Lessons Ignored

In 2004, the abusive treatments in the Abu Graib prison in Iraq were known to the public. The prison guards forced the Iraqi prisoners to perform things that were humiliating such as forming a human pyramid while being naked or shocking them with electricity. When a prison died because of the guards’ treatment, the guards faked the death’s papers. Some pictures of the tortures were even taken, with the guards smiling and looking content of what they were doing.

The American government was heavily criticized for letting something like this happen. They should have known better since there have been many findings on social psychology about human behaviors changing on the situation they were in and the evil things human are capable of.

The two famous examples of experiments social psychologists carried out to test whether humans change their behaviors according to the social environments they are in. The social environments being tested are usually when there is a person with authority presented. The experiments are:

1. Milgram’s experiment:

Volunteers were asked by a pretend-to-be authoritative psychologist to give electric shock to a person sitting behind a wall (which could not be seen but still could be heard) after the person answers questions wrong. The psychologist claimed that the experiment was to test whether punishments would increase memory.

The results were astonishing as more than half of the subjects gave a believed-to-be lethal volt of electric shock to the answerer (just because the psychologist asked them to). None of them walked over to see if the answerer was okay withouht asking the psychologist’s permission.

2. Zimbardo’s experiment:

College-students volunteers were randomly selected to be either prison guards or prisoners. One whole floor of the psychology department was set up to look like a prison with real uniforms and real procedures. The prisoners were to be in the cell for all times, but the guards had their own shifts. Before the two-weeks experiment, all volunteers were examined physically and psychologically.

Just after a couple of days, the college-students prison guards changed their attitudes; they started to treat their fellow students who were prisoners cruelly. The guards ordered the prisoners to do things that they would normally never asked them to do, and the prisoners started to get depressed and withdrawn. The situation got so intense that Zimbardo had to cancel the experiment after 6 days.

Intelligence Key Questions

1. How should intelligence be defined?
There are many controversies regarding the definition of intelligence. While the most agreed definition of intelligence is a person’s ability to learn from experiences and use them to solve future problems, some psychologists believe that intelligence can only be tested as cultural-related issue as different environments demand for different types of intelligence.

2. What are the elements of intelligence?
There are two big theories about the elements of intelligence. Spearman’s theory argues that there is a general intelligence, called the “g” factor, in which everyone possesses while Gardner and Sternberg believe that there are multiple intelligences in a person. The examples of these multiple intelligences are language intelligence, musical intelligence, and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.

3. Is intelligence testing valid? Reliable? Ethical?
Modern intelligence testing is not valid as it should be because there is still no single test that can fully explain a person’s intelligence; however, with the testing systems today, the results are reliable as they produce a normal distribution. Some critics argue intelligence testing is unethical due to its bias; for example, the SAT is believed to have gender bias because men are generally better at the skills tested.

4. How can variations in intelligence be explained?
There is still no conclusion about the origin of variations in intelligence, but the most approved theory is that intelligence comes from both heredity and environment. Researches reveal that there is a higher correlation between identical twins more than fraternal twins, which supports heredity theory; however, the correlation between identical twins is higher when the twins are reared together than reared apart, which in this case supports environment theory.

Egocentrism in Kindergarten

The class had an opportunity to perform an experiment with the kindergarten class, in which the age range is between 6 through 7. The purpose of the experiment was to test Piaget’s theory about cognitive development of a person—in this case, it was the egocentrism, or the inability to perceive things in others’ point of view, that children in the preoperational stage had.

There were several experiments that my group chose to do, and the results are as of the following:

1. Conservation of volume: There were two identical beakers with the same amount of rice in them. Then, the rice in one beaker was poured into a tall cylinder. The kids were asked, “Which has more rice, or they both are the same?”

Result: Although all three kids knew that there was the same amount of rice in the two beakers, when asked if the beaker or the cylinder had more rice, the answer of the kids was the cylinder. When asked why, they all said that the cylinder was taller, so it contained more rice.

2. Conservation of volume: Two rows of coins were laid out, 5 coins for each row. Then, the kids were asked, “Which row has more coins?” After that, the coins in one row were spaced out, giving the row more length, then the same question was asked again.

Result: When asked the first time, all the kids got the correct answer, which was that the row had the same number of coins, but when later asked after the coins in one row were spaced out, the answers were different. One girl got the correct answer while the other two kids answered that the longer row had more coins.

3. Class inclusion: Five squares and four circles of the same color were prepared. The shapes were laid out, so that each square was paired with another circle (with one square left). The kids were asked, “Are there more squares or more blue ones?”

Result: All three kids answered that there were more squares although there were more blue ones. When asked why, they said that it was because one square did not have a circle partner.

To conclude the experiment, my group can say that the kids are mostly still in the preoperational stage because they show egocentrism, although some of them might start to develop more mature cognitive abilities and become less egocentric. These kids are not stupid or dumb, they just do not have the cognitive abilities like adults have; their brain is not fully matured. Piaget is correct in his theory that every person must go through different stages of cognitive development, but what he is wrong about is the age of the kids in different stages; there are always exceptions in the human kind.

My Emotional IQ

My Emotional IQ score is 123. According to the website, the score is much higher than average. It states that I can express my emotions appropriately and that I know how to adapt to different circumstances. I often find myself full of energy to do what I need to do. I learn my strengths and weaknesses, but I never put down myself about my weaknesses. Actually, I think I tell everyone and have a laugh about them. When there are problems, I always find myself looking for what good can come out of it.

Plane Crash Survivors

There are many emotions experienced by the survivors:

1. Excitement – during the beginning of the flight
2. Hope – when heard that there were search parties looking for them
3. Frustration and irritation – when no rescue teams found them
4. Frightening – when realized that they were dying because of food shortage
5. Shock and disgust – when heard the idea of eating human flesh
6. Grief – after the deaths of some survivors caused by the avalanche
7. Joy – when the young men found the peasant

The survivors are motivated by the physiological needs for survival. The first thing they did after the plane crash was finding a shelter to protect them from the cold weather; then, they melted snow to get water. The next thing they did was finding food, which was the food from the air plane, but after all those food were gone, they started eating the dead bodies. After the avalanche, the survivors were motivated to dig out of snow because they needed air.

Plane Crash Survivors

There are many emotions experienced by the survivors:

1. Excitement – during the beginning of the flight
2. Hope – when heard that there were search parties looking for them
3. Frustration and irritation – when no rescue teams found them
4. Frightening – when realized that they were dying because of food shortage
5. Shock and disgust – when heard the idea of eating human flesh
6. Grief – after the deaths of some survivors caused by the avalanche
7. Joy – when the young men found the peasant

The survivors are motivated by the physiological needs for survival. The first thing they did after the plane crash was finding a shelter to protect them from the cold weather; then, they melted snow to get water. The next thing they did was finding food, which was the food from the air plane, but after all those food were gone, they started eating the dead bodies. After the avalanche, the survivors were motivated to dig out of snow because they needed air.

The Gregorc Style Delineator

After learning about memory and thinking, Mr. Peter Anthony gave us the Gregorc Style Delineator. The purpose of the Style Delineator is to analyze our mental qualities that are used to make decisions in our lives; therefore, it can also help us understand ourselves and the environments better than before.

There are four types of personalities given; Concrete Sequential, Abstract Sequential, Abstract Random, and Concrete Random. After finishing the test, my scores were
- Concrete Sequential: 19
- Abstract Sequential: 25
- Abstract Random: 29
- Concrete Random: 27

My score shows that my dominant characteristic is Abstract Random (AR). Then, I was given a packet of papers and websites that describe the style characteristics of AR. After reading, I realized that most of the traits written are true to who I am; the traits such as
- Living in the world of feelings, emotions, and imagination, where the heart and the “gut” feeling are followed more than the head
- Concentrating energies on relationships and forming attachments to people
- Disliking rules, regulations, and time
- Using hands and body naturally when communicating
- Living today to the fullest

One of the most interesting points I find in the paper is “Often two Abstract Randoms talk at one another, at the same time, and yet ‘know’ what the other is saying.” I did not believe that it was true, but then just seconds later, one of AR’s sitting beside me and I demonstrated the quote automatically.

After knowing my style personalities, I hope that this knowledge will help me to understand who I am, the decisions in my life, and the actions I make.

Extended Reading: It's Magical. It's Malleable. It's..Memory.

1. What is the relationship between memory and selfhood?
According to the article, “We remember, therefore we are.” This implies that memory is the foundation of our identity; we are what we remember. Our memories are usually based on our experiences, along with their associated emotions; however, some memories retrieved can be an event that never happens. Memories can be reconstructed as new information is added into the old. This finding changes the belief that everything we experience is recorded into the brain and that memory is stable and solid. This also has a huge impact on the reliability and credibility of eyewitnesses. If who we are depends on our memories, then our selfhood is changing all the time.

2. What new discovery about memory do you find most interesting?
The new discovery I find most interesting is Gluck’s development on computers. Knowing that the hippocampus has the abilities to learn and associate, Gluck is building computers for the military that have these similar abilities. One of the abilities is sending the alarm, warning about an engine’s mal-functions, before it actually breaks down. I think that this discovery can also lead to other more applications such as human-like robots.

3. What is the homunculus crisis?
The homunculus crisis is the name given to the mystery of what activates memories; it is used in the situation, in which a memory that a person does not think about for a long time, just suddenly reappears in the person’s mind. Neurologists and psychologists are still unable to find the origin that stimulates the memory’s neural networks in the brain.

4. Which theory of dreams finds support in the experiments by Lynch?
Experiments, by Lynch, support Winson’s cognitive theory of dreams. The theory argues that dreams are a replay of daily lives, which helps humans learn and remember. The results of Lunch’s experiments also confirm the same idea; he finds that the consolidation of memories or long-term potentiation (LTP) is strongest when delivering stimulation corresponding to the slow rhythms of theta to the hippocampus.

5. How can some memories become indelible?
Some memories can become indelible because of their associated emotions such as happiness or fear. When under stress, powerful stress hormones are released, and these hormones can boost the ability to store memories. Moreover, the hormones also stimulate the amygdala, which is responsible for emotions and fears. Although the ability to store memories permanently helps in the survival because it enables organisms to separate life-threatening events from the normal, ordinary events, it can also be a curse, especially when a traumatic event such as a rape is stored.

6. How can amnesia and repression be explained?
While amnesia is when an event is forgotten because it is never encoded, repression is when an event cannot be retrieved but it will suddenly just emerges into consciousness. Both amnesia and repression might be the result of the mal-functions of the hippocampus, which makes it impossible to recall an explicit memory. While the hippocampus is not working, other organs are functioning properly, explaining how the events are encoded as implicit memories and affect the victims without them knowing why. The reason for the emerging of an event in repression is still unknown, but some might be the result of creation.

7. Explain the following statement: “Memory is more reconstructive than reproductive.”
Memory is better at recalling an event as a whole or as a summary than as details or procedures. Details wear out over time; when asked to recall details such as the source of information, people reconstruct memories to fit the questions, the cues, or their own schemas. Memories cannot be reproduced like how they are encoded in the first place.

8. What new paradigm of memory is now emerging?
As modern researches and experiments show, memories are both realities and fantasies; some are what really happens while some are created. Experiences and emotions also shape how the situations are encoding into the memory. According to the article, the new paradigm of memory is “where memories are understood as creative blendings of fact and fiction, where images are alchemized by experience and emotion into memories.”

9. After reading this article, what conclusions can you make about memory?
Memory creates self while self, in turn, affects memory. Memories can be real experiences and emotions stored or it can be a reconstruction of fiction. The ability to store memories can increase by certain stress hormones and by sleeping. Even memories can have mal-functions such as amnesia and repression, which can be explained by the hippocampus failing to work properly. By understanding the anatomy of memory and functions of the components of the brain, new technology can also be made.