^CategoryPsychology

A close - up handshake between a doctor and a patient in a medical office with clean

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 3, 2023

Categorized
Media, Psychology, Science

Tagged
American Psychological Association on misinformation, Chris Ellis, Climate change and trust in science, John Horgan on scientific omniscience, Misinformation concept, Misinformation countermeasures, Trust in science and manipulation}

Do Scientists Need to Learn to Lie More Believably?

_{As public trust in science diminishes, one serious proposal that scientists should manipulate our beliefs for our own good} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 3, 2023

5

Media, Psychology, Science}

Australian philosopher and medic Chris Ellis thinks that science writers should quit telling everyone that the universe is a meaningless void, even though he seems to think it is: We live in a deterministic world without free will, yet we must choose to accept science and prevent climate change. And we must act now! 1.The universe is destined to end in a dead, freezing void and life has no meaning. But we must prevent climate change so our planet does not become a dead, overheated void – and we can continue our meaningless lives. 2.As a result of these paradoxes, those who do not align with science’s claims about the fundamental nature of the universe may not accept scientific arguments Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 15, 2023

Categorized
Free will, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology

Tagged
Clare Wilson, Determined (Penguin 2023), Diana Gitig, Free Agents (Princeton 2023), John Horgan (on free will), Kevin Mitchell, Materialism and free will, Robert Sapolsky, Steven Pinker}

The Free Will Debate Really Heated Up This Year

_{Many commentators are weighing in; surprisingly, perhaps, well-known materialists are disputing the claim that there is no free will} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 15, 2023

5

Free will, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology}

The two big books of the season on free will are primatologist Robert Sapolsky’s Determined (Penguin 2023), which maintains that there is no free will, and neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell’s Free Agents (Princeton University Press, 2023), which maintains that evolution gave us free will. Prominent cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker argues that Sapolsky is wrong to say there is no free will because 1. Levels of analysis. The fact that individual neurons are deterministic doesn’t mean that an intricate assembly of billions of neurons is deterministic. Matter is mostly empty space, but that doesn’t mean we can walk through walls…. 2. Determinism in the technical math sense (input perfectly predicting output) is false when applied to human behavior. Identical twins reared together Read More ›

Robot, Machine, Cyborg, Droid, Android, artificial intelligence, AI, computer, chatGPT, technology, internet, technology, advanced, digital, circuit, futuristic, network, light, communication, inform

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 11, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Psychology

Tagged
Anti-anthropocentrism, Carl Sagan on ET, Eric Haselstine, Ethan Siegel on ET, Exopsychology, Jaime Green, Marius Raab, Niklas Döbler, Sean Kirkpatrick}

Exopsychology: The Psychology of No One We Ever Knew

_{The academic attempt to establish a psychology of alien intelligences — for whose existence we have no evidence — tells us something about ourselves} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 11, 2023

5

Human exceptionalism, Psychology}

This month’s buzz in Psychology Today is exopsychology, the psychology of extraterrestrial intelligence. Why’s that? There aren’t any such intelligences around. Never mind, we have been informed that studying them is good for our moral development anyway: For instance, rigorously challenging assumptions about extraterrestrial motivations rooted in anthropocentrism (projecting human motivations onto non-humans), might help us do a better job relating to other humans who are very different from us, or to gain a deeper understanding of animal behavior. Eric Haselstine, “Exopsychology, the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Psychology Today, November 8, 2023 It’s called anti-anthropocentrism: Imagining motivations and predicting behaviors of intelligent entities, who are wildly different from us, and who, for reasons of their own, have traveled here—either themselves Read More ›

brain made from water and flowers on pastel background concept art, photo, Shot on 65mm lens, Shutter Speed 1 4000, F 1.8 White Balance, 32k, Super-Resolution, Pro Photo RGB, Half rear Lighting, Backl

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 22, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Ambidexterity, Ann Pietrangelo, Brain laterality, Iain McGilchrist, Left brain vs. right brain concept, Left-handedness, Right-handedness, Robert H. Shmerling, Scott Barry Kauffman}

The Left and Right Brain Both Want Pop Science Media to Chill

_{Neuroscience is not an especially rewarding field for the pursuit of dogma} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 22, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Psychology}

A staple of coffee room chatter has been left brain vs. right brain thinking. You know, “He’s one of those left-brain types; he’d fire us all to save money!” Or, “She’s really a right-brain kind of person so if something looks beautiful, she probably isn’t thinking about what would happen if…” Left brain, right brain. It’s one of those complex cultural concepts that starts in conventional science fact, explodes into pop psychology chatter, and then settles into a small, murky world that can only be navigated by serious thinking. First, vertebrates generally have brains divided into two lobes, an arrangement that may go back half a billion years. The right hemisphere usually controls the left side of the body and Read More ›

aerial perspective of a crop circle with mathematical symbols

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 17, 2023

Categorized
Education, Mathematics, Politics, Psychology

Tagged
Arabic origin math terms, California Math Framework, Colin Wright, Gender fluidity claims, Jerry Coyne, Joanne Jacobs, Kari Kokka, Math culture wars, Max Eden, Private vs. public truth, Richard Dawkins, Rochelle Gutierrez, Toni Airaksinen}

Does Deep Social Change Underlie the War on Math?

_{Why is the universal language of science sinking under the weight of claims about trauma and privilege?} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 17, 2023

6

Education, Mathematics, Politics, Psychology}

Citing a recent article in the journal Urban Education aimed at “healing practices through the use of Social Justice Mathematics.” education watchdog Joanne Jacobs notes a trend, aimed at California schools, toward turning math class into a soap opera: … Another problem read: “I have US$100. I owe 1/4 of my money to my mom, 2/5 to my grandmother, and 4/10 to my brother. Do I have enough money to pay everyone back? How much money should each person get?” After students calculate that this woman owes more money than she has, they watch a video of a single mom struggling to make ends meet. They are then asked questions like, “What are some feelings that you are having when Read More ›

Love emotion or empathy cerebral or brain activity in caudate nucleus. Interaction and connection between two people. Conceptual 3d illustration of interactive neurological stimulation or telepathy.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 18, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Bats (brain wave synchrony), Brain wave synchrony, Collective neuroscience, Education (brain wave synchrony), Hyperscanning, Lydia Denworth, Mice (brain wave synchrony)}

When You Sync With Someone, Your Brains Wave Together

_{Neuroscientists have found that co-operation results in brain wave synchrony} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 18, 2023

4

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology, Relationships}

At Scientific American, Lydia Denworth brought up an interesting topic earlier this month: The way that brain waves synchronize between two people who are communicating successfully: Neurons in corresponding locations of the different brains fire at the same time, creating matching patterns, like dancers moving together. Auditory and visual areas respond to shape, sound and movement in similar ways, whereas higher-order brain areas seem to behave similarly during more challenging tasks such as making meaning out of something seen or heard. The experience of “being on the same wavelength” as another person is real, and it is visible in the activity of the brain.” – Lydia Denworth, “Brain Waves Synchronize when People Interact,” Scientific American, July 1, 2023 For example, Read More ›

Twin African girls are interested and playing Kalimba or Thumb Piano acoustic music instrument from Africa, twins little African girls with her braided hair, African hair style

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 8, 2023

Categorized
Psychology

Tagged
Cyril Burt, Gavin Evans, Genetics, Genetics and aging, Homosexuality, Identical twin studies, Identical twins separated at birth, Josef Mengele, Thomas J. Bouchard}

That “Mirror Image” Myth About Identical Twins… What Happened?

_{Researcher of identical twins hoped to prove that Genes Rule! But there were ethics slippages along the way} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 8, 2023

6

Psychology}

For some decades, we heard claims from studies of identical twins (formed when one fertilized egg splits) that everything from exam results to homosexuality might hinge on genetics. Therefore, any similarity in later choices or behavior might be due to genetic factors (read “predetermined” or “inevitable” here). How has that assumption held up, especially in the age of genome mapping? Identical twins comprise roughly 1 in every 250 births. Studies of twins who were separated at birth, have been especially prized because the twins were assumed to grow up in different environments. Thus any significant similarities pointed to genetic influences. Several problems emerged though. For one thing, what about the assumption that separation at birth means that twins experience different Read More ›

white man mannequin with broken crack reflection mirror in crime or violence scene

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 25, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology

Tagged
Chinese Room experiment, Computer functionalism, David Bentley Hart, Functionalism, Hilary Putnam (1926–2016), John Searle, Kevin Roose, Narcissism, Narcissus, You are Gods (Notre Dame 2022)}

The “Conscious Machine” Is Just Real Enough to Scare People

_{The ancient Greek hunk Narcissus could tell us about the risks — if he hadn’t been turned into a daffodil…} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 25, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology}

Theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart turns to an ancient folk tale to explain the danger of coming to believe that artificial intelligence is real human intelligence. Narcissus, as he tells us, was a young Greek hunter who fell in love with his own reflection in still water. He was entranced by the image but frustrated by the fact that it never did anything he didn’t do himself. He pined away and was eventually transformed into a flower — still called narcissus today. His name also found its way into psychology as a term for extreme self-absorption, narcissism. And that’s where Dr. Hart fears that an attraction to AI products as “machine selves” is taking us. While we’ve always been Read More ›

Hands of a man tearing a piece of paper with inscription free will

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 25, 2023

Categorized
Free will, Psychology

Tagged
Free won't, Freely Determined (Basic Books 2022), Kennon Sheldon, Marcelo Gleiser on free will, Michael Egnor, Quantum mechanics (and free will)}

Free Will: What Are the Real Reasons to Believe in It?

_{Some say that free will might be a useful delusion but neuroscience provides sound reasons to believe that it is real.} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 25, 2023

5

Free will, Psychology}

University of Missouri psychology professor Kennon Sheldon’s message is neatly summed up in an opening statement: “Regardless of whether humans do or don’t have free will, psychological research shows it’s beneficial to act as if you do”. The author of Freely Determined: What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About How to Live (Basic Books, 2022) responds to philosophers who say that we do not have free will: All my life, I’ve struggled with the question of whether humans have ‘free will’. It catalysed my decision to become a psychologist and continues to inspire my research to this day, especially as it relates to the kinds of goals people set for themselves, and the effects of goal-striving on Read More ›

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 12, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Carl Sagan, Christian Krog Tamnes, Dragons of Eden (book 1977), Eldrid Borgan, Joseph Cesario, Justin Gregg, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Paul D. MacLean, Ross Pomeroy, Triune brain theory}

Look Out! The “Reptilian Brain” Is Still Here!

_{Many psychology students are subjected to this day to an exploded pop neuroscience myth endorsed by celebrity scientist Carl Sagan} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 12, 2023

6

Neuroscience, Psychology}

Do we have a three-part brain — reptilian, mammalian, and human? Curiously, psychology textbooks teach us that we do and neuroscience studies teach us that we don’t. Who to believe? And how did that happen anyway? In the 1960s, Yale University physiologist and psychiatrist Paul D. MacLean (1913–2007) offered the triune brain theory. On that view, the reptilian brain (brain stem) controls things like movement and breathing; the mammalian brain controls emotion (limbic system); and the human cerebral cortex controls language and reasoning (neocortex). That might have been just another theory except that it was widely promoted by celebrity astronomer Carl Sagan (1934–1996) in his book, The Dragons of Eden (Random House, 1977). Praised in The Atlantic as “a rational, Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
May 29, 2023

Categorized
Psychology

Tagged
brain, Dementia, Memory loss, Michael Egnor, mind, Mind Matters News podcast}

Sparks and Flashes of Remembrance

_{An expert in memory-loss treatment recalls some tender stories about memory in the midst of forgetfulness} _{News

May 29, 2023

6

Psychology}

In a recent Mind Matters podcast episode, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor (Mike), a frequent contributor to the site, interviewed friend and colleague Stephen Post, an expert in memory-loss-related disorders. Here’s a snippet of their conversation, which you can enjoy in full by following this link. Mike Egnor: So to begin, your new book, Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People, why did you use that title and what do you mean by deeply forgetful people? Stephen Post: Well, that’s a fabulous question to begin with because the title doesn’t quite say it all, but it’s close. I’ve been working with deeply forgetful people and their caregivers since I went out to Case Medical School in 1988, and I have never felt comfortable with Read More ›

Doctor Helps get up . Sick . Elderly Patient.

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Author
News
Date
January 11, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Epileptic seizures, Featured, Functional blindness, Functional gait disorders, neurology, Non-epileptic seizures, Subconscious mind, unconscious mind}

When It’s Not Clear If a Disorder Is From the Brain or the Mind…

_{Neurologist Andrew Knox explains to Robert J. Marks that some psychological problems appear as if they were brain problems — yet there’s nothing wrong with the brain} _{News

January 11, 2023

8

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology}

In the podcast released last Thursday, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed pediatric neurologist Dr. Andrew Knox from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health on “Ways the brain can break” (#220, January 5, 2023). What follows is Part 4 of the discussion, “When it’s not clear if a disorder is from the brain or the mind…” Here are Part 1: How our brains are — and aren’t — like computers, Part 2: What is happening when children have strokes or dementia signs?, and Part 3: How do strokes, dementia offer insight into how the brain works? https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/Mind-Matters-220-Andrew-Knox-Episode-1.mp3 This portion begins at roughly 25:15 min. A partial transcript and notes, and Additional Resources follow. Epileptic Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
January 2, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Chatbots (history), Chatbots (how they work), Eliza effect, Gary Smith, GPT-3 (Gary Smith's tests)}

Let’s Call AI What It Really Is: Faux Intelligence

_{Gary Smith at Salon: While GPT-3 can string words together in convincing ways, it has no idea what the words mean} _{News

January 2, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Relationships}

Pomona College business and investments prof Gary Smith warns Salon readers not to be too gullible about what human-sounding chatbots really amount to. He notes that in the 1960s, a pioneer chatbot called ELIZA convinced many psychiatric patients that they were interacting with a real psychiatrist. The machine simply repeated back their statements as questions, a popular psychiatric technique at the time because it generated more and more discussion — from the patient. The patients’ belief that they were interacting with a human being came to be called the Eliza effect. Has much changed? If you play around with GPT-3 (and I encourage you to do so) your initial response is likely to be astonishment — a full-blown Eliza effect. Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 30, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Andrew Solomon, Cecily Whiteley, Depression (clinical), Global state of consciousness, Jonathan Birch, Neural correlates of depression, Noonday Demon (Scribner 2001), Randi Mazzella, Sally Brampton, Shoot the Damn Dog (Bloomsbury 2008), suicide}

Is Depression an Altered Global State of Consciousness?

_{Cecily Whiteley and Jonathan Birch from the London School of Economics and Political Science argue that altered consciousness prevents depressed people from just "seeing the bright side"} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 30, 2022

5

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Relationships}

PhD student Cecily Whiteley and philosophy prof Jonathan Birch, both of the London School of Economics and Political Science, think that depression is often misunderstood. In this 2021 article, noted again at Psyche, they point out that it is not just “feeling low”; it is an altered form of consciousness: The psychologist Andrew Solomon hints at some of these transformations in his memoir The Noonday Demon (2001): “When you are depressed, the past and future are absorbed entirely by the present moment, as in the world of a three-year-old. You cannot remember a time when you felt better, at least not clearly; and you certainly cannot imagine a future time when you will feel better. Being upset, even profoundly upset, Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 21, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Peer Review, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology

Tagged
Adolph Hitler, Adrian Desmond, Anton Lavey, Charles Darwin, Daniel Gasman, Darwin’s Sacred Cause (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2009), Darwinian Racism (Discovery Institute 2022), Descent of Man (1871 and 1974), Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), George Mosse, Hitler’s Ethic (Palgrave 2009), James Moore, Might Is Right (1896), Nazis and Darwinism, Peter Bowler, Ragnar Redbeard, Richard Weikart, Robert Richards, Was Hitler a Darwinian? (University of Chicago Press 2013), White Evangelical Racism (University of North Carolina Press 2021), Yuval Noah Harari}

When Scholars Simply Don’t Want To Believe Something Obvious…

_{… they are very good at developing clever arguments to avoid seeing it} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 21, 2022

8

Ethics, Peer Review, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology}

This article was originally published in Salvo 62 (Fall 2022) under the title “The Whitewashing.” In Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), University of California historian Richard Weikart demonstrated painstakingly that the Nazis had developed an ethic based largely on applying Darwinian evolution principles to government. Scholars have since tried hard to obscure the connection, most likely because they believe in Darwinism and see it as science. Any suggestion that the Nazis were avid Darwinists too is unseemly and must be refuted by any and all means. With racism very much in current news, Weikart has focusing in Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism (Discovery Institute Press, 2022) on the way Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
December 18, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Psychology

Tagged
Dog females (psychology), Dogs, Dogs evaluating humans, Hitomi Chijiiwa, Karen Hopkin}

Researchers: Dogs Evaluate How Competent Humans Are

_{Provided that a treat is involved. Females pay more attention to competence in humans than males, they say} _{News

December 18, 2022

3

Natural Intelligence, Psychology}

At Scientific American’s “60-Second Science” podcast (with transcript), science writer Karen Hopkin interviewed Kyoto University psychologist Hitomi Chijiiwa on her team’s recent finding that female dogs actively evaluate human competence. Because one their previous studies showed that dogs avoid people who refuse to help their human friends, the team decided to also test whether dogs form judgments about people based on their apparent skilfulness or competence: Chijiiwa: We showed 60 dogs two persons manipulating transparent containers. One person is competent. Hopkin: That person was able to pop open the top after just a couple of twists. Chijiiwa: Whereas the other person is incompetent and they failed at this task. Hopkin: That person tried to open the lid, then gave up. Read More ›

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 12, 2022

Categorized
Language, Psychology

Tagged
Chuck Dinerstein, Minced oaths, Profanity, Ryan McKay, Shiri Lev-Ari, Swearing}

Researchers: Profanity Has Some Elements of a Universal Language

_{They found that, in a number of languages, profanity omits certain sounds and stresses others} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 12, 2022

4

Language, Psychology}

In a study, researchers found that, across different languages, swear words tended to lack soundssuch as l, r, and w: Shiri Lev-Ari and Ryan McKay from Royal Holloway, University of London conducted a pilot study with speakers of five unrelated languages (20 individuals per language) and asked them to list the most offensive words they knew in their language, excluding racial slurs. The initial study revealed that swear words were less likely to include approximants, which include sounds like l, r, w and y. The authors suggest that approximants may be less suitable than other sounds for giving offense and investigated this in two further studies. Springer, “The universal sound of swearing across languages” at Eurekalert (December 5, 2022) The Read More ›

Annoyed black woman having video chat on smartphone at home

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post

Author
News
Date
November 3, 2022

Categorized
Psychology, Relationships, Social Media

Tagged
Featured, iOS 16 iPhone, iOS 16 iPhone editing sent messages, Karl D. Stephan on editing text messages, Kim Komando, Text messages (editing after sending)}

Sorry! I Take It Back (But Only With iOS 16)

_{The new iOS lets you edit messages, but only within 15 minutes of sending them, and guess what—the recipient can see all your edits…} _{News

November 3, 2022

6

Psychology, Relationships, Social Media}

This article by Texas State University engineering prof Karl D. Stephan is republished with permission from MercatorNet November 1, 2022) Everybody has said something they later regret saying. If the person you’re talking to is right there in front of you, there’s nothing you can do to unsay it. As country singer Jon Langston says in one of his song titles, “I Can’t Take Back Words.” But according to tech guru Kim Komando, the new iOS 16 operating system for iPhones (version 8 and later) lets you do that with text messages—sort of. Ever since commercial text messaging became available on mobile phones in the mid-1990s, it has shared with verbal interchanges the fact that once you send a text, it’s Read More ›

press and media camera ,video photographer on duty in public new

^{Type
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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 20, 2022

Categorized
Media, Politics, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Dominick Mastrangelo, Gallup poll on trust in media, Media (changing role), Media (trust in media), New York Times/Siena poll on trust in media, Paul Bedard, Polls on trust in media, Trust (in media), Trust in media and political affiliation}

Polls: Trust in Mainstream U.S. Media Still in Free Fall

_{Both the New York Times poll and Gallup poll illustrated that this week} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 20, 2022

4

Media, Politics, Psychology, Relationships}

A Canadian commentator has noticed a little-publicized fact about last week’s New York Times–Siena College poll of 792 registered voters. While the poll focused on the US mid-term elections next month, the information about how typical voters view mainstream media was most revealing. A majority not only don’t trust media but see them as a threat to democracy: A New York Times-Siena College poll published Tuesday found 59 percent of voters view the media as a “major threat to democracy,” while 25 percent said the press is a “minor threat” and only 15 percent said it poses no threat. The divide fell sharply along partisan lines, with 87 percent of voters who supported former President Trump in 2020 indicating they Read More ›

senior, depressed african american man looking at photo frame

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
October 12, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Cerebellum and memory, Emotional memories, Memories and cerebellum, Post-traumatic stress disorder and cerebellum}

New Function for Our Brains’ Cerebellum: Emotional Memory

_{Memory is all immaterial information. But very different types of information. Researchers found that the cerebellum handles a lot of emotional memory} _{News

October 12, 2022

4

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology}

We use the same word “memory” to mean very different types of things. There’s the new phone number, in which we have no emotional investment. Then there’s the smell of cinnamon buns from a long-ago home-town bakery, which is a non-shareable emotional investment. And again, there’s a colleague’s advice about addressing a difficult client’s needs… that’s a mixture of a number of different types of memory, in getting the right approach down pat. All memory is immaterial information, of very different types. And a team of researchers finds that our brains’ cerebellum handles a lot of emotional memory: The cerebellum is known primarily for regulation of movement. Researchers at the University of Basel have now discovered that the cerebellum also Read More ›