The Great Mystery: World of Dreams, The
The prefrontal cortex is deactivated during REM sleep so all the cognitive functions are impaired. But the limbic system is turned on so emotions are strong. The most common emotion in dreams is fear, followed by elation, then anger. But how t...
The Search for Intelligence: What is Intelligence?
No one agrees on what intelligence is. An early 1900s symposium proposed two main characteristics: the ability to adapt to the environment and the ability to learn from experience. Charles Spearman in 1904 introduced the idea that intelligence is a ...
The Learning Machine: Applying Classical Conditioning to the Human Experience
Pavlov's work was important because it demonstrated that the processes of learning could be studied scientifically, and that the principles of conditioning were applicable to humans as well. One of the primary ways people learn fears is when somethi...
Interpretations: Form Clues: Grouping and Closure
To bring order and form to basic sensations, our minds follow certain rules for grouping stimuli-by proximity, by similarity, and by continuity. Even young children show an awareness of these rules of form. They know, for example, that two objects c...
In the Driver's Seat: Motivating Workers
Too much emphasis on material rewards produces a kind of jadedness. Many business leaders overestimate the importance of pay. Such nonmaterial rewards as clear feedback, shared authority in decisions related to the work environment and plant operati...
People to People: Social Psychology, A Brief Snapshot
Social psychology is a fascinating study of people interacting with people, individually and in groups, as friends or sometimes foes. It involves an analysis of attitudes, how we think about other people, conformity and group influence, altruism vs....
Out of Balance: Labeling Psychological Disorders
The psychiatry profession has created a mechanism for classifying psychological disorders, often referred to as DSM. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Psychiatric Disorders uses behavioral definitions to help mental health workers diagnose p...
Connections: Does the Brain Record Sensations Without Our Conscious Awareness?
How much of what we see or hear, taste, smell, or touch, is actually recorded by the brain without our conscious awareness? One method psychologists use to study this phenomenon is to study people who have had damage to the primary visual cortex. Cl...
Connections: Sensing the World: The Difference Threshold
Humans, as well as other animal species, have the ability to detect small variations in stimuli (the difference threshold) . The fact that sensitivity is reduced after sustained exposure to stimuli, like the clothes a person is wearing, allows a per...
Connections: Sensing the World: The Absolute Threshold
The minimum stimulation necessary to detect reliability a particular stimuli is called the absolute threshold. Thresholds can vary depending on a person's experience and expectations, or level of fatigue. A remarkable quality of the human mind is it...