Are Distractable People More Creative?

In the article "Are Distractable People More Creative", written by science writer Jonah Lehrer, he discusses the benefits of low latent inhibition. Latent Inhibition is the ability to tune out sounds around you, like the air conditioner or other peoples conversations. It has long been thought that an ability to focus on one thing at a time, give your full attention to it, helps to you achieve greater success in that task. A recent study at Harvard, however, proved that the most "eminent creative achievers" were seven times more likely to have low latent inhibition. Because they let everything in, they are more open-minded to possibilities and have more sources to draw from. So if you have ADD and you go to art school, it might be a good thing!
Check out the article and lots of other good ones-http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/frontal-cortex

The Moment That Lasts Forever: How Intensely Emotional Memories Remain Vivid

This blog post by science author Jeff Wise focuses on flashbulb memory from the perspective of an individual directly experiencing something emotionally intensive rather than hearing about it secondhand.

Unlike what we talked about in class, Wise claims that flashbulb memories in this context are actually more accurate than reconstructed, which he backs up with Christa McIntyre's rat study. According to her experiment, the reason that these memories remain so vivid is because they stimulate the amygdala by releasing the hormone noradrenalin, signaling to the individual that they are in danger. Therefore, it is "the stressful, emotionally intense memories that will live with us the longest."

I find it interesting that the individuals who shared their stories in this article say that they remember their exact thought process immediately before the event. Did Alice from Jupiter really ask herself all of those questions before the car hit her, or did her mind plant them there as she relived the moment over and over? I would imagine that most New Yorkers also felt a lesser but still extremely high sense of danger and fear after first hearing about 9/11, but even these memories have proven to be susceptible to distortion over time.

Thoughts?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/extreme-fear/201009/the-moment-lasts-forever

The Human Calculator

There is a new show on the history channel called "Stan Lee's Superhumans." The show follows the host Daniel Smith on his quest to find extraordinary people who are in a sense "Superhuman."

This past week they found a man named Scott Flansburg also known as "the human calculator." Scott possesses the rare gift of solving math problems faster then a calculator. After being put to the test doctors test his brain using an MRI to see how brain is functioning and if it is any different than a normal brain.

The test results showed that unlike a normal person, Scott uses multiple parts of his brain rather than just one key area to solve problems.

The link below is part of the episode that documents Scott Flansburg and his rare skill.

http://www.history.com/shows/stan-lees-superhumans/videos/human-calculator#human-calculator

MIND OVER MASS MEDIA

This article in the New York Times, written by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, talks about how critics of new media and technology are constantly saying that it has the potential to lower our intelligence. It discusses Twitter, Microsoft Power Point, Google, Search Engines and other internet technologies in regards to attention span and I.Q levels. Pinker questions whether the use of this media is too addictive or distracting, but argues that the key is self control, because in actuality, these new forms of media will not decrease our intelligence, but rather enhance it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html?_r=1&ref=intelligence

The brain is a delicate machine.

Recently I read an article written by a skateboarder who had experienced severe brain trauma after falling without wearing a helmet. To say that his life was changed/affected forever would be an understatement. He lost his sense of smell and taste, the ability to focus, do simple math and draw basic shapes, or perform simple memory recall. He can't control his emotions, has little to no spatial orientation or ability to adapt to new tasks, and has a severely lessened visual memory. The damage to his frontal lobe essentially rewrote him as a person.

The article terrified me. I think people consider consciousness and thought to be some ethereal, abstract gift (whether or not they believe in God) that are inherent and undeniable, and go hand-in-hand with being alive. Apparently they don't. The brain is a physical part of one's body and, just like other organs, stops working correctly if it gets damaged. For me it's almost incomprehensible to not be able to do math, or draw a cube, or remember a series of twelve words. How can you not be able to think?

The URL for the article, if you're interested in reading it, is below. It's not really a happy one though, if you're looking for the underdog-survivor-becomes-genius-physicist story it's not this. http://blog.bustinboards.com/?p=988

Ant Death Spiral

An interesting (if not terrifying) video of ants illustrating a natural phenomenon which happens every so often when disoriented ants somehow separate from the colony and start to follow one another in circles. It is known as the "ant death spiral" because the ants will literally march in circles until they die of exhaustion.

While not directly related to cognitive psychology in a modern context, it seems to nudge at the idea of behaviorism, with the ants following each other to their own deaths without a sense of free will, because of their innate instinct to operate as a unified entity.

http://www.buzzhunt.co.uk/2009/07/15/ants-spiral-of-death/
http://theantroom.blogspot.com/2006/11/ant-death-spiral.html