July 10, 2012
Time perception is a field of study within psychology and neuroscience; it refers to the sense of time, which differs from other senses since time cannot be directly perceived but must be reconstructed by the brain. Humans can perceive relatively short periods of time, in the order of milliseconds, and also durations that are a significant fraction of a lifetime. Human perception of duration is subjective and variable.
Some researchers attempt to categorize people by how they differ in their perception of time. Pioneering work, emphasizing species-specific differences, was done by Estonian naturalist Karl Ernst von Baer. Experimental work began under the influence of the psycho-physical notions of Gustav Theodor Fechner with studies of the relationship between perceived and measured time. Work with animals conducted by German biologist Jakob von Uexküll included measurement of length of momentum in snails.
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July 7, 2012
Behavioral addiction is a form of addiction which does not rely on chemicals (like drugs and alcohol), characterized by a compulsion to repeatedly engage in an action until said action causes serious negative consequences to the person’s physical, mental, social, and/or financial well-being. One sign that a behavior has become addictive is if it persists despite these consequences. Behavioral addictions, which are sometimes referred to as impulse control disorders, are increasingly recognized as treatable forms of addictions. Behaviors which may be addicting include gambling, eating, intercourse, viewing pornography, use of computers, playing video games, working , exercising, spiritual obsession (as opposed to religious devotion), cutting, and shopping.
When analyzing the addiction to food for example, a published study in 2009 from The Scripps Research Institute have shown for the first time that the same molecular mechanisms that drive people into drug addiction are behind the compulsion to overeat, pushing people into obesity. In this study, scientists focused on a particular receptor in the brain known to play an important role in vulnerability to drug addiction — the dopamine D2 receptor. The D2 receptor responds to dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is released in the brain by pleasurable experiences like food or sex or drugs like cocaine.
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July 6, 2012
‘Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions’ is a 2008 book by behavioral economist Dan Ariely, in which he challenges readers’ assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought.
Ariely explains, ‘My goal, by the end of this book, is to help you fundamentally rethink what makes you and the people around you tick. I hope to lead you there by presenting a wide range of scientific experiments, findings, and anecdotes that are in many cases quite amusing. Once you see how systematic certain mistakes are–how we repeat them again and again–I think you will begin to learn how to avoid some of them.’
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July 5, 2012
Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent to an act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms. It was developed by sociologists during the 1960s; Howard Saul Becker’s book ‘Outsiders’ was particularly influential. The theory is concerned with how the self-identity and behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them.
It is associated with the concepts of self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Unwanted descriptors or categorizations – including terms related to deviance, disability, or diagnosis of a mental disorder – may be rejected on the basis that they are merely ‘labels,’ often with attempts to adopt a more constructive language in its place. A stigma is defined as a powerfully negative label that changes a person’s self-concept and social identity.
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July 2, 2012
Connectionism [kuh-nek-shuh-niz-uhm] is the theory that the connections (such as between brain cells) mediate thought and govern behavior. It is a set of approaches in the fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive science that model mental or behavioral phenomena as the emergent processes of interconnected networks of simple units. There are many forms of connectionism, but the most common forms use neural network models (artificial brains).
The central connectionist principle is that mental phenomena can be described by interconnected networks of simple and often uniform units. The form of the connections and the units can vary from model to model. For example, units in the network could represent neurons and the connections could represent synapses. Neural networks are able to learn by themselves, unlike normal computers, which cannot do anything for which they are not programmed.
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July 2, 2012
Perceptual control theory (PCT) is a model of behavior based on the principles of negative feedback (when the output of a system acts to oppose changes to the input of a system, acting to stabilize it). It differs in a number of respects from standard engineering control theory, which deals with the behavior of dynamical systems like feedback loops. From the PCT perspective, an organism controls neither its own behavior, nor external environmental variables, but rather its own perceptions.
According to the standard catch-phrase of the field, ‘behavior is the control of perception.’ While the adoption of PCT in the scientific community has not been widespread, it has been applied to a number of areas, and has led to a method of psychotherapy called the Method of Levels.
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June 29, 2012
Cybernetics [sahy-ber-net-iks] is the theory of communication and control based on regulatory feedback. This is the original definition of the term; in popular culture the term refers to the study of cyborgs and robotic implants and prosthetics. Cybernetics is only applicable when the system being analyzed is involved in a closed signal loop; that is, where action by the system causes some change in its environment and that change is fed to the system via information (feedback) that enables the system to change its behavior.
A very simple model of cybernetics is that of a central heating system with four elements: a Sensor (to test the system’s environment); a Goal (the specification of the desired state of the system); Error Detection (a method for finding the difference between the present state and the goal state); and an Effector (operations the system can make to get the environment closer to the goal). A more complicated example is the Honda android ASIMO, which uses sensors and sophisticated algorithms to avoid obstacles and navigate stairs.
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June 29, 2012
In control theory (a theory of sociology that examines controls on societal order), affect control theory proposes that individuals maintain affective meanings through their actions and interpretations of events. The activity of social institutions occurs through maintenance of culturally based affective meanings. Besides a denotative meaning, every concept has an affective meaning, or connotation, that varies along three dimensions: Evaluation (goodness versus badness); Potency (powerfulness versus powerlessness); and Activity (liveliness versus torpidity).
Affective meanings can be measured with semantic differentials yielding a three-number profile indicating how the concept is positioned on evaluation, potency, and activity (EPA). American psychologist Charles E. Osgood demonstrated that an elementary concept conveyed by a word or idiom has a normative affective meaning within a particular culture. A stable affective meaning derived either from personal experience or from cultural inculcation is called a sentiment, or fundamental affective meaning.
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June 29, 2012
Negative feedback occurs when the output of a system acts to oppose changes to the input of a system, acting to stabilize it. The classic example is a central heating system which cuts off when a (suitably placed) temperature sensor hits a pre-set mark. The negative feedback part is the thermostat. Negative feedback is a basic concept of cybernetics (the theory of communication and control based on regulatory feedback in animals and machines).
In biology negative feedback is known as homeostasis (the property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition). Virtually all aspects of living systems involve homeostasis (e.g. blood pressure, glucose level, liver functions, cell division). The disruption of feedback loops can lead to undesirable results: in the case of blood glucose levels, if negative feedback fails, the glucose levels in the blood may begin to rise dramatically, thus resulting in diabetes.
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June 27, 2012
The human microbiome is the collection of microorganisms (such as bacteria and fungi) which live on and inside humans (on the skin, in the saliva and mouth, in the eyes, and in the gut and the rest of the gastrointestinal tract). Foreign microbes outnumber human cells in the body a wide margin; humans have about 100 trillion cells, and carry ten times as many microorganisms in the intestines alone.
Some of these organisms are useful for humans. However, most have no known effect; they are just symbionts and are referred to as the normal ‘flora.’ Studies in 2009 asked whether our health is damaged if we reduce this biota (collection of organisms in an ecosystem), which is certainly the case with gut flora (which can be restored by a ‘fecal transplant.’
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June 15, 2012
In cultural anthropology, a guilt society is the concept that the primary method of social control in a given society is the inculcation of feelings of guilt for behaviors that the individual believes to be undesirable. The US is a guilt society, in contrast to Japan, a shame society. A prominent feature of guilt societies is the provision of sanctioned releases from guilt for certain behaviors either before the fact, as when one condemns sexuality but permits it conditionally in the context of marriage, or after the fact. There is a clear opportunity in such cases for authority figures to derive power, monetary and/or other advantages, etc. by manipulating the conditions of guilt and the forgiveness of guilt.
Paul Hiebert characterizes the guilt society as follows: ‘Guilt is a feeling that arises when we violate the absolute standards of morality within us, when we violate our conscience. A person may suffer from guilt although no one else knows of his or her misdeed; this feeling of guilt is relieved by confessing the misdeed and making restitution. True guilt cultures rely on an internalized conviction of sin as the enforcer of good behavior, not, as shame cultures do, on external sanctions. Guilt cultures emphasize punishment and forgiveness as ways of restoring the moral order; shame cultures stress self-denial and humility as ways of restoring the social order.’
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June 14, 2012
In cultural anthropology, a shame society is the concept that, in a given society, the primary device for gaining control over children and maintaining social order is the inculcation of shame and the complementary threat of ostracism.
A shame society is contrasted with a guilt society in which control is maintained by creating and continually reinforcing the feeling of guilt (and the expectation of punishment now or in the hereafter) for certain condemned behaviors.
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