Retinal Image Inversion

In order to see the objects that surround us the brain must process the information it receives from the retina. As light bounces off objects the lenses of our eyes detect changes and focus the imagery we see onto our retinas. As a result of passing through the lens, this image is inverted. The brain reorients the image so it can be perceived in a way we would describe as “normal”. There really is no upright on out retinas its all based upon our experience. As we move around we learn what upright is. But what if the image received by the lens were inverted before it hit the retina? Would it then be flipped so an upright image was projected onto the retina? If so, would we see the world upside down? Does the retinal image have to be inverted for us to see something upright?

George Stratton was the first to address these concerns. In his 19th century experiment “Vision without inversion of the retinal image”, he built a set of goggles out of 2 double convex lenses. This would provide the retina with a previously inverted image. When the subject initially wears the glasses, he is disoriented. The world he sees is upside down. Physical movement is very difficult if the wearer relies solely on the visual image. If the wearer places his hands out in front of him, they seem to come from above. Stratton claimed that with time, the wearer adapted to the goggles and experienced the world in an upright state.

Some researchers dispute this claim. They believe that with adaptation, it is not that our vision appears upright again, but that because we’ve experienced the world in an upright manner and learned spatial clues over time, we can interpret the visual image we see while wearing the goggles. If this is so, it comes as a result of perceptual constancy. As in the dragon illusion I posted earlier, the impressions we receive from objects are what we assume them to be, and are not a direct representation of the stimulus presented. We maintain these constancies even when the stimuli is changing, which could explain why new researchers debate Stratton’s findings.

In the video below, the subjects vision isn’t inverted vertically, but the goggles reverse the left and right fields of vision. Notice how the subject struggles to make sense of this new world.

smart babies

smart babies

Apparently babies are smarter that we give them credit for, according to the New York Times. 

Since we all like youtube videos, here is a baby that can read.

PInker on Taboo Words

These two videos show Pinker lecturing on language in relation to cognition, in a rather entertaining manner, a great continuation to his article that we read for class this week. He deals with here primarily profanity and language deemed "taboo", and why such words carry a negative connotation and produce strong responses. What I find most interesting is that so many of these words do not necessarily denote something negative, but over time have been given such strong emotions that their adverse associations are both undeniable and universal. As in the reading, many words with identical definitions can draw very different responses. Society has, over time, undeniably altered the definitions of many words, creating the profane where it not once was, and listening to some of the statements Pinker mentions of years past are no longer nearly as offensive as they are now humorous. The etymology of words is for this reason I find very interesting, though when looking up such profanities it seems that their origin is hard to trace as the authors of such dictionaries tended to overlook that which was not deemed socially acceptable, but this site is great to look up different words and how their meaning has changed over time. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php

I also think it is very interesting how, once we know about the power of language and the emotional response drawn from certain words, we can better control those with whom we interact....

Get ready for some Pinker, people

http://www.ted.com/speakers/steven_pinker.html

Even Pigeons Can Be Art Critics

The Pigeon As Art Critic

Studying art, as many of us do, judging what we each determine to be “good” or “bad” art seems like no small undertaking. Taking into account technical prowess, concept, style, context, personal taste, and any number of other variables, it becomes something we take several classes on, and spend hours of our lives discussing. Yet apparently pigeons can do it. A recent experiment by Shigeru Watanabe had trained pigeons judge art made by children to be good or bad. While the art these pigeons that were tested were exposed to was much less involved than (most) of the art that we are asked to form opinions on, their testing does expose interesting things about our own thought processes. Our ability, and the pigeon’s ability, to almost instantaneously categorize the objects in our surroundings (or in this case in pictures) makes us able to function. If we had to decide what every object was around us at all times we might not be able to leave one room over the course of our entire lives. Even thinking about how the study was conducted reveals an interesting insight to how we categorize things. It is interesting that what is deemed by the scientist conducting the study as “good” children’s art are the pictures that create recognizable things that can be easily categorized by people and pigeon alike.

Doodling and Concentration

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101727048

Here's an article a lot of us can probably relate to. It describes a study that showed that doodling can help concentration on boring tasks. It may be because doodling can make it easier to avoid daydreaming. The study had participants listen to a boring phone message about a party and then tested their memory afterwards of the names of the guests who would be attending. One group was told to doodle by shading some pre-drawn shapes while listening to the message. The other group did not doodle. While both groups wrote down the names as they heard them, the doodling group was better at remembering the names in a surprise memory test. I found the paper from the actual study on another site, you have to click on the link to the PDF to read the whole thing, it's pretty short and easy to read, if you're interested. It also has the text of the boring phone message at the end. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122205124/abstract

The introduction of the article is interesting too, it's about Bill Gates's doodles during an economic forum and their interpretation by a graphologist. They were first thought to be Tony Blair's, but the interpretation was that the person who did them was "struggling to maintain control in a confusing world" and "is not rooted," and also "not a natural leader, but more of a spiritual person, like a vicar." I'm not sure about the scientific validity of this interpretation of the doodles, but it's pretty funny, and sounds like it fits Bill Gates to me. There's also a picture of some of Obama's doodles.

The study pretty much confirmed what I've always thought about doodling, that rather than being a distraction, it can make it easier to concentrate, especially when listening to someone speak. I know I see a lot of people at Pratt doodling during classes, does anyone else think it either helps or hurts?

IAT

So I've spent a long time unsuccessfully searching for the records of IAT race test results over the years since it has been created. My question is whether or not the results show any shift since it was made available online over ten years ago, specifically as of recent with the election of a black president and, what I at least hope, has been a more positive shift of society towards beliefs of equality and cultural awareness. I have found charts showing the breakdown of the results in terms of preference towards one race over the other, but have not been able to find anything that addresses the results separated by year or any articles discussing whether or not the results have changed.

I did find this page, however, http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/banaji_greenwald08/banaji_greenwald08_index.html which is a discussion held by Banaji and Greenwald, the creators of the IAT, which addresses FAQ as well as their personal history, intentions, and such. The thing I found most interesting was in the bottom third of the page in which it references the questions that are asked before the actual IAT test is displayed, asking for the participant to select the option that they feel best describes them. Some expressed in class that they felt that these answers would possibly alter the test, with the associations being geared towards their age, sex, race, and what not. This is however not the goal of the questions, as is discussed on this page. The purpose is to compare the view of the participant with the results of the test, with a person's judgement and conscious beliefs being juxtaposed next to the test results, proving that the IAT results show something unconscious and, most importantly, more truthful. Thus the IAT results are more useful and accurate in behavioral studies than general tests in which people are asked to answer questions truthfully as, is shown through the test, our truth may not be so true. POnder that one kids.

IAT

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/takeatest.html

Your retarded boyfriend isn't the only one with intelligence that's artificial. As we were discussing in class, AI has been more than a pipe dream for ages. One of the earliest, easily accessible examples was indeed Smarter Child, having unintelligible conversations as obnoxious as these. However there have been improvements to these conversation bots, and one particularly interesting specimen is Facade, an interactive, 3-D game which confines the player to one room: the room of a fighting couple Trip and Grace, who depend on you to either help or break their failing relationship.
Here's a small overview of the game. Winning 3 different outstanding awards in 2006, there's not a doubt as to why.
(you don't need to see all of it to get the idea, but it's all pretty sweet.)


The most intriguing part of the game is the players limitless ability to type in anything that your little heart desires. This does indeed include insulting Grace and Trip, flirting, and drinking an alcoholic beverage or two. Not only that, but you can interact with the environment, and that every game play is more or less unique.
This is quite the breakthrough in AI development, especially in 2006, and gives rise to the question: how close are we to mimicking the cognitive mind? Although psychology is an old art, cognitive psychology is a relatively new field, and psychology itself is still largely unexplored. While I believe that Facade relies heavily on keywords to communicate (sorry to ruin for the believers), how close are we exactly to Will Smith's I Am Robot? Or to the prophesied doomsday in which humans may be obsolete next to their mechanical counterparts?

Scary stuff if you ask me. For those still interested, Facades is absolutely FREE and downloadable from InteractiveStory.net so check it out kids.

smart pillz: coffee 2.0

In the latest issue of Scientific American, Gary Stix writes a creepy little article about a medication being developed that will improve attention, memory, and planning, facetiously titled "Turbocharging the Brain".

Supposedly there will soon be available OTC stimulant drugs, comparable to Adderall in enhancing mental performance, that will enable all humans to harness the power of 8 hours of genius for a price comparable to Benadryl. Scientists, (unnamed pharmaceutical companies), apparently got the idea from "College students and executives" who "ingest stimulant drugs to enhance routine mental performance". The scientists' goal is to create, what they call "H+": the next evolutionary step for humankind.

I'm left baffled as to how being stimulated by an untested, unnatural chemical is going to make humans more productive- mentally or otherwise. If I drink a cup of coffee, for example, before trying to write a paper, I usually sit at my desk doodling a never-ending spiral for 2 hours with shaky hands and bulging eyes. The next day, I am totally fatigued and feel like I must have another cup of coffee in order to feel normal. I use coffee as a comparison both because the article suggests that this pill will replace coffee, and because I do not have experience with any other stimulants that supposedly increase our cognitive abilities. Here's another Article that examines what effect coffee has on the brain.

Without rambling too much longer, I'd like to relate this to the book I'm reading for class- because what I read in the first chapter is the reason why this article creeps me out. The author, Daniel Dennett, describes in the first chapter of Consciousness Explained how hallucinations are possible. To be very vague, he basically describes the senses' relationship with the brain as a delicate system of pulleys and strings that depends on a consistent pattern of cause-effect in order for normal comprehension of reality. For example, if your leg itches, you scratch it and feel relief. Furthermore, your conscious or unconscious self develops expectations for what the information that is coming into the brain is or means. We scratch our leg because we think that it will give us some relief- even though the bug bite just keeps itching.

Anyway, he talks briefly about how the brain dupes itself into experiencing something that isn't actually happening. First, there is usually strong conscious or unconscious expectation of a happening, followed by some kind of interference in the normal machinations of the nervous system. The interference is usually caused by stress, day dreaming, or drugs. This is why amputees will feel the need to scratch their missing leg.

6 Hats and Inkblot test

So this weeks reading was about decision making and I wanted to bring up the famous 6 hats! I

You can use 6 Hats to help you make a tough decision by using different perspectives and without the anxiety of having to settle on something yet. Its similar to "brain-storming" but is a little more advanced!

White Hat: research, analyze similar past experiences,

Red Hat: putting yourself in other peoples shoes, use your emotions, intuition

Black Hat: Completely rational, worst case scenario, clear headed, tough, seeing the risks

Yellow Hat: Optimist hat!!!! Thinking positively, bright outcome, dream world!!

Green Hat: how can you creativly solve the problem, different outcomes, outside of the box

Blue Hat: The boss and uses all information from the other hat to make the logical decision

I found these in an ebook called Mind Tools, this book is used to help make decisions without bias and help you gain more control over your decision making using ...again a cognitive approach!!!

An example of this can be seen in this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOj62ICFKG0

PS PS PS

This part is just for fun!! No Hatssssss!!

Rorschach test uses quick subconscious association to see if you are crazy, fun test!!

Two Truths and a Lie

As chapter three of Blink reveals, unconscious associations we make about people can change our beliefs and behavior towards them. “Our first impressions are generated by our experiences and our environments” (97). Last week we were all forced to dig into the past while previous social interactions guided the snap judgments we made about each other. By playing the game 2 truths and a lie, we were prompted to decide which statement out of three was false. Here’s the video of musician Jason Mraz I mentioned in class:



According to German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.”

How do we perceive a lie? How do we interpret behavior to decide someone is lying?
I remember Serena saying something about making inferences from body language to improve business skills. This is one cue we use while judging. Smiling could indicate nerves, along with posture shifts, fidgeting, and avoidance of eye contact. Auditory clues can also reveal a fabricated statement. Perhaps a persons vocal inflections or the tone of their voice lead you to your decisions last week. It seems silly or obvious to mention these clues, because we’ve all used them at some point. But we don’t literally have the thought, “OK, now just how plausible is this information I’ve been given?” That’s exactly what’s super weird about detecting a lie. We don’t run through a set mental list of these factors to determine if something is true, and we don’t realize which moments from our past are guiding decisions of today.

After watching this video, I realized that, while playing this game the lie is usually announced last, because logically it makes sense when improvising to think of 2 truths first (which isn’t very difficult) and spend the most time conjuring up a lie. Also, the amount of detail in each answer can reveal its accuracy. If you notice, Jason unintentionally gives more specific info about being electrocuted on a fence with his sister, and this lets the viewer know that the story is most likely true.

color change

(Watch the video before you continue reading)

This video is part of a series by Richard Wiseman, which go under the name of Quirkology. His videos are mind tricks that play on human perception and response.  As visual artist we like to assume that our visual acuity is somewhat above that of the general public. This video made me realize how easily we can all fall for certain “tricks”. I did not notice the color changes in the video until it was explained. Instead of using colors with similar hue and or saturation the colors changed into unexpected colors, for example the tablecloth going from black to tan.  Was my mind able to make that leap because of the commonality of those colors or because I was intensely focused on something completely different. The concentration that the card trick is great, as you try and focus on one activity the other things in your periphery blur away.  Is this blurring away easier for some more than others? (Did you guys notice the gorilla?)

Music and Emotion

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-does-music-make-us-fe

Why does music make us feel emotion? Although this question has not been answered definitively yet, this article describes a study that shows just how much emotional music can effect us, and a possible reason for our reactions. The study, which involved showing subjects pictures of happy, sad, and neutral faces after they listened to happy or sad music, found that emotional music enhanced the emotions people saw in the faces. Those who saw a smiling face after listening to happy music thought the face looked happier, and those who saw a frown after the sad music thought it looked sadder. It's interesting that music actually influences our visual perceptions of emotions.

The article describes how "The lion share of emotionally evocative stimuli in the lives of our ancestors would have been from the faces and bodies of other people, and if one finds human artifacts that are highly evocative, it is a good hunch that it looks or sounds human in some way." It argues that music mimics the emotional sounds of human movement, such as angry stomping or light walking. I find this idea plausible, it usually seems like it is the sound of the music more than the content of the lyrics that effect our emotions. I'm always fascinated by songs that sound upbeat but have sad lyrics, or the reverse.

cognition in dance/movement/rhythm/gestural representation

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-dance

"How do dancers navigate though space? How do they pace their steps? How do people learn complex series of patterned movements?"

I always like to intertwine my studies with my personal interests (this one being modern dance), so I found this fascinating article relating dance (or really just anything involving movement/choreography like sports, yoga, etc) to cognitive processes. Neuroscientists have long studied how movement requires the brain to calculate spatial awareness, balance, kinesthetic cognition, and intention and timing. It involves memory, perception, learning, representation, perception, etc. Learning complex motor sequences requires motor, visual, and kinesthetic skills; the brain is responsible not only for controlling motion, but mapping a motor image to plan out the body's movement through space, and containing information about a body's ability to accomplish this movement.

It is believed that dance and rhythm is a human instinct; for example, when you bop your head to a song, it is actually a mental process occurring as different subcortical brain regions communicate and bypass higher auditory areas.  Although gestural, dance is considered to have the representational capacity of language; studies have shown that dancing activates part of the right hemisphere of the brain, corresponding to Broca's area (responsible for speech production) in the left hemisphere. This region may serve to correctly order units of interdependent movement into coordinated series. 

Now how do we account for people with "two left feet" and a lack of natural rhythm?

Here are a couple youtube videos of one of my favorite modern dance/dance-theatre choreographers, Dimitris Papaioannou :) the second one begins painfully slow so forward to 1:00 and start there.

Blog Posting Guideline

Each week you will need to post a reflective blog entry in which the class material is discussed. The blog entry is not a book report or summary- it is to be a reflection on the material. This can include questions, challenges, observations (either supportive or contrary), emotional reactions, or whatever else will reveal your active engagement with the course material. A log of your blog posts (just dates are fine) are due at the end of the semester.

Your blog entries will be graded on the following:

1. Basic comprehension (Do you understand the material or its purpose?);

2. Deep comprehension (Do you understand the significance of the concept in its historical context?);

3. Insight (Have you made connections between the psychological concepts and your own life or with something else, like movies, news, or literature?);

4. Curiosity (Do you raise puzzles or questions about the material?);

5. Critical thinking (Have you raised interesting challenges?);

6. Truth-seeking (Have you shown an effort to respond to the challenges you raised, and then tried to reach a balanced judgment that takes all relevant issues into account?).

"Focusing on how little time you have left can make you happier"

Cognitive Daily

Here's an interesting tidbit on how to enjoy your time in school.
According to this study, people appreciate and productively enjoy the good times when they are under the impression that time is running out. They used the old pastime of kids at camp to make a connecting analogy, and then moved onto the more currently relevant study of undergrads at school to prove the point even further.

Here, Jaime Kurtz tested 67 seniors at the University of Virginia, and after a bried "Subjective Happiness Scale" evaluation, all the happier campers where divided into 3 groups 6 weeks before the end of their college career.

The experimenter suggested to Group 1 that very little time was left in their school career:

As you write, keep in mind that you only have a short amount of time left to spend at UVA. In fact, you have about 1,200 hours left before graduation.

Group 2 got the opposite message:

As you write, keep in mind that you a significant amount of time left to spend at UVA. In fact, you have about 1/10 of a year left before graduation.

Group 3 received no such instructions, and was asked to write about a typical day, while Groups 1 and 2 wrote about their friends, the campus, their activities, and their overall college experience.

This evaluation was continued the following two weeks for a conclusive followup.

The students who had been reminded of how soon graduation was (Group 1) said they were significantly happier than at the start of the study, and their reported happiness had risen significantly more than either of the other two groups. Group 1 also reported participating in more activities over the course of the study than the other groups.

Kurts is unclear about how this effect would last over longer periods of time, for example the lifespan of a human being, but I believe it that perhaps it would effect those of the older variety, say retirement home age, or those that are terminally ill.

I'ld also be interesting in a study that involves bad or boring times seeming a great deal longer than they would if one was having fun. For example prison mates or a student trapped in a dull lecture. Also, if one was having only a mediocure time at college, would relizing an impending graduation improve their quality of college life and even make them more productive, or would it remain unchanged?

Visual Perception

As many of us are visual artists, we’re interested in how our visual intake of light and color is processed and affects our understanding of three-dimensional forms. Our brain makes certain errors in judgment after receiving info from our eyes, which we take advantage of in painting, drawing etc. Spatial illusions can be created with light and shade. Check out this video of “Gardner’s Dragon” below.



You may have heard of this guy called Leibniz, a 17th c. German philosopher who had some pretty kooky theories on metaphysics. Aside from that, in his writings of 1714 called “Monadology” he states this, “We see that animals when, they have the perception of something which they notice and. of which they have had a similar previous perception, are led by the representation of their memory to expect that which was associated in the preceding perception, and they come to have feelings like those which they had before.”

Because we associate this dragon form with a convex face, we assume that’s what we are looking at, even though our brain has received indications from our eyes ( e.g. depth perception from retinal disparity between the eyes) that it’s concave. It’s strange to think that these assumptions can outweigh the signals our eyes are sensing from the light that bounces off it. Seeing is deceiving.

I’ve also included a link to a site with games designed to improve memory and info processing. So far, word bubbles is my favorite. http://www.lumosity.com

Put you words into color and make them memorable.

http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/xlm283509.pdf

This link is about color and memory retention. When I was in high school I was very determined to do well on tests. I had read this article in the news paper that stated that individuals retain 24% more information when that information is presented in color(s). I found that worked quite well for me and everyone in my study group too. The link I posted has a more concrete example then my high school study group, but they say the improvement can be from 10% to 50% depending on teh color, information, individual, and the correlation between word and color. This might be helpful to ComD majors. 

Just an FYI

Due to a funky computer, I'm unable to access my pratt email at work. The last opportunity to email me something that I will view before class will always be Sunday night.

Just let me know tonight in class if you've emailed me something urgent.
rw

Emotional Design

Three Teapots: Donald A. Norman

http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/CH00_Prolog.pdf

I found this article about cognitive psychology and science in design, and the functionality of objects in Cooper Union's Interactive Design class's syllabus. My friend initially sent me the link to it because of my interest in Industrial Design, but I quickly saw the ties it had to this class. Norman focuses on the emotional and cognitive response we have to different objects in our everyday lives, and how the way in which they are designed affects us and the way we feel while using them. According to Norman, if an object feels good or makes a user happy while using it, they enjoy using it moreso than an object that functions better but is not as asthetically pleasing. I find it interesting that this be the case, as I would have previously assumed that if something makes the task run as smoothly as possible, then that would be the preferred object or method of approach. I then thought about this in relation to my own life and how I react with the objects I use every day, and discovered that Norman's observations were true. I am much more prone to buy an object and enjoy using it based moreso on it's beauty; as long as it functions satisfactorily, I will overlook it's imperfections.

[We cognitive scientists now understand that emotion is a necessary part 

of life, affecting how you feel, how you behave, and how you think.  

Indeed, emotion makes you smart. That’s the lesson of my current 

research. Without emotions, our decision-making ability would be 

impaired. Emotion is always passing judgments, presenting you with 

immediate information about the world: here is potential danger, there is 

potential comfort. This is nice, that bad. One of the ways by which 

emotions work is through neurochemicals that bathe particular brain 

centers and modify perception, decision making, and behavior. These 

neurochemicals change the parameters of thought. 

 

The surprise is that we now have evidence that aesthetically pleasing 

objects actually work better. As I shall demonstrate, products and 

systems that make you feel good are easier to deal with and produce 

more harmonious results. When you wash and polish your car, doesn’t it 

seem to drive better? When you bathe and dress up in clean, fancy 

clothes, don’t you feel better? And when you use a wonderful, well- 

balanced, aesthetically pleasing garden or woodworking tool, tennis 

racket or skis, don’t you perform better?]

(Though the entire article is great, I think that pages 7 and 8 would be of most interest/relevance to the class)

The Magical Number Seven

After reading the section in the Hunt article about memory, where he talks about George Miller's address "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two," I remembered something on a website I had seen a few days earlier. http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000U6 It's on Edward Tufte's site, he's an expert in information design. The page was a discussion about Miller's paper, and how it has been applied (or misapplied) to design. It seems that it has been used as scientific evidence for everything from the correct number of bullet points for powerpoint slides, and website navigation links, even to pass laws that restrict the amount of items on billboards. What I find most interesting is the fourth post down, an email from George Miller himself regarding the misuse of his findings by the billboard industry and, further down on the page, the email that prompted it. The point is basically that people have taken a study on memory and applied it to the quick comprehension of information. I guess it's important to actually read a study before basing advice or, especially, laws on it.

illusion of memory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf9W7cxi48g

Chris ware animation for This American Life.

The man in the story appropriates his wife's memory. She told the story enough that he created his own memory of the event.

Is it enough t to believe that something happened like that man did? I think his memory of the event is just as valid as his wife's. The husband's experience is one that is so vivid and has some value in the ether of his consciousness. The man's memory must be categorized differently than his wife's because hers involves an altogether different event.

Then the issue because what we can "trust" as appropriated memory and physically experienced memory

The animations is also really well done in that visual elements go along with the narration and itself keeps getting revised as new twist and variables come into

play.

Wow, the new template looks great!

Start Here

http://cognitivepsychologyisfun.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-links.html

These websites should be in the 'links' section...they are a great starting point.
rw