Author Archives: DSitt

DSitt

Posts: 4 (archived below)
Comments: 3

Posts

Memory

by DSitt Posted on October 19, 2011

Group B’s reflection post is due on Friday, October 28 at 11:59pm
Groups A & C’s comments are due on Friday, November 4th at 11:59pm

For this reflection, imagine that you were unexpectedly struck by a falling object, which caused you to experience retrograde amnesia. As we learned, retrograde amnesia is the loss of memories which occurred before the brain injury. In this case, imagine this accident has caused you to forget all your explicit memories from childhood up until you were struck by the falling object.

Luckily, a medication has been developed to help you recover your memories, but it’s up to you to guide the recovery process.

1. How would you begin the process of recovering your memory? Who would you turn to, where would you search, and how would you proceed?

2. Please describe the emotional journey you imagine you would be going through as you attempt to reconstruct your life. Imagine the feelings you would have.

3. Suppose you were able to pick and choose the memories you wanted to recover from your life. What types of memories would you choose to retain and what types of memories might you decide to edit out of your remembered experience? Positive, negative, painful, happy, angry, frightened, etc. Please elaborate and explain some your decision making process.

Comment prompt:

Imagine you are a longtime friend of the person who wrote one of the reflection pieces, and consider these issues for your own comment.

1. What is your reaction to the choices made by the author of this Reflection in terms of which memories they chose to keep and which memories they are discarding.

2. How would you feel if this friend did not remember you (imagining that you are their longtime friend)?

3. What role might you play in helping them reconstruct their memory?

4. Based on what you’ve learned in class and through your readings, what memory encoding, consolidation, and retrieval techniques might you use or teach to help this person recover and reintegrate their memories?

Posted in Memory | 2 Comments

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Research Reflection

by DSitt Posted on September 28, 2011

The following Reflection is for Group A to post to. Those in Groups B and C are eligible to comment to Group A’s Reflections- see the bottom of this post for the Commenters’ instructions. For more on the guidelines to receiving Extra Credit for participation, click here.

Background Information

Think back to the lecture on research design. During that class, we conducted a mock experiment. We tried to see how different genres of music affected memory recall. Half the class read and tried to memorize a story while listening to Mozart and the half to Eminem. Music choice was manipulated and so that became the independent variable and since we were exploring its effect upon memory; memory was our dependent variable. We hypothesized that students would have better recall under the Mozart condition, but we were wrong. Somewhat surprisingly, the students performed slightly better on the memory task under the Eminem condition. We then identified all of the confounding variables that helped to explain this curious finding: only calling on students who raised their hand for answers, students having more exposure to Eminem than Mozart (sad but true), etc. So, we created an experiment, tested it out, matched our findings up against our hypotheses and created some conclusions about what happened and how the experiment could be improved. That’s how research works. The only step we missed was communicating our findings with the world. Guess what? Now you can think about a research experiment and communicate your thoughts and ideas with the rest of the class.

Let’s get started!

Instructions for Reflection (Group A)

In this Reflection, we’d like you to propose a research design exploring a question of personal interest. In a sense, this is a thought experiment. You won’t be actually carrying out this experiment. The purpose of this exercise is to get you thinking like a researcher and see what kinds of cool and exciting stuff you can come up with. Be sure to review your course readings, class notes, and Connect resources as needed to help you develop your Reflection post.

Please answer the following questions in your post:

What area of interest/research question do you wish to explore through a research study design?
What variables or concepts are you looking to observe and/or manipulate?
What type of design would best suit your research question? (Experimental, Correlational, etc)
What research method would you use to conduct your experiment? (Survey, case study, naturalistic observation, lab experiment, etc.)
If applicable, what would you put as your independent and dependent variables?
Give a hypothesis about what you think you might find.
What might be the benefits and implications of this study? In other words, who would gain from it?
Please reflect on the process of designing this experiment. What were the challenges you faced? Was this more/less difficult than you expected? How?

Instructions for Commenters (Groups B & C)

What would be your hypothesis of the study’s outcome?
What suggestions do you have for the researcher on how to improve or adjust the proposed study?
Are there any drawbacks or potential harmful impacts of this research design (or results?)
What would be the NEXT STEP after this hypothetical research study were conducted and presented to the public? Can you propose a replication with a good twist? That’s often how research works and how the field is able to advance. Maybe you can think up a great Follow Up study!

Posted in Research | 3 Comments

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A bit about me…

by DSitt Posted on September 16, 2011

Hi!
I’m a bit shy about writing about myself, but here goes…

My name is Dr. David Sitt and I am one of the Professors for this class. I am a licensed clinical psychologist and am the Deputy Chair of Baruch’s Psychology Department. Perhaps the first interesting tidbit about me is that I am actually a graduate of Baruch’s undergrad program, where I majored in Psychology. Due to my deep connection with Baruch, I have a great affinity for the students here and take great pride in teaching at my alma mater.

It was during my Intro to Psych class at Baruch that my passion for psychology sparked, though I did not change my major from Finance to Psychology until my Junior year. While at Baruch, I was fortunate to study abroad for not one, but TWO semesters! I spent the Fall semester of my Junior year in London, and then my Spring semester in Israel. That year remains among the most significant of my life. I highly recommend taking a semester abroad and would encourage you to begin looking into it FROM NOW.

Upon graduating from Baruch, I persued (I have no idea how to spell that so I will use the spell check tool on the top of the text entry-window indicated by a check mark and “ABC” on it…), ok, i meant pursued a Master’s Degree and Doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from a school named Ferkauf Graduate school, which is part of Albert Einstein Medical College, which is part of Yeshiva University (and no, you do not need to be Jewish to attend that school).

Over the years, I have worked with children, adults, and geriatrics (>70yrs). I was able to gain experiences from all over Manhattan, including Bellevue Hospital, Lennox Hill, South Beach Hospital, the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, and NYU Hospital. Currently, aside from teaching at Baruch, I have a small private practice that specializes in the assessment and treatment of ADHD, Depression, Anxiety Disorders, and other disorders. On top of that, I also conduct research on the impacts of Technology on social interactions and emotional wellbeing.

As far as links that reflect some of my various interests and pursuits:

My Twitter Feed @Edgycator
My blog for Psychology Today: “Dear Technology…”
My Weekly Broadcast about Positive Psychology: The Sitt Down (Season 2 will begin in November).
Facebook Page for Psychology In Motion here at Baruch College

Among the things I like to do on my down time are play guitar, hang out with friends, travel, snowboard, and recently started surfing again!

So as you can tell, I’m quite a busy fellow. Striving towards maintaining a healthy balance is constant work, but achieving such balance is, in my opinion, one of the keys to happiness and success.

As such, I encourage those who are reading this to give thought to how you plan to achieve your own personal balance. For example, try not to overwhelm yourselves with too many unnecessary responsibilities while in school. Prioritizing during college is essential, and your studies must remain at the top of your list. I know this is a constant challenge, but with a strong commitment, the right motivation, and good social support, you can accomplish great things!

And with those words, I wish you good luck this semester…

-Prof Sitt

ps I had over 12 spelling mistakes!!! Thank you spellcheck!

Posted in Say Hello | 16 Comments

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Say Hello- The Prerequisite for Participation in Extra Credit

by DSitt Posted on September 15, 2011

INSTRUCTIONS:

PART I

Your first blog assignment is to tell us about yourself!

Give us some Background: Some things you might include in your posting/blog: Are you new to Baruch this semester? Where did you grow up? What are your interests/hobbies? Is psychology your intended major? What have been your favorite classes thus far? Do you belong to any student clubs/organizations? etc.
Share something from the Web or from your personal archives that reflects a bit about who you are. This can be a link to a personal Blog or website, or perhaps to a YouTube video, song, poem, or picture that expresses a part of your personality. Have Fun with this piece J
Please note that other classmates will be reading your responses. This is NOT an iChat or BBM conversation, so please use proper grammar and full sentences.

PART II

Read through fellow students’ postings.
Comment and respond to what other people have posted. At MINIMUM, You MUST reply to ONE other student’s posting.
Be respectful of your peers and professors. Do not post messages that are disrespectful, insulting, or offensive. If your posting(s) are offensive to someone we will remove them and you will be held accountable for your actions.

PLEASE NOTE:

This “Say Hello” blog post does NOT count towards your 2 Reflections + 4 Comments required for extra credit. However, you MUST post something here if you intend on participating in future discussions, which will count towards extra credit points.
To complete the “Say Hello” prerequisite, you must post an original “Hello” message AND reply to at least one other student’s posting.
For details on how to use the Blogs@Baruch system to post and reply to the extra credit assignments, see the “Using This Site” tab.
Be sure to CATEGORIZE your posts. They will NOT show up on the site if you fail to place them in the correct category.
For more details on how extra credit is earned through the Blog, see the “Welcome” tab.
Please make sure you are familiar with Baruch’s Policy on Academic Honesty (see link below). You will be held accountable for any acts/behaviors/plagiarism that violate this policy during the course of the semester. http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html

DUE DATES:

Submit your original “Hello” posting NO LATER than Friday September 23rd @ 11:55pm.
Post a reply to another student’s posting by Tuesday September 27 @ 11:55pm. DO NOT LEAVE THIS UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. Late entries will not be accepted under any circumstance.

Posted in Say Hello | 1 Comment

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Comments Across the Site

"Saleh, Suzieee - thanks for coming to the rescue on Artie's post. Artie- I totally understand your skepticism. I too was hesitant about getting this blog space up for the class. I didn't want it to be just about answering questions that teacher's pose, but rather provide a symbiosis of advancing your integration of the course topics AS WELL as provide a tool for networking and going beyond the standard class interaction (which in our particular jumbo class, is challenging enough). I hope this blog will evolve over the course of the semester into a real powerhouse, and it is clear that I will need YOUR and your classmates input to do so…. Good luck with studying for your exam!"
posted on Sep 19, 2011, on the post heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey class

"Wow- adjusting from a 400 person high school to Baruch sure is a change! I am glad to know that you are accostumed to getting your HW done ahead of time- this is a major challenge for so many of our students. And BTW, You don't sound boring at all to me!"
posted on Sep 19, 2011, on the post Heys

"So glad to hear all of the commenter's thoughts! To address some of the comments- Wang- I will look you up on Twitter and follow. Saleh- it seems like I am very busy, but in reality I also have a nice amount of open time for my hobbies and personal interests. The key is to get to a point when you're not just efficient, but effective at what you do. Raul- I am far from a Genius- really just an ordinary average person who decided early on that I would hustle as hard as I could in whatever I was presently choosing to do. While I didn't intend on going into Academia, it just started unfolding that way, and so I've chosen to stick with it and see how much I could accomplish. I also believe that we never know when the end of our days will be, so it's best to live fully for the days we do have."
posted on Sep 19, 2011, on the post A bit about me…