Spring Break Blog

Derek Brenwall

Spring Break Blog

1)      Chapter 1

a)      Survey= a method of recording data that asks people to report their opinions or behavior.

b)      My experience= When I was in Madison during this spring break, I was walking along State Street I went to a restaurant called Potbelly’s and at the table I sat at, there were surveys to ask how the service was.  This is an easy way for them to get feedback from their customers. 

c)       Relation= This was an easy way for Potbelly’s to see how they can improve their business and improve their business without having to go and interview people. 

2)      Chapter 2

a)      Reflexes= automatic responses to stimuli.

b)      My experience= When I was working, I had to fill up the sink with warm water to wash the bar glasses, but I had the hot on all the way.  When I went to wash the first glass, I burnt my hand and before I knew it, my hand was already jerked away from the sink. This reaction was a message that was sent to my spinal cord all the way up to my brain and my body reacted before I could even process what had happened. 

c)       Relation= This is a great example of a reflex because it shows exactly what a reflex is.  When your body reacts to external stimuli that is harmful or irritant to your body, it reacts before your mind can process what has happened. 

3)      Chapter 3

a)      Withdrawal= the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug.

b)      My experience= When I was in Madison, I stayed in my cousin’s apartment.  Her roommate Danielle was trying to quit smoking because she wanted to try to be healthier.  She was very shaky and needed to chew gum a lot because she was trying to fight her urge for nicotine.  She had only gone three or four days without a cigarette and it was visible that it was hard for her to fight this addiction. 

c)       Relation= This is a side effect to smoking cigarettes is that you get addicted to the nicotine and it’s hard to break the habit.  Withdrawal is tough when fighting the addiction and makes you do other things to cope with the addiction. 

4)      Chapter 4

a)      Culture= the behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

b)      My experience= Going to Madison, it was obvious that there were many different cultures that make up the city of Madison.  There were many restaurants on State Street that offered food from all over the world.  Also there were clothing stores that had different styles from other countries around the world.  I even caught people speaking different languages when I was at a café getting coffee. 

c)       Relation= Because different cultures can affect how people grow up, it would be very different growing up in Madison versus growing up in the countryside.   Culture is very important to experience because it broadens your horizons on the world.

5)      Chapter 5

a)      Law of conservation= the principle that quantity remains the same, despite changes in shape

b)      My experience= On my tour of UW-Madison, my friend said we should stop for pizza and he made a joke regarding the Law of Conservation.  He said, “I’m not that hungry, maybe we could have them cut 6 pieces instead of 8.”  No matter how they would cut it, there would still be the same amount of pizza total.  He was joking because obviously he knew that, but to a younger child, it would have seemed logical. 

c)       Relation= In the development  of a child’s brain, there’s a time that they won’t be able to tell that the more of something there is, it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more of it because there may be more area on the pieces that there are less of.  Getting this understanding is more obvious the older you get. 

6)      Chapter 6

a)      Signal detection theory= a theory that predicts how and when a faint stimulus amid a background stimulation.  Depends on past experiences, expectations, motivation and level of fatigue. 

b)      My experience= I spent a night at my friend Alli Seibens house.  She’s a girl in my grade and she has a baby named Tristen.  She had me and some of my friends over and we were in her hot tub when she said she thought she heard her baby crying from the other room in the house.  She was the only one that heard him crying and it was a perfect example of the Signal Detection Theory. 

c)       Relation= The reason Alli could hear her baby crying was an example of the signal detection theory because she was motivated to listen for her baby crying and had experienced it before.  Her threshold of hearing was altered to hear her baby’s, which explains why no one else could hear Tristen crying. 

7)      Chapter 7

a)      Classical conditioning= Linking a controlled response to a conditioned stimulus that doesn’t relate to the original unconditioned stimulus that got that same response.

b)      My experience= I was at work the other night and after mixing frozen margaritas in a metal cup I would have to wash it in the sink.  The other bartender was always in the way, so I would put the cup under the sink and I asked her to step on the lever that pumps the water. After awhile, all I had to do was put the cup under the sink and she would instinctively kick the lever.  It was funny because I noticed this and I tried to extinguish it by putting the cup down there and I didn’t wash it and she made a joke and said, “Pavlov’s dogs.”

c)       Relation= I took an unconditioned stimulus of asking for Heather to step on the lever and added a conditioned stimulus of putting the cup by the sink. I got the response of her pressing the lever to turn the water on.  Soon, I didn’t have to ask for her to kick the water on and she would do it instinctively. 

8)      Chapter 8

a)      Rehearsal= conscious repetition to boost our memory.

b)       My experience= Over spring break for my Public Speaking class I have to memorize a 15 line poem.  To practice, I’ve just been reading it over and over again.  This is a prime example of rehearsal; to help me so I can store it in my memory and recover it when I need to present when we get back to school on Monday. 

c)       Relation= I’ve been very forgetful lately and I need help keeping experiences stored in my memory. To do this, I’ve used rehearsal to keep the poem in my head.  Repetition of this will improve my memory of this experience and it will stay in my head a lot longer.

9)      Chapter 9

a)      Algorithms= step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution.

b)      My experience= During this spring break, I’ve had to do a lot of math homework and in doing my math homework we have to use algorithms to solve long math problems.  Algorithms are step-by-step methods to solve long and confusing problems.  The step-by-step method prevents from getting confused and if you screw up, you just go back to the last step and figure it out. 

c)       Relation= In solving difficult problems it can be hard to find the answer, but if you break it down step-by-step its easier to solve.  I was able to get through my math homework a lot easier when I broke it down and took me time in solving each question.