Wrapping-Up
P S YC H 1101 : L AS T DAY !
P ROF. DAVID P IZ AR RO
CO R NE L L P S YC H . NE T
6 Interesting Things I Never Got A
Chance To Talk About*
* T H AT W I L L BE O N T H E E X A M . H O L I DAY S P I R I T
1. What You Believe Changes What You Taste
(Aka Don’t Listen To Taste “Experts”)
H TTP : //WWW. TE D . CO M /TAL K S /PAU L _ BL O O M _ TH E _ O R IG INS _ O F_ P L E AS U R E . H TM L
2. Blushing Is An Adaptive Signal
3. Why We Can’t Tickle Ourselves
“The answer lies at the back of the brain in an
area called the cerebellum, which is involved in
monitoring movements. …[t]he cerebellum can
predict sensations when your own movement
causes them but not when someone else does.
When you try to tickle yourself, the cerebellum
predicts the sensation and this prediction is
used to cancel the response of other brain areas
to the tickle….Further studies using robots
showed that the presence of a small delay
between your own movement and the resulting
tickle can make the sensation feel tickly. Indeed,
the longer the delay, the more tickly it feels.”
4. We Dream In Color
(Unless We Are Old Enough To Have Watched Lots Of B&W Media)
5. Pain Caused Intentionally Actually Hurts
More
6. We Punish Ourselves Physically When
We’re Feeling Guilty
70
60
Guilt
Sadness
Neutral
50
40
30
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Trial 4
Trial 5
Trial 6
…
“They’re Made Out Of Meat”
Terry Bisson
-
"Meat. They're made out of meat."!
-
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"!
-
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."!
"Meat?"!
"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them
aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."!
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from
machines."!
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."!
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."!
"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and
they're made out of meat."
“Ugly Bags Of Mostly Water”
An Organ That Seeks To Understand Itself
Psychology: Reverse-Engineering The Mind
The “Hardest” Science
In Air: Will It Clear The Jump?
•
Fairly simple calculation if we have the
right information.!
•
Did the horse exert enough force to
counteract gravity? !
•
Same forces as acting on the moon’s orbit
Approaching: Will It Clear The Jump?
•
Number of factors has greatly
increased !
•
What did the horse eat that
morning?!
•
What’s the relationship between
the rider and the horse?!
•
•
Is the horse tired? Old? !
•
etc…
How much experience does the
rider have?!
E V O L U TIO N
BIOL OGY
IND IVID UAL D E VE LOP M E NT
C U LTU R E
P E R SON AL IT Y
C U R R E NT S ITUATIO N
Divide And Conquer Using The Scientific Method
•
Observation/Measurement!
•
•
Develop refined measures that are valid and reliable!
Experimentation!
•
•
Good control groups, avoiding confounds!
Analysis!
•
The right statistics for the right data
Richard Feynman On The Scientific Method
(Cornell Lectures, 1964)
yo u c an s ee all of t he Feynman C orn e ll lec t u r e s her e: h t t p : / / r e s e a r c h . m i c r o s o f t . c o m / a p p s / t o o l s / t u v a /
Goal Of This Course:
•
To teach you the basics of the human mind. !
•
•
•
•
To satisfy curiosity !
To improve how you think !
To improve how you live!
To get you interested in learning more
More Psychology?
Psych 2800: Intro to Social
Psychology (Spring)!
Tom Gilovich!
Psych 2090: Developmental Psych 2050: Perception !
Psychology (Spring)!
(Fall)!
Michael Goldstein!
James Cutting!
Psych 2230: Intro to Biopsychology
(Fall)!
David Smith!
You Want To Know More Now?
Book recommendations! (I’ll be adding more):!
http://cornellpsych.net/books
Apologia
Thank You!
!
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