Topical Blog Week #15 (Due Wednesday)

1a) For this week’s topical blog I decided to do a bit more research on the topic of Elephant art/Elephant insight and intelligence.

1b) Chapter 14 deals with problem solving, creativity, and human intelligence, clearly for an elephant to paint a picture it relates directly to problem solving and creativity, but I wanted to find more about intelligence and whether or not this represents insight or if they are just mimicking humans to receive some sort of reinforcement. In order to relate it back to the chapter further the definition of problem solving is thinking that is directed toward the solving of a specific problem that involves both the formation of responses and the selection among possible responses whereas the definition of creativity is a cognitive activity that results in a new or novel way of viewing a problem or situation: I will be relating back to these ideas further in my synthesis/summary.

1c) I was especially interested in this topic because I have learned about these types of insight studies a lot before. The book briefly touches on Thorndike and I remember learning about his puzzle box studies on cats, and then they mention the chimp named Sultan and I also remember learning about him showing insight getting the bananas down using sticks. However, I had never heard anything about Elephants producing art so I wanted to learn more about it and find out if they show true insight or not. I also was interested after looking at the link provided in the text and seeing that these elephant paintings go for hundreds of dollars!!!

2) I originally had intentions of only researching art done by elephants but it turns out that many different animals use art for the same purposes so I am going to start broad and end narrow. There have been accounts of many different animals engaging in painting such as elephants, dolphins, gorillas, chimpanzees, and even crows. Four decades ago a gallery exhibit of chimp’s paintings raised debate about whether or not animals have an aesthetic sense/appreciation for beauty? They wondered if the work done by animals was actually art, or was it just brushstrokes and images pleasing to us but not the animals themselves? Researchers have found that the drive to paint and draw is strong in both humans and some animals too and the reason behind it may be because we have very similar aesthetic principles.

Just like young toddlers, many animals engage in painting/drawing at early ages without being told to or without rewards of food or payoffs. The funny thing about this is, just like toddlers, animals are more concerned/interested in the actual act of painting more than the final product so often their finished worked just looks like a few paint strokes on a page. This idea has been investigated by evolutionary psychologists and they have made hypotheses that suggest that perhaps we enjoy manipulating objects, it makes us feel a rush, we feel powerful, we enjoy creating and undoing… and so do animals. This perhaps has been the evolutionary motivation behind why we paint and it makes sense that humans and animals would be interested in our effects on the word. Once again though relating back to the question of is this actually aesthetically appealing, research has showed that in many cases it is. Certain gull’s for example enjoy the detail of their mothers beaks which are yellow with a red dot on the end, when they see this they chirp, peck, and beg for food. However, when the beak is manipulated and is rectangular with stripes and dots the chick responds even more vigorously… this may suggest that the gull is programmed for contour. As far as color preference goes, all animals have a different amount of color receptors: humans 3, birds, 4, and elephants 2 so the way we interpret the world around us is constantly different.

Now is when we will begin narrowing things down more closely related to the elephant and how painting has been used as a rehabilitative technique. Like other species, elephants are able to produce abstract art using their trunks to hold brushes, and often the end work looks like abstract expressionists. A lot of elephant art is featured in museums and galleries around the world and the price ranges for purchase are $300-$25,000! One particular elephant named Ruby, is considered an elephant star who is very good at painting, shows in depth concentration and a keen sense of color preference/choice. There are several organizations such as the Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project who actually teach elephants to paint and for paintings resembling identifiable objects they guide the elephants and help them along. Most art created by humans is done for pleasure, and 4 legged species show the same commonality. Painting and drawing is very pleasurable and soothing to animals, so more and more they have been using these on animals in captivity in the zoo to reduce stress and stressful behavior such as self-mutilation and repetitive swaying. Zoos encourage elephants to paint as a means to helping the confined find a sense of calmness. Creating art for humans and animals alike is about making something for personal satisfaction and sensory pleasure, rather than just for survival like they are used to.

3)http://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/12/elephant.aspx
This website gave a lot of detailed information on animals as a whole performing art ranging from elephants to orangatangs and chimps. It also points out that some species also have aesthetic ability, show color preference, and explains the color receptors in their system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition
This website provided a very detailed biography of elephants and their cognitive abilities. It ranged from their brain structure, to life in their society, altruism, self-medication, death ritual, play, mimicry, tool use, problem-solving ability, self awareness, and most importantly art and music.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-healing-arts/200804/elephant-artisans-give-new-meaning-trunk-show
This website was useful in providing a history on art done by animals. It explains how animals perform for rewards but also for their own benefits too. They also touch on the rehabilitative purposes that it is used for. Finally it explains how even though it isn’t always complex our systematic animals use art for the same reasons humans do.

1) One thing that I found interesting was the section on Gestalt psychology and problem solving. Gestalt is particularly known for its theories of perpetual organization, but it is also known for its insight into problem solving. According to Gestalt problems especially perceptual problems, exist when tension or stress occurs as a result of some interaction between perception and memory. Functional fixedness is to have considerable impact on problem solving research held that there is a tendency to perceive things in terms of their familiar uses and that tendency often makes it difficult to use them in an unfamiliar way. I found this interesting because we often here about Gestalt in many other classes but this is the first time I have heard it being talked about through problem solving.
2) The next section that I found interesting was the section on representation of the problem. In this section I thought that the stereotypical sequence of problem solving as suggested by Hayes was interesting in the sense of looking at the cognitive actions. 1. Identifying the problem 2. Representation of the problem. 3. Planning the solution. 4. Executing the plan. 5. Evaluating the plan. 6. Evaluating the solution. This is something that we do regularly and often time we don’t even realize that we are going through the steps. We often come to a problem and we just complete the task by forming the plan and then executing the plan. We often don’t know that we are really doing this at the time we are doing it.
3) The third thing that I found interesting was the section on judging creativity looking at the rat dyads of triad’s task. This section was looking at the way Americans judge people and there is really no possible way to measure ones creativeness. Psychologist measure how well people see novel connections between seemingly unrelated words and this is said to measure at least one if not many components of creativity. The RAT test to see have to pick a common word but additionally test to see if they are coherent or incoherent as well. I think this is interesting because we always see that people in America are judging and we often pick words based on this.
4) The section on H.O was something that I didn’t find interesting as they put H.O. who was a famous artist who was put in an fMRI and was told to draw they found different neurological differences in his brain compared to there and they did eye tracking and motor movement observations too. This study was really boring to me and I didn’t find it interesting to read about.
5) I think understanding how one problem solves is something that is very important because we problem solve every day throughout life and we often don’t really know how we do it. Problem solving is really a complex thing that we should understand. It also brought up some familiar psychologists that I have herd of in other classes and helped to make that connection.
6) This chapter builds off of the other chapter because it is again showing us more about the human intelligence, memory, and functions. It went farther into problem solving and how our brain functions was talked about in earlier chapters and with this we are able to move forward and expand our knowledge even further.
7) Declarative memory is something that I would be interested in learning more about. Declarative memory works with productive memory in the brain and helps process knowledge. I would like to know more about how the system affects memory and how it affects people’s life that they live every day.
8) I was thinking about memory and how our brain breaks down every little thing we do into many little pieces to process the information. Over and over again.
9) Declarative memory, working memory, productive memory, knowledge, dyads of triads, judging creativity, stereotypical problems, problem solving.

This week I decided to look further into creativity, since it is the concept that interested me most when I read the chapter. I wondered if creativity can be learned. Is it something we are born with? Or is it something we learn? Or both? People keep telling me to think outside of the box. But can I learn how to do that? And how?

There are certain factors that limit our creativity in this world. Social condition is one. We were constantly being taught what to do, how to live, right from wrong as children. We were told to listen and do what others say. When we grew a little older, we were programmed to fit in and look like other people, believing that if we are different we will have a bad time. These self-limiting beliefs are hard to break once they are in place, and most of the time we are not even trying to break it. We follow what we are taught to do and what others are doing. There is no room for creativity. But there is hope!

Although creativity seems like a gift people are born with, and it certainly is in some cases, research suggests that it is possible to adjust to mind so that creativity can emerge. Also, creativity is even taught in some places as an academic discipline! So what does it take to be creative? First, you need to adjust your mindset into believing that not all feedback is good for you. What other people want might not be what you want. Then, we need to criticize yourself, but in a good way. Always ask yourself how some certain tasks can be done better, or what would you have done differently? Are there any other ways to achieve what you have already achieved? Lastly, being a perfectionist does not help with your creativity. If something always has to be done exactly right, then there is no creativity in that task. Nature is imperfect and so are we. Challenge is another way to force the creativity out of you. Try different tasks like thinking obsessively about a subject, writing a metaphorical journal, combine two distinctively different ideas, try talking without I, me, my, and mine… etc.

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Creative

step by step on how to be creative

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140314-learn-to-be-creative

this bbc article discuss some research that have been done regarding creativity

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/can-you-learn-to-be-creative/

this is special since it points out different factors that limit our creativity in the real world.

1a) State what your topic is.
This week I decided to do some research on genetic modification and how that may be used to artificially increase intelligence.

1b) Discuss how the topic relates to the chapter.
The chapter I read looked at intelligence and even referenced a study where a protein was altered in a mouse brain that made it smarter, according to the researcher’s definition of mouse intellect.

1c) Discuss why you are interested in it.
I am interested in this because if there are ways to make oneself smarter by manipulating their genetic makeup, then the implications are incredibly widespread and could lead to some of the biggest breakthroughs of mankind.

2) The topic of genetic engineering in an incredibly fascinating one. I am personally very interested by the potential of genetically modifying the brain to produce enhanced intelligence, or any other number of increased cognitive abilities. It’s been known for some time about how genetics work, and doctors have been able to use this knowledge to give some options to potential parents. By adjusting the genome of the developing embryo, they are directly manipulating the phenome of the future child. The simple example of this would be changing the baby’s eye color from brown to blue by making the recessive gene the expressed one. However, the potential for manipulation does not stop there. What if you could select what genes you pass on to your child to ensure that they are as smart as they could possibly be? And what if you wanted to manipulate your own brain to make it more efficient with the use of foreign or natural chemicals? This is all possible, and some of this is currently being done. However, cultural blocks present a problem when looking at the alleged ethical implications of the issue.

A company in China, BGI Shenzhen, is currently doing their own genome project, in which they are examining the DNA of 2,000 of the world’s smartest people in an attempt to find the genes responsible for above average intelligence. They are on the verge of finding this, and from then on, the possibilities for engineering intelligence grow rapidly. In knowing this, they would theoretically be able to splice in genes responsible for higher intelligence into developing children, thus raising a generation of geniuses, but that is not their intent. They intend to find the genes responsible so that they can ensure that the child born to parents is the smartest child that they would naturally be able to produce. To do this, they would take the sperm and eggs from the potential parents and look at the genome of the combined embryos. They would then select the embryo which had the makeup responsible for producing the smartest child the couple could have. That selected embryo would then be implanted back into the woman and nine months later she would naturally give birth to her own child, knowing comfortably that the child is predisposed to be smarter than any other she could have produced. We have the technology to be doing this in America, but our country is too held up on ethical issues regarding the alleged existence of some deity who would possibly be upset by this. This example of engineering intelligence is less controversial than the others that I will talk about.

The other ways of engineering intelligence include introducing chemicals into the brain, either directly or through the use of drugs. Some drugs that claim to enhance cognitive performance in a number of areas fall under the broad category of nootropics. Other drugs include basic caffeine, nicotine, amphetamine, picrotoxin, Metrazol, and chemicals produced naturally by the pituitary gland. However, these don’t really fall into the category of genetic engineering. There have been multiple studies on mice (testing on human subjects is all too risky at this point) that have shown various proteins and enzymes can be manipulated to show enhanced cognitive abilities. One enzyme has been found to reduce the amount of memories retained when inhibited, and conversely increase the amount of memory retained when production is increased. To get more of this enzyme, a virus that produces it must be injected into the brain. Another study looked at a specific gene, the NR2B gene. These gene is important to learning, specifically at grasping large amounts of information. This is because it increases receptivity of the NMDA receptor, which enables connections to be made between more distant areas in the brain easily. Increases the amount of this NR2B gene, according to scientists, simply makes the mice “smarter.”

There is still a lot of research to be done on genetic engineering before we make practical use of any of the information, but first some hurdles need to be jumped as a society, to get past these illogical ethical boundaries. The ability to shun something as being unnatural is an age-old response of fear and apathy by those who cannot, or choose not, to understand the new concept. The same way that we have accepted planes as being a viable solution to travel, and the heliocentric model as being a more appropriate explanation of how the galaxy works, we too need to accept that the ability to enhance ourselves as an entire race is certainly an option that should not be dismissed easily.

3)
http://www.vice.com/read/chinas-taking-over-the-world-with-a-massive-genetic-engineering-program
This link discussed a form of genetic engineering and eugenics where multiple embryos are created from the natural sperm and egg of the parents, and then the embryo that has the capability to be the smartest is selected to be developed into a child.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/435816.stm
This link discussed the genetically modified mice that were smarter because of a specific manipulated gene.
http://www.dvice.com/archives/2011/03/genetically_eng.php
This link talked about an enzyme that can be produced by introducing a virus in various parts of your brain that would enable you to retain memories significantly better.

Topical Blog

The topic that I chose to learn more about from chapter 14 were the studies done on animals and how they problem solve. Chapter 14 is all about problem solving, creativity, and human intelligence. There is a lot of good information in this chapter about human’s solve problems and the different aspects to it. But at the very end of the chapter there was a blue box labeled “Elephant Art”. This blue box discussed the different ways that animals can solve problems. There was an example of a cat being put in a box. The researchers would place the cat in the box and see how long it took the cat to find a way to escape. After every trial the researchers did, it was becoming apparent that the cat was learning how to best get out of the box and its times were greatly improved. Another example it gave was a chimp that needed to use certain utensils to get higher up in his cage. He eventually learned how to fasten the objects together to climb to the top. And the third example the book gave was about how elephants can learn to paint on a canvas if you give them an “elephant-sized” paintbrush. I would like to learn more about how animals can learn certain skills and problem solving tasks.

Although it is believed that animals that solve problems do so through reasoning, this is not the case. I didn’t realize that this was the case. It is proved that animals can solve problems through trial and error or conditioning, but not through reason. This is how animals are different than man. Animals do not learn things or solve problems while using logic. If we relate this to the example of the cat in the box, it is a bit easier to understand. If we put a cat in a closed box, it is going to poke around to find a solution. Maybe it will rub its head on the wall and realize that won’t set it free. So it tries something else. The cat doesn’t sit back and think to itself, “Hmm – that didn’t seem to work – now what?” But it does know that it didn’t work so it presses somewhere else. Humans are the only ones that can solve problems using reason and logic.

After I found the difference between human problem solving and animal problem solving, I wanted to know which animals would be most intelligent or better at problem solving rather than another animal. Some animals are more intelligent than other animals. Each species has a brain that is specialized for that specific species. Some of these species might even prove to be more intelligent than humans at certain tasks. I found that chimpanzees are the most intelligent animal compared to humans. They are the most closely related to humans because they are able to manipulate their environment and utilize tools. The book even talked about the chimp that was able to put objects together to get to higher ground. The second smartest animal is the pig. A middle-aged pig is thought to be as smart as a three year old human. Pigs can also learn new skills quickly, which helps them adapt to different environments easily. I found this piece of information because whenever I go to a county fair or the state fair, I see at least one pig running loose. This makes me wonder if it is more due to their intelligence rather than an owner who isn’t being careful. And the third most intelligent animal is the dolphin. When it comes to body-to-brain ratio, dolphins have one of the biggest brains of all animals in the animal kingdom.

Even though the second website I found listed the top most intelligent animal species. We know that measuring intelligence is hard to do. Then I looked into tasks that animals could be tested on based on their intelligence. One of the hardest things for an animal to do – is to not act on its animal instincts. What I read about next was the measurement of certain animals and their levels of self-control. The experiment looked at 2 common tasks that are accepted ways to judge self-control. And then these results were correlated with other factors (ex: brain size). The results showed that the apes did very well. Dogs and baboons also did very well – along with a few other types of monkey and some species of birds. It was found that diet was one of the main indicators of how well an animal could sustain self-control. The article doesn’t tell why this is the case, but it is still a very interesting finding. This is a finding that we could most likely relate to humans. A better diet will make for a healthier mind.

URLs:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1349539/animal-learning/13128/Complex-problem-solving
I found a lot of good information on this website concerning animal problem solving. The first couple pages of this article talk about how animals solve problems unlike humans because they don’t have the ability to reason or use logic.

http://list25.com/25-most-intelligent-animals-on-earth/2/
This article was very interesting because it listed the top 25 smartest animals on the planet. It also had facts as to why they were the smartest and how they compared to humans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/science/overriding-their-animal-impulses.html?_r=0
There was good information on this website about a study done on animals and their level of self-control. It was shown that certain animals were better at self-control than others. And it was also shown that the animals diet had a high correlation to their level of self-control.

Terms: Problem Solving, Creativity, Human Intelligence, Logic

1. For this week's topical blog I chose to research into the area of genetics and creativity. This chapter introduces the idea of creativity as a cognitive process and the different ways that person goes about using their creative abilities. The chapter also talks about different ways that have been found to help enhance a person's ability to be creative and use divergent thinking. The chapter did not spend any time mentioning the other side of the famous nature versus nurture debate that can be attributed to almost any human process. It is well established that nothing is solely nurture or nature based but rather always a combination of the two working together. Though it is not always a 50-50 combination. Many times something will lean to one side or the other. In my research I was unable to find evidence to support if creativity went either way, but I was able to find research on the effects that nature plays in inhibiting one's creativity.

2. One of the challenges that comes along with studying creativity is that fact that it has such a subjective meaning, making it difficult to make quantifiable. This is one of the reasons that it has not gotten much attention in history from researchers in psychology. Different studies that I found used slightly different variations of the definition for creativity, but many were able to find correlations with genetic factors and the creativity that they were studying. The field has yet to find significant amounts of evidences to place one theory over another. The studies all explain the idea that everyone has the potential to grow in their creativity to a particular point showing that it is not all simply genetics.

Some studies have focused on clusters of genes rather than a particular gene itself in attempts to explain a genetic connection to creativity. One study found a correlation with a particular cluster of genes which are involved with the plasticity of the brain and its ability to break and form new connections between cells. It has been hypothesized that the ability for a person to make a greater number of connections is connected to their abilities to have a greater amount of creativity because they are able to use those connections that others do not make. Studies have found that the cluster of DNA contains a gene that elevated the serotonin levels in the brain higher than the average levels of a human brain. This is also thought to increase the connectivity in the brain, specifically in the posterior cingulate cortex which is a major center in the brain identified for awareness and internal direction. Other studies have shown that the connectivity between the two hemispheres of the brain is correlated with creativity as well.

Many different studies have been done in attempts to find connections between those that have genetic mental disorders and the correlations those have with creativity levels. One study focused on individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and their family members. The results found that those with these disorders as well as their immediate family members were more likely to hold what was deemed as a "creative" job than those who did not have either of these disorders. The fact that the immediate family members of those with the disorders showed the same correlations as those with the disorders in comparison to those that did not have either of the disorders and their families provides strong evidence that there is a genetic link. Another study focused on those that have ADHD. It is argued from these studies that the higher levels of distractibility allows for those with ADHD to take in additional information into conscious awareness that would normally be filtered out which gives them an advantage when it comes to tasks of creativity. It is also argued that those with ADHD tend to score higher than average on divergent thinking tests which are one accepted way of measure creativity.

3. http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2013/09/20/is-creative-ability-determined-by-our-dna/#.U2FVhnlOXIU
This website described a number of different studies that found different genetic differences for those that were considered to be creative. It also explains the possibility of the correlation between structure of the brain and creativity.

http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsArticle.aspx?articleid=334891
This website described a study that found evidence to support that idea that there is a link between certain mental illnesses and creativity. This suggests that a genetic factor plays a big role in creativity.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/12/creativity-adhd-share-common-genetic-vulnerabilities.html
This website described the similarities found between those with high creativity and those diagnosed with ADHD to suggest similar genetic and brain structure make ups.

My topic is dreams and problem solving. This topic relates to the chapter because chapter 14 was about problem solving and intelligence. I am interested in this topic because I have heard a theory that proposed dreams are a way to practice solving problems or work through problems during sleep.

Some researchers suggest that dreaming is similar to waking thinking; however, dream thinking is more illogical than waking thinking. This illogical thinking may be helpful in approaching problems that are occurring in waking life from a different angle. This theory stems from an evolutionary point of view and suggests that every function has a purpose or had a purpose at one time. By this logic, dreaming must have a purpose and many evolutionary psychologists reject the idea that dreaming is a result of random brain activity during REM sleep because everything must have a purpose.

Evidence has suggested that people dream about problems they are experiencing or working through in waking life. In one experiment, college students picked a homework to think about before falling asleep each week. Half of the students dreamed about the problem and about a quarter of the students dreamed about the solution to the problem. Research suggests that problems are more likely to be solved in dreams if the problems are more visually oriented due to the visual nature of dreams. Problems that also defy conventional wisdom are also more likely to be solved in a dream due to the illogical thought processes that occur during dreams.

This problem solving aspect of dreams helps relieve stress especially when problems have an emotional component. The large amount of cortical activity that occurs during dreams inhibits the activity of neurotransmitters associated with stress responses. Memories of stressful and emotional events are recalled from the memory during dreams; therefore, dreaming provides an opportunity to examine and evaluate stressful and/or emotional experiences without the brain and body’s stress response.

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20041223/dreams-can-solve-problems This resource talked about documented incidences of problem solving during dreams.

http://www.livescience.com/8373-dream-real-reasons-revealed.html This resource talked about the types of problems that are best solved in dreams.

http://www.tnol.asia/health/12011-dreams-can-help-to-relieve-stress.html This resource talked about the stress response during dreams.

This week I chose to research the topic of Moore’s Law from chapter 15 on artificial intelligence. I had heard before about the general rule that processing speeds and chip capacity were supposed to double before but I never knew about who initially made that claim or any of the specifics. The concept in general is a really interesting to think about and it brings up the question of how long such a significant growth pattern can last without petering off. I chose to not only look at Moore’s Law but other prospects for advancements within computing as well, as I found that not everyone was optimistic anymore about the sustainability of Moore’s Law in modern times.

Moore’s Law says that over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years and will continue to do so well into the future. It is a claim that was made by Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation in 1965 and has proven to be true, even 50 years later. Over that time, transistors within computer chips has increased exponentially over the years and chips themselves have become smaller and more intricate. What I didn’t know but found out about while reading was that Moore has a second law to go along with the first, also known as Rock’s Law. This second law states that as computer chips become more intricate and double in power every year, the cost of manufacturing them also increases exponentially to match.

There is ranging speculation on how sustainable this growth pattern is, with one group of researchers claiming and ultimate limit of 600 years of growth, which seems a bit much to me. Another, more realistic upper limit is estimated to occur within the next 20-40 years. Regardless of when it will happen, a peak is certain to occur and progress with be halted if we don’t find an alternative method of advancing computing. I have seen various suggestions on what could be an alternative but the one that I saw suggestion most often was quantum computing, which I remembered being brought up in class at one point.

Quantum computing, or a quantum computer is a computer that makes direct use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Superposition is defined as the concept “that a physical system—such as an electron—exists partly in all its particular theoretically possible states (or, configuration of its properties) simultaneously; but when measured or observed, it gives a result corresponding to only one of the possible configurations.” Entanglement is “a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently – instead, a quantum state may be given for the system as a whole.” These two concepts combine to enable the computer to process information without relying on the traditional binary method and instead using what is referred to as quibits. The whole concept is a bit difficult to grasp but the possibilities that quantum computing brings are pretty amazing and I hope that I can see it realized within the next few years.

Overall, regardless of when we will hit the peak of Moore’s Law, it will continue to function in the next decade most likely and I’m really interested to see what even further computing power will bring with it. The future of computing seems pretty bright and innovative to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law
This functioned as the basis of my information on Moore’s Law and gave a lot of good information on trends within computing.

http://www.theconnectivist.com/2013/10/moores-law-is-dead-the-future-of-computing/
One of the many articles that I found that detailed the decline of Moore’s Law and called for an alternative. Also one of the ones that suggested quantum computing as a viable alternative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer
My basis of the information on quantum computing. It was really interesting to read about but I found myself having to click the hyperlinked pages for their definitions, such as superposition and entanglement. The concept seemed fairly difficult on a technical level but was really interesting.

1) The effects of poverty on cognitive function and decision making. There was a section in the chapter that explained the how and why we make the decision that we do. As I was searching for information on why we make bad decisions, I stumbled across this really interesting research that has come out in the last couple of months that discussed how being poor effects your decisions. While it is easy to stigmatize the poor, in that their poor decisions lead to poverty but in reality, for most people-it is the fact they are poor that leads to bad decisions. Not only can being poor lead to poor decisions, but your cognitive function can be directly impacted if you are living in poverty. A study done by an economics professor at Harvard and his colleagues illustrated this fact by conducting research in a New Jersey shopping mall. They asked shoppers, with varying income levels, to imagine that they had a repair bill for their car that was $300 and then followed up by giving them cognitive tests that would measure certain aspects of an intelligence test, such as logical thinking and problem solving. The results showed that the performance on these tests were similar, regardless of income. However, when the same question was posed but with the repair bill equaling $3000, a very different picture emerged. When given the cognitive tests, people that were low income scored lower on these tests, even when the scenario was imagined! Scarcity has a direct impact on an individuals ability to think clearly.

This concept was also studied in a laboratory setting, with these researchers using college students from University of Chicago, Princeton and Harvard. They wanted to establish that decision making can be impaired, regardless of the type of scarcity that was used. These students were asked to play different kinds of games in which they could be assigned a budget of money they could spend or earn, such as Wheel of Fortune or Family Feud. At random, students were assigned low or high rewards and also offered a chance to borrow rewards, but would have to pay to do so. Just like the studies done in the mall, the students that were rewarded with small amount scored significantly worse on cognitive tasks. Also, the “poor” students generally borrowed more and this borrowing lead to worse performance on the cognitive tests. Lastly, what this study also showed was that when given a chance to get hints on the questions that would appear next, the “poor” students hardly ever utilized this, while the “rich” students almost always did, therefore increasing their earnings. This would indicate, much like the other research done on this subject, that poor people live in the now, because it becomes too difficult to plan for the future. This research has also been done in other parts of the world in which poverty is at a whole other level then the United States. In third world countries, in which farmers rely on their crop for survival, perform much better on cognitive tests after harvest then before. This is attributed to the fact that after harvest, they are finally getting the financial rewards of their hard work.

One doesn’t have to be living in poverty to understand how we can become so distracted by something, that it can affect our ability to pay attention. For example, before class, you have decided that you can wait until after class to get something to eat. However, 10 minutes into the lecture, you realize just how hungry you are and suddenly, you aren’t able to concentrate on anything but how hungry you are. The problem with poverty is that you aren’t ever able to escape the stress of not having enough.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/good-thinking/201309/why-having-too-little-leads-bad-decisions
This was a really good article that highlighted the Harvard research. I used information from this article for some of the information on the study.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/09/poverty_and_cognitive_impairment_study_shows_money_troubles_make_decision.html
It may be because I am a bleeding heart liberal, but I really enjoyed this article and it really talked about how being affluent means you don’t have to think so much about the decisions you make. I also integrated this article into information about the research.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/your-money/money-secrets/how-poverty-changes-way-we-make-decisions
This article was an interview with the lead researcher on the study. A more personal look at his research and was able to use his thoughts on the study to touch up from the other articles.