Horowitz TS, Wolfe JM, Alvarez GA, Cohen MA, & Kuzmova YI. (2009) The speed of free will. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 62(11), 2262-88. PMID: 19255946 The speed of free will.
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Monday, November 08, 2010
The speed of free will
The speed of free will: "The BPS Research Digest highlights an interesting piece of research on the speed of free will, or more accurately the speed of volitional control over, in this case, eye activity. Crudely speaking, our actions can be divided into those that are automatic and driven by the environment and those that are initiated volitionally, as an act of will. In an intriguing new study, Todd Horowitz and colleagues claim to have recorded the relatively sluggish time taken for free will to be enacted. Their finding could help explain our natural tendency to search visual scenes via apparently random, haphazard attentional shifts, rather than using our conscious will to search more strategically. The fact is, our volitional control is simply too slow, rendering a deliberate, ordered approach ineffective.The researchers found that deliberately controlling eye movements when searching for a particular image in our field of vision takes about three times as long as letting the same process happen 'automatically'. The conscious mind is thus not only limited in terms of capacity, but it is also a lot slower than automatic control. We save a lot of energy and time by processing most sensory information on a subconscious level - but this creates complications for understanding ourselves and the social world. As a political scientist interested in psychology, I immediately wonder how much processing of political cues (broadly understood) goes entirely unnoticed by us. More importantly, in what ways does this efficient, automatic processing impact our conscious thought processes about political issues? Maybe we 'feel' what our preferred answer to a political question is and then move to justify it with tailor-made theories, just as we tend to do for moral decisions? There are so many interesting questions here...Horowitz TS, Wolfe JM, Alvarez GA, Cohen MA, & Kuzmova YI (2009). The speed of free will. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 62 (11), 2262-88 PMID: 19255946...
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Brain Sex Differences In Gene Expression Start Early
Brain Sex Differences In Gene Expression Start Early: "Cognitive differences in the brain start early. Y chromosome genes turn on and alter brain development in fetuses before birth. Prenatal sex-based biological differences extend to genetic expression in cerebral cortices. The differences in question are probably associated with later divergences in how our brains develop. This is shown by a new study by Uppsala University researchers Elena Jazin and Björn Reinius, which has been published in the latest issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry. Do any ideologues still maintain that fundamental sexual differences in cognition are a product of social environment? The science doesn't seem like it leaves any room for a serious argument along those lines. Professor Elena Jazin and doctoral student Björn Reinius at the Department of..."
Replicating Milgram’s Obedience Experiment – Yet Again
Replicating Milgram’s Obedience Experiment – Yet Again: "
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Milgram’s experiment was again repeated — this time as part of the BBC documentary “How violent are you?” first shown in May 2009. It’s another remarkable rendition. Of the 12 participants, only 3 refused to continue to the end of the experiment. The relevant portions of that documentary are below.
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For a sample of related Situationist posts, see “Milgram Remake,” “The Milgram Experiment Today?.” “Gender Conformity,” “The Case for Obedience,” “A Shocking Situation,” “Zimbardo on Milgram and Obedience – Part I,” “The Case for Obedience,” “Virtual Worlds, Learning, and Virtual Milgram,” “Solomon Asch’s Conformity Experiment . . . Today,” and “Solomon Asch’s Classic Group-Influence Experiment.”
For a list of previous Situationist posts discussing Milgram’s research click here.
Zimbardo Interview at The Believer
Zimbardo Interview at The Believer: "
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THE BELIEVER: I take it that one of the goals of the Stanford Prison Experiment was to build on Milgram’s results that demonstrated the power of situational elements. Is that right?
PHILIP ZIMBARDO: It was really to broaden his message and put it to a higher-level test. In Milgram’s study, we don’t know about those thousand people who answered the ad. His subjects were not Yale students, although he did it at Yale. They were a thousand ordinary citizens from New Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut, ages twenty to fifty, and in his advertisement in the newspaper he said: college students and high-school students cannot be used. It could have been a selection of people who were more psychopathic. For our study, we picked only two dozen of seventy-five who applied, who on seven different personality tests were normal or average. So we knew there were no psychopaths, no deviants. Nobody had been in therapy, and even though it was a drug era, nobody (at least in the reports) had taken anything more than marijuana, and they were physically healthy at the time. So the question was: Suppose you had only kids who were normally healthy, psychologically and physically, and they knew they would be going into a prison-like environment and that some of their civil rights would be sacrificed. Would those good people, put in that bad, evil place—would their goodness triumph?
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That sitautionist snippet should convince you to check out the rest of the interview! Also, it is worth pointing out the Sommers has a forthcoming collection entitled A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain, which includes past interviews with philosophers and psychologists such as Galen Strawson, Michael Ruse, Jon Haidt, Frans de Waal, Steve Stich, Josh Greene, Liane Young, Joe Henrich, William Ian Miller, and Zimbardo. So, make sure to check it out as well once it comes out.
For a sample of related Situationist posts, see, “Milgram Remake,” “Zimbardo on Milgram and Obedience Part I,” “Zimbardo on Migram and Obedience Part II,” and “Zimbardo Lecture on How Good People Turn Evil.”
Eureka! How distractions facilitate creative problem-solving
Eureka! How distractions facilitate creative problem-solving: "According to psychologists from the University of Toronto and the Radboud University Nijmegen, distractions may be helpful in coming up with creative solutions to a certain problem, but must be followed by a period of conscious thought to ensure that we are aware of those solutions and can apply them. Likewise, while distractions are more useful in solving difficult problems, it may be better to stay focused on finding the solution when confronted with easier problems."
Link Dump
Okay. I've been struggling with trying to get to the ENORMOUS backlog of links that I have in my "starred" items. It is over 1000 items long.
Gah!
So - I have resolved to clean that bad-boy out by just posting the dry link without commentary (unless I see something really good that I want to save for later). Be prepared for a massive link dump. Sans commentary.
Heaven help us all.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Still more on the Placebo effect
It's finally entered the public consciousness, but here is a good discussion of the academic background.
Playing with your kids
I'm all about fostering play as a medium for learning. When we play with our kids are we really fostering learning, or are we simply "playing"? Is there a difference?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Bad Leadership
Here is a trio of articles that talk about the same thing: recent findings that self-doubt and the need to maintain authority and control make managers into bullies:
Incentives: they aren't what you think they are
Motivation experts have known about this stuff for some time - but yet it still has yet to permeate the collective consciousness of the public, or even the narrower field of business.
More here: 10 Myths about incentives.
Culture and the brain
This has been a long-time interest of mine. Some anthropologists and sociologists say that culture has no effect on our brains. I call BS. Shared cultural experience shapes different kinds of cognitive bias we may have. If you're talking about if there is a difference in the structure or general function of brains, then yes - culture makes little difference. But on a cognitive level it surely makes some differences.
Brain doping - negative effects
Brain doping, just like anabolic steroids, can have negative effects (which should not be a surprise to anyone).
But more drugs and even gene therapies are being discovered all the time. It's the long-term use where you pay the price.
Brain Gene doping
Speaking of which - yes, there may be a way to get some brain-doping effects from gene modification.
More on study habits
There is just all kinds of stuff that we teach people about how to effectively study that is straight-up wrong. Good thing it's still a topic of research:
Schizophrenia is contagious?
Six diseases you never knew you could catch - New Scientist
Apparently a type of parasite can cause schizophrenia-like symptoms.
Who knew?
The crux of the current Free Will debate
The big kerfuffle recently over whether or not we have free will centers on recent findings using various types of brain scans that show our brains making a decision (or indicating action) before we are cognitively aware of such decisions.
This article does a great job in explaining all of that:
Good news for the netizens
‘Net Surfing Is Good for the Brain...at Any Age | Psychology Today
I should clarify and say that it is good for the brain in specific domains.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Socially based intelligence?
The introductory paragraph of this article is what has my brain spinning right now. The author is entirely correct, every objective measure of an individual's intelligence is based entirely on that: the individual.
The ensuing research example only seems to highlight the idea. Does social interaction boost intelligence or creativity? I think he's on to something. Introspectively I completely agree with him, but I'd LOVE to see some experimental or observational data on the subject.
Milgram experiment on TV
If you're not familiar with Stanley Milgram's experiments on obedience to authority, go hit up YouTube and educate yourself.
For those that are familiar with the experiment - check this out:
Apparently the Milgram experiment has been used as the basis for a Reality show. Honestly, I think this is genius. I can't believe this hasn't been done sooner.
Nature vs. Nurture - what effect do genes have?
Turning off a particular gene in mice makes them smarter. Cool.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
How to antidepressants really work?
I wouldn't necessarily go so far as the title of the article suggests, but now we have a better understanding of the vector the drugs take to affect the neurons. If we really understood how they work we would be able to create drugs that were more effective than a meager 30% of the time.
The Zen of Yoda
Striving for success, not attempting with the expectation of failure is the key to success. "Do or do not. There is no try."
Guilt and Shame
Excellent article discussing the differences between two emotions that people seem to confuse all the time.
Learning in different modes
This is not an article about the now thoroughly debunked "visual-auditory-kinesthetic" learning theories. This more about how different techniques have greater or lesser effects on specific types of memory.
Self-regulation: a critical skill
For all you students out there, remember this: self-regulation is the key to success in ALL your endeavors, so learn it while your in school and the pressure is still reasonably low.
Free will studies are wrong?
Nice article that looks a little more critically on the Libet experiments on motion control that have proven so inflammatory on the whole free will debate:
How to be a hottie!
For all you lonely hearts out there, here are some things you can do right now!
More on positive psychology
Deric Bownds' MindBlog: A new positive psychology website
Another site to add to my list to research.
Work sucks your willpower away...
Well, not literally, but this study seems to indicate that there might be something to that:
EVERYTHING is controlled by your brain
The headline itself should make you want to read this article:
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