When the British acid house band The KLF videoed the burning of a million pounds in 1994 on the Isle of Jura, they might not have realised it, but they were likely activating the left hemisphere tool network of anyone who watched.
In a splendid case of science imitating one of the quirkier corners of life, Cristina Becchio and her colleagues, including the British husband and wife team Chris and Uta Frith, scanned the brains of twenty people as they watched brief video clips of 100 or 500 Danish Kroner bank notes (worth ten or fifty pounds, respectively) being torn or cut in half*. For comparison, the participants also viewed the same value notes being folded or looked at, and they also viewed valueless notes with scrambled imagery on them being destroyed or folded.
Compared with the other video clips, the sight of bank notes being destroyed led to increased activation in brain regions previously associated with looking at, identifying and using tools – that is, the left fusiform gyrus and the left posterior precuneus. This activation was greater when it was higher value notes being destroyed. Participants also said they felt more aroused and less comfortable when watching the money being destroyed than when watching the other videos.
Why wasn’t the inferior parietal lobule, the final part of the so-called left hemisphere tool network, activated? Perhaps because activity here is associated with specific motor skills and hand movements involved in tool use, and the use of money isn’t dependent on any particular skilled movements.
The researchers’ interpretation of their finding is that the videos showing the cutting and tearing of money prompted participants to focus on the usual function of money as a tool for representing the value of goods and services. ‘… [T]he fact that the brain does treat money as a tool for tracking exchange on a precise scale suggests that a tool explanation of money is more than just a useful metaphor,’ they said.
An alternative explanation for the results is simply that the extra activation during the destructive clips was caused by the emotional effect of seeing money destroyed, in line with the participants’ subjective accounts of how they felt. But Becchio and her team doubt this is the true cause of their results – they found no activation in brain regions usually associated with financial loss and there were no correlations between levels of brain activity and the arousal and comfort ratings.
The KLF were unavailable for comment.
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The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology is a series of questions and an accompanying scoring formula that classifies players of multiplayer online games (including MUDs and MMORPGs) into categories based on their gaming preferences. The test is based on a 1996 paper by Richard Bartle and was created in 19992000 by Erwin Andreasen and Brandon Downey. Although the test has met with some criticism for the dichotomous nature of its question-asking methodology the test has been taken by a large number of computer game players. As of September 2009 the test had been taken over 500000 times.
The result of the Bartle Test is the “Bartle Quotient” which is calculated based on the answers to a series of 30 random questions in the test and totals 200% across all categories with no single category exceeding 100%. For example a person may score “100% Killer 50% Socializer 40% Achiever 10% Explorer” which indicates a player who prefers fighting other players relative to any other area of interest. Scores are typically abbreviated by the first letter of each category in order of the quotient. In the previous example this result would be described as a “KSAE” result.
Achievers
Also known as “Diamonds” these are players who prefer to gain “points” levels equipment and other concrete measurements of succeeding in a game. They will go to great lengths to achieve rewards that confer them little or no gameplay benefit simply for the prestige of having it.
Single-player appeal to the Achiever
Every game that can be “beaten” in some way shape or form caters to the Achiever play style by giving them something to accomplish. Games that offer special movies extra endings or other bonuses for beating it with a 100% completion rating appeal to Achievers.
Multi-player appeal to the Achiever
One of the appeals of online gaming to the Achiever is that he or she has the opportunity to show off their skill and hold elite status to others. They value (or despise) the competition from other Achievers and look to the Socializers to give them praise. As they achieve more they are no longer easy targets of the Killers and may enjoy their new position on the food chain. These gamers also tend to like seeing their user names at the top of scoreboards and ladder systems. Many games cater to these players by offering special titles and a special exclusive mounts to those that place in the top of the competitive Arena ladder.
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Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 2000 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: “We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals families and communities.” Positive psychologists seek “to find and nurture genius and talent” and “to make normal life more fulfilling” not simply to treat mental illness. The field is intended to complement not to replace traditional psychology.
By scientifically studying what has gone right rather than wrong in both individuals and societies Positive Psychology hopes to achieve a renaissance of sorts. Many researchers have joined the positive psychology movement and it continues to generate influential and well-cited articles in mainstream top-tier journals.
Background
Several humanistic psychologistssuch as Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers and Erich Frommdeveloped theories and practices that involved human happiness. Recently the theories of human flourishing developed by these humanistic psychologists have found empirical support from studies by positive psychologists. Positive psychology has also moved ahead in a number of new directions.
Positive psychology began as a new area of psychology in 1998 when Martin Seligman considered the father of the modern positive psychology movement chose it as the theme for his term as president of the American Psychological Association though the term originates with Maslow in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality and there have been indications that psychologists since the 1950s have been increasingly focused on promoting mental health rather than merely treating illness. Seligman pointed out that for the half century clinical psychology “has been consumed by a single topic only – mental illness” echoing Maslows comments. He urged psychologists to continue the earlier missions of psychology of nurturing talent and improving normal life.
The first positive psychology summit took place in 1999. The First International Conference on Positive Psychology took place in 2002. More attention was given by the general public in 2006 when using the same framework a course at Harvard University became particularly popular.
Evolutionary Psychology is an open access peer-reviewed academic journal published online since 2003. It covers empirical philosophical historical and socio-political aspects of evolutionary psychology. Its current co-editors in chief are Todd K. Shackelford (Florida Atlantic University) and Steven M. Platek (Georgia Gwinnett College).
Evolutionary Psychology is indexed by: PsycINFO EBSCOhost Scopus Socolar Google Scholar Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index and Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences.
References
^ a b c d Evolutionary Psychology official website
External links
Official website
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_Psychology_(journal)”
The psychology of learning is a theoretical science.
Learning is a process that depends on experience and leads to longterm changes in behavior potential. Behavior potential designates the possible behavior of an individual not actual behavior. The main assumption behind all learning psychology is that the effects of the environment conditioning reinforcement etc. provide psychologists with the best information from which to understand human behavior.
As opposed to short term changes in behavior potential (caused e.g. by fatigue) learning implies long term changes. As opposed to long term changes caused by aging and development learning implies changes related directly to experience.
Learning theories try to better understand how the learning process works. Major research traditions are behaviorism cognitivism and self-regulated learning. Neurosciences have provided important insights into learning too even when using much simpler organisms than humans (aplysia). Distance learning eLearning online learning blended learning and media psychology are dimensions of the psychology that are emerging and where research and literature are important in the 21st century.
See also
Learning
Latent learning
Learning theory (education)
Readings
Zentall T.R. (2006). Imitation: Definitions evidence and mechanisms. Animal Cognition 9 335-353. (A thorough review of different types of social learning) Full text
Ulrich Neisser: Kognitive Psychologie Stuttgart 1974
Hans Aebli: Denken: Das Ordnen des Tuns 2 Bde.
What’s the fastest online Psychology class?
I’m a high school senior and i failed my psychology class. I now have to take it online and I was wondering: which online school allows me to finish the course the fastest? Please and thank you.
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Stuttgart 1980-81
Robert M. Gagn: Die Bedingungen menschlichen Lernens Hannover 1980 (in USA 1965)
Geoffrey Caine Renate N. Caine: Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain 1991; revised paperback edition: Dale Seymour Publications 1994
Walter Edelmann: Lernpsychologie. Psychologie Verlags Union Weinheim 6. vollst. berarb. Aufl. 2000
Norbert M. Seel: Psychologie des Lernens. Ernst Reinardt (UTB) Mnchen 2. Aufl. 2003
Guy Lefranois: Psychologie des Lernens. Springer Berlin 4. u. erw. Aufl. 2006
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_learning”
*Prior agreement for this was obtained from the Danske Bank of Denmark, to whom damaged notes were returned after the study was completed.
