So Close, and Yet, So Far
By Tamika Whitenack
This has probably been one of the longest, slowest weeks of my life. I cannot remember the last time that time passed in this way for me. Part of me is pleased because I often worry that life is moving too quickly, especially as I get older, so it is nice to know that the pace of life is not entirely dependent on age, and can be affected by circumstances as well! Anyway, each day has been a plodding countdown as I wait to go home...
What have I been up to in this long, long week, and why does it pass so slowly? Basically, the only things I had left to do this week were my Spanish final on Tuesday and my Psychology final on Friday. Studying is important and I've certainly been doing plenty of it, but I definitely feel like I have way more time than I need in order to get sufficient studying. As a result, I have been not stressed at all, which is good (although, as we discussed in Psych, acute, short-term stress is actually good because it motivates us, diverts energy away from internal situations in order for us to deal with a stressor, and releases dopamine). Unfortunately, I have also reached a point of something that feels suspiciously like boredom, which is something that hasn't happened to me in a very long time! As we know, I thrive off of scheduling, planning, and being busy with lots of stuff and there simply isn't too much for me to do on-campus at the moment. To add to this, there are SO MANY things that I want to do at home, so part of me feels like I'm wasting time by being here because if I were home I could do all the things I want to do. That said, I'm still managing to keep sort of busy and trying to appreciate the way I spend my time. I think I care a lot about getting something out of each action I do and not wasting any day of my life, which might be the motivation behind my crazy planning personality.
So, how have I been spending these excessive hours? First of all, sleep. Starting Sunday night, I've been consistently getting 9-10 hours of sleep. I go to bed around 9 or 10 and wake up at 7 or 8. Unfortunately, I don't think my body is accustomed to this because I've been having a bit of difficulty falling asleep and falling back to sleep after I wake up in the middle of the night (omg side note, I'm so excited to go home and NOT have to walk down the brightly lit highlight in order to go pee in the middle of the night, it's so disruptive and disorienting). It also doesn't help that I've been anticipating going home this entire week, which means that I have some excited energy that also makes it difficult to sleep as well as I could be. Still, even with these small setbacks I spend so much time lying in bed "sleeping" that I have felt very well-rested!
I also spend a lot of time at the gym (is anyone surprised?). On Monday, I went to the gym on three separate occasions: once to swim, once for Pilates, and once for Yoga. On Tuesday, a friend and I went to a non-contact kickboxing class which was so fun and empowering! I'm hoping I can add this class into my regular schedule next semester. Wednesday, we also had a marathon gym day: 7:30 Pilate, 8:30 gym workout (treadmill for me, tried to get in some incline work bc I'm terrified to go home and run on real hills), breakfast break, 10:00 swim, 1:00 Yoga.
On Wednesday, we also got off campus to go help distribute gifts/throw a little holiday party for some of the Kindergarten students who are part of one of Vassar's tutoring programs. The children were adorable and so excited to receive gifts! Their enthusiasm and cuteness was enough to override my cynicism about the materialism of presents, there is something magical about being small and receiving stuff and I remember that feeling and it's great! I don't think I get as excited by presents any more, but I still try to cultivate that feeling by noticing and appreciating all the great little things in my life.
It may surprise people that I have not been using all this extra time to cook or bake, as that is a habit of mine. I've considered it, but I am anticipating spending loads of time in the kitchen at home, so I figured I could deprive myself to make this all the more exciting, plus I'm trying not to create sweets this week since I'm anticipating an overabundance of sweets during the holiday season so I figured I might as well have a healthy week while I can :P
Of course, in addition to this business I've also been studying for finals. I think Spanish went well, and I'm feeling in pretty good shape for Psychology. Because I'm bored I'm going to spew some random Psych stuff as a way to get in some more review.
-Case studies on patients with brain damage have revealed correlations between certain brain areas and certain functions, such as: language production and the left frontal lobe, prefrontal cortex and executive functioning/personality, hippocampus and consolidation of long term memory. The moral of the story is to always wear a helmet y'all (thanks Officer Buckle and Gloria)
-Taste and smell are chemical senses that respond to molecules of food/odors, and smell processing is located near our hippocampus which is why smells can often be associated with memories
-"Eye appeal is half the meal" is actually kind of true bc vision is human's primary sense which means that it plays a big role in top-down processing and can influence our perception of stimuli from other senses based on our expectations. There was an interesting study about white wine that was dyed red and was therefore perceived as tasting like red wine....I think this suggests that there is probably a good market out there for using vision to fool people to buy stuff that isn't legit fancy
-Dreams might just be the result of random neuron activation in the pons that travels through the limbic system to the cortex, where the cortex constructs a narrative of it. Also dreaming/REM sleep seems to serve some sort of biological purpose so it's necessary to sleep for long enough periods of time in order to get REM...so Number Two probably was suffering from some serious problems bc not only was she in constant sleep deficit (which also has bad consequences), but I doubt she ever got any REM!
-Our brains evolved to solve the problems that our stone-age ancestors faced, but the modern world has changed faster than our brains can adapt so our brains are still suited to solve those problems rather than the problems of today, for example the neural circuits that guide our behavior are more likely to make us afraid of snakes than electrical sockets
-The nervous system and endocrine system both work to maintain homeostasis and respond to challenges from the outside world. The nervous system sends signals by neurotransmitters through synapses and is faster than the endocrine system, which uses hormones in the bloodstream for longer lasting signals. Sympathetic nervous system deals with "fight/flight" response by diverting energy away from internal organs to prepare the body to deal with a stressor, while the parasympathetic conserves energy and promotes long term function, "rest/digest"
-The hypothalamus is the key connection between the brain and endocrine system and is next to the pituitary gland, which is the master gland of the endocrine system and triggers all the other glands
-The delivery mechanism of drugs matters: Adderall releases slowly and does not offer the same boost of dopamine that amphetamines do, so it is less dangerous or addictive
-Habituation is decreasing response to a repeated stimulus. I think I have been habituated to the presence of ice cream and cookies at the dining hall because I do not feel a need to eat them since they are there every day
-We can learn through observational learning, not just experience. Monkeys learned to fear snakes by watching other monkeys be afraid of snakes. Little Tamika may have learned to like Canada geese because of the Amy movie, which created cognitive dissonance later on in life when I encountered geese as annoyances on the Gilman soccer fields. To reduce cognitive dissonance, I must have either changed my attitude or inserted a new attitude about geese. I think I did the latter and was able to dissociate the lovable geese in Amy as a different brand of creatures than the pooping menaces of Gilman fields (also, in hindsight, I feel like we had no right to dislike the geese bc tbh we probably took away their natural habitat in order to build that sports complex)
-I am using elaborative encoding strategies to get this information into long-term memory, because I am using the meaning of the information to help me remember it by applying the meaning to random stuff and using a combination technique of peer-tutoring/self-explanations. I'm also using repetition/rehearsal, which is typically a strategy for encoding stuff to short term memory but works for LTM too I'd say
-Primacy refers to the tendency of words at the beginning of a list to be remembered and recency refers to the tendency of words at the end of the list to be remembered. Primacy is a result of the words having more time to be encoded into LTM, whereas recency is a result of the words still being in WM. These general ideas could also be applied to what info I remember best from Psych, if I was taking more in-depth notes at the beginning of the semester than that info would be better encoded into LTM, and the information that was at the end of the semester is still fresh in my mind because I've been dealing with it (I think I actually did a decent job of note-taking the whole semester so hopefully I remember everything, also I've been spending plenty of time reviewing with my elaborative strategies I think)
-Emotions can be thought as in terms of correlates such as brain state, physiological state, facial expression, cognitive interpretation, behavior, that all affect each other through chain reactions and feedback loops. Emotional responses can have a fast component (nervous system and limbic system) and a slower component (cognition and endocrine systesm) which explains how we can be feeling an emotion but not be conscious about it yet
-The stress response is dependent not just on the stressor itself, but on perceived control. I think this might explain me a lot, because I usually feel that I have the resources to deal with a stressor and am all about control so I don't think I experience a large stress response (take this week for example)
-People are more likely to conform in situations that are more ambiguous, have a larger majority, and have a more homogenous majority...this could be applied to so many things. If we were trying to convince someone to eat a food such as spinach (one of my staple vegetables omg love spinach), then it would be great if at dinner everybody else at the table was eating spinach and we did something to make this situation seem ambiguous (lol that was a bad example sorry)
-Social learning theory/cognitive theory suggests that our personalities are a result of behaviors that we have learned from modeling and reinforcement
Alright there's a lot more but I've been studying it for the past week so I don't feel like writing more plus I don't want to bore you. Bye-bye! Next time I write it will probably be after this Psych final, yay!
This has probably been one of the longest, slowest weeks of my life. I cannot remember the last time that time passed in this way for me. Part of me is pleased because I often worry that life is moving too quickly, especially as I get older, so it is nice to know that the pace of life is not entirely dependent on age, and can be affected by circumstances as well! Anyway, each day has been a plodding countdown as I wait to go home...
What have I been up to in this long, long week, and why does it pass so slowly? Basically, the only things I had left to do this week were my Spanish final on Tuesday and my Psychology final on Friday. Studying is important and I've certainly been doing plenty of it, but I definitely feel like I have way more time than I need in order to get sufficient studying. As a result, I have been not stressed at all, which is good (although, as we discussed in Psych, acute, short-term stress is actually good because it motivates us, diverts energy away from internal situations in order for us to deal with a stressor, and releases dopamine). Unfortunately, I have also reached a point of something that feels suspiciously like boredom, which is something that hasn't happened to me in a very long time! As we know, I thrive off of scheduling, planning, and being busy with lots of stuff and there simply isn't too much for me to do on-campus at the moment. To add to this, there are SO MANY things that I want to do at home, so part of me feels like I'm wasting time by being here because if I were home I could do all the things I want to do. That said, I'm still managing to keep sort of busy and trying to appreciate the way I spend my time. I think I care a lot about getting something out of each action I do and not wasting any day of my life, which might be the motivation behind my crazy planning personality.
So, how have I been spending these excessive hours? First of all, sleep. Starting Sunday night, I've been consistently getting 9-10 hours of sleep. I go to bed around 9 or 10 and wake up at 7 or 8. Unfortunately, I don't think my body is accustomed to this because I've been having a bit of difficulty falling asleep and falling back to sleep after I wake up in the middle of the night (omg side note, I'm so excited to go home and NOT have to walk down the brightly lit highlight in order to go pee in the middle of the night, it's so disruptive and disorienting). It also doesn't help that I've been anticipating going home this entire week, which means that I have some excited energy that also makes it difficult to sleep as well as I could be. Still, even with these small setbacks I spend so much time lying in bed "sleeping" that I have felt very well-rested!
I also spend a lot of time at the gym (is anyone surprised?). On Monday, I went to the gym on three separate occasions: once to swim, once for Pilates, and once for Yoga. On Tuesday, a friend and I went to a non-contact kickboxing class which was so fun and empowering! I'm hoping I can add this class into my regular schedule next semester. Wednesday, we also had a marathon gym day: 7:30 Pilate, 8:30 gym workout (treadmill for me, tried to get in some incline work bc I'm terrified to go home and run on real hills), breakfast break, 10:00 swim, 1:00 Yoga.
On Wednesday, we also got off campus to go help distribute gifts/throw a little holiday party for some of the Kindergarten students who are part of one of Vassar's tutoring programs. The children were adorable and so excited to receive gifts! Their enthusiasm and cuteness was enough to override my cynicism about the materialism of presents, there is something magical about being small and receiving stuff and I remember that feeling and it's great! I don't think I get as excited by presents any more, but I still try to cultivate that feeling by noticing and appreciating all the great little things in my life.
It may surprise people that I have not been using all this extra time to cook or bake, as that is a habit of mine. I've considered it, but I am anticipating spending loads of time in the kitchen at home, so I figured I could deprive myself to make this all the more exciting, plus I'm trying not to create sweets this week since I'm anticipating an overabundance of sweets during the holiday season so I figured I might as well have a healthy week while I can :P
Of course, in addition to this business I've also been studying for finals. I think Spanish went well, and I'm feeling in pretty good shape for Psychology. Because I'm bored I'm going to spew some random Psych stuff as a way to get in some more review.
-Case studies on patients with brain damage have revealed correlations between certain brain areas and certain functions, such as: language production and the left frontal lobe, prefrontal cortex and executive functioning/personality, hippocampus and consolidation of long term memory. The moral of the story is to always wear a helmet y'all (thanks Officer Buckle and Gloria)
-Taste and smell are chemical senses that respond to molecules of food/odors, and smell processing is located near our hippocampus which is why smells can often be associated with memories
-"Eye appeal is half the meal" is actually kind of true bc vision is human's primary sense which means that it plays a big role in top-down processing and can influence our perception of stimuli from other senses based on our expectations. There was an interesting study about white wine that was dyed red and was therefore perceived as tasting like red wine....I think this suggests that there is probably a good market out there for using vision to fool people to buy stuff that isn't legit fancy
-Dreams might just be the result of random neuron activation in the pons that travels through the limbic system to the cortex, where the cortex constructs a narrative of it. Also dreaming/REM sleep seems to serve some sort of biological purpose so it's necessary to sleep for long enough periods of time in order to get REM...so Number Two probably was suffering from some serious problems bc not only was she in constant sleep deficit (which also has bad consequences), but I doubt she ever got any REM!
-Our brains evolved to solve the problems that our stone-age ancestors faced, but the modern world has changed faster than our brains can adapt so our brains are still suited to solve those problems rather than the problems of today, for example the neural circuits that guide our behavior are more likely to make us afraid of snakes than electrical sockets
-The nervous system and endocrine system both work to maintain homeostasis and respond to challenges from the outside world. The nervous system sends signals by neurotransmitters through synapses and is faster than the endocrine system, which uses hormones in the bloodstream for longer lasting signals. Sympathetic nervous system deals with "fight/flight" response by diverting energy away from internal organs to prepare the body to deal with a stressor, while the parasympathetic conserves energy and promotes long term function, "rest/digest"
-The hypothalamus is the key connection between the brain and endocrine system and is next to the pituitary gland, which is the master gland of the endocrine system and triggers all the other glands
-The delivery mechanism of drugs matters: Adderall releases slowly and does not offer the same boost of dopamine that amphetamines do, so it is less dangerous or addictive
-Habituation is decreasing response to a repeated stimulus. I think I have been habituated to the presence of ice cream and cookies at the dining hall because I do not feel a need to eat them since they are there every day
-We can learn through observational learning, not just experience. Monkeys learned to fear snakes by watching other monkeys be afraid of snakes. Little Tamika may have learned to like Canada geese because of the Amy movie, which created cognitive dissonance later on in life when I encountered geese as annoyances on the Gilman soccer fields. To reduce cognitive dissonance, I must have either changed my attitude or inserted a new attitude about geese. I think I did the latter and was able to dissociate the lovable geese in Amy as a different brand of creatures than the pooping menaces of Gilman fields (also, in hindsight, I feel like we had no right to dislike the geese bc tbh we probably took away their natural habitat in order to build that sports complex)
-I am using elaborative encoding strategies to get this information into long-term memory, because I am using the meaning of the information to help me remember it by applying the meaning to random stuff and using a combination technique of peer-tutoring/self-explanations. I'm also using repetition/rehearsal, which is typically a strategy for encoding stuff to short term memory but works for LTM too I'd say
-Primacy refers to the tendency of words at the beginning of a list to be remembered and recency refers to the tendency of words at the end of the list to be remembered. Primacy is a result of the words having more time to be encoded into LTM, whereas recency is a result of the words still being in WM. These general ideas could also be applied to what info I remember best from Psych, if I was taking more in-depth notes at the beginning of the semester than that info would be better encoded into LTM, and the information that was at the end of the semester is still fresh in my mind because I've been dealing with it (I think I actually did a decent job of note-taking the whole semester so hopefully I remember everything, also I've been spending plenty of time reviewing with my elaborative strategies I think)
-Emotions can be thought as in terms of correlates such as brain state, physiological state, facial expression, cognitive interpretation, behavior, that all affect each other through chain reactions and feedback loops. Emotional responses can have a fast component (nervous system and limbic system) and a slower component (cognition and endocrine systesm) which explains how we can be feeling an emotion but not be conscious about it yet
-The stress response is dependent not just on the stressor itself, but on perceived control. I think this might explain me a lot, because I usually feel that I have the resources to deal with a stressor and am all about control so I don't think I experience a large stress response (take this week for example)
-People are more likely to conform in situations that are more ambiguous, have a larger majority, and have a more homogenous majority...this could be applied to so many things. If we were trying to convince someone to eat a food such as spinach (one of my staple vegetables omg love spinach), then it would be great if at dinner everybody else at the table was eating spinach and we did something to make this situation seem ambiguous (lol that was a bad example sorry)
-Social learning theory/cognitive theory suggests that our personalities are a result of behaviors that we have learned from modeling and reinforcement
Alright there's a lot more but I've been studying it for the past week so I don't feel like writing more plus I don't want to bore you. Bye-bye! Next time I write it will probably be after this Psych final, yay!
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| this morning was my last rail trail run of 2017! |
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| view from walkway over the hudson |
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| some geese live here, but its a bit cold/frozen |
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| it snowed lightly last night, so i ran on snow! |
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| "light way to light" or a beautiful smattering of snow |
Thought you might find this interesting. A farm included as part of a housing development. http://livecannerydavis.com/#the-farm-house
ReplyDeletewhoa people still remember officer buckle and gloria
ReplyDelete