Brainwaves and Ego Boosting.

I am feeling very good at the moment for two reasons, firstly I got an A* on my third weekly test and secondly I have spent the past hour being told how great I am. =]

The reason for this ego stroking was I took part in an experiment this morning, it was and EEG (Electroencephalogram) experiment so I had to wear a rather fetching cap like the one which you can see on the left. I first had to wash my hair with baby shampoo to remove any grease from my scalp, then I also had to have alcohol rubbed in to my scalp through the holes in the cap to clean away any more oils. Then Nicola (the experimenter) put a mixture of sand, salt and gelatin through each hole to increase conductivity, nice. I got to watch the Simpsons whilst this was a happening as it takes a while, and it was good because I hadn't seen either of the episodes before.

The experimental tasks were simple, I had a keyboard on my lap and in the first one I had to press the space bar for every capitalized word that wasn't an animal, and in the second one I had to see if the psuedo-word in lowercase sounded the same as the real word in uppercase pressing C for yes and M for no.

Now comes the ego stroking, as it was a test on dyslexics and non-dyslexics I had to do several reading, remembering and spelling measures. The first was reading as many words as possible in a minute - I got to the end with time to spare and no mistakes, the second was a spelling test which I did well on, the third was reading nonsense words as fast as possible - I was very accurate and fast, and the final one was remembering numbers and reciting them forward and then remembering numbers and reciting them backwards - she couldn't believe how much I could remember and said I was by far the best yet. =] All in all a good morning.

I'll speak about Monday's research colloquium in another blog as this one has gone on long enough already! Maybe tomorrow. =]

A distinct lack of umming.

Good news! I did my first prepared speech in POPPS (Psychology Oral Presentation Practice Sessions) on Thursday and it went a lot better than expected. The way POPPS works is you have to do both prepared and impromptu speeches, and someone times you and someone else counts how many times you 'um' and 'er'. My speech was called an icebreaker, it's something that all first years must do and is basically just introducing yourself. Although it was obvious to everyone that I was very nervous and my voice wobbled a little I'm pleased with how I did as I managed to speak for 3 and a half minutes, and only ummed 3 times (less umms than anyone in the class, even the second years!) So yes Paul our POPPS mentor said it was clear I was nervous but I had no reason to be as I did very well, and Josie, one of the second years also commented that it was a hell of a lot better than her first speech was. So all in all a success.

I have just got back from a busy day at Alton Towers. My alarm first went off at 5.45this morning, and thank god I set three of them as I snoozed through the first two unaware that I was actually meant to be going somewhere today! The weather was pretty lousy, and the queues were longer than they were when I went in the Summer, but I still had a great time and went on lots of rides. I also got chased something that looked an awful lot like a nightmarish version of Mr Tumnus and terrified by a giant duck on the rapids as it is scarefest at Alton Towers because it's nearly Halloween.

Mummy is arriving tomorrow and I'm very excited as I haven't seen her for 5 weeks now! The longest we've ever been apart I think. =( The weather will probably be terrible but I'm sure we'll have fun anyway, and I'm very muchly looking forward to having a bath in the travelodge as I really miss them, I think Mum's even bringing bubbles!

Is your red pinker than mine?

Right here is my Wednesday blog, as promised.

First some good news, I got an A+ on second weekly test! Having got an A- on the first one I was definitely expecting my grade to go down, so I'm very happy that it the opposite has in fact happened. Sadly the next result I'll get back is my first stats exam, not quite as hopeful about that one!

Also the article that I submitted to the Psychology newsletter was accepted and Phil said it was good, yay. =]

So all in all a good week so far. I've spent the morning lying on my bed preparing my book for tomorrow's exam and trying to outline my speech for my POPPS lesson tomorrow - rather nervous about that one!

The research colloquium I attended on Monday was very interesting as I had anticipated. It was about the effect that language may have on our perceptions of the world we live in. I had studied this a little bit during AS level in my English Language lessons already so I was already at an advantage in understanding what Prof. Thierry was talking about! When he mentioned the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis it all came screaming back.

They investigated whether language affected perception using colours, and Greek and English participants. This is because here in England we only have one word for the colour blue, where as in Greece they have to 'Ghalazio' and 'Ble' both describing different shades. Participants were then given tiles with two dots on them, some were both classed as either ghalazio or ble and others had one of each, participants were then asked to rate from 1-10 how different the dots were.

The English participants rated all the tiles similarly noticing little difference between the different pairs, whereas intermediate bilinguals (poor English but good Greek) rated substantial differences between same and cross category pairs. Now here's the interesting bit; advanced bilinguals (good at both English and Greek) noticed some but very little difference. They then went on to using EEGs to measure brain reactions to the colours when displayed on a screen but I won't go into this as it's complicated and I'm still getting to grips with it myself! Could this mean though that the acquisition of English has changed there original perception of colour? It's early on in the investigation so who knows, interesting thought though isn't it?

I am still here!

Havn't posted in a while, just a quick one to say I'm alive and well!

Yesterday marked a month at Uni done already, the longest that I've ever been away from home, and I'm absolutely exhausted! It's been a long day as Monday's always are so I can't be bothered to blog properly today. Expect a full and detailed report on Prof. Guillaume Thierry's research colloquium (as requested by Chris H, although I probably would have bored you all with it anyway! =P) tomorrow or on Wednesday, I'd say it's worth the wait, but you may not agree. =]

Bye for now!

Acronyms-a-go-go.

Haven't blogged for a few days but I've been rather busy as it was my birthday last weekend, and I spent Saturday celebrating and then Sunday sleeping it all off...

But good news is I got an A- on my first test (the post-it's must have paid off!) and should hear about the second one any day now. Although my first stats test is tomorrow, and I'm a little apprehensive as I'm not sure what to expect!

Other things that have happened since I last blogged, include attending my first BUFF's meeting (Bangor University Film Fanatic's). Which was good, although I wouldn't class myself as a film fanatic, I do want to stay in the society as some of the people seem nice, and they are setting up showings of our favourite films weekly. So far the list includes things like Moulin Rouge, Ghostbusters and Sleepy Hollow, not bad at all.

A lot of the societies here at Bangor try to come up with names that result in an amusing and often rude acronym. For example the Bangor University Mountaineering Society, the Bangor University Table Tennis Society and my favourite the Bangor Archaeology Students, Trowellers And Research Diggers Society.

And I also purchased my University hoodie, in a fetching blue and red combo. Very snazzy.

End of the week!

My weeks end on Thursday now really as I have no lessons on Friday. Friday is just a day to catch up on sleep, do any outstanding work, and maybe go to Morrisons if I'm in need of food!

We had our second MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) test today, which I must say I thought was easier than the one in the first week! We have 35 minutes to complete 25 questions and it's open book, not to bad as long as you're prepared.
On that topic my books look like this when I take an open book exam:
I sat down ready for the test today when one of the girls on my row (who I'm finding increasingly irritating) said "You're letting the side down with your post-it notes, our books have got nothing on them" to this I replied something to the effect that surely then it was them that was letting the side down as this was perfectly allowed. Proved my point too when I finished a good ten minutes earlier than her because I hadn't had to waste too much time finding the answers in my book! As far as I'm concerned you get out what you put in, if you're willing to mark the pages as you read them then you're going to save yourself a lot of time in the long run!

I also had my first POPPS (Psychology Oral Presentation Practice Skills) lesson today, and I think that this is going to be by far the hardest part of the course for me, but I'm sure eventually I will find it very beneficial. Today the POPPS mentor said that the first years were not required to do a speech as he knew we would be finding it all very daunting, so instead we watched the second years give impromptu 3-minute speeches about a variety of topics including 'Why Lidl is awesome', 'What I found hard in first year Psychology' and 'My Fresher's week experience' to name a few. Being as shy as I am I think I'm going to find this difficult but I'm sure I'll settle into it, and it will be invaluable when it comes to giving my research presentation in my third year!

I do like Mondays.

Monday is by far my busiest day, as I am in lectures from 9-1 and then have a research colloquium from 2-3. I do however enjoy Mondays (despite how exhausted I am by the end of the day) and today was no exception. I found the research colloquium particularly interesting (although many of my fellow students did not seem to agree) it was given by Professor Bob Rafal, who specialises in Clinical Neuroscience and Neuropsychology, and today's lecture was all about hemispatial neglect and visual extinction in stroke patients.

I felt quite sorry for the guy as he had considerable computer issues and so had a class of 300 undergraduates sat watching him struggle with the Mac for about 10 minutes. Already off to a bad start, people were restless and not filled with great hope for the lesson, to the point where many people began to laugh as multiple windows began opening on this poor blokes screen.

Once rescued by the IT guys he got underway, and I found what he was talking about absolutely fascinating. He was saying how a stroke can lead to a neglection of one side of the body or visual field, but the patient is unaware that they are behaving like this. For example is the stroke has affected the right hemisphere of their brain, and you walk up to them from their left side (as the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body) they will not notice you until you enter their other visual field, same as if you were to wave money at their left side, they would not react, but would be completely unaware of this unawareness!

He then went on to explain how even when patients do begin to recognise things in both visual fields if there are confounding stimulus, for example if you stood in front of them and wiggled both fingers, they would be likely to only notice one moving. Then taking this even further if you were to ask a stroke patient to say what you were holding in your hands, if you held the same object in each visual field only one would be identified, whereas if two different ones were held up both would be named. But it isn't that the brain isn't recognising it because it's a duplicate, because if two completely different forks are held up, still only the one in the undamaged visual field will be named.

However if you then change your question and ask them to tell you the colour of the objects in each visual field, they will be aware of both of them again. This disproves the original theory that it is the cognitive processing that is limited in these patients and suggests that it may be more to do with a problem in motor actions. As they are processing the information, but are not necessarily able to act on it in the usual way.

I found this all very interesting and will probably be looking into it further when I have the time, and I find it very odd that there are so many people on this course who are so unenthusiastic towards the subject and display such low levels of motivation and interest in the course. Why are they here if they don't find it interesting?

Anyway enough Psychology waffle. =] I had a rather yummy dinner of jacket potatoes with chicken and cheese, as all these things needed using up as they were pushing (or in the potatoes case) past their sell by dates!

I've also had fun playing around with a website this week. Making words is fun.

Hope you are all well!

A new beginning.

So, there's only one more lecture left before my first proper week at University is over! It has been a tiring and overwhelming experience, but definitely a fun one, never have I been more sociable and outgoing in my life!

I've been asked to write an article about my Fresher's Week experience for the Psychology newsletter by my warden, as he is the editor of it and knows I enjoy writing. Some things to include will certainly be the Psychology party at Hendre Hall and the beach trip, both of which were great fun.

The only downside to this Uni lark is that I'm already missing my brother terribly, and I can't help but feel that it will only get worse as our birthday draws closer! But I'm sure it's nothing that a quick phonecall or Skype can't sort out when he gets home.

Fan's of Bollo should probably watch this too. Some parts of it tickled me a bit. =]