background preloader

The Human Mind

Facebook Twitter

Thinking Process

10 Mind-Blowing Theories That Will Change Your Perception of the World. Reality is not as obvious and simple as we like to think. Some of the things that we accept as true at face value are notoriously wrong. Scientists and philosophers have made every effort to change our common perceptions of it. The 10 examples below will show you what I mean. 1. Great glaciation. Great glaciation is the theory of the final state that our universe is heading toward. 2. Solipsism is a philosophical theory, which asserts that nothing exists but the individual’s consciousness. Don’t you believe me? As a result, which parts of existence can we not doubt?

3. George Berkeley, the father of Idealism, argued that everything exists as an idea in someone’s mind. The idea being that if the stone really only exists in his imagination, he could not have kicked it with his eyes closed. 4. Everybody has heard of Plato. In addition to this stunning statement, Plato, being a monist, said that everything is made of a single substance. 5. 6. Enternalism is the exact opposite of presentism. 10 Ways to Develop Your Creativity | Schaefer's Blog. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! **Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Catharina F. de Wet, Ph.D and author of One View of Giftedland, a blog focusing on talented and gifted education.

Google the word “creativity” and you will get almost 84 million hits. The first few has to do with defining creativity and it ranges from the cerebral Wikipedia definition: “Creativity (or “creativeness”) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts” to a simple definition by Henry Miller: “ The occurrence of a composition which is both new and valuable.”

Because of research we know a significant amount about the creative process and creative people. We know they are energetic, curious, flexible, independent, adventurous, perceptive, open-minded, and imaginative. Generally speaking, when we talk about a creative person, we have in mind two kinds of people. 69 Awesome Brain Hacks That Give You Mind-Blowing Powers. #49. You Can Tell How Much Someone Drinks From Their Eye Color There comes a time in every man's life when it will be necessary to drink another guy under the table. Maybe you're trying to win a bet, or prove your manliness, or maybe you're in a terrible rom-com and the only thing that stands between you and the woman you love is the varsity liquor drinking team that challenged you to a duel.

We don't know ... we don't write the rules. We merely follow them to their inevitable, disastrous conclusion. So naturally you'll pick out some blond-haired, blue-eyed pretty boy who looks like two Bud Lights would have him over a toilet. How? Picking the blue-eyed guy was a bad move. "I can't even get through my breakfast changing without a fifth of SoCo. " A study of thousands of white men (all of them prisoners) found that for some reason, those with light eye colors like blue, green, gray or hazel, can handle more alcohol than men with dark eyes. "No, no. "You unbelievable bastard.

. #48. . #47. . #46. Abstract and concrete - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In philosophy[edit] Abstract objects have often garnered the interest of philosophers because they raise problems for popular theories. In ontology, abstract objects are considered problematic for physicalism and some forms of naturalism. Historically, the most important ontological dispute about abstract objects has been the problem of universals. In epistemology, abstract objects are considered problematic for empiricism. If abstracta lack causal powers or spatial location, how do we know about them? It is hard to say how they can affect our sensory experiences, and yet we seem to agree on a wide range of claims about them. Abstract objects and causality[edit] Another popular proposal for drawing the abstract-concrete distinction contends that an object is abstract if it lacks any causal powers. Concrete and abstract thinking[edit] Jean Piaget uses the terms "concrete" and "formal" to describe the different types of learning.

Terminology[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Dabrowski’s Theory and Existential Depression in Gifted Children and Adults. Webb, J, Ph.D. When people undergo a great trauma or other unsettling event—they have lost a job or a loved one dies, for example—their understanding of themselves or of their place in the world often disintegrates, and they temporarily "fall apart," experiencing a type of depression referred to as existential depression. It's very hard to keep your spirits up. You've got to keep selling yourself a bill of goods, and some people are better at lying to themselves than others.

If you face reality too much, it kills you. ~ Woody Allen When people undergo a great trauma or other unsettling event—they have lost a job or a loved one dies, for example—their understanding of themselves or of their place in the world often disintegrates, and they temporarily "fall apart," experiencing a type of depression referred to as existential depression. Background But long before I knew about Dabrowski’s theory, I knew about and understood existential depression. Existential Issues and Giftedness Life Meaning. Eccentricity (behavior) From Medieval Latin eccentricus, derived from Greek ekkentros, "out of the center", from ek-, ex- "out of" + kentron, "center". Eccentric first appeared in English essays as a neologism in 1551 as an astronomical term meaning "a circle in which the earth, sun, etc. deviates from its center.

" Five years later, in 1556, an adjective form of the word was used. 129 years later, in 1685, the definition evolved from the literal to the figurative, and eccentric is noted to have begun being used to describe unconventional or odd behavior. A noun form of the word – a person who possesses and exhibits these unconventional or odd qualities/behaviors – appeared by 1832. A person who is simply in a "fish out of water" situation is not, by the strictest definition, an eccentric since, presumably, he or she may be ordinary by the conventions of his or her native environment. Eccentrics may or may not comprehend the standards for normal behavior in their culture. Psychologist Dr. Gifted adults. How being called smart can actually make you stupid | Neurobonkers. A few months ago I posted a piece which has become my most popular blog post by quite a landslide.

The post covered various techniques for learning and looked at the empirical evidence for and against their efficacy based on recent research. This post is my follow up, in which I look at the case for one tip for learning that it seems really could have a big impact. A growing body of evidence from the last two decades suggests that our attitude towards our own potential for intelligence has a considerable impact on our lives, furthermore we are incredibly vulnerable to having this attitude or "mindset" moulded for better or worse, by how people praise us in a way that is both shocking and problematic. Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck has presented a range of startlingly fascinating findings on the topic which have been broadly supported by further research.

References: Blackwell L.S., Trzesniewski K.H. & Dweck C.S. (2007). Kamins M.L. & Dweck C.S. (1999). How to treat your brain during revision time. If you're a student, you rely on one brain function above all others: memory. These days, we understand more about the structure of memory than we ever have before, so we can find the best techniques for training your brain to hang on to as much information as possible. The process depends on the brain's neuroplasticity, its ability to reorganise itself throughout your life by breaking and forming new connections between its billions of cells. How does it work? Information is transmitted by brain cells called neurons. When you learn something new, a group of neurons activate in a part of the brain called the hippocampus.

Your hippocampus is forced to store many new patterns every day. So what's the best way to revise? Forget about initial letters Teachers often urge students to make up mnemonics – sentences based on the initial letters of items you're trying to remember. Repeat yourself Pathways between neurons can be strengthened over time. Use science to help you retrieve info. Intellectual Giftedness. Learn to Speed Read in Just a Few Hours. I’m not one for making big New Year’s Resolutions as I am a continual goal setter and look at life plans and goals on a weekly or at least monthly basis, so I don’t need one day a year to pretend I’m actually going to change the year, I just always do that. However, there is one that I can’t encourage others enough to look more seriously at and that is about reading.

I hope I can inspire a few people to put this on their own goal sheets for the year. Thank you everyone for a wonderful 2008, may your 2009 be even better! Background One of the most important things in my life was discovering speed reading. I had read about blazing speed readers and how people were reading books in just a few minutes and I never took it seriously, not even for a second for many years. After all, I took me a few minutes to read a page so those types of claims were just ridiculous to me. What is Speed Reading Speed Reading Myths Broken 7 Steps for Learning to Speed Read 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Scanning and Keywords. LogicalFallaciesInfographic_A3. Overexcitability and the Gifted. Overexcitability and the Gifted by Sharon Lind A small amount of definitive research and a great deal of naturalistic observation have led to the belief that intensity, sensitivity and overexcitability are primary characteristics of the highly gifted.

These observations are supported by parents and teachers who notice distinct behavioral and constitutional differences between highly gifted children and their peers. The work of Kazimierz Dabrowski, (1902-1980), provides an excellent framework with which to understand these characteristics. Dabrowski, a Polish psychiatrist and psychologist, developed the Theory of Positive Disintegration as a response to the prevalent psychological theories of his time. He believed that conflict and inner suffering were necessary for advanced development – for movement towards a hierarchy of values based on altruism – for movement from “what is” to “what ought to be.” Show how to find the answers to questions. Accept all feelings, regardless of intensity.

Sleep learning is possible: Associations formed when asleep remained intact when awake. Is sleep learning possible? A new Weizmann Institute study appearing August 26 in Nature Neuroscience has found that if certain odors are presented after tones during sleep, people will start sniffing when they hear the tones alone -- even when no odor is present -- both during sleep and, later, when awake. In other words, people can learn new information while they sleep, and this can unconsciously modify their waking behavior.

Sleep-learning experiments are notoriously difficult to conduct. For one thing, one must be sure that the subjects are actually asleep and stay that way during the "lessons. " The most rigorous trials of verbal sleep learning have failed to show any new knowledge taking root. While more and more research has demonstrated the importance of sleep for learning and memory consolidation, none had managed to show actual learning of new information taking place in an adult brain during sleep. Prof. Subvocalization. Comparison to speed reading[edit] Advocates of speed reading generally claim that subvocalization places extra burden on the cognitive resources, thus, slowing the reading down.[3] Speedreading courses often prescribe lengthy practices to eliminate subvocalizing when reading.

Normal reading instructors often simply apply remedial teaching to a reader who subvocalizes to the degree that they make visible movements on the lips, jaw, or throat.[4] Subvocalizing or actual vocalizing can indeed be of great help when one wants to learn a passage verbatim. This is because the person is repeating the information in an auditory way, as well as seeing the piece on the paper. Detection[edit] Subvocal recognition involves monitoring actual movements of the tongue and vocal cords that can be interpreted by electromagnetic sensors. References[edit] External links[edit] Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies. Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills.

Tutorial: Concrete vs. Abstract Thinking. WHAT ARE CONCRETE AND ABSTRACT THINKING? Abstract thinking is a level of thinking about things that is removed from the facts of the “here and now”, and from specific examples of the things or concepts being thought about. Abstract thinkers are able to reflect on events and ideas, and on attributes and relationships separate from the objects that have those attributes or share those relationships. Thus, for example, a concrete thinker can think about this particular dog; a more abstract thinker can think about dogs in general. A concrete thinker can think about this dog on this rug; a more abstract thinker can think about spatial relations, like “on”.

A concrete thinker can see that this ball is big; a more abstract thinker can think about size in general. A concrete thinker can count three cookies; a more abstract thinker can think about numbers. A concrete thinker can recognize that John likes Betty; a more abstract thinker can reflect on emotions, like affection. What's Your Learning Style? Your Brain by the Numbers. Your Brain by the Numbers.