AUTHOR: John Tierney
PUBLICATION NAME:The New York Times.
DATE OF PUBLICATION: November 15, 2010
SUMMARY: This article is about the study that humans stating that when their minds wander off a lot, it is a sign of unhappiness. In this study, they analyzed 2,200 people and recorded over 250,000 of their thought processes and times when they are most happy. Psychologists did studies on iPhones of the people's moods at certain times and it came up as when people are happiest the most, they don't wander off at all. The time where people were happy the most is when they were having sexual intercourse. During then, noone wants to daydream about something else. But when commuting or working, people daydream about something better that they want to do over 40% of the time. When people wander, they want to be somewhere better because they are unhappy, but get even more depressed when they come back to reality. These results don't pose an important role in our society but gives us new evidence of people's daily lives and how much of us daydream in times of unhappiness. So if you see someone daydreaming in class, they are most likely sad about something going on. This article will help psychologists study a new breakthrough of something more genetic as many psychologists befor have written stories and articles about the human mind and day dreaming, but none has any clear cut evidence of their expectations. Hopefully, with the help of the iPhone, psychologists can help lengthen their research on this experiment. Over time, psychologists will be more advanced in this technology, and if you are intereested in this type of studies, this will be an interesting thing to look out for later in the future.
LINKS TO STUDY: None
ARTICLE: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/science/16tier.html?_r=1&ref=psychology_and_psychologistsThe
SUBMITTED BY: Matthew Menezes
Showing posts with label 02 Neuroscience and Consciousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 02 Neuroscience and Consciousness. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Sleep Makes Your Memories Stronger, and Helps With Creativity
AUTHOR: Science Daily Staff/Association for Psychological Science
PUBLICATION NAME: Science Daily
DATE OF PUBLICATION: November 12, 2010
SUMMARY: Scientists have proven that humans spend about a third of their lives sleeping. According to the authors of an article in “Current Directions in Psychological Science,” sleeping seems to reorganize memories by picking out certain memories, such as the emotional ones and reconfiguring them to help create and produce fresh and innovative ideas. Sleep makes memories become stronger and restructure. According to Payne and Kensinger’s studies about what happens to memories during sleep, they have proven and found that if a person is asleep, they have a tendency to hang on to the most emotional and affecting part of a memory. For instance, if someone were to be tested after a night of sleep and were shown a scene or a picture of an emotional and disturbed object, such as a burning house, wrecked car, or an injured person or animal, they are more likely to respond and expected to remember the emotive object in the scene or picture than the non-emotive object(s) in the background. Payne and Kensinger have also measured people’s brain activity during their sleep. According to Payne and Kensinger’s brain activity research and results, they have found that certain areas and regions of the brain that are involved with memory and emotion consolidation are dynamic and active. During our sleep, our brains are full of activity. They are not only strengthening and stabilizing our memories, but also organizing them. Our brains are also selecting out the most noticeable, significant, and striking information we have. As a result, it is making it possible for us to come up with new and innovative ideas.
LINKS TO STUDY: None
ARTICLE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101113165441.htm
SUBMITTED BY: Arielle Calara
PUBLICATION NAME: Science Daily
DATE OF PUBLICATION: November 12, 2010
SUMMARY: Scientists have proven that humans spend about a third of their lives sleeping. According to the authors of an article in “Current Directions in Psychological Science,” sleeping seems to reorganize memories by picking out certain memories, such as the emotional ones and reconfiguring them to help create and produce fresh and innovative ideas. Sleep makes memories become stronger and restructure. According to Payne and Kensinger’s studies about what happens to memories during sleep, they have proven and found that if a person is asleep, they have a tendency to hang on to the most emotional and affecting part of a memory. For instance, if someone were to be tested after a night of sleep and were shown a scene or a picture of an emotional and disturbed object, such as a burning house, wrecked car, or an injured person or animal, they are more likely to respond and expected to remember the emotive object in the scene or picture than the non-emotive object(s) in the background. Payne and Kensinger have also measured people’s brain activity during their sleep. According to Payne and Kensinger’s brain activity research and results, they have found that certain areas and regions of the brain that are involved with memory and emotion consolidation are dynamic and active. During our sleep, our brains are full of activity. They are not only strengthening and stabilizing our memories, but also organizing them. Our brains are also selecting out the most noticeable, significant, and striking information we have. As a result, it is making it possible for us to come up with new and innovative ideas.
LINKS TO STUDY: None
ARTICLE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101113165441.htm
SUBMITTED BY: Arielle Calara
Sunday, November 28, 2010
New Study Shows Humans are on Auto Pilot Nearly Half the Time
AUTHOR: Dr. David Rock
PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today
DATE OF PUBLICATION: November 14, 2010
SUMMARY: Daniel Gilbert and Matthew Killingsworth recently found from a study they did that most people are "mentally checked out" for about half of their time. In addition to this, the people that participated in the study reported that during the time that they let their minds wander, they were unhappy. Rock concludes that the amount of mind wandering that is done can be used as an indicator as to how happy one is when doing an activity. The more that the mind wanders during an activity, the less happiness it brings to the person.
Rock then links this study to another study by Norman Farb called, "Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reverence." From this study Norman Farb concluded that humans are able to experience things in two different ways using different networks. The first network, called the default network, becomes active when not much else is happening. This network allows the mind to wander rather than paying direct attention to one's surroundings.
The other way of interacting with experiences is through direct experience. This mode of thought allows one to focus directly on what is happening right at that moment.
According to Kirk Brown, mindfulness is one of the keys to more cognitive control. It is a habit that you must develop, and by adjusting your mind to become more mindful, you can become happier person.
LINKS TO STUDY: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6006/932.abstract
SUBMITTED BY: Kimmy Guzzetta
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Can Old Dogs Get Alzheimer's Disease?
AUTHOR: Stanley Coren, Ph.D
PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today
DATE OF PUBLICATION: September 13, 2010
SUMMARY: No one knows exactly why either dogs or humans decline in their abilities as they age, but one theory is that as DNA is copied into new cells, the copies get less and less accurate. Damage to the DNA may also come from natural radiation, or wear and tear or a combination of all three. Damaged DNA due to natural radiation leads to faulty enzyme production that then leads to the death of cells in the nervous system. It has been found that old dog’s brains are up to 25% lighter than younger dog’s brains do to loss of nerve cells and branches. In addition, chemical changes occur in the dog’s brain do to aging. These same things happen to people as they get older. In dogs and humans, the mitochondria become less efficient, leaking free radicals that interrupt normal cell activity. In autopsies, it is apparent that with age both dogs and humans naturally get lesions of the starch-like protein beta amyloid. This lesion clogs the brain and inhibits signals from the brain. In addition, some dogs get the same degenerative brain lesions that humans with Alzheimer’s Disease do. As tissue degenerates, protein deposits called amyloids accumulate in the brain. High levels of these amyloids in combination with clusters of dead or dying nerve cells are an indication that the individual is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. In dogs, this is called Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome. These dogs show similar symptoms as humans with Alzheimer’s Disease. These symptoms can be summed up as disorientation, interaction changes, sleep changes, and house soiling.
LINKS TO STUDY: Unavailable
ARTICLE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201009/can-old-dogs-get-alzheimer-s-disease
SUBMITTED BY: Stephanie Walker
PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today
DATE OF PUBLICATION: September 13, 2010
SUMMARY: No one knows exactly why either dogs or humans decline in their abilities as they age, but one theory is that as DNA is copied into new cells, the copies get less and less accurate. Damage to the DNA may also come from natural radiation, or wear and tear or a combination of all three. Damaged DNA due to natural radiation leads to faulty enzyme production that then leads to the death of cells in the nervous system. It has been found that old dog’s brains are up to 25% lighter than younger dog’s brains do to loss of nerve cells and branches. In addition, chemical changes occur in the dog’s brain do to aging. These same things happen to people as they get older. In dogs and humans, the mitochondria become less efficient, leaking free radicals that interrupt normal cell activity. In autopsies, it is apparent that with age both dogs and humans naturally get lesions of the starch-like protein beta amyloid. This lesion clogs the brain and inhibits signals from the brain. In addition, some dogs get the same degenerative brain lesions that humans with Alzheimer’s Disease do. As tissue degenerates, protein deposits called amyloids accumulate in the brain. High levels of these amyloids in combination with clusters of dead or dying nerve cells are an indication that the individual is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. In dogs, this is called Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome. These dogs show similar symptoms as humans with Alzheimer’s Disease. These symptoms can be summed up as disorientation, interaction changes, sleep changes, and house soiling.
LINKS TO STUDY: Unavailable
ARTICLE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201009/can-old-dogs-get-alzheimer-s-disease
SUBMITTED BY: Stephanie Walker
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Guiding Your Sleep While You're Awake
Author: Sarah Kershaw
Publication Name: The New York Times
Date of Publication: July 26, 2010
Summary: In the article, “Guiding Your Sleep While You’re Awake,” the author writes about nightmares. Normally, when a person has an extremely vivid nightmare from a traumatic experience, over time, the nightmares lessen and the person is naturally able to overcome these nightmares. However, in some cases, people are not able to naturally overcome the nightmares and are then helped by therapists who have invented behavioral techniques to lessen these nightmares.
Some example techniques to help people overcome their nightmares are the following: lucid dreaming, where a patient is taught to know that they are in a dream while in a nightmare; vivo desensitization, in which the patient is faced with their nightmare while awake to overcome it before they sleep; and a more recent technique known as dream incubation, which was first studied during the 1990s by a psychologist at Harvard Medical School.
According to the link that corresponds to this article about dream incubation, “Approximately half of the subjects recalled a dream which they felt was related to the problem. Seventy percent of these believed their dream contained a solution to the problem” (Barrett). The results show that many people, after continuing to practice the methods, could guide themselves as they dream. Not only that, these conclusions had similar results as earlier researchers have had (Wile, 1934; Wollmering, 1978).
The article continues on about the different therapy that is available for those suffering incessant nightmares. These therapies give a new light to those that are suffering from nightmares due to an experience they wish to forget, or something that scares them in general.
Links to Study: Dream Incubation
Article: Guiding Your Sleep While You're Awake
Submitted by Julia Wong
Publication Name: The New York Times
Date of Publication: July 26, 2010
Summary: In the article, “Guiding Your Sleep While You’re Awake,” the author writes about nightmares. Normally, when a person has an extremely vivid nightmare from a traumatic experience, over time, the nightmares lessen and the person is naturally able to overcome these nightmares. However, in some cases, people are not able to naturally overcome the nightmares and are then helped by therapists who have invented behavioral techniques to lessen these nightmares.
Some example techniques to help people overcome their nightmares are the following: lucid dreaming, where a patient is taught to know that they are in a dream while in a nightmare; vivo desensitization, in which the patient is faced with their nightmare while awake to overcome it before they sleep; and a more recent technique known as dream incubation, which was first studied during the 1990s by a psychologist at Harvard Medical School.
According to the link that corresponds to this article about dream incubation, “Approximately half of the subjects recalled a dream which they felt was related to the problem. Seventy percent of these believed their dream contained a solution to the problem” (Barrett). The results show that many people, after continuing to practice the methods, could guide themselves as they dream. Not only that, these conclusions had similar results as earlier researchers have had (Wile, 1934; Wollmering, 1978).
The article continues on about the different therapy that is available for those suffering incessant nightmares. These therapies give a new light to those that are suffering from nightmares due to an experience they wish to forget, or something that scares them in general.
Links to Study: Dream Incubation
Article: Guiding Your Sleep While You're Awake
Submitted by Julia Wong
Digital Overload: Your Brain On Gadgets
AUTHOR: Radio Host: Terry Gross, Interviewee: New York Times technology journalist Matt Richtel
PUBLICATION NAME: NPR Fresh Air with Terry Gross (podcast)
PUBLICATION DATE: August 24, 2010
SUMMARY:
Because I'm the teacher, I cut and pasted the NPR summary. You will not do this.
"The average person today consumes almost three times as much information as what the typical person consumed in 1960, according to research at the University of California, San Diego.
And The New York Times reports that the average computer user checks 40 websites a day and can switch programs 36 times an hour.
"It's an onslaught of information coming in today," says Times technology journalist Matt Richtel. "At one time a screen meant maybe something in your living room. But now it's something in your pocket so it goes everywhere — it can be behind the wheel, it can be at the dinner table, it can be in the bathroom. We see it everywhere today."
Richtel has spent the past several months researching the toll technology and "information juggling" are taking on our lives — and our brains. His series "Your Brain On Computers" describes how multitasking on computers and digital gadgets affects the way people process information — and how quickly they can then become distracted."
LINKS TO STUDY: No studies, but the author's series at the New York Times can be found here.
ARTICLE: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129384107
SUBMITTED BY: Cummins
PUBLICATION NAME: NPR Fresh Air with Terry Gross (podcast)
PUBLICATION DATE: August 24, 2010
SUMMARY:
Because I'm the teacher, I cut and pasted the NPR summary. You will not do this.
"The average person today consumes almost three times as much information as what the typical person consumed in 1960, according to research at the University of California, San Diego.
And The New York Times reports that the average computer user checks 40 websites a day and can switch programs 36 times an hour.
"It's an onslaught of information coming in today," says Times technology journalist Matt Richtel. "At one time a screen meant maybe something in your living room. But now it's something in your pocket so it goes everywhere — it can be behind the wheel, it can be at the dinner table, it can be in the bathroom. We see it everywhere today."
Richtel has spent the past several months researching the toll technology and "information juggling" are taking on our lives — and our brains. His series "Your Brain On Computers" describes how multitasking on computers and digital gadgets affects the way people process information — and how quickly they can then become distracted."
LINKS TO STUDY: No studies, but the author's series at the New York Times can be found here.
ARTICLE: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129384107
SUBMITTED BY: Cummins
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)