10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies Ten of the most influential social psychology experiments explain why we sometimes do dumb or irrational things. “I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures.Why do good people sometimes act evil?Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?” –Philip Zimbardo Like famous social psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo (author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil), I’m also obsessed with why we do dumb or irrational things. The answer quite often is because of other people — something social psychologists have comprehensively shown. Each of the 10 brilliant social psychology experiments below tells a unique, insightful story relevant to all our lives, every day. Click the link in each social psychology experiment to get the full description and explanation of each phenomenon. 1. The halo effect is a finding from a famous social psychology experiment. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part I: Exploring photography in art and in science | Nervous Encounter With photography as her principal medium, Melanie King has used A Nervous Encounter as an opportunity to explore new photographic techniques, while exploring neuroscience. Aligning neatly with this interest is the imagery produced by transmission electron microscopy (EM), used in the Basal Ganglia lab to visualise samples at extremely high magnifications. Instead of visible light, a beam of electrons inside a vacuum is transmitted through a very thin sample creating a shadow of the cellular membranes. A synapse is where two neurons communicate. EM is used to investigate connectivity in the brain, and ideally produce a wiring diagram. Melanie and Natalie on the electron microscope. Hundreds of images can be captured daily with digital technology, which has dramatically changed the analyses possible with this technique. Melanie has some EM digital images, and recently came back to the lab to borrow some EM negatives for her own manipulations.
Neuronal Diversity Is Vital To Overall Brain Function Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have examined the function of neuron diversity and discovered that diversity is vital to comprehensive brain function. The study explored how specific neurons process complex stimuli and code information. Neuronal diversity makes a difference, says Carnegie Mellon study Heterogeneous groups of neurons transmit twice as much information as homogeneous groups Much like snowflakes, no two neurons are exactly alike. “I think neuroscientists have, at an intuitive level, recognized the variability between neurons, but we swept it under the rug because we didn’t consider that diversity could be a feature. Estimates say that the human brain alone has upwards of 100 billion neurons, which can be broken down into a number of different types. “When we think about computer chips, variability in hardware clearly can be very destructive. “Diversity is an intrinsic good,” Urban said. Additionally, the researchers want to discover how diversity is achieved.
Vision Exp. More vision related resources from "Neuroscience for Kids": The Eye The Retina The Visual Pathway Do you wear glasses? Find out why! Eye Safety Tips Lesson Plan about the Eye Lesson Plan about Color Vision Lesson Plan about Depth and Motion Does the COLOR of Foods and Drinks Affect Taste? Common Eye Diseases and Disorders The National Eye Institute has a GREAT page with activities related to the eye called See All You Can See for kids; and aearn about "stereograms." [Back to Top] Phineas Gage: Neuroscience's Most Famous Patient Jack and Beverly Wilgus, collectors of vintage photographs, no longer recall how they came by the 19th-century daguerreotype of a disfigured yet still-handsome man. It was at least 30 years ago. The photograph offered no clues as to where or precisely when it had been taken, who the man was or why he was holding a tapered rod. But the Wilguses speculated that the rod might be a harpoon, and the man’s closed eye and scarred brow the result of an encounter with a whale. So over the years, as the picture rested in a display case in the couple’s Baltimore home, they thought of the man in the daguerreotype as the battered whaler. In December 2007, Beverly posted a scan of the image on Flickr, the photo-sharing Web site, and titled it “One-Eyed Man with Harpoon.” Beverly, who had never heard of Gage, went online and found an astonishing tale. In 1848, Gage, 25, was the foreman of a crew cutting a railroad bed in Cavendish, Vermont. Steve Twomey is based in New Jersey. Recommended Videos
THE BRAIN FROM TOP TO BOTTOM The model of the triune brain proposed by MacLean in 1970 is a useful piece of shorthand for the complex evolutionary history of the human brain. But the brain's combination of reptilian, paleomammalian and neomammalian structures is far more intricate than a mere set of nested Russian dolls. Ever since the first mammals appeared more than 200 million years ago, the cerebral cortex has assumed greater and greater importance compared with the brain's other, older structures. The brains of various species of mammals (Left: all on the same scale; Right: enlarged, on various scales) This expansion of the surface of the neocortex (also known as the isocortex) is more apparent in predatory mammals than in herbivorous ones. Scientists have also observed that the size of the neocortex has increased tremendously in primates, from the smallest monkeys, such as lemurs, on to the great apes and human beings.
Monkeys Control a Mechanical Arm With Their Thoughts Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday. The report, released online by the journal Nature, is the most striking demonstration to date of brain-machine interface technology. Scientists expect that technology will eventually allow people with spinal cord injuries and other paralyzing conditions to gain more control over their lives. The findings suggest that brain-controlled prosthetics, while not practical, are at least technically within reach. In previous studies, researchers showed that humans who had been paralyzed for years could learn to control a cursor on a computer screen with their brain waves and that nonhuman primates could use their thoughts to move a mechanical arm, a robotic hand or a robot on a treadmill. The new experiment goes a step further. Yet Dr.
PSYCH 3041/ 6014 -- Sensation & Perception (Psych Majors) Syllabus and Course Overview More complete details on the course schedule, the details of the final paper, and the list of readings (with links to downloads) is available in the Canvas site for the course. Most of the content of this website has been migrated to Canvas, as of Spring 2021. Required Textbook: Goldstein, E. NOTE: 10th Edition is required. Course Description We will examine how humans (and in some cases, other animals) sense and perceive the world around us. Educational Philosophy for this Course I believe that advanced undergraduate graduate level courses and all graduate level courses should focus on discussion and integration with other courses. Learning Objectives Statement Regarding Students with Disabilities In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, students with bona fide disabilities will be afforded reasonable accommodation. Grading Extra work, after the semester, is not allowed to "bring up" a grade. Experiment Participation for Extra Credit
Chapter 14: Enteric Nervous System Enteric Nervous System One major difference between the enteric nervous system and the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the ANS is its extraordinary degree of local autonomy. Digestion and peristalsis occur after spinal cord transection or during spinal anesthesia, although sphincter function may be impaired (see later). NE present within the gut is the transmitter of postganglionic sympathetic neurons to the gut. Enteric neurons can be sensory (monitoring such factors as tension in the wall of the intestine or the chemical nature of its contents), associative (acting like interneurons), or motor (activating intestinal functions, for example, causing muscles to contract, vessels to dilate, or water and electrolytes to be transported). Certain plexus play important roles in the enteric nervous system. What is the organizational pattern of these neurons, which can contain up to a dozen neurotransmitters?