Background:
The Stroop effect is a popular experiment conducted by John Ridley Stroop which consists of demonstrating that the brain has a difficult time trying to sort information out when observing conflicting information. Ridley Stroop is able to show that the human brain tries to suppress the input of something going in your brain when at the same time focusing on something else. The Stroop effect is still quite popular since it taps into the essentials of psychology, cognitive learning and therefore offers ideas for cognitive processes. The Stroop effect has been studied in several ways, among them; it has shown psychologists that the brain is wired to recognize words without effort. Furthermore, psychologists have concluded that reading is an automatic process that can’t be turned off. In other words, we tend to see the meanings or words consciously.
How is the experiment conducted?
• First of all, Stroop 3 separate sheets of paper with the color names on them and sheets with a color spelled but a different colored font.
• On the first sheet, Stroop proved that the effect of incompatible ink color on reading words out loud by asking a person to read what the words said.
• On sheet #2, Stroop proved that naming color out loud took about 47 seconds to name the ink color of the incongruent word, keeping in mind that he asked his volunteer to do the job for him.
• On sheet #3, Stroop proved that after practicing the incompatible words of the color shown on the sheet for 8 days made the time decrease.
Results:
Stroop found out that practice made the time in which the task was being done decrease. That naming colors result much slower than reading them.
Why the above results?
All of the above happened since the human brain is trained to automatically read everything one sees, which is why recognition of words made the process of reading the color easier than naming the color shown.
http://www.rit.edu/cla/gssp400/sbackground.html
miércoles, 8 de septiembre de 2010
martes, 7 de septiembre de 2010
The Myth of Multitasking
1. Why is multitasking considered by many psychologists to be a myth?
Multitasking is considered to be a myth since we human beings are only 1 and we were born with only 1 brain. Studies show that multitasking is not doing a series of things at a time, in fact it just is the switching of tasks in just seconds, weather it be checking our Blackberries, checking our emails, listening to music or chating with our friends online. The multitasking is proven to be not efficient at all since we tend to focus on one thing only and forget our do what we are handling on the other hand in a mediocre way.
2. To what does the term "response selection bottleneck" refer?
The term "response selection bottleneck" refers to when the human brain is forced to respond to several stimuli at once and proves that as a result, we end up being ineffective persons since what we lose time trying to determine which task to perform first.
3. David Meyer has found that multitasking contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline. Why is this important?
The fact that David Meyer found out that multitasking contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline is important since releasing these may cause long-term health problems if not controlled, and contributes to the loss of short term memory which in the end may be fatal to one or to one's family.
4. Explain what Russell Podrack found regarding multitasking.
Russel Podrack found out that multitasking affects the way we learn. Russell points out that learning in respect to multitasking may be less effective, in other words, less flexible. In the end we are not able to retrieve information as easily. Podrack proved his theory by scanning the brains of people who multitask and those who don't and found out that people who multitask use a part of the brain called striatum, a region for of the brain involved in learning new skills although in a mediocre way whereas people who tend to focus on one specific activity and are not distracted seem to recall and store information easily. Podrack is able to conclude that we human beings are made to focus and that when we force ourselves to multitask we drive ourselves to being less efficient people.
5. What does the author conclude could happen to our culture as a result of increased multitasking?
The author concludes that our culture may gain in information, but weaken in wisdom, meaning that true, our society will be more aware of things happening around but less efficient on trying to improve.
Multitasking is considered to be a myth since we human beings are only 1 and we were born with only 1 brain. Studies show that multitasking is not doing a series of things at a time, in fact it just is the switching of tasks in just seconds, weather it be checking our Blackberries, checking our emails, listening to music or chating with our friends online. The multitasking is proven to be not efficient at all since we tend to focus on one thing only and forget our do what we are handling on the other hand in a mediocre way.
2. To what does the term "response selection bottleneck" refer?
The term "response selection bottleneck" refers to when the human brain is forced to respond to several stimuli at once and proves that as a result, we end up being ineffective persons since what we lose time trying to determine which task to perform first.
3. David Meyer has found that multitasking contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline. Why is this important?
The fact that David Meyer found out that multitasking contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline is important since releasing these may cause long-term health problems if not controlled, and contributes to the loss of short term memory which in the end may be fatal to one or to one's family.
4. Explain what Russell Podrack found regarding multitasking.
Russel Podrack found out that multitasking affects the way we learn. Russell points out that learning in respect to multitasking may be less effective, in other words, less flexible. In the end we are not able to retrieve information as easily. Podrack proved his theory by scanning the brains of people who multitask and those who don't and found out that people who multitask use a part of the brain called striatum, a region for of the brain involved in learning new skills although in a mediocre way whereas people who tend to focus on one specific activity and are not distracted seem to recall and store information easily. Podrack is able to conclude that we human beings are made to focus and that when we force ourselves to multitask we drive ourselves to being less efficient people.
5. What does the author conclude could happen to our culture as a result of increased multitasking?
The author concludes that our culture may gain in information, but weaken in wisdom, meaning that true, our society will be more aware of things happening around but less efficient on trying to improve.
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