Time is an important variable in many psychological concepts. Describe a specific example that clearly demonstrates an understanding of each of the following concepts and how it relates to or is affected by time. Use a different example for each concept.

Critical Period

Shortly after children are born and early in their childhood, exposure to drugs can be especially dangerous to their health. A critical period is an optimal period of time shortly after birth in which development takes place. For examples, a child's attachment based on familiarity forms during a critical period. During this time, certain events and interactions must take place between a child and his parent in order for proper development to occur.

Spontaneous Recovery

A kid is taught to go to sleep once the light is turned off. For a couple of months, the kid no longer falls asleep with the light off. Then, the child once again falls asleep once the light is turned off. Spontaneous Recovery is the reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response. If one develops a controlled response to a stimulus and experiences a rest period, the response may become extinct only to spontaneously recover later. If Pavlo's dog experienced extinction, then later on was exposed to the tone, the conditioned response of salivation might spontaneously recover.

Sound Localization

A sound from one's right side reaches one's right ear before the left one, and this helps us to locate where the sound came from. When attempting to locate a sound, the placement of our ears helps us identify where the sound originated. Even though our ears are only about six inches apart, we can determine in what direction a sound came from because sound travels at 750 miles per hour and will arrive at the ear closest to the noise slightly sooner. If one is on a field during a football game and someone yells his name, he can locate the origin of the sound because the ear that the sound is closest to will receive a slightly more intense sound.

Fluid Intelligence

Fluid intelligence, which plays a huge role in problem solving, can decrease as one grows older. Fluid Intelligence is one's ability to reason speedily and abstractly. when attempting to solve a novel math problem, Fluid Intelligence assists in person in arriving at the correct answer. Over time, one's fluid intelligence decreases. Up to the age 75, it decrease slowly then more rapidly especially after 85.

Presentation of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in classical conditioning

Initially the conditioned stimulus is irrelevant. Once there is an association with an unconditioned stimulus, it then triggers a conditioned response. For this association to occur, a subject needs to be presented with the UCS. Then the subject needs to be presented with both the UCS and the CS. The UCS is repeatedly presented shortly after the CS. Eventually, this will lead to the CS triggering a controlled response. Ivan Pavlo demonstrated this process in his experiment with the salivating dogs.

Refractory period in neural firing

The refractory period is the period in which the neuron charges back up so it can fire again. In the first step of the refractory period, the neuron does not fire no matter how much stimulation is received. This lasts for a short period of time. Then, during the relative refractory period, an intense stimulus is required to trigger the action potential before the neuron returns. After the refractory period, the neuron will fire when the neural threshold is reached.

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

The theory describes how our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli. We do not experience emotion until after an emotion-arousing stimuli. If one managed to prevent getting into an accident after skidding on the road, he would then feel a rush of emotion a period of time afterward.

Group Polarization

When a group of people who are all firm conservatives converse with one another, once they're done talking with each other their pro-conservative beliefs become even stronger. Group Polarization is the enhancement of a group's prevailing attitudes through discussion within the group. With time, the initial attitude that most people in a group favor will be amplified. If high-prejudice people discuss racial issues, as time progresses, the members of the group will become more prejudice.