Psychology
omnibrain | August 1, 2007Ok ok... they do have a sense of humor but... age related cognitive decline has led to many older adults not getting 'the joke'. In a study by Wingyun Mak and Brian Carpenter, Ph.D. , of Washington University they discovered that
Humor comprehension in older adults functions in a different fashion than humor comprehension in younger adults. The researchers studied older adults from a university subject pool as well as undergraduate students. The subjects participated in tests that indicated their ability to complete jokes accurately as well as tests that indicated their cognitive…
neurophilosophy | July 28, 2007The single most famous case study in the history of neuropsychology is that of an anonymous memory-impaired man usually referred to only by the initials H.M. This patient has one of the most severe cases of amnesia ever observed; he has been followed for over 40 years by more than 100 researchers, and is the subject of dozens of research papers and book chapters. The early studies of H.M. provide a basis for modern neuropsychology, and the findings of those who have studied him are today a cornerstone in memory research.
H.M. (sometimes referred to as Henry M.) was born in Hartford,…
omnibrain | July 27, 2007Stop smoking pot immediately! You WILL go CRAZY!!! Panic!
The study by Zammit and colleagues, published in the medical journal the Lancet, reanalyzed data from seven long-term studies on psychotic illnesses and marijuana involving 61,000 participants.
The researchers filtered out about 60 factors, such as preexisting mental illness and the use of other illicit drugs, and considered IQ and social class, to try to isolate the effect of marijuana, Zammit said.
Most of the studies that were analyzed indicated a range of increased risk for frequent users from 50% to 200%, with the average being…
clock | July 26, 2007It is certainly possible. Compared to some people I know, I am definitely not. I have read each of the books once (more than halfway through the 7th - so do not give me spoilers yet!) and I have seen each of the movies once. I enjoy them, but do nothing on top of it: no speculations, no obsessions, no additional activity.
neurophilosophy | July 25, 2007
The New York Times has an obituary of Albert Ellis, a highly innovative psychotherapist who died yesterday at the age of 93.
In the 1950s, Ellis broke with tradition by rejecting the theories of Sigmund Freud, which were widely used at the time.
As an alternative, Ellis developed a method called Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which involved encouraging his patients to alter their behaviour by focusing on current events in their lives.
This new method, along with that developed by Aaron T. Beck, would later form the basis of cognitive behaviour therapy.
neurophilosophy | July 23, 2007The term 'Rashomon effect' is often used by psychologists in situations where observers give different accounts of the same event,and describes the effect of subjective perceptions on recollection. The phenomenon is named after a 1950 film by the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. It was with Rashomon that Western cinema-goers discovered both Kurosawa and Japanese film in general - the film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951, as well as the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film the following year.
Rashomon is an adaptation of two short stories by Akutagawa…
omnibrain | July 23, 2007This weeks article is again from the Book Review section of the NYTimes on April 28, 1890. Admittedly, I'm not very familiar with the history of Physiognomy so I am learning about it a little bit today as I post this. It is essentially Phrenology of the face, even more ridiculous and can be used for racist conclusions more readily. From Wikipedia:
Physiognomy (Gk. physis, nature and gnomon, judge, interpreter) is a theory based upon the idea that the study and judgement of a person's outer appearance, primarily the face, may give insights into their character or personality. The term…
neurophilosophy | July 21, 2007We live in a time in which we are overwhelmed by information obtained from multiple sources, such as the internet, television, and radio. We are usually unable to give our undivided attention to any one source of information, but instead give 'continuous partial attention' to all of them by constantly flitting between them. The limitations of cognitive processes, particularly attention and working memory, place a ceiling on the capacity of the brain to process and store information. It is these processes that some researchers are aiming to enhance with augmented cognition, an emerging field…
omnibrain | July 18, 2007Peter Giancola & Michelle Corman of the University of Kentucky have determined why drunks at the bar get into fights. Here's how they did it and the pretty nifty results:
The scientists tested this idea on a group of young Kentucky men. Some of the men drank three to four screwdrivers before the experiment, while others stayed sober. Then they had them all compete against another person in a somewhat stressful game that required very quick responses. Every time they lost a round, they received a shock varying in intensity. Likewise, when they won a round they gave their opponent a shock…
neurophilosophy | July 15, 2007
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) was one of the most outstanding filmmakers of the twentieth century. In a career spanning six decades, Hitchcock made 53 films, the best of which are at once suspenseful, exciting, disturbing, funny and romantic.
The 'master of suspense' pioneered many of the techniques of the thriller genre, and remains highly influential to this day. He was, for example, one of the first directors to portray psychological processes in film narrative.
However, his films were initially more popular with audiences than with critics, and it was not until the latter part of his…
clock | July 12, 2007Echidne, Amanda Marcotte, Laelaps and Larry Moran beautifully destroy the "Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature" article from the recent issue of 'Psychology Today', the latest garbage from the Evolutionary Psychology crowd. Much fun was had by all....
neurophilosophy | July 11, 2007Tone deafness (or amusia) is an impairment in the ability to discriminate changes in the pitch of a melody. The condition, which was first described in 1878, affects about 4% of the population. It arises in early childhood and continues throughout adulthood.
Neuroimaging studies show that amusia is not associated with abnormal neural activity in the auditory cortex (the region of the temporal lobe involved in processing auditory information). It is also now known that the condition is specific to musical tones; tone deaf individuals (hereafter referred to as amusics) are able to perceive the…
omnibrain | July 9, 2007This weeks Pseudoscience of the past is brought to you once again by the New York Times from November 21, 1851. In this episode we demonstrate how you can tell nearly everything about a person from...wait for it.... wait..... yes! Their Hat!
Now this isn't something you can tell from how fashionable the hat is - but instead, people's hats conform to the shape of their skulls. So basically if you have a sloping head of a certain shape you are a revolutionary and all that one would need to do to determine if you have a treasonous head is to do a little hat measuring!
I'm seeing it now...
"…
omnibrain | July 4, 2007It's kind of hard to imagine a child lying who barely understands language and is even less able to produce something understandable. And babies certainly don't have a very developed theory of mind! But like all areas of developmental psychology the trend is for people to be able to do things earlier and earlier and deception seems to be one of those universal abilities all humans have very early on. A Psychologist, Vasudevi Reddy, from the University of Portsmouth has identified seven different categories of ways that babies can deceive. The ways that babies deceive are essentially (…
omnibrain | July 4, 2007There is a great article today on Slate about why the pretty ridiculous idea that vaccinations containing trace amounts of mercury cause autism will never go away. Here's the first little part of the article:
At the recent 12-day hearing into theories that vaccines cause autism, the link between the disorder and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine came across as shaky at best. As for the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, which was used in other vaccines, witnesses showed that in all known cases of actual mercury poisoning (none of which caused autism), the dose was hundreds or…
omnibrain | July 2, 2007Have you ever wondered why your left hemisphere is better developed than your right? Are you worried about the negative impacts of hypnotism, crossed eyes and convulsions? The NY Times may have the answer for you!
It's all about how you sleep as a baby and what's in your cradle.
From Nov. 26 1880:
Not only do they provide answers for these questions they express these other very elucidating views on imagery:
See you again next week with a story on the study of Phrenology in Dogs from the Chicago Tribune on October 20th 1895!
omnibrain | June 30, 2007Today starts a new series that I perhaps blatantly stole from Shelley over at Retrospectacle, but it's such a darn great idea! From the mouth of Shelley:
Pretty much I'm just going to dig back into the forgotten and moldering annuls of scientific publications to find weird and interesting studies that very likely would never be published or done today (and perhaps never should have.)
Clearly I'm not doing the same thing, but her idea gave me one of my own. We here at Omni Brain will be digging into classic media coverage of all things science (usually brain related - clearly). I have a…
aardvarchaeology | June 30, 2007Last week a mentally ill man shot one policeman to death and hurt three other people when they came to apprehend him in his home in the Swedish town of Nyköping. This is a very rare and shocking occurrence in Sweden, where gun control is such that most people have never seen a handgun. Wednesday, an opinion piece about the case appeared in the main Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. It was written by two senior psychiatrists, Henrik Belfrage and Göran Fransson, both of whom have examined the killer in the past. What they had to say is quite remarkable, and so I decided to translate a few bits…