Well it's been a long, stressful 9 days of studying. That's not to say that I've only been studying for the past 9 days, but these 9 days were the "study only" days. Anyway, tomorrow is my first exam and I've worked it out. I've already passed the course. It's a barely pass, but if I were to not show up tomorrow I could still wouldn't have to take the makeup exam. It's a nice feeling really seeing as I know that I'm going to get more than a 0% on the exam. Less stressed? Yes.
Now...the problem is that my second exam is Thursday. I've also worked that out. I have to get at least a 17 on that to get the 16 overall in the course I need. It's my Psychology exam and that's the one that
I've been studying for mostly these past few days. I know I'll pass the exam...but pulling off a 17 is going to be hard. *sigh*
English exam is tomorrow
1 day until the Psychology exam
"There are different parts of the brain that deal with different parts of movement. There is logic to our movements and that's where the frontal lobe comes in. The frontal lobe plans/selects our movements. It co-ordinates our body and executes precise movements. The brain stem produces our basic or primitive movements such as eating, drinking, and sexual behaviour. The spinal cord is responsible for our reflex movements such at blinking and breathing. The cerebrum produces our voluntary movements. We cannot have voluntary control over our movements if our brain is disconnected from the spinal cord."
The Neuroscience bit of Psychology sometimes really goes over my head.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Revision Week: Day 8
2 days until the English exam
3 days until the Psychology exam
What I learned today: I'm done for. These exams will be the death of me. That is all. Good night.
And thus begins the exam freak out. Tune in tomorrow to see how everything goes.
3 days until the Psychology exam
What I learned today: I'm done for. These exams will be the death of me. That is all. Good night.
And thus begins the exam freak out. Tune in tomorrow to see how everything goes.
Revision Week: Day 7
Well, my laptop decided that it had had enough studying for the revision week and decided to take a break yesterday morning. I was filling out some flashcard to help commit researchers' and psychologists' names (my true weakness) when all of a sudden the mouse pad stopped responding. I closed him all up and let him take a break for a little before opening him back up. The mouse still wasn't responding so I decided to try and shut it down. But the keys were also taking a short break. That left me with a manual shut down. I don't like doing those, but there was no way to turn Harry off. After the shut down and a five minute rest I turned Harry back on and he started doing a routine drive check. At this point, I was thinking, "Alright Harry, you do what you need to do."
Well he found a problem, something that has never happened. A little screen popped up asking if I would like the computer to automatically fix it. Of course I pressed the "yes" button. Too bad Harry couldn't figure out how to fix his problem. *sigh* So for the whole morning Harry kept saying that there was a problem and it couldn't be fixed, "press finish to shut down."
Now, I started freaking out a little. As a child of the technology age I don't really know how to function without my laptop. The first thought that popped into my head was, "How am I suppose to study!?!?!?" That's when I thought that perhaps I rely a little too much on technology and if my parents and their parents could study without the Internet at home then so could I.
I went to the library and checked out five very heavy books. Then I found a computer and printed off all the SAQs I had answered and written up so that I would have a guided study with my books. Retro right? Anyway, while online I took the opportunity to ask my friend if he could help Harry. He agreed and I spent the rest of the day worried about how I would study. I mean, who uses books anymore right? Haha!
Anyway, that evening I went over to his house and he fixed Harry in about an hour. I'm keeping the books though. It might be interesting to see what happens when I have to read a few chapter from each. Might even get a better mark on my exam because I didn't just listen to the lectures and review notes. I did extra stuff. *smile*
What I learned yesterday: You can study even when you don't have access to the Internet 24/7.
Well he found a problem, something that has never happened. A little screen popped up asking if I would like the computer to automatically fix it. Of course I pressed the "yes" button. Too bad Harry couldn't figure out how to fix his problem. *sigh* So for the whole morning Harry kept saying that there was a problem and it couldn't be fixed, "press finish to shut down."
Now, I started freaking out a little. As a child of the technology age I don't really know how to function without my laptop. The first thought that popped into my head was, "How am I suppose to study!?!?!?" That's when I thought that perhaps I rely a little too much on technology and if my parents and their parents could study without the Internet at home then so could I.
I went to the library and checked out five very heavy books. Then I found a computer and printed off all the SAQs I had answered and written up so that I would have a guided study with my books. Retro right? Anyway, while online I took the opportunity to ask my friend if he could help Harry. He agreed and I spent the rest of the day worried about how I would study. I mean, who uses books anymore right? Haha!
Anyway, that evening I went over to his house and he fixed Harry in about an hour. I'm keeping the books though. It might be interesting to see what happens when I have to read a few chapter from each. Might even get a better mark on my exam because I didn't just listen to the lectures and review notes. I did extra stuff. *smile*
What I learned yesterday: You can study even when you don't have access to the Internet 24/7.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Revision Week: Day 6
Today was again a pretty relaxing morning. It was very lovely just to lounge in bed for a while before having to get up around half past nine. Then I wondered around town with a friend for a while. Which was also nice...but gotta admit, not as much as I liked sleeping in this morning.
But then it was back to work this afternoon for a few hours. Today I decided to try and study a little Shakespeare. Now, I love watching Shakespeare plays but reading them is a little hard for me. Not because I don't understand them but because it takes me forever. Why? I act them out in my head. And then I get bored of doing all the voices. It's a tiresome activity.
4 days until the English exam
5 days until the Psychology exam
What I learned today. In Shakespeare's play "Richard III" Shakespeare depicts Richard as a real bastard. Apparently though...he was an ok King. But, he wasn't part of the Tudor family and since Shakespeare's main backer was the Tudors he had to make out the other monarchy families out as bad guys.
But then it was back to work this afternoon for a few hours. Today I decided to try and study a little Shakespeare. Now, I love watching Shakespeare plays but reading them is a little hard for me. Not because I don't understand them but because it takes me forever. Why? I act them out in my head. And then I get bored of doing all the voices. It's a tiresome activity.
4 days until the English exam
5 days until the Psychology exam
What I learned today. In Shakespeare's play "Richard III" Shakespeare depicts Richard as a real bastard. Apparently though...he was an ok King. But, he wasn't part of the Tudor family and since Shakespeare's main backer was the Tudors he had to make out the other monarchy families out as bad guys.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Revision Week: Day 5
Well, I had a very relaxing morning. It was quite nice. I woke up at half past eight (which is sleeping in for those of you who know me) then answered some emails, went for a jog, and had a late breakfast. I didn't do any studying really until I got to campus about 2 hours ago. Unfortunately, I've gotten into cognition. Now, I'm sure that cognition is interesting...actually, it is interesting. Too bad my lecturer for this part of the course was pretty boring. I mean, he was a nice enough guy but his voice puts me to sleep and his lectures aren't that well organized. So, it's like double work for me to try and get anything out of them. *sigh* Oh well, it happens right? Just means that I actually have to work to understand what he's saying.
5 days until the English exam
6 days until the Psychology exam
What I learned today. We have no idea how our mind works. Absolutely none. Anyone who says differently is crazy. Umm...yeah. That's kind of all I got from these two lectures that I've listened to this afternoon. Oh gosh, I'm pretty much done for aren't I?
5 days until the English exam
6 days until the Psychology exam
What I learned today. We have no idea how our mind works. Absolutely none. Anyone who says differently is crazy. Umm...yeah. That's kind of all I got from these two lectures that I've listened to this afternoon. Oh gosh, I'm pretty much done for aren't I?
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Revision Week: Day 4
So, today is big brother's birthday! We're getting so old. Haha!
Over the course of the day I have knocked my bowl of cereal onto my carpeted floor (which led to the discovery that wet Wheetabix is really hard to get off of the floor), fell off of the stair leading up to my flat, ran into a doorway, and fell asleep at the computer while studying. What has all of this led me to do? Take a long break.
I think I've discovered something. There is such a thing as over studying and not giving yourself enough down time. Now, I've been giving myself down time after studying in the afternoon. But I've been up at 7am every morning since Monday and have been studying for 6 hours a day. I guess I never fully understood "over studying". Did you know that you can do it before the night right before the exam?! But today, I just studying for 4 hours and I'm going to let myself sleep for as long as I need tonight. *smile*
Right well...
6 days until the English exam
7 days until the Psychology exam
Let's go to spoken speech recognition. "There are a few models which try to explain how humans can process and understand speech. One of these theories is called the Cohort Model. A "cohort" is a group of possible words a word can be before you figure out what the word is. Let me try to explain that a little better. Within the Cohort Model model there is something called the "uniqueness point." The uniqueness point is the point where that word can only be that word. Some words have early uniqueness points and others have late uniqueness points. Words with early uniqueness point are easier to identify if speech gets distorted in any way. This uniqueness point is what the Cohort Model is based around. Basically, if you hear the sound /c/ your mind thinks of a million words that start with the sound /c/ (like cat, cabbage, carrot, crate, crab, etc.) Then you hear the /ca/ sound, so your mind eliminates the words that don't fit with that sound and you're left with those words that do. Then you finally hear /cat/ and you're left with only one word that can be. The word "cat" has a late uniqueness point. There are early and late models. The main difference between these two models is that early versions believe that we use top-down processing (we use the context to help in word recognition) and later versions believe we use bottom-up processing (it's all data driven)."
Happy Birthday Big Brother GREG!!!!
Over the course of the day I have knocked my bowl of cereal onto my carpeted floor (which led to the discovery that wet Wheetabix is really hard to get off of the floor), fell off of the stair leading up to my flat, ran into a doorway, and fell asleep at the computer while studying. What has all of this led me to do? Take a long break.
I think I've discovered something. There is such a thing as over studying and not giving yourself enough down time. Now, I've been giving myself down time after studying in the afternoon. But I've been up at 7am every morning since Monday and have been studying for 6 hours a day. I guess I never fully understood "over studying". Did you know that you can do it before the night right before the exam?! But today, I just studying for 4 hours and I'm going to let myself sleep for as long as I need tonight. *smile*
Right well...
6 days until the English exam
7 days until the Psychology exam
Let's go to spoken speech recognition. "There are a few models which try to explain how humans can process and understand speech. One of these theories is called the Cohort Model. A "cohort" is a group of possible words a word can be before you figure out what the word is. Let me try to explain that a little better. Within the Cohort Model model there is something called the "uniqueness point." The uniqueness point is the point where that word can only be that word. Some words have early uniqueness points and others have late uniqueness points. Words with early uniqueness point are easier to identify if speech gets distorted in any way. This uniqueness point is what the Cohort Model is based around. Basically, if you hear the sound /c/ your mind thinks of a million words that start with the sound /c/ (like cat, cabbage, carrot, crate, crab, etc.) Then you hear the /ca/ sound, so your mind eliminates the words that don't fit with that sound and you're left with those words that do. Then you finally hear /cat/ and you're left with only one word that can be. The word "cat" has a late uniqueness point. There are early and late models. The main difference between these two models is that early versions believe that we use top-down processing (we use the context to help in word recognition) and later versions believe we use bottom-up processing (it's all data driven)."
Odd question to ask...does that make any sense? I'm trying to figure out how I would explain the Cohort Model if it came up in a Short Answer Question in the exam.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Revision Week: Day 3
So, last night as I was walking home from a movie night with friends after a full day of studying I thought of something. I saw a father walking with his two children toss his cigarette aside without putting it out. Let's, for a second, ignore my issues with the whole "smoking around children" thing and focus on what it actually made me think of. He didn't step on it or throw water over it or anything. For a second I was really confused. If he didn't put that out completely he ran the risk of starting a fire right there on the sidewalk. Didn't he?
Well, maybe not. I live in the boring, icky part of California. It's hot nice months out of the twelve and always dry. It's dry heat and dry cold. Basically, it sucks. And everything is flammable. You know all those fires on the highway in LA? Well, I'm fairly certain that 99% of them start because careless people decide to throw their still lit cigarettes out of their car windows. But Aberdeen is definitely not as dry as where I live. It's wet and rainy twelve out of twelve months so...would he be completely wrong not to put out his cigarette? I'm not sure anymore. He's wrong on the account that he's littering, but he probably wouldn't have started a fire on the sidewalk. I do know that if he ever goes to California he might inadvertently start a fire. Lesson of the day: Put out your cigarettes and dispose of them in an appropriate manner.
These are the things I think about when studying. Anywho, I did my usual 6 hours of studying this morning.
7 days until the English exam (that's one week!!!!)
8 days until the Pyschology exam
"We all can lip read. We may not think we can, but we do. In fact, we do it everyday as a tool to use when processing speech. We use a lot of tools to help in speech processing and there is evidence to suggest that we also use the visual as well. The evidence is in the McGurk effect. The McGurk effect is, basically, when you hear something when watching the person and something different when you're not watching the person. If you watch someone saying "ga ga" you will hear "ga ga", but if you don't watch them you will hear "ba ba". Visual information helps so much with processing speech when it is muffled or deteriorated in any way. We don't depend solely on visual information to understand speech, but it is a useful tool."
Well, maybe not. I live in the boring, icky part of California. It's hot nice months out of the twelve and always dry. It's dry heat and dry cold. Basically, it sucks. And everything is flammable. You know all those fires on the highway in LA? Well, I'm fairly certain that 99% of them start because careless people decide to throw their still lit cigarettes out of their car windows. But Aberdeen is definitely not as dry as where I live. It's wet and rainy twelve out of twelve months so...would he be completely wrong not to put out his cigarette? I'm not sure anymore. He's wrong on the account that he's littering, but he probably wouldn't have started a fire on the sidewalk. I do know that if he ever goes to California he might inadvertently start a fire. Lesson of the day: Put out your cigarettes and dispose of them in an appropriate manner.
These are the things I think about when studying. Anywho, I did my usual 6 hours of studying this morning.
7 days until the English exam (that's one week!!!!)
8 days until the Pyschology exam
"We all can lip read. We may not think we can, but we do. In fact, we do it everyday as a tool to use when processing speech. We use a lot of tools to help in speech processing and there is evidence to suggest that we also use the visual as well. The evidence is in the McGurk effect. The McGurk effect is, basically, when you hear something when watching the person and something different when you're not watching the person. If you watch someone saying "ga ga" you will hear "ga ga", but if you don't watch them you will hear "ba ba". Visual information helps so much with processing speech when it is muffled or deteriorated in any way. We don't depend solely on visual information to understand speech, but it is a useful tool."
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