INATTENTIONAL and CHANGE BLINDNESS

Hi friendsJ,

While I was researching on my post topic, I came across a video and when I watched it,I really got impressed and can’t wait sharing with you J

First of all, I want you to watch the video carefully:

It is interesting, isn’t it J ?The researchers called it as “inattention blindness” which is simply defined as not being able to notice some unexpected features or visuals as the attention is engaged on another task. So while watching the video, we all concentrated so much on finding out how many passes the white team made that we didn’t notice the walking bear.

The findings of another experiment are even more eye-catching. Let’s watch it:

This is called “change blindness” in which you are not able to detect the changes in objects or images. There are lots of experiments conducted on this topic. Researchers try to find out the reason of this blindness and there are lots of claims about visual attention, visual memory and awareness but all of them remain controversial. As it is said in the video, “Some people notice these changes and other people don’t notice these changes. We really don’t have any idea that what separates those people who notice then the ones who don’t notice.” So, I think this is a good example of the mysterious side of human psychology J But of course I believe that if some more experiments are conducted, it will be revealed.

Best Wishes,

 Vildan :)

References:

Simons, D. J., & Ambinder (2005).  Change blindness: Theory and consequences. Current Directions in

                Psychological Science.

Simons, D.J., & Levin, D.T. (1997). Change blindness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

WEEK'S PYSCHOLOGIST

IVAN PAVLOV(1849-1936)

"Science demands from a man all his life. If you had two lives that would not be enough for you. Be passionate in your work and in your searching." - Ivan Pavlov

His Contributions to psychology:

I am sure that the first thing that comes to our minds when we hear of his name is Pavlov’s dogJ. As we all know, Ivan Pavlov had experiments on dogs for the concept of “classical conditioning”, which was his most important contribution to both psychology and education. What is interesting is that he was doing the experiments on dog’s digestion and salvation, not on this topic. Actually he wasn’t a psychologist and he didn’t like psychology however his work had great influence in this field. He was acclaimed for his work during  

those days. He had Nobel Prize in 1904 in Physiology. Today, he is accepted as one of the pioneers of “behaviorism” and even if he disliked psychology, he is one of the most important men in this field.


Reference:
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/pavlov.htm

PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

      “I can’t learn English, I have capacity to learn English, I don’t like English…” We all hear these kinds of sentences from people around us and unfortunately the number of these people increases day by day It is an undeniable fact that psychological conditions and even personality has a great effect on learning a language. And we also know that some second language learners are more successful than others. Why? What is the reason of this lack of success?   There are many researches on that part of language learning in the field of SLA and the findings show that some factors called nonlanguage factors such aptitude, motivation, attitude and socio-linguistic influences affect language learning. Now let’s look at some of them briefly:

AFFECT: It refers to feelings, emotions or reactions that learners have about the language, about the people speak that language or about the culture where that language is spoken. I think this factor is one of the most important barriers to learn a language and I have also experienced this while trying to learn German. I always say “ What a rude language German is, I don’t like it I never like :) ” So, I can’t learn it :)

ANXIETY: Many learners feel anxious while learning a language especially speaking it. But it is good or bad? We shouldn’t think anxiety as a negative factor as it is necessary to some extent while learning a language. Of course, if it is too much, it will surely hinder language learning.

SOCIAL DISTANCE: If a second language learner feel distant himself/herself to the society and the culture of that language, it will also affect language learning in a negative way.

APTITUDE: Aptitude refers simply to one’s potential for learning a language. Some people like working with the language, while learning they always find ways, make associations, uses techniques to learn etc.. According to Skehan(1989), aptitude is consistently the best predictor of the language learning success.

MOTIVATION: I think, motivation is the most essential part of language learning. Whatever you try, it won’t work if a learner’s motivation to learn is very low.

       Of course all these factors can be enhanced, we can add many different factors to them but also I think we can collect all of them under the same heading:

AFFECTIVE FILTER: Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis brings forward the idea that “ If your affective filter is up, language input prevented from passing through; if, on the other hand, the Filter is down, or low, and if the input is comprehensible, it will reach the acquisition device and acquisition will take place.”  What does Affective filter mean, then? It shortly refers to any psychological conditions which actually include all the factors like anxiety, motivation, self-confidence etc. According to Krashen, learners with high motivation, self-confidence and a low level of anxiety surely will be better in second language acquisition than others. So we can say that “Try just to keep the affective filter lower and lower and make way to language learning :) ”

Best wishes,

Vildan Kandemir

References:

S. Gass & L. Selinker (2008). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course (3rd Edition). New York: Routledge/Taylor Francis.

 Peter Skehan (1989). Individual differences in second-language learning. London: Edward Arnold.  

WEEK'S PYSCHOLOGIST

BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER (1904-1990)

“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.”

                                                                                                B.F. Skinner

His contributions to psychology and education:

What comes into our mind when we hear the name of B.F. Skinner is of course “behaviorism”. He is one of the leaders/founders of behaviorism which can shortly be defined as “all the things that organisms do- including acting, thinking, feeling- should and can be regarded as behaviors. He came up with the term operant conditioning. It is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. He found out while he was observing the rats that a rat learns to obtain food by pressing a lever and he called it as 'Skinner box'.

Even if behaviorism is no longer dominating today because of newer research, his works in operant conditioning remains vital today.  In addition to his contributions to psychology, his impact is also felt in the field of education. The terms “reinforcement” and “punishment” that he found are still used by teachers in the classrooms. So, with his all contributions, he is called today as one of the most celebrated psychologist in 20^th century.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner

http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_skinner.htm

http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/bfskinner.html

THE FUN THEORY

Habits are hard to change, we all know that. But have you ever thought that they can easily change if you make it fun? Here are some videos about it, I really enjoy very much while watching and I hope you will enjoy, too J

These are from a competition called “The Fun Theory” in which the contestants find their own inventions for the theory that fun is best way to change behavior for the better. As you see, people all love fun regardless of their ages. They will be more motivated and more involved to do something if they enjoy. So, we shouldn’t forget the place of fun factor in human psychology. As a teacher candidate, I think this theory is also applicable to the classrooms, to the schools. Think that a teacher wants to change misbehaviors of students like making noise while saying our national anthem or not doing their homework, what can s/he do? I believe we can find some creative ways to change habits of students with making it fun :)

Best wishes...

WEEK'S PYSCHOLOGIST

SIGMUND FREUD ( 1856S- 1939)

“Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.”

                                                                 Sigmund Freud

His Contributions to Psychology

 He and his ideas has such an impact on psychology that today’s world almost anyone knows Sigmund Freud at least hear about him. He is thought as one of the most famous figure and also one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. What makes him so important is his work and theories that helped shape our views of childhood, personality, memory, sexuality and therapy. His major theories “The Conscious and Unconscious Mind”, “The Id, Ego, and Superego”, “Life and Death Instincts” make a breakthrough in the field of psychology even if they are still controversial and subjected to criticism both now and during his life. He is the founder of psychoanalysis which generally examines the influence of the unconscious mind in behavior.

Some of his major books include:

ü  The Interpretation of Dreams

ü  The Psychopathology of Everyday Life

ü  Totem and Taboo

ü  Civilization and Its Discontents

ü  The Future is an Illusion

PYSCHOLOGY OF HANDWRITING

Is Our Character Written in Our Writing?

"Spoken words are the symbols of mental experience, and written words the symbol of spoken words. Just as all men have not the same speech sounds, so all men have not the same writing." 
                                                        -- Aristotle

Have you ever thought that our handwriting can be a reflection of our character? Yes, it is… Like characters, handwritings of the people vary one person to another; even the signatures suggest something about the person.

The way we learn to write in school is standard. Every teacher in school teaches their students to write cursive in a uniform way. However, we choose to change or to do things differently than the teacher taught us. For example, I want to share an experience about it. When I was in primary school, my teacher taught us writing italic as he likes writing like that and his handwriting is also like that. So, we all tried to write italic to be chosen the one whose writing is better from others and I was one of the best writers who can write italic very well. But I didn’t like it and never did I. As a result, as soon as I finished primary school, I started to write differently and I have never forgotten the day when my teacher saw my writing and got shocked and disappointed. Maybe, my teacher didn’t know that every person's individual handwriting reflects what is unique about them.J

 There is a study of handwriting analysis called “Graphology”. It helps in revealing the character and personality of the writer, including his or her strengths, weaknesses and abilities. As handwriting comes from the unconscious, it contains a great deal of information, which can be useful for interpreting one's character. So, by learning just some of the principles of graphology, you can analyze and see what our handwriting potentially reveals. I also think that especially the teacher candidates like me should know some principles that will be helpful to at least have an idea about your students thanks to graphology.J  Graphology is a very broad study and there are many studies and experts in that area. So, if you become interested in it and want to know more about it, here are some websites that I think will be useful for you:

http://www.handwritingpro.com/

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22323/73133-personality-written-handwriting

http://www.handwritinginsights.com/terms.html

Best wishes,

Vildan Kandemir