Psych 101!! (Not 102)

[Nicolas Constantine]

The teacher entered the class and Nick's eyes lit up. This guy looked like the coolest teacher ever! He also looked as if he should be teaching spear fishing or how to grow awesome facial hair instead of Psychology.

Mr. Burr went straight to the slides, the information going in one ear and out the other. Nick never took notes and he tried to remember all the information by memory, which had only served him well in his many music classes thus far. Hopefully he wouldn't be asked any difficult questions or the quizzes would be multiple choice or he would just get lucky. Nick still didn't know why he was taking this class.

Luckily he and Adrian were the only ones to not be asked a question, and Nick didn't need to make a fool of himself in the first round.

[lunaburr]

Professur Burr smiled. These kids were good. It made him proud. "You're all correct. Very good." He clapped his hands together, ready to move onto the next part. "There will be one more section on the brain, then a quiz."

He began to walk up and down the isles, handing out papers, placing them face down on the tables. "These are quizzes, do not turn them over until I say. If I catch you peeking, it will result in an immediate zero. Don't push me." He glanced around at the students as he spoke, a sense of pride filling him. These great students wouldn't try to cheat would they? No. They were good students... <3

"Alright. The brain." He returned to the front of the class. "It's the most important thing in Psychology. It's where it all starts and begins. This isn't a biology class, so I'm not going to cover things like the Medulla Oblongata, or the cerebellum. Were going right into the interesting things. Memory." Again, the slides would begin to flick across the screen.

Memory - The process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information.

How do we remember?

• Encoding - We must attend to an item to encode it. We pay attention to a stimulus so we can encode it and remember it. The more links you make, the more likely you will be to remember it. For example, making little songs and jingles to remember lists.
  
• Storage - You retain information over time. The more you rehearse or practice something, the more likely you will be to retain the information.
  
• Retrieval - The ability to gain access to what you have stored.

3 Systems of Memory

• Sensory Memory - The initial, momentary storage of information, lasting only a moment.
  - Echoic Memory - Stores auditory information coming from the ears
  - Iconic Memory - Reflects information from visual systems.
  
• Short Term Memory - AKA Working Memory. This is memory that has meaning. It holds information for approximately 15-20 seconds. It can hold approximately 7+/-2 Chunks of info (A chunk is a meaningful group of stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short term memory. Chunking is the act of grouping items together in a meaningful way.)
  
• Long-Term Memory - Info in long term memory is encoded and filed so that we can retrieve it when when we need it. There are two kinds: Declarative, and Non-Declarative.

Declarative Memory - AKA Explicit Memory. Memory for factual info. 2 Parts:

• Semantic - Generic facts that are true for everyone. Independent of personal experience.
  
• Episodic - Autobiographical memory (persons perceptual experiences). Based on time and content.

Non-Declarative Memory - AKA Procedural or Implicit Memory. This is the memory for skills, habits, and the product of conditioning. This is memory that we are not conscious of, like writing. It is the blueprints of behaviour.

"So, now we know how we remember. But memories are not always accurate, remember that. Have you ever believed something happened with all your heart, but people say it didn't happen that way? The reason is the personal spin we put on things. Memories are built, in part, in a constructive process. They are also influenced by the personal meaning we give them. For this reason, memories can easily be distorted. Now we are going to look at why we forget."

Why do we forget?

• 1) Encoding Failure - A memory was never formed in the first place. We didn't pay attention and therefore did not form the memory.
  
• 2) Decay - Memories are lost over time due to disease.
  
• 3) Aging - Getting older influences the ability to remember. Hormonal changes, plaque on nerves, cells die.
  
• 4) Cue-Dependant forgetting - memory cues are missing when you go to retrieve a memory
  
• 5) Interference - Proactive/Retroactive (See next slide)
  
• 6) Retrieval Failure - Information cannot be located when needed.
  
• 7) Motivated forgetting - Information is hidden from consciousness for a personal reason.
  - Repression - Unconsciously preventing painful/dangerous thoughts or pushing unwanted memories out of awareness.
  - Suppression - A conscious effort to push something out of the mind.

Proactive Interference

• Information learned earlier interferes with recall of newer information. What you learned yesterday is interfering with what you are trying to learn today.

Retroactive Interference

• Later exposure to different material blocks ones ability to remember information presented earlier. What you learned today is interfering with what you learned yesterday.

"The two are EXTREMELY confusing. Even I, to this day, get them mixed up. If you want to find out what sort of Interference you are susceptible to (also serves as a good example) make a list one day. The next day make another list. On the third day, if you can't remember the first list, you have Retroactive memory. If you can't remember the second, you have Proactive. Now. Amnesia."

Memory Dysfunctions
Amnesia - Memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties.
2 types:

• Retrograde Amnesia - Memory is lost prior to a certain event.
  
• Anterograde Amnesia - Memory loss occurs after the event.
  A helpful picture <3

"And now, for the first quiz. You may turn the papers over. You have 10 minutes. Please, there are no trick questions, just answer to the best of your abilities, all the information was covered in the slides. There are 10 mutliple choice question. You may begin."

The students were turn over the papers and begin their quiz.

Quiz
1) What is the difference between repression and suppression?
a) The words.
b) Suppression is conscious and repression is unconscious.
c) Repression is conscious and suppression is unconscious.

2) The act of speaking is ____________ Memory.
a) Declarative
b) Non-declarative
c) Amnesia

3) Chunking is:
a) Chopping potatoes
b) Grouping items together in a meaningful way
c) Memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties

4) Retrograde Amnesia is:
a) Forgetting your whole life story
b) A hippie way of living
c) Memory loss prior to an event

5) The 5 Perspective are:
a) Biological, Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Cognitive, Behavioral
b) What perspectives?
c) Biological, Cultural, Freud, Cognitive, Human

6) The three types of Neurons are:
a) Sensory, Active, and Motary
b) Connector, Motary, and Dead ones
c) Sensory, Connector, and Motary

7) The right side of the brain controls:
a) The body
b) The right side of the body
c) The left side of the body

8) Lateralization is:
a) The way the world is divided into time zones
b) The way we talk
c) The dominance of one hemisphere over the other.

9) The left side of the brain is:
a) Smarter then the right half
b) Is artistic
c) Is responsible for complex movements

10) When we remember we:
a) Encode, Store, Retrieve
b) Chunky stew
c) There's an elephant in the way...

OOC - Sorry for stretching the page ><"
Please just answer the questions in list format, I'll figure it out. Example, your answers should just go:
A
B
C
A

[Adrian]

Adrian continued to scratch out notes as Mr. Burr passed out the quiz, instructing the students not to turn it over until it was time to do so. As his was handed to him, he nodded his thanks to the elderly professor, but on the inside he was a bit confused. What was the point of handing the students a quiz at this point and telling them not to look at it, as opposed to simply passing out the quiz when it was time to take it? It seemed to Adrian that Mr. Burr was simply trying to root out cheaters by leaving them the option. He smirked to himself, finding it amusing, if a bit underhanded. It's not like the teenager would do anything different in the same situation.

He continued to take down notes, writing down all the important parts of the slides, until Mr. Burr clicked them off and explained that it was time to turn over the paper and complete the quiz. Adrian slid away his notes, putting the notebook under the desk for the time, and flipped over the sheet of paper. He wrote his name at the top, pausing before the input of a last name, and finally, with a slight grimace, penning the word "Hanlon" in cursive, knowing that was still the name the school had him registered under, and would continue to do so at least until he was eighteen and could change it legally. The action brought a slew of unpleasant memories, still fresh in his mind, but he pushed them aside for the most part, laughing internally at the fact that he had just suppressed them, and went on to read the quiz in his head before answering the questions.

Quiz
1) What is the difference between repression and suppression?
a) The words.
b) Suppression is conscious and repression is unconscious.
c) Repression is conscious and suppression is unconscious.

2) The act of speaking is ____________ Memory.
a) Declarative
b) Non-declarative
c) Amnesia

3) Chunking is:
a) Chopping potatoes
b) Grouping items together in a meaningful way
c) Memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties

At this point, Adrian paused, putting the eraser end of his pencil in his mouth and pondering a moment. Could the last three answers all possibly be the same letter? No teacher would do that, would they? Adrian read over them again, blinking a few times, in case he wasn't reading right. Whatever, he thought, and shrugged outwardly. He wasn't going to fret over it.

4) Retrograde Amnesia is:
a) Forgetting your whole life story
b) A hippie way of living
c) Memory loss prior to an event

5) The 5 Perspective are:
a) Biological, Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Cognitive, Behavioral
b) What perspectives?
c) Biological, Cultural, Freud, Cognitive, Human

6) The three types of Neurons are:
a) Sensory, Active, and Motary
b) Connector, Motary, and Dead ones
c) Sensory, Connector, and Motary

7) The right side of the brain controls:
a) The body
b) The right side of the body
c) The left side of the body

8) Lateralization is:
a) The way the world is divided into time zones
b) The way we talk
c) The dominance of one hemisphere over the other.

9) The left side of the brain is:
a) Smarter then the right half
b) Is artistic
c) Is responsible for complex movements

10) When we remember we:
a) Encode, Store, Retrieve
b) Chunky stew
c) There's an elephant in the way...

Upon finishing the quiz, Adrian put his pencil down and turned his paper over, his eyes scanning the crowd to see how everyone else was faring. Not cheating, obviously, since his paper was turned over and he could no longer write upon it, but simply curious as to how much longer everyone else had taken. Thanks to Adrian being able to take notes while the other students were answering questions, most of the answers were still fresh in his mind. It hadn't taken him long.

The boy leaned back in his chair, relaxing for the remaining few minutes, or until everyone else completed their quiz.

[Sylar Silverberg]

Sylar watched as the teacher went through the slides. He would try and retain as much as possible. He quickly turned his paper over and started to write. The quicker he did it the more likely he would get them all right for he wouldn’t forget.

Quiz
1) What is the difference between repression and suppression?
a) The words.
b) Suppression is conscious and repression is unconscious.
c) Repression is conscious and suppression is unconscious.

2) The act of speaking is ____________ Memory.
a) Declarative
b) Non-declarative
c) Amnesia

3) Chunking is:
a) Chopping potatoes
b) Grouping items together in a meaningful way
c) Memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties

4) Retrograde Amnesia is:
a) Forgetting your whole life story
b) A hippie way of living
c) Memory loss prior to an event

5) The 5 Perspective are:
a) Biological, Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Cognitive, Behavioral
b) What perspectives?
c) Biological, Cultural, Freud, Cognitive, Human

6) The three types of Neurons are:
a) Sensory, Active, and Motary
b) Connector, Motary, and Dead ones
c) Sensory, Connector, and Motary

7) The right side of the brain controls:
a) The body
b) The right side of the body
c) The left side of the body

8) Lateralization is:
a) The way the world is divided into time zones
b) The way we talk
c) The dominance of one hemisphere over the other.

9) The left side of the brain is:
a) Smarter then the right half
b) Is artistic
c) Is responsible for complex movements

10) When we remember we:
a) Encode, Store, Retrieve
b) Chunky stew
c) There's an elephant in the way...

The quiz had seemed easy to Sylar. He looked around and noticed that one other person was done with the quiz. That was good. Sylar leaned back in his chair and waited for the rest to finish, or the ten minutes to be done first. Whichever came first that is.

(OOC: my bold responses are my answers)

[Ryuu]

Ryuu sighed quietly. With his arm out of commission temporarily, he couldn't take any notes down, and instead was forced to rely on his memory. Good thing he had such a damn good memory. Mr Burr then told them they would be doing one more section before having a quiz. Once he had finished his lecture, he handed out the quiz, telling them not to turn it over yet. Ryuu had no choice, he would have to use his left hand to write. Hopefully Mr. Burr would be able to read what he could only describe as chicken scratch, seeing as he never used his left hand before. Gripping his pen awkwardly in his left hand, once Mr. Burr had clicked the slides off and told them the could flip the paper over and begin the quiz, Ryuu flipped his paper, and read through the questions, before answering. He had paused at the very first question, seeing as he had painful memories that he had suppressed from long ago, but nonetheless, plowed on through the quiz.

1. B
2. B
3. B
4. C
5. A
6. C
7. C
8. C
9. C
10. A

Once Ryuu had finished circling his answers, albeit haphazardly, seeing as he never used his left hand before, he flipped his paper over, and leaned back in his seat, sighing quietly. He looked around, and saw besides him, only Adrian and one other guy was finished. Looking at his arm, it would take a couple of weeks for it to heal and for him to be able to use it again.

[Matrim Gallagher]

So.... that was repression.... and that other time was Anterograde Amnesia? It was temporary though... Noel was only a small part of my life and that was over quickly. Which means that fighting Alex, gave me a cue that helped me remember everything... a big chunk of my life gone for a short term.... strange. But at the same time, interesting to learn what it was that happened to me. This is all very interesting.....

And then it was time for the quiz. Matrim had been paying attention and trying to learn, wondering if his other classes would interfere with his learning of this class.

1. B
2. B
3. B
4. C
5. A
6. C
7. C
8. C
9. C
10. C, it's totally C.

Yup, that sounded about right. Matrim wrote in the bit adding onto answer 10 as a joke. After all, one quiz question wasn't about to make that big of a difference. He blamed it on his inability to remember, perhaps yesterdays lessons were interfering with his ability to remember the answer. Even if it was in front of his face.

[seishounohana]

They were passed the text papers a bit early on, which probably was a test. Emily felt it was part of the test, because not a lot of teachers would really risk their students cheating. Then again, this was a school that enforced corporal punishment, and if anything -- they probably could do this to actually either teach the students to be resourceful, sneaky, or just plain honest.

Well, Emily chose honesty for now. She left the paper alone until Mr. Burr gave the word to start the quiz. Yes! Multiple choice!

Taking out a pen, she smiled and began to encircle her answers: Which were...

B
B
B
C
A
C
C
C
C
A

Frowning a bit, Emily sighed, hoping that she was right at least. She turned the paper over, covering her answers. Man, she always was so anal about getting good scores. Probably a stigma from previous life-related events. Oh well, too late now.

[zer0]

Zack kept his attention on the class as he tried to answer the questions in his head while his classmates worked through them.

“I would say it is the behavioral perspective. The behavioral perspective emphasizes that psychology should focus on observable behaviors that can be measured objectively.”

Hmm... Zack pondered this one for a bit longer. He thought that it was probably the cognitive perspective because the question implied fear as a systematic reaction. Maybe he could ask after class, he made a note on his bare arm with a pen, scratching in 'cognitive or behavorial -> fear'.

He flipped his mind to the slides at hand. Memory, not one of his strong points. There were a few categories and definitions here and there, should be fine.

Quiz. Oh! ... hmm...

Flipping the paper over, he glanced over the quiz, staring for a moment before proceeding to answer the questions.

B
B
B
C
A
C
C
C
C
A

He thought carefully about each answer before writing them down, realizing he probably guessed a few, some of them not making sense to him. More things to ask. He shrugged, not bothering to double-check, leaning back as he gazed at the paper again before flipping it over and watching the teacher to let Professor Burr know that he was done his quiz.

That wasn't too bad...

[Nicolas Constantine]

More notes!? Nick was still trying to remember all the previous notes Mr. Burr had put up on the overhead. And then a quiz!? Oh, wow Nick was going to fail. When the teacher said to start the quiz and turn it over, Nick almost jumped for joy.

It was multiple choice, Nick's favorite kind of test if he had one. It didn't seem too hard, right? He looked down at the paper and wrote his name at the top.

Quiz
1) What is the difference between repression and suppression?
a) The words.
b) Suppression is conscious and repression is unconscious.
c) Repression is conscious and suppression is unconscious.

2) The act of speaking is ____________ Memory.
a) Declarative
b) Non-declarative
c) Amnesia

3) Chunking is:
a) Chopping potatoes
b) Grouping items together in a meaningful way
c) Memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties

4) Retrograde Amnesia is:
a) Forgetting your whole life story
b) A hippie way of living
c) Memory loss prior to an event

5) The 5 Perspective are:
a) Biological, Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Cognitive, Behavioral
b) What perspectives?
c) Biological, Cultural, Freud, Cognitive, Human

6) The three types of Neurons are:
a) Sensory, Active, and Motary
b) Connector, Motary, and Dead ones
c) Sensory, Connector, and Motary

7) The right side of the brain controls:
a) The body
b) The right side of the body
c) The left side of the body

8) Lateralization is:
a) The way the world is divided into time zones
b) The way we talk
c) The dominance of one hemisphere over the other.

9) The left side of the brain is:
a) Smarter then the right half
b) Is artistic
c) Is responsible for complex movements

10) When we remember we:
a) Encode, Store, Retrieve
b) Chunky stew
c) There's an elephant in the way...

Wow, Nick's head hurt after only ten questions. Why did he take this class!? He turned his paper over, apparently the last one to finish.

[lunaburr]

Professor Burr look to the clock. There was still a few minutes left before the quiz was over, but it seemed that everyone was done. He walked slowly around the class collecting the quizzes, then he placed them on his desk. He looked out at the students. It would take only a moment to mark them.

"Please, just sit tight for a moment, you may talk amongst yourselves. You'r quizzes will be marked momentarily." He pulled out his pen and began to mark the quizzes. After he was finished, he smiled. They had done well. He handed them out quickly and returned to the front of the class. "Let's go over the answers quickly."

The answers to Quiz 1:

b
b
b
c
a
c
c
c
c
a

"Alright, there will be two other quizzes during this class, so don't be to concerned. Moving on, we're now going to look at learning."

LEARNING - A relatively permanent change in behaviour brought about by experience.

3 Approches to Learning

• Classical Conditioning
  
• Operant Conditioning
  
• Cognitive Approaches

Classical Conditioning

• Founded by Ivan Pavlov
  
• Learning in which an organism learns a new association between two stimuli.
  
• A neutral stimulus comes to bring about a response after it is paired with a stimulus that naturally brings about that response.

"This is a confusing concept. The best way to describe it is with an example. You have a dog. The response you want is for the dog to salivate. Naturally, a dog will salivate to food. In classical conditioning, you will attempt to make the dog salivate by... ringing a bell. By conditioning the dog, he will begin to salivate at the sound of a bell as opposed to the food itself."

Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned Stimulus (US) - Stimulus that produces a response without learning. This would be the food in the case of the above example.
  
• Unconditioned Response (UR) - Reflex response. In terms of the example, it would be the dog salivating. It is the response observed by the introduction of the US.
  
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - A neutral stimulus that is paired with the UCS. Does not bring about a response on its own. This would be the bell in the example.
  
• Conditioned Response (CR) - The response to the CS. It is the exact same response at as the UR, but is in response to the CS, not the US.

Principles to Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition - Higher order conditioning
  
• Expectancies - Informational view - Look for associations and create expectancies about how events are connected.
  
• Extinction - The CR eventually disappears after no further pairings. If you stopped bringing the food when you ring the bell it would eventually stop working.
  
• Spontaneous Recovery - The reappearance of the CR without any new pairings of the two stimuli. The dog would for some reason begin to salivate again at the sound of the bell.
  
• Stimulus Generalization - The automatic extension of CR to a similar stimuli that has never been paired. The dog would begin to salivate at the sound of something similar to a bell, like a ring.
  
• Stimulus Discrimination - Learning to respond differently to stimuli that are different then the CS on some dimension.

---

1. Ryuu Hikari 10/10
2. Sacricia Emily Lourdes E. Delos Santos 10/10
3. Matrim Gallagher 9/10
4. Adrian Hanlon 10/10
5. Nicolas Constantine 9/10
6. Sylar Silverberg 10/10
7. Zachary Chan 10/10

OOC - It's not the complete class >< next post will lead into the next quiz... i think... ><" blargggg, ok questions for everyone!!

Professor Burr clicked off the slides and looked around at his class. They were such a good class. No one had interupted, no one had caused trouble. As much as he would like to congradulate himself and his amazing slides for that, he couldn't. This was just a good class. But it was time for a break from slides to answer some questions. "Alright Ryuu, who is Ivan Pavlov? Emily, what is the UR? Matrim give me an example of a stimulus generalization. Adrian, what is learning? Nick, explain extinction please. Sylar, what is spontaneous recovery? And finally, Zachary, what is the CR?

[Ryuu]

As soon as everyone was finished writing the quiz, Mr. Burr collected the quizzes and placed them on his desk before looking at them and told them they could talk among themselves while he marked the quizzes. Ryuu turned to Emily and gave her a small smile. "If you frown any more, your expression's going to stay like that permanently," He said teasingly, "I'm sure you did fine on the quiz, don't worry." Ryuu then leaned back in his seat, before looking at Emily once more. "...Can I ask you a favor? Since I can't write with my right arm, can I borrow your notes, until my arm heals?" Ryuu asked, looking slightly worried that Emily would possibly refuse, as he then looked back to the front as Mr. Burr handed them back their quizzes, taking his own, Ryuu smiled slightly, he had gotten a perfect score.

Mr. Burr then went back to the front of the class and told them they would go over the answers quickly, and then told them there would be two more quizzes in the class, as they moved onto learning. Ryuu paid strict attention to the slides once more, once he was done, he clicked the slides off and looked around at them, before asking them questions once again, and starting with Ryuu, again. "Alright Ryuu, who is Ivan Pavlov?" "He's the founder of classical conditioning, which is learning in which an organism learns a new association between two stimuli. A neutral stimulus comes to bring about a response after it is paired with a stimulus that naturally brings about that response." Ryuu replied, as Mr. Burr went on to ask questions directed at the rest of the class, as Ryuu continued to listen attentively while trying to retain as much information as he possibly could in his memory.

[seishounohana]

Emily quickly tried to smile after what Ryuu said. Well, yeah - there wasn't really much of a point in being so pessimistic. Then again, Emily hated the thought of having her face looking like it was frowning all the time. She was a vain young girl, after all. "...Can I ask you a favor? Since I can't write with my right arm, can I borrow your notes, until my arm heals?"

Emily nodded. "Sure, just bring it back before the next class." She told him. Mr. Burr handed back their papers, and to Emily's relief, she had gotten a perfect score. She flashed a victory sign over to Ryuu, playfully showing off her score. Man, guess there was really no point in worrying, right?

As the lecture went on, Emily made sure to make her notes easier to listen to read. Yeah, she had to do it for Ryuu's sake - her writing wasn't exactly the most legible thing ever, at least by female standards.

"Emily, what is the UR?"

Emily then put her pen down, looking at the teacher as she gave her answer. "U-R, or Unconditioned Response is also called "reflex response, or "reflex". Basically a response to the Unconditioned stimulus."

[Matrim Gallagher]

Matrim wondered if his test score would go down for his joke of an answer, but he really didn't care that much. The truth was that while taking notes furiously, trying to delve into his inner psychologist (and might I add not finding it), he hadn't really stopped to apply this to anything in his life, he just kept going. He was trying to think of what that last one was, Stimulus Discrimination. Because for the life of him he could not think of what that meant. He tried best he could, but in the end failed.

"Matrim give me an example of a stimulus generalization."

"It's sort of like how if your wife wants to give you a boner, she does something that associates itself with sex like kiss your neck... or touch you, or make a sexy noise in this instance. So the generalization would be if your wife sighed, it sounded somewhat like her sexy noise, so you pop a boner." And that's when Matrim became embarrassed that he said that out loud. He didn't even think about it before speaking, he just sort of said it as he thought it. Almost like a second nature answer, he was in auto-pilot.

"Uhh...." Matrim paused and would look around at the inevitable awkwardness, "I'm right though.... right?"

[Adrian]

When Matrim gave his example, there was an awkward pause, as every fully digested what exactly it was he just said. Adrian, however, broke the silence with a loud applause, nodding his head appreciatively in Matrim's direction.

"Bravo, my good man! I move that Matrim answers ALL the questions from now on!"

Regardless of his opinion on Matrim's answer, Adrian still had a question of his own to answer. What was learning? The boy couldn't resist a slightly snarky answer.

"Why, learning is what we're doing right now, sir," he said, feigning a cutesy innocent voice. He smirked and shook his head, waving it off as a joke and nothing more.

"No no, in more specific terms, learning is the change in a behavior or understanding of something, as brought about by the things you do, or see, or otherwise experience in your life, correct?"

He looked back over at Matrim, giving him a sly wink, still in stitches over his prior answer.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick smiled. Apparently he understood this stuff somewhat because he didn't completely fail the quiz, which surprised him. It gave him a little more confidence in the subject that was, until Prof. Burr started firing questions at everyone.

At Matrim's answer, Nick couldn't help but laugh out loud after attempting to contain his laughter. If that's how Psychology was taught, then he would ace it, no problem.

"Nick, explain extinction please."[/b]

Nick's laughter stopped. He was frozen with the question and if he actually understood this subject he's try and get it correct.

"Err..."

He could easily explain the word in English terms, but Psychology was different...

"Like when you were talking about the dog, if you continue to ring the bell, but you eventually stop bringing the food, the dog will stop salivating in response to the bell being rung."

Nick just hoped that was correct and he didn't seem stupid in front of his classmates who seemed to get this more than he did, nor to seem the same way towards the teacher.