After a further investigation of memory and topics related to it, I discovered the connection of music to the memory. The persistence of music in our relatively well-known phenomenon. Most people have experienced having the latest pop song or some catchy jingle stuck in their head all day. I am particularly interested in this connection as it involves two of my greatest passions: psychology and music.
As I begin my research, I plan to examine how we remember music and why we remember music so well. One source that will assist me in my research is scholarly article, “Memory for melody and key in childhood.” This article discusses the length of retention people exhibit after exposure to previously unfamiliar memories. It reviews a study that changes variables like age and melody. This article will aid me in answering questions about how we remember melodies of different keys. New questions it has raised include the influence of age in remembering music. Furthermore, I have recently been discovered the psychological marvel of Clive Waring. Waring was once a gifted musician who was diagnosed with anterograde amnesia. Despite his remarkably short memory, he is still able to play the piano with accuracy and precision. Waring’s miraculous case may steer of my research in a more focused direction.
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Personality is the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character. There are different theories about how personality first formed and if it changes over time or stays stable throughout time. You might want to become more outgoing, more organized, or more resistant to criticism. So, can we change our personality? If we can, what are the factors that lead to the change in personality? What are the experiences and situations we must face to change our personality?
In the database Can Personality Be Changed?, the article gives an example of two twins who reunited at age 39. Although they lived in completely different environments, they were showing similar characteristics such as the eccentric habit of pushing up her nose and distinctive giggling. They were also known to have similar personalities and ways in how they talked and acted. So are we born with our personality, and can environment not change in how we act or think? However, more and more sources are defending on the fact that personality can change through strong experiences such as traumas, and more questions on the factors that lead to the change are in great debate. This source will allow me to approach different ideas and perspectives psychologists have about the change in perspectives and understand the scientific processes of personalities based on age, experiences, relationships, and the surroundings. I had new questions I wanted to research more after reading this source. Can gender have an influence in the change in personality? Is a specific group of gender more easily influenced by the environment, or do they show similar results? Also, in what degrees can personalities change? Is there a limit to a change in personality, or can one change dramatically and turn into a totally different person? Throughout time, I will incorporate these questions and build on to my research. Dear reader,
This post is the first of a series of posts dedicated to the subject of Judgment. As seen in the earlier post, “And The Verdict Is. . .”, I discussed cognitive biases that affect our judgment, for better or for worse. Learning about how information is processed in the brain is not only enlightening but also integral for making educated and thorough decisions. Over the course of the next posts, I will discuss topics and questions that probe and test the concept of judging, how judgment is formed and its effects. First off, I would like to address the concept of free will. It seems that if the human brain processes information that leads to an action, then humans must not have free will. However, this is not the case. Eddy Nahmias, from The Scientific American, discusses the debate between scientists who believe in free will and scientists who believe free will is an illusion. In his article titled, “Why We Have Free Will”, Nahmias details experiments that glean the surface of the unconscious level of the brain, where thoughts are formed before they are brought into the consciousness of the person. One experiment was by Benjamin Libet at the University of California, San Francisco, in the 1980s. Nahmias describes that Libet asked his subjects to flick their wrists whenever they wanted to (this is an excellent example of the cognitive bias called representativeness heuristic: the idea of what randomness should be). With electrodes attached to his subjects, Libet was able to monitor the electrical activity in their brains. One type of electrical signal was “readiness potential”, which occurs in the unconscious part of the brain. The other type of signal communicated the command to flick their wrist in the part of the brain that is consciously aware. Since the readiness potentials occurred about a quarter of a second before the signals that were conscious did, Libet concluded that decisions were made by the unconscious part of the brain, therefore contributing to the idea that free will does not exist. However, Nahmias argues that this could just as well be evidence of free will at work. Also, the action of flicking a wrist is habitual, and does not require much deliberation. Deciding to change a habit and debating on life choices are not habits that can be easily decided and executed, but take more time and effort. The process of those decisions may even take place in a separate part of the brain. Until there is more research about unconscious activity and better technology, potential answers will remain speculative, based off inferences from what technology can reveal at this time. Curious? Hungry for more? Stay tuned for these future possible posts: Split-second decisions and gut instincts Do physical surroundings affect our perception? Distorting memories I am fascinated by the human brain and all its workings. Similarly, I am drawn to this topic in that I wonder how animals think and also wonder if they think the same way as humans. The topic which I will be investigating involves animals and whether they use their own language to communicate among each other like we do. Our cerebral cortexes are the defining characteristic of human beings that make us very smart in comparison to other species. Our vast intelligence allows us to have language, giving us the ability communicate our intelligence to others. This system of communication that humans use incorporates symbols or letters to create meaning. While animals do not normally read or write, they are still able to communicate. The question is to what extent do they develop their language and how do they communicate with each other? Maybe animals are smarter than we think.
The book Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language will be very helpful in research about communication among animals. Tim Friend, a science journalist for USA Today, explains the mysteries of animal language, describing the methods and reasoning behind animal communication. His work suggests that perhaps human and animal communication are not so different. This book will provide a good foundation as it includes the basics of communication theory, genetics, evolution, and the development of scientific thought having to do with animal communication. News Alert: it's 2017, the generation of new technology! As you can see where ever you go: the bus, the park, or even at the mall, you are bound to find people who have their eyes glued to the phone or their iPad. Usually people would be on their phone in not only social media platforms, but texting with various people. Texting is a helpful tool to have especially in the time we live in. Texting helps us keep in contact with people who are near or far, gives us a way to contact people and receive an answer in a matter of seconds, and keeps messages from the past for many years. However, does the text we are sending convey the right emotion we would like to express to that person?
According to this really informative and funny article from Psychology Today, their are five different ways to share thought and feelings in person: words, touch, facial expression, body language, and sounds. This nonverbal communication displays an accurate depiction of what we express to a person: whether we are happy, angry, or upset. But how do we express these ways in 2017 especially of the rise of the computers? Many people, especially in teens, face the situation that we spend more time on our phone than face to face communication. Texting, though it is useful, lacks less than ten percent of our range of emotion than in person. It could take the attribution of arousal in a wrong way. For example, if we want to text something sarcastic, the person in the other line could take it as being angry. So, how can we use technology today to accurately send the right emotion? Technology has definitely improved their ways solving this problem such as the invention of the social media platform of Snapchat and Instagram and emojis. With the use of the front and rear camera they both show facial expression, words, sounds, and sometimes body language. However, it does not reveal the sense of touch. This is perfect example when the hurricanes came this year, technology has help us as a country stay more connected during this tragic time through live videos from Snapchat and Twitter. So come follow me as I explore the big question: can emotions be conveyed through technology? I will have future blog post of how social media respond to this questions and how can we improve the accuracy of our emotions through text. Thanks!
Check out this presentation of how your brain in involved in your emotions!
Read this slideshow below to learn about how our brain judges the information it collects. |
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