Thursday, July 14, 2016

Upside Down (side): Week 1 Day 4

Today was a good day, but not nearly as exciting or carefree as the last few days have been. On the upside, I got much closer to a decent amount of sleep last night than I had the past few nights. On the downside, I slept in so late that I barely had time to drop my linens downstairs and grab breakfast before rushing to my class ... only to be presented with our first pop quiz. Ouch. It wasn't all that bad, but I think I'll try not to cut it so close next time.
An adventure to the pool with Me, Ernestina, Angelica,
and Michelle 
Today's topic was how to write an APA style paper, a skill which we will later use to present the findings for our final project. The APA paper will be an exercise in very technical, scientific writing geared towards the clear and standardized presentation of information to add to the vast body of psychological literature. It comes closest to the lab reports I have written for science classes in high school, but on a whole new level. This kind of writing makes a lot of sense to me, and I actually kind of look forward to it. Before lunch we got started on social cognition, which basically describes the study of the way people think about other people. 

The lunch line was extremely long today (apparently I missed the huge lines yesterday, which were equally bad) so I didn't have much time to sit and chat. Back at Beecher Hall, we continued the class with plenty of example experiments for each concept described in the form of videos of participants. I was the most interested in "overimitation," a phenomenon where toddlers, adults, and Chimpanzees alike will copy what they are taught to do by an instructor or other authoritative figure even if it is not the most efficient way to do things or is equally efficient to some other method. While this teaching and following idea as a way to spread knowledge has been hugely important in furthering our society, there are also ways in which it is for the worse when people do not think for themselves.

Words of wisdom by Teague
Class was let out a lot earlier than usual, so as I was going to my dorm I ran into Ernestina, my roommate Michelle, and Angelica all heading to the pool. After deliberating I decided to join them, but ended up just walking back to the dorm when they discovered that the pool would not be opening for another hour. I got some good work done and got some good chatting in with friends. As I am sure I mentioned before, one thing I really love about this trip is the people. As my new friend Teague pointed out yesterday, the things that he is distracted by on this trip are not the typical things like TV or his cellphone, but rather the incredible people around him that he wants to stay up until 3:00 AM talking to. I totally agree with the sentiment, and feel lucky to be in such a special environment.

Side note: Never in my life have I met so many Alices my age, let alone all in one place. There are three other people with my name at the summer session and it is absolutely insane! We're taking over!

2 comments:

  1. Here come the Alices, hooray!
    You sound busy and stretched and satisfied. Love it! Having great people to share ideas with is heady stuff. Mmm hmm. Young flexible shiny minds. 😃 I believe this is one of the treasures of the college experience.
    Hugs and kisses. Keep up the good work. 😉

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    Replies
    1. William, are you available to meet for lunch tomorrow at 10:30 at Mingalaba in Burlingame?

      Let me know,
      Mr. Leonard

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