Learning by Teaching - The Great Courses
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 21 - How Sleep Affects Learning MANY PEOPLE VIEW SLEEP AS AN ANNOYANCE AND A WASTE OF TIME, BUT we can't function as well when we don't get enough sleep. Our ability to think clearly, to react quickly, and to focus our attention all decline when we're sleep deprived. In addition to sleep's role in helping us be alert and focused, there is now a great deal of evidence that sleep plays a crucial role in learning and memory—which is the subject of this lecture How significantly is your learning affected by your sleeping habits? Do you think that you learn better after a good night's sleep? Are there any specific steps you can take to improve the quality of your sleep?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 4 - Episodic Memory and Eyewitness Testimony THIS LECTURE IS ABOUT HOW SOME OF THE INFORMATION THAT WE LEARN IS ACTUALLY information that we infer. We are constantly drawing conclusions about the information that we encounter, and some of the information that we store during learning may be our inferences rather than accurate memories. And this has important real-world implications for eyewitness testimony and for how to interview witnesses. Do you think we would be better off or worse off if our memory were more like an accurate video recording? Is there anything you think we should change about the US legal system in light of what you learned from this lecture?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 8: Controversies in Explicit Learning Research THIS LECTURE WILL ADDRESS A FEW CONTROVERSIES IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN learning and memory. These are topics for which there seems to be a disconnect between what the general public believes to be proven fact and what science has actually demonstrated. By the end of the lecture, you should be in a much better position to evaluate the validity of claims you run across in the popular press. Although the evidence to date for incorporating learning styles in education is weak, it's possible that future studies will demonstrate the value. Do you think they will? In other words, do you think that people do have significantly different learning styles and that tailoring instruction to those styles would make a big difference? Why do you think listening to Mozart was associated with improved spatial reasoning (even if it was short lived and only in a subset of studies)? Do you think people can repress and subsequently recover an authentic traumatic memory?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 9: Unconscious, Implicit Learning IN ADDITION TO LEARNING CONSCIOUS, EXPLICIT INFORMATION, WE DO A LOT OF UNCONSCIOUS, implicit learning—the subject of the next 6 lectures of this course. There are 3 major types of implicit learning: procedural learning, nonassociative learning, and associative learning. Although these types of learning lead to changes in behavior, they don't lead to new, explicit knowledge that can be verbalized. But they also differ from each other in important ways. This lecture will focus on nonassociative learning and associative learning. — Do you think it's significant that implicit memories are unconscious? Suppose that you became consciously aware of all the implicit learning going on in your brain. How would that affect you? What are some examples of when you've been conditioned in your life?
Q1) What have you seen, heard or felt about this lecture? Certe affermazioni mi scatenano un po' reazioni contraddittorie. Quando si parla di capitalismo e di verità, ad esempio, un po' mi triggero. Pensiero critico come esercizio di metacognizione utile per superare le limitazioni naturali del pensiero. Q2) How have you initially interpreted the main ideas in this lecture? cose che bene o male già sapevo ma che fa' sempre bene rinfreascare. Esaminare le premesse ed esercitarsi ad osservare il proprio pensiero dall'esterno per creare una propria struttura filosofica il più possibile coerente internamente, valida e non contraddittoria. Q3) What else might the idea(s) from this lecture mean? Già so cos'è la metacognizione? Dovrei capire come crearmi un'euristica alternativa che mi permetta di validare il mio pensiero senza cadere nell'ossessività. Sono convinto che scrivendo o parlano e comunque esercitandomi con tali testi io stia crescendo esponenzialmente, come pensatore. Esercitarsi mediante simulazioni, comunque Q4) What might these meanings now mean for you or others? Il mio ruolo di socrate in giro è noto. Aiutare gli altri ad aggiornare il proprio pensiero per essere pensatori più efficaci. 1. Why is critical thinking important to the average person—and to society as a whole? Imprare a pensare è il primo passo per poter gestire al meglio l'estremamente complicato futuro verso cui ci stiamo dirigendo. D'altronde il fatto che introno a LessWrong si sia creata una delle comunità migliori per lo studio dei problemi complessi del transumanesimo è indice di come imparare a pensare sia fondamentale. Per quanto riguarda me, invece, imparare a pensare mi serve per ottimizzarmi il più possibile ed anche per essere cosciente di cosa non posso modifcare. È molto importante il saper fare passi verso tale ottimizzazione 2. What are the neurological, psychological, and cultural barriers to critical thinking? Il nostro cervello si è evoluto in un certo modo per rispondere alle necessità ambientali in cui è emerso. Tali necessità si sono modificate e attenuate e si sono traslate verso altri campi. Emergono in ognuno schemi di risposta che, buoni in certi contesti, diventano disfunzionali in altri, e quindi mantenerli vuol dire proseguire nel fare errori inutile e dispendiosi
Your Deceptive Mind - Lecture 1 - The Necessity of Thinking About Thinking This course focuses on metacognition, or thinking about thinking itself, and it endeavors to give you the skills of critical thinking. Developing critical thinking skills is empowering and liberating, and it is a defense mechanism against the world that we live in. In this introductory lecture, the concept of metacognition will be introduced, and you will learn why it is necessary. In addition, an overview of the purpose of this course will be given with examples of the importance of critical thinking in everyday life. - Logic and Critical Thinking - Flaws in Human Thinking - Thinking Critically 1. Why is critical thinking important to the average person—and to society as a whole? 2. What are the neurological, psychological, and cultural barriers to critical thinking?
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 16 - Components of Working Memory IN THE PREVIOUS LECTURE, YOU WERE INTRODUCED TO ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS theories of cognitive psychology—namely, Alan Baddeley's multicomponent theory of working memory, which assumes that working memory can be broken down into component parts. One part is the phonological loop, which you learned about in the previous lecture. This simple model can explain many phenomena related to working memory for language-based information, including effects of phonological similarity, word length, and speed of speech. In this lecture, you will learn about the other components of Baddeley's model: the visuospatial sketchpad, the central executive, and the episodic buffer. Which of the components of Baddeley's working memory model do you think is most important in real life? Do you think it's adaptive to have separate working memory components devoted to storing phonological versus visuospatial information? Why not just have a single, unified working memory system?
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 17 -The Neural Basis of Working Memory YOUR BRAIN CAN STORE INFORMATION INTO WOR ING MEMORY WHEN NECESSARY, rehearse and refresh that information to keep it active, and retrieve the information when it needs it to make a decision or choose an action. How does it do this? Is there a specific part of the brain that's devoted to working memory? Is the distinction between phonological working memory and visuospatial working memory reflected in brain organization? Are there specific neurons that fire when you're holding information in working memory and that don't fire when you're not? These are the kinds of questions that will be addressed in this lecture. Baddeley's psychological model of working memory maps onto some of the neuroscientific findings in some ways. Can you think of any ways in which it doesn't? Based on what you've learned, how do you think damage to the frontal lobe would affect someone's behavior?
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 18 - Training Your Working Memory SOME SCIENTISTS BELIEVE THAT WITH APPROPRIATE TRAINING, INTELLIGENCE CAN be increased somewhat. Specifically, there is some evidence that training someone's working memory can lead to increases in fluid intelligence, which refers to the ability to reason and solve new problems independent of previously acquired knowledge. There is even evidence that this kind of training can help children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But the claim that training can change intelligence is highly controversial, and many scientists don't believe it. Based on what you learned in this lecture, do you believe Jaeggi's claim that they managed to increase fluid intelligence in their participants? Why or why not? How would society be affected if we could improve people's intelligence, perhaps even dramatically? Would all the effects be positive?
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 19 - How Motivation Affects Learning THE NEXT 5 LECTURES ARE ABOUT FACTORS THAT CAN HAVE A BIG IMPACT ON LEARNING and memory. This lecture is about a factor that may fly under the radar but can have an enormous effect on learning: motivation. Psychologists have done quite a bit of work exploring the question of what influences motivation and have identified at least 4 factors that play a critical role: self-efficacy, perceived control, intrinsic motivation, and perceived value. As you will learn in this lecture, these factors can influence learning in different ways - There are 4 factors that can significantly influence motivation: self efficacy, perceived control, intrinsic motivation, and perceived value. Which of these factors do you think has had the biggest influence on your motivation to learn? - How could teachers apply the information in this lecture to help unmotivated students?
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 20 -How Stress and Emotion Affect Learning HOW ARE LEARNING AND MEMORY AFFECTED BY HOW WE FEEL? EXACTLY how do our feelings affect our learning and memory? What's going on in the brain and the body that might explain the effects of stress and emotion on memory? This lecture will address these types of questions. Do you have any flashbulb memories for particularly emotional events from your past? Do you think those memories are more accurate than other memories, or just more vivid? Can you think of any ways to reduce the level of chronic stress in your life (and thereby potentially improve your learning and memory)?
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 22 - How Aging Affects Learning THE COMMON BELIEF THAT AGING IS INEVITABLY ASSOCIATED WITH A significant deterioration in mental abilities, including learning and memory, is wrong. In the absence of disease, such as Alzheimer's, the mental impairments associated with aging are typically restricted to a few specific cognitive processes, and most other aspects of mental life don't decline much. This lecture will explore what scientists are discovering about the effects of aging on learning and memory—as well as what we can do about it. As you will discover, there are scientifically proven steps we can take to help us keep our mental abilities sharp as we get older. Have you noticed any changes in your cognitive abilities as you age? If so, what changes have the biggest impact on your daily life? Considering the acronym EARS, are there any changes you'd like to make in your life that might help you age more gracefully?
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 23 - Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities THIS LECTURE WILL ADDRESS A TOPIC THAT IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT BUT THAT IS surrounded by many misconceptions—learning disabilities. Most definitions of the term "learning disability" arouse controversy, but the education field tends to use the term "specific learning disorder" (SLD). The word "specific" makes clear that the learning problem is typically limited to a specific domain, such as learning to read or write, and would not extend to learning other things, such as how to ride a bike or tie a shoelace. This lecture will focus on dyslexia, including the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie it and how it's treated What do you think is the most common misconception about dyslexia in the general population? Many elementary school teachers aren't experts on learning disabilities and can't devote substantial amounts of time to individual students. How do you think the US educational system should handle this problem?
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The Learning Brain - LECTURE 24 - Optimizing Your Learning THIS FINAL LECTURE WILL DRAW ON WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED IN THIS COURSE AND offer 5 suggestions about what you can do to learn more effectively. By implementing some or all of these suggestions, you will hopefully be able to get even more out of your efforts to learn and grow in the future. Learning has a lot more to do with what the student does than with what the teacher does. As the great psychologist Herbert Simon put it, "Learning results from what the student does and thinks, and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn." - Which of the 5 suggestions discussed in this lecture resonated the most for you? Are there specific steps you could take to put the suggestions into practice? Are there any strategies that weren't in this lecture but that you've found helpful in optimizing your learning and memory?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 10: The Psychology of Skill Leraning LEARNING ANY COMPLEX MOTOR SKLL IS DIFFICULT. THE FIRST TIME YOU HIT A TENNIS serve or golf ball, or tied your shoe, it required all of your effort and concentration—and you still probably didn't do very well. But with enough practice, you eventually learn to perform the skill kind of automatically. And when you do, it doesn't even require your full attention. How do you go from being a complete novice at a skill to getting pretty automated so that you can perform other tasks at the same time? That's skill acquisition—the topic of this lecture. Do you think the cognitive stage or the associative stage is more important when acquiring a skill? Psychologists typically treat learning a sport and learning an instrument similarly (as examples of motor skill learning). Can you think of any important differences between them?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 11 - Language Acquisition THIS LECTURE IS ABOUT ONE OF THE LEARNING BRAIN'S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS: learning how to speak and understand a language. Natural languages are arguably the most complicated of all human inventions. They involve hundreds of thousands of words that are formed according to complex rules that often include hundreds of exceptions. And the words themselves have to be combined according to sophisticated syntactic rules that the world's top linguists still don't completely understand. Yet toddlers across the world learn these amazingly complicated inventions. Do you think the way we learn a language is fundamentally different than the way we learn other skills? Do you think we learn a second language in the same way we learn our native language? What are some similarities and differences?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 12 - The Neural Basis of Implicit Learning THIS LECTURE IS ABOUT THE NEURAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING IMPLICIT learning. How is simple nonassociative learning, such as habituation and sensitization, actually implemented at a neural level? How does the brain change during classical and operant conditioning? The neural mechanisms that underlie human learning are thought to be quite similar to those that underlie animal learning. So, why do you think humans learn so much more than animals do? What do you see as the major advantages and disadvantages of studying learning in animals when trying to understand human learning?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 13 - Strategies for Effective Skill Learning HOW SHOULD YOU PRACTICE TO GET BETTER AT A PARTICULAR SKILL? UNFORTUNATELY, the approaches to training that are used by most coaches are based largely on intuition and trial and error rather than on sound scientific evidence, and many of our intuitions about effective practice may actually be undermining our improvement. This lecture will focus on 3 key ideas about practice that have been scientifically demonstrated to be effective in the acquisition and long-term retention of skills: space, challenge, and randomize (SCoRe). - What new skill would you like to acquire? How might you apply what you learned in this lecture to help you acquire that new skill faster? - Have you identified any effective practice strategies of your own that were not discussed in this lecture?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 14 - Learning Bad Habits: Addiction ACQUIRING NEW KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPING NEW SKILLS CAN BE BOTH helpful and fulfilling, but in some cases—specifically, addiction—our sophisticated learning mechanisms can actually work against us and lead us to learn habits that harm us more than they help us. Addictive drugs can hijack learning mechanisms so that instead of learning valuable skills and habits, such as speaking a language or playing an instrument, the addict learns extremely strong associations with drug taking that turn that harmful behavior into a habit that can be extremely difficult to break. What do you see as the key similarities and differences between addiction to a drug and addiction to a behavior, such as gambling? Think of someone you know who is addicted to alcohol, smoking, or some other drug or behavior. Does what you learned in this lecture change your view of that person and his or her addiction in any way? If so, how?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 15 - Introduction to Working Memory STARTING WITH THIS LECTURE, THE COURSE WILL TURN TO YET ANOTHER ASPECT OF learning and memory: working memory. In this lecture, you will discover what working memory is, the central role that it plays in virtually all cognitive tasks, and the fact that it depends on different brain systems than long-term memory does. You will also be introduced to a simple model of working memory. In this lecture, you will learn about the phonological loop component of this model, while the next lecture will address the other components of working memory as well as some of the neural mechanisms that have been discovered. - Some psychologists view working memory as the currently activated part of long term memory. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of this theory? - Psychologists used to think that information had to be stored in working memory before it could be stored in long term memory. But Patient KF had relatively normal long term memory despite very impaired working memory. Do you think KF's profile demonstrates that psychologists were wrong?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 1: Learning 101 LEARNING IS CRUCIAL TO OUR LIVES AS HUMAN BEINGS. OUR ABILITY TO LEARN AND adapt is one of our most important and powerful assets. The goal of this course is to help you understand how the truly amazing learning mechanisms in your brain work so that you can get the most out of them in whatever kind of learning you're doing in your life. In this lecture, you will explore what learning is and why it is so crucial to us as human beings. You will also learn about how the scientific study of learning got started as well as some of the key themes that will be addressed in the course. Many simple organisms (e.g., cockroaches and earthworms) thrive without doing nearly as much learning as humans do. What do you think allows them to do so? Why do you think it was difficult for early scientists to recognize that human learning could be studied scientifically?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 2: What Amnesia Teaches Us about Learning THIS LECTURE TELLS THE STORY OF A MAN WHO MAY HAVE TAUGHT US MORE ABOUT learning and its neural substrates than anyone in history: Henry Molaison. He wasn't a famous psychologist or neuroscientist, but a neurological patient who suffered from profound amnesia. Studies of Henry—or patient HM, as he's known in the scientific literature—have radically changed our understanding of how learning works and how it's implemented in the brain. In this lecture, you will discover what those studies have taught us about the learning brain. Do you think conscious, explicit learning or unconscious, implicit learning is more important in our daily lives? Why do you think we use different mechanisms to learn conscious, explicit information and unconscious, implicit information? Why would that division of labor be adaptive?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 3 - Conscious, Explicit Learning LEARNING EXPLICIT, CONSCIOUS INFORMATION IS FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT THAN learning unconscious, implicit information. And this fact has some important implications for optimizing our learning. In particular, strategies that are effective for explicit learning might not be effective for implicit learning, and vice versa. Therefore, this course will separately address explicit learning and implicit learning. The next few lectures—including this one—will be devoted to the psychology and neuroscience of explicit learning. Why do you think we remember visual information better than verbal information? What are some strategies you can employ in your daily life to optimize your explicit learning?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 5 - Semantic Memory WE DON'T HAVE A SINGLE, UNITARY SYSTEM IN OUR MIND THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR learning. Instead, we have multiple brain systems for learning different kinds of information. For example, learning explicit information depends on different mechanisms—and brain circuits—than learning implicit information. Psychologists typically even distinguish between different types of explicit, conscious memory: episodic memory and semantic memory. As you will learn in this lecture, episodic memories are tied to a specific time and place and are remembered from a first-person perspective, while semantic memory is our memory for facts—that is, our general knowledge about the world. Do you think explicit, rule based category learning or unconscious, implicit category learning is more important in real life? Based on the information that animals also form categories, do you think the categories in a dog's semantic memory would be similar to those in a human's?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 6 - The Neural Basis of Explicit Learning SO FAR, THIS COURSE HAS FOCUSED ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EXPLICIT LEARNING AND memory. You have discovered that learning explicit information is fundamentally different than learning implicit information, and that even within explicit learning, learning and remembering episodic information is distinguished from learning and remembering semantic information. But how does our brain do this? What are the neural mechanisms that allow us to learn new explicit information and store it for later retrieval? Are there specific parts of the brain that are dedicated to learning explicit information, and if so, what are they? This lecture will address these questions. Most of the research on memory consolidation has focused on episodic memory. Do you think semantic memories are likely to be consolidated the same way? How would you test your idea experimentally? Damage to the hippocampus affects explicit learning and memory. How do you think damage to cortical consolidation sites would affect explicit learning and memory if the hippocampus were intact?
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The Learning Brain - Lecture 7 - Strategies for Effective Explicit Learning THE VAST MAJORITY OF STUDENTS HAVE ADOPTED STUDY STRATEGIES BASED MORE on trial and error than on solid scientific evidence. The good news is that educational and cognitive psychologists have studied this topic and learned a lot about which study techniques work and which don't. In this lecture, you will learn about methods that have been tested in real experiments and that have been demonstrated to improve learning and retention of explicit information. Do you have any personal study techniques that work well for you but that weren't discussed in this lecture? If so, why do you think they're effective, based on what you've learned in the course so far? Are there any specific ways that you can apply what you learned in this lecture to make your learning more effective?
Q1) What have you seen, heard or felt about this lecture? tendiamo ad attribuire senso, essenza e significati più grandi alle cose. Questo porta a errori sistematici nel pensiero. Il default mode può essere messo in prospettiva grazie a skills metacognitive. Anche molti bisogno evolutivamente connotati impediscono un pensiero corretto Q2) How have you initially interpreted the main ideas in this lecture? Idee interessanti e ineccepibili, in questa lezione Q3) What else might the idea(s) from this lecture mean? tendo ovviamente anche io a confermare i miei bias ma a volte proprio non riesco a riconoscerlo. Attribuisco erroneamente motivazioni interne agli altri? Q4) What might these meanings now mean for you or others? Anche se fatico a cambiare molte idee il mettermi in prospettiva di tanto in tanto ha di certo incanalato meglio le mie abilità cognitive. Mi sento molto più "forte" come pensatore. 1. How does knowledge of brain anatomy and function inform the process of our decision making? Rendendoci conto dei processi neuroanatomici alla base dei nostri errori potremmo, un giorno, intervenire meglio per correggerli. Lo scopo della conoscenza medica è quello di potenziarci? O potenziarci o quantomento sapere come e dove intervenire. 2. Do humans have free will, or are all of our thoughts and behaviors the result of neurological destiny? Temo che una parte piuttosto consistente del nostro modo di essere sia predeterminata (anzi, in ultima analisi mi sento ancora un po' determinista); guardando me mi sento "libero" e sento di aver scelto come sono, di essermi costruito. La realtà è che sicuramente lo spazio di intervento non è così grande come immagino.
Your Deceptive Mind - Lecture 2 - The Neuroscience of Belief This lecture will cover why people believe what they do. Humans are emotional creatures, and this has a powerful effect on our reasoning. In this lecture, you will learn about the neurological organization of the brain and how that relates to how you rationalize beliefs and are inÁuenced by basic human desires and emotions. Additionally, you will learn what drives this human desire for belief and for the speciÀc things you believe in. The hope is that by understanding what motivates humans, you will be able to transcend or at least mitigate the inÁuence of those motivations. - Belief, Motivation and Reason - Needs That Motivate - Senses That Motivate - Motivation, Emotion and Behavior 1. How does knowledge of brain anatomy and function inform the process of our decision making? 2. Do humans have free will, or are all of our thoughts and behaviors the result of neurological destiny?
Q1) What have you seen, heard or felt about this lecture? How have you initially interpreted the main ideas in this lecture? What else might the idea(s) from this lecture mean? La percezione gioca brutti scherzi. I dati sensoriali sono interpretati, e dunque tendiamo a costruire spiegazioni di ciò che vediamo per riempire gli inevitabili buchi. Errori dei testimoni, esperimento del gorilla ed illusioni ottiche. I sinestetici uniscono i sensi (è possibile diventare sinestetici?). Si ricollega sempre alla nostra tendenza a costruire narrative. Dunque la memoria e la percezione giocano scherzi e portano ad errori, come anche la scarsa attenzione Q2) What might these meanings now mean for you or others? Cose che bene o male già sapevo. Comunque non fidarmi dei miei sensi è un buon passo avanti. Meditazione ed attention training come esercizi per non perdersi troppo. Ricordare la situational awareness e la sua importanza come prevenzione e, comunque, come tattica di sopravvivenza. Bene o male ho la presunzione di cavarmela. 1. How does the brain process sensory information, and how does this affect what we think we perceive? Attenzione e sensi sembranon non viaggiare su binari paralleli. Il fatto che io possa focalizzare la mia attenzione sulla visione periferica lo testimonia. Inoltre c'è concordanza tra i vari sensi e ciò che ascolto può cambiare intrepretazione di ciò che vedo e viceversa. Guardare video su youtube con occhi chiusi o senza audio per allenare i sensi? Comunque i circuiti percettivi e sensoriali sono diversi da quelli interpretativi, anche se strettamente connessi. 2. What are the various factors that make eyewitness testimony unreliable? L'effetto della pistola, la scarsa memoria a lungo termine, la tendenza ad aggiungere dettagli per andare incontro alla propria interpretazione degli eventi (caso JFK), i vari errori dell'attenzione, la risposta emotiva all'evento e via dicendo.
Your Deceptive Mind - Lecture 3 - Errors of Perception In order to understand the nature of human thinking and belief, it is necessary to understand how our brains acquire and process information. This lecture will begin this section on exploring the ways in which our underlying brain activity is deceptive and constructed by examining the nature of perception and all the ways in which humans can be deceived by what we think we perceive and by what we miss. This lecture will cover phenomena such as attentional blindness, change blindness, and optical illusions - Deceiving the Brain - Optical Illusion - Seeing What's Not There - Paying Attention To Sensory Information 1. How does the brain process sensory information, and how does this affect what we think we perceive? 2. What are the various factors that make eyewitness testimony unreliable?