Wednesday, October 28, 2009


Yes Officer, I know I was using my phone while driving but..."


"Oh man, that was definately not worth it come to think of it".


"Hey, Whats up?
Yeah I can talk...No, I'm not busy...Just on my way to school, What's up?"

updated survey link 10/29/09

Click Here to take survey

Thursday, October 15, 2009




The name "Second Life" is the perfect title for the game. People can conduct their regular lives working, going to school, playing sports, and doing whatever they regularly do throughout the day but then when they get to their computers, they can enter this virtual world where they can socialize with people, look the way they want, dress, and act however they please. It is literally a "second life" compared to the first life of the physical world.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

academic articles summaries

Lauren Flatt
COMP 106
October 12, 2009
Academic Article Summaries

I always found psychology to be very interesting. I think that to study how and why people do the things they do is one of the most fascinating things a person can learn. Within psychology, there is a lot to learn about such as behavior, development, cognition, relationships with ourselves, others and more. That is why I plan to change my studies major to psychology, I feel I truly connect with that field.
My first article is titled “What did Triplett really find? A Contemporary Analysis of the First Experiment in Social Psychology” by Michael J. Strube of Washington University. It was published in the American Journal of Psychology in the Summer of 2005.
This article talks about the dynamics in pace making and competition based on Norman Triplett’s first experiment in social and sports psychology. What he did was observe the Racing Board of the League of American Wheelmen and noticed that paced and competitive races had an effect on performance speed and in this he described a number of explanations for why this performance occurs. He explained that the first competitor gets the energy and stimulation from the second competitor’s presence which will make the competitor move faster. Triplett conducted studies and experimented on different groups of people and his data now represents the research on audience and co- actor effects. What was concluded is that an audience’s presence actually increases the arousal in the actor to perform well and therefore he will make a better performance. Triplett was very smart and creative and laid the groundwork for the latter research that followed his first experiment.
The second article that struck my attention is titled “The Howard Crosby Warren Medal: Psychology’s First Award” by David B. Baker from the University of Akron and Kevin T. Mahoney from Slippery Rock University. It was published in the Fall of 2005 in the American Journal of Psychology.
This article talks about the first major award given in Psychology called the “Howard Crosby Warren Medal.” Howard Crosby Warren was a man born in the 1860’s that attended Princeton University with an interest in psychology and later spent his career there as a chair member of the psychology department.
This award was given in 1936 to two young Princeton psychologists named Earnest G. Wever and Charles W. Bray. These two men conducted research on auditory nerve responses in insects, reptiles, and mammals. This award given was exceptionally interesting because there was psychology behind the award given for psychology. The reason for this award being issued was to increase the respect of men of science and to bring attention towards the importance of it. The Howard Crosby Warren Medal truly honors the excellence in psychological science.
My last article is titled “Comparison of the Efficacy of Two Name- Learning Techniques: Expanding Rehearsal and Name-Face Imagery” by Jeffrey S. Neuschatz and Elizabeth L. Preston of University of Alabama, Michael P. Toglia of State Univeristy of New York at Cortland and Joseph S. Neuschatz of Roger Williams University. It was published in the 2005 edition of the American Journal of Psychology.
I found this interesting because it talks about two different name learning techniques. One technique is known as the expanding rehearsal technique and the other is known as name- face imagery. Sometimes I have a very difficult time remembering names but I could always remember a face. I thought it was just me but since reading this article, I see that this is common with most people. An experiment was conducted on regular middle-aged people to go to a social function and attempt to remember people’s names. The goal of this article was to compare the effectiveness of strategies used on testing different people’s ability to retain names and faces over a long period of time. I also learned from this article an interesting fact, that one of the areas of memory that gives adults the most difficulty is name learning. From the experiment done, we conclude that out of the two name learning techniques, there is a better long term memory in the expanding rehearsal condition.
I felt that these three articles that I chose: “What Did Triplett Really Find? A Contemporary Analysis of the First Experiment in Social Psychology”, “The Howard Crosby Warren Medal: Psychology’s First Award”, and “Comparison of the Efficacy of Two Name- Learning Techniques: Expanding Rehearsal and Name- Face Imagery” were three diverse articles all having to do with Psychology because they covered different topics within the study of psychology. These articles were slightly difficult for me to understand but were definitely interesting and I learned a lot from reading them.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

SURVEY LINK (WORKS)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=kT5E5DIQm87hnZnEazrzHg_3d_3d

Sunday, October 4, 2009

research topic proposal 10/6

For my research topic I decided to try to find out whether or not the government should take action in the use of cell phones while operating vehicles.
Cell phones are a very important thing to own in order to be able to be reached at all times. I also feel that cell phones are a huge distraction to people while driving even on a hands free because my opinion is that a person can be more concentrated on the conversation than on the road whether or not they are holding a phone.
I think that there should be some rules made where we live. I have been in places where only hands free devices were allowed. I use a cell phone while driving for regular conversational purposes and think that it is a bad habit that I need to break. But, if the law made it become illegal to use a phone, I would have an easier time stopping unless if it was an emergency and feel that most people would be the same way.
Banning the use of cell phones would be hard to do though and I wonder whether people think it would be better to keep things the way they are, make some rules about how to use the phone while driving, issue fines, make it illegal, block the network service completely, or anything else.
This survey can apply to anyone who has an understanding of this topic whether they are a driver, passenger, or pedestrian. I feel that the more people that take my survey, the better my understanding of what can be done to prevent the risk of accidents will be and what precautions we should be taking towards that.

updated survey link

NEW SURVEY
http://www.surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_EditorPage.aspx?sm=EwO15c6pqIwuQH742Xzo%2fTIjBp9q4mIrd5rfmtY4rTk%3d