What's in the News?
What I would like you to do is to start applying what we are learning in class to real world matters. Some might ask, "What good is learning psychology if we can't apply it to real world matters?" So that is what we are going to do with this divergence assignment.
What I would like you to do is to either go to NPR (http://www.npr.org/ ), the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ ) or any news site listed at the bottom of this page (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ listed in their news sources) and read, watch, or listen to something that is interesting to you and relates to what we have been learning in the class.
Please respond the blog by telling us what the piece you chose was and why you picked it (what made it interesting for you)? What did you expect to see? What did you find most interesting about the piece?
Next discuss how it relates to the class using terms, terminology, and concepts that we have learned so far in class.
Include the URL in your post.
Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.
Let me know if you have any questions,
--Dr. M
I found an article on NPR that I chose to blog about. This article is called, "Siblings of A Child With Autism Often Have Subtler Problems." The article was about a new study done by Interactive Autism Network that studied 1,200 families who have a child with autism and siblings. The study was aimed at children who have a sibling with autism but have not been diagnosed with autism themselves. The results of this study found that 20% of siblings who did not have autism were diagnosed with language delays or speech problems early in life. About half of those siblings had speech qualities associated with autism.
Judging by the title I expected to read about siblings of a child with autism experiencing neglect or depression because an autistic child takes a lot more of the parents time. I also expected to read about problems they have academically or socially. After reading the article, I found it interesting that these siblings experience qualities of autism and are not always fully developed in their speech and language skills. Also, I was interested in reading the different results from studies conducted and learning that there is a good chance a sibling will experience some quality of autism.
This article relates to material from class because we have discussed autism and different brain disorders. This article discusses the signs of autism such as language delay and slow speech qualities. We have already discussed what brain structures are important for language development. This article briefly talks about siblings of an autistic child tend to struggle developing their speech and language skills. Overall, this article relates to our class based on the autistic disorder and the problems that siblings face.
Terms: autism, language/speech development, brain structures
URLS:http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/04/130324617/siblings-of-a-child-with-autism-often-have-subtler-problems
The article I came across was from the National Public Radio’s website. In the beginning of the semester, we covered what a neuron is and what makes up a neuron. Anyone who is somewhat familiar with neurons can understand that in order for signals to be sent throughout our bodies nerve cells process signals beginning and ending with the work of the neurotransmitters being sent through the synapses of each nerve cell. Throughout history there has been a common agreement that this fact is true. Yet now a new perspective has been introduced by a scientist named Ichiji Tasaki. While trying to understand why twitches in nerve cells occur; scientists asked if signals could be sent via nerve cells without traveling through the synapse. When scientifically viewing the action of neurons it was found that axon twitches created what is known as ATP to be released which allowed nerve cells to communicate without using synapses. This new discovery may help to explain why those people with epilepsy experience chronic pain because both processes involve nerve cells misfiring. Understanding these explanations may lead to better treatments for epileptics.
This article talks about a whole new view of how neurons communicate within our bodies and that is why I chose to comment on this article. To me it’s refreshing to know that there are researchers out there who are looking at different perspectives and learning from their research. Aside from that it is inspiring to hear that Ichiji Tasaki was 98 years old and still working every day and even on the weekends to better understand nerve cell communication. What I expected to read about was how twitchy nerve cells were a way in which nerve cell communication was disrupted. What I found most interesting was hearing about the experiments Tasaki completed in order to answer the questions he had. He measured mechanical changes in tissues found in the retina, the skin, and in the spinal cord of a frog.
This article can relate to cognitive psychology in many ways. Understanding nerve cell communication leads one to understand how neurons work and what makes up a neuron. This article stated the process in which electrical impulses travel through neurons. So in order to read about this new discovery a person must first have a background in cognitive neuroscience. Neuroscience also includes knowledge about neurotransmitters and how they contribute to the process of cellular communication. This article also relates to epileptic patients which can be related to split brain research. In order to make sense of how this discovery can become helpful in the real world, epilepsy and its symptoms must be recognizable. Overall, I am sure that this research will be contradicted in some ways and will be tested over and over again in order to attain more advantageous information from the experimenting. This is a great discovery, but may be a small step to a larger discovery.
Terms: Nerve cell, neuron, neurotransmitter, axon, synapse, epilepsy
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130244715
I chose to read an article relating to a new discovery about the communication between nerve cells. I typically don’t chose to read articles discussing neurons and cells but I thought I would explore somewhat.
Most of us had previously understood that nerve cells only sent messages across a synapse or the gap between nerve cells. A study done, found that after being stimulated the axon “twitched” and in the process released a chemical known as ATP as well as other chemical messages known as neurotransmitters.
Understanding this process helps researchers to understand health concerns such as chronic pain and epilepsy. The studies suggest that axons twitching and releasing ATP, rather than the messages traveling across synapses, is triggering the signals.
Needless to say, neurons relate in many ways to the topics we’ve been discussing in class. They are basically the core of the nervous system and thought to be more complex than any other known system. Neurons play an intricate role in the visual system, memory and attention processes, sensation and perception processes and several other cognitive functions. They also play an important role in disorders and disabilities such as the stories we have read in the AoM. For instance, in The Landscape of His Dreams” Franco seemed to be having “psychic seizures;” they are associated with epilepsy and activity in the temporal lobes. Epilepsy may produce changes in personality and thinking which is associated with the temporal lobes.
Although, the article doesn’t go in depth about the findings I gained a broad understanding of the research taking place. I think it’s great that they are using the applications to find ways to help those with nervous system conditions. In time, findings of such significance can lead to great discoveries in medicine that can really help a lot of people, hopefully this one will.
Terms: synapse, neuron, neurotransmitters, epilepsy, temporal lobes
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130244715
Web Divergence Activity – Week #6
“How We Pay Attention”
I find the whole topic of attention for be very interesting. While writing previous blogs, I’ve came across a lot of research done in this area (The Cocktail Party Phenomenon, The Stroop Test, the girl on the surfboard, etc). These researchers are trying to make sense out our where and why our attention focuses in on one thing while shutting out the rest. Therefore, I chose something along the lines of that. I was expecting to hear some scientific explanation of how we focus our attention on certain things and why.
The talk show started by talking about the Invisible Gorilla study that has been done several times by several people. This experiment shows that we are very good at picking out and counting the number of times the ball is passed, while we’re focused on that single thing we don’t necessarily see everything in the visual field. Another interesting fact that the professors brought up is the whole idea of multi tasking. We are good at focusing in on one particular task while we’re performing it, but when you add on another task, they struggle. People don’t obviously notice that they are doing that second task badly. A good example that the professor uses is driving while talking on the cell phone. People focus in on the task of talking to the person on their phone, but then their driving becomes impaired and they unconsciously may not be driving as well. People have different ranges of how well they can perform tasks at the same time. Someone might be really good at chewing gum and talking at the same time, but others may not. When it comes to cognitive processes it is nearly impossible to do both at the same time. Your mind can only focus in on one task and therefore can’t do two things at once.
One thing that I learned from this audio was that there isn’t any certain situations that you can put yourself in that will help you achieve two tasks at once. For example listening to music while doing your homework is not going to help you study or do homework. Your mind can’t focus in and do both activities at once.
This NPR section was devoted to understanding attention. Understanding our visual perception is very important in our everyday lives. It allows us to move around, to see people, to read, and simply just look at the world around us.
Terms Used: Attention, Cognitive Processes, Visual Field, Unconscious, Perception
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129934804
I chose to listen to something on the NPR website titled,"lack of short term memory doesn't stop new grad". I have already talked about my interest in memory, so me doing this article should come as no suprise. The article title sparked my interest because I am in school and I know I use my short term memory, so I was wondering how such a person could function without it.
Andrew has a malignent brain tumor, which was removed at John's Hopkins, but caused great damage to his short-term memory. He decided to go to college, even though he was told he would not make it. He decided to take part in a study with neuropsychologists where he could convert information to his long term memory by repeating things four to five times.
When it came to his everyday experiences he had trouble remembering names and certain things such whether or not he had eaten that day. When he would watch a movie he would get confused by what was happening, having previously forgotten the events before. He mentioned in the interview that certain things that were more monumental seemed to stick with him for longer than things that were less important, but still had trouble grasping onto these ideas.
When it came down to his memory, he could only remember something fully when he repeated it over and over. During certain events (like sporting events) he would have to do what is called sharpening. When he is told the score of the game, he would have to infer what happened in the game given he could not remember exactly what happened. A lot of his memory goes through a leveling process, where he can remember some, a little, and then none at all. He can recall some things to an extent, but cannot say the whole story and usually has to work with cues (like scribblings in a notebook) to remember what was being talked about. Andrew also lacks a retrieval mode for his short-term memory, given that he really doesn't have one. If he tries to search for a memory he cannot find anything about it in his memory, but can access it if it has made it to his long-term memory.
In the article they talked about his tumor, but not where it was. They talked about him losing his short term memory, but not about where it had happened in his brain or anything. I was expecting a little more on this, but did not really get anything close to it. The interview was more about his day-to-day function and not so much about the processes he goes through on a day-to-day basis. I enjoyed the interview, but wish more would have been said about these topics.
terms: short-term memory, long-term memory, sharpening, leveling, retrieval mode
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10451434
"The Habitual Brain: How Routine Action and Thought are the Structure of Life"
The article I chose to read looks at how the brain and its roles in consciousness and cognitive thinking are understood in comparison to what we are and what we can do, as opposed defining those two characteristics in terms of the brain. The first paragraph of the article is what aroused my interest. The author, Alva Noe, discusses how habits of thought and action are what allow humans to have a meaningful existence. Without habitual actions, the conscious processing parts of the brain would be overloaded and unable to normal functioning.
Noe's article suggests that while the brain's infrastructure allows for the ability of certain functions, experience and a relationship with the environment are what determine the assignment of these functions. Genetic factors are products of their own ancestral environmental adaptations, but they have little effect on the current functioning of anatomical structures in the brain.
Using an example from the article, we can relate this concept to what has been learned in class. Noe asks us to consider the question "what makes a region of cortex visual rather than auditory?" Before looking at visual characteristics of something in a specific cortical region, neural activity must be looked at with respect to behavior. Certain senses are aroused by different kinds of movements in humans and animals. Noe proposes that neural activity can be meaningless to visual functioning without the arousal caused by movement. Best put "the brain is visual when its supports habits that are vision-like, it is auditory when it supports touch-like habits, and so on."
This idea is based on the plasticity of the brain. Noe mentions a study by Mrganka Sur, a MIT neuroscientist, that experimented on ferrets by splicing retinal cells in order for them to form connections with the auditory system of the brain. As a result, the auditory cortex responds to visual stimuli its exposed to in the environment, allowing the ferrets to "see" using their auditory functions. The brain's perceptions are based on what the person is exposed to in their immediate environment.
terminology: auditory & visual cortex, conscious processing, perception
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2010/09/22/130051236/the-habitual-brain
When searching through articles online, this particular title caught my attention: “Where Your Brain Figures Out What It Doesn’t Know.” I was already curious as to what the article had to say just from the title. I was unsure of what to expect but assumed this article would have to do with some type of brain scan, though I wasn’t sure how exactly it would be used to locate the area of the brain that determines what we don ‘t know. I really liked how the article started out, making the reader familiar with the cognitive processes that we use all the time but may be unaware of. It also gave a good example of a television show that requires its contestants to use this cognition to assess how sure of the answers they are.
After giving the reader some background information, the article continues with the study that was done. Researchers had participants look at a screen and distinguish which part of it was brighter than the rest. Participants then had to decipher how confident they were in their answer. After scanning the area of the prefrontal cortex, researchers found that those who were more confident in their answers had more gray matter and more connections to other parts of the brain. Gray matter contains neural cell bodies and functions in processing information that starts in the sensory organs.
This particular article relates to the structure of the brain. Specifically the region known as the prefrontal cortex, which is located around the forehead and extends to the middle of the top of the head. It functions in reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem solving. This is consistent with the article because the function of reasoning and problem solving relates to how confident one is in the decisions they are making.
Metacognition is another topic discussed in the textbook and relates to this article. Metacognition “refers to the ability to monitor, control, and organize mental activity” (Solso, MacLin & MacLin, 2005, pp. 265). This is a process that is necessary in terms of the experiment in this article. It is also a process that is necessary in daily life, though we may not realize we are doing it. We are constantly assessing how confident we are in the choices we make. Take for example, a student taking a test. How confident they are in each of their answers determines whether or not they will feel the need to go back to that question if they have time at the end. They also use their judgments on how well they thought they performed on the last test to prepare for their next exam.
Terms: gray matter, prefrontal cortex, metacognition
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/09/16/129910351/how-your-brain-figures-out-what-it-doesn-t-know
For this week divergence task I chose the radio program from BBC website that is called “Mysteries of the brain”. In terms of relation to the material covered in class so far the topic of perception is probably mostly related. Biggest part of the program was dedicated to the problem of connections of different senses in our brain in order to create the whole picture of environment. How brain creates single integrated experience from multiple inputs. Intriguing findings were presented by two famous specialists in the sphere: Charles Spence (head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory based at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University) and professor Vilayanur S. Ramachandran (Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, Professor in the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies).
What we know now from various researches is it seems like brain does not really care about where the information came from. Heuristic model of perception plus top-to-down processes is focused on the problem of creating a situational schema. This would give us an opportunity to respond to the environment stimuli faster and thus more effective. All our senses are not separated; they work in cooperation providing more sufficient information for the brain. Thus what we hear might be influenced by the things we see. For example you can experience the ‘ventriloquism effect", when you are watching a movie at the cinema, you “hear” the sound from the character on the screen, although it might actually come from the speaker installed in your chair or just from behind. In case of speech perception lip movement is an extremely influential factor. In cross modal experiment participants were listening to some sounds and watched a person who pronounced it at the same time. Although the sound stimulus was “ba”, the person on the screen made “ga” sound (by lip movement). The participants reported hearing “da” sound – kind of mix between the two. So, their perception, their hearing was influenced by the things they saw.
Smell is a special sense, which in fact is not seen as a separate one anymore. It is believed that smell plays even greater role for taste than the tongue receptors. Although sometimes they might provide different information (and the smell of the food does not promise its good taste), in most cases they work in cooperation between and with other senses, like vision. In fact, professor Spence’s research shows that even our perception of color might be challenged in that term. So, it is possible to make brain think that certain food is fresher, or crispy just due to its smell; or the smell of shampoo would make your hair feel softer. No wonder food companies are extremely interested in Charles Spence work.
One of the most interesting topics in terms of cross modal sense perception is certainly synesthesia. The area of the brain that is responsible to this phenomenon is called fusiform gyrus and is situated in the temporal lobe in Brodmann Area 37. A typical example of synesthesia is viewing numbers or letters in color. What we know now is that this particular area is also involved in number representation and color decoding. This explains the case of synesthesia, but is it caused by neuron circuit’s transformation? Rearranging of synapses? Professor Ramachandran believes that phenomenon might be explained with similar cross-activation between brain regions. It tends to occur between major sensory streams rather than one of them. This condition is caused by genetic differences and not neural re-organization. In experiments based on fMRI technique participants with synesthesia presented increased activity in a color selective region (hV4) in comparison to non-synesthetes when letters and numbers that evoked synesthetic colors were presented.
What is even more peculiar – the effect it might have on language. It was found that synesthesia is seven times more common among artists, poets and writers than in general population. Many famous novelists had it, including V. Nabokov. These people work with language, using metaphors. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran even calls a metaphor an extension of synesthesia. Indeed it can be as a metaphor can be defined as a way to put two non-related things together in an unusual manner. V.S. Ramachandran argues that the bases of metaphor is in the fact that the same gene that produces synesthesia instead of being used selectively in fusiform gyrus is expressed diffusely throughout the brain and makes all these cross-regional connections possible. This is just one example of senses – perception- cognition connections, but in my opinion, a fascinating one.
Terms used: fusiform gyrus, synesthesia, heuristic model of perception, top-to-down processes, ventriloquism effect, speech perception, cross modal experiment, temporal lobe in Brodmann Area 37, neuron circuit, synapse.
I watched the video /read the article called “Twitchy Nerves (Literally) May Explain Epilepsy Pain”. It was very interesting - some of the information was over my head but, not so much that I was lost. We covered cell communication briefly in class. I have taken biopsychology and we discussed firing there too.
It is interesting to learn that what we were taught is not the only possibility. It reminds us to always question what are learning - even though it may seem absolute. This article touches on how cells fire or how some of them fire. We give and receive information within the brain through a cell, axon, synapse etc. In this article however, it talks about the synapse not having to be part of it. Researchers found that a cell can give information without needing the charge to go through the synapse.
A substance that is being release and not using a synapse is ATP is like an energy boost. This a new communication occurs between cells that are not considered a neurotransmitter. It seems to me that are skipping some important steps in communication. ATP is released from the axon -before the message or electrical impulse can reach the synapse. As I understood it - this causes a nerve reaction, the “twitch”. That twitch is showing the transfer of a message - communication. This makes me have many questions about this new way of communication in our brains.
If we do not need to use the synapse then how is the message taken in through reuptake? If these nerve cells are being used when they are not needed does that mean that the pain our body sends is less important? Our body sends us messages in order to keep us healthy - at homeostasis. Looking even further - could this be part of why some hypochondriacs start to get symptoms. Could these nerves play a part with a psychological process?
I think this topic is very interesting. As the article said this is a huge step forward. I am interested to see what this new finding may lead to.
Terms: Firing, Cell, Axon, Synapse, ATP, Homeostasis, Hypochondriac, Symptoms (terms from lecture and my textbook).
Justin Bieber is a name that is household. Virtually everyone that is exposed to media on a daily basis knows the name and something about the pop artist. We all have a schema stored in Long Term memory composed of all the aspects we associate with Justin Bieber. CNN reported a story in which the singer allegedly punched another minor at a laser tag arena in British Columbia. There were two headlines that were links to the story on CNN.com, the first read "Did Justin Bieber punch a boy?" and the other read "Justin Bieber target of bullying?" I saw the second and immediately had expectations about the story, while reading my mind picked out details that supported the headline. I found myself mentally taking note of evidence that the incident was not Bieber's fault. This information was the information that was stored long-term. When i noticed the other headline for the same story I realized that the context my mind applied to the information it was processing influenced what exactly it deemed relevant to transfer into long term memory. The theory of Top-down processing makes the assumption that the brain operates contexts. If I had started with the headline that implied Bieber was at fault the information I would remember long term would be associated with the fact that it was in fact Beiber that was the bully. This story now has been incorporated into my schema for Justin Bieber, my long-term memory has been altered in such a way that one of the attributes I may associate with Justin Bieber in a year or ten years is that he was the target of bullying. It may or may not be true, and depending on whether you read the story or not your schema for the artist may not include this same information.
Also it is unlikely that in ten years I will be able to remember where I heard that Justin Bieber was bullied. Depending on when I need to access the information my brain may fudge, or distort, my memories to my advantage. For example if I am in a heated academic discussion about Bieber's role in pop culture I may recall that I read the information in the New York Times, but if I am just telling a friend I may say another friend told me. In both cases the memory seems legitimate, but both are incorrect. The context effect may apply not only to memory storage but to retrieval as well. I've been trying to think of some methods to experiment with the concept but have come up dry so far. In any case my memory schema for Justin Bieber is being constantly altered and may not even be accessible at the same level all the time. State dependent memory is a theory that states you are better able to retrieve information about a subject if you are in the same circumstances as you were when you stored the information. For example if you take a test in the same room you study in you are more likely to remember more information, or if you are slightly tired or chemically altered when you learn a skill, you will perform the skill better when in the same state be it tired or drunk. Perhaps I will only think Justin Bieber is the target of bullying when I am in a poorly lit room or sleep deprived.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2010/10/18/sbt.justin.bieber.bullying.hln?hpt=C2
I chose an article from the website www.npr.org . The article is called Brain Molecule May Offer Key to Erasing Fearful Memories by Jon Hamilton. I choose this article because it goes along nicely with many of the things we have been learning and it fits in with my interests. I’ve had my own fearful experiences and that is kind of the work I would like to go into. I expected to read about some miracle but very difficult and complex way of getting rid of unwanted memories.
I really found the whole article very interesting. After performing fear conditioning they found an unusual protein in the amygdale (the part of the brain that deals with emotions) that, if exterminated, could rid of the fear memory. They conducted the study on mice but think it works the same in humans. It even appears that if they are forced to remember the feared memory there is a short window where they could give drugs to rid of the protein and therefore rid of the memory with behavioral techniques.
This connects to cognitive psychology because it deals with memory (long term and indirectly short term) and emotion. It also deals with some brain structures and chemicals.
Terms: Memory, Conditioning, Amygdale, Emotion, LTM, STM, Brain Structures and Chemicals
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/29/130913234/brain-molecule-may-offer-key-to-erasing-fearful-memories-treating-ptsd
Using Psychology To Save You From Yourself
From this article’s title I expected it to talk about using rewards in some way to help benefit yourself. The article started off talking about how Greensboro, N.C. use to have a program where they city would pay teen moms $1 a day for everyday they were not pregnant. Amazingly enough this little incentive helped to decrease teen pregnancy rates for that town. This little incentive saved the community a lot more money than it paid then teen moms, then it would have if they would have gotten pregnant again. The article talks about how many people of the Obama administration are greatly influenced by psychological research —“ which argues that the human animal is hard-wired to make errors when it comes to decision-making, and therefore people need a little "nudge" to make decisions that are in their own best interests.”
The article continue to talks about how behavior economics came to be. Back in the 1950’s Kahneman was assigned to look at the soldiers and figure out which ones would be better officers. He created groups of 8 soldiers where no one knew each other’s ranks, and assigned them the task of getting a large telephone pole over a 6 foot wall. He then observed the soldiers to see who the leaders were and to see who gave up. Kahneman sent the leaders to a training school. Later they found out that the soldiers sent to training school had no representation of what Kahneman saw that day. Regardless of this Kahneman continued what he was doing, he believed he was right. He later assigned a term to this "illusion of validity." He stated that many people tend to think their judgment is right, even when it is wrong. Another term that Kahneman and Tversky identified is "anchoring bias." This is the fact that when you are exposed to a number, you are influenced by that number whether you intend to be influenced or not.
This article reminds of how to motivate people in psychology and also reminds me of eyewitness testimonies. The fact that people often think their judgment is correct or what they experienced was real even though they may have been influenced by biased information directly relates to eyewitness testimonies. Eyewitness testimonies will often deal with the fallibility of memory, dealing with constructive memories, and biased information. The reason the article was so interesting to me is because those are two topics which I find very interesting and hope to study more in the future.
Terms: Eyewitness testimonies, illusion of validity, anchoring bias, bias, constructive memories, human error and judgment
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104803094