ψυχήλογία: the study of the soul

Wait, wait, wait! Don’t read on, yet. First, we have something for you to do. :)

Play the youtube video and read the short passage. You are given 45 seconds to do so. Do not pause or rewind the video. Ready? OK, play!

Finished? Now, we have some questions for you to answer. (No need for a pen and paper, it’s not like we can grab your answer sheet through your monitor. Just answer them in your mind xD)

Remember, don’t play the video again :) (We mean it!) 1. Irina Soltanovna was born in what country? 2. She graduated with a diploma in ____________. 3. What was her false name? 4. What is the passage about as a whole? 5. Did you see something different regarding the font? If yes, what? Yes, if that last question wasn’t too much of a giveaway already, the font did, in fact, change! We’re willing to bet that a lot of you are replaying the video, right now. It changed from Calibri to Cambria. Go ahead, rewatch the video. Did you notice it yet? If you haven’t, go back to the video and have another go. Clue: The change comes after the black interval. For our research, we wanted to see if the difficulty of a passage would have an effect on the ability to detect the change. In our case, it was a change of font. It was either that or a change in terms used but we’re not that knowledgeable about secret government plans or Russian spies. And even if we were, you wouldn’t know about it. >:P Participants were told to read a passage-- either a difficult one about a secret WWII US government attack plan, or an easy one about Mademoiselle Germaine, a Russian spy (how incredibly secretive, the topics that we chose). Halfway through the task, our very talented experimenter-soon-to-be-actress (*ehem ehem*) distracted the participant by pretending that she forgot to ask the participant to fill out a form. The participant, of course being wonderful participants who did not want their credit stickers to become void, would veer away from the laptop screen (where the text is displayed) and we, very cunningly, Mademoiselle Germaine-style, changed the text from a Calibri fonted-passage to one in Cambria. The unknowing participant, after finishing the reading task, would then answer a questionnaire regarding the text. Recall the Reading Comprehension part of your UPCAT (let’s hope that you don’t have nightmares about these). Similar to the questions above, we also slyly, CIA/Pentagon-style this time, asked if they noticed anything about the font. During the debriefing, we also asked them if they figured out whether the distraction was a hoax and if they really didn’t notice the change in font. The results of our experiment was practically a landslide victory; a whopping 0 (yes, you read that right Z-E-R-O) participants saw the change. Some indicated that they realized, smart UP students that they are, that our amazing experimenter-turned-actress was just putting on a show and proceeded to look for whatever it was we were trying to cover up. Unfortunately, they still did not notice the change in the font.

If you saw the change then let us congratulate you first and you can do the dance of joy since you’re one of the lucky few! Now, contrary to this post’s title, it’s not that you were smarter than our 40 participants. Maybe it’s because you were paying attention more to video compared to our participants, majority of which seemed like they wanted to hightail it out of our cramped little experiment room ASAP or just kinda didn’t care about our lovingly prepared questionnaire.

Or maybe it’s because you had the benefit of a video while our participants only had still images and the distracting powers of our impromptu actress-experimenter. But regardless, it’s been seen in previous studies that detecting change is difficult, especially in our conditions when the detection of change itself is only a secondary task as compared to the reading comprehension. You’re trying to read, passages that aren’t altogether that easy to comprehend, and you’re also trying to spot little changes here and there. It may overload your circuits but if you actually look at it, this is kinda analogous to multi-tasking. How many times have you juggled trying to write a paper, reading a chapter, listening to music, chatting with a friend, and watching TV at the same time? (Raise your hand if you’re doing this right now!) Now imagine if the fonts that were used were Scriptina or Simply*Glamorous... Aren’t they more noticeable than Calibri and Cambria? I mean, we use and see those fonts all the time because they’re kind of standards and they’re both easily readable... and let’s admit it, we don’t really use script-style fonts (especially those with design) often. ^^;; We think that because Calibri and Cambria are commonly-used fonts, the participants may not have noticed them at all.

It’s difficult to actually be able to detect all the different kinds of change that’s occurring to all the things that you’re interacting with so you may miss out on a typo that you made while writing that 4000-word essay (I’m sure your prof wouldn’t mind it if you spelled Marx as Marks, what’s the difference, right?). So that’s one lesson that we’re trying to convey here, it doesn’t really matter how difficult your task is, there will be times that certain things just slip through your attention and it may be do you more good if you channeled all that energy into just one thing at a time. ————————————————————————————  Can we just say that it has been a pleasure spending these past few months learning Perception with you guys, oh, and Sir Diwa too! Most of us are going out into the real world in a couple of weeks and we hope that you’ll remember the lessons that we learned in this class as you do so. I mean, you could always just pull out a Gestalt-level pick-up line to break the ice or tell a riveting tale of how some people don’t feel pain because of faulty pain receptors (which you can also turn into a pick-up line). Perception isn’t just about nerves, receptors, cortical maps, and the nitty-gritty physiology; it’s about people and how they perceive the world. Going out into the real world? Here’s what you say:

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Elia Joy Casimiro

Luke Granada

Ria Guerra

Kevin Parcon

Hey guys, now you can leave comments on the posts of our blog using Disqus! Just follow these steps. :)

1. Click on the date that will appear when you hover over the title of each post. :) You will be taken to the blog post itself.

2. Wait for the page to load completely. Scroll down until you see a space where you can leave a comment. :D

3. Leave your comment! ♥

It's that easy! :)

Here are some screenshots for reference. :)

STEP 1

STEP 2

Ever been browsing the web for potential universities, organizations, or even careers, and just instantly abandoning a particular choice because you weren't impressed by their website?

Well, we live in a world where internet is very handy, and many companies now try to maximize from this phenomenon. I'm pretty sure I won't be impressed as well if the company's site was last updated two years ago. And if you're talking business and opportunities, that impression could mean everything.

Research by Drs. Sheng and Dahal from the Missouri University of Science and Technology studied this by using eye-tracking software. 20 students were made to view 25 websites of law schools (Law is not offered in their university so they cannot compare). Instead of the usual site themselves, they used only the screenshot, so that internet speed and mouse movement won't affect the impression. Here are just some of their findings:

The students spent an average 2.6 secs scanning the whole website before focusing on a particular section.

The longer they stayed on the page, the better their impressions are.

Institution Logo = 6.48 seconds

Navigation Bar = 6.44 seconds. I believe this is because the navigation pane usually tells us what the overall content of the website is.

Search Bar = 6 seconds

Social networking links = 5.95 seconds. This might be because the participants are college students, who might be more interested in social media than normal population.

Site's main image = 5.94 seconds

Written content = 5.59 seconds

Bottom part = 5.25 seconds

Participants also suggested that they prefer a good background and text color. 

What does this imply? These areas should be focused on by web designers as they can influence the impression of their prospective customers. This can also be useful if our hobby (like me) includes blogging and posting on social media. Also, many companies now judge their prospective employees by their Facebook or blogs. 

I am particularly interested in studies in psychology that focus on our behavior in the internet! It's a pretty new field, like an unexplored forest full of wild thorns and unknown plants. But just by judging the bigger and bigger role of the internet in many of our affairs, then cyber psych will go far! :)

Reference:

Missouri University of Science and Technology (2012, February 16). First impressions form quickly on the web, eye-tracking study shows.ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 25, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2012/02/120216094726.htm

Just imagine. If I put you in an arena with 23 other kids, and food is not available in any form to anyone except for the sole survivor, I bet you'd kill for it. 

No, I'm not talking about the 26-million best-selling novel turned blockbuster hit, which incidentally I am currently crazy about. I'm talking about real, food deprivation. I guess we're all lucky enough that the worst hunger we've ever felt is when a professor gets a bit too carried away and dismissed the class by 12:00noon instead of the usual 11:30. But we have to admit, being famished is one of the worst feelings in the world. And research has shown that it can affect our perception. 

Dr. Remi Radel from the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis in France, wanted to investigate how our psychological state affects our senses. They enlisted the help of 42 students. Half of them performed the experiment with an empty (probably grumbling) stomach; while the others, just ate lunch prior. 

For the experiment, they had to look at a computer screen, where 80 words were flashed for about 1/300th of a second each. It was flashed at a speed where it was too quick to be read, and at a size that is at the threshold of conscious perception. A quarter of the words were related to food. After each word, the participants were asked how bright the word was, and what the word was- food or non-food related. 

Results show that hungry participants viewed the food-related words as much brighter, and also identified them better. Since it was at a speed and size just at the brink of perception, it happened before we even know it. When we are hungry, we are more attuned to stimuli that refers to food. I think this was a great help for our kind to survive this earth. 

And it probably applies to all our other needs as well. How about the correlation found between being more attuned to other people's emotions and depression? Is it because when depressed, we desire for human companion and empathy? And how about when we are looking for a "mate", are we more capable of perceiving and noticing potential lovers? And how about our increased ability to see/notice the things we fear the most? (Like how I almost always notice where the cockroaches are even in a dark room)

There's also this study about how we tend to buy more food in a supermarket if we went with an empty stomach. Something that will be handy for cost-cutting parents when bringing their kids to the grocery! :D

To better explain this, I would cite a quote from the researcher himself:

"This is something great to me, that humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for, to know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs. There is something inside us that selects information in the world to make life easier."

And I just like that. It applies to our lives in more ways than just food. 

I'd like to end this blog in a different note :) Since there is a big possibility for me and many of our classmates to close the curtains on their university life this month. Some of us would start on a career, some will go on to higher education. And we all do this because we are aiming for something.  let's always remember that as perceiving humans, we know what we need, and we have evolved to look at the world around us so we can fulfill these needs.

As children, we always get asked what we want to be when we grow up, but does that mean that now that we are "grown-ups". we can stop achieving and aspiring? Of course not~! Also, life would often feel like an arena where everybody is trying to kill you. But in our dreams of being number 1, let us not lose our sense of who we are and our values. :)

So dream high, Batch 2012 :D And may the odds be ever in our favor!

References:

Rémi Radel et al. Evidence of Motivational Influences in Early Visual Perception: Hunger Modulates Conscious Access. Psychological Science, 2012

Association for Psychological Science (2012, March 2). When our eyes serve our stomach.ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 25, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2012/03/120302193930.htm

By:

Elia Joy Casimiro

                Since humans are social beings, communication is a fundamental part in their lives. This could be seen how communication has improved throughout the years, from handwritten letters to e-mails and from telegraphs to telephones and faxes. Even now, communication has been made to be more personal and handy through the manufacture of mobile telecommunication system. From the big mobile phones used in the army, to the small size of a beeper and now, the widespread usage of handheld mobile phones. Even small children already possess these phones. Almost everyone in the world is connected to another individual in just a single press.

                In vocal communication, it does not only convey the message of the speaker, it can also convey the emotional state of the speaker. Based on the prosodic features incorporated in one’s voice, the emotion of the speaker can also be communicated. These prosodic features include the pitch, loudness of the voice, speaking rate, quality of the voice, etc. A happy voice is usually characterized by high pitch, a loud voice, and good quality of the voice. An example of conveying of emotion is when someone calls us over the phone and we hear that her voice is somehow broken or cracking, low pitched, and is delivered in a low voice. We can then discern that the person on the other line is sad and is about to cry.

                A recent study has integrated emotion and vocal communication. They aimed to create a program which can determine the emotion in a voicemail. Since it can be a hassle to read all the voicemails, the experimenters wanted to make a program which could also show if the message needs immediate attention or not. In the study, they looked at the first ten seconds of the messages to identify the urgency of the message and the emotion of the speaker. Eight models of emotional states were used – happy, sad, calm, excited, urgent, not urgent, formal and informal. It should be noted, however, that the content was not analysed, only the prosodic features. The goal was then to be able to discriminate along the four axes of emotion, valance, arousal, urgency and formality using only the prosodic features of the first ten seconds of the message.              

                In the study, a total of 361 messages were used, some contains business conversations and day-day conversations. A binary labelling was used to indicate the presence or absence of emotion in the four axes. Only those messages that were labelled the same were used in the experiment. The Emotive Alert system, the program to be used, performs the segmentation of the message and extraction of the acoustic features on the first ten seconds of the message. The message was then analysed using the four axes, choosing the appropriate axis. Afterwards, the difference between the log likelihoods of opposite emotions was computed and only the two axes having the highest difference were picked. After axes identification, the appropriate pole of the axis is reported to the user through a simple text message. Results showed that GMMs[1] were not able to discriminate along the axis of valence and urgency. However, using three state HMM[2], which segmented the prosodic features, resulted to a consistent results.  HMMs were found to improve the performance of the GMMs.

                Maybe after 5 to 10 years, a similar program may be created to indicate the intent of the speaker and its urgency when making phone calls. To be able to determine which calls are important and which are not could really save a lot of time and a lot of money.  

______

[1] GMM - Gaussian Mixture Model

[2] HMM - Hidden Makarov Model

For more information of the two models, click here.

Source:

Inanoglu, Z. and Caneel, R. (2005). Emotive Alert: HMM-Based emotion detection in voicemail messages. MIT Media Lab Technical Report No. 585, January 2005, appeared in: Intelligent user Interfaces (IUI 05), 2005, San Diego, San California, USA.

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SAHAGUN, Paulina Monique M.

           Other than being one of the modalities, touch has always been vital to an individual’s life. We grew up under the warmth and caress of our parents. We communicate our own emotions through touch – we cling on to someone when we’re afraid, we crave for a cuddle when we’re sad, we squeeze their hands when we’re surprised and we shun the hands of those we dislike or hate. Since we are social beings, we can’t help but use touch to communicate our emotions and exhibit our trust. However, serving as means of communication is not all what there is in touch.

         In a recent study by Kraus, Huang and Keltner (2010), they aimed to find if touch can increase cooperative behavior within groups. In this study, they made a longitudinal, ethologically oriented study of touch and team performance in the NBA. They examined if touch observed during the game occurring early in the season would predict the team cooperation and individual and team performance of the team over the season. For the 30 teams in the NBA, two judges coded the occurrence and duration of physical touch for the touch coding procedure. The judges determined the duration of each touch in seconds, the players who were involved in the act, the player who initiated the touch and the type of touch. Type of touches  were mostly celebratory touches include 12 gestures, fist bumps, high fives , chest bumps, leaping shoulder bumps, chest punches, head slaps, head grabs, low fives, high tens, half hugs, full hugs and team huddles. Touches that were made as a result of playing the game were not coded. Touch coding was consistent and reliable, as long as both coders rated the touch as occurring at the same time during the game. For cooperation coding procedure, another 6 coders coded the amount of cooperation exhibited by each of the 30 teams in the NBA using the same games of the physical touch coding procedure. However, the coders were unaware of the hypotheses of the study but were knowledgeable about basketball. The coders watched out for the following behaviors: talking to teammates during games, pointing or gesturing to one’s teammates, passing the ball to a teammate who was less closely defended, helping other teammates escape defensive pressure,  and any other behavior displaying a reliance of one’s teammates at the expense of one’s individual performance. It was reasoned in the study that cooperation of the team would manifest to increased reliance on the teammates even if it is as the expense of the individual’s performance. Behaviors which show lack of trust and cooperation, on the other hand, were also coded. These include taking shots when one is closely defended by the opposing team, holding the ball without passing to teammates, shooting the basketball excessively  and any other behavior which shows reliance one one’s own capabilities rather than on the teammates. As for the performance of the player, the win score was used. Win score measures the performance of the player which resulted to a positive impact on the player’s team success , such as rebounds, points, blocks and assists, while also accounting for the performance which resulted to a negative impact on the one’s team success, such as turnovers and shot attempts.

          The results showed that touch is indeed associated with high performance, both at the individual and group level. Fostering cooperation between teammates, touch can predict the performance of a team. However, results cannot be generalized since the study involved a specific competitive group, the NBA, which have their own language of touch. As such, it can be said that the results are context-specific as no other experiments have tested the relationship between touch and team performance in other fields.  Nevertheless, touch has been exhibited to promote group functioning during competition by enhancing the cooperation and performance.

As one of the famous NBA basketball players have said, “There is no “I” in team but there is in win.”

Source:

Kraus, M.W., Huang, C., and Keltner, D. (2010). Tactile communication, cooperation, and performance: An ethological study of the NBA. Emotion, 10(5),745-749.

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SAHAGUN, Paulina Monique M.

We're all advocates of healthy, legal lifestyles, so nothing beats a perfect afternoon of lying on the couch all day, popping a pirated DVD marathon of the latest Oscar-nominated movies, while munching on your favorite Piattos. (What take-home exam?!)

As young people who are involved in the arts, we like our movies artsy, indie and foreign. Hey, no worries, after all we're fluent in English, what are subtitles for? And what about that hot new Spanish film! We can watch it and polish up our dying Spanish skills too!

Me gusta!

Well, if you want to incorporate your passion for a third or fourth language, then research by Holger Mitterer and James McQueen suggests that yes, subtitles do help in learning a new language through film. But if you think your skills would improve by watching Penelope Cruz' hot Spanish accent and matching her words with the English subtitles, then you are wrong, for they suggest that in order to improve second language listening ability, you have to watch it with subtitles in the same language as the film. In fact, watching a film with subtitles in your native (or second) language may even be counterproductive!

Que horror! The movie experience did not just become a listening ability test, but even reading comprehension as well! (Thank God you're not studying Japanese!) 

Before I introduce the experiments, in order to understand the study well, I would like to introduce you to two of my favorite accents in the world: the Scottish and the Australian accents, eh!

(He actually said, "Brilliant, you wouldn't hear your mum shouting at you to do stuff all of the time")

In this study, Dutch students unfamiliar with Scottish and Australian English watched either an Australian sitcom ("Kath & Kim") or a short version of the film Trainspotting (featuring hot Scottish actor Ewan McGregor as a drug addict)-- with English subtitles, Dutch subtitles or no subtitles at all. After watching the film, participants are then made to repeat back as many words as they could from 80 audio excerpts taken from the source videos. These sound clips were all spoken by the main characters in the films. Half of them were heard by the participants in the experiment clips, and half of them are new ones, taken from another episode or an edited-out portion.

Results showed that those watched with English subtitles reported the best performance on both already-heard and new-material. Dutch subtitles also helped on the old items, but they were associated with worse performance on the new audio clips. 

Apparently, in watching with subtitles in their native language (Dutch), the participants used semantic or meaning-based information in the subtitles when listening to the English words. This is why the Dutch subtitles appear to have helped them figure out which words had been spoken, increasing recognition on old materials. But they were not able to "retune their phonetic categories" so it was difficult for them to understand the newer words from the same speakers. 

To better explain this, let's switch things to a context closer to home. We bought a 10php copy of Braveheart and decided to watch it. But instead, we got a headache-- no, not from bad video quality, but from trying to understand the fake Scottish accent of Mel Gibson. We decided to turn on the subtitles, which apparently can be English or in Filipino. When we choose English subtitles, the subs tell us, the perceiver, the meaning of the word uttered.. We now associate the sounds to the word. But if we choose the Filipino subs, the subtitles then now tell us the exact meaning of what they are saying. It draws away our attention from the speech.

Not that easy for learning Japanese.

I really like this study because in our quest for knowledge, we often bump into foreign language learning tools like DVDs and audio CDs. So next time, we should tune into the movie with subtitles similar to the language, it will help us learn the language better! 

And since we are on the topic of accents, let us be proud of our very own! I know the call center boom has made us all ashamed of our Filipino English accents, but it would be a shame to see it go away. After all, it is something uniquely ours! 

By:

Elia Casimiro. 200731105

Reference:

"Foreign Subtitles Improve Speech Perception". ScienceDaily, 10 November 2009. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110202847.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29 

Based on the article:

I am not a big fan of poetry but i really like this one:

The Shirt

By Jane Kenyon

The shirt touches his neck

and smooths over his back.

It slides down his sides.

It even goes down below his belt—

down into his pants.

Lucky shirt.

[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177701]

It's very short and direct but it is nevertheless true for this very much encapsulates our basic need for touch. We need to touch and be touched. We have not only a need but also a desire for it whether it be in the context of lust, sympathy or anger.

The way we touch--how and why we do, want and need it--is hardwired in our brains. It is in our nature to touch--to embrace, to tap, to hug, to kiss, to hit,

to squeeze, to caress, to pinch, to rub, to stroke. At the most basic level, i think we can all agree that touch helps us communicate (especially the things we cannot say). With this, touch makes human expression more colorful, moving and powerful. We use it in a variety of contexts. Thus, it is no wonder that touch aids in expressing emotions.

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Touch is important as this contributes to cognitive, brain and socioemotional development throughout infancy and childhood (Field, 2001, Hertenstein, 2002, Stock, 2001; in Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, & Jaskolka, 2006).

Hertenstein et. al, (2006) have shown that:

tactile modality can signal at least 6 emotions: anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, sympathy

specific tactile behaviors are used to communicate distinct emotions:

interestingly, even when tactile signals were only seen and not experienced, observers still had accurate judgments

with this, visual observation alone can possibly detect emotion in tactile behavior

touch appears to convey more positive emotions than other modalities.

With these findings, I could not help but ask: How does touch facilitate social interaction? Does it make interpersonal interaction more meaningful? Does it bring with it passion? And, when does touch fail us in correctly identifying what one is feeling?

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In light of the study, how could touch influence real-life situations in which, for example, one (mis)perceives the touch of a person as a sign or indicator of his or her affection? And what if the recepient acts in a way that would reinforce the perceived romantic act with both people having incongruent expectations? Could it be possible that this misperception of touch account for sexual harassment cases?

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Sometimes, as subtle as it may be: It begins with one touch.

Source:

Hertenstein, M.J., Keltner, D., App, B., Bulleit, B.A., & Jaskolka, A.R. (2006). Touch communicates distinct emotions. Emotion. 6(3), 528-533. Retrieved from: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~keltner/publications/hertenstein.2006.pdf

Joshua Rosario

I think that once in your lifetime, you've heard of someone sing a song that sounded like he's just talking... especially someone singing rap in karaoke. We've gotta admit it. It's just so hard to memorize those long and fast raps. >_> Personally, when I don't know the song (rap) by heart, I have a hard time singing it like it's a song. What happens is that I end up speaking (talking) and not singing. O_o;;

Setting that aside, there's this thing called McGurk Effect where when presented with a visual of a person saying /ga/ and a simultaneous audio of that person saying /ga/, people tend to perceive it as /da/. It demonstrates the fusion of auditory and visual cues.

Now, four researchers, Quinto, Thompson, Russo, and Trehub compared the McGurk Effect for spoken and sung syllables. They had 28 participants with normal hearing and vision, and all of them also had an average of 2.89 years of musical training as well.

The participants were asked to watch the monitor and listen carefully to the spoken or sung sylables so that they can identify the last syllable that they heard. There were basically 3 main conditions for the experiment:

auditory unimodal where they only hear audio stimuli

audio-visual where the visual and audio are the same, and the

incongruent condition where the audio and visual are different.

For each condition, there are 3 more sub-conditions:

spoken

sung in-key, and

sung out-of-key.

The stimuli for each trial consisted of 6 sung or spoken syllables. After each trial, five options appeared on the monitor and they were: ba, da, ga, tha, and other. Essentially, from the very start, they were asked to used both their vision and hearing to do the task, to perceive what the speaker was saying.

Results showed that those participants who judged the auditory unimodal (audio stimuli only) stimuli almost completely correctly identified the syllables which means that the audio recordings are highly identifiable. For audio-visual conditions (both audio and visual are the same), they also achieved near-perfect accuracy, which also means that with both correctly presented, there is no incongruencies present.

However, for those who were in the incongruent trials (where the visual and audio were different as explained above), fused responses were observed on 87.50%, 87.50%, and 83.03% of trials in the spoken, in-key, and out-of-key conditions.

ANOVA was used to see if there were any significant differences between the fused responses, and they found no significant differences.

Now, we all know that we can identify when a person is singing or speaking, but their results suggest that the processes involved in integrating audio and visual signals of linguistic information are not domain specific. We can see that the audio and visual perception fused for both sung and spoken stimuli.

So yes, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE!

But really, that's just me hoping to be like Eminem. :P

Reference: Quinto, L., Thompson, W. F., Russo, F. A., & Trehub, S. E. (2010). A comparison of the McGurk effect for spoken and sung syllables. Attention, Perception, & Psycholophysics, 72(6), 1450-1454.

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Luke Granada (￣▽￣)ノ

Isa sa mga hindi ko malilimutang aral mula sa highschool:  Hindi lang sa pagtakip ginagamit ang takip ng bolpen. Ginagamit din itong panglaslas. 

Kahit gaano kahigpit ang mga madre at mga gurong nagbabantay, naging talamak pa rin sa amin ang paglalaslas o paghiwa ng sarili. Basta't may takip ka ng Pilot bolpen, dagdagan mo pa ng ethyl alchohol, mapa-Math, English, o Pilipino ang asignatura... basta't may iniibig ka, basta't may dinaramdam ka, hala, sige hiwa na.

Sa sitwasyon ng mga kaklase ko noon, mukhang pag-ibig ang nagdulot sa kanila upang saktan ang mga sarili. EDA... JILLIAN... DIANA... Baka sakaling sa pag-ukit mo ng pangalan niya sa bawat pulgada ng balat mo ay mahalin ka rin niya.

Mahirap talagang maintindihan ang mga kaklase ko noon. Hindi ko malaman kung paano nila natitiis ang sakit, o kung pinamanhid na ba sila sa pisikal na sakit ng kanilang nadaramang pagmamahal- na bawal.

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Sa isang pag-aaral na ginawa nina Hooley, Ho, Slater at Lockshin (2010), tiningnan ang ugnayan ng nonsuicidal self- injuries at pain perception. Kaya kasing saktan ng isang tao ang kanyang sarili bagamat wala siyang balak na magpakamatay. Ito ay tinatawag na nonsuicidal self- injury. Mahalagang tingnan ito sa anggulong kaugnay ng pagkadama ng sakit o pain. Hindi nga ba normal ang pagkaramdam ng sakit ng mga taong sinasaktan ang kanilang mga sarili? Hindi nga ba katulad ng nakararami ang pagtingin at pagturing nila sa tindi at epekto ng kanilang personal na nararamdamang sakit? Ganoon ba talaga sila katibay kung sakit at aray ang pag-uusapan? Tiningnan rin ng pag-aaral ang maaaring epekto ng personalidad, negatibong damdamin, pagtingin sa kontrol (internal at external) at disosasyon ng mga kalahok sa kanilang pagkaramdam ng pisikal na sakit. 

Ayon sa pag-aaral, ang pain o sakit ay isang kumplikadong karanasan o damdaming dulot ng interpretasyon ng mga nociceptive inputs. Ang pagkadama ng sakit ay iniuugnay sa mga konsoptong pain threshold at pain tolerance. Ang mga ito'y maaaring magbigay-sukat kung gaano kasensitibo ang isang tao sa  (pisikal na) sakit. Mahalagang unawain rin ang konsepto ng pain endurance- ang sukatan kung gaano katagal kaya (at maaaring gugustuhing) makaramdam ng isang tao ng sakit.

Bagamat hindi naging pokus ng pag-aaral, binanggit rin ang iba't ibang maaaring dahilan kung bakit sinasaktan ng isang tao ang kanyang sarili: (1) marahil mahalaga sa kanyang makaramdam mismo kung ano ba ang "sakit", (2) inilalayo ng "sakit" na nadarama ang tao sa emosyonal na pagkabagabag na kanya ring nadarama (3) o maaari rin itong isang paraan kung paano nakokontrol at nailalabas ang mga negatibong emosyon. Maaaring ang isang taong madalas saktan ang kanyang sarili ay may ibang pakahulugan o pagturing sa "sakit" na nararamdaman kumpara sa isang indibidwal na hindi kailanman sumubok magself- injure.

67 mga kalahok ang sumabak sa eksperimento. Hindi isinali ang mga kalahok na nagtapat na sa ginagawang pananakit sa sarili, ginugusto rin nilang magpakamatay. Una'y pinasagot muna sila ng interbyung kahawig ng istruktura ng Self- Injurious Thoughts and Behavior Interview nina Nock, Holmberg, Photos & Michel (2007). Gumamit ng pressure algometer upang makapagpadama ng sakit o pain sa mga kalahok. Kapag ito'y idinikit sa balat, nakapagdudulot ito ng pressure na hawig sa dulo ng hindi gaaanong matulis na kutsilyo. Ito ay ginamit sa daliri ng mga kalahok. Ang sakit na nadaramang dala nito ay patuloy na tumitindi habang lumilipas ang oras. Binanggit naman nina Hooley et.al, (2010), na hindi nakakapagdulot ng sira satissues ng katawan ang instrumento. Batay na rin raw sa mga nakaraang pag-aaral, isa itong subok na paraan upang masukat at mabigyan ng ebalwasyon ang pagkaramdam ng pisikal na sakit ng isang tao. 

Inutusan ang mga kalahok na magbigay ng senyales sa simulang sila'y makaramdam ng pressure at sakit dala ng algometer. Ang senyales ay isang ilaw na madaling makita ng mananaliksik habang nasa laboratoryo. Iniutos na pindutin muli ang ilaw upang maging senyales naman ng pagkadama ng sobrang sakit- yoong klase ng sakit na makakapag-paayaw na sa kanila upang ipagpatuloy ang trial. Pinasagot rin ang mag kalahok ng NEO FFI-R nina Costa & McCrae (1992) para sa pag-alam sa kanilang personalidad, Hopelessness Scale nina Beck, Weissman, Lester & Trexler (1974) Locus of Control of Behavior Scale nina Craig, Franklin & Andrews (1984) at Dissociation Experiences Scale nina Bernstein & Putnam (1986). 

Napag-alaman ng pag-aaral na ang mga kalahok na sinasaktan ang kanilang mga sarili'y mayroong mas mataas na pain threshold- mas matagal (base sa segundo) bago i-report ang pagsimula ng pagkadama ng sakit. Napag-alaman ding mas mataas ang pain endurance ng mga kalahok na ito, na mas matagal nilang kayang tiisin ang sakit kumpara sa mga kalahok ng kontrol na grupo. Mas mataas rin kumpara sa ibang mga nananakit rin ng sarili ang pain thresholds ng mga mas matagal nang gumagawa ng mga ito, o nang mas sanay na sa gawain. Tiningnan rin ang mga baryabol ng personalidad at napag-alamang ang mgaintroverts at neurotics ay mas naiuugnay sa pagkakaroon ng matataas na lebel ngpain endurance. Nabanggit rin ng pag-aaral na maaaring maiugnay rin sa mas pinahaba pang pain endurance ang  pag-iisip ng mga taong nararapat lang sa kanila ang sakit na kanilang dinaranas.

------ Nakakainggit na hindi pala sila mabilis makaramdam ng sakit... higher pain thresholds ika nga ng pag-aaral. Nakakainggit na mas matibay pala sila... silang mas kayang tumagal sa gitna ng sakit na nadarama. Ayos ito kung katatagan at lakas ng loob ang usapan. Hindi ito mabuti kung sariling kapakanan at kalusugan na ang isinasantabi.  

Ako ang nasasaktan noon; makita ko lang silang gamit-gamit ang mga takip ng bolpen, hayok na ibinubuhos ang alcohol sa halos kahuhupa lamang ng dugo, mamula-mulang mga sugat... mga letra ng mga pangalang piniling iukit hindi lamang sa puso at alaala kundi maging sa makikinis na balat.

Is spelling really that important? It has been shown repeatedly that for as long as the first and last letters of a word are correct, it is quite possible to read the word properly.

i am quiet relieved. i dont have to bother about that stupid speling thing anymor. its much eesier when you dont care right?

But what if it does? :O

Rastle, McCormick, Bayliss, and Davis checked older studies and found results that showed that spelling or orthography seems to have an effect on speech processing. A lot of studies were replications of earlier ones, and some failed to achieve statistical significance but leaned towards the positive end.

These studies were mostly in English. The participants had to do several tasks over three days and were paid for their services. No harm, no foul.

Sounds a bit off. After all, humans have the potential for speech, "UGH" at least, but literacy is sort of a human invention, right? How does that work?

The results were fairly conclusive, though. The objects to be identified were given two different ways of being spelled. When the participants merely had to repeat the words, there was no effect on accuracy. However, things were different in various other tasks such as identifying if the spoken sound was a word or nonword.

Apparently, orthography or spelling has an effect on speech processing once literacy is acquired. Words with more than one spelling would slow down visual processing and affect even speech processing.

Among different explanations, it was posited that orthography could be activated by sound and cause various different processes. An example would be "ch" versus "k." If a word could be spelled with either, the "ch" might activate the sound /ts/ rather than /k/.

As a precaution, the experimenters decided to make images and give them new words. These new words were taught to the participants on day 1 of the experiment. The results replicated that of real word experiments.

Before you go complaining about making words, these experimenters are of the same nationality as one who made many new words in his time.

  And they used a Southern British English accent for the spoken words.

LIKE A SIR

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Kevin A. Parcon 2008-05210

Personally, I believe that I have a high pain threshold. Needles? PSH. Open cuts? No problem. Gashes on the legs? Fuggedaboutit. During my childhood, when I wasn't parked in front of the TV, I was jumping, rolling, and running about outside.

Of course, my time in 'The Great Outdoors' didn't come without consequences and my legs bear the scars. I call them battle scars and I could probably tell you where I was and what I was doing when I got each of them. The best thing about them is that when I was actually getting them, I didn't notice them. I would come home and my mom would freak out because my knee would be bleeding. I never cried when I got any of my wounds but I would tear up forever when my mom would pour alchol on them. NOT FUN.

I believed for a long time that I had a high tolerance for pain because I was just a tough chick. But in hindsight, it was mostly because I was having fun and it distracted me from all the pouring blood. And in this study, it was found that something that you enjoy (specifically music that you love), can actually distract you from perceived pain. It's kind of similiar to when dentists play music before they tear into your mouth, or at least that's how my dentist did it.

The study involved 80 participants who underwent three trials of cold pressor under three conditions (preferred music, preferred painting, and a silence control). It was repeated measures design in order to control for the possible individual differences with regards to pain perception. It would have been difficult to find a person who perceived pain in exactly the same way as another person. 

The music and painting conditions were used in order to compare the effects of auditory and visual distractions from pain, as both conditions had already been proven to distract from pain. The preferred music used were CDs brought in by the participants themselves (I loved how diverse the preferred music was, from Nirvana to Destiny's Child) while the preferred paintings were chosen from a list of fifteen well-known paintings. The participants were asked to answer a questionnaire regarding their music behaviors (preferences, music instruments played, etc.) as well as being asked to rate their chosen painting. This would check on the effect of both the preferred music and the preferred painting.

The participant was asked to immerse their nondominant hand in a warm bath (32 C) and then move it into a decidedly colder one (5 C) until they felt too uncomfortable at which time they will remove it. The preferred music was played through earphones while the painting was displayed throughout the entire immersion. Tolerance time (time it takes for the participant to withdraw his hand), self-ratings of pain intensity (between no discomfort and worst possible discomfort), perceived control over pain (extent to which the participant felt they could manage/alter the pain), and state anxiety were used as the dependent variables.

There was a significant effect of the distraction condition on tolerance, preferred music listening having a larger effect compared to preferred painting and control, as well as with sex, with men tolerating more pain than women (typical male bravado). It was also found that preferred music significantly lowered the perceived pain, so if you're listening to your favorite song, a knife stab could feel more like a pin prick. Preferred music listening also  resulted in greater sense of control, and thus less anxiety, compared to art and control, your favorite song can make you chillax even in the most pain-inducing moments. Preferred music was also more distracting than preferred painting and control.

It's fascinating to see that music in itself isn't enough of a distraction, it has to be something that the participant prefers, as evidenced by the wide variety of musical choices, from a Greek traditional folk song to a soundtrack from the movie Amelie to Linkin Park to Kylie Minogue. Music probably would not have that great an effect if it was something like elevator music being played compared songs that you would gladly rock out to.

So maybe I wasn't a tough kid when I was enduring all those blooding afternoons, maybe I was powering through because I was hearing my favorite tunes (most likely the opening themes from the daily afternoon cartoons). And maybe the people who suffer from a broken heart (figuratively of course, but we could make it literal) make sense when they blast loud music from their speakers and claim that they're 'drowning out their sorrows' with their all those songs. Maybe it's just not physical pain that music can distract you from, maybe it's all kinds of pain, emotion, spiritual, and whatnot.

The lesson that I take from this is to always have my favorite song handy so that when I'm in a particularly painful pinch (hello stubbed toes and bruised shins, my worst enemies), I could just put on my earphones and forget about them. Well, at least until I get treated.

Upon discovering the topic of this week's blog, i realized that i am more open to "visual experiences" than to auditory ones. You see, i enjoy exploring my surroundings with my sight (of course hahaha), looking at different visual stimuli. However this is not true for sounds. Not all sounds are welcoming. Of course, just like everybody else, i enjoy listening to music. But auditory stimuli or basically known as sounds don't always come in "neat packages."

For instance:

I DON'T enjoy the sounds made by school children as they play at the back of their school. (We live right next to a school). I don't appreciate those little whispering sounds made by gossipers in the jeepney. AND, who could appreciate the sounds spilling from a listener's headphones? Who doesn't feel alarmed when it suddenly gets too quiet and all you could hear is the ticking of the clock?

Okay, i know i'm already whining but i've come to the point where the cuckoo clock drives me crazy hahaha.

Obviously, what i am basically complaining about is NOISE,

  or unwanted sound (Stansfeld & Matheson, 2003). We encounter noise everyday and avoiding it is inevitable. Noise is very much a part of our surroundings. We can't get away from it-- it's like a shadow. Many people think that effect of noise impacts only on concentration or on our ability to focus on a task. However, this is not true. No matter how quiet or loud, noise very much affects our health.

Stansfeld and Matheson (2003) reviewed various studies regarding noise and health and found:

continuous exposure to noise in industrial settings can lead to progressive loss of hearing with an increase in threshold for hearing

noise exposure during sleep may increase blood pressure, heart rate and finger pulse amplitude as well as body movements

impairs performance (for example, when speech is played while a subject reads and remembers verbal material) 

does this mean that listening to music while studying isn't good?

hypertension is related to exposure to aircraft noise

Now, you know why i'm tense >:|

noise is a minor risk factor for heart disease

endocrine responses are indicative of noise as a stressor

community surveys found that headaches, restless nights and being tense and edgy are common in high noise areas (and this is why schools should NOT be built next to houses!)

The most widespread and well documented subjective response to noise is annoyance

Noise is also seen as intrusive into personal privacy (and this is why HATE being around people who contribute to noise pollution)

One of the primary characteristics affecting the unwantedness of noise is its loudness or perceived intensity--high frequency noise has been found to be more annoying than low frequency noise 

Noise effects on health may be augmented by, or in turn may augment, the impact of other stressors on health

Noise was also affects children in terms of cognition, motivation, cardiovascular health, endocrine function and annoyance

(you get the picture)

***

While it is true that noise cannot be avoided, it does not mean that we cannot modify or control how noise affects us. While it may be tempting to tear our ears apart at times, we have to learn to be in control of our reactions so that we cope with stress effectively. As my counselor once told me,

Learn to accept the things you cannot change.

YES, I cannot change the fact that we live next to a school; i can't throw our cuckoo clock away (i used to love it once though); i can't kill every little noisy stressor; I can't control my fiend's boisterous and know-it-all attitude (PUHLEASE); BUT, i know i can find ways on how to avoid or lessen the effects of these stressors.

So, to those who contribute to my daily dose of noise exposure: DIE. i'm kidding. i hope you damage your vocal cords/noisy instruments instead :)

Joshua Rosario

2008-65308

Sing, sing a song. Make it simple, to last your whole life long. Don't worry that it's not good enough, for anyone else to hear Just sing, sing a song. - SING A SONG, The Carpenters

Espesyal para sa akin ang awiting iyan. Iyan ata ang pinakaunang kantang natutunan kong awitin sa harap ng iba. Sa Bulagaan (Eat Bulaga segment) madalas gamitin ang himig at tono ng kantang iyan. Hindi naman ako natatawa sa biro at kung anu-anong salitang ipinapalit nina Bossing sa orihinal na titik ng kantang ito. Mas natutuwa ako sa alaalang bumabalik sa gunita noong ako'y nakadiaper pa, habang hawak ang mikropono at umiindayog sa saliw ng musika.

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May kakayahan ang mga taong makasagap hindi lamang ng simpleng tunog ngunit pati ng himig, tono, timbre at musika. Ang gampanin ng musika sa buhay ng bawat tao ay iba-iba, maaaring isang simpleng pampalipas-oras lamang, pang-alis ng pagkabagot o isang paraan ng pagpapahayag ng sarili. Ang musika rin ay maaaring isang daan upang ang isang tao'y makadama at makaalala. 

Sa isang pag-aaral nina Barrett, Grimms, Robins, Wildschut, Sedikides at Janata (2010), tiningnan nila ang musika bilang isang mahalagang salik na nagdudulot ng pakiramdam ng nostalgia. Ang terminong ito, bagamat mas nahahanay bilang negatibo, ay magkahalong lungkot at saya, na maaari ring may bahid ng pag-ibig at pride. Itinuturing ang musika bilang isa sa mga importanteng sensory inputs (ang amoy ang isa pang halimbawa), na isang kategorya ng mga nostalgia triggers sa mga tao. Ang musika, para sa pag-aaral na ito'y, maaaring instrumental o lirikal. Bilang suportang literatura, sa pag-aaral na ginawa nina Zentner et. al , (2008), binanggit na nostalgia ay malimit maiugnay (at ma-trigger) ng musika. Binanggit rin ang pag-aaral nina Juslin et. al, (2008) na nagsasaad na ang nostalgia ay mas nararamdaman sa kontekstong naglalaman ng musika. May mga bagong pananaliksik ring lumabas na nagsasabing episodic memories, o mga alaalang mas tumutukoy sa personal na karanasan ng isang tao, ay isang mahalagang mekanismong maaaring magpaliwanag ng pagkapukaw sa emosyon ng tao dahil sa musika. Sa pag-aaral nina Wildschut et. al (2010), ninais nilang bigyang diin ang nostalgia bilang isang emosyong naidudulot ng mga asosasyong ginagawa ng isang indibidwal sa pagitan ng musika at mga pangyayari sa nakaraan.

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When you'd cry I'd wipe away all of your tears When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears I held your hand through all of these years But you still have all of me - MY IMMORTAL, Evanescence Malungkot talaga ang kantang iyan- tungkol sa isang taong hindi makausad sa buhay niya... patuloy na nagmamahal ng isang taong bumitaw na. Kahit halos magpatiwakal na ang mang-aawit diyan, nakakakilig pa rin. Iyan ang isang kantang nagpapaalala sa akin ng young love- yung pag-ibig na halos nakakabaliw, nakakaubos ng load, nakakawala ng tiwala ng magulang, nakaka-inspire mag-aral ng gitara. Paborito ko pa rin yang kantahin sa videoke. Haha ----------

226 psychology undergraduate student volunteers ang nagsilbing kalahok ng pag-aaral. Sila'y pinapakinig ng 30 musical excerpts bago sila pasagutin ng ilang mga questionnaire. Ang bawat pinakinggang musika ay nagtagal ng 15 segundo at ang mga awiting ito'y lumabas sa merkado sa mga panahong ang mga kalahok ay nasa pagitan ng edad na 7 hanggang 19. Ang mga kanta'y malayang pinili para sa bawat kalahok kaya umabot sa 1,112 na kanta sa kabuuan ang nagamit para sa pag-aaral.

Bagamat ang musika at nostalgia ang pokus ng pag-aaral, inalam rin ang mood states at nostalgia proneness base sa personalidad ng mga kalahok. Nagpasagot rin ng test na tumutukoy sa personalidad, base sa Big Five factors. Sa paggawa nito, kinilala ang iba pang mga salik na maaaring makaapekto sa ihahayag na pagtataya ng emosyon at  nostalgia ng bawat kalahok. Pagkatapos ng bawat kanta, tinanong ang mag kalahok, "How nostalgic does this song make me feel?" at pinasagot ng isang 5-point Scale: 1- not nostalgic, 3- somewhat nostalgic at 5- very nostalgic. Parehong uri ng tanong rin ang ginamit para itanong ang tungkol sa arousal na dala ng kanta. Pinalista rin sa maga kalahok ang anumang emosyong mararamdaman nila habang o pagkatapos marinig ang bawat kanta.

Sa kabuuan, napag-alamang ang mga kanta'y maaaring magdulot ng nostalgia, kalakip na rin ang mga emosyong saya at kalungkutan. Sa kabilang banda, ang mga kantang kulang ang personal na marka, karanasan o pagpapahalaga ay maaari namang magdulot ng iritasyon sa indibidwal. Binabanggit rin ng pag-aaral na ang isang partikular na kanta ay hindi palaging nostalgic o nagdudulot ng nostalgia sa lahat ng tao. Maaaring dala raw ito ng pagkakaiba-iba sa mga matitibay na asosasyong binuo sa pagitan ng ilang mga awitin at ng mga karanasan sa nakaraan. Ang nostalgia at ang relasyon nito sa musika ay mas pinagtitibay ng personal na marka (autobiographical salience), arousal, pagiging pamilyar at pagkaramdam ng parehong saya at lungkot ng indibidwal. Bagamat hindi kasinglakas ang epekto, mahalaga pa rin ang naidudulot ng personal na mood state at nostalgia pronness.

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Isinara na ang mga kwaderno't niligpit ang mga aklat Naghuhudyat na ba ito ng isang pamamaalam? Sa mga kamag-aral at gurong kaakibat sa tuwa't luksa Mga magulang na tuluyang nagtiwala 

Sa aming kakahayan, sa aming pangarap. Karamay sa saya't lumbay, ito'y aming alay Ang Benediktinang ugali, magsisilbing haligi Ang turo ng Maykapal, magsisilbing gabay Sa pagtatapos ng isang yugto ng aming buhay Naging bahagi ka - ? 

Hindi ko man matandaan ang pamagat ng awiting iyan, alam kong iyan ang wagas na Graduation Song namin noong hayskul. Hindi mahalaga sa akin ang eksaktong pamagat, ngunit ang mga alaalang dala niyan. Maalala ko lang sandali ang tono niyan, pati voicing/ blending, bumabalik na sa gunita ang aming pagtatapos apat na taon na ang nakaraan. Lalo pang nagiging makabuluhan at puno ng emosyon (at nostalgia) ang kantang iyan. Nasa parehong estado na naman ako sa ngayon, ilang buwan na lang bago magtapos ng kolehiyo.

Sa darating na panahon, maraming alaala pa ang bubuin. Maraming kanta pa ang aawitin. Maraming musika pang maririnig at isasapuso. Maraming musika pa ang ikakabit sa bawat alaala. Marami pang mangyayari. Tapos balang araw, marami ulit masarap balikan. Sa lahat ng "marami"  na dadalhin ng panahong parating, alam kong mananatiling mahalagang parte ng buhay ko ang musika.

Sanggunian: Barrett, F., Grimm, K., Janata, P., Robins, R., Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T. (2010).  Music- evoked nostalgia: affect, memory and personality. Emotion: American  Psychological Association, 10 (3), 390- 403.