William James continues to influence us, shape us and inspire us over a hundred years later!
Here is what I am reading today:
“Recording people belting out an old Motown tune and then asking them to listen to their own singing without the accompanying music seems like an unusually cruel form of punishment. But for a team of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley, this exact Karaoke experiment has revealed what part of the brain is essential for embarrassment.”
“In Make Up Don’t Break Up with accompanying DVD Falling in Love and Staying in Love, Dr. Bonnie teaches skills for nurturing and growing lasting relationships. “The lack of dating before sex tells me that young adults are sleeping with virtual strangers, which is alarming. And, this casual hook up trend will not help people understand how to get a relationship started,” says Dr. Bonnie.”
“A team of cognitive scientists has good news for parents who are worried that they are setting a bad example for their children when they say “um” and “uh.” A study conducted at the University of Rochester’s Baby Lab shows that toddlers actually use their parents’ stumbles and hesitations (technically referred to as disfluencies) to help them learn language more efficiently.”
“A study in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows increased automobile crash rates among teen drivers who start school earlier in the morning.”
“By asking a group of older adults to analyze videos of other people conversing — some talking truthfully, some insincerely — a group of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco has determined which areas of the brain govern a person’s ability to detect sarcasm and lies.”
“Eight schools have implemented the change just since October, he said. Rutgers University became the 60th school and largest university in the nation to have the policy when it approved the option in March, said Chang, a Rutgers law student.”
4 Comments
ehhunt · April 18, 2011 at 3:23 pm
On “why we feel ’embarrassed'”
The mere description of this experiment made me cringe! I think it’s really interesting that we can now point to something in the brain that tells us why we feel things such as embarrassment since it happens to (most) everyone. I can’t imagine what it would be like to not be embarrassed—I imagine it would drastically change one’s behavior if he or she was not motivated to act a certain way to avoid embarrassment. It’s fascinating that not feeling embarrassed is actually a symptom of neurodegeneration.
Annadavis · April 19, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Oh no! With the human brain being plastic and all, I wonder if the ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’ serve adults in the same manner. When I am listening to a presentation, I feel disappointed if the presenter has lots of ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’ in her/his presentation. I will keep this study in mind next time I’m listening to the ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’.
jwestend · April 19, 2011 at 2:10 pm
On “Not Understanding Sarcasm is a Warning Sign”
This article has made me realize why my jokes weren’t a hit at the nursing home I volunteered at. haha. Unfortunately the implications of neuro-degenerative diseases are not funny at all and I have noticed this in interactions with my grandparents before they passed away. Sarcasm did seem to fall short with my mom’s mom but not with my dad’s mom who was mentally healthier towards the end. Even more terrible is the mention of telemarketers taking advantage of this elderly inability to detect lies.
Annadavis · April 19, 2011 at 5:05 pm
On “Not Understanding Sarcasm is a Warning Sign”:
This article brought up questions for me related to another study I have been reviewing for another project. In “Executing Facial Control During Deception Situations” (Hurley, 2011) the authors conclude that facial actions can be reduced but not eliminated when liars try to deliberately control face or body behavior in an effort to deceive lie catchers. In other words, even a practiced liar cannot control all the physiological expressions that a lie produces. I wonder if a lack of these expressions (when studying liars) has been correlated to the decline in functioning of the brain.
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