- Welcome
- Thinking
- Ethnocentrism and Egocentrism
- Solving Problems
- Choice
- Perceiving and Believing
- Language and Thought
- Memory
- Cognitive Bias
- Digital Story
Welcome to Philosophy of Thought and Logic
Understanding the world through experience and reason.
Everyone has to think in order to function in the world, and this course will equip you with the tools to reason effectively in your pursuit of reliable beliefs and useful knowledge. Whether you are a budding philosopher searching for ultimate truths, a science student grappling with the nature of scientific proof, a new parent weighing conflicting childrearing advice, or a concerned citizen making up your mind about today's issues, the lessons you learn in this course will help you cut through deception and faulty reasoning to get closer to the essence of a matter.
This is equally a course in argument and in reasoning. While you will learn how to reason, you will also learn how to persuade others. And it teaches how to judge and answer the arguments of others and how they will judge yours. This is the very center of a well-educated mind.
Dr. Michael Thompson
Tyler Bruggeman
Thinking
Thinking is an active process by which we develop an understanding about other people, our country, and ourselves. The thinking process enables us to solve problems, understand information, discuss important issues, establish beliefs, makes sense of our feelings and attitudes, and work towards the completion of our goals. All human accomplishments are a result of thinking. Before we take on activities, we normally have to work through the thought process to make sure we make the right decision.
Our brain’s function starts with the brain cell known as neurons. Chemicals inside the brain send out messages through these neurons that help complete our mental and thinking process. There are glia cells that exist in the neurons in our brain that interact with hormones during the thought process.
People are expected to solve problems and make decisions, either individually or in groups. Once a decision is reached, is communicated to management, co-workers, clients, teachers, or the public. Some perplex situations require us to worry while weighing out the issues, examining the facts, and coming to a decision. To help make the best decisions, people can follow this simple seven-step plan.
We have to first identify and clarify what the problem is. This involves observing and collecting data about the issue. When collecting data, we need to collect everything including good and bad information and worry about sifting through it later.
Once we have collected the data, we need to filer through it by making sure the information is accurate. We can do this by asking ourselves these questions. Where did the information come from? Is it facts or gossip? Is there enough supporting documents.
Next step is to assign meaning to the information we have gathered. We start determining what the information means and how we can use it. It might be a good idea to take a break from the process to stimulate our imagination and emotions. This will help our minds digest and think through the data we have collected.
After we have processed the data and decided what it means, we need to consider alternatives and implications. This is when we write down all of our ideas. We determine what is a fact and what is made up. Once you have enough information, we will weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of each possible solution.
Now it is time to decide on a conclusion from the gathered information and work on a solution. What will the costs, benefits, and consequences entail? Which solution will best solve the dilemma? This step is where you can be creative.
As we make the necessary adjustments, we are about to complete our decision. We may want to share our decision with a trusting person to see what their opinion is. When we get to this point, we need to be proud of our solution and be ready to stand behind it.
The last step is to choose the solution and take action. After we make our decision, we need to follow through by observing and monitoring the solution to make sure it is working properly.
Sometimes our decisions don’t work, and we have to work through this whole process a second or third time to get the proper results. If we follow this process it will prevent us from making rash decisions. We accomplish many things by using the trial and error process along with applying life experiences. Our brain combines the incoming data with the information stored in our brain to complete our thinking process.
Resources
http://www.livestrong.com/article/202078-human-brain-thinking-process/
http://blink.ucsd.edu/finance/accountability/ethics/path.html
http://writetodone.com/7-steps-to-creativity-how-to-have-ideas/
Noe Belmares
What is positive thought or thinking? To most it is considered a state of mind in which the brain inputs thoughts, words and images that enable growth, expansion and success. It is also considered to be a mental aspect that makes a person expect some sort of good to come out of whatever they do. The power to have positive thoughts can be what leads many people to the success that they have and enjoy in their lives.
Usually, when a person does not believe in themselves you can see their thoughts about themself manifested into the things that they do. For instance, when a softball player makes a bad play and they keep thinking about it and all of the bad things that could happen, the next time the ball comes their way, they usually make a mistake. This is because when they were thinking these thoughts the one thing they weren’t doing was visualizing any positive outcome. It’s just like when you think about doing something, your brain tells your body to do whatever you were thinking about doing. This is much the same in the case presented, as the player was only thinking about the bad things that could happen, when another play came their way their thoughts about the bad were translated into their actions, thus making another mistake as a result. However the same can be seen in the opposite with positive thinking.
Take the first example. When the first mistake was made, if the player were to “shake it off” or forget about it, and rather think about the positive that could come out of the next play, the chances of that player making a mistake would be drastically decreased. This can too be explained by how whatever you think in your mind is translated into what you do. Say the player’s mistake was an errant throw, after which the player did not linger on the bad play but rather thought about the next play and visualized themselves making a good throw and making the play, when the ball was hit at the player again, the player was likely to do much like they did in their head and make a good throw. This however is just one example of what positive thinking can do.
There are many places in which positive thinking can help an individual to succeed. Many people who are negative never get anywhere because they, for whatever reason, do not believe in themselves, and cannot see themselves accomplishing anything. This lack of belief can lead to them giving up on things too soon and not trying to finish the things that they have started after they hit a bump in the road. Ho9wever when you see a positive thinking person, even when they get stuck up on something, rather than giving up, they believe in themselves and their ability, and push through it to accomplish their goal, or to merely finish what they started. And therefore, the power of positive thought can lead to many things for those people who use it in the right way.
Resources:
http://www.the-benefits-of-positive-thinking.com/negative-thinking-versus-positive-thinking.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/029850_negativity_thinking.html
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Jeremiah Castaneda
Metacognition
Humans tend to move through this life on a certain level of autopilot. The tendency to think certain thoughts and not question the motive behind it lies within each and every one of us. We assume that the thoughts that flow through our brain are justified and unquestionable, and everyone around us is skewed. It’s a bias that exists due to self-awareness, but maybe the thoughts we should question are our own.
Metacognition is “cognition about cognition” or simply thinking about thinking. Along with the questioning of your thoughts metacognition enables you to take the strategy of thoughts you have and begin to alter them. Knowing how your brain processes information, and which ways work best for a specific situation (i.e. studying, reading, writing) it begins to expand your means of approaching the task in the most effective way to successfully accomplish what’s at hand. It’s not a complex thing. Cognition is the processor; metacognition is the fine tuning of the process.
How does one begin the process? It’s a simple assessment of everything that may have an impact, negative or positive, on what you are attempting. If you are trying to study for a major exam the last thing you’d want to do is cram the information in at the last moment. You ask yourself what type of environment will be less distracting, how do I get the information in efficiently, what is the ultimate goal I am trying to reach, how do I reach it? This is just the tip of the iceberg. The in depth process of metacognition can only truly be assessed when a specific goal is set in front of you.
People who excel in normal cognitive activities have more of an advantage to succeed in metacognition. However, this is not a hindrance in the long run. The activity is a skill just like any other. It takes persistence and resilience in order to become successful. It isn't a matter of intelligence rather a matter of attempting to understand how things work and why they work the way they do. A life of simply riding with the tide and not questioning the direction or current is not a life at all. A mere existence is all it would be.
"The process reinforces one's subjective sense of being a self”. For free will and a sense of self to be achieved we must understand that our thoughts are not just a random sequence based off of a day to day experience, but rather an accumulation of our experiences. To achieve a successful level of metacognition one must understand that the thoughts that are thought aren’t always true. If no one questions themselves then most of the greatest achievements in our history would have never happened.
Resources
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1metn.htm
http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/cep564/metacog.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition#Mental_Illness_and_Metacognition
Egocentrism
By Ricky Bullock
Egocentrism is defined as: having or regarding the self or the individual as the center of all things
having little or no regard for interests, beliefs, or attitudes other than one's own; self-centered
It is important to understand that egocentrism is not simply a personality trait but is something that is present in every human being at one point or another during development. That being said, just because someone is considered socially egocentric does not mean that they have some mental deficiency. However, there are different types of egocentrism which vary depending on the developmental basis of the individual. Primarily of concern are Cognitive Egocentrism which occurs in early childhood and in event of traumatic brain injury and Egocentrism that is part of personality or developmental traits.
Cognitive Egocentrism
Cognitive Egocentrism is known as the mental inability to see outside one's own point of view or seeing another person's perspective. This is most often seen in children and in some cases of traumatic brain injury. In the Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development, Cognitive Egocentrism is present in the Sensorimotor and Pre Operational Stages. It can be up to age 7 before a child progresses to the next stage, and longer (or shorter) in individual cases. Experiments can be performed to show the presence of egocentrism in children. In the following video:
at marker 5:30 is a perfect example of a child's inability to answer a question from another person's point of view, only from the perspective they themselves have witnessed. Another popular textbook experiment is the 3 mountain test. A table is set up with 3 mountains which block the view to the other side of the table. One one side of the table, objects are placed at the foot of the mountain. On the other, completely different objects are placed on the foot of that mountain. When a child suspected of Cognitive Egocentrism is placed at one end of the table, they are asked to state what they see. They may see, and say “a ball, a tree, a dog.” Then the child is asked what the adult on the other end of table sees, they will be unable to answer correctly. They may state that they see the same thing the child sees. A ball, a tree, a dog. When the child and the other person switch places and the child will again answer the question incorrectly if Cognitive Egocentrism is present. Stating that the other person now sees A house, a bird and a car, because the child now sees these things on this side of the table.
Egocentrism-Developmental and beyond
Egocentrism is present throughout the developmental process in several phases. Adolescent Egocentrism is the concept of an adolescent child perceiving that there is an imaginary audience that watches them, and judges every move. They are unable to discern between others thinking and their own mental preoccupations. Evidence of Egocentrism declines as the human ages, but there are still aspects present in later years. An example is when a person attempts to do something new, perhaps takes a dance class. The individual may stumble and all together be clumsy and awkward. The individual may feel that they are being watched, ridiculed and judged. This is also an example of Egocentrism that is present later in adulthood. Egocentrism also has an increased presence in social media, particularly facebook and Youtube. Where the ability to display one’s self,actions thoughts and opinions is available at any time and practically any location. This facilitates not only the personality trait of egocentrism but also greatly into Adolescent Egocentrism.
References:
(n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2014, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/egocentrism
Ylvisaker, Ph.D., M., Hibbard, Ph.D., M., & Feeney, Ph.D., T. (n.d.). Tutorial: Cognitive Egocentrism Theory Of Mind. Retrieved October 7, 2014, from http://www.projectlearnet.org/tutorials/cognitive_egocentrism_theory_of_mind.html
Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D, S. (2012, April 7). It's a Fine Line Between Narcissism and Egocentrism. Retrieved October 7, 2014, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201204/it-s-fine-line-between-narcissism-and-egocentrism
Ethnocentrism
Jason Shepherd
Ethnocentrism is defined as the belief in one’s own superiority of their group. This can be a group of religion, sports, race, culture, ethnic group or a broad range of options.” Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. “(Princeton). A good example of this would be that I am catholic. I lot of the people of a Catholic religion think that there word is better than anyone else’s. Their belief is correct no matter what proof is shown or what is found to prove them wrong. They usually have what people call “big heads” with the consideration of religion.
The definition of ethnocentrism was created by William G Sumner. Sumner was a social evolutionist and professor of Political and Social Science at Yale University. He decided this while observing how people differentiate between the “ingroup and others”. He described it as “often leading to pride, vanity, beliefs of one's own group's superiority, and contempt of outsiders.(Princeton)
Ethnocentrism occurs most often when people travel to a different country and judge them by what they do in their own countries. Since anthropologist often travel a lot, they are often told to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in order to be able to overcome their ethnocentrism. Franz Boas and Bronislaw Malinowski, anthropologist, argued with Sumner that “any human science had to transcend the ethnocentrism of the scientist… Boas developed the principle of "cultural relativism," and Malinowski developed his functionalist approach methods of developing non-ethnocentric studies of different societies.”
One of the best examples of ethnocentrism that I found was during 1933-1945 when Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Nazi Germany. Hitler’s goal was to eliminate all of the Jewish people from Germany and create a new government. A good majority of the people of Germany followed Hitler and agreed that he needed to get rid of the Jews and create a new government without them. Hitler ultimately decided that he hated Jews, and that they needed to be eliminated. Thousands of people agreed with him (for what I see is no other reason than he was the Chancellor at the time) and helped capture and torture the Jewish people in concentration camps.
Another good example of ethnocentrism is the Movie Avatar. Humans have discovered a new race and they want to study them and learn as much about them as they can. They end up making some futuristic contraption that enables them to go into a body like a Na’vi person and live among them. They study their language and living environments. They study the way their “government” works and they take examples from them in the way they live their lives.
In this movies, the humans believe that they are above the Na’vi tribe and think that they can control what they do. They attack the home tree of the Na’vi people, just so they can show that they are superior to them. But if you actually watch the movie, you can see how much we really could have learned from them and how we could have actually thought of them as our superiors. They might have seemed like they were a little behind in the technology aspect of things, but they intelligence they had and the adaptions they had to make living in a place like Pandora, makes them seem like they should have been superior to us.
There are a number of ways to explain how ethnocentrism works, but I only produced a couple of those. I bet if we all looked into our lives, we can see that it is all around us in our jobs, families, governments. Ethnocentrism is in all our lives, every day and all around us.
+++ Resources
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethnocentrism
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Ethnocentrism.html
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/ethnocentrism
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-ethnocentrism.html
Ethnocentrism
By: Kassandra Swisher
Ethnocentrism plays a major role in our lives. All of our thoughts and actions can ultimately be linked back to our own personal ethnocentrism. This concept is a combination of ideas that correlate to where we are from and how we were raised as well as blending in other ideas that we have blended and accepted into our lives. If we break down the word ethnocentrism it basically means that it is the center of our ethnic beliefs. Understanding ethnocentrism can help us better understand others and ourselves as well as solve problems that are related to differences between groups.
My ethnocentric standards are going to be based on the basic moral standings of someone who was raised in a small conservative town in eastern Colorado. However, as I have grown up and encountered other people I have made minor modifications to these ethnic beliefs strictly for the fact that I am a person of my own who is capable of making their own choices. Others have influenced my ethnocentrism as well, as I ventured out of my small habitat I have met others with different standards and have seen that what I thought was wrong or uncalled for in the society I grew up in, really isn’t that bad in another situation.
People all around the world come with an ethnocentric set of standards that have been with them since they were born, but just because we have a different set of ethnic beliefs doesn’t mean that one of us is right and the other is wrong, we are just different. I think that that’s where a lot of our problems come from in the world today. People are not willing to look at the differences in people and their cultures but instead they just notice that a person, or their way of living, or even their choices are different from their own, when in reality the person has just made the best choices that they know how to make, a set of skills determined by ethnocentrism.
College is a unique place because you get to see a wide variety of people from all over the world. In this setting the differences in people’s ethnocentric beliefs are very prominent because they all get mashed together and are expected to coincide together on a daily basis. As much as this sounds like a recipe for disaster, there is beauty in it all. Sure sometimes peoples differences can be too much for some people, but when people keep an open mind and embrace each others differences then they can work together and have a better understanding of themselves and each other. With a fresh and open mind in regards to how other people choose to live their lives you get an opportunity to look back at your own beliefs and alter them if need be.
Your unique ethnocentrism is what makes you who you are and helps determine the decisions you will make that will further influence your life. Everyone has their own ethnocentrism and as people learn to respect others ideas and lifestyles by accepting their ethnic beliefs there will ultimately be less conflict in their lives as well as throughout the world.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Ethnocentrism.html
Egocentrism
By Kati Zuniga
To many people of today rely heavily on egocentrism to get them through life. The adolescents of today’s modern society are selfish and self-centered. Their egos drive them through life and they have no consideration or others. But is this a result of the way they are raised or is it a reflection of the path society is paving for today’s youth.
Society has taken a turn and it’s become the norm to use all your resources for self-excellence. More and more people are becoming ambitious and using that ambition to get to the top, not bothering to stop and look at who they are trampling over to get there. This gives adolescents the opportunity to take advantage of others and with no one to stop them this mentality takes over and becomes a part of their ethnocentrism. When the belief that you and your needs are the most important, ergo your ego, become the center of your world, rather than compassion and sympathy for others.
However, there is a flip side to the take over of egocentrism. It is not a bad thing to be ambitious and chase your dreams in order to have a fulfilling life that you are happy with and proud of, as long as you take the time to acknowledge and reflect on the people who helped you get there. Use you success to help others find their own success. Many successful people today have provided much for the world, yes a lot of what they have to offer takes a dollar figure to receive, but they have also changed the world with their innovativeness and inspired others to do the same. Then you have some successors who haven’t really brought anything new to the table. They go on growing in their success, living off old trades, that aren’t anything exceptional, and exploiting the jobs themselves as well as the people they service.
This egocentric group isn’t the only one that’s emerging though. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum you will encounter the free spirit, who regardless of ambition and effort will see to it that social equality is of the utmost importance. This parallel group is all about seeing eye to eye with everyone. Accepting others ethnocentrism is the norm for them and what they believe should be the norm for everyone. Sure, a lot of them have ambition and are going places in their lives, but they are taking a different route to get there, they might be innovative and inspiring as well but they are taking everyone to the top with them.
As we continue through the modern era each generation has a little something they bring into society, whether this be a good or a bad trait it ultimately effects society as a whole and the next generation to follow. I think it is quite possible that past generations haven’t realized the impact they have on future generations and societal norms. If more people realized the impact they have on others lives and that we are all connected regardless of our differences in beliefs then all egos aside our society would be a more hospitable place
Sources
http://www.lifepaths360.com/index.php/the-differences-and-similarities-of-egocentrism-and-ethnocentrism-455/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egocentrism
By Noe Belmares
Problem Solving
Problem solving is a mental issue that involves quite a few things. To solve a problem, one must analyze, discover, and get down to the bottom of the problem. It may take time and knowledge, but once you put your mind to it, your brain does the work for you. While problem solving, people should start with learning about the issue first before applying themselves completely to the topic they are trying to solve.
Learning everything you can about the issue will help you solve your problem a lot more thoroughly. Solving a problem may sound simple to some, but sometimes it can come with a series of steps that can help in the long run. According to Psychology.about.com, In order to correctly solve a problem, you must follow a series of steps that researchers refer to as the problem-solving cycle. These steps involve developing strategies and organizing thoughts. This takes a lot of thinking and reiterating. The problem solving cycle involves 7 steps that you will go through several times until the desired result’s about your problem is reached.
Identifying and defining the problem are the first few steps when it comes to solving. These steps may seem obvious but sometimes it’s not as simple as it sounds. In some cases, people might mistakenly identify the wrong sources of a problem, which will make attempts of solve it inefficient or even useless. After the problem has been identified, it is important to fully define the problem so that it can be solved. For example, if you are driving down the road and your car is 26 miles to empty, you must analyze and figure out how many miles you have left until you arrive at your destination.
Forming a strategy and organizing information are the next steps you can take. Developing a strategy to solve a problem is widely helpful along with organizing the info you have found. This depends on the individual’s unique preferences. Before coming up with a solution, you need to for organize the available information that is available. You will be better prepared to come up with a solution if this is taken into consideration. This can also help you receive an accurate solution.
The next few steps include allocating resources and monitoring progress. Before you begin to solve a problem, you need to determine how high priority it is. If it is an important problem, it is probably worth allocating more resources to solving it. However, if it is not highly important, then you do not want to waste your time with finding resources to come up with your solution. Effective problem-solvers tend to monitor their progress as they work towards a solution. If they are not making good progress toward reaching their goal, they will reevaluate their approach or look for new strategies.
The final step that will be positively helpful is evaluating the results. After a solution has been reached, it is important to evaluate the results to determine if it is the best possible solution to the problem. This evaluation might be immediate, such as checking the results of a math problem to ensure the answer is correct, or it can be delayed, such as evaluating the success of a therapy program after several months of treatment.
Resources: www.psychology.about.com
www.mediate.com/articles/thicks.cfm
www.skillsyouneed.com
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Jermaine Smith
Problem Solving
Problem solving, what is problem solving? Problem solving is a mental process which includes searching, analyzing and solving problems. The ultimate goal of problem-solving is to overcome obstacles and find a solution that best resolves the issue.
There are man strategy's that can be for solving-problems. But the best strategy for solving a problem depends mainly on the situation. Sometimes, individuals are better off finding out everything that they can about the situation and then using common sense to come up with a solution.
In order to correctly solve a problem, there are series of steps that can be taken. Researchers refer to this as the problem-solving cycle, which includes developing strategies and organizing knowledge. While this cycle is portrayed sequentially, people rarely follow a rigid series of steps to find a solution. While it may seem like an obvious step, identifying the problem is not always as simple as it sounds. In some cases, people might mistakenly identify the wrong source of a problem, which will make attempts to solve it inefficient or even useless. First thing that you should do is define the problem. After you have identified the problem, you must make sure you are not leaving out any parts.
Then you must form a strategy in which you believe that will help solve this situation. The way or approach you can use will vary depending on the situation as well as if the individual has the choice depending on the circumstances. Next, you must organize information. Take all the parts, with their times and any liable witnesses. You must find out what you know, is something missing? Does the information flow. The more information that you have will help to come up with a more accurate solution/make a stronger base for helping to solve the problem. With the information that you have, you must allocate the resources. This is the next step because, it depends on, the time you have, is the situation this serious? Can it be worked on later and how much resources are available. With these, you must check its priority level.
After you make a situation and head towards a solution for it, you must monitor the progress because you cannot have a solution without progress. This will also let you know if you are heading the right path or do I need to try and find another solution because this way may take too long/this way is not working or even it is unfair for 1 side. Problem-solving is part of our every day life. Problem-solving is basically putting yourself is their situation. You must put yourself in their shoes. Finally, you must evaluate the results. after find a solution, it's very important to monitor/evaluate the results to help determine if this was the best solution or do I keep this method and if this was the best way to solve the solution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_solving
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_00.htm
http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/problem-solving.html
http://www.stress-management-for-peak-performance.com/problem-solving-technique.html
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Problem Solving
By Jessica Moss
The topic of problem solving is a very complex and varying subject. Every human being ever created will experience setbacks and problems in their life. This makes it necessary for the person to develop the skills and methods that allow them to navigate through this issues and move on with their life.
Problem solving also happens to have different terminologies. For some, it is a mental process in psychology, however it could be some computerized science issue for another. Creative and abstract thinking is often required to result in a successful solution.
Psychology is commonly one of the most complex and unique states in which problematic events occur. There is always some sort of desire to reach a goal in the present condition and situation. Achieving the goal comes with some sort of struggle whether personal or mathematical, and the person is often far from it, or is unsure how to achieve it and needs the logic to come up with a solution.
Another area involved with problem solving is cognitive science. Experimental work of Gestaltists in Germany began the study of problem solving. After several years of this experimental work, they came to the conclusion based on participants that choosing the most simple and novel tasks were preferred in order to solve problems in a short period of time. Simple problems were shown to correspond with the so called “real world,” therefore more complex problems could be created out of them.
As of today, the majority of people would be in agreement that critical thinking and problem solving skills are a necessity for today's students to learn. One important concept of critical thinking is truly understanding something. This ties in with the matter of “Must have” and “Can have.” A triangle for example is a shape with three sides. This is what it must have in order for it to be considered a triangle. On the other hand, what if it is not a closed figure with three angles? Or maybe the sides are unequal in size. This explains that there are some features a triangle must have to be a triangle, and other features that it can have. This also proves that understanding a concept of something is not as simple as a plain definition, and a principle is not just a plain formula. A deeper analysis of the problem at hand must be performed in order to accurately be able to understand it.
When we come across an unfamiliar concept, we look over and compare the things that we already know that may be related to it. If there is a relation than it may be recognized as an application to a familiar principle. Content plays a part in a concept, but also happens to be far from the only part that brings it together. It is understood that students need to learn knowledge as skills, as well as content.
If another person requests you to make a form of content for them, it may seem tricky to find a solution for the request. Strategy is often required in these problem solving skills to find that solution to that request. The challenge is often planning, while the actual making may be easier to carry out. In the making there are key factors that one may not always have control or influence over. To use strategy, one must continue to find more information about the content and manage the best course of action to their knowledge acquired.
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_solving
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/problem-solving-concepts-principles-melinda-sota
http://meetcontent.com/blog/content-strategy-as-problem-solving
Problem Solving
By: Danel Stithem
Problem solving is something that everybody in life has to learn how to do. If you can not problem solve in your everyday life then you will probably not get very far. Everyone has a point in their life, probably more than once or twice, that they run into a problem. Whether it is a problem with a game, a friend, partner, or family, or even just a math problem, there are always ways to problem solve it to make it better and most likely easier. To problem solve, you have to know how to look at the situation that you are in and figure out what the problem is and the think of the different ways that you can overcome that problem. It will not always be a quick process to solve the problem that you have but it also will not always be a long process, either.
Skills You Need says “everybody can benefit from having good problem solving skills as we all encounter problems on a daily basis; some of these problems are obviously more severe or complex than others.” They say that problem solving is very complex. They say that you first need to identify the problem, structure the problem, make a decision, implement it and monitor and seek feedback. This website gives a short, if any description of each of these steps to take in order to problem solve. My next site will help talk about more in-depth procedures you can take to do so.
To expand more about what Skills You Need said about the process of problem solving I looked into the PositivityBlog. They have six tips to help yourself problem solve. The first tip they give is to ask yourself is there is even really a problem. Meaning that you should not try to make a problem in your head and make a situation worse than it actually is. Think if the problem is even that big and do not try to make it any bigger than it has to be. Tip number two is that if there is a problem, that you should accept it. If you do not accept that you actually do have a problem, than it will be harder for you to find a way to solve it. Number three is to ask for help. It is not always easy to solve things on your own and that you may actually find it easier to ask other people to help you with whatever your problem is. They say that tip number four is to use 80 percent of your time to find solutions.
If you do not put the time in to solve the problem that you have, then what is that point of trying to solve your problem in the first place. Breaking the problem down into smaller pieces is the fifth tip that is said to help you problem solve. If you try to solve your problem in one big try, you will find yourself making more problems than you need and then it will end up being harder and way worse of a problem that you did not need to create. Break it into smaller pieces and work from there. It will be easier to solve the rest of your problem if you take your time and do it little by little. The sixth and final tip they give is to find the opportunity and/or lesson within the problem. This means that there is always a lesson or chance that you could learn from the problem that you have and how you try to solve it.
http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/problem-solving.html
http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2009/07/10/how-to-solve-a-problem-6-quick-and-powerful-tips
Tyler Bruggeman
Problem Solving 2
Problem Solving is a key skill that can be very helpful in a person’s career. Solving problems for people at work is an everyday occurrence. You can either be solving internal or external problems for clients. Sometimes you could be the supporter for those solving the problems or possibly be discovering new ones that need answered.
The problems that need solved can be big or small, simple or complex, and easy or difficult. It just depends on the subject at hand and the knowledge you have on the subject. Regardless of the nature of the problem, the manager needs to be able to find a way to solve it. Being, a confident problem solver is big roll for a successful manager.
Much of that confidence comes from having a good process to use when approaching a problem. If you have a good process, one can solve problems quickly and effectively. Without one, the solution may be ineffective, or you get stuck and can’t come up with a workable solution, with sometimes painful.
These are the steps to be good problem solver.
1. Define the problem
2. Look at potential causes for the problem
3. Identify alternatives for approaches to resolve the problem
4. Select an approach to resolve the problem
5. Plan the implementation of the best alternative (this is also known as action plan)
6. Monitor implementation of the plan
7. Verify if the problem has been resolved or not.
These steps are very easy to follow and helpful in making good judgments to solve the problem.
Defining the problem is ensuring that you deal with the real problem and not the symptoms associated with it. You may need to ask the right questions to make the real problem surface to the top. There are several tools that can be used to help make sense of the problem you need to solve it. In order to solve the problem, it may be necessary to create a visual diagram or chart of the situation to get a better understanding of what is going on.
Look at potential causes for the problem by getting input from other people who notice the problem and who are affected by it. It can be useful to collect input from others, write down your opinions, and what you’ve heard from others. Write down a description of the cause of the problem and in terms of what is happening, where, when, how, with whom, and why.
Identify alternative approaches to resolve the problem may include keeping others informed and helping with coming up with a solution. This is where it is important to brainstorm and collect as many ideas as possible and screen them to find the best idea. Write all ideas down and discard the bad ones later.
Select an approach to resolve the problem by deciding which approach will most likely solve the problem for long term. Which approach is the most logical answer to accomplish for now? Do you have resources and have enough time to implement it? Is there any risk associated with the solution? The nature of this step in the problem solving process is why problem solving and making decisions are highly integrated.
Plan the implementation of the best alternation needs to be carefully considered. What steps should be taken to implement the best solution? How will you know the steps are being followed? What resources and time are needed to implement the solution? Communicate plan to the people involved.
Monitor Implementation plan by making sure you wee what you expected to happen and completed on time.
Verify if the problem has been resolved or not by resuming normal operations. Make sure you implement necessary policies and procedures so this type of problem doesn’t occur again in the future. Share with your supervisor and peers what you did to solve the problem.
Using the appropriate tools and other problem solving techniques will help a person improve their approach to solving problems personally and for their company. It will help a person become more successful at problem solving and at everything they do. A person that can solve problems easily and effectively will build a reputation as someone who can handle tough situations in a wise and positive way.
Resources
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TMC.htm
http://www.mediate.com/articles/thicks.cfm
http://managementhelp.org/personalproductivity/problem-solving.htm
Problem Solving: How People React to Stress in Their Lives
By Jessica Moss
Their Lives
Problems are a part of everyday life for every human being alive. While there are some things we simply do not have control over, I believe that everyone is given the ability to find a solution to the worries and issues in their life. Unfortunately, some people tend to revel in pity and are often “unhappy” if they do not have something to gripe about.
One emotional factor that will have a major influence on a person’s life is their reaction to stress. At some point, everybody is going to be impatient with themselves, their frustrations, and other people involved. One pattern in particular of how a person handles stress is classified as “Type A.” People who are afflicted with Type A typically rush their way through life erratically and often express hostility towards others around them. Emotional stress will often result in extreme aggression which can harm relationships. Type A patterns tend to miss important minor details because they rush through everything so quickly, and they often lead to health problems in the individual as well as relationship and mental problems.
Another stress reaction affliction is negative self- talk. People who follow this stress pattern tend to sabotage themselves simply by doubting their abilities and overall expressing a negative attitude towards themselves. This pattern is commonly formed during childhood, and is very possibly influenced by negative reactions from other people the person experienced when they were growing up. For someone who is dealing with this affliction, a way to change things around would be to learn positive self- talk, and start working on slowly rebuilding their self- esteem and mindset.
One stress reaction that involves other people the most is poor conflict resolution skills. People who follow this pattern tend to act overly aggressive towards others in the midst of an argument or confrontation, when mere assertiveness is all that is really needed to get their point across. The other side to this pattern is the opposite poor conflict resolution skill, passiveness. On the contrary to aggressiveness, some people may let themselves be pushovers and allow people to “walk all over them” while they refuse to stand their ground. These people lack the ability to just say no to others, and similarly to those who are overly aggressive, they typically don’t even realize that they’re allowing themselves to be manipulated.
Along with other unmentioned stress reaction patterns, these patterns are all self-handicapping to the person that is practicing them, and this ends up leading people to avoid putting in effort to solve their problems, out of fear that their hopes will be dashed. People who self-handicap differ individually and also between genders as well. After surveys were done, it was indicated that the vast majority of males were far more likely to self-handicap than females. But in individual cases it can be vice versa as far as gender goes, and self-handicapping may very well be linked to other mental and personality disorders such as hypochondriases.
In the end, if people possess the pessimistic mindset that they’re going to fail in life, problems and obstacles will be created by them to justify their prediction. Self-handicapping on a positive note is entirely no permanent condition. It can very well be turned around so a person is able to get on the right track in life again and learn to deal with stress and the problem’s life brings with it with patience and a clear mindset.
For More Information:
http://stress.about.com/od/selfknowledgeselftests/a/self_sabotage.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-handicapping
Problem Solving
Caitlyn Thompson
Think about sometime in you life when you had to try to think about how to solve a problem? Problem solving is defied as the process of finding solutions to difficult or complex issues. Confidence is the best thing to have when trying to solve a problem. Without confidence your solutions may be unsuccessful, or you’ll get stuck have nothing to help you solve the problem. Here are four steps in problem solving. Defining the problem, generating alternatives, evaluating and selecting alterative, and, implementing solutions.
The key to noble problem defining is to ensure that you are dealing with the real problem. If you use the right tools and ask the right questions and work step-by-step at what is really going on you are more likely to solve the problem faster and more correctly. If you obligate yourself too early, you are more likely to end up with a problem. Make a checklist to know that you have gotten the information that you need to find the solution. If your problem has an easy solution then you will not have to follow the steps.
The four-step approach will help you in many situations. For more of a complete process, you can use Simplex, Appreciative Inquiry or Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). These will offer specified steps; you can use to solve the problem more successful. Simplex is an eight-step method that includes: problem solving, fact-finding, defining the problem, idea finding, selecting and evaluating, planning, selling the idea, and acting. These phases will create a sequence of problem finding and solving that will help you improve your organization. Appreciative Inquiry takes an exclusively positive method by helping you solve problems by observing what will work in the areas you need them in. Soft Systems Methodology will help you to recognize difficult problems, so you can start figuring out the problem. It uses stages to help you uncover more facts on what is producing the problem.
Everyone can gain from having good problem solving abilities. We all have to face problems on a day-to-day basis. Some of these problems are more severe or complicated then others.
Resources
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_00.htm
http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/problem-solving.html
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If At First You Fail
Cateline Isely
It was Winston Churchill, the bulldog of England in WWII, who once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Like so many of the quotes by that man, it proves true but hard to accept. When we fail, we generally would prefer to just quit because it’s hard to face the fact you threw your all at something and had it still fall apart. Especially when your failure is public, seen by anyone else, it becomes even more humiliating. Yet that solves nothing, it only proves something. It proves that failure has won.
It’s all about how we solve a problem, how we face it, how we handle it, whether it’s before failure or picking up the pieces again after being terribly disappointed. How someone handles that can say a lot about that person, because the definition of insanity is trying something over and over and expecting different results. It’s how you approach it afterwards that can say whether it will be success or not. It’s learning from mistakes that can make someone good at problem solving.
I don’t know about most people, but I, personally, find it easier to think through how I would solve a problem then actually solving it. Because, when you are faced with that time to open your mouth and speak up, it is as though the words get lost somewhere between your well scripted thoughts and your lips. As an example my mom seems to always come to me to ask how to solve problems with other people, how to phrase things, how to handle a situation. And, usually, I can give her a statement that even impresses myself, and, as my hardest critic, that’s a feat. Yet, put me in the same place and I can’t just come up with it. I have to wait until I can think it through, repeatedly, maybe even ask someone to tell me my own issue before I can figure a way to solve it.
So what makes a good problem solver? Is there such a thing? I don’t know that there is. There is just logic and those who get too close to the matter to see the logic until they step back. Until it is given to them as it would be given to an outsider. I think to truly solve a problem to the best of anyone’s abilities, they have to have the third person thought, but enough connection to the matter that it’s something they care about. Because a solution without passion is nothing more than an empty set of words.
I also believe that the world is too crazy sometimes, that sometimes people need to take the time for themselves, whether it is walking, working out, fishing, or reading. Something where they can let their mind wander, where they can just be quiet. Solving anything in noise, with major distractions, is tantamount impossible. It’s like writing one thing while listening to someone talk about something totally different. You can’t really mull over the problem if you can’t just think about it entirely, if you can’t get engrossed in what it is and how to overcome it.
Without a solution there will be nothing but failure. Without a solution there will be no second attempt at success. We live in a world of instant gratification, where failure is scorned and second attempts legendary and only to be attempted by the elite. How are we to solve anything when, if at first we fail, forever we fail? I believe that Churchill’s words should be echoed more often than they are. Because if at first you fail, you should learn and try again for success instead of accepting it as a fatality. That’s problem solving.
Resources
[http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26032.html]
[http://www.brainyquote.com/]
Evan Walter
Wiki Essay
Solving problems isn’t always the easiest things to do. We often put ourselves in tough situations only to find out that coming to a conclusion is even harder. When solving problems it is very easy to do what appeals you but may throw others under the bus. Sometimes the hardest thing to do in this situation is be honest with what is reality and what isn’t true. There are definitely people in the world who are good at solving problems, and others that struggle with it.
When confronted with a problem, what is the first thing you think about? Is it, how am I going to get myself out of this situation or what are the immediate consequences of the decision I am about to make? It is very easy to skate around the truth to avoid solving problems. Sometimes the truth never lies and problems we face get very uncomfortable. If we want to be successful at problem solving we have to be honest with what the situation is. Sometimes the truth hurts, but if you avoid the truth, chances are you’ll get caught up in it later.
I am the kind of person who usually gets caught up in solving problems that most the time aren’t even mine. Sometimes it gets me in to trouble and uncomfortable situations. I don’t know how I get roped in to these things but nine times out of ten it’s usually because the person I’m dealing with is a bad problem solver. The people who usually struggle with problems in my opinion are the ones that take life negatively. People who are too over the top about little things drive me crazy because its normal to make mistakes and life happens. The best way to go about it is with a positive attitude. Especially working with others, if you have a positive attitude, then it very well may rub off on them.
What is Our Understanding of Choice?
Hannah Duncan
Every choice we make has the ability to greatly impact out life. No matter if that choice is killing a spider or deciding to commit an illegal activity. Usually the brain will quickly decide which option is worth choosing. Jumping out of a tree or use a ladder? That choice is easy to make. But choices can get difficult to make when more options are presented, especially when all of those options are good. There are many ways to choose between hard choices such as making a pros and cons list, flipping a coin, talking to others about it. There is more often more risk than reward when it comes to options like this.
Emotion plays a big key in choice. Making rash choices when you’re angry, sad or on some sort of emotional high can more often than not lead to a bad choice. Sitting down and weighing your options carefully is key to making great, beneficial decisions. Making choices is the greatest form of self control. This is key for many drug or alcohol addicts, along with any other addictions. Addictions can be tricky to manage and convince you to make rash choices that can be harmful to yourself along with society.
Some ways to help make a choice are:
Analyze Outcomes: Are the pro outcomes highly unlikely? What do you gain from making this choice? Will the outcomes be short-term or long-term? Thinking about the end result will help you come to a conclusion that best benefits you. “Thinking in terms of long-term outcomes – and broadening your thinking to include negative outcomes – can help you find clarity and direction while facing your big decision”.
Ask Why-Five Times-: This helps a lot to come to a conclusion of why something failed if you ask why every time the question at hand is answered.
-Why should I buy this horse? Because I want to become better and win. Why is that crucial to you? Because I enjoy rodeo and want to continue my career successfully. Why do you enjoy it? Because it gives me purpose and teaches me life lessons. Why? Because I’ve never experience the joy I have at rodeos. Why? Because I have no other source of excitement like I do when I ride.-
That though process really shows how important rodeo is to me and that buying a new horse will actually be a good outcome even though it is pricey.
Follow Your Instincts: That gut feeling you get when you truly believe something is right? It’s probably correct and you should listen to it. Relying on our conscious mind can be hard because it’s already juggling so many other senses and thoughts. But when we rely on our subconscious, that’s when we have the gut feelings. The subconscious already knows the answer and is trying to signal what to correctly decide. The subconscious has much less stress on it than the conscious mind.
Ultimately what ever you decide is always up to you. Taking responsibility for the choices made is a huge part of life. Life will always present you with tough choices but making the smart choice isn’t always as easy as it sounds. But making a bad choice isn’t always negative in all of its consequences. You can learn valuable lessons from tough choices.
Sources:
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/how-to-make-the-right-choice.html
http://www.medicaldaily.com/science-decision-making-5-surprising-ways-we-make-life-choices-337546
Regina Hall
Do we always understand the choices we make and why we make them? I had to expand my research on this topic to have a better understanding of how I was going to choose to write about this topic. I asked friends and families of their input on "Choice". The results were very enlightening and I would like to share with you what I learned.
Pastor Kirk Kasson commented to me of a psychiatrist who wrote a book about his imprisonment in a Nazi Camp.
“the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom….” Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning.
JaRene Stewart, a friend, commented Social Constructionism. Social Constructionism is a theory of knowledge in sociology and communication theory that examine the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world. Social constructs are the by-products of countless human choices, rather than laws related to human judgment.
Choices begin at a young age. We are taught to pick this or that. As we grow older our choices begin to expand and become more choices of what we want or need. Some of those choices may not be what we want or need but a choice has to be made. As we age we become more aware of our choices and that we do have a choice based on our wants, needs, and the things we can or want to do.
Our choices can also come from our experiences in life and observing experiences in the lives of others. Our choices may be our own, but they can affect and/or influence other people. All choices have consequences good or bad. We do not know the future so we do not always know the outcome of our choices. There can be many factors and influences that lead to our decisions when making a choice like knowledge, environment, religion, people, emotions, likes, dislikes, experiences, how we are raised, and many other things.
Choices can also be made consciously or subconsciously. Sometimes we are aware of our choices and other times we are not. We learn to make choices without thinking about what we want, need, can, and can’t do. Some choices we do think first, before deciding. Depending on the choice, it may take a second to decide or may take a long time. We also learn that choices can be temporary and some will be forever.
Do we understand what we are choosing when given a choice? Do we know or understand what can be the consequences of our choices? Do we understand the reasons of what other people choose and why they choose to make their decisions? Choice is a large part of everyone’s life every moment and can expand beyond a person’s knowledge and understanding. We do not have the right answer for understanding some choices made by ourselves or others, but we do understand that we do have choices. We also have to learn that we are responsible for the choices we make if we know what we are deciding.
The human mind is our most valuable tool we use every day. The minds capabilities of choice make us who we are and who we become. It is our future and our fate.
Below is a link to a song that was recommended to me on this topic.
The link below is an article I came across to have better understanding of to many choices. "To Many Choices, A Problem that can Paralyze".
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/your-money/27shortcuts.html?_r=0
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructionism
http://rebuildlifenow.com/2011/09/13/viktor-frankl-and-the-idea-of-choice/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/choice
Are you happy with your choices in life?
Tanner Adams
In everybody’s life they are given choices that have to be made in either a short period of time or a long period of time. Choice is very crucial, and something that everyone is entitled to. Now some choices may be more serious and may have more of an impact on an individual’s life than others, but that’s what makes life special that no one has to go through the same choices as others may have to. There has been some serious choices that have had to been made over the span of our existence as humans, but is it possible that we have not faced the hardest choice yet?
The main question that is brought up from making choices is what could have been if you would have made a different choice. That’s where choices are so hard to make because that what if factor, such as what if I would have took the promotion, or what if I would have made this choice to lead me down a different path. But the beauty of life is choices may come back and haunt you, but most of the time you will not have to go through the what if stage. Unfortunately, sometime making a certain choice may not lead you to happiness or your life goals, so you just have to stick with the choice that you made and make sure that you make the most of that situation.
Life is only given to you once and everyone is just trying to make the most of it. I believe that’s why so many individuals are so worried about the decisions that are made because they only get this one life and what if they make the wrong choice? That’s where many people go astray and become depressed or give up because they aren't content with the choices that they have made. Sometimes you just have to be happy and know that there is no sense in being unhappy with your decisions, because at that point in time your gut told you that was the correct path to take.
Also with making choices is the cost that there is no guarantees that you made the right choice. Making choices in life is like rolling a dice on a board game, there is about five different outcomes but you can only choose one of them. Whether you like it or not you have to stick with that choice and at the end of your life you ask yourself did you make the right choices. I truly believe that sometimes our generation of beings live in the moment and don’t think about consequences and end up regretting their choices.
But when do people start to really analyze the choices that they make? I’m a firm believer that most people analyze their choices when they are about to die, getting old of age, and make a life altering decision. Do you truly think that if decisions were easy that people would make them or let alone would they be worth anything to them. Today’s day and age there is more decisions to be made than ever and people are treating them as if they aren't a big deal.
All in all, choices are in every body’s life no matter who you are, and eventually at the end of the day you can’t take back the choice that you have made. So if you just do what makes you happy then there is no such thing as making a bad choice, and as said by Stephen Covey “But until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday," that person cannot say, "I choose otherwise.”
Resources
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/why-you-have-43-more-choices-that-matter-in-life-or-not/
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/33331/self_improvement_and_motivation/life_is_about_choices_and_the_decisions_we_make.html
Making Choices
Austin Avelar
One of the most powerful freedoms we have within ourselves is the right to make choices. From the moment we wake up, to the moment we go to sleep we are constantly dealing with scenarios, dilemmas, problem solving, and other situations that involve important decision-making. Some are a little more major than others and some require less effort.
There’s a new study that suggests the brain relies on two separate networks to make decisions. One determines the overall value, (the risk versus reward), of individual choices and one that shows us how we behave. Depending on how severe the punishment is or how great the reward is will commonly determine what choice we make. It’s common to not think about what is for the best, because our brain is speeding up things.
Many people have no concept of what responsible decision-making really is.
A five-step process for responsible decision-making includes:
1. Identify your choices
2. What is best for you now?
3. Consider what others will think – Not only you
4. Consider what will happen in the future – Not only now
5. Make a choice and go with it
People often jump the gun and don’t consider what other people will think and what will happen in the future and personally I think those are the two most important steps in the process. We need to think beyond what is happening at the moment and understand that we can make choices that have a positive impact on future.
Now there are some benefits to making bad choices. It’s a good thing to fail. We must not be afraid to fail. If we can’t fail, then we most certainly can’t learn. It’s natural to make bad decisions and learn from them so it doesn’t happen again. This is where we mature into the process of decision-making. It is in our best interest to understand and learn from our mistakes so we can grow as individuals to become mature, and wise so that we can pass on our understanding of it all to younger ages. Our mind is a powerful tool, we must not waste it’s value.
Resources
https://access.bridges.com/usa/en_US/choices/pro/content/lessons/decisionmakingguide/dmg_usa_teachers.pdf
http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/04/making-choices-how-your-brain-decides/
Bad Choices
Danielle McNeely
“When people have too many voices, they make bad choices.” - Thom Browne
When we make decisions we regret, it influences our future brain activity, especially in the medial orbitofrontal region, the anterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus, the areas responsible for emotions and emotion-related memories in the brain.
Dangerous decisions increase the activity in these regions, heightening emotional stress and clouding our attempts at clear-headed thinking. It's easier to buy one lottery ticket because you spend little money on a little chance at winning a lot of money, but a bad choice comes in when you buy a lottery ticket everyday because it’s “a little money”. You convince yourself you're not throwing all of your money away because “it’s not that much” but if you add it all up, it really is.
Your brain doesn't forget the bad choices you've made. The brain keeps emotional memories from these experiences and uses them as the base for future decisions. However, these memories can lead to flaws in judgment.
If you have to make a lot of choices in a short period of time that is called decision fatigue. This is the force that may cause you to procrastinate something or just blow it off all together.
It’s not a lack of willpower, it’s the normal human response to too many decisions, thus causing you to make some bad ones.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/bad-choices.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-clear/decision-fatigue_b_4044212.html
Choices
Caitlyn Thompson
Do you ever think about the choices that you make? Do you ever think that maybe if you chose something else that you life would have turned out different? We are faced with choices everyday. Whether it is trying to decide on what to wear or what to eat. Those choices don’t have that much effect on your life, the big choices that do make a difference is getting in a car with a drunk driver or texting while driving. Those choices might not just affect you but other people around you.
Choice is defined as selected as one’s favorite or the best. When you make dangerous choices it will raise the activity in some areas such as heightening emotional stress and blurring your efforts at clear thinking. Stress can cause a lot of decision making causing us to make the wrong choices. People are more likely to avoid making the decision they regret. Making the wrong the wrong choice can cause the fear of doing the wrong thing, will cause stress making you wish that you would of chose the diffident choice.
We all make choices that we regret the most and it will influence future brain function specifically in medial orbitofrontal region, the anterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus. These areas are accountable for emotions and emotion-related remembrances in the brain. The brain dose not forgets all the bad choices that you made in the past. The brain keeps emotional memories and uses them as a setting for future choices. These old memories can cloud your judgment. There have been studies done that recommend the end of an experience is more likely to influence on our memories then all of the overall experience.
There are four key types of decisions they can all be expressed in many different ways. Command decisions they can only be made by yourself. Delegated decisions they can be made by anyone. Avoided decisions the outcome my be very sever the choice must not be made; the penalties cannot be undone by the choices made. This can lead to negative events. No- brainer decision the choice is very clear, only the reasonable choice can be made.
We all will have to make choices in life weather if they are good or bad. No matter what we will have to live with them.
Resources
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/bad-choices.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice
Evan Walter
Making Choices
When it comes to the ability of making choices that can affect our lives in a positive or negative way, many things factor in. If a person is experiencing a positive period of time in life, they are more prone to make decisions that wouldn’t jeopardize their high moment. If a person is experiencing a negative time in his or her life, they are more prone to continue on that negative road by making poor decisions. Therefor a person’s status in life weighs in on the decisions that person makes.
When thinking about positive choices in life, I often use my best senses to make decisions. The biggest decision I ever had to make was simply deciding where to go to college. When meeting with coaches, I tried to use my best judgment to see whether or not the coach and I would be able to work together. Clearly there were coaches that wouldn’t be good fit so I had to make choice of walking away from that offer.
When thinking about the bad choices in my life, I remember that at times when I would make poor choices they would kind of snowball. One bad decision would lead to another and it was really hard to get out of that funk. So I truly believe that the choices we make really have a lot to do with where we are in life and whether or not it’s a good or bad time.
In conclusion, we never really know how life is going to be for us. We know that the choices we make effect everything we do. It is really easy to see how bad choices can affect the good things in our lives. We all have those people in our lives that continue to make bad choices and wonder why their life is so messed up. I have a friend who caught some bad breaks early in life and uses that as an excuse. What he doesn’t do is try to make better decisions to better his life and move forward in a positive way. Humans will always have the ability to make good and bad decisions. The most important lesson here is if you make a bad decision, learn from it and work past it. People who dwell on one bad decision usually have a really tough time moving forward to better their lives.
—-
Marcus Tibbles
Belief
Belief is an interesting thing. People believe whatever they want regardless of facts. Even if something is down right untrue they'll believe it without question and get angry if it is questioned. People will jump to beliefs without all the facts and just jump to conclusions based on other people's opinion. Confirmation Bias says that humans seek out opinions and ideas that confirm their beliefs, like a geriatric racist watching only FOX News. On the opposite side of that is Discomfirmation Bias which causes us humans to reject and the aforementioned angry reaction.
Most people try to confirm what they believe and have an accurate understanding of what it is. Understanding what you know and whether it is true or not is important to suppress a person's Cognitive Biases. Many people come up with beliefs based on what they want to be true, usually through rationalization. Any idea opposing those beliefs are looked down upon as our views are the only rational thoughts and the onther person is crazy. But it is important to keep your mind open to the facts, if your plan or religion turns out to not work or be false you really don't lose much. Unless you invested a bunch of money into something or spent time protesting soldiers funerals because your god told you to. Then the only responsible thing would be to kill yourself.
If you want to belong to the right side of whatever argument you're in, just look at the other side and see if there's anything you agree with. Gun control is a hotly debated topic, many people think that we should ban guns in the united states, and others think that we should not change what we have been doing for the past hundred years. Now both sides do have some compelling arguments, and both sides are actually right. They just need to see each other's side and they could easily come up with a conclusion they both like. The same goes for the gays, some people say its wrong, some say they should be able to lay with another man. The logical conclusion would be that if it's wrong the people who think it's wrong are right, and the people who are gay can go to hell. Unless you know god doesn't care.
We start learning beliefs at childhood learning our biases from our parents and teachers and authority figures. People who are charismatic can influence or change someone's beliefs. Advertisements and the media can also influence people. FOX News as mentioned before is more right winged than CNN and likes to take good old fashioned Republican values but has pushed the envelope into downright tea party crazy. Anna Rowley says: “You want your beliefs to change. It's proof that you are keeping your eyes open, living fully, and welcoming everything that the world and people around you can teach you.” I believe, see there it is, that this line means we should keep our minds open to anything that is true, and if you're stubborn you can always have someone hit you the head with a shovel.
Sources:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201104/the-two-kinds-belief
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief
Image Source
http://www.buckets.cc/5-limiting-beliefs-that-sap-your-productivity/
Believe Me Or Be Wrong
Cateline Isely
From what I have learned, in all of my life, there is one way to really have a matter of opinion turn someone against your view. It’s when that opinion is forced at you as the truth that you better, like it or not, believe because that person says it’s so.
It is not wrong, in my mind, for one person to believe another, for one person to differ from what I think. What is wrong, however, is to force a biased thought and distorted logic on someone as absolute, unarguable. Every opinion is arguable; that’s what makes it an opinion. That’s why they can differ so much from person to person.
An opinion is something fed through to us, what we take out of something such as a lecture or an essay or article. We can distort anything by not using everything that we are given in terms of truth. We base it on what we think people will think of it and, sometimes, we have a tendency to force our opinion on others.
Contrary to what some people might believe, they’re not always right. People who always assume that they alone are all knowing in the matters are the people that I personally can never come to see eye to eye with. It’s those people who caused the ultimate amount of friction between the yay and the nay saying parties of any opinion.
Take, for example, some of my family. I have family that leans so far to the left that they think that posting a picture of an ancient gun found in a war scene means that you are mentally unstable and need therapy whereas the other part of my family, the ones who lean to the other side, see it as art. Most times people with such strong thoughts on the matters are than infuriated that someone dare to differ with how they think or feel. “How dare that person disagree? I’m right because…” Well because why? If someone would like to back their argument up with some numbers and believable things, I will listen but I have, personally, grown tired of the insults and conflicts that arises with such opinionated people.
When someone gives me an article about why my opinion is off, I see to it that I read it. I may not agree with it, but I have to understand why they might. Then I see it as my right to, in turn, educate the other person in a non-hostile way to what I see. But, more often than not, when I wish to stir the cooking pot of opinion with people I know (which I do quite often because I enjoy attempting to train people to how to respond appropriately) I find that I will get insults. When someone calls my opinion “stupid” merely because it’s not theirs, I don’t want to go look up what they are saying and find out how true it is. I don’t WANT to have an educated discussion with such people because they don’t seem to see it as necessary to have one with me. Still, someone has to be the mature person in such matters. Someone has to be the one who asks “why.”
Yet, still, the way they defended their thought from the starting gate, the jump into hostile words that seem entirely childish, will tarnish my opinion. It’s hardest for me to see eye to eye with those who refuse to teach me. It’s hardest for me to try to work with those who refuse to be taught. An opinion is just that, and it’s something that people have not, many times, taken a moment to recognize. It’s your thoughts. It’s not the way that it is for everyone.
Resources[http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/tere_cq73-1551797-fact-opinion/]
[http://www.wacra.org/A%20Biased%20Opinion%20about%20Bias%20and%20Opinions.pdf]
Perceiving and Believing
Jason Manning
Perceiving and believing. Perceiving is believing. At least that's what people like to think, right? Ever heard the phrase “Ill believe it when I see it.”? Because we like to believe what we see or hear. What we perceive is what we believe. Its so ingrained into our psych that whatever we perceive is obviously the truth that we believe everything that we perceive. If I witness a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat I believe that this individual is some kind of dark arts wizard who has made a contract with the devil and has sold his soul so that he can entertain children. But is this the truth? Maybe, or he just was hiding the rabbit in the hat the whole time. You see there is a very big difference in what we perceive to be the truth and what we believe to be the truth. The real truth of things can very possibly be total different then what we perceived and what we believe to be.
Perception is a skill that the brain uses to gather information such as sensory clues and organize it into information that we can use to adapt to the environment that we find ourselves in. Perception actually has a specific process that it goes through so that we can actually perceive. An object in the real world somehow stimulates one of the bodies sensory organs or multiple sensory organs. The sensory organ will then start sending signals to the brain which will then read the signals and create the perception of whatever object is giving of the sensory stimulation. The problem with perception is that we can trick ourselves with it. This is because perception is simply that what we perceive not the actual truth. A good example of perception being fooled is camouflage. What we see is a landscape vacant of any life. In reality its full of creatures that are camouflaged and blending in with the environment. Unseen by our eye because we do not perceive them as being there so we perceive it as empty and devoid of life.
Belief is a tricky subject. Popping up all over the place. It appears in legends and in religion. Because what we believe in is the truth. But it is only the truth to us. The truth is the truth if we believe it is the truth. Confused yet? An example of this is simple A god is god to his followers, but what is a god to a nonbeliever? We believe what we choose to believe in. And if we believe something to be true then it is, because we don't believe it is false. The truth is only a matter of perspective. Belief is a frame of mind, that all people have. Every body believes in something whether it be a deity of some sort or a belief in something because of denial in another. Beliefs can form or change depending on how often or how strongly they are presented to you. Some people may adopt the beliefs of a leader because at the time it seems very positive. Such as Adolf Hitler during WWII, Because obviously it seemed good if he got so many to follow him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief
Perceiving and Believing
by Tatym Rundel.
The dictionary definition of “Believe” is, to accept what is said by someone as true, to have trust in. The dictionary definition of “Perceive is, to observe, notice or discern, to understand. Our perception is easily effected or biased even, by practically everything surround us. Whether it be our expectations, experiences, or even our cultural normality’s. The human mind is so very complex and quite often we fool ourselves when dealing with perception. Our senses mean little to us without our brains to register, process, and organize all of the perceptions we are in taking. Without perception, your mothers face is just a cluster of shapes, without the ability to decipher scent, you can not tell the difference between fresh laundry and burnt toast. Perception is the process that allows us to make meaning out of our daily experiences. There are two main instances when dealing with perception, 1 is called the “Figure.” For example, say you are in a crowded room with your crush. You will be trying to focus in on what he or she is saying, (The figure). All of the other voices that you are also hearing but are blocking out are called the “Ground.”
There are many kinds of perceptions, a major one is depth perception. For example when you are going down stairs, we use our depth perception to tell how far down or away each step is. What if we did not have depth perception? Well, if a step is a lot closer than you thought, chances are you will overstep and end up tripping and falling down the stairs.
Perceiving and believing are tied together with the fact that we choose to believe what we perceive or take in. You have the ability to choose whether or not you are going to believe what your eyes, or any other sensory organ for that matter, take in. More often than not we choose to believe it. Why would you ignore the fact that your nose is telling you something is on fire? Our brain is the passage way that links these two tasks. Our sensory organs begin the process by absorbing out surroundings. Our brain processes everything observed. Our brain also is the one that chooses whether or not we will believe these things taken in. Often times our mind can play tricks with us though. For example, simply where the legs of two different tables are placed can cause the table to take different shapes. When we then place the two tables on top of each other we realize they are the same. But if we take them back off we will then perceive that they are not again. All because of the way our brains process and intake our surroundings. Another example of this would be watching your crush dance, while there is a guy blocking the view. The man blocking the view seems a lot closer to you than your crush. Is he really? No, but that is how our minds absorb it.
Perceiving and believing are fully intertwined and are not capable of one without the other.
Resources:http://www.goldmanreview.com/2013/01/perceiving-is-believing.html
http://myscienceacademy.org/2014/03/22/perceiving-is-believing/
Language and Thought
Andrew Todd
Language sets people apart from one another. Although all humans, except those who are paralyzed or incapable of speech, communicate through verbal and body language, being universally understood is an impossibility. Verbal languages vary greatly throughout the world, and a gesture that is completely acceptable and innocent in one country is considered grossly offensive in another.
In Thailand, the head is considered sacred, so even patting a child on the head is a major offense. In the United States, one thinks nothing of entering a business, or even sometimes a home, without removing their shoes. In Japan, a person takes off his shoes by the door and wears slippers instead, which are provided. Separate slippers are provided for use when one enters a bathroom. Also in Japan, -san is added to a Japanese person's last name as a form of respect. Mama-san, who washed clothes and repaired uniforms on base, was addressed in this manner as well.
In the same way that different tongues create a divide in ability to communicate, a chasm can be created amongst people who speak the same language. For instance, in English, different regions of the United States have different dialects, and certain words can mean different things entirely when two people are from separate places. The word pop, for example, means a carbonated soft drink to those in the Midwest, while to others the word denotes a sound and the definition is that of a soda. These vast differences are also prevalent between American and British English.
Groups within a society often have their own language of sorts, a certain way of talking that, whether intentional or unintentional, alienates those not in their group. Those who are experts in chemistry, mathematics, or computers may not be intelligible to those outside their field when they are discussing said field. The acronyms used by the military community, discussions of accessible technology, or even something like home repair means little to nothing if one has not had experience with the terminology, or, in the case of home repair or computer programming, the process.
This essay is not meant to imply that we should all pick up on the language of others by learning thousands of languages and dialects from around the world or growing familiar with specific terminology in specialized fields or the sayings of particular groups of people. It is intended as a reminder that all people are different. We communicate in different ways, using various methods to converse, including verbal, nonverbal, and electronic communications with those around us. Varying languages can be perplexing, but such simple things remind us of the intricacies of the world in which we live. It will take many languages, many cultures, and many types of people as well as ways of thinking to develop a world that can get better with time instead of one in a downward spiral toward self-destruction. Go figure.
Resources
[Thailand - Thai Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette. (n.d.). Retrieved October 3, 2014, from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/thailand-country-profile.html]
[Rugsaken, K. (2006). Body speaks: Body language around the world. Retrieved from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/body-speaks.aspx. - See more at: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/body-speaks.aspx#sthash.FrdQwj2y.dpuf]
[Palmer, K. (2009, January 1). Understanding Human Language. Retrieved October 3, 2014, from http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/82/understanding-human-language-an-in-depth-exploration-of-the-human-facility-for-language]
Jermaine Smith
Memory
Since time immemorial, humans have tried to understand what memory is, how it works and why it goes wrong. It is an important part of what makes us truly human, and yet it is one of the most elusive and misunderstood of human attributes. Fondly, recollecting childhood events to remembering where we left our keys, memory plays a vital role in every aspect of our lives. It provides us with a sense of self and makes up our continual experience of life.
It's easy to think of memory as a mental filing cabinet, storing away bits of information until we need them. In reality, it is a remarkably complex process that involves numerous parts of the brain. Memories can be vivid and long-lasting, but they are also vulnerable to inaccuracies and forgetting. The hippocampus is a region of the brain that is heavily associated with memory. Because of bilateral symmetry in the brain, both hemispheres contain a hippocampus.
The popular image of memory is as a kind of tiny filing cabinet full of individual memory folders in which information is stored away, or perhaps as a neural super-computer of huge capacity and speed. However, in the light of modern biological and psychological knowledge, these metaphors may not be entirely useful and, today, experts believe that memory is in fact far more complex and subtle than that it seems that our memory is located not in one particular place in the brain, but is instead a brain-wide process in which several different areas of the brain act in conjunction with one another (sometimes referred to as distributed processing).
For example, the simple act of riding a bike is actively and seamlessly reconstructed by the brain from many different areas: the memory of how to operate the bike comes from one area, the memory of how to get from here to the end of the block comes from another, the memory of biking safety rules from another, and that nervous feeling when a car veers dangerously close comes from still another. Each element of a memory (sights, sounds, words, emotions) is encoded in the same part of the brain that originally created that fragment (visual cortex, motor cortex, language area) and recall of a memory effectively reactivates the neural patterns generated during the original training. Thus, a better image might be that of a complex web, in which the threads symbolize the various elements of a memory, that join at nodes or intersection points to form a whole rounded memory of a person, object or event. This kind of distributed memory ensures that even if part of the brain is damaged, some parts of an experience may still remain. Neurologists are only beginning to understand how the parts are reassembled into a clear whole.
Neither is memory a single unitary process but there are different types of memory. Our short term and long-term memories are encoded and stored in different ways and in different parts of the brain, for reasons that we are only beginning to guess at. Years of case studies of patients suffering from accidents and brain-related diseases and other disorders have begun to indicate some of the complexities of the memory processes, and great strides have been made in neuroscience and cognitive psychology.
Memory makes us. If we couldn't recall who, what, where, and when of our everyday lives, we would never be able to manage. We think about over ideas in the present with our short-term (or working) memory, while we store past events and learned meanings in our long-term memory. Memory is malleable and it tends to decay with age.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/memory
http://www.human-memory.net/
Danielle McNeely
Episodic Memory
Sometimes you hear a song you haven’t heard in awhile, it takes you back to a place in time of peace or happiness. Or perhaps you smell an old cologne or perfume and it takes you back to a memory of a loved one. That is a feeling of nostalgia and they are called episodic memories. Episodic memory is the memory of personal events that can be told perfectly by only you. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place. Nostalgia is a sentimental longing, or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy or peaceful personal memories.
Most people don’t even realize when they experience an episodic memory until it’s over and they are left with a sense of nostalgia. Episodic memories are subject to rapid forgetting, which basically means that as soon as the memory experience is over, the memory is gone until the next time you repeat the activity that brought back the memory.
Damage can be done to the brain to make the episodic memories no longer work. Excessive consumption of alcohol with little food, taking drugs like ecstasy, or getting a certain type of shellfish poisoning are a few of the ways you can damage the episodic memory. Most people with deficits in the episodic memory are deemed amnesic, or diagnosed with amnesia.
Some episodic memories are created by repeating the same activities over and over again. For example, my freshman year of high school every morning I would listen to the same playlists of songs on the bus on my way to school. Now whenever I hear any of those songs, the memory of sitting on the bus just before the sun comes up, with the trees passing, and the smell of the gas, all come back to me.
Resources
http://www.human-memory.net/types_episodic.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodic_memory
Tatym Rundel
Memory
Memory isn't something that you can physically touch. It is simply the method of remembering. It is understood in todays world that memory is a brain wide process and doesn't take place in one simple area. Although we think of memory as one simple thing, it is actually a complex building process. When you think of your great grandmas chocolate chip cookes, you dont just think of how they tasted. You also are able to remember how they looked, how soft and gooey they were, and how their scent filled the kitchen. Whether you realize this or not all memories are not simple, every single one is complex when deeply evaluated.
Our human brains are so very complex when it comes to remembering. When you hop on your bike and decide to go for a ride, multiple different sets of brain cells work together to help you. One set of cells recalls simply how to ride a bike, another set remembers your surroundings and how to navigate you, another one reminds you of your biking etiquette when around pedestrians and so on. We this isn't something we have to tell our brains to do, our brain simply works together to help us perform tasks like this.
There are three main steps to memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Encoding begins with perception, think of the first time you met someone relevant in your life, you may have noticed their outfit, the way they talked, maybe the way they smelt. All of these sensations traveled to the hippocampus which then filed theses perceptions into one memory. The hippocampus and the frontal cortex work together to decide whether this is important to remember, if so it is filed away. How these tiny memories are found and pulled back into our minds is still a question that is waiting to be answered.
With each new experience your brain rewires its physical structure, slightly. It is this (plasticity) that allows your brain to rewire itself when damaged. Encoding simply has to do with paying attention, when you are focused that is what you will remember. We simply choose not to pay attention and then our brain filters out the small, irrelevant things. Just going on a simple 10 minutes bike ride would fill our memory if we chose pay attention to every little thing. The ability to hold onto certain information to complete a task causes regions of the brain to become very active, mostly the pre-frontal lobe. This part of the brain at the front of the brain is highly developed in humans. This part of the brain is the reasoning for the shape of our foreheads.
We have different levels of memory, beginning with short term memory. Short term memory can hold approximately 7 items for no more than 30 seconds. Information that is important to us is transferred from short term memory to long term memory. The more we look at or see these the longer they stay within our brains. This is why we are supposed to study for tests. The more you read and look at something the longer it will be stuck in our brains.
Forgetting often has to do with encoding. We may forget because we were focused on something else while encoding. At other times forgetting is having to do with troubles of retrieving the memory. Have you ever heard a song on the radio that you knew but couldn't think of its title but later it came to you out of nowhere? This often is because of a mismatch between retrieval clues and the encoding of the information you were searching for.
Sources:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/human-memory.htm
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_cr/d_07_cr_tra/d_07_cr_tra.html
Image Sources:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fguljpkVJ6Y/Tfurjx2gKJI/AAAAAAAAAFo/xGlEfPUDjLk/s1600/Memory+Map+Picture+2.jpg
Tanner Adams
+** Memory **
To me memory is either a really good thing or a very bad thing! Throughout your life you go through certain things that you either want to remember or do not want to remember based on the outcome. The disappointing thing about that is that sometimes you don’t want to remember bad outcomes that have occurred in your life. Your mind works a lot like a computer it gathers important memories and puts them into a certain category that nothing else can enter.
In more physiological terms, memory is, at its simplest, a set of neural connections in the brain, and sciencentists still do not fully understand it and may never. It is the reconstruction of past experiences by the synchronous firing of neurons that were involved in the original experience. As we will see, though, because of the way in which memory is encoded, it is perhaps better thought of as a kind of collage or puzzle, rather than in the traditional manner as a collection of recordings or pictures or video clips, stored as discrete wholes.
For me, memory has always been one of my greatest features because I really do act off of my memory I have done so many things wrong in my life that it is needed to be remembered so I do not ever make that mistake again. But sometimes memory is a very bad thing, there is just some things that people need to let go but they just simply cannot because it is already in your brain and there is nothing that you can simply do about it, and no matter how hard you try it will not matter which is hard to grasp. I mean something for me that I would like to forget about that I cannot is death I have had so much death around me that it almost feels unreal and the last thing that I want to do is remember it, but I just cannot get it out of my head.
I strongly believe that the human memory is a blessing and a curse. Everyone wants happy memory’s but unfortunately that is not what you are going to get. What seems to be a single memory is actually a complex construction. If you think of an object like a baseball bat, your brain retrieves the object's name, its shape, its function, the sound when it scratches across the page. Each part of the memory of what a bat is comes from a different region of the brain. The entire image of bat is actively reconstructed by the brain from many different areas. Neurologists are only beginning to understand how the parts are reassembled into a whole.
The memory is a very complex thing and very hard to understand but if you thing about where would we be at now as a human race without a brain? Or any memory at all. You simply couldn’t tell because you clearly would not remember and would not have any recollection of anything.
Resources
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/human-memory.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/memory.html
http://www.human-memory.net/intro_what.html
Ricky Bullock
+** Memory **
Memory is one of those things that we seem to take for granted until its gone. I myself don’t think much about it, but after working in the medical field for several years, and am a nurse, there is a lot of things to be said about memory and how important it actually is. As a working nurse, there is literally mass amounts of information that needs to be remembered and recalled very quickly. This is just a functional aspect of memory. When things in the head are working right, this isn’t a problem most of the time. Its just business as usual. However the act of memory isn’t just a mental process, there’s physical aspects involved. Different parts of the brain are being accessed, and that information being brought together to form the images, sounds and smells of our memory. If any of those parts inaccessible, either due to damage or the pathways are blocked and non-conductive ( think alzheimer's) then memory becomes impaired.
Memory is broken down into two types. Short term and long term. Short term is often called “working memory”, and stores information that needs to be stored for up to a few hours. These kinds of things are like a particular step of a recipe that you just read off a card, or a phone message to give to someone else. Something that will not be needed once it is used or passed on. Long term memory stores information that is determined to be important to the subject person. This is a broad category ranging from names, addresses, how to get from one certain point A to another certain point B, the process of certain activities. Long term memory can then even be broken down further into Explicit, Implicit and Semantic memories. Explicit memories are facts that you have made a conscious effort to learn. Multiplication tables for instance. Implicit memories are memories that a subject used automatically to perform actions. Riding a bike, riding, walking- these are all implicit memories. Semantic memories are facts that are deeply ingrained they require no effort to recall. The face of your mother or spouse, your children are semantic memories. Explicit memory is the one that is most affected by age.
The process of memory functions through three steps. The first being acquisition. This is the process of learning the information. This information is put into temporary nerve-cell pathways. This is often considered the short-term memory aspect of memory. Now that information has been acquired, those pathways need to be strengthened and reinforced for long term memory to occur. This process is called consolidation and can take quite a bit of time. Up to months in some cases. The ability to maintain subjects in long term memory have their own individual factors as well, emotionally stimulating subjects have an easier, less resistant process as does memory that relates to pre-existing memories. The state of the body and its habits as a whole also affects the ability to form memory. Meaning a body that is not in a state of chemical dependence/abuse/intoxication and getting adequate sleep and nutrition forms memory easier and more successfully than one that is not. Now the memory is formed, the only thing left to do is the final step, Retrieval. It simply involved the reactivation of the pathways the memory is stored on/in, and that information is recalled. Some of this information is fast, some is slow all depending on how familiar the information is and how well the first 2 steps of the process went. This is where as a society our problems occur with alzheimer's. The process is interrupted by plaques along the pathways the information is stored on, preventing nerve conduction and thus preventing the Retrieval process from occurring.
*Referenced Material:*
Memory: MedlinePlus. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/memory.html
How Memory Works. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2014, from http://www.intelihealth.com/print-article/how-memory-works
Types of Memory. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2014, from http://www.intelihealth.com/print-article/types-of-memory
Memory Loss
Jason Shepherd
“In psychology, memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved.”
Everybody had different ways to remember things and everybody’s memory’s is different. Some people can remember every single thing they see or that has been said to them, and some people can’t even remember what their own name is. Usually it depends on how our brains work, and how we train them to remember the things we need, but sometimes we don’t even have a choice in the matter.
Think about a person with Alzheimer’s. This is a type of brain disorder that causes problems with a personal ability to remember things, and messes with the way they think and behave. It is one of the most common forms of dementia and usually happens to the elderly more often than it effects the younger generations. This is a disease that gets progressively worse over time, and one doesn’t have the ability to stop the progress of it. There is not current cure for this type of disease, and it is one of the leading causes of death in the United States.
With this type of memory loss, a person may not even remember their own name, let alone a loved own who has been with them for their entire lives. It takes the memories, whether those be short term ones or long term ones, and makes them disappear from the person’s memory. They are unable to carry on conversations in the late stages of this disease, and usually only like around eight years after being diagnosed.
Could you imagine having to live through this type of memory problems? Would you want to live a life, not knowing anyone around you, and waking up disoriented every morning? I know that people live like this every day, and there is nothing we can do to stop it from happening and taking over, but imagine the kind of life these sort of people live with.
Now think, how important is memory?
References:
http://www.alz.org/care/dementia-memory-loss-problems-confusion.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory
Marcus Tibbles
Cognitive Biases
Have you ever done something and been like: “What the hell was I thinking?” Well that’s because you let your brain do the thinking for you. Your brain makes up decisions based off what it wants through subjective rather than objective reasoning, it’s called cognitive bias. Often considered irrational; improper interpretation, inaccurate judgment, and perceptional distortion can come from cognitive bias. This is caused by a short circuit in human reasoning limitations. Like everything that humans do social influence and interaction leads to this short circuit. Other influences are mental thoughts and limitations, heuristics, limited capacity to process information.
Social institutions require rational thinking, not based off of emotions or prejudices. Several cognitive biases exist, such as conformation bias. Conformation bias says that we as humans seek out those who have similar view points to ourselves. Be it people who are flaming democrats or people who think that Jeromy Clarkson is a pill. We are turned off by ideas that are unfamiliar or different to our own, it’s call cognitive dissonance. Different viewpoints and ideas can make us feel insecure about our own ideas if we are unsure about them. This should give a person reason to hear out that idea, or reinforce their own ideas.
Post Purchase Rationalization, which sounds a lot like buyer’s remorse, is a good example of a cognitive bias. If you for say trade your awesome Dodge Challenger in for say a family car and make up reasons why you should take the trade. I rationalized; I mean you can rationalize this choice to make it seem like a good idea even if it may actually not be. Neglecting probability fits the same way of thinking. Air travel is safe, but still some people are scared of it. Apparently thoughts of a plane ripping apart in the air and falling thirty thousand feet is scarier than catching a sleeve on a door knob and falling down a flight of stairs and breaking their spine six times before hitting the ground. It’s just the inability to determine risk in things.
Observational Selection is your brain ignoring things until suddenly you realize that it’s everywhere, like herpes after a night at the club. Like there’s a song on the radio you like and you stop your car and get out at your thing, when you get done with your thing the song is playing on the radio again! It’s only been an hour and Daisy Teenager’s pop hit is on again. Then every day after that you notice it playing all the time and think it’s just now doing it even though it had been happening all the time. It’s like buying a car because you’ve never seen anyone else with one, and then after you buy it you see it everywhere.
The Status Quo is something that everyone thinks needs to be upheld, and it goes back to the conformation bias in that they both deal with things that are familiar to us. It’s the reason why someone will take the same route to work even there’s a quicker one, or why someone will be a Republican for their entire lives. There are many more cognitive biases but this was a quick look at a few of them.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias
http://io9.com/5974468/the-most-common-cognitive-biases-that-prevent-you-from-being-rational
Image Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/LincsCBT/cognitive-bias-16403110
Cognitive Bias
Kati Zuniga
The human brain is amazing and has so many remarkable qualities. Cognitive bias is a type of error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them. Society has a big influence on cognitive biases. The brain works to make cognitive biases as a result from attempting to simplify information processing. Cognitive biases lead to poor and irrational decisions and bad judgments.
Cognitive biases are from societies views on certain things. I believe that as children we do not have these biases. Social pressures , individual motivations, emotions , and limits on the minds ability to process information to contribute to cognitive biases. These biases are not necessarily bad; sometimes they allow us to reach decisions quickly, which can be vital in life threatening or dangerous situations.
Cognitive bias is a general term that is used to describe many observer effects in the human mind, some of which can lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, or illogical interpretation. It is a phenomenon studied in cognitive science and social psychology. Cognitive biases are instances of evolved mental behavior. Some are presumably adaptive, for example, because they lead to more effective actions in given contexts or enable faster decisions when faster decisions are of greater value. Others presumably result from a lack of appropriate mental mechanisms, or from the misapplication of a mechanism that is adaptive under different circumstances.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias
http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/fl/What-Is-a-Cognitive-Bias.htm
Cognitive Bias
By: Kasse Swisher
We’ve all heard the phrase don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Well this is a natural instinct that we can’t avoid. When you first look at someone you make an automatic assessment based on their external appearance and how they are presenting themselves. This is an illogical judgment of someone, which is basically the definition of cognitive bias.
Cognitive bias is not only about making inferences on people based on their exterior but it is also related to coming to conclusions on different situation and events as well. We’ve all been in the position of walking into a room and watching a scene unfold before our eyes. This is all without hearing the conversations taking place or actually being part of the scene itself. From watching the act take place your brain will automatically come up with, what it believes, a rational conclusion. Then if you proceed to actually find out what brought the interaction on, as well as, how it happened then you can find out what really went on and just how accurate your cognitive bias.
After watching the scene unfold your brain created a solution to what you couldn’t understand. When you arrive at a conclusion you have to factor in the different types of cognitive bias. You could have overlooked some relevant information or read too much into a certain aspect of the scenario that was actually of minimal importance.
Cognitive bias is a major reason on how rumors get started because our brains jump to conclusions with out getting the whole story or not realizing that there are flaws in the solution it has came up with. Cognitive bias cannot be escaped, but it is also a major flaw in the human disposition. It provides us irrational thoughts to pair with unrelated situations.
Something that can have effect on cognitive bias is watching a scenario happen over and over again. Your brain will still jump to conclusions because it doesn’t know the whole truth but if it is a familiar situation the chances of coming to an accurate conclusion is more likely.
Perhaps if more people were aware of the effect that cognitive bias had on them then they would be more apt to not jump to conclusions and realize that there is always more than what meets the eye. It’s the same thing with people. You may have seen a thousand people with the same style and the same personality but you never know if the next one will comply with those standards.
Because of cognitive bias I believe it’s important to allow anything and everyone the benefit of the doubt because all people and situations are different and have a different background no matter how familiar they seem.
Resources:
http://reasonandlogic.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/12-cognitive-biases-that-prevent-you-from-being-rational/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias
Andrew Voss (2017 Spring)
Aleksandra Malek (2017 Spring)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYBq9T7wUk8&feature=youtu.be