This is an old song that satirizes research. It is of course an exaggeration, but it is definitely true that it is very important on who publicizes first to reach fame. You might know that a certain Wallace was about to publish a theory of evolution before Darwin, which pushed Darwin to publish his paper sooner than he wanted. Who remembers Wallace nowadays? Also, all research (and art and music for that matter) is based on/inspired by or are modifications of previous research (Yes, Einstein's theory of relativity too). No theory is developed in a vacuum. We stand on shoulders of giants, as Newton once said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU_j5cQ2sfQ&feature=related
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Mr Pettine has created an online newspaper through paper.li which automatically publishes articles on psychology from hash tags, rss feeds etcetera. I think it is worth checking out once in a while to get an idea of current psychological research:
http://paper.li/f-1308671010 Here are some recent reflections by me on the problem of consciousness. May I first point out that the problem of consciousness - how consciousness come about - is far from solved, if it every will. This view, that the problem of consciousness will never be solved, is called the mysterian view. Other views include the materialist view, the idealist view, the dualist view and the cognitive/functional/phenomenal view.
The materialist view equates consciousness with brain processes. It has its´ functional advantages but it also causes new issues. For instance, where does consciousness start? Why is a stone unconscious and a living brain not? The opposite view of materialism is idealism; the idea that everything is consciousness only, an equally logically consistent idea to materialism and difficult to argue against. Solipsism is an example of idealism; the idea that my mind is the only thing there is. Modern dualism is different from Cartesian dualism. Old dualism distinguished the soul from the body and it was believed that the soul could affect matter. Modern dualists usually do not believe it is possible, because that would go against the laws of nature and physics. From that point of view, the placebo effect must be an entirely physical process. Examples of modern dualism are property dualism and epiphenomenalism. A property dualist acknowledges that the brain consists of matter, but that consciousness is a distinct property of the brain. Epiphenomenalists also accept that consciousness is distinct from matter, but that consciousness it is causally impotent, meaning that it cannot exercise any influence on the material world. It is a passenger just tagging along. This of course threatens our everyday notion of a conscious free will (but not the idea of an "unconscious" free will) If the dualist view is drawn to its extreme, we may come to some extreme conclusions, if the view is to be consistent. For instance, if we believe that consciousness is a property of matter, we may come to believe that all matter has consciousness. An alternate view on consciousness is the cognitive/functional/ phenomenal one. This view holds that consciousness always is a representation of something else. This representation can be either conscious or unconscious. So, for instance, if I am feeling an itch, I am actually perceiving a representation of some disturbance in my body. Or if I am thinking on my last vacation in Paris, I am experiencing a mental representation or memory of my vacation in Paris. From this light, higher order thinking, so called metacognition, are actually higher order representations of thoughts. A representations of a representation of a representation, so to speak. Some philosophers even believe that consciousness emerged with the development of human culture; once we learned to represent the world in images and stories we also became conscious beings. Schema theory is related to the cognitive perspective. When it comes down to it, we may never be able to more than describe the properties of the mind, never explain its´ origins and emergence. On the other hand, this is also the case for other sciences, such as physics and biology, that tend to describe the world, but cannot explain why the phenomena being studying came about. Big bang, yes - but why and before that? Evolution, yes - but why? These are two clips related to psychology and philosophy from one of my favourite comedians - Danny Kaye. This is what will happen if you think too much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUoccZcbrjM And this is what will happen if you study too much psychology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdHnjf5Sc74&feature=related Here is an interesting article. A man was misdiagnosed for being in coma after a car crash, despite being fully conscious. It took 23 years before a brain scan could show that the doctors had made a mistake.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230092/Rom-Houben-Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.htm This is a technique that you may try out if you want to. It is called anchoring and is used within neurolinguistic programming. I am not sure how well it works, but it should work in theory. The basic principle behind it is to learn to associate a certain mood or emotion with a word, a gesture, a phrase or piece of music. It is the same principle as when a song or movie can trigger a pleasant or unpleasant memory.
It can be useful if you want to get out off or into a certain emotion or mood at an instant. You start by choosing the emotion and a suitable anchor. An anchor could be a body gesture, a phrase, a word or just about anything that is unique, thus more memorable. Now imagine the emotion or experiences related to the emotion as visually or intensely as you can. When you are feeling this emotion as strongly as you can, do the body gesture or call out the phrase. You may need to repeat a few times if you want the anchor to be fixed. In theory, you should be able to go into that intense emotion, every time you do the anchor. Derren Brown used this technique, among others, when he manipulated a group of people to commit an armed robbery. He set them in an intense mood of aggressiveness and risktaking, while playing the song "can you feel it?". He then played the song while the each person walked passed a truck that a guard was just loading up with money. Because the song set them in the mood of stealing, they robbed the truck (there were many other factors Derren Brown had manipulated as well). I don't want you to start robbing trucks or make other people rob trucks. But it may be useful if you create an anchor to set you in the right mood for a presentation, a job interview, or an exam. If you try it, feel free to tell me if it worked. I recently read a Swedish article on the psychology of beauty. Here are some findings:
-Beauty activates the brain´s reward system -Some features of beauty are universal. These are symmetry, a healthy looking hair and complexion. -Men are perceived as more attractive the more female admirers they have -Women with childish features (baby faced) are perceived as more attractive -Men with faces that are more attractive for women have a better immune system -Women prefer different male faces depending on their menstruation cycle. When they are most fertile during their menstruation cycle they prefer masculine looking faces but they prefer feminine looking faces at other times -Men generally prefer faces with feminine features and women faces with masculine features (but I also believe that faces with feminine features are perceived as most beautiful) -We used to believe that the most average looking face is the most beautiful. Now there are indications that the most beautiful faces have distinguished features. (Many of those features, however, I personally believe are cultural) -Attractive people are positively discriminated -The golden ratio, a type of proportion that often is used in art and architecture (a line divided in two parts a and b is considered to have a golden ratio if the ratio of a to b is the same as a to the length of a+b), has been shown to be biologically more pleasing than other proportions This is another article I read in Scientific American:
Turbocharging the brain - pills to make you smarter? It discusses the new type of drugs that may enhance mental performance. The problem with these drugs is that for the weakest sort there is little effect (and possibly placebo) whereas it for the strongest sort has potential side effects, such as addiction, longterm damage to the brain and increased blood pressure. Many of the cognitive enhancers of today are also just modifications of earlier drugs (such as Ritalin, which is used for ADHD and has amphetamine in it). Caffeine shows similar effects as some of the cognitive enhancers. For now, one has to be aware of that there is no such thing as a drug without side effects (though they can be minimal) and if there are no side effects, there is usually no effect as well. I used to be very interested in criminal psychology. Here is a website that has many interesting articles on criminal minds:
Crime library This article may be of interest. It is an article about a pair of twins that are conjoined by the head. Brain images have revealed that their thalamus are linked to each other. This is interesting, because the thalamus is an area important for consciousness. The twins seem to share their sensory experiences. They also frequently synchronize and mirror each others' movements. However, they do have different personalities.
Could conjoined twins share a mind? |
AuthorThis is my class blog for IB Psychology. Here I will publish reflections on psychology, reviews of psychology books, recommended links, lecture notes, and information on psychology topics that are not covered by the syllabus. You are free to add comments or ask me questions. Archives
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