The Stroop Effect

This experiment was first described by John Ridley Stroop in 1935. Stroop first tested that reading the word of a color in black was almost the same as reading it on color. Then he tested reading the word in the same color and then incongruent color. He found out that the subjects took an average of 74% longer to read an incongruent color. This was due to how humans were more practiced to name reading then color naming.
This experiment consists of first naming several color names with their respective color. For many people this is an easy task to perform. Then several names of colors will be provided, but this time the name of the color will not match the real color, for example Yellow, Blue, Red Green. The Stroop effect is the demonstration of the reaction time of a task. When the name of a color is shown in another color instead of its own, naming the color shown takes longer and has a greater chance of committing a mistake. This is do since your brain is trying to process to different types of information, it is trying to process both the color and the word naming the color. The brain is trying to suppress the input from the printed word, in order to focus on the color of the word. Studies have shown that people who do not know how to read or are learning a new language or even child have no problem naming the color of the word.

"BACKGROUND ON THE STROOP EFFECT." Rochester Institute of Technology. Web. 10 Sept. 2010.

"Stroop Effect." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 10 Sept. 2010. .

"What Is the Stroop Effect?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. Web. 10 Sept. 2010. .

Multi-Tasking

1. Multi tasking is considered to be a myth since it can’t be done. It is proven that people can’t do two things at the same time. What really happens is that after performing one act people move on to the other act, then move back to the first act, or could jump to another act. This is really not multi-tasking.
2. The term response selection bottleneck refers to the brain being for to respond to several stimuli at once. By performing this, people loose time since the brain determines which task to perform.
3. The release of stress hormones and adrenaline may damage your health. It is also extremely uncomfortable. The stress hormone can also cause loss of short term memory. Now that we have knowledge of the disadvantage of multi-tasking, we can start lowering our use of it.
4. Russell Podrack found that multi-tasking affect the way you learn. When you multitask you do not receive the information efficiently. While multi-tasking you do not learn well, but if not you use a part of the brain called hippocampus, a region of the brain used to store and recall information.
5. The author concludes that if we continue multi-tasking frequently, we may never gain wisdom in the subject and perhaps we may lower are IQ.

BaMbuti

The British American anthropologist Colin Turnbull came to the public’s attention by means of the research of the BaMbuti tribes from Congo. They subsist in the deep forests of Africa in modern day Republic of Congo, a place which is mostly surrounded by large trees. The distance the pygmies could observe is awfully limited. Since the tribe people haven’t seen anything from a long distance do to their environment, their perception of size and distance is to some extent different than ours. The pygmies have not learned that when a figure normally recedes into the distance, it gets smaller. The pygmies assume the size they visualize is the size they really are. Common people have learned throughout their life’s the correlation of size-constancy and distance; this is due to the information we have obtain by our experiences. The observations of Colin Turnbull were extremely important for modern day psychology. Turnbull had the opportunity to record another important observation regarding the BaMbuti, they refer to white, black and red by color names, the rest of the colors they make comparisons, for example they refer to green as “like the leafs”. The young pygmy Kenge was a great help for Collin Turnbull and his psychological discovery. Kenge not having knowledge of long distant correlation made it possible for us infer that we are not born with perception, we gain it over experience. By him asking all the inquiring questions, we can analyze the difference between perception and how perception is gained, not born with.

Turnbull, Collin M. "Some Observations Regarding the Experiences and Behavior of the BaMbuti Pygmies." Primary Sources. Web. 02 Sept. 2010. .
"Colin Turnbull." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2010. .
Grineker, Roy Richard. In the Arms of Africa by Roy Richard Grinker. Web. 04 Sept. 2010. .

Colin Turnbull

Colin Turnbull was a British anthropologist who spent time and researched the BaMbuti pygmies, an African tribe. He was born in London, were later he studied philosophy and politics in the Oxford University. He later graduated from the Banaras Hindu University, Indian. He mastered on Indian philosophy and religion. Sometime later after graduating from the Banaras Hindu University, Turnbull traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, back then known as the Belgian Congo. He made this trip with Newton Beal, a school teacher he met in India. They both studied the BaMbuti pygmies, except the notorious tribe was not their main priority. He later acquired a job with the Hollywood producer Sam Spiegel building a boat for him. When he returned to Oxford he started to specialize in African anthropology. He took a trip back to Africa to study closely the Belgian Congo and Uganda. After all the hard work he graduated and achieved his anthropology doctorate for oxford. Later in his life he stood out for his book called "The Forest People" which studied the BaMbuti tribe. Turnbull made 6 trips to Africa in which many of his works in museums and universities were largely connected with these studies in Africa.

Turnbull, Collin M. "Some Observations Regarding the Experiences and Behavior of the BaMbuti Pygmies." Primary Sources. Web. 02 Sept. 2010. .
"Colin Turnbull." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Sept. 2010. .
Grineker, Roy Richard. In the Arms of Africa by Roy Richard Grinker. Web. 04 Sept. 2010. .

Perception is reality

Perception is the way we understand the world. How we interact with everything and the way we interpret our surroundings, how we believe things really are. Reality is everything that is or has been and what actually exist. Regarding the definition, every single one of us has different perception about the truth. What may possibly be real to me might not be real to another individual. The way we look at our surroundings may not really be the way it is, but the way we think it to be. What is true or false is independent of what we believe it to be. If the truth would just be what we know exist by the facts, there would be no religion.

Moving to a less philosophical argument, what we see isn’t always what really is. What others perceive about you by your past experiences and behavior may change the way you look at yourself. After listening to the people surrounding you talk about your image, you may perceive what they say and view yourself as other view you. Someone may view their self as fat but, it may be that they are really exceedingly skinny. Our perception may not be the reality.

"Perception Is Reality." Timberwolf HQ — Spiritual Warrior & Seeker of the Way. Web. 11 Sept. 2010. .

"Your Perception IS Your Reality - Stepcase Lifehack." Stepcase Lifehack : Productivity, Getting Things Done and Lifehacks Blog. Web. 11 Sept. 2010. .