The Effects of Drugs on Consciousness

Today we visit an excellent website put together by the Univeristy of Utah to learn about the effects certain psychoactive drugs have on our brain (WS-Mouse Party Chart). but there's a lot more to this site than just Mouse Party. Check out some other offerings from the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah:

• Tour of the Basics - animation with narration that explains what the following are:DNA, gene, chromosome, protein, heredity and trait
• The New Science of Addiction 
• Welcome to the synapse - you are Cerebral Commando (game)
• The Time of Our Lives - circadian rhythms and biological clocks
• PTC: Genes and Bitter Taste - genetics of PTC sensitivity
• How Cells Communicate During the Fight or Flight Response and 3-D animation of this
• Epigenetics and a video on the epigenetics of identical twins

Check them out!...

Monocular Depth Cue Assignment

Today in class we talked about how the brain perceives depth from the 2D image projected on the retina. The Brain uses cues from either the retinal image in just one eye (monocular) or by comparing the retinal images from both (binocular) to perceive depth. Tonight I want you to use 3 of the monocular cues we discussed or from your textbook (pg. 246-248) to draw a 2D picture that represents 3D depth.  Don't worry, I am not grading your artistic abilities. Therefore, you will need to list the three monocular cues you attempted to utilize. Explain where they exist in your drawing and why it creates the perception of depth. Good luck...

Remember mine... take an ordinary train that is only 2D and boring and enhance it by using linear perspective. Notice all the parallel lines (linear perspective) converging in the distance (vanishing point).

Psychology in the Real World Winners!

Congratulations to 3rd Bell for winning the 1st quarter "Psychology in the Real World" Contest! Each quarter students compete to find examples of the concepts we discuss in their own lives. If they share them with the rest of the class they essentially earn their class a point. Whoever has the most points at the end of the quarter wins!!! 3rd Bell got to celebrate with Stan's donuts.

As we begin to discuss the topic of perception, I thought the class would like this site from NOVA that highlights the concept of change blindness. As a favorite of hidden camera shows, a great example of change blindness is switching the person one is having a conversation with and seeing if they notice. Take a look at the video linked here and let me know what you think. Would you be fooled?

Change Blindness

• Posted 01.27.11
• NOVA scienceNOW

Psychologists who study the fascinating phenomenon of change blindness know that merely looking at something is not the same as actively paying attention to it. As the demonstration in this video shows, people can be blind to significant changes in a visual scene that are obvious to someone who expects that these changes are going to happen.

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Launch Video Running Time: 00:51

Change blindness is particularly likely to occur when there is an interruption in the scene (say, a large board being carried by) or when a person is focused on another task (say, pondering street directions). For more intriguing demonstrations, see this website maintained by psychologist J. Kevin O'Regan, one of the first scientists to describe the phenomenon.

Welcome!!!

Welcome to the blog site for Mr. Skoog's AP Psychology Classes! Here you will have the chance to carry on the discussions from class and share experiences about what you have learned while studying psychology. You will also have the opportunity here to learn additional content about the world of psychology we don't get to in class. I hope you will tune in and become an active participant of this outside learning opportunity.

This blog will also be informational. A place to keep you updated on what's happening in class. Here you will see assignments for class and the class schedule, hear about what other students are learning and thinking, have the chance to take the content in class to a deeper level, and if at the minimum just ask questions about psychology.