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Mind Functions; means, outcomes, concepts,...

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Video Lectures | The Society of Mind | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | MIT OpenCourseWare. Visual Perception. We see color in the objects around us because they absorb most of the wavelengths from the sun, called white light; and they reflect only a particular wavelength into our eyes. For example, a red apple absorbs all but the 760-nm wavelength. Therefore, we see it as red in color. Objects that are white in color are objects that do not absorb any viewable wavelengths; while objects that are black absorb almost all viewable wavelengths.

We know that the white light from the sun consists of many different wavelengths because of Newton's prism (shown below). Because of the prism's refraction, the white light is split into rays, emitting different colors of light, each of which has a different wavelength. The same phenomenon happens in nature, as we can see in rainbows. The dimensions of color Even though wavelength explains differences in the colors we see around us, color entails more than that. The mixture of color Monochromatic color rarely happens. Why You Like to Watch the Same Thing Over and Over and Over Again. Sales of television show DVDs have exploded over the past few years. But why do viewers shell out so much cash for what are essentially reruns? A study in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that “reconsumption,” as the researchers call it, is more complex than one might think. People use familiar entertainment to measure how their lives have changed in positive ways.

Cristel Antonia Russell, a marketing professor at American University, and Sidney J. Levy, a marketing professor at the University of Arizona, conducted interviews of 23 subjects, all of whom had recently “reconsumed” a book, movie or vacation spot. “I was very surprised,” Russell says. Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Being Smart Versus Being Intellectual. Art Janov, one of the pioneers of fetal and early infant experiences and future mental health issues, offers a robust vision of how the earliest traumas of life can percolate through the brains, minds and lives of individuals. He focuses on both the shifting tides of brain emotional systems and the life-long consequences that can result, as well as the novel interventions, and clinical understanding, that need to be implemented in order to bring about the brain-mind changes that can restore affective equanimity. The transitions from feelings of persistent affective turmoil to psychological wholeness, requires both an understanding of the brain changes and a therapist that can work with the affective mind at primary-process levels.

Life Before Birth, is a manifesto that provides a robust argument for increasing attention to the neuro-mental lives of fetuses and infants, and the widespread ramifications on mental health if we do not. Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D. Washington State University Dr. Psych 200 Unit 6 Module 6 - Depth Perception. Have you ever noticed how large a full moon appears just after it rises, and how much smaller it seems when it is right overhead? The next time you see a full moon that has just risen, look at it and note the size.

Then turn your back, bend over, and look at the moon through your legs. You will perceive it as smaller! Then later the same night check the small overhead moon. Lie on your back and it becomes larger! This "moon illusion" has puzzled man for centuries; you will not find its explanation in any book. As you read about perceptual cues and constancy phenomena in this module, try to answer these questions. Why do we perceive things in thee dimensions? Understanding the human behavior of perceiving three dimensions is one of the most fundamental problems in visual space perception. Perception of space involves several senses (vision, hearing, kinesthesis, and touch), the most important of which is vision.

Images are perceived in the cerebral cortex, not in the retina of the eye 1. Hidden Talents--Brain 12 Left Brain. The Left "Human" brain The right brain is the "animal brain" and analyzes the environment for the sights and sounds useful for survival. In essence, animals are almost 100% "right-brained. " Humans have kept the animal talents on the right side, but have modified the left brain for language and tool use. The following is a summary of talents found in the left brain. Each talent is a complex network of different processes beyond what is mentioned here, but injuries or strokes in these areas would result in serious loss of these specific talents. Language Sounds Sound input in the human left brain is specialized for discriminating the sounds of language. Animals do have a limited symbolic vocabulary, and can communicate concepts with certain sounds.

Humans can make very fine distinctions in sound, and therefore meaning. Books give children exposure to much more complex vocabulary, and proper grammar, than children will ever hear from oral language in normal family or school life. Body Senses. How it feels to have a stroke. Research on How the Brain Perceives Time. That most alarming New Year’s morning question — “Uh-oh, what did I do last night?” — can seem benign compared with those that may come later, like “Uh, what exactly did I do with the last year?” Or, “Hold on — did a decade just go by?” It did. Somewhere between trigonometry and , someone must have hit the fast-forward button. Time may march, or ebb, or sift, or creep, but in early January it feels as if it has bolted like an angry dinner guest, leaving conversations unfinished, relationships still stuck, bad habits unbroken, goals unachieved. “I think for many people, we think about our goals, and if nothing much has happened with those then suddenly it seems like it was just yesterday that we set them,” said Gal Zauberman, an associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business.

Yet the sensation of passing time can be very different, Dr. In fact, scientists are not sure how the brain tracks time. Photo This was not entirely a surprise. Mirroring (psychology) Mirroring in an argument. Mirroring is the behaviour in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another. Mirroring often occurs in social situations, particularly in the company of close friends or family. The concept often affects other individual's notions about the individual that is exhibiting mirroring behaviors, which can lead to the individual building rapport with others. Mirroring is the subconscious replication of another person's nonverbal signals.[1] This concept takes place in everyday interactions, and often goes unnoticed by both the person enacting the mirroring behaviors as well as the individual who is being mirrored. Mirroring taking place during a meeting with President Reagan.

A young boy mirrors the gesture of his grandmother. Main article: Self-concept ^ Jump up to: a b Chartrand, T.; Bargh, J. Neurosis. Class of mental disorders involving distress without psychosis Medical condition In recent history, the term has also referred to anxiety-related conditions more generally. Neurosis should not be mistaken for psychosis, which refers to a loss of touch with reality. Nor should it be mistaken for its descendant term neuroticism, which refers to a personality trait of being prone to anxiousness and mental collapse. History[edit] The term is derived from the Greek word neuron (νεῦρον, 'nerve') and the suffix -osis (-ωσις, 'diseased' or 'abnormal condition').

The term neurosis was coined by Scottish doctor William Cullen in 1769 to refer to "disorders of sense and motion" caused by a "general affection of the nervous system. " In the 1890s, after working with Janet, French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot argued that psychological trauma was the origin of all instances of the mental illness known as hysteria. Freud developed a number of different theories of neurosis. In that work, Freud noted that: Echolalia. Echolalia (also known as echologia or echophrasia[1]) is the automatic repetition of vocalizations made by another person (by the same person is called palilalia). It is one of the echophenomena, closely related to echopraxia, the automatic repetition of movements made by another person; both are "subsets of imitative behavior" whereby sounds or actions are imitated "without explicit awareness".[1] Echolalia may be an immediate reaction to a stimulus or may be delayed.[1] Signs and symptoms[edit] Echolalia can be categorized as immediate (occurring immediately after the stimulus) vs. delayed (some time after the occurrence of a stimulus).[1][4] A typical pediatric presentation of echolalia might be as follows: a child is asked "Do you want dinner?

"; the child echoes back "Do you want dinner? ", followed by a pause, and then a response, "Yes. What's for dinner? " Cause[edit] Imitation and learning[edit] Function[edit] Tourette syndrome[edit] Autism[edit] See also[edit] Lists of language disorders. Paper0334. Unconscious thought theory. Unconscious thought theory (UTT) posits that the unconscious mind is capable of performing tasks outside of one's awareness, and that unconscious thought (UT) is better at solving complex tasks, where many variables are considered, than conscious thought (CT), but is outperformed by conscious thought in tasks with fewer variables.

It was proposed by Ap Dijksterhuis[1] and Loran Nordgren[2] in 2006. The theory is based primarily on findings from comparing subjects presented with a complex decision (for instance which of several apartments is the best?) , and allowed either (1). very little time, (2). ample time, or (3), ample time but are distracted and thereby prevented from devoting conscious attentional resources to it.

"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters however ... the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. Description[edit] Definition of CT Summary[edit] Size Constancy, page 2. Now look at this version of the photograph. All I did was cut out the figure in the white t-shirt and paste him down near the feet of some of the people in the front.

The figures are exactly the same size. Measure them! This photograph represents a variation of a classic demonstration of the power of size constancy done by Boring (1964). Just to prove I have not manipulated these figures, I have developed three additional versions of this demonstration: Check these pages out for some interesting effects. Reference: Vision and How the Brain Organizes Itself. Knowledge about brain organization and development is rapidly evolving, partly due to new tools we have for research, such as various MRI techniques. One type of question being investigated is the degree to which brain organization is pre-programmed in the genes vs a result of the process of development. We know that both processes are involved. Human brains are all grossly the same – I have looked at hundreds of MRI scans of patients and they are all pretty much laid out the same way. Neurologists get very good at predicting exactly where a lesion will be in the brain based upon a patient’s symptoms and exam.

This ability to localize a lesion is based upon the assumption that all brains are organized the same, and this assumption turns out to be almost always correct, at least to a level of precision required for a clinical assessment. We know that mapping plays an important role in brain development. Neuroanatomy of Vision Now Back to Development To answer this question Dr. Cool. MIT discovers the location of memories: Individual neurons.

Update 12/2/15: We've now followed up on this story: The more we learn about memory, the weirder it gets. The original continues below. MIT researchers have shown, for the first time ever, that memories are stored in specific brain cells. By triggering a small cluster of neurons, the researchers were able to force the subject to recall a specific memory. By removing these neurons, the subject would lose that memory.

As you can imagine, the trick here is activating individual neurons, which are incredibly small and not really the kind of thing you can attach electrodes to. To do this, the researchers used optogenetics, a bleeding edge sphere of science that involves the genetic manipulation of cells so that they're sensitive to light. These modified cells are then triggered using lasers; you drill a hole through the subject's skull and point the laser at a small cluster of neurons. Engram (neuropsychology) The existence of engrams is posited by some scientific theories[which?] To explain the persistence of memory and how memories are stored in the brain.

The existence of neurologically defined engrams is not significantly disputed[citation needed], though their exact mechanism and location has been a focus of persistent research for many decades. The term engram was coined by the little-known but influential memory researcher Richard Semon. Later, Richard F. Thompson sought the engram in the cerebellum, rather than the cerebral cortex.

He used classical conditioning of the eyelid response in rabbits in search of the engram. He puffed air upon the cornea of the eye and paired it with a tone. This approach, targeting the cerebellum, though successful, examines only basic, automatic responses, which almost all animals possess, especially as defense mechanisms. Studies have shown that declarative memories move between the limbic system, deep within the brain, and the outer, cortical regions.