Gestalt principles of form perception by Mads Soegaard Gestalt psychology attempts to understand psychological phenomena by viewing them as organised and structured wholes rather than the sum of their constituent parts. Thus, Gestalt psychology dissociates itself from the more 'elementistic'/reductionistic/decompositional approaches to psychology like structuralism (with its tendency to analyse mental processes into elementary sensations) and it accentuates concepts like emergent properties, holism, and context. In the 30s and 40s Gestalt psychology was applied to visual perception, most notably by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Khler, and Kurt Koffka who founded the so-called gestalt approaches to form perception. Their aim was to investigate the global and holistic processes involved in perceiving structure in the environment (e.g. Sternberg 1996). More specifically, they tried to explain human perception of groups of objects and how we perceive parts of objects and form whole objects on the basis of these. Law of proximity Law of similarity 1.
Language communities of Twitter Eric Fischer maps language communities on Twitter using Chrome's open-source language detector. Each color, chosen to make differences more visibly obvious, represents a language. English is represented in dark gray, which is used just about everywhere, so it doesn't obscure everything else. The emergence of borders without actually drawing them in is interesting. There's also a world version, but Europe is where all the action's at. [Language communities via @enf]
Hull (1935) Classics in the History of Psychology An internet resource developed by Christopher D. Green York University, Toronto, Ontario (Return to Classics index) Clark L. First published in Psychological Review, 42, 491-516. One of the most striking things about the present state of the theory of learning and of psychological theory in general is the wide disagreement among individual psychologists. No one need be unduly disturbed by the mere fact of conflict as such; that in itself contains an element of optimism, since it indicates an immense amount of interest and genuine activity which are entirely favorable for the advancement of any science. The obvious implication of this general situation has recently called out a timely little book by Grace Adams [4] entitled, 'Psychology: science or superstition?' But before we can mend a condition we must discover the basis of the difficulty. It is agreed on all hands that Isaac Newton's 'Principia' is a classic among systematic theories in science. I.
The Great Skills Mismatch of Today's Economy [Infographic] - Crisp360 We are delighted to officially welcome AXZO Press customers to Logical Operations! On March 14, 2014, Logical Operations acquired the education publishing assets of AXZO Press, which combines two leading learning solution providers to create a dynamic, forward-thinking player in the training and development industry. Read the full press release> From the day Logical Operations opened its doors 32 years ago, our world-class team has been committed to providing forward-thinking instructor-led training curriculum. The completion of this transaction emphasizes Logical Operations’ dedication to bringing technology advancement and innovation into the classroom learning experience and we are pleased to add the full AXZO Press product line to our growing curriculum library. IMPORTANT: As of Monday, March 24, 2014, all AXZO Press orders should be placed through Logical Operations' store: What AXZO Press products are available through Logical Operations? To locate:
Why We Buy: How to Avoid 10 Costly Cognitive Biases The psychology of money: post-purchase rationalisation, the relativity trap, rosy retrospection, the restraint bias and more… We all make mistakes with money, some more than others. And in this economy, who needs it? But many of these mistakes are avoidable if we can understand how we think about money. 1. One of the biggest reason people lose out financially is they stick with what they know, despite much better options being available. Research on investment decisions shows this bias (e.g. It’s hard to change because it involves more effort and we want to avoid regretting our decision. 2. After we buy something that’s not right, we convince ourselves it is right. Most people refuse to accept they’ve made a mistake, especially with a big purchase. Fight it! 3. We think about prices relatively and businesses know this. The relativity trap is also called the anchoring effect. Use price comparison websites. 4. We value things more when we own them. It also works the other way. 5. 6. 7. 8.
ptiongson : Christmas holiday reading... 10 Simple Postures That Boost Performance Psychological research suggests simple actions can project power, persuade others, increase empathy, boost cognitive performance and more… We tend to think of body language as something that expresses our internal states to the outside world. But it also works the other way around: the position of our body also influences our mind. As the following psychological research shows, how we move can drive both thoughts and feelings and this can boost performance. 1. Pose for power If you want to feel more powerful then adopt a powerful posture. 2. Tensing up your muscles can help increase your willpower. 3. If you’re stuck on a problem which needs persistence then try crossing your arms. 4. If crossing your arms doesn’t work then try lying down. 5. While you’re lying down, why not have a nap? Brooks & Lack (2005) compared 5, 10, 20 and 30 minute naps to find the best length. 6. The way people’s hands cut through the air while they talk is fascinating. 7. 8. 9. 10. Embodied cognition
Infographic inspiration from the New York Times Following my last post – Word Clouds – love ‘em or hate ‘em? The New York Times shared a text visualization that inspired much conversation here at VC. You can view it here. (Works best on a browser with SVG support, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari or IE 9.) There are a number of improvements that this graphic makes over the traditional word cloud that I wrote about. Augmenting text size with background circles mitigates the potentially skewed perception of longer/shorter words in a word cloud. Using pie charts could even show usage among more than two market segments. While selected words are preset to display, the graphic includes the ability to add words interactively to the visualization to test a hypothesis or drill into themes. The excerpts below the visualization show the words in context allowing a researcher to better understand the sentiment. More improvements We did notice at least one drawback.
Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness | Magazine Photo: Garry Mcleod; Origami: Robert Lang Every so often Al Frances says something that seems to surprise even him. Just now, for instance, in the predawn darkness of his comfortable, rambling home in Carmel, California, he has broken off his exercise routine to declare that “there is no definition of a mental disorder. It’s bullshit. But he recovers quickly, and back in the living room he finishes explaining why he came out of a seemingly contented retirement to launch a bitter and protracted battle with the people, some of them friends, who are creating the next edition of the DSM. One influential advocate for diagnosing bipolar disorder in kids failed to disclose money he received from the makers of the bipolar drug Risperdal. As a practicing psychotherapist myself, I can attest that this is a startling turn. Frances, who claims he doesn’t care about the royalties (which amount, he says, to just 10 grand a year), also claims not to mind if the APA cites his faults.