Think of the material we have covered so far in class. Next find a topic related to your interest and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. I would like you to use quality informative website though.
Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it in an informative manner so the reader will learn about the topic through your writings (not by referring them to a website) . At the end, please include working URLs for the websites used.
Finally, find one of your ealier web divergence tasks and briefly discuss how your writing about cognitive psychology has changed sicen then.
Please make sure you use the terms, terminology and concepts you have learned so far in the class. It should be apparent from reading your post that you are a college student well underway in a course in psychology.
Please use spaces between your paragraphs to make your post easier to read - thanks in advance
Include a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post. (example - Terms: memory, cortex, visual system....)
Let me know if you have any questions.
Reading chapters about object recognition and perception I remembered one of the BBC videos. It mentioned the concept of beauty and symmetry as soothing that has strong correlation. Moreover, it was claimed that our brain tend to see beauty as symmetry exactly. So, in my web divergence assignment I tried to find some information on the topic.
It appeared to be that symmetry actually plays a great role in terms of what we define as beautiful, and what not. Many researches have shown positive correlation between facial symmetry and beauty. It basically means that the majority of the participants tended to evaluate more symmetrical faces as more attractive. (On the other hand several reported asymmetry-preference). It’s necessary to mention that some preferences in body shape seem to be universal: in a study of men taken worldwide, of various backgrounds, ethnicity and ages the participants ranked women with a small waist to hip ratio around 0.7 (the waist is 70 % the size of the hips) as more attractive and healthy.
What can explain such preference? Evolution seems to have the answer: we like symmetry in bodies and faces, as it tells us that the individual in front of us is more genetically healthy. As diverse observations indicated a positive correlation between attractive physical traits and higher proportion of fertility and good health. The opposite – asymmetrical physical features in plants and animals across species makes an organism more susceptible to disease and parasite assaults. Thus bilateral symmetry in faces and bodies is an important indicator of freedom from disease and thus is preferable for mating. In humans facial asymmetries and abnormal physical features start to develop early in embryonic development and might indicate certain instability during growth. The so called fluctuating asymmetry (these are random differences between two sides, not the deliberate natural asymmetry common for some species) is a sign of the phenotype being subjected to some levels of stress.
The men preference of women with a certain waist-hips ratio also has its biological implication as it has correlation with testosterone/estrogen impact on fertility. Even a slight increase in waist to hip circumference (0.9) might lead to reproductive problems and infertility. Thus we biologically tuned to like and positively react on symmetrical features of the individual, as it is beneficial for sexual selection and successful mating and reproduction.
Another possible explanation might be the following: our brain likes symmetry, because it makes it easier to recognize the objects and memorize faces. Thus the subjectively more beautiful is something simpler in description and giving the observer an opportunity to decode and memorize information. We still do not know everything about the work of human’s face-encoding mechanisms, but we know that the early visual processing in mammals employ rotation-sensitive edge and bar detector. Such detectors could prefer a particular face as it allows them comprise the information and thus process it relatively easier. This approach has support in the field of artificial neuron networks that also favor codes based on features with sufficient but minimal information content. Generally speaking in this model some parts of the face are encodable by reusing descriptions of other parts and allow using of compact algorithms describing the whole. On one of the web-sites I have found an example of the beautiful face, created in accordance to geometry rules. These rules are more specific than those used by famous artists such as Leonardo and Durer, but they use the same approach of reasonable simplicity.
At the same time various studies support the claim that our judgments of what is beautiful are also influenced by culture and a particular society we live in. facial symmetry by itself cannot be “responsible” for defining such complex concepts as beauty. Still, it can have a positive impact on mate selection in humans.
I looked through my previous works for this class and I believe have noticed certain difference with the latest assignments. Now I certainly know more about cognitive psychology, its terminology, etc., so doing the web search activity I feel more confident. Frankly speaking, now I am able to find more stuff related to psychology in an ordinary newspaper article, than I could have done before. At the same moment I feel more involved and interested, as I have an opportunity to find something interesting to me, not just necessary to class. I feel like I am “hunting” for the information and I actually enjoy it. I also feel more confident in my writing, as now I have certain background in the field.
Terms used: facial recognition, symmetry-preference, asymmetry preference, encoding mechanisms, artificial neural network
http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/locoface/newlocoface.html
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f01/web1/ekanayake.html
After learning about Gestalt psychology in a couple of my other psychology classes I decided I wanted to find online information that covered the Gestalt Theory because I find it fascinating how the brain is able to interpret visual stimuli. According to the class discussion and the sites I found, Gestalt Theory has a lot to do with perception. This theory states that the brain is able to recognize and organize patterns so that perception is less difficult or confusing. In other words, it states that most people perceive stimuli as a whole instead of the sum of its parts. It’s interesting to note that the brain works in these ways because even without a conscious effort our brain will try to find the simplest solution to a problem of perception. When perceiving stimuli our brain is more often than not grouping similarities between stimuli in order to successfully perceive an image.
One site I visited mentioned four ways in which the brain groups stimuli. These ways include the following: closure, proximity, similarity, and simplicity. With closure parts are grouped together if they complete an image. One popular example is looking at a square that is missing its corners. Even without the corners the brain groups the lines together to form the image of a square. Proximity refers to the grouping of parts based on the nearness of each other. Another factor is similarity, which groups parts based on their similar characteristics. Books like Where’s Waldo play on this specific factor. In each picture there will be many images that appear to look like Waldo therefore making it difficult to find the actual Waldo. The last factor, simplicity, groups items into simple figures according to their similarity in symmetry, regularity, and smoothness. Other sites also mention figure ground and continuance. The most popular image that explains figure ground is the image of the pretty, young lady v. the ugly, old lady. Figure ground allows the brain to fill in the blanks areas meaning what parts of the picture becomes the background and what part of the picture pops out.
Next, I came across an informative video on Youtube that went more in depth on the topic of proximity. Not only are there helpful images that show how the brain uses proximity, but also ways in which proximity is used in the world. Gestalt principles like proximity are found a lot in advertising. This video makes people aware of how the Gestalt theory can be regularly found. The Gestalt theory is especially important when used in art. Paintings and photography are just a few creative ways in which gestalt principles can be cleverly applied.
After looking back at older web divergences I have completed I realized my writing has changed in some ways. I am now better able to combine information from separate sources to complete a scholarly blog. I don’t just repeat information I find from each site, but use everything I have previously learned to integrate and synthesize material. Also, I am able to rely on class discussion to use more cognitive psychology terms when writing. Before, I was relying on information I had learned in the past from for example my introduction psychology course, but now I have been refreshed on old material and am able to build on that.
Terms: Gestalt Theory, gestalt principles, proximity, figure ground, closure, similarity, simplicity
http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/graphicsblog/2008/03/04/the-rules-of-the-gestalt-theory-and-how-to-apply-it-to-your-graphic-design-layouts/
http://tip.psychology.org/wertheim.html
http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/gestalt.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av5Ap3nxToM
I was really interested in our last class discussion about memory. When discussing memory, my main interest lies in the problems we face with memory and forgetting. I remember reading about individuals who have experienced a tragic event in their life and the memory of the event is allegedly pushed down into their unconsciousness due to the amount distress and emotion it caused. Memories that are unable to be recalled due to past experiences and overwhelming emotions are called repressed memories. However, many psychologists have a hard time agreeing that repressed memories exist. I chose to do further research about the repressed memories debate and look into the treatment processes available.
Repressed memories were first introduced by Freud when he presented the idea of unconscious memory processes. Freud used the term repression to describe the way emotionally painful events could be blocked out of conscious awareness so that their painful effects would not have to be experienced. As we read in our text, many psychologists are skeptical that repressed memories exist. Many psychologists argue that repressed memories are questionable because some therapy sessions can possibly plant false memories into patients heads. Also, it's very hard to prove that implanted memories are fake and it usually comes down to putting one persons word against another. Another argument that is found in the debate is the thought that if repressed memories are a genuine natural phenomenon that has always affected people, “then someone, somewhere, in the thousands of years prior to 1800, would have witnessed it and portrayed it in a nonfunctional work or in a fictional character." Currently there is not any evidence that suggests repressed memories really exist. It will be interesting to read about further research conducting to find an answer to this debate.
During the 1980s and 1990s Repressed Memory Therapy (RMT) was popular however, it is rarely used today. This therapy technique was aimed at patients who had experienced a traumatic event, usually child abuse or sexual abuse, and repressed their memory. The theory was designed to help recover and cope with the memory. However, repressed memory therapy however landed hundreds of parents in jail and thousands of families were shattered once patients recovered their memory of abuse, sexual abuse, ect. RMT declined quickly in the 1990s and mostly an abandoned form of therapy today by most psychologists. Today, many therapists differentiate between two types of memories. First, there are memories that are always available to recall from the time of the traumatic experience to the present time. Second, there are memories that seemed to be 'pieced' together after patients have seeked many RMT therapy sessions. In most cases, these memories seem real but are truly experiences that never happened. Overall, repressed memories are no longer treated by the RMT therapy technique. Instead, patients undergo new therapy processes that do not have the potential of implanting false memories.
I was surprised after going back and reading my first few blogs of this year. My blogs seem to have really grown and developed as I learned more throughout class. I noticed that I have a better understanding of how to blog my knowledge instead of repeating text book information. Also, I'm beginning to use more cognitive psychology terminology within my blogs.
Terms: memory, repressed memory, RMT
URLS : http://www.religioustolerance.org/rmt.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090707170958.htm
I want to talk about Levels of processing. This theory is actually something in our outlines and fits perfectly well into the idea of memory. I already talked about the multi-storage models that were proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin, so I wanted to move on from this and talk about another idea that rejects the ideas proposed in the other post I made.
Levels of processing was an idea created by Craik and Lockhart in 1972 to oppose the idea that there are "boxes" in the brain that hold different ideas or memories. Their main idea behing the theory was that stimuli could be encoded at varying depths from shallow to deep. Actually, "depths of processing" can be described as the way in which a person thinks about a piece of information. A shallow level of processing for, say, a word, would be to skim over a scentence and focus on the meaning of the scentence and not the individual words. In a deeper level of processing, you would look at the single word itself and consider its meaning outside of the context of the scentence, or maybe even other words that are similar to it.
Trying to decide which theory is right between the two models poses a few problems. When thinking about the multi-store models, it is harder to justify that there are separate buffers. Considering that the only difference between stm and ltm could be rate of forgetting, than you could say that that there is only one real buffer and that certain memories only differ in how long it takes for them to be forgotten. When examining these issues, however, it showed that LTM sometimes preserved acoustic and certain priming effects info and that STM is more sensative to the meaning of info and visual info.
To test levels of processing, Craik & Tulving conducted an experiment to test participants on 60 different words. They were then asked to recall words based on three questions: Was the word in capital letters or lower case?, Does the word rhyme with (another word)?, and Does the word fit in the following sentence...?. Out of a larger list than first presented, the participants were asked to pick the correct words. Out of this experiment, they found that participants were better able to recall words that had been processed more deeply, or processed semantically.
Another idea that supports levels of processing is the self-reference effect. When people are asked to relate a word to themselves, they are better able to remember the word later on. This relation to the word has a deeper meaning to us, so we process it further than we would some other word that we did not relate to ourselves.
While this idea is interesting and has support through research, there are some problems with it. It always assumes that deeper processing leads to a better memory. Another problem is the differentiation bettwen what is shallow and what is deep. This is all relative and cannot be measured on a current scale. The theory may have more development that it could go through, but I would still consider it just a theory... and maybe needs more time to develop further.
After looking back at my older posts for the class, I think I have gotten better. My integration of the concepts and the ideas that I am trying to represent in the post seem more integrated, and I am able to talk about things I have already learned in the class. Based on my knowledge now from earlier posts I can reach back and bring some of those ideas into the ideas I am posting right now. I think my posts have developed and have become more focused on what is important and what is not so important to say in the post.
terms: stm, ltm, levels of processing, multi-storage models, shallow and deep processing (depths of processing), self-reference effect
http://webspace.ship.edu/ambart/PSY_325/Levels.htm
http://www.uark.edu/misc/lampinen/LOP.html
http://www.psychologistworld.com/memory/levels_processing.php
I did research on the topic of forgetting. This topic kind of fits into the chapter backwards, as I first thought. I am interested in how and why we forget because in class it was mentioned that forgetting is not a bad thing, something I had not realized. Forgetting serves an important purpose in our brain’s function. I found a lot of good information that described just how useful forgetting certain information can be.
Most of the research that has been done with memory and forgetting include the memorization of a list of items. Different tests were done to see how the brain functions while recalling or practicing items on that list - and fMRI was used for some of the research that I will discuss. When we are given information we store it. When we are trying to recall are use retrieval processes that are based on how we processed information. We process information depending on how important it is. The depth of our processing is altered based on information these are called the levels of processing. So we may store different pieces of information on the same levels. We also may store information in relation to each other or depending on how the information is different. What is important to memory and forgetting is relational processing. Relational processing is when we store pieces of information that are close or connected to one another. This could be seen as putting them into groups or chunking- which is an effective way to store and later recall information. An example given in class where chunking is an effective method is with waiters and waitresses.
So a lot of the information that we store has connections to the other information that we retain - either by the levels of processing or by the relational qualities of the information. So when we are trying to recall certain information we will have several possible memories to choose from. In the first website/article I read it asked us to try and recall our sixth birthday party. If we were able to successfully recall that birthday then our other childhood birthday memories would be repressed. This is known as retrieval induced forgetting.
I mentioned earlier that most research done on forgetting uses a list of items. There are different exercises that include partnering of words, word recall, partnered-word recall, etc. An example would be dust-attic and dust-junk. If were asked to finish the missing word in this example dust-a____ then we would have a competing memory that included both pares of words that used dust. When we are given the first letter of the second word we are supposed to recall then we have practice with the pair “dust-attic” and the competing set of words, “dust-junk” would be repressed due to lack of use. If we practice this set of words enough we will forget the partnered words of dust-junk and we will only be able to recall dust-attic. This is a neural function is beneficial for us as humans. If we only use the paring of words dust-attic and that is the term that is important to us then we do not need to remember the terms dust-junk they became irrelevant and are no longer important. By forgetting irrelevant information we are able to quicken the search for the information that we more commonly use (dust-attic). The competition between these two memories has been eliminated.
The act of forgetting allows other information to be retrieved more readily - with less mitigating or conflict control with in the brain (anterior cingulated ACC). Like at a night club our brains have ‘bouncers’ that must keep things in order. Our brain’s bouncers are known as ACC (anterior cingulated). When there are fewer competing memories then the brain works quicker to retrieve the desired information and uses fewer resources to do so. Our brain will function better if we have few things to weed through when we are trying to recall/retrieve a memory.
Another website I looked at described forgetting as a very positive attribute and it is important in the function of our brain. The term they used is memory overload. Again, when we have too much to sift through it slows our brain’s function. They go on to discuss our long-term memory and it effects on our working memory. If we have too much information stored in our long-term memory our working memory (what we are actively participating in) does not function as well. This article says that if we lose some of our long-term memory or dedicate those neurons to function in our working memory we will function better day to day. This article says that our brains will be more efficient if we ‘forget’ certain information and use those neurons elsewhere (working memory) instead of creating new neurons for those tasks. This part actually confused me… wouldn’t we want to build up our set of neurons and keep the connections in our brains strong so that we can later avoid dementia? And how are we supposed to train particular neurons? Can we chose where we store things – can we train ourselves to do that?
The last couple of articles I looked at brought even more new ideas to the table. One article, which was rather short, had a fairly simple message. We need to forget the irrelevant things so that we have more ability to remember the relevant things. It makes sense – we could look at this like the amount of space we have in a garage.. we could fill it with the junk we don’t need or we could put a nice new car in that space. Ok, that is a poor example but hopefully it gets the point across. Lastly I looked into the different types of forgetting that we may encounter. There were a few concepts that we have already looked at or covered – and there were a few new ideas. The ones that we should be familiar with are the different types of amnesia, repression, and Korsakoff’s syndrome. The newer concepts (new to me) were retrograde interference and proactive interference. Retrograde interference is when we have a hard time taking in new information because of the information we already have stored. Such as, learning a new language – say we already know German but we are trying to learn French. The French words will have a hard time standing up against (being recalled) with the German words. The other cause for forgetting or not retaining is proactive interference. This is when we are learning something new and then we have a hard time recalling what we already know. Using the same example – if we already knew German and were learning French the proactive interference would be that we would readily recall the French words while having difficulty coming up with German words.
I think forgetting is a very interesting subject! I have never considered it a function that allows for a more efficient brain. Forgetting is good! More teachers should know this… then again it may suggest that their subjects and information just aren’t important enough to remember… maybe we’ll just keep it to ourselves…
Looking back on my early entry blogs I have noticed that I have improved on a few things. I am including more vocabulary terms in these blogs and I also have included their definitions. I think this is mostly because we are able to use our past blogs on the tests. It is easier if I include the definition with the word instead of having to read an entire paragraph to remember what it says. I also find myself making connections between different topics. This makes the words that I used come up more often.. I practice them and they are relevant – meaning there is a greater chance that I will remember them! Overall I have seen some improvement with my blogging but, there are also many areas that I can improve. Like making sure that I take new routes in looking at information and I do not cover the same things over and over. Also, just improve my writing skills with clarity and wording.
Terms: Recall, retrieval processes, levels of processing, relational processing, chunking, retrieval induced forgetting, memory overload, long-term memory, working memory,
http://scienceblogs.com/developingintelligence/2007/06/when_forgetting_is_good_cognit.php
http://www.livescience.com/health/070409_memory_overload.html
http://thankyoubrain.blogspot.com/2007/06/forgetting-can-be-good-solving-tip-of.html
http://www.buildyourmemory.com/whyweforget.php
The topic I choose to focus on is eyewitness testimonies because I do find them very interesting, especially the fact that we are still using them to convict people.
The first article is about a retired judge suggesting that eye witnesses should have to go through a mandatory pretest to ensure that the eyewitness testimony is accurate before that witness is allowed to testify in court. The article talks about how the witness is going through a lot of stress, may perceive things wrong, human error often comes into play, and finally many eyewitness cases are cross-cultural and people in history have proven that we have a harder time identifying people when they are not the same race as us. The major dilemma about this situation is that it would cost more money because it would be an extra trial.
Another article speaks about how DNA testing is showing communities how truly flawed humans can be… especially at eyewitness testimony. This is something that Kahneman and
Tversky's work’s has shown for about 50 years now and it is finally being recognized. People are often so sure that their perceptions are right, but the truth is almost scary about how wrong we can be. The fallibility of human memory is something that psychologists have known for sometime and it is now being recognized more and more. Hermann Ebbinghaus even did memory research in the 1800s which helped to establish the “Forgetting Curve.” This shows how humans forget things and how memory fades over time. As a human’s memory fades we start to “create” some of the details we forgot. Jurors need to be aware of the fallibility of human memory before convicting a person. “According to a study published earlier this year in the journal Law and Human Behavior, false eyewitness testimony contributed to 77 percent of the 230 wrongful convictions exposed by DNA evidence over the last decade.” In 1999 Wells and Bradford from Iowa State did a study where they showed participants a real footage from a robbery that had grainy video. They showed the participants pictures and said the suspect was in the photos. They all identified the wrong person and said they were confident of their choices. What was even more disturbing was the fact that when they were given positive feedback they became “certain” and would testify against them in court.
The final video is an example of a newscast doing an experiment on college students.
This topic clearly relates to memory and perceptions. Constructive memories are something that plays a key role in this topic. The fact that prior experience, postevent information, perceptual factors, and even one’s desire to remember certain events over others can influence on what we recall. Loftus is another person that has done a lot of work on the malleability of memory.
Terms: Loftus (researcher), constructive memories, memory, perceptions, Ebbinghaus (researcher), Kahneman and Tversky (researchers), eyewitness testimonies
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/16478/1529920?cpt=8&title=google_local_broadcast&wpid=8790
http://reason.com/archives/2009/04/08/eyewitness-testimony-on-trial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6fRH5MLBIU
After skimming through past lectures to find a topic to research, I decided I have not done a lot of posts on short-term and long-term memory. More specifically, I find personal cases to be very interesting because I really enjoy getting a deeper meaning for the information by applying it to people in the real world. Therefore, I decided to do more research on the personal story of H.M. and his struggle with memory.
For nearly all his life, H.M. suffered from severe epilepsy and in 1953, underwent surgery to combat his seizures. Doctors believed that removing the portion of his brain in which the seizures originated would help solve the problem. They were correct, however, it cost H.M. the ability to retain new memories. More specifically, he cannot form new memories and store them in his long-term memory for later retrieval.
This is what resulted from the operation. Dr. Scoville removed portions of his medial temporal lobe, including much of the hippocampus. Specifically, the temporal lobe is associated with perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, as well as memory and speech. Within the temporal lobe, the hippocampus is involved specifically in learning and memory. After his surgery, it was discovered that these locations are what function in converting short-term memory into long-term memory. However, the hippocampus is not needed in the function of retrieving old long-term memories, therefore, H.M. is still able to remember events from his childhood.
What seems to be interesting is the fact that H.M. learn motor skills and retain this information over time. This is potentially because certain memories are stored in multiple areas of the brain, which are retrieved together to create the memory of how to do something.
This reminds me of the chapter we had to read for this week’s reading activity on the representation of knowledge. For example, some sort of network is still intact in H.M.’s brain in order for him to be able to recall someone’s first name by hearing their last, making an association between the two names.
Overall, I think my writing since the beginning of the course has made improvements. I think writing for each post is easier now that we have had a couple of exams. It is helpful in that I know to include specific definitions and examples in my posts. I also think that by doing so, I remember the information better and am able to reference past information and integrate it into newer topics. I also think that my improvement is reflected somewhat by my two exam grade, the second having improved from the first.
Terms: H.M.; epilepsy; long-term memory; short-term memory; medial temporal lobe; hippocampus
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7584970
Web Divergence Activity – Week #11
Object Recognition
Object recognition is our ability to recognize objects. This can occur after we see an object and therefore gain recognition of the object and can later recall it. It can also be our ability to realize the objects physical properties through the shape of the object, and the color and texture. To understand how this happens we apply our understanding of the object is put to use and then we begin create personal experiences with the object which allows for us to understand and relate to it in the future. Hemispatial Neglect is a neurophysiologic condition where damage has occurred to one hemisphere of the brain. This results in damage to our attention system and awareness. These two are related in ways of attention. Object Recognition allows for us to recognize objects, but if we have this condition then our recognition is limited and impaired.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/96430/agnosia_loss_of_object_recognition.html
Agnosia is our loss of ability to recognize objects, people, sounds, shapes, or smells because there is no memory of it. This can be the result of a brain injury such as Hemispatial Neglect or after damage to the occipitotemporal border, which is part of the ventral stream. Today, there are over 200,000 cases of different types of Agnosia. Surprisingly, agnosia does not affect the memory or sensory sensations, which could include taste and smell. After the damage has occurred, the sufferer is left in a very confused state.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADchGO-0kGo&feature=related
One of the YouTube videos I found related to perceptions is related to damage done to part of the brain in which hinders the ability to take into account both right and left sides of the world; so to speak. For example, if a person’s left hemisphere is damaged, they then lose the ability to see the left side of their world. People begin to ignore the left side of their world. They begin to dress the right side of their bodies; things are only focused on the right side of their world. Our eyes are a slave to our attention systems. Neglect is when the attention system has damaged. One crazy example that the video shows is a women who had a stroke that damaged her left hemisphere. It was crazy because the man in the video asked her to draw a picture of a cat. After she had finished, the entire left side of the cat was missing. She never drew it. When he pointed this out to her, she was amazed, not realizing that she didn’t draw it. She said she didn’t even think about it, she thought that she drew the entire thing. She doesn’t realize how she could have missed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG9a_cGOSrM&feature=related
Another video that I watched related a lot to Left Neglect. A treatment was presented to help to fix left neglect. The treatment is called Scanning treatment. The person was asked to read sentences on a paper. She was asked to focus on the left side of the paper while reading. She couldn’t make sense out of what she was reading. The person then was asked to look at the left line on the paper and use that as a cue to start sentences. So, start at the left line and start reading, once she reached the second line she needed to go back to the left line and continue reading. After she tried this, she read the entire thing and was very happy because the sentence then began to make sense because she was reading the entire sentence, not just the right side of the sentence.
Terms: Agnosia, left neglect, hemispatial neglect, attention system, memory, sensory sensations, occipitotemporal border, ventral stream
For this blog I started looking into mental rotation as a extension to our class lecture. However, I ended watching YouTube videos on mental imagery. I found an explanation of a study and that is what I am going to use today. I choose mental imagery because I was quite intrigued by it in our class lecture. How do we “see” pictures in our minds? Or more so, do we?
When we think about, or visualize something, do we actually have or build a picture in our head or is there some other way we construct the images? In other words do we have pictorial representation or propositional representation (i.e. tree+sun+cloud (behind, next to, in front of) green, brown, yellow, blue, etc). I would think that we do not have a picture in our had that if we have had the technology we could print it from our heads. I would think that we have a kind of encodings in our brains that allow us to construct images and perceive that we can see the picture in our mind. Or maybe our brain sends information backwards into the visual system and we can actually see the picture somewhere. Some evidence, however, tends to support the pictorial representation.
Some studies have shown that subjects who look at a white board while both being told a scene and retelling a scene tend to look at the white board in the manner they would as if they were looking at the scene. They tracked these eye movements not only in the light but also in the dark. It does seem to more difficult in the dark as the subjects become more adapt to blink and they have to recenter themselves more often so to orient themselves.
According to some sources, the brain cannot tell the difference between walking around your house physically and walking around your house in your mind. And there are some benefits to mental imagery. Regardless if you think we can see the imagery or not, there is obviously something going on. People are now guiding such things as wheel chairs and communicate with their thoughts. And many people today think that using positive mental imagery you can self-improve yourself in areas such as self-esteem, facing fears, conquering addictions, and sports (mental rehearsal). Perhaps we may be able to even use mental imagery to visualize ourselves exercise instead of actually doing it (just what today’s world needs). It may even help us heal. We use the Fmri scanner to pick up areas where more blood flows to find out which parts of the brain are active and when they are. This has also been a tool to help us map the brain.
Terms: Mental Rotation, Mental Imagery, Pictorial Representation, Propostional Representation, Perceive, Visual System
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTEa1jwJbqU&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN6g64xa32w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQHDXJvUKto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kT0p-Ng9aY