Read Chapter 8 and the epilouge in Visual Intelligence.
1) Make a list of the topics covered in Chapter #7. DO NOT discuss the reader.
2) Look up the topics covered in your reference text book.
3) For each topic write at least one paragraph about what your text has to say about it. If you text doesn't directly address the topic, then find a topic in your text that most closely matches the topic from your list and discuss that. It should be clear for each topic paragraphs that you understand the topic well enough to explain it to a student that has not yet taken this class.
4) What parts do you think you will remember from the reader and the text?
1) Virtual reality, phenomenal senses, relational senses, Capgras syndrome
3) Virtual reality is using computer technology to create a simulated, 3-D world that a user can manipulate and explore as if he were in that world. The 2 criteria that are required is that it appears to be life-sized from the perspective of the user, and that the ability to track user’s motions in order to change what the user sees must also occur. The immersion and interactivity a person experiences during a virtual reality experience is called telepresence.
Phenomenal means relating to the senses. In the reader, it is described as how we are taking in stimuli, and then making sense of it using our visual intelligence. My text describes phenomenological observations as what we perceive when we are presented with a stimuli. We do not all perceive things in the same way, even if given the same stimuli. Phenomenal senses are the way things look to you, and are individualized to each person.
Relational senses are arbitrary. They are the signals we are given. In a relational sense, we are all viewing things in the same way. It provides a systematic way to view the world. My text did not discuss this theory at all, so I did a little research online about it. I did find some interesting notes online about it. Relational senses was described as what you interact with when you look. It also stated that a thing must exist to be seen in the relational sense. The website I found brought up the example of the movie Fight Club and Brad Pitt’s character in the movie, and if there is a true difference in what we see and what we interact with. I thought this was an interesting way to look at it, and a point that stuck with me.
Capgras syndrome is a disorder in which a person holds a delusion that someone important to them has been replaced by an identical looking imposter. Prosopagnosia is one of the causes of Capgras syndrome which is the inability to recognize faces consciously. It has been proposed that the origin of Capgras delusions is a disconnect in the temporal lobe and limbic system. This would be a disconnect between emotion and facial recognition. It is often times diagnosed in schizophrenic patients.
4) I think I will have trouble keeping phenomenal and relational straight. I believe the metaphor of Brad Pitt in Fight Club is something that will stick with me as well, because it gave me a more abstract example to think about. It’s difficult to separate relational and phenomenal senses, and this is why it is a difficult concept. I think that I will remember the concept of Capgras syndrome well, even if I do not remember the specific parts of the brain. I found this very interesting that people will believe a person is an exactly identical imposter, without any substantial reason behind it besides a “gut feeling.” I think that this is very interesting, and from a clinical perspective would be very difficult to disprove in a patient. They are not basing their judgments on reasoning and so sound reasoning would not be sufficient to disprove these hunches.
1. Phenomenal Sense, Relational Sense, Synesthesia, Capgras Syndrome
3. Phenomenal Sense, referred to in my text as phenomenological method, is describing what we perceive. It is the very basic observations that we make. Even when our brains lie to us, we perceive things so they are real in the phenomenological sense. The text gives the example of us perceiving apparent motion when two separate lights flash one after another, making it appear that the first light is moving. Even though the light is not actually moving that is how we perceive it, so in the phenomenological sense, it is moving. The reader goes more in depth on this topic because the first part of the chapter is focusing on virtual reality, a perception that would not be possible without our phenomenal sense.
Relational Sense is what you are interacting with, but not necessarily observing or realizing that you are interacting with. It is not discussed in my text but I think the reader did a fairly good job of explaining it and contrasting it with the phenomenal sense. The relational sense is behind the phenomenal sense, similar to the circuits and software of the virtual reality game that was described in the reader, and makes it possible to see what we see. There are three theories on how this exists, and none have been proven by researchers to be any more or less valid than any other. The first is the physicalism theory, when the relation realm is mindless, and governed by laws and microphysics. The next is that the relational sense is idealist, and made of minds. The last theory, dualism, is based on the belief that it is made of both mindful and mindless components. The relational and phenomenological sense work together and if one did not work than we would not perceive virtual reality as we do now.
Synesthesia is an extremely rare phenomenon (less than one percent of people experience it) that occurs when one sense is stimulated, another sense is perceptually experienced. The example that my text gave was of people seeing colored lights when hearing a sound. The strongest and most consistent associations with colors and sounds have been found in synesthetes is with vowel sounds. People hearing “a” sounds see red and blue, “e” and “I” sounds are yellow and white, “o” sounds are yellow, red, and black and “u” sounds are blue or black. One researcher speculated from his research that when people see colors when they hear a sound or word, the brain areas for language and vision are interacting with each other. Even people who do not experience Synesthesia often associate colors with sounds. One experiment found that the majority of people associated higher pitched sounds with lighter shades of grey and white and also with red and yellow, while lower pitched tones seem more like dark greys, browns and blacks. My text only mentioned the one type of Synesthesia, where people see colors when they hear certain sounds and not any other interaction of senses that the reader mentioned, like hearing shapes or feeling tastes, which kind of disappointed me because I think that this is a particularly interesting phenomenon so I looked online for a little bit more information. According to information I found online, over 60 types of Synesthesia exist, but only a few have been examined. The most common forms perceiving letters or numbers as colors, attributing certain personality types to days of the week, months, or numbers, and hearing sounds in response to visual stimulation. Synesthesia has been reported by people under the influence of drugs, after a stroke, as a result of epilepsy seizure, and also as a result of being blind or deaf. Neuropsychologists are particularly interested in this because it gives insight into not only the brain functions of synesthetes, but also into the brain functions of people who are not.
Capgras syndrome was also not mentioned in my text, I think because, as the reader said, it is dealing more with our emotional intelligence rather than our visual intelligence. I looked online and found an informational site about the disorder (http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/capgras_syndrome.htm). The site basically restates what the reader talked about, with a few more details. A person with Capgras’ syndrome may also sometimes believe that they themselves are imposters. This may lead them to psychotic behavior. This disorder is often associated with schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Trauma to the Brain, or Substance Abuse. Also, I think that this is really interesting because of the Mark Becker trail that just ended. Becker killed Ed Thomas believing that he was the devil, and also had been hospitalized a few days earlier because he broke into a man’s house because he thought the man was trying to hypnotize him. Becker also had a history of methamphetamine abuse and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia, but he also may have had Capgras’ syndrome.
4. I think that I will remember Synesthesia the most out of this chapter because I find it really interesting and read about it in the reader, my text, and also online. It seems weird that something like the senses which we believe are separate from each other, interact with each other with some people, but after reading the example in my text about assigning lighter or darker colors based on the pitch of a sound, it became a little easier for me to comprehend and relate to.
1.Phenomenal senses, relational senses, Capgras Syndrome, Synesthesia
3.Phenomenal senses: My textbook mentions phenomenological observations, observations in which we simply present a stimulus and ask the observer what they perceive. An example of this observation is showing that the colors red and green are perceptually paired with one another and the colors blue and yellow are paired with one another. It is observed that viewing a red field generates a green afterimage, viewing a green field generates a red afterimage and that we get analogous results for blue and yellow.
Relational senses: This explains that we all view things in a similar way, it provides a systematic way to view the world. My textbook doesn’t really mention this at all or anything in relation to it.
Capgras Syndrome: My textbook does not discuss this disorder but I did find some information about it online. Capgras syndrome is a disorder in which a person holds delusions that someone has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter. Its part of a class of delusional believes that involves the misidentification of people, places, or objects. This delusion is most common in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia although it occurs in connection with brain injury and dementia.
Synesthesia: This is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Color Synesthesia is where letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored and in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. Synesthetic perceptions vary in intensity and people vary in awareness of their synesthetic perceptions.
4.I think I’ll remember Capgras syndrome and Synesthesia because disorders and conditions are interesting and easy to remember. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep phenomenal and relational senses separate.
1. Phenomenal senses, Capgras Syndrome, and Synesthesia.
3. When I went to the text to look up phenomenal senses I found a section on phenomenological observations and the opponent-process theory. The text defines this as when we present a stimulus to an observer and ask them what they perceive. Ewald Hering made a number of phenomenological observations that concluded that the colors red and green are paired with one another and blue and yellow are paired with one another. The text then gave three example of why. The first example and the one I best understood was about afterimages and simultaneous contrast. You first place a white square on larger green square and stare at it for 30 seconds. Then look at a white area and blink a couple of times and you see an after image. If the original square is green the outside afterimage is red and the inside afterimage is green. The same experiment works with the blue and yellow theory. If the original square is blue the outside afterimage is yellow and the inside afterimage is blue.
Capgras Syndrome is not mentioned in my textbook. I went online and found some information. Capgras syndrome is when a person believes that a friend or family member has been replaced with an identical imposter. It’s more of a delusion than a visual perception. In some acute cases individuals misidentify objects, places, or people. I think that why this information wasn’t in my text because it’s more of a mental perception than a visual one.
I also didn’t find anything about Synesthesia in my text. I went online and found that Synesthesia is a neurological based condition. When the brain stimulates one area the brain automatically stimulates another area as well. So when a person with Synethesia see numbers or letters they all have their own different colors; in a way they see things like a rainbow vs. all the letters of a word being the same. When these people talk about time such as a year ex. 1980 they see it as physically farther away than 1990. They might see it in a physical sense like a map or a clock instead of in the sense of time.
4. I definitely think I will remember phenomenological observations because I have personally done the test to see the afterimages. I also think I will remember Synesthesia because it’s something I’ve never heard of but think is very interesting. The fact that these individuals see time in a physical sense vs. an actual time is very interesting to me.
1) Phenomenal Sense, Relational Sense, Capgras Syndrome, Synesthesia
3) Phenomenal Sense is described in the reader as: the way you look at things, the way things visually appear to you, and the way you visually experience things. We see a stimuli and then our brain constructs what we see using our visual intelligence of what we think we are suppose to see or what is familiar to us. In the reader this is described by using virtual reality. In this virtual reality world you are playing volleyball with other people. You have a suit on and a mask over your face and once it is over your face you are in a bathing suit and everyone around you is in a bathing suit playing volleyball with you. In a phenomenal sense the volleyball is not there when we don’t see it, because we have to construct it, and in order to construct the volleyball we must see it first. The Phenomenal sense uses phenomenal interface, this helps our brain to simplify things so we are not completely distracted by trying to construct a volleyball. The text describes phenomenal sense as a method of describing what we see. Phenomenal sense is unique to everyone and is what you see and the construction of the stimuli.
Relational Sense described as a stimulus that is present in the text, but you may not be aware of its presence of interacting with it. The reader describes relational sense as what you interact when you look. The reader gave the virtual reality example of relational sense dealing with the volleyball game also. When you are not interacting with the volleyball you still see it, people described the volleyball as white and leathery when in fact the volleyball was nothing more than circuits and software that was programmed into this virtual reality. It had no color to it at all. In this was we are systematically viewing the world. Virtual reality uses both phenomenal sense and relational sense, and if one or neither of these were present that virtual reality would not work that way it does.
Synesthesia is a connection between the phenomenal and relational senses. These people experience two separate senses when the rest of us just experience one. When they see color they hear a sound. For example, people hearing the A sound see red and clue. People with this condition also describe the clouds in the sky to sound like, “putt, putt, putt.” Also, they “taste” what they feel and they can “feel” what they taste. For example, mint felt like smooth, cool columns of glass. This is a condition that only happens to about ten in a million people. My text didn’t mention much about Synesthesia, but I found a really good website that can construct what people with these conditions might be seeing and hearing together. Just click on Virtual Synesthesia to experience this for yourself! http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/synesthesia.html
Capgras Syndrome is a disconnection between vision and emotion. DM was in a car accident and after a few weeks he seemed to be “working” correctly again. He didn’t seem to have any damage done. However, he suffered from Capgras Syndrome and recognized his parents, but thought they were imposters, and that someone who looked like his parents were there and that they weren’t his real parents. He said this looks like my father but doesn’t feel like my father. When he saw his parents in person he treated them as they were imposters. When he spoke to them over the phone he treated them as if they were really his parents. This was not mentioned in my text, so I went online and did some extra research. Capgras Disorder is a disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or other family member, has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter. This is classified as a delusional syndrome. This is most common in patients who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but also occurs when there is brain injury. Also, if the person is experiencing dementia this can occur. This can also extend to animals or objects that a person once loved. I found this website on Capgras disorder and found it very interesting. http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/capgras_syndrome.htm
4) The parts I will remember most from the reader are the relational and phenomenal senses. This made a lot of sense, because they gave so many example and asked so many questions that I would have asked. The virtual reality examples really helped me better understand these concepts. I will also remember the Synesthesia condition, because I went and found a website that almost duplicated what it would be like to have this condition.
1.) Artificial Intelligence, Constructive Theories, Topographical Map
2.) Artificial Intelligence= Artificial Intelligence is part of computer science programs that attempt to design machines that behave “intelligently”. An example would be machines that are able to interpret visual information. There are many types of these designed programs that are focused in different areas. One type is interested in designing robots that can perform tasks for humans based on visual input. Another type is devoted to designing computer programs that will mimic the steps used by human observation when viewing certain images. This is used to predict what a person might see in certain circumstances.
Constructive Theories= Constructive Theories are developed in perception. They are used to develop a final perception of a number of different factors our initial impressions of images or objects. These theories are developed based on the information gained from a simple stimulus at a point in time. They explain things based on suggestions through our perceptions and are also known as logical processes. We can develop constructions based on past experiences, expectations, etc. These theories are also involving other sources of information, whether it is nature, cognitive processes, and other strategies.
Topographical Map= Topographical Maps are an area in the brain which its areas are represented in neural tissue in a spatial related way. Distances and directions between points of light can be measure although they may be somewhat off. Topographical maps are the best way to understand the neural basis of the visual system. The concept of a map is the most beneficial and easiest way to break down the properties of the mind. A topographical map is not entirely like a normal map though, it doesn’t have the lines. It does show the relationship between the destinations or landmarks.
3.) The thing that I will remember the most from this chapter is the text and how the author talked about virtual reality and it is made up of merely our constructions of what is real and what isn’t. I also find the concept of our “constructions” fascinating. I think that the word “construction” is a perfect way to describe this phenomenon. I think that it is interesting to think that what we are seeing is just a construct of our interpretations of the image or object. This means, that you may not be seeing what is real or even what is really there. We make up these images in order to make sense out of what we are looking at. That idea is intriguing.
1) Virtual reality, phenomenal senses, relational senses, Capgras syndrome
3) Virtual Reality is only possible because we, the observers, construct what we perceive. It is constructed through computer technology displays. I did a little research on the history of virtual reality. The term artificial reality was coined by Myron Krueger; it has been in use since the 1970s. However, the origin of the term virtual reality can be traced back to the French playwright, poet, actor and director Antonin Artaud. In his seminal book The Theatre and Its Double (1938), Artaud described theatre as "la réalite virtuelle", a virtual reality "in which characters, objects, and images take on the phantasmagoric force of alchemy's visionary internal dramas". There are two criteria that must be met: it appears to be life-sized to the observer, and the capability to track the user’s motions in order to alter what the user sees (ie: Avatar).
What you see in the phenomenal sense is a useful and simplified interfaces to what you see in the relational sense. Phenomenal sense is the way things look to you (ie: you may see a pink elephant). An example from the text is that the phenomenal volleyball is our visual construction. But if you are conscious, and you construct the phenomenal volleyball, it doesn’t mean the volleyball is conscious itself.
Relational sense is what you interact with what you see. A thing must exist to be seen in the relational sense. An example in the text is that the relational volleyball is just circuits and software. When you hold an actual volleyball in your hands, it isn’t constructed of circuits and software; it was round before virtual volleyballs existed.
Capgras syndrome is a disconnection between vision and emotion. It is a disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a person they know has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor.
4) The phenomenal and relational sense should have been more specific in terms of definitions. I researched the terms on the internet, and still barely found the information I was looking for. It made sense with the volleyball examples in the text, but if I were to apply it to other examples, I think I would have a hard time doing it. I liked the Capgras syndrome. I think it will be easy to remember because it relates to delusions in schizophrenia. I wish the reader showed more examples or maybe real-life stories of this.
1) Virtual Reality, Relational and Phenomenal Sensation, Idealism, Physicalism (materialism?), Dualism.
2) The text book refers to the term "virtual reality" as Virtual Haptic Environments. Any type of created alternative reality, such as video games. The difference between virtual reality and video games is the haptic feedback. This is to say, a computer generating all of the effects of experiencing things in the real world; such as gravity, friction, and allows virtual objects to possess a physical form.
The text doesn't appear to take a stance on Relational Sensation directly, but the text states that for an objects to be similar, connected, or unified; then these objects are said to have relatability. In the same breath, I can't seem to find anything in the text that refers to phenomenal sensation.
Idealism, Physicalism (materialism)?, and Dualism are three different theories on how the world can be viewed. Idealism is a concept stating that the world views things in terms of a "perfect form" in terms of things such as morality, ethics, aesthetics, and value. Materialism is based on the idea that the ultimate reality of nature is based on physical objects; anything we can experience with our senses. Both of these views are theories of monism. A dualistic approach would combine two of these theories to some degree.
3) I'm much more likely to remember all of this chapter than others because it seems to tie back to philosophy more so than the others do. Monism and Dualism are topics that have come up many times in my other courses over the past couple years so I have a feeling this information will be recalled much more readily than other things I have learned from this semester.
1) virtual reality, prisms, physicalism, idealism dualism, synesthesia
3) My text didn't say much about virtual reality other than defining it. Virtual reality is created with computer software. It is an artificial environment that is made to seem like a real environment. Virtual reality uses 3D images, realistic sounds, and sometimes haptics devices that let us feel. Virtual reality is good for entertainment purposes but it is also used for training and education.
My text describes how prisms work. Prisms work by bending and reflecting light that enters them. They are usually geometrical shapes made of glass. Prisms can be used to reflect light like in binoculars and telescopes.
Physicalism says that objects are nothing more than there physical properties. Idealism says that reality is based on our thinking and ideas. Dualism says the world consists of both mind and matter. These ideas are philosophically based. Dualism is kind of the combination of physicalism and idealism.
Synesthesia is the involuntary joining of one sense with another. It logically should not happen in the human brain because over years of evolution there has been an increasing separation of function anatomically. There are many types of synesthesia because it is not limited to just two of the senses.
4) I think I will remember the example of virtual reality using the volleyball game because it was so long. I will also remember the three theories.
1) Virtual Reality, Relational Sense, Capgras syndrome, Synesthesia
3) Virtual Reality - Virtual reality is when you combine both the human brain and computers trying to make everything into 3-D. Its when you are using a computer to help develop a whole world that people are able to see and interact with. Its a way to see all the shapes and sizes of everyone and its not just a 2-D figure that you wouldn't be able to get as much information from. Its important to understand that we the people using the computer are constructing what we see, however what we are seeing is constructed through computer technology displays.
Relational Sense - My textbook doesn't go into any detail about relational sense but it does talk about relational invariance. Which is important because it is the relation between the transition frequent and the format frequency. What I got out of this is it is how we are able to see what is actually going on. Relational sense is what we are interacting with, but it doesn't mean we actually know what we are interacting with. Relational sense gives us a way to put things into categories and try to understand something that normally would have been confusing. I think that relational invariance is the middle ground of taking something that is in transition and putting it into a format that we are able to understand. A lot of this chapter and concepts are a little confusing but I think im getting the jest of most of the message.
Capgras syndrome - This wasn't talked about in my text but it is a fairly confusing concept. It is a disorder that takes someone you care a lot about or know really well and replaces them with an identical looking person. Its a delusion that is built up in your head. One of the major causes of Capgras syndrome is prosopagnosia which is the inability to construct faces. This is common among people that are diagnosed with schizophrenia although you do not need to have schizophrenia to have Capgras syndrome.
Synesthesia - My text never said anything about synesthesia, but what I found was that it is a neurological condition. It starts off when the brain starts to trigger different parts of the brain which are the phenomenal and relational sense. So a person with synesthesia sees many different things in different colors because they are seeing two separate senses while people normally only experience one. The brain is sending a bunch of information and in between the brain and the eyes when they are processing it comes out in different colors and sounds. So one letter in a word could be a completely different color from the letter next to it, while one color will have the same sound and other colors will have different sounds associated with it.
4) I think the major thing that will stick out of this chapter is people with capgras syndrome or synesthesia. There have been so many different types of diseases that I have found out about because of this class that I would have never thought existed. To learn that people can associate different colors to different letters and sounds to go a long with it is something that I have never even heard about. Also Capgras syndrome is confusing because I would have never thought that a person would think that someone they love is a illusion or someone else. Its amazing to think that some people have had to live their lives like this and never understood what was really wrong with them. Its amazing the different ways our eyes can pick up and associate certain things.
1)Virtual Reality, Phenomenal Senses, Capgras Syndrome, Synesthesia
3) Virtual Reality- This is an interactive computer technology. It is life size from the point of view of the user and it is manipulated by the user’s motions. It is 3-D and feels real to the user. Telepresence is the term used to describe a person’s experience while using a virtual reality device.
Phenomenal Senses- The text uses the term phenomenological observation, which is just presenting a stimulus and asking the person what they perceive. The text gives an example of an experiment perceiving apparent motion. It uses two flashing lights that give the illusion of the lights moving.
Capgras Syndrome- A disorder in which a person holds a delusion that someone they know has been replaced by an imposter. The text says that Prosopagnosia is one of the causes of this. Prosopagnosia is the inability to recognize faces. The text says that possibly they origin of this is a disconnect in the temporal lobe and the limbic system. Which is a disconnect in emotion and facial recognition.
Synesthesia- This is a condition that when one sense is stimulated another is experienced. One researcher theorized that when people see a color they hear a word or a sound to go along with it. Such as higher pitches went with lighter colors and lower ones go with darker colors.
4) I think that I will really remember capgras syndrome because I always find these disorders that we talk about really interesting. I can’t believe that these people think that someone exactly identical could be an imposter I don’t understand how it would be logical to them that someone who resembled a person they know exactly could realistically exist. I find that Phenominalogical senses are kind of hard and confusing to remember.
1) Virtual Reality, Phenomenal Senses, Relational Sense, Synesthesia.
3) Virtual reality is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment.
Phenomenal Sense-my text doesn't directly address phenomenal sense however; it does address phenomenological observations which are a method in which the subject describes his or her perceptions (or "experiences"). Ewald Herig, an eminent physiologist, made a number of phenomenological obersvations, which showed that the colors red and green are perceptually paired with one another and the others blue and yellow are paired with one another.
Relational Sense-my text doesn't mention relational sense however; it does mention relational invariance which is when a streaight-line function is created when a consonant is paired with different vowels and the formant transition onset frequency of the vowels' second formant is plotted versus the frequency of the vowels' second formant.
Synesthesia is a condition enjoyed by just ten people in a million in which they experience by two separate senses what the rest of us experience by just one sense.
4) I most definantly will remember what virtual reality is because I have heard it before, and the reader provided a couple of really good examples of what virtual reality is and I have a better grasp on the concept than I did before reading the ready. I think I will have a difficult time remembering what phenomenal and relational senses are because I was confused about them when reading the reader and I was hoping that the textbook would better describe these topics however; they were not mentioned in the textbook so I'm still a little confused about these topics. I also think that I will be able to understand and remember synesthesia because I found this interesting and I feel that it was thoroughly explained in both the reader and the reference book.
Virtual reality (phenomenal sense), artificial intelligence (conscious and unconscious.)
In the reference text it mentions that virtual reality is used in hospitals for the shift of attention to help people take there minds off of the pain called shifting attention.
It states that the phenomenological method is determined by the relationship between the stimuli and perception in which the observer describes what he or she sees.
AI is not really stated in the text but i found that this website http://library.thinkquest.org/2705/ it talks about how computer science has had a breakthrough within the past few years how studies are showed how the can record the singles in the brain by recording the sound and playing it back on the computer and making a robotic arm or a robotic limb move by the signals sent. In other cases that our trying to make a super computer that can replicate the signals. But the difference is between human and computer or otherwise saying the conscious is defined as "subjective experience or awareness or wakefulness or the executive control system of the mind" and unconscious defined as "the source of night dreams and automatic thoughts (those that appear without apparent cause)." This was shown in the movie avatar, based on a solider that was handicapped due to war, and the reality of it is that we was able to walk in the avatar world as another animated object or figure. Could this be a reality of the future in a sense i would say yes because it is and interest that the world has as well as the science around it, so who know what the future holds because the brain is really unexplored as the next frontier such as space.
1) Phenomenal Sense. Relational Sense. Adaptive Perceptions. Synaesthesia. Theories of Relational Brain: Physicalism, Idealism, and Dualism. Capgras Syndrome.
3) The Goldstein text does not discuss the phenomenal sense or relational sense in any way that I can extrapolate. Breifly explained, the phenomenal sense is defined in the reader as the way things look to the observer – such as how we experience playing volleyball in the real world or in a virtual world. The relational sense is what we interact with when we observe and applies to what goes on behind the scenes – within the circuitry of our brains (or the VR software and hardware), and the actual objects as they exist (which is debatable, and leads to the theories of the relational brain mentioned below).
In regard to adaptive perceptions, the Goldstein text discusses the way that humans have adapted to perceive and make associations according to regularities in the environment. That is, characteristics in the environment that occur regularly and in numerous situation.
Synthesia is briefly mentioned in the Goldstein text in a section for further reading. It is
Briefly defined in the textbook as a phenomenon in which presentation of stimuli from one sense, such as hearing, produces sensations in another sense, such as sight. For example, seeing light when hearing a sound.
The Goldstein text does not present information regarding the three theories of the relational brain. These theories are known as Phisicalism, Idealism, and Dualism. In physicalism the relational sense is mindless and is governed by the laws of probability. Idealism holds that the relational realm is made of minds – possibly the mind of a creator/god(s). Dualism says that it is both – probabilistic laws govern the mind and the mindless as well as the interactions between the two.
The textbook does not mention Capgras syndrome. In the epilogue, the reader gives a case example of a man afflicted with this syndrome. The man was unable to emotionally identify his loved one through his visual perception following a brain-damaging traffic accident. This made him believe that people he had previously “known” were imposters. Interestingly enough, he could recognize these same people, as before the accident, through a phone conversation (auditory sense and emotion still functioned normally!).
4) The most fascinating thing I will remember from my reader is the way that in the reader, Hoffman compares the relational experience of the volleyball to the experience of observing an atom or electron, which only has context in the act of observation – which, he implies, means that a volleyball also only has context in as a physical object with position, motion, color, and shape.
It was difficult to find anything very memorable to relate to the reader in this particular chapter, except for the way we perceive environmental regularities – analogous to the rules we have been learning about throughout our reader.
1. Virtual Reality, Construction, Phenomenal Sense, Relational Sense, Synesthesia, Physicalism, Idealism, Dualism, Capgras Syndrome.
3. Virtual Reality- My book does not directly address virtual reality, rather a "Virtual Haptic Environment." In video games, a player explores his/her virtual haptic environment by pressing buttons or using the joystick on a controller. This creates movement and outcomes that are fed back to player using a screen. A player is interacting with and experiencing a world in which they are not really in. One thing missing in virtual reality, however, is haptic feedback. Virtual haptic environments have been applied in medical training to teach students how to correctly perform surgery.
Construction- The text does not use the term construction, but a similar topic that is listed is the perception of color. Light that we see is reflected from either a lightbulb or the sun. Some wavelengths emitted by these sources are absorbed by surfaces while others are reflected for us to see. The surface color we perceive depends on the mix of wavelengths that reach the eye. Specific frequencies of light do not correlate directly with certain colors.
Phenomenal and Relational Sense- The text (Wolfe) does not describe what we see in the phenomenal or relational sense, however, it does speak of our interpretation of reality. Our conception of reality depends on our interaction with the world through our senses. Perceptual systems are very sensitive to change, and therefore no two experiences can ever be the same. Experiencing an event once changes the way we experience it the second time while perception ignores anything that stays the same for a very long (known as adaptation).
Synesthesia- Synesthesia is a sensory phenomenon in which stimulation of one of the body's senses results in simultaneous stimulation of another unrelated sense. This means that a synesthete may see vivid colors upon eating an apple or hear certain sounds when specific colors are seen. Only about 100 out of every million people experience this union of senses (with exception to those who experience similar side-effects from consumption of LSD).
Physicalism, Idealism, and Dualism- Physicalism is the idea that reality is only created by entities pertaining to microphysics. Idealism is the idea that reality is made up of minds (more specifically, the mind of god). Dualism is the joining of these other two theories; that reality is made of both minds and mindless entities.
Capgras Syndrome- I could not find any information on Capgras syndrome in my text book so I decided to locate a secondary source on the subject. Capgras Syndrome involves the delusion that a family member or close friend has been replaced by an imposter; an exact double who mimics the behavior of the "real" person. Those who suffer from this condition may extend the duality onto objects and animals. Interestingly, the patient is usually aware of the abnormality of their delusions. Capgras syndrome is treated with cognitive therapy and antipsychotics.
4. From the reader, I am likely to remember the idea that we construct everything we see. Construction is an easy concept to remember because it's not a definition, it is simply being able to understand the processes involved in transforming an image at the retina to what our brains perceive. From the text I will remember Synesthesia, which I find to be a very interesting phenomenon.
I forgot to include the source I used on Capgras Syndrome. It is as follows: http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/capgras_syndrome.htm
Synesthesia, Capgras Syndrome , artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.
Synesthesia- Synesthesia is stimulation of one modality that leads to perceptual experience in another. This phenomenon is rare, occuring in less than one percent of people, but has been been described in hundreds of published reports since the 18th century. In some cases, people see a colored light in response to a sound stimulus.
Capgras Syndrome- My text didn't have any information about Capgras syndrome, but I felt that it was very interesting so I decided to use a different source. Capgras syndrome is a disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or other close family members have been replaced by an idential-looking imposter. This syndrome involves the misidentification of people, places, or objects.
Artificial Intelligence- Artificial intelligence is the study and design of intelligent agents, where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success.
Virtual Reality- Virtual reality applies to computer-stimulated environments that can stimulate places in the real world as well as in imaginary worlds. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen, or through special stereoscopic displays.
I found Virtual Reality very interesting and I remember putting a lot of information about it into my mind map for the midterm so I think it will stick with me. For something to look so real when it isn't really intrigued me, especially the virtual surgery on the virtual body with the virtual blood. I will also remember Capgras Syndrome because it is something that I hadn't known about before I took this class and I think it is very unusual and interesting.
1) Phenomenal senses, Synesthesia
3) The text did not have Phenomenal sense in the book but there was a topic called phenomenological observations. These observations are the way someone would describe their experiences that happen to them. The text also describes phenomenological observations as color perceptions as colors the trichromatic theory can not explain. The text continued that these perceptions are observations in which we simply present a stimulus and ask the observer what they perceives. Ewald Hering made observations that showed red and green are perceptually paired along with blue and yellow.
Synesthesia a neurological disorder that occurs when one neurological pathway is activated and causes a secondary pathway to automatically and involuntary have experiences. Example given was that when light is experienced during the processing of sound. Although most people associate sounds to colors, people suffering from this disorder do not have a choice to do so; it just happens.
4) I will remember Synesthesia as a result of being interested in disorders. My text did not have a great deal on Synesthesia but every time I associate a sound with a color I will now know it is Synesthesia.
1) Physicalism, idealism,dualism, virtual reality, Capgras syndrome
2)
3) I didn't find any of these topics in my textbook, so I looked information up on them online.
physicalism is a theory based on the idea that everything is physical. In the end, everything is somewhat physical.
idealism is a theory that is based on the idea that everything in the world is mental. The nature of reality is based on this.People who believe this think that only things that are fact and have much certainty are just ideas.
dualism is a theory based on both of the previous theories. It is based on both the physical world and the mental world and believes both are need and present.
Virtual reality uses computers to create a life-like, realistic game or video simulation. It creates a 3-D visual and sensory environment for one. Usually people who are participating in the virtual reality experience wear goggles, hats, gloves, or other forms of equipment to help them become a part of the life. Its used in different areas including: entertainment, medicen, biology,design, and marketing.
Capgras Syndrome is where the one with the syndrome believes that themself or a close friend or family member has been replaced with a double. People with this syndrome are delusional. There are no hallucinations because the people are aware of what they are seeing. The truely see doubles/imposters. Sometimes this travel into objects and animals instead of just thinking something has changed about a human.
4) I think that I'll remember the parts about the capgras syndrome the most. It's such a random syndrome. I had never really heard about it before and it's interesting to me. The other suff I'll probably forget about because it wasn't that interesting to me or exciting.
1) Virtual Reality, Relational Sense, Capgras syndrome, Synesthesia
3) Virtual Reality - Virtual reality is when you combine both the human brain and computers trying to make everything into 3-D. Its when you are using a computer to help develop a whole world that people are able to see and interact with. Its a way to see all the shapes and sizes of everyone and its not just a 2-D figure that you wouldn't be able to get as much information from. Its important to understand that we the people using the computer are constructing what we see, however what we are seeing is constructed through computer technology displays.
Relational Sense - My textbook doesn't go into any detail about relational sense but it does talk about relational invariance. Which is important because it is the relation between the transition frequent and the format frequency. What I got out of this is it is how we are able to see what is actually going on. Relational sense is what we are interacting with, but it doesn't mean we actually know what we are interacting with. Relational sense gives us a way to put things into categories and try to understand something that normally would have been confusing. I think that relational invariance is the middle ground of taking something that is in transition and putting it into a format that we are able to understand. A lot of this chapter and concepts are a little confusing but I think im getting the jest of most of the message.
Synesthesia - My text never said anything about synesthesia, but I learned that it is a neurological condition. It starts off when the brain starts to trigger different parts of the brain which are the phenomenal and relational sense. So a person with synesthesia sees many different things in different colors because they are seeing two separate senses while people normally only experience one. The brain is sending a bunch of information and in between the brain and the eyes when they are processing it comes out in different colors and sounds. So one letter in a word could be a completely different color from the letter next to it, while one color will have the same sound and other colors will have different sounds associated with it.
4) I think the major thing that will stick out of this chapter is people with capgras syndrome or synesthesia. There have been so many different types of diseases that I have found out about because of this class that I would have never thought existed.
1) Phenomenal vs. Relational sense, Capgrass syndrome
2) Chapter 8 was probably my favorite chapter in the text since I like philosophy so much. I put the phenomenal and relational sense items together because depending on how you conceptualize them you would have to write differently about what the text does or does not say about them. The phenomenal world is the world of our experience, whereas the relational world is that world which we are interacting with when we experience things.
If you are a physicalist, and even more a physical realist, than the phenomenal and relational worlds are the same so describing one describes the other. If you are a non-realist physicalist, dualist, or idealist the text says progressively less about the relational world to the point of saying nothing about it whatsoever since it doesn’t exist.
In this way we can at least be confident in saying that the text gives us an in depth analysis of the relationship between the phenomenal and relational worlds; it gives us the rules which govern the relationship. I do think that psychology, like any science, is incompatible with idealism (or mentalism) since it presupposes that there is a relational world which systematically causes the phenomenal world. Hoffman’s explanation of the main forms of the relational realm was incredibly vague and ‘safe’ in order to avoid philosophical debate I think. Most idealists don’t believe that matter exists, since ‘Ideas’ are all that there is and these are immaterial. Rather than explaining a different type of ‘relational world’ they’d have to say there isn’t a ‘relational world.’ It’s safe to say that nobody is an idealist anymore.
Capgrass syndrome: This syndrome was basically discovered by Ramachandran and Herstein and refers to the bizarre cases of people who’s overall functioning seems to be normal except for the fact that they think their loved ones have been replaced by imposters. This syndrome is not discussed directly in the text but many of the features involved in it are. They eventually decided that the visual and emotional centers of the brain were not communicating; thus the presence of the visual experience of the loved one in combination with the absence of any emotional experience led the patient to believe that this couldn’t possibly be the loved one. The only way to account for the experience than, was that the person must have been replaced with an exact copy, an actor, imposter, or some other fake.
The elaborate stories which the patients construct highlights the fact that when given ambiguous sensory stimuli we construct the most likely situation. Ordinarily loved ones are not ambiguous stimuli, they are concrete. However, in the absence of one part of the stimulus, namely the emotional part, the patients assume it must be an actor, and this accounts for the absence of the emotional response. Much like we would assume that they must be standing behind a white screen or a picture if half the body was missing.
It was very interesting to see that when talking on the phone people with Capgrass syndrome do not form this idea that they must be an imposter. In this context, that of talking on the phone, only auditory processing is necessary. This demonstrated that visual-emotional processing may be disrupted without auditory-emotional processing being affected. I wonder if there is evidence of Capgrass in the reverse, where there is a disconnect between the auditory-emotional processing?
4) I’ll remember the Hoffman text a lot better since it relates so closely to philosophy. He did a good job distinguishing between the phenomenal and relational worlds and that the book explains how they systematically relate. Capgrass syndrome is such a bizarre syndrome that I will also likely remember it as well.