Hi! My name is Allison, and I am in 11th grade at Tallulah Falls School. I live in Lula, Georgia. I enjoy reading, being outside, and hanging out with my pets. I have a fish named Finley, a dog named Doodle, and a bearded dragon named Lester. We also have a goat and guinea fowl, which are loud but nice to have around. In this class, I simply want to learn the basics of why the mind works the way that it does.
After reading both articles, I noticed several factors that could render the studies inaccurate. The findings of both articles are based solely on cross-sectional research, a method in which “a researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time” (Spielman, 2014, p. 47). The doctors performing the experiments admit that longitudinal data, which is data gathered over an extended period of time, “[has] been lacking” (Christakis, 2004, p.708). The method used to conduct the study was a survey, a technique that has several weaknesses. These weaknesses include the inability to “collect the same depth of information on each person that would be collected in a case study,” as well as the risk of inaccurate responses from the participants (Spielman, 2014, p.46). In addition, the results of a survey must be “generalized” to a larger population; in this case, the data regarding 2623 total children represents the entire youth population.
The results of the study indicate that only 10% of the children surveyed at ages one and three showed attentional problems by age seven. The conclusion that “early television exposure is associated with attentional problems at age 7” is based off of a logistic regression model, which I have read to be a model that “estimates the probability of an event occurring…based on a given dataset of independent variables” (What Is Logistic Regression?, n.d, para.1). This indicates that the conclusion could possibly be inaccurate.
Out of the subjects covered in Chapters 1 and 2, I found the section about Ivan Pavlov’s studies on behaviorism the most interesting because I just find the power of the unconscious mind fascinating.
Thanks for reading!
References:
Christakis, D. A., Zimmerman, F. J., DiGiuseppe, D. L., & McCarty, C. A. (2004, April). Pediatrics. 113(4), 708.
Elias, M. (2004, August 30). Frequent TV Watching Shortens Kids’ Attention Spans. USA Today. www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-04-05-tv-kids-attention-usat_x.htm.
Spielman, R. M. (2014). Psychology. Openstax.
What Is Logistic Regression?. IBM. (n.d.). Retrieved August 30, 2023, from https://www.ibm.com/topics/logistic-regression.