How the Mind Works: 10 Fascinating TED Talks How memory works, what visual illusions reveal, the price of happiness, the power of introverts and more… 1. Peter Doolittle: How “working memory” works “Life comes at us very quickly, and what we need to do is take that amorphous flow of experience and somehow extract meaning from it.” In this funny, enlightening talk, educational psychologist Peter Doolittle details the importance — and limitations — of your “working memory,” that part of the brain that allows us to make sense of what’s happening right now.” 2. “What motivates us to work? Behavioral economist Dan Ariely presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our work.” 3. “Why do people see the Virgin Mary on a cheese sandwich or hear demonic lyrics in “Stairway to Heaven”? Using video and music, skeptic Michael Shermer shows how we convince ourselves to believe — and overlook the facts.” 4. 5. 6. “Can happiness be bought? 7. 8. 9. 10.
Child Psychology - The Development of our Children Child Psychology Child psychology involves looking at the issues, stages and various influences that a child experiences throughout their development into functioning adults. Child psychology can be divided into two main areas - the actual process of psychological development that the child goes through when growing up and the analysis and treatment of the various problems that a child may face throughout their development. During a child's development from infancy to adulthood, many influences are responsible for shaping their ways of seeing the world, their ideas of their own identity and their place within society. Factors such as environmental setting, family, community and the media all shape a child. In a perfect world, a child would develop successfully into a happily functioning adult, without any problems along the way, however this is not usually the case and many children find that they may struggle throughout the process. Related Links
The 12 Cognitive Biases That Prevent You From Being Rational The human brain is capable of 1016 processes per second, which makes it far more powerful than any computer currently in existence. But that doesn’t mean our brains don’t have major limitations. The lowly calculator can do math thousands of times better than we can, and our memories are often less than useless — plus, we’re subject to cognitive biases, those annoying glitches in our thinking that cause us to make questionable decisions and reach erroneous conclusions. Before we start, it’s important to distinguish between cognitive biases and logical fallacies. Some social psychologists believe our cognitive biases help us process information more efficiently, especially in dangerous situations. Confirmation Bias We love to agree with people who agree with us. Gambler’s Fallacy t’s called a fallacy, but it’s more a glitch in our thinking. Relatedly, there’s also the positive expectation bias — which often fuels gambling addictions. Post-Purchase Rationalization Neglecting Probability
Evolutionary developmental psychology It further proposes that an evolutionary account would provide some insight into not only predictable stages of ontogeny, but into specific differences between individuals as well. Such a perspective suggests that there are multiple alternative strategies to recurring problems that human children would have faced throughout our evolutionary past and that individual differences in developmental patterns aren’t necessarily idiosyncratic reactions, but are predictable, adaptive responses to environmental pressures. Brief history[edit] Traditionally, evolutionary psychologists tended to focus their research and theorizing primarily on adults, especially on behaviors related to socializing and mating. There was much less of a focus on psychological development, as it relates to Darwinian evolution. Pioneers of EDP have worked to integrate evolutionary and developmental theories, without totally discarding the traditional theories of either. Some basic assumptions[edit] See also[edit]
Cognitive neuropsychology An introduction Cognitive psychology is the scientific investigation of cognition, that is, of all mental abilities: perception, attention, learning, memory, processing of spoken and written language, thinking, reasoning and belief formation (Coltheart, 2002). It assumes that cognition can at least in principle be fully revealed by the scientific method, that is, individual components of mental processes can be identified and understood. Any theory about any domain of cognition will therefore be a theory about (a) what the modules are of the system by which performance in that domain is accomplished, and (b) what the pathways of communication between these modules of the system are; that is, a theory about the functional architecture of the system. This sharp distinction between research on the mind (cognition) and research on the brain is urged by numerous philosophers of mind and cognitive psychologists including Block (1995), Fodor (1999), Marshall (see e.g. Figure 1: Applications 1.
Learning theory (education) - Wikipedia Theory that describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning Educational philosophy [edit] Classical theorists Educational psychology Methodological behaviorism is based on the theory of only explaining public events, or observable behavior. In behavior analysis, learning is the acquisition of a new behavior through conditioning and social learning. Learning and conditioning The three main types of conditioning and learning: Classical conditioning, where the behavior becomes a reflex response to an antecedent stimulus.Operant conditioning, where antecedent stimuli results from the consequences that follow the behavior through a reward (reinforcement) or a punishment.Social learning theory, where an observation of behavior is followed by modeling. Transfer of learning Techniques and benefits of transfer of learning Other cognitive theories Transformative learning theory Educational neuroscience Formal and mental discipline Multiple intelligences Other learning theories 76.
Caffeine - a powerful and addictive drug | Mind-Body Self Help Caffeine is a potent drug. So each time you drink tea, coffee, cola or cocoa you are giving your body a ‘hit’ of caffeine. Along with nicotine and alcohol, caffeine is one of the three most widely used mood-affecting drugs in the world. If you have more than two or three caffeine drinks per day this is likely to be affecting your moods and your physiology – and in a more powerful manner than you might expect. Caffeine is not harmful – but overuse of caffeine could be. What is caffeine? It is a potent and quick-acting drug which produces an effect similar to the stress response in our bodies. Caffeine research New research into the effects of caffeine continues appear every few months and these reports frequently contradict one another – depending on who did the research, how many people were evaluated and, of course, who funded the research… So the definitive word on caffeine has not yet been agreed Reported effects of caffeine On the other hand… Sources of caffeine Caffeine Withdrawal Symptoms
Improving Memory - Top 10 Tips for Improving Memory 11. Get some sleep. Researchers have long known that sleep is important for memory and learning. Some recent research has shown that taking a nap after you learn something new can actually help you learn faster and remember better. One study actually found that sleeping after learning something new actually leads to physical changes in the brain. So the next time you are struggling to learn new information, consider getting a good night's sleep after you study. 10 Fascinating Facts About Human Memory References: Bjork, D. (2001, March). Yang, G., Lai, C. This content is provided in partnership with National 4-H Council. 4-H experiences help GROW confident, caring and capable kids.
A Layman’s Guide to Mindful Meditation “Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.” ~ Rumi Here’s the thing: we all know we should meditate, right? When it comes down to it, meditation can be as simple, or as complex, as we want it to be. All of life is a moving meditation. So if our goal is to achieve presence with the vibration of the universe, and presence is about being in the moment and familiarizing ourselves with the current state of our mind-body-soul, then how do we actually do it? We do it by finding a sacred “place” to “perform” our meditation. The main purpose for resonating with this sacred vibration is to nix the overreach of the Ego. At the end of the day, meditation helps us to take a step back and get a different perspective. When is the last time you did absolutely nothing for 10 whole minutes?
Caltech economist nets MacArthur genius grant A Caltech researcher who fused economics and neuroscience to make sense of human decisions that often don’t make cents has won the MacArthur genius grant. Colin Camerer came to Caltech in 1994 with an MBA in quantitative studies and a doctorate in decision theory from the University of Chicago’s business school, a place he described as “the temple of beliefs in highly rational people who make really good decisions and take into account the future.” “I just thought that was a useful caricature, but not the right model of human nature,” Camerer said. Veering from the notoriously conservative orthodoxy of economics at the University of Chicago to study human behavior may seem a risky career turn, but things got weirder when Caltech opened its brain imaging lab in 2003. Actual neuroscientists might have chased away a business school graduate who wanted to put people under the magnet to see what went on when they played obscure game theory experiments.