What do you wonder about the human mind? Inspire me!

[Rummy]

I´ve always imagined the human mind being a huge "spider web" of memories, with every memory stringed to a memory of another thing

I don´t i can give an example without drawing it up, kinda hard writing a spider web :Þ

 

Some theories of memory and general processing do work on a sort of web network theory, with nodes and related nodes and stuff, I think it's in the field on neuropsychology as it goes into activation voltages and stuff.

 

Why are things on the 'tip of our tongues', usually we can't figure it out but its in our brains somewhere >_<

I've always wondered how the memory works and why parts of it are hard to access. For example when you can't remember the name of an actor, yet it's in your mind somewhere. You manage to remember eventually without help from someone, so it was deep in your memories all along - why is it that we're unable to reach those memories when its all inside our heads?

 

too tired for coherent typing

 

There's also lots of memory theories on that too, quite a few too many to list(as memory is in theory central to being able to do or be anything). They all have their pros and their cons, and there's different explanations in the different theories for the tip of the tongue phenomenon and problems with memory retrieval. Just building on the above post of a web theory, say you can think of the actor's face, which is on one part of the web, his name could be all the way over on the other side. So what you do is think of things nearer his name(people acted with, films he's been in) which may be closer to the name, or can link you there. Maybe for some reason or another, the route from his face to his name is just blocked at the time you're trying to think of it, though that is more just a theory of what's happening and not why.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_mind

I've never come across that before, interesting stuff. I wonder how much it applies in psychology, I might have a search around for some articles!

 

Can anyone really change who they are in any way that matters? (their personality I suppose...)

 

That is actually something I've considered trying to test. Unfortunately, other than monitoring someone throughout their life, I'd need a way to test it at one point in time, and that has its flaws. In my first year(last year) we had to do 4000 words about anything we wanted, and I actually wrote my essay about whether personality changes over time or not. I think generally research has show certain dimensions to be releatively stable from teens onwards, and a few others only changing slightly. As for whether someone can actively change their personality? I'm not sure what the general consensus on that is, but I personally believe they can/can be helped to.

 

Genetic memory....

Does it exist ?

What's that?

 

Why do we cry? By this I mean, why is it that when we get sad, liquid comes out of our eyeballs? Such a stupid bodily function.

 

And of course;

How do I know the red I see isn't blue to you?

 

Also, how come some people can click their joints, and others can't?

Why is it some people are unable to whistle? etc.

Those, are some good questions! I've wondered them before myself. Personally, and I haven't looked for studies on it, I believe crying is a learned/conditioned response from when we are babies. When we have problems we cried(and maybe we were upset at the same time), and someone would respond and solve our problem. As we get older we cry less, but the response remains that when we get upset we cry. The only idea I've had of how to test it would basically mean neglecting a whole bunch of babies when they cry, which is just plain unethical.

The colour thing, interesting too. In theory, it doesn't matter at all as long as the inconsistency is consistent. If red and blue were simply entirely swapped, it wouldn't matter. If however, you saw both blues and reds as just red, it'd become an issue.

 

Alot of post, I'll post some more later on too, gotta pick my bedsheets up off the line so that I can schleep!

[4q2]

It's all to do with the eyes and what message they send to the brain (learned about is in shitology (psychology).

 

My eyes to actually see different tints of colours, though it's more obvious with certain colours etc etc etc. I usually notice when watching TV and end up only watching with one eye (lazy biatcheds), then realising and using both, wtf...that red was different a second ago.

(One of my eyes seems to show more faded colours)

 

Yeah, thats pretty much what I tried to explain lol...I should have explained it in acoustic terms, maybe it would have come out better.

 

Onto genetic memory....

Its a strange one but throws up a good few questions:

On one site it is explained as 'How does a newborn deer know to run from a wolf' and elsewhere goes off on to possibilities of it being a possible reason for past life memories.

[Rick Dangerous]

Ever heard of 100th monkey syndrome? It suggests once a certain amount of people/monkeys etc learn a type of behavior that other that others even those who have never had contact with the others, will spontaneously pick up this learnt behavior. I think that is pretty interesting as it seems to support Jung's idea of a collective unconscious.

[4q2]

Ever heard of 100th monkey syndrome? It suggests once a certain amount of people/monkeys etc learn a type of behavior that other that others even those who have never had contact with the others, will spontaneously pick up this learnt behavior. I think that is pretty interesting as it seems to support Jung's idea of a collective unconscious.

 

That was covered by Rupert Sheldrakes 7 Experiments that could change the world book, except it was termed 'Morphic Resonance'.

 

The same book also mentioned experiments that were about the feeling of being watched. The suggestion was to stare at the nape of a subjects neck (or not stare) and the subject was supposed to answer whether they were being stared at or not.

Its one of those things that you tend to find that the subject is more often right than wrong. Its a good one to try in public, cos most of the time you will find that a person will turn and look at you.....Just dont choose the meanacing looking bald guy with no neck and fists like shovels to try it on.

[Mundi]

One thing i learned that i found very interesting is that when we get nervous, scared or most feelings that make us feel bad we start making repeated movements, for example clapping your hand lightly repeatedly on your upper thight. stroking our arms up and down and such.

 

That´s caused because when we were toddlers and started to cry and get upset usually you get picked up rocked backed and forth and the same tune hummed to us.

We do those movements to calm ourselves subconsciously because it worked when we were toddlers.

 

 

*tries to think of something else smart to say*

[Rick Dangerous]

That was covered by Rupert Sheldrakes 7 Experiments that could change the world book, except it was termed 'Morphic Resonance'.

 

The same book also mentioned experiments that were about the feeling of being watched. The suggestion was to stare at the nape of a subjects neck (or not stare) and the subject was supposed to answer whether they were being stared at or not.

Its one of those things that you tend to find that the subject is more often right than wrong. Its a good one to try in public, cos most of the time you will find that a person will turn and look at you.....Just dont choose the meanacing looking bald guy with no neck and fists like shovels to try it on.

 

Haha will have to try that. I remember watching derren brown trying something like that. He was in a building staring down at people on the street and they would stop dead and instinctively turn round to face him even though they were not looking in his direction.

 

It might have been the same episode in which he got two marketing executives to come up with the same pitch for zoo by taking them on a subliminal influencing taxi ride . I think that and watching too much Bill Hicks has convinced me advertising is pure evil

[Rummy]

Interesting stuff in the last few posts, I've not heard much about them before.

Except genetic memory, I'd put that down to evolution of reflexes personally.

[4q2]

Interesting stuff in the last few posts, I've not heard much about them before.

Except genetic memory, I'd put that down to evolution of reflexes personally.

 

But recognition of a species specific threat ?

Seems a fair distance away from reflex action....

(Not saying you are wrong here and your understanding of the subject may be better than mine...I just find reflex and threat recognition 2 different things and a debatable point, the reason I brought it up in the first place)

[mcj metroid]

MEN ARE SMARTER THAN WOMEN!

[4q2]

MEN ARE SMARTER THAN WOMEN!

 

If I was devoid of hormones and dickless I would agree.

A pretty face and a nice pair of legs can beat my intelligence and credit card limit every time.

 

One day they will rule the world and I will be a willing servant

[Rummy]

Here's a little something I stumbled across, it made me think of this topic;