determined that she had just experienced a small earthquake, and the loud metallic sound must have been the sound of the metal structures in the building flexing as the ground moved! She woke Mr. Davies up to see if he'd noticed. He hadn't. (Lame.) In the morning, she recounted the experience, in response to which Mr. Davies told her he'd "looked it up" on the Internet that morning, and there had been no quake measured in the San Francisco area. Mrs. Davies remains convinced that Mr. Davies is wrong, and that she did, indeed, experience a baby earthquake.

Identify and apply the following terms to the scenario.

A. Inductive reasoning
B. Availability heuristic
C. Confirmation bias
D. Overconfidence

HW: Remember to bring in your responses to the FRQs we didn't get through on Friday.

FRQ FRIDAY!

1. One of the most useful generalizations in psychology is that "behavior is adaptive." Explain this generalization and then identify each of the following and describe how each could be adaptive.

A. Repression
B. Loss of information from short-term memory.

2. Describe the psychological concept of expectancy or set. Discuss a specific example of how each expectancy or set affects each of the following.

A. Human perception
B. The effects of a psychoactive drug on a human
C. Memory

3. In a study, researchers use a photograph taken in a public park to examine how people perceive, learn, and remember information. In the photograph, a woman is standing near a man who is seated on a park bench. The woman appears to be shouting at the man.

Participants int he study are exposed to the photograph for ten seconds and then are shown, each for ten seconds, several other photographs of people interacting. When all the photos have been shown, the participants are asked about what they saw in the "public park" photo. A significant number of participants describe the man as being the aggressor in an apparent disagreement with the woman. Describe how each of the following concepts helps explain the perception of these participants.

A. Schema
B. Retroactive interference

HW: Finish reading the section in Chapter 9 on Language. Also, read this article on Genie. Write a brief response to turn in tomorrow. (Homework grade!) Also, bring in your note cards from the Language unit so far (Homework grade!).

HW: We are starting Chapter 9, Language and Cognition. Please read the section of the text on Language.

Note: We have two and a half weeks left in the winter trimester, and about 10 class periods left. We need to get through two more chapters, so we're going to move quickly through this chapter. Very, very quickly.

So, folks, yet another snow day delays our Memory test. While I did say that no matter what, we would be testing today, Mother Nature obviously set out to prove me wrong. So. We will have some version of the Memory test whenever we get back to school. If we are back at school with shortened periods tomorrow, we will have a short version of the test. However, if the periods are shortened not only by activity period at the end of the day, but also by a 2-hour delay, we will have the test on Monday.

Here is a PBS site that discusses the case of wrongful conviction based on eyewitness testimony that we discussed in class. You can navigate through a number of pages to learn about various aspects of the case in question. (Also, an interview from Elizabeth Loftus!)

Here are a handful of sources with information on all sides of the recovered memory debate. There is a lot of information from sources that range from reputable to "huh"? As you peruse each one, if only briefly, see if you can determine for yourself how reliable the source is.

The Recovered Memory Project

False Memory Syndrome

Recovered Memory Therapy

An interesting perspective...

Mrs. Davies hearts Elizabeth Loftus

So... what do you think?