Psychology

Experimentation always requires an empirical basis in order to back up the study that is being conducted. The scientific method is a useful process for many researchers however, since they can also be driven to bias because of certain preconceptions (Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research). This is where the significance of human research can be most beneficial.

Human research either descriptive, correlational or experimental, while systematic, each have their own advantages and disadvantages, depending on what kind of study is being performed. Some research approaches are more effective than the other however, there are difficulties that encompass human research in general. Some of these include the procurement of consent, observer effect (how representatives behave differently when informed of the experiment) technical limitations and inconsistencies like locations and other conditions.

Descriptive research, which is either done through observation (in laboratories or otherwise), case studies and surveys are probably the most common ways to conduct a human research. Surveys, although fast and easy to accomplish, and also can also provide data from a large population, are prone to inaccuracies because people might want to answer what they think is socially acceptable and desirable as a courtesy bias, and representatives can also forget about their true habits, or not take the survey seriously. This will especially be detrimental to sensitive issues, such as sexuality, when a representatives views are attempted to be made known through a series of questions in a survey. Some approaches that makes use of a survey are especially discouraged for example, a lengthy questionnaire on sexuality in particular, can be tedious and uncomfortable to answer, and may lead to unreliable answers that wont be useful to the study.  It must then be made sure that the length and kind of questions to be answered must be reasonable and fitting for the group to be surveyed. Another disadvantage is having to make sure that different groups of people are represented, otherwise, the information ends up concentrated in a certain domain.

There are many ways to make use of the participation of people in an experiment. The path to gaining insight from human research as part of the scientific method is a tedious hurdle to overcome, but genuinely rewarding when done with the right approach and attitude.

Olfaction is basically the sense of smell of creatures that breath air. For humans, smell relies on sensory receptors that react to volatile chemicals in the air. These receptors, known as chemoreceptors, are situated in the olfactory epithelium, which is a piece of tissue situated in the persons nasal cavity. People can easily notice the power and importance of this tiny tissue when it filters certain smell and reminds them of some memory of other people they met in the past or certain occasions that have happened to them. In fact, in most cases, it only takes the slightest indication of aroma to bring a memory to the head of the exposed person. Because of this marvelous observation, numerous physio-psychologists, biologists, and psychologists conducted a number of diverse types of experiments in order to give explanation to the connection between the memory and smell.

Studies about Human Sense of Smell
Humans are capable of memorizing either intentionally or incidentally different types of odors. However, in many cases, odors are learned unintentionally as people do not normally take time to memorize scents. In a number of studies, visual and verbal signals are found to create some type of connection between the memory and olfaction. These studies include the Hebbian Principle and Autobiographical Recall (Dill, 2007).

The Hebbian Principle
The Hebbian principle applies to olfactory stimuli when odors are learned through repeated exposure. To illustrate, the major difference between a persons ability to identify odors and faces is that every person has expectedly acquired an enormous proficiency in recognizing faces. This observation could be due to the fact that sense of smell is not as essential in peoples everyday life. However, the human sense of smell has much more power than what people normally believe. Although people are not capable of distinguishing specifically many odors, if learned, peoples ability to distinguish odors is remarkably comparable to their ability to distinguish faces. People are basically expected to retain information more effortlessly when frequently detected, and olfactory memories are not an exemption (Dill, 2007).

In one study conducted by Egon Peter Koster, Jochim Degel, Clair Sulmont, Dominique Valentin, and Sylvie Issanchou, they concurred that faces and odors have several significant common features even though they are apparently very different stimuli (as cited in Dill, 2007, p. 2). Odors and faces elicit emotions and provide social signals that are not easy to disregard once learned. This context-dependent memory is known as perceptual learning, which is learned through repeated exposure (Dill, 2007, p. 2).

Autobiographical Recall
Larsson and Willanders studies about autobiographical memories reveal that olfactory-evoked memories largely recall memories that occurred during ages 6 to 10 in contrast to 11 to 25 for verbally-signaled memories (as cited in Dill, 2007, p. 4). In view of this, memories evoked by visual and verbal signals are basically pulled out from young adulthood, while memories linked to odors are linked to the first decade of a persons life. In other words, olfactory-cued autobiographical memories are older than memories connected with verbal-signals. Odor-related memories therefore arouse more intense feelings of being transported back in time.

Connection between Smell and Memory
The olfactory bulb is part of the limbic system of the brain, an area intimately connected with feelings and memory. The olfactory bulb has close contact with the hippocampus, which is in charge of associative learning, and the amygdala, which processes feeling. Because of such association, smell can activate immense reactions and memories almost instantly. When a person smells a new scent, he or she unconsciously associates the scent with a thing, person, or event, and as a result, the persons brain creates a connection between a memory and the smell.

Smell is a very important aspect of human episodic memory. A smell can trigger thoughts, mental images, and emotions that people associate with previous events, persons, or things. The brain initially figures out the earliest specific scent obtained by the olfactory sensation and eventually associates it with something. In time, the scent can trigger several regions of the brain that can remind the person of the event, thing, or other person originally associated with the smell. Unpleasant or noxious odors, for instance, can make a person ill or unhappy, while pleasant aromas can elevate mood. Because people encounter many new odors during their early days, smells normally generate childhood memories.

Conclusion
Olfaction is also known as the sense of smell, which is a basic sense of humans. Although the olfactory system of humans is not designed to identify odors, it can distinguish between odors through repeated exposures. This exceptionally amazing feature of the human sense of smell can affect autobiographical recall as well as memory-related learning. Accordingly, certain smell can affect peoples work performance, influence their moods, and even bring several memories. Because of the mystery between the link of smell and memory, throughout the years, it has been the subject of numerous neurological researches of physio-psychologists, biologists, and psychologists, many of which produced relevant answers.

Codependence or codependency is a tendency to behave in ways that affects an individuals ability to have a healthy, mutually pleasing relationship. This is referred as relationship addiction because individuals with codependency often maintain or form relationships that are emotionally destructive, one-sided and abusive. Symptoms related to codependency normally fall into 3 categories Denial patterns People fail to observe their correct nature of their behavior often. For example, they may think that they are totally generous and are devoted to others needs. They may also refuse that the other individual has any troubles (King, 2006).Low self esteem patterns People estimate themselves much too cruelly and do not recognize themselves as valuable or adorable. They give value to the opinions of others more than their own, which may make them also uncertain. Compliance patterns People may be eager to compromise their own principles and honesty in order to prevent refusal or irritation from others. For example, those people may involve in sexual relationships to look for approval or prevent refusal. These people may also keep their interests or hobbies aside in order to follow those of others (King, 2006).

Symptoms of codependence
1. Lack of belief in self and also in others2. Continuous annoyance toward self and others3. Trouble making choices and conversing with others4. Show signs of anxiety and depression5. Give importance to the permission of others than self6. Unhealthy reliance on relations, doing everything for holding on to a relation and avoiding the feeling of rejection7. Trouble adjusting to modifications, retains stiff control8. Constantly doing additional than their share 9. Feel upset when other people do not realize their hard work, become annoyed when their assistance is not helpful10. Overstated sense of accountability for the others actions 11. Uncomfortable to accept appreciation or honor12. Thinks other people are responsible for their gladness and feels irritated when other people do not give equal concentration to them that they give to others 13. Accepts physical, sexual or verbal abuse 14. Low self-esteem and judges self cruelly 15. Lying and being deceitful to retain control 16. Fear of rejection and isolation 17. Finding difficulty to recognize their own feelings18. Not identifying restrictions in relationships and trouble with closeness19. Feels blameworthy when being self-confident20. Sequence of laziness and hyperactivity 21. Gives favors, gifts and advice in spite of how long they know about other persons and becomes friendly to others too quickly 22. Accepts unnecessary gifts, touch or sex, permits others to control their life, expect others automatically will satisfy their needs23. Controlling others and feels others are not capable of caring for themselves24. Talking to other persons intimately on the first meeting, becoming involved sexually on first meeting and touching other person without even asking25. Secondary physical symptoms include ulcers, headache, insomnia, sleep disorders and other stress related diseases (Bipolar Central, 2004)

Diagnosis for codependence
Diagnosis for codependence can be difficult as the severity differs from person to person. To recognize the condition, mental healthcare professionals ask several questions. These questions includeIs the patient going to extreme levels to stop quarrellingIs the patient excessively worried about the others judgmentsIs the patient dislike to convey hisher true feelings to othersIs the patient physically or emotionally ill-treated ever Is the patient normally felt inadequateIs the patient lived ever with someone who has problem of chemical dependencyIs the patient feel abandoned when the significant other spends their time with their friends Is the patient having any difficulties in accepting gifts or greetingsIs the patient have any trouble in saying no when anyone asked for helpIs the patient thinks like a bad person after doing a fault Is the person feels that without their help, others will fall apart (King, 2006)

Treatment for codependence
Several forms of therapy may be used to treat codependency, including group therapy, individual therapy, cognitive behavior therapy and family therapy. Patients discover the issues that led to this form of destruction from their childhood. During treatment process, patients are encouraged to rebuild family dynamics. The goal of the treatment is to have patients connect again with their feelings. Codependency treatment will be successful only when the patient finds out and stop their behavior that has harmful consequences (King, 2006). Codependency is viewed as a type of addiction. The symptoms of codependency can be treated with a 12 step process called codependents anonymous (Ploskin, 2007). Twelve step programThe twelve-step program brings all the codependents as a group together to speak about their efforts and share hope and practices. The 12-step process is nondenominational and includes spirituality. The meetings of codependents anonymous offer great source of emotional and realistic support to the participants. The recovery process involves confessing their life has become uncontrollable because of their codependence. It needs expressing their feelings, doing what they can to get recovered and allowing to go of things that they cant control (Ploskin, 2007). In the 12-step program, the patients have to make recovery as a first priority. Like other addictions, codependence is also dangerous patients may recognize the symptoms, but reject their significance, or reject that they are applicable to them (Simko, 1996).

Patients decide to change, but after time passes, they repeat the same old things. Making recovery as a top priority means summarizing the negative behaviors, discovering alternative behaviors, and then executing them. This means, patients should attend the meetings, challenge themselves, talk with others about changing the behavior and then changing the behavior (Simko, 1996).The patients should identify with others in the group and start to know about themselves. The more the patients learn about the disease, the more they can find how the disease crawls into every phase of life and harsh it can be. Paying attention to others and making out with them can help the patients to identify themselves and understand better. These are the primary steps in the way of accepting, loving themselves and putting top principles and more suitable goals (Simko, 1996). The patients should stop supervising and controlling other people. They should stop overruling, helping, trying to make things improved, trying to force to follow the solution and advising. They should allow others to make their own judgments (Simko, 1996). This comprises taking blame for their own faults, their sadness, their matters and their personal development.Patients should face their own difficulties and deficiencies. When patients does not involve in other persons life, they may get more time and strength to concentrate on their own life (Simko, 1996). The patients should become selfish at this point and give importance to them first. They should be sure that their essential needs are fulfilled first before giving away their time, money, energy and any other resources. They should make sure they are getting their sleep, meals, peace and other important things (Simko, 1996).

Differences between caring, loving and codependency
Caring means being sensitive to other peoples feelings, treating people with kindheartedness and generosity, thinking about how their actions will affect other people, helping people who are in need, giving time to the people, and never be mean or insensitive.Ex Children taking care of their parents when they are in old age. Loving means nurturing and supporting our own and others spiritual growth. This type of behavior is intended to give something helpful like compassion, support and understanding to ourselves and others. Loving is a rewarding behavior in itself and does not expect an outcome or getting something back.Ex Parents love their children as it gives joy and satisfaction to them and they do not expect anything in return from their children.Codependency characterizes an entire range of feelings, values about ourselves, symptoms and behaviors. The important characteristic of the codependency is a big focus on another individual. The other individual may be lover, spouse, boyfriendgirlfriend or a significant other. A person who shows codependency symptoms focuses on everybody else rather than himherself (Simko, 1996). Ex When a group is going to a restaurant, everyone tries to decide where to go, but the codependent person will object saying, any place is ok for me. This policy may be helpful in a group to decide the place easily, but this is a problem for the codependent as the person lacks in decision making ability (Simko, 1996).

Traditionally, behavioral analysts have termed response strength as the organisms behavior state that is exhibited in various measures among them the rate, latency, the responding force and probability given varying contexts such as experimental context, deprivation context and reinforcement history. According to this concept, elevated response strength is exhibited by increased response rates or greater responses magnitude or shorter latency. However, Nevin, Atak and Mandell have so far challenged or refuted this conception arguing that some measures used including response rates are just variables of schedules of reinforcement and that they are amenable to specific training circumstances. Using low rate behaviors differential reinforcement for example, organisms can be taught or trained pacing their own responses as per the experimenters designed criteria. Nevin and his colleagues came up with a proposition for using resistance to change response as the correct one to measure the strength of response. In the year 2000, Nevin and grace gave an illustrative example using a wall (Domjan, 2009). They argued that a walls strength is not measured by its width, height or other of its dimensions but rather by the weight load amount it is able to withstand while under tests. Also, with all other factors being equal, reinforced concrete walls by rods of steel tends to be more stronger than other similar walls that are not reinforced with steel rods. According to Nevin, Mandell  Atak (1983, in the context of an organisms behavior, learning is considered not merely on how it performs while in a training setting or the classroom settings. What is more important is its performance while subjected to environmental contingencies that have been altered. Performances under the latter setting are said to be resistant to changes in the environment (Nevin, Mandel,  Atak, 1983).

Despite the fact that most behavioral analysts highly support the use of behavioral resistance to change as the effective tool for measuring the response strength, there has been debates on whether greater response strength can be produced by subjecting organisms to environmental circumstances. In the past, schedules of partial reinforcement were thought to be suitable for production of environmental changes resistant behaviors such as extinction by behaviorists. Actually, most of the books relating to or advocating for the use of reinforcement schedules for clinical purposes recommends that while imparting or coming up with a new behavior or skill, a person should first begin by reinforcing all the responses and at time carry out response approximations. With increasing proficiency of a learner, these behaviorists recommend the thinning out of the reinforcement to ensure that not all responses are reinforced but only some deemed vital or essential. This concept is known as PREE or the partial reinforcement extinction effect.

Nevin, 1992 proposed a different hypothesis on partial reinforcement extinction effect (Domjan, 2009). Although this was demonstrated empirically, Nevin came up with the hypothesis that resistance to change of a response is positively related to reinforcement density rate which is associated with a particular behavior. This means that responses that receive higher rates of reinforcement have greater resistance to change as compared to those that receive lower rates of responses after application of behavioral disruptor. This notion is conceptualized in the later behavioral momentum metaphor of Nevin (Nevin  Grace, 2000 found in Domjan, 2009).

There are evident implications of the behavioral momentum model one is the application of reinforcement fading procedure that moves from schedules of continuous reinforcement to schedules of partial reinforcement. This may increase the chances of occurrence of a relapse following changes in conditions from initial training to maintenance. The other implication is that an environment that is highly reinforcing may become counter productive especially when a behavioral therapist tries to reduce a behavior that is challenging. According to Nevin and Grace, behavior rate may decrease if there is an increase in persistence.

Statement of the problem
While employing the behavioral therapy, the various procedures that entail environmental enrichment may become more productive if the theory of behavioral momentum prediction can become more accurate and reliable through elimination of the discrepancies and conflicting findings.

Background of the study
Behavioral momentum metaphor concept was devised by John Nevin in the year 1992 (Domjan, 2009). Nevin who has a PHD psychology and has also studied engineering combined these two disciplines and came up with an operant behavior which he referred to as behavioral momentum. Behavioral momentum refers to a theory of behavior that entails quantitative analysis and it is also a comparative metaphor founded on physical momentum. This theory basically describes the relationship between rate of reinforcement produced on different situations and resistant to change. The momentum concept is derived from response rate produced by reinforcement schedules combination with behavioral dynamic relating to change resistance, two vital dimensions relating to operant behavior as well as analogous to physics mass and velocity. In situations whereby the rate of response that corresponds to velocity is constant or steady under unvarying conditions, combined with the notions that it is difficult to implement changes despite changes in schedules indicates some amount of momentum. On the other hand, behaviors that are change resistant while exposed to stimulus conditions present in reinforcement correlates to the mass concept in physics. As such, behavioral momentum can be used to refer to a behavior that persists even when exposed to certain stimulus despite factors of disruption being employed. Rates of response reduces slowly relative to the level of the baseline where a signal of reinforcement with higher densities is present than in reinforcements of low density (Nevin, Mandel,  Atak, 1983).

In the year 1938, skinner came up with the proposal that discriminated operant was the main fundamental unit of describing behavior. Discriminated operant also referred to as three term contingency is then divided into 3 vital components namely punishing or reinforcing consequence, a response and an antecedent discriminative stimulus context. Responding only occurs if there is a stimulus mainly because previous responses results in consequences in the presence of a stimulus (Honig,  Staddon, 1977).

According to the theory of behavioral momentum, discriminated operant has two aspects that are separable and that govern independently the rate of occurrence of behavior response as well as the response behavior persistence in the light of operant disruption punishment (Nevin  Grace, 2000 contained in Domjan, 2009). The reinforcement contingency of an operant between the reinforcing consequence and the response usually governs or controls the rate of response, that is, the matching law. Matching law refers to a quantitative association that exists between relative reinforcement rates and relative response rates in reinforcement schedules that are concurrent. It is more suitable and reliable for subjects that are non human when they are subjected to interval schedules that are concurrently variable. The applicability of the operant conditioning is less clear in various situations and this largely depends on the different assumptions made as well as the experimental situation details (Honig,  Staddon, 1977). Pavlovian relation that exists between the rates of obtained reinforcement as a result of discriminative stimulus presence in a contextual environment and the discriminative stimulus context environment dictates the resistance behavior in relation to change or the process of extinction of a pattern of response behavior. Change behavior resistance is evaluated as a conditional response in conditions of environmental stimulus response disruption such as extinction or satiation, in the light of stable and pre-disruption rates of response to behavior (Honig,  Staddon, 1977).

Skinner also contributed to the understanding of the way animals learn. He developed the skinner box also referred to as the operant chamber as a means of measuring behavior of animals that were freely moving, reinforcement schedules which are rules that specify when and how animals ought to behave for reinforcement to take place and also a graphical presentation of recording all operant responses. There are two reinforcement schedules in use today the interval schedules and ration schedules. While using interval schedules, first responses following the elapsing of unsignaled predetermined interval are usually rewarded. The duration of an interval is usually fixed or may be drawn randomly from distributions having certain mean. Interval sequence can also be determined using rules of, varying periodically, descending or ascending. While generating distributions with exponential distribution that are memoryless, such a schedule is referred to as variable interval or random interval schedule. In experimental sessions, the first interval is usually timed from its commencement to the end while other interval experiments carried out later are timed based on the preceding rewards. Ratio schedules reinforcement is the second type of schedule in use today. It is given after the emission of a number of actions. Number of responses required can either be fixed or obtained from a distribution randomly. The labeling of schedules is done based on their types as well as the parameter of the schedule (Nevin, Mandel,  Atak, 1983).

Resistance to disruption is viewed as the most superior or better measure of response rates that are stable in the response underlying strength expression. The reasons for this is due to the fact that response rates can be as a result of shaping of some behavior patterns by reinforcement contingency for example differential reinforcement of either low or high schedules of response rates, in situations where rates of reinforcement are equal. However, it is not clear whether such response rates differences indicate differences in a responses underlying strength (Zeiler  Harzem, 1979).

According to the theory of behavioral momentum, the relationship that exists between change resistance and rates of response is analogous to mass and velocity of any moving object and it is founded on the second law of motion devised or developed by Newton. The Newtons laws of motion is made up of 3 physical laws which lay the foundation for classical mechanics. These laws are at a state of net force absence, a body can only be resting or if moving, it can only do so following a straight line with its speed being constant. The second law states that a body that is experiencing or subjected to a force (F), experiences a related acceleration (a) that is related to the force. Fma with m being the bodys mass. This means that momentum of time derivative is equal to the force. The third law states that following exertion of a force by 1st body on a 2nd body, the latter body exerts a negative force (-F) on the former body. As such, -F and F have magnitudes that are equal with their directions being opposite (Nevin, Mandel,  Atak, 1983). The three physical laws give a description of the relationship existing between body motion and forces exerted on a body and they were developed by Isaac Newton in the 17th century. The second law in the law of motion that states that velocity changes in moving bodies or objects following the exertion or application of outside force tends to be directly related to the applied force and in turn inversely related to the body mass of the object. The theory of behavioral momentum is closely linked to this theory as it states that changes in the rates of response under disruptions conditions, expressed as Bx, and comparative to baseline rates of response, expressed as Bo tend to be directly related to the magnitude or the disruption force, denoted as f and also inversely correlated to reinforcement rate in a context of stimulus denoted as r. as such, log (BxBo)  - (fr (raised to power b)) (Domjan, 2009). B is a free parameter indicating the change resistance sensitivity to reinforcement rates in the context of a stimulus, that is, the stimulus-reinforcer relation (Domjan, 2009). Disruption resistance is basically assessed only when alternate stimulus contexts are distinctively discriminative and have differing reinforcement schedules signals.

Consistency has been observed with the theory on behavioral momentum in regard to disruption resistance. It has been found out that greater disruption resistance is experienced in stimulus contexts that have higher reinforcement magnitudes or rates. Much of the strong support of change resistance as  being influenced by relations of stimulus reinforcer as well s relations of independent response reinforcer emanates from various studies that combine or add reinforcement that is response independent to a single stimulus context.

Research questions
The paper seeks to answer the following research questions
Can the partial reinforcement extinction effect prediction be confirmed using interval schedules that are variable under contexts of free operant
Can behavioral momentum metaphor predictions be confirmed using a paradigm of restricted operant
Measures and procedures

Various studies have been carried out so far relating to behavioral momentum and PREE effect. In the year 1992, Nevin et al conducted a study using pigeons to assess their behavior based on operant conditioning. The study had pigeons that were pecking on some lighted disks on several variable interval separated by 60 seconds schedules of reinforcement with intermittent food across a multiple schedule of two components. After ever fifteen to thirty seconds, free reinforcers were added or presented only when the disk turned red but when it was green, no reinforcers were presented. Thus, the relation of response reinforcer became degraded or reduced when disk turned red since each reinforcer did not have immediate preceding response. Rates of response were much lower in the context of red as compared to the green context and this was consistence to the matching law. However, the relation of stimulus reinforcer was improved in the context of red disk since the collective good presentation rate was much greater. This was found to be in line with the theory of behavioral momentum which states that presession feeding resistance or satiation and reinforcement discontinuation in the green and red contexts or the extinctions was much greater in the context of red than in green context. Such results have been evident in cases where reinforcers are increased to one context via reinforcing the other alternative response.

This study and findings obtained by Nevin and his colleagues have been expanded across several species and procedures such as the gold fish study, on rats (several behavioral analysts have used rats), on pigeons and on human beings by several behavioral analysts. The framework of behavioral momentum has also been to explain the concept of partial reinforcement extinction effect by Nevin and Grace, in assessing the behavior persistence in relation to drugs as well as burke and Shahan, in increasing compliance to task and in understanding the social policies effects on global problems by Nevin.
Since disruption resistance while using different stimulus contexts happens to be analogous to moving objects inertial mass, the theory of behavioral momentum also argues that preference in procedures relating to concurrent chains relating to one stimulus context responding to initial links that are concurrently available offers access or leeway to one of those two stimulus contexts that are mutually exclusive. Just like in the case of multiple schedules, reinforcements of independent schedules have the capacity of functioning in terminal link context. The response of relative allocation in two links show how far an organism chooses or prefers to follow one terminal context link as compared to the other link. The theory of behavioral momentum also argues that preference of an organism to some stimulus offers a measure of the value of conditioned reinforcement over two contexts of terminal links.

Despite the fact that the theory of behavioral momentum offers a powerful framework of gaining a better understanding on reinforcement context and how this concept affects discriminated operant behavior persistence, several conflicting findings that are not consistent with this theory have been obtained. One of the examples is seen when equal rates of reinforcements are employed in different stimulus contexts. In such scenarios, manipulating the relations of response reinforcer has been found to affect change resistance while some schedules have been found to produce varying baseline rates of response. Also, reinforcement delays have been observed while employing the theory of behavioral momentum and introducing brief stimuli together with reinforcement also has led to delays in reinforcement. It is also not clear as to what factors have effects of change resistance while conditioned reinforcement is maintained.

Conclusion
Behavioral analysts have been studying the behavior of organisms hoping to establish patterns that can be used for clinical purposes. The theory of behavioral momentum is one of the most widely used today. Despite the fact that it has shown or proved to be reliable in most non human organisms that have been used during study such as the pigeon and rats, its effects or reliability as a therapy tool on human beings. Other studies are underway to assess the reliability of this theory and various modifications have been made so far to this theory to increase its reliability.

Sensation and perception are two experiences humans sometimes take for granted.  Without them, living things would not be able to experience the world, the experience of being alive. Sensation and perception allow living things to make sense of the world, enabling them to make contact with the world. In essence, sensation and perception enable living things to understand mental processes and behavior.

Psychologists define sensation as the immediate experience of all sensory stimulation (Morris and Maisto, 2002). These include raw data as experienced by the sense organs, i.e. smell, sight, touch, sound, and taste (2002).  Sensation occurs when a type of receptor is stimulated. These receptors act like locks that, when exposed to a strong stimulus, open up.  But as aforementioned, these are raw data and for these to become meaningful, they need to be processed. This is where the process of perception comes in.

Perception is the act of organizing and interpreting sensory input, putting meaningful patterns in the process (Morris and Maisto, 2002).  To help create patterns for these sensory inputs, perceptual organization is needed.  Gestalt psychologists comprising German experts introduced a set of laws that explain how perception organization occurs. Under the law, perceptual units under which objects are organized must follow four principles- proximity (nearness of objects to one another), similarity (resemblance in shapes, color, pattern, and size), closure (tendency to close any gaps in a figure), and continuity (patterns and links) (2002).

What seems to be most intriguing after learning sensory and perception is the concept of extrasensory perception (ESP).  The ability to perceive and know things without using ordinary senses is baffling anyone, from the sceptics to the trained researchers.  Having telepathy or precognition negates the science of sensation and perception. There are some that attest to its existence but there long term researches on it seem to still be shaky.

Intelligence
Intelligence is used to give a description on the state of mind. It encompasses many abilities that are closely related. Such include capacities to reason, to plan, to offer solutions, to think on abstract terms, to grasp and comprehend ideas, to properly use language and to be able to learn. In other instances the term may refer to personality, character, creativity, wisdom, and knowledge. Due to this, the term intelligence does not have a commonly agreed upon definition.

A number of primary mental abilities determine the intelligence levels of an individual. Intelligence will be measured through the levels of reason, planning, solving issues, abstraction, comprehension, language use and learning capacity.

Whenever it rains, the ground becomes wet, what happens when it rains tomorrow How are you going to complete your tasks Would you work out the questions in an hours time From this object, would you clearly illustrate the implications From the above paragraph, would you present the theme Having learnt the use of speech, would you proceed to deliver one

While scaling responses, the use of true or false may not be reflective on the abilities of the individuals. But it may be appropriate in other cases. This calls on the reliance on the weight of the responses that the respondents would offer. Like in the first question, the answer may be presented as true or false if it was provided as the ground will also become wet. But on the question of task completion, it would be ideal to hear how the respondent plans to take the assigned duties.

The Ronald intelligence inventory to the paper
As illustrated above, intelligence is a wide varied phenomenon whose measurement has posed very serious concerns. The aspects of measurement are quite subjective and the various rating methods cannot be trusted to offer us the best solution to the intelligence issue, hence the development of this approach.

If one asks a respondent on what they expect to happen given a certain fact, they should be expected to offer an appropriate answer.  If they offer otherwise, then they are dumb. A question on the basis of planning is expected to offer a satisfactory plan on how events will be addressed. If the plan is good, then it reflects an intelligent mind, if not the reverse holds. A question like whether one would work out questions in one hour would be intended to show the ability of solving issues. The solving of issues presents an important aspect of intelligence (Robert, 2007). If the respondent manages to handle assigned tasks within the required time, the reflection is that the person in question is an intelligent one.

On the basis of the question whether, given an object, would one clearly illustrate the implications is one that aims to show the level of abstraction that an individual operates on. An intelligent individual is expected to fully make implied meanings from symbolic literature. If one is able to fully capture the aspects represented symbolically, then, that truly reflects an intelligent mind. In case of the reverse, then the person in question is of low intelligence level.

A question that regards the presentation of views or responses regarding an essay or paragraph would go a long way in showing the grasping power in possession of a person (Thurstone, 2007). This is what depicts how far a person can comprehend. If it emerges that a person gets a clear understanding of a text, then that person ought to be labelled as intelligent. If the person in question struggles to grasp, then the person would be labelled dumb. Finally, speech delivery on the basis of listening or learning how to do it would reflect on the learning abilities of an individual. If an individual goes ahead to do it satisfactorily, then that is an intelligent individual.

It should be noted however, that the issues presented on this construction are not necessarily absolute. Issues to do with comprehension, problem solving, learning, and creativity vary to different degrees. They can only be captured by a continuum. As a result there are no extremes and intelligence to dumbness should be pursued in that direction.

Whenever it rains, the ground becomes wet, what happens when it rains tomorrow On this question testing, I would go ahead to give the answer that  when it rains tomorrow, the ground will also become wet. From here the options will be true or false.

How are you going to complete your tasks On this task, the scaling would focus on the time taken to clear the tasks with focus being on the plan that is undertaken. The way the tasks appear does not really matter, what counts is whether the task was completed in time. If it is an aspect of examination that requires a step by step approach to issues, then, the steps taken should be looked into to determine the intelligence levels.
Would you work out the questions in an hours time This question is intended to test the question solving aspect of intelligence on the part of the correspondents. Questions are offered and on the basis of answers given, the correspondent is classified as intelligent, average or dumb.  

From this object, would you clearly illustrate the implications The ability to unravel the meanings of abstract presentations can only be scaled on the basis of a score line. The score line should be based on the abstractions made by the correspondents. A score above 70 percent would depict an intelligent mind. A score below 40 percent on the other hand, presents a dumb mind.

From the above paragraph, would you present the theme This is a comprehension part that would in the same respect as above heavily rely on the test scores based on the outcome of an assignment. The range of scores would lead us to the classification of people as either dumb or intelligent.

Having learnt the use of speech, would you proceed to deliver one This shows the learning aspect which just as the four of the five questions considered in this paper, cannot be classified as true or false statements. The issue here would be to bring the correspondents, offer them the speech specimens and offer them a good opportunity to learn. Based on that, they are offered a chance to replicate what they may have learned. On the basis of their delivery, they are then classified as intelligent or dumb.

Reason for construct
It is commonplace that differences abound on the best possible way to measure the intelligence aspect of human beings. Due to this uncertainty, it is a worthwhile exercise to find another approach that can help redress the question. This approach offers a different view on how to look at the issue. The items chosen are the attributes that are mostly referred to in reference to intelligence, hence their justification in this construct. The scaling norm that I have mostly adopted is the one used in current academic studies, where marks are awarded and grading is done to determine individual intelligence. To norm this test, it would require that I convince the audience, which is the academic community on the need to take this approach. It should be noted that this approach does not present huge uniqueness because it heavily borrows from what is already in place, so the normalcy question does not arise.

Reliability and validity are important aspects of any research. To that effect, it requires that, all findings can be useful in informing academic discourse in reference to achieving same results whenever the study is being replicated. The validity aspect requires that the conclusion of the study findings should follow the arguments presented.

Species which are considered to be endangered are depleting  10 times faster than  the rate at which scientists estimated. This is due to loss in biodiversity and ecological balance. Dinosaurs , which are considered today as a wonder lost their lives due this ecological imbalance only.Today, at present many animals like cheetah, leopard, lion, tiger and much more are in he verge of extinction. Majority of causers of the ecological imbalance are humans only. They take it as granted and do a variety of  bad things that affect wildlife greatly. When I mean wildlife, it is not only animals but also birds too.