Ivan Della Mea

On January 9th, 1878, John Broadus Watson was born in Travelers Rest, South Carolina to Emma and Pickens Watson. John B. Watson’s mother was an immensely devoted Christian who would austerly follow several religious ideals. In hopes he would join the clergy as he came of age, Emma Watson named John B. Watson after a Baptist minister. Pickens Watson had antithetical beliefs in contrast of Emma Watson. Pickens Watson had a different set of rules and often “...drank, had extra-marital…

After thirteen weeks of recording the pink-eyed Sprague Dawley rats walking across an elevated horizontal ladder, a circular ladder and a treadmill, I now spend most days carefully examining the videos to evaluate the quality of their walking ability. The video begins, as it always does, at an angle below the ladder. The rat appears in the frame, roaming around, to acclimatize with the environment and probably search for its missing cage mate. Rats are social animals and enjoy being in groups.…

The ability to interpret potential threats and react immediately is an essential evolutionary construct. One of the most important mechanisms for recognizing potential danger is fear generalization: the ability to apply an untrained response to various, similar stimuli. Inventions for overcoming fear generalization are essential to creating treatments for fear and anxiety-associated psychological disorders; however, as Dunsmoor and Murphy illustrate in their article, the Pavlovian-conditioning…

Kristen Hurst Professor Swain Psychology 101 29 October 2016 Little Albert & Conditioned Emotions In the early 1900s, classical conditioning, inspired by Ivan Pavlov, had become quite a topic. John B. Watson noted this theory, and wondered if it was possible to classically condition human beings. Watson chose to classically condition a healthy infant, who almost never cried, so that the child would not have witnessed any negative experience prior to this study. Because Albert never cried, it…

B.F. Skinner accepted the concept of the unconscious to a significant extent. This can be observed when closely examining the role of instinct in his work, Skinners concept of reinforcement and his use and development of the verbal summator machine. When analyzing these three sources of evidence it can clearly be seen that B.F. Skinner must have believed in the unconscious to a somewhat significant degree, despite considering himself a radical behaviorist. The significant role of instinct in…

I imagine that the experience of conditioning Apollo has been much like human parenting: exciting and equally frustrating. After 6 days, Apollo probably thinks he has been successfully training us instead. Since he is a younger rat, it was necessary for Apollo to be well socialized and used to interacting with us. He was not receptive at first, but very quickly after became used to us and his environment. One particular issue in the beginning was his insistence on squeaking when we made contact…

Service dogs have one purpose. That purpose is to protect and help their owner in day to day tasks that they may not be able to do with impairments. Having a hearing impairment comes with a lot of difficulties. That is why dogs like Haven are here to help. Service dogs can be found anywhere and everywhere - even in Groom, Texas. Groom ISD got the opportunity to have a service dog, owner and trainer visit and talk to the Small Animal Management class about the-behind-the-scenes life of a…

The soft sounds of approaching footsteps outside my bedroom window intrigued me. Today, the familiar padding of cat’s paws took on a significant change I did not recognize. I knew that Scruffy, a scrawny alley-cat who eked out a meagre existence in our neighborhood, was late this day. Usually, this ageless creature made no other sounds as he neared my bedroom, but this morning he uttered several plaintive heart-rending cries and I wondered why. Scruffy is the name I knew him by, while my…

A.Heredity-is a term that refers to traits and features that are inherited from one's parents and predecessors. At birth a person inherits 50% of each parent's genetic material (genes) that are passed along through the chromosomes found in the DNA . B.Nativists-is the view that certain skills or facilities are "native" or hard-wired into the encephalon at birth. C.Environmentalists-is an interdisciplinary field that fixates on the interplay between individuals and their circumventions. The…

If I were to set up a learning experiment, I would train my dog to associate a whistle sound with a treat. This would hopefully teach her to react to a whistling sound and can them be used to get her attention. To accomplish this, I’d reward her with a treat and praise after I whistle. I would use her natural response of salivation to food and combine it with a stimulus, a whistle sound, in order to achieve my goal. I would do this daily in the morning and use positive reinforcement such as food…