The term is "Inattentional Blindness." Have you ever driven home via a familiar route, pulled up in the driveway, and not remembered anything from along the way? Inattentional Blindness (not evidence of Dissociative Identity Disorder, as one of my students suggested).
Using your cell phone while driving is dangerous because of IB. You do not notice things you need to notice because of IB.
Ira Hyman at Western Washington University positioned a clown riding a unicycle alongside a path and asked walkers on the path whether they had noticed the clown. Some were talking on a phone, listening to an iPod, or talking with another person who was present, while others were just walking without any distractions.
Why a unicycling clown? Researchers explained, "Unicyclists are very rare on campus pathways and none of the authors have ever observed a unicycling clown on campus. Since the clown was unicycling near the walking path, this was clearly relevant to the task of safely navigating across Red Square (besides, you never know when a clown may throw a cream pie in your face)."
What did they find, according to the article in Applied Cognitive Psychology? "[Those] who'd been chatting on a mobile were significantly less likely than the others to have noticed the unicycling clown - 25 percent of phone users noticed him, compared with 51 percent of people walking on their own, 61 percent of music listeners and 71 percent of people walking in pairs."
I'm coining a new term, "Inattentional Deafness", to describe what texting during my lectures causes! (Remember, you heard it here, first.)
July 22, 2010
July 21, 2010
You're So Fake, Even a Six-Year-Old Can Tell
Can you recognize a fake smile? Do you know what to look for? Little kids, as young as six, can. A fake smile, with its lopsided mouth and lack of creasing around the eyes, can go unnoticed by adults who are not really paying attention.
Plus, most adults find it more socially acceptable to simply ignore it than to point out the insincerity of one's fake smile. Children, however, are not always bridled by those social inhibitors, and do not always filter their reactions.
But we used to believe that children could not identify a fake smile until about age nine or ten. We thought we were safe with little kids. "Oh, honey. That drawing is beautiful!" (said with a big smile).
But now, research at the University of Ottawa and Laurentian University, reported in Infant and Child Development, suggests that children as young as age six can recognize a fake smile.
So, you need to be careful when you say to me, "Oh, Dr. G. Your blog is so good!" (said with a big smile), because I am going to have my six-year-old grandson with me to watch for a lopsided mouth and creaseless eyes, and he may say what he is thinking about you.
Plus, most adults find it more socially acceptable to simply ignore it than to point out the insincerity of one's fake smile. Children, however, are not always bridled by those social inhibitors, and do not always filter their reactions.
But we used to believe that children could not identify a fake smile until about age nine or ten. We thought we were safe with little kids. "Oh, honey. That drawing is beautiful!" (said with a big smile).
But now, research at the University of Ottawa and Laurentian University, reported in Infant and Child Development, suggests that children as young as age six can recognize a fake smile.
So, you need to be careful when you say to me, "Oh, Dr. G. Your blog is so good!" (said with a big smile), because I am going to have my six-year-old grandson with me to watch for a lopsided mouth and creaseless eyes, and he may say what he is thinking about you.
July 19, 2010
Suicide in Families
Next weekend, I and my brother are going to visit aunts, uncles and cousins whom we have not seen in decades, since 1962 for my brother, 1980 for me. One uncle will not be there. He committed suicide in 1972. His young bride successfully raised their six children alone, and we hope to see all of them.
I was thinking about that because I read some research recently, reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, that shows, "Children of parents who commit suicide are three times more likely to commit suicide themselves than children whose parents are living."
Is that evidence that the propensity for suicide is inherited, genetic? We do know that depression can run in families because of genetics. At least one cause of depression, that is: depression caused by a low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. But depression has more than one cause and suicide can have more than one cause. Some are genetic. Some are environmental/situational.
Perhaps the most famous family with multi-generational suicides is the Earnest Hemingway family, with five suicides.
My uncle jumped from a St. Louis bridge into the Mississippi River after years of mental complications from a brain injury, the result of a drag racing accident. None of his six children have attempted suicide. What drove him to suicide was not genetic, it was situational, and that type of suicide does not tend to run in families.
This observation is supported by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center research, quoted above, which suggested, "developmental, environmental and genetic factors all influence suicide risk... [but] children whose parents do commit suicide need quick intervention."
I was thinking about that because I read some research recently, reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, that shows, "Children of parents who commit suicide are three times more likely to commit suicide themselves than children whose parents are living."
Is that evidence that the propensity for suicide is inherited, genetic? We do know that depression can run in families because of genetics. At least one cause of depression, that is: depression caused by a low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. But depression has more than one cause and suicide can have more than one cause. Some are genetic. Some are environmental/situational.
Perhaps the most famous family with multi-generational suicides is the Earnest Hemingway family, with five suicides.
My uncle jumped from a St. Louis bridge into the Mississippi River after years of mental complications from a brain injury, the result of a drag racing accident. None of his six children have attempted suicide. What drove him to suicide was not genetic, it was situational, and that type of suicide does not tend to run in families.
This observation is supported by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center research, quoted above, which suggested, "developmental, environmental and genetic factors all influence suicide risk... [but] children whose parents do commit suicide need quick intervention."
July 18, 2010
Chest Bump!
Some psychologists have interests outside the psych community, and some are even able to combine their loves. I assume that is what Michael Kraus and his "teammates" at the University of California at Berkeley were doing. Either that or they have way too much time on their hands.
"Hey, guys, I've got a great idea for a research project. Let's study the correlation between the number of chest bumps and the number of passes professional basketball teams make, and how well they do over the season! We'll probably have to attend some games for the research, and maybe we can even get the government to pay for it!"
That's what they did for all 30 NBA teams in the 2008-2009 season. What did they find?
"Teams that touched more cooperated more, which made them play better throughout the season... Touch appeared to solidify relationships and make players work better together." (Matthew Hutson, Psychology Today)
Did they play better because they chest bumped more often, or did they chest bump more often because they played well, or did the solid relationships cause both the bump chests and the good play? Ah, the curse of correlational research. There are always three possibilities: A caused B, B caused A, C caused both A & B. You can't prove cause through correlational research.
Hmmm. I wonder how the instructor in the office next to mine would respond if we chest bumped after a great lecture? No, some things don't carry over well from one profession to another. Maybe just a high five?
"Hey, guys, I've got a great idea for a research project. Let's study the correlation between the number of chest bumps and the number of passes professional basketball teams make, and how well they do over the season! We'll probably have to attend some games for the research, and maybe we can even get the government to pay for it!"
That's what they did for all 30 NBA teams in the 2008-2009 season. What did they find?
"Teams that touched more cooperated more, which made them play better throughout the season... Touch appeared to solidify relationships and make players work better together." (Matthew Hutson, Psychology Today)
Did they play better because they chest bumped more often, or did they chest bump more often because they played well, or did the solid relationships cause both the bump chests and the good play? Ah, the curse of correlational research. There are always three possibilities: A caused B, B caused A, C caused both A & B. You can't prove cause through correlational research.
Hmmm. I wonder how the instructor in the office next to mine would respond if we chest bumped after a great lecture? No, some things don't carry over well from one profession to another. Maybe just a high five?
July 17, 2010
Types of Talk Therapy
I was doing some research for a one-day class I am going to teach in the fall, How To Help A Friend, and saw an article in the May/June issue of Psychology Today that was a hoot. Let me pass on some of what Nando Pelusi wrote, in Talk Therapy 101, his primmer on different approaches to therapy.
Psychoanalysis: Tell me about your dreams.
Psychodynamic Therapy: Tell me about your childhood.
Freudian Therapy: Tell me about your mother.
Behavioral Therapy: Show, don't tell.
Cognitive Therapy: Tell yourself this!
Rational Therapy: What are you telling yourself?
Acceptance Therapy: What's to tell?
Tough Love [or Reality Therapy - GG]: Tell it to the judge.
Psychoanalysis: Tell me about your dreams.
Psychodynamic Therapy: Tell me about your childhood.
Freudian Therapy: Tell me about your mother.
Behavioral Therapy: Show, don't tell.
Cognitive Therapy: Tell yourself this!
Rational Therapy: What are you telling yourself?
Acceptance Therapy: What's to tell?
Tough Love [or Reality Therapy - GG]: Tell it to the judge.
July 16, 2010
I Feel Good About Myself, Do You Feel Good About Me?
The sense of pleasure is produced by the release of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, in the brain. Dopamine can be released by treating ourselves (with a two-scoop hot fudge sundae, for example), or by helping others (by volunteering for a good cause we believe in).
New research from Caltech, reported by Jamil Zaki in the May/June issue of Psychology Today, has discovered one interesting difference in the brain's response to what we do for ourselves and what we do for others.
"When individuals give to charity, not only are reward areas activated, but so are areas involved in paying attention to the thoughts and emotions of other people."
Hmmm. So, when we are engaged in pro-social behavior it matters to us what others think. This raises the question, in my mind, of whether the dopamine is released in response to our action or in response to the admiration we receive from others for doing it.
I would be interested in knowing the brain's response when we give money anonymously to a cause we believe it. Do both regions fire, or just the pleasure center?
What do you think of today's post? The part of my brain that pays attention to what you think about me is firing.
New research from Caltech, reported by Jamil Zaki in the May/June issue of Psychology Today, has discovered one interesting difference in the brain's response to what we do for ourselves and what we do for others.
"When individuals give to charity, not only are reward areas activated, but so are areas involved in paying attention to the thoughts and emotions of other people."
Hmmm. So, when we are engaged in pro-social behavior it matters to us what others think. This raises the question, in my mind, of whether the dopamine is released in response to our action or in response to the admiration we receive from others for doing it.
I would be interested in knowing the brain's response when we give money anonymously to a cause we believe it. Do both regions fire, or just the pleasure center?
What do you think of today's post? The part of my brain that pays attention to what you think about me is firing.
July 15, 2010
Ugly Jud Fry
We went to see the musical, Oklahoma!, a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't a very good production of it, a little amateurish. It did, however, give me an opportunity to make a few human-behavior observations.
All of the main characters were attractive except for one - Jud Fry. He was big, burly, suffered from masive done-lap disease**, had an untrimmed beard, and talked with a gruff voice.
POP QUIZ: Was Jud Fry a good guy or a bad guy?
You guessed it. He was the bad guy. How did you know? Because you were guilty of the "beautiful-is-good effect."
Why were all the good gals/guys attractive and the bad guy unattractive in the musical? Because the casting director knows about the "beautiful-is-good effect" which Lauren Gerber describes as, "We tend to perceive attractive people as having desirable interpersonal qualities - sociability, warmth, trustworthiness, and kindness."
This is why people find it easier to believe that an unattractive person is guilty of a crime than to believe an attractive person could have committed it.
Intellectually we already knew what researchers at the University of New Hampshire have recently found from their studies: "There is actually not much difference in the social qualities of attractive and unattractive individuals." However, emotionally we trust attractive people more easily than we do unattractive ones. Don't look so pious, you know you do.
That's why my blog profile includes a photo of me. So you will more readily trust me.
**Done-lap disease: his belly done lapped over his belt.
All of the main characters were attractive except for one - Jud Fry. He was big, burly, suffered from masive done-lap disease**, had an untrimmed beard, and talked with a gruff voice.
POP QUIZ: Was Jud Fry a good guy or a bad guy?
You guessed it. He was the bad guy. How did you know? Because you were guilty of the "beautiful-is-good effect."
Why were all the good gals/guys attractive and the bad guy unattractive in the musical? Because the casting director knows about the "beautiful-is-good effect" which Lauren Gerber describes as, "We tend to perceive attractive people as having desirable interpersonal qualities - sociability, warmth, trustworthiness, and kindness."
This is why people find it easier to believe that an unattractive person is guilty of a crime than to believe an attractive person could have committed it.
Intellectually we already knew what researchers at the University of New Hampshire have recently found from their studies: "There is actually not much difference in the social qualities of attractive and unattractive individuals." However, emotionally we trust attractive people more easily than we do unattractive ones. Don't look so pious, you know you do.
That's why my blog profile includes a photo of me. So you will more readily trust me.
**Done-lap disease: his belly done lapped over his belt.
July 14, 2010
Sleepy? Go Stand in the Sunlight
Our wake/sleep cycle is one of the circadian rhythms that are regulated by light and dark. The retinas send a signal to the brain whether it is light or dark. After a few hours of the "Its dark outside" signal, the brain tells the pineal gland to release the hormone melatonin. Melatonin makes us sleepy.
At about age 16 the release of melatonin gets set back about an hour. Teenagers do not get sleepy as early in the evening as middle-schoolers. And, if allowed to sleep as long as they want, they sleep an average of 9 hours and 25 minutes. They fall asleep later and want to sleep longer.
Now, a study reported in, Neuroendocrinology Letters, adds to our knowledge base, that "students who wake up early for school often don't get adequate morning sunlight."
Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute had a group of eight-graders wear eyeglasses that block out the kind of light typical in morning light. "After five days, those kids went to sleep 30 minutes later on average than a control group."
So, feeling sleepy in that early morning class? Go stand outside in the sunlight for a while.
At about age 16 the release of melatonin gets set back about an hour. Teenagers do not get sleepy as early in the evening as middle-schoolers. And, if allowed to sleep as long as they want, they sleep an average of 9 hours and 25 minutes. They fall asleep later and want to sleep longer.
Now, a study reported in, Neuroendocrinology Letters, adds to our knowledge base, that "students who wake up early for school often don't get adequate morning sunlight."
Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute had a group of eight-graders wear eyeglasses that block out the kind of light typical in morning light. "After five days, those kids went to sleep 30 minutes later on average than a control group."
So, feeling sleepy in that early morning class? Go stand outside in the sunlight for a while.
July 12, 2010
The President Vacates While The Oil Flows?!
Wow! People are really upset that the President is taking a few days of vacation this week, while the oil-spill crisis in the Gulf continues to disrupt the lives of 100's of thousands of Americans.
If you haven't discovered this for yourself, let me be the first one to tell you: even when the President is on vacation, he is not on vacation! He may not be in the White House. He may not be in Washington. But he is NEVER out of contact with everyone with whom he needs to be in contact (including their being summoned to where he is).
For example, when I was living in Washington I played golf at a private club where President Clinton often played, and on one occasion our foursomes had tee times close to each other. (Actually, the President didn't require a tee time. He could just show up and tee off.) In the course of the round we were on parallel fairways and I hooked my drive right in front of him. He had to stand there and wait while I hit to my green. Surrounded by Secret Service agents, I counted 16 golf carts in the President's entourage! And they were not filled with golf clubs. Every type of gun you can imagine. Every kind of communication device you can imagine, complete with satelite commnication capability!
It does not MATTER that the President is never out of communication. It is the PERCEPTION that he is detached while there is a crisis. It is not quite as simple as the proverb, "Perception is reality." But that is pretty close.
Kurt Lewin, the father of Social Psychology, explained that, in understanding people's behavior, more important than reality is their perception of reality. If I think that the ceiling above me is falling, I will jump up and run out of the room, even if the reality is that the ceiling is not falling. If I think that the President is being detached, I will lash out at him, even if that is not reality.
If you haven't discovered this for yourself, let me be the first one to tell you: even when the President is on vacation, he is not on vacation! He may not be in the White House. He may not be in Washington. But he is NEVER out of contact with everyone with whom he needs to be in contact (including their being summoned to where he is).
For example, when I was living in Washington I played golf at a private club where President Clinton often played, and on one occasion our foursomes had tee times close to each other. (Actually, the President didn't require a tee time. He could just show up and tee off.) In the course of the round we were on parallel fairways and I hooked my drive right in front of him. He had to stand there and wait while I hit to my green. Surrounded by Secret Service agents, I counted 16 golf carts in the President's entourage! And they were not filled with golf clubs. Every type of gun you can imagine. Every kind of communication device you can imagine, complete with satelite commnication capability!
It does not MATTER that the President is never out of communication. It is the PERCEPTION that he is detached while there is a crisis. It is not quite as simple as the proverb, "Perception is reality." But that is pretty close.
Kurt Lewin, the father of Social Psychology, explained that, in understanding people's behavior, more important than reality is their perception of reality. If I think that the ceiling above me is falling, I will jump up and run out of the room, even if the reality is that the ceiling is not falling. If I think that the President is being detached, I will lash out at him, even if that is not reality.
July 11, 2010
Paul's Prognostication
Paul has correctly chosen every winner in soccer's World Cup tournament in South Africa this month. He is 5 for 5. I am writing this as I watch the final between Spain and Netherlands. Paul has chosen Spain.
In case you have missed it, Paul is a cephalopod mollusk. That is not an insult, it is the phylum and class for octopuses. Paul "chooses" by removing the lid from one of two containers containing food. The two countries' flags drape the boxes.
If he were human I would want to know some things, like, which side was his choice on each time? Did he always choose the container on the right?
Humans tend to do that (at the least the 90% who are right handed). When asked to choose between two items that are (unknownst to the chooser) actually identical, people overwhelmingly choose the one on the right, even though they can give "reasons" for their choice.
Admittedly, this is more complicated in octopuses. They have eight arms, or more specifically, four pairs of arms. I am not sure how to determine an octopus' right and left. Is the big, balloon-shaped growth in front of its eyes or behind its eyes? In other words, which way is an octopus facing? Is each pair divided into right and left: 1LR, 2LR, 3LR, 4LR? Maybe, instead of right and left arm, we should call them its north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest arms?
Lighten up, Dr. G. It is either just luck or a fluke of randomness. Or, he could really know something.
As I sign off, the score is 0 to 0, with 36:10 showing on the clock. Does that mean 36:10 into the game, or 36:10 left in the game? I have got to start watching more than just 30 seconds of soccer games.
In case you have missed it, Paul is a cephalopod mollusk. That is not an insult, it is the phylum and class for octopuses. Paul "chooses" by removing the lid from one of two containers containing food. The two countries' flags drape the boxes.
If he were human I would want to know some things, like, which side was his choice on each time? Did he always choose the container on the right?
Humans tend to do that (at the least the 90% who are right handed). When asked to choose between two items that are (unknownst to the chooser) actually identical, people overwhelmingly choose the one on the right, even though they can give "reasons" for their choice.
Admittedly, this is more complicated in octopuses. They have eight arms, or more specifically, four pairs of arms. I am not sure how to determine an octopus' right and left. Is the big, balloon-shaped growth in front of its eyes or behind its eyes? In other words, which way is an octopus facing? Is each pair divided into right and left: 1LR, 2LR, 3LR, 4LR? Maybe, instead of right and left arm, we should call them its north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest arms?
Lighten up, Dr. G. It is either just luck or a fluke of randomness. Or, he could really know something.
As I sign off, the score is 0 to 0, with 36:10 showing on the clock. Does that mean 36:10 into the game, or 36:10 left in the game? I have got to start watching more than just 30 seconds of soccer games.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
