Memory Inc. reads like a tragedy, but the results of Scoville's experiments are amazing, as is the current work being done by Memory Pharmaceuticals. By chance, Scoville discovered that the hippocampus is vital to the acquisition of new memories when he psychologically maimed a patient to cure his epilepsy. Since then, a great deal of research on the biological basis of memory has been conducted, and much has been learned. Currently, a company called Memory Pharmaceuticals is working on a drug that will enhance synapses in the brain to fortify and restore memories. The ethical, evolutional, and societal implications of such a drug are mind-boggling, but the possibility of such a drug even existing is amazing.
Chipped is the tale of Moniz, a horrible, ambitious man that ran around poking holes in people's brains to see what would happen. He's the father of psychosurgery, a practice outlawed in several countries and a few states. The present-day incarnation of psychosurgery is psycholpharmocology, whereby psychological disorders are treated with chemicals to alleviate their suffering. Both of these practices, despite their successes are very crude and lacking in specificity, and therefore, lacking in scientific evidence. The drugs we take and give to our children such as Zoloft, Prozac, Aderall, Ritalin, etc affect the brain in completely unknown ways. There has been little to no research done on the long-term effects of these medications, both physiological and psychological.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Reading: Skinner 7 & 8
Rat Park was an experiment conducted by one of Harlow's students, Alexander. These experiments studied the nature of addiction and challenged the long-held belief that substances such as morphine and heroin are innately addictive and irresistible. Alexander questioned this based on his own observations and conducted Rat Park to find the truth. Amazingly, rats not only avoid mind-altering drugs when in social situations but will even avoid these drugs after being forcibly "addicted". This led to the rise of the view of addiction in which drugs are used as a coping mechanism, a view that I personally agree with based on my observations.
Lost in the Mall echoed many things I've learned in previous classes, but was no less disturbing to read than it always is. Personally, I can't help but wonder who I'd be without my memories and experiences, and to think that the building-blocks of my personality could be fabricated so easily is troubling. I imagine that the constant bleeding of memory and imagination that occurs within our minds is a huge contributing factor to the amazing ideas and inventions that humans are capable of, but at what cost? I think that the average person is better off the way they are, faulty memory and all. The real problems occur when unethical people leverage this weakness in cognition to brainwash people and convince them of lies.
Lost in the Mall echoed many things I've learned in previous classes, but was no less disturbing to read than it always is. Personally, I can't help but wonder who I'd be without my memories and experiences, and to think that the building-blocks of my personality could be fabricated so easily is troubling. I imagine that the constant bleeding of memory and imagination that occurs within our minds is a huge contributing factor to the amazing ideas and inventions that humans are capable of, but at what cost? I think that the average person is better off the way they are, faulty memory and all. The real problems occur when unethical people leverage this weakness in cognition to brainwash people and convince them of lies.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Reading: Skinner 5 & 6
Chapter 5 covered Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance, a theory still held by many cognitive psychologists today. Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person's internal beliefs and predispositions are placed in opposition to their external observations and influences. An example of this would be a person, Bob, witnessing another man walking on water. If Bob is Christian or otherwise believes in miracles, this is a completely "normal" observation. However, if Bob is a man of science, seeing such an event causes a state of tension (dissonance) which drives him to formulate some kind of explanation for this event that fits his way of thinking. Perhaps the water is shallow, or maybe the man is using some new kind of technology. Cognitive dissonance explains why people NEED to rationalize their actions. The most interesting thing that I take away from this chapter is the Insufficient Rewards Paradigm, which reveals that changing a person's thinking is as easy as giving them a dollar to do something they don't really believe in, and then questioning their reasoning.
Chapter 6 was brutal. It discussed Harlow's experiments with monkeys which led to some interesting discoveries at an extreme cost. Harlow used monkeys to study the nature of nurture (lol) and did so by placing infant monkeys in traumatic conditions, subjecting them to torture, and constructing devices like the "Rape Rack" and the "Well of Despair". The results made significant contributions to child psychology and got Harlow elected president of the American Psychological Association, but at what cost? Harlow's actions spurred the animal rights movement into questioning the ethics of using animals to further science. I, personally, find Harlow's treatment of his monkeys appalling and I am convinced that he must have been disturbed in some way, however, I am grateful for the advances in medicine that have been made possible through animal trials. Although I could never conduct animal research myself, I do think that it is necessary but within strict bounds and under ethical scrutiny. What Harlow did was way outside the line.
Chapter 6 was brutal. It discussed Harlow's experiments with monkeys which led to some interesting discoveries at an extreme cost. Harlow used monkeys to study the nature of nurture (lol) and did so by placing infant monkeys in traumatic conditions, subjecting them to torture, and constructing devices like the "Rape Rack" and the "Well of Despair". The results made significant contributions to child psychology and got Harlow elected president of the American Psychological Association, but at what cost? Harlow's actions spurred the animal rights movement into questioning the ethics of using animals to further science. I, personally, find Harlow's treatment of his monkeys appalling and I am convinced that he must have been disturbed in some way, however, I am grateful for the advances in medicine that have been made possible through animal trials. Although I could never conduct animal research myself, I do think that it is necessary but within strict bounds and under ethical scrutiny. What Harlow did was way outside the line.
Reading: Skinner 3 & 4
Chapter 3 focused on Rosenhan's experiment involving psychiatric diagnoses. Rosenhan felt that people were often institutionalized for much longer periods of time than appropriate based on his theory that once you attach a diagnosis to a patient, all that patient's actions are then interpreted with a bias. He conducted an experiment in which he and 8 confederates went to separate psychiatric institutions claiming to hear a "thud" and see how the institutions responded. They were instructed to behave normally, other than the "thud", and to claim to be cured once institutionalized. The results were disappointing and revealed several flaws in the methods of psychiatric care. Even today, psychiatry is considered a "soft-science" and riddled with pop-psychiatrists.
Chapter 4's topic was the infamous Genovese case. This case is discussed in many books due to the uncomfortable reality that it shed's light on. Genovese was murdered, slowly over the course of 35 minutes, screaming for help and drawing the attention of 38 witnesses. Despite all of this, nobody called the police until long after Genovese was dead. This drew a torrent of media attention and prompted Darley and Latane to conduct a series of experiments that revealed several interesting facts. Most notable was the phenomenon of responsibility diffusion, whereby the number of people witnessing an event drastically decreases the likelihood that someone will intervene, because nobody feels directly responsible enough to act.
Chapter 4's topic was the infamous Genovese case. This case is discussed in many books due to the uncomfortable reality that it shed's light on. Genovese was murdered, slowly over the course of 35 minutes, screaming for help and drawing the attention of 38 witnesses. Despite all of this, nobody called the police until long after Genovese was dead. This drew a torrent of media attention and prompted Darley and Latane to conduct a series of experiments that revealed several interesting facts. Most notable was the phenomenon of responsibility diffusion, whereby the number of people witnessing an event drastically decreases the likelihood that someone will intervene, because nobody feels directly responsible enough to act.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Reading: Skinner 1 & 2
I'm not a fan of Slater's writing. The topic of the book is Skinner, which is a great subject, but her introduction seems way over dramatized. Skinner was a behavioral psychologist that expanded upon Pavlov's theories of classical conditioning with a new theory - operant conditioning. Operant conditioning changed the way psychologists thought and led psychology toward becoming a more respectable field, one of science instead of philosophy. Slater's portrayal of the facts is accurate(-ish) but her anecdotal additions damage her credibility and the readability of the book.
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