Reading Ahead: Save Yourself Some Frustration

Let's say you're one of those organized, prepared-types and you're looking ahead to what we'll be doing once we get back from Thanksgiving Break. First, great job! Chance favors the prepared mind!

Our next unit is on Learning and Memory and will cover content from Chapter 8 and 9 in your textbook. Note: this means we are temporarily skipping Chapter 7. Don't worry, we'll come back to that at the end of December (who would want to skip States of Consciousness altogether?!).

However, be aware that if you just dive into the next chapter in our book (Chapter 7), you may be frustrated when you come to class and realize you still have 2 chapters to read before you are prepared for our next quiz. If you're starting your reading early, Read Chapter 8 (Learning) next!

PsychSim: Visual Illusions

If you were gone last week Friday, you may have missed the instructions for the PsychSim Visual Illusions, which I collected today.

Just as a reminder, you can access the module by clicking here OR by heading over to the link for "PsychSim 4.0" found on the left hand menu bar in our "Commonly Used Course Links" widget. Choose the module "Visual Illusions" from the menu.

Here's the link for the accompanying worksheet, as well. Deer hunters and Floridians will need to get this to me when you return on Monday.

Friday's Psych Club Meeting

Disappointed that you missed the Psych Club meeting on Friday? You should be. We had a marvelous time making cutesy dragon optical illusions. We also snapped photos of ourselves wearing our fetching new Psych Club T-Shirts. Don't we look awesome!?

We also set the date for our first Movie Night of the year. Pending availability of space (which Mrs. Welle will check into on Monday), our Movie Night will be Thursday, December 10th at 7:00 PM. The tentative plan is to watch Memento, a film about a guy who is suffering from anterograde amnesia (yet is trying to solve his wife's murder. Tricky.). It will fit very nicely with what we'll be learning about in class at the time, since we'll be in the middle of a unit on learning & memory.

We will have to have signed parent permission slips for this one, since it is rated R. I'll get that information posted soon.

"Telepathic Message" Coming Your Way!

This weekend, you have two chances to receive a telepathic message that can earn you extra credit on next week's test!

At 10:00 AM Saturday and 8:00 PM Sunday I will "send" a telepathic message out to my students (and whoever else is listening). If you "get" it, there is hefty extra credit in your future. In part because we may have to alert the scientific community if it turns out this is an ability you can reliably demonstrate.

This will dovetail nicely with our class discussion on Monday, which will examine the evidence for the existence of ESP.

Promised Links: Visual Illusions, Change Blindness Video

I apologize for the delay in getting this posted, but (per usual) life has been getting in the way lately.

This week in class I took students to Neural Correlates site to view 2009 Finalists in their Visual Illusion Contest. We looked at the 2009 Winner, the "Break of the Curve Ball," as well as others.

Another link I promised was the YouTube video of a Change Blindness Experiment, conducted by Daniel J. Simons. This is the one where subjects fail to notice a person swap when reporting for participation in research.

The Cyclist Who Doesn't Stop...

Yesterday in my sixth hour class, this gentleman came up. At the time, I couldn't remember his name, which is Jure Robic. Nor did I correctly recall his home country, though I knew it was formerly Soviet: it was Slovenia.

Anyway, many of my students seemed to interested in his case, as we were using it to discuss the role of pain in restraining physically damaging behavior. The here's the link to the New York Times article about him from February 2006: That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stronger.

What makes him such an interesting figure? He doesn't stop...even when he should. Take the excerpt below as an example:

"Around Day 2 of a typical weeklong race, his speech goes staccato. By Day 3, he is belligerent and sometimes paranoid. His short-term memory vanishes, and he weeps uncontrollably. The last days are marked by hallucinations: bears, wolves and aliens prowl the roadside; asphalt cracks rearrange themselves into coded messages. Occasionally, Robic leaps from his bike to square off with shadowy figures that turn out to be mailboxes. In a 2004 race, he turned to see himself pursued by a howling band of black-bearded men on horseback."

Interested in his recent exploits? Check out his blog.

The Tongue Map Myth

Many of my students are shocked to read in their psychology textbooks that the "Tongue Map" is somewhat of a myth, particularly because even some of their current science textbooks continue to print this misinformation. For the skeptical, here are some links to credible information on the subject:

• The Tongue Map: Tasteless Myth Debunked (from livescience.com)
• The Tongue Map: An Enduring Myth - introduces a more accurate diagram
• Tongue Myths Debunked; Frustrated Gradeschoolers Vindicated
• Really? The Claim: Tongue is Mapped Into Four Areas of Taste - NY Times Article
• I hate to mention this, but even Wikipedia doesn't buy the Tongue Map Myth

I'd have to agree with Christopher Wanjek, writer for Livescience.com's Bad Science Column:

"The degree of variation is still debated, but the kindest way to describe the tongue map is an oversimplification. Why textbooks continue to print the tongue map is the real mystery now."