Although many neuroscientists are trying to figure out how the brain works, Mark Changizi is bent on determining WHY it works that way.
Why Humans are So Smart and Groovy
by Mark ChangiziYhe following is an excerpt from an article recently published in Psychology Today, by Mark Changizi. For more reading, please see releated link in Cradit source below article.
Grooved fingers make us smart. ...as do grooved brains.When you are next in the shower, take a look at your wrinkled fingers. They aren't pretty to look at, but they help make you smart.
When you are next in the shower, take a look at your wrinkled fingers. They aren't pretty to look at, but they help make you smart. Pruney fingers are not an accidental side effect of getting soaked as is typically believed, but are, instead, highly efficient rain treads that help us primates grip the world when it is wet (something we've recently been studying in the lab).
Without wrinkled fingers you would need to possess two categories of behavior, one for dry conditions, and one for wet. That would require more brain space than you can spare. Lucky for you, you can get by with just one set of behaviors ("all-weather-behaviors") because your fingertips and feet "know" when to change from race-tire-smooth to rain-tire-wrinkled.
Search forYour wrinkles do a great job for your brain despite the fact that they are not smart in and of themselves -- they are inflexible, automatic switches, only knowing to do two things: wrinkle when wet, unwrinkle when dry
{Credit source: Mark Changizi, Psychology Today, published October 13, 2010}
For more interesting reads from Mark Changizi, check out the following titles now available from Amazon.
The Vision Revolution: How the Latest Research Overturns Everything We Thought We Knew About Human Vision [Paperback]
The Brain from 25,000 Feet: High Level Explorations of Brain Complexity, Perception, Induction and Vagueness (Synthese Library) [Hardcover]
The following is an excerpt from Chris Chabris and Dan Simons recently published in Psychology Today.
For more reading, please see releated link in Cradit source below article.
Levels of Real World Wizardry: A Review of the Invisible Gorilla
by Chris Chabris and Dan SimonsAre all visual illusions equally potent?
In the world of Harry Potter the one thing you don't want to be is a "muggle". Muggles are the regular folk lacking magical powers, and discrimination and prejudice against them is rampant. Muggles are not merely unable to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but are kept ignorant of the school's very existence. In fact, muggles are kept in the dark about the entire cryptic world of magic altogether. The sorcerers struggle for the heart and soul of humankind's freedom as the muggle folk blindly graze. Muggles are mutton.In our world we are all muggles, but at least we can be content knowing we're not missing out on all the cool stuff.
...because in the real world there's no magic.
Or is there?
There may not be "true" magic in our world, but we have illusions. Gobs of them. And who's to say illusions are not magic? Perhaps in Harry Potter's world the spells only seem like magic because the natural principles underlying them are not well understood. And maybe sorcerers like Harry Potter have an inborn knack for employing these natural principles.
Illusions, I submit, are examples of real world magic. And the purveyors of illusions - artists and cognitive scientists - are our world's sorcerers.
But not all real-world sorcery is made alike. Just as the spells taught at Hogwarts vary in potency, the illusions of our world vary in potency.
The three tiers of illusion potency.
And Chris Chabris and Dan Simons, the authors of the new book The Invisible Gorilla, are among the most powerful of the real-world sorcerers. Their book is an engaging romp through a variety of cognitive illusions, with the theme that our intuitions often fail us. The book is written so well it would make Gladwell envious (and maybe a wee bit angry), and yet we must remember that these are the scientists themselves discussing their own discoveries and experiments.
{Credit source: Chris Chabris & Dan Simmons, Psychology Today, published June 29, 2010}