Brannon Lab Number Game Study

In the Number Game study in the Brannon Lab, I completed several tasks involving numbers, arithmetic, and deciding which group of abstract quantities had more or less. In the first task, I had to decide if the three numbers presented on the screen were in increasing order or not. This task was at first very simple, but the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) varied between 1, 3 and 5 seconds and not surprisingly with a short time between stimuli, the task increased in difficulty. I then had to do the same task except this time, instead of numbers, I was deciding between abstract quantities represented by a splatter of dots. At this point in the study, I was thinking to myself that the experimenter was testing perceptual priming, or where my exposure to a repeated stimulus would influence my subsequent response to the next stimulus. 

A sample arithmetic problem

I then completed an arithmetic task, which involved adding or subtracting as many sets of numbers I could in the given time frame. After I completed this task, I realized the importance of only testing right-handed individuals, as the number pad on the keyboard is constructed for use with the right hand. A left-handed individual’s final score could be a bit skewed due to his lack of ability with the right hand.

Although I still think priming could have had an effect on my responses, the purpose of the study was actually to see if there would be a positive correlation between an individual’s arithmetic ability and an underlying ability to quickly distinguish between abstract amounts.

Group Experience

I am very glad that my two partners were Sonia and Allie. They both made a significant contribution to my group experience. I didn’t know them very well at the start of the year and through the project and class, we became friends and I’m glad that we now hang out both inside and outside the classroom.

Reflecting on the actual project, I think I must say that although the movies we chose were not the most entertaining, my group members and I tried to make the most of it anyway. We laughed and joked about the movies and one time even made popcorn from raw corn kernels to eat while we watched. The three movies my group and I chose (pictured below) were Bicentennial Man, E.T., and Frankenstein.

 

There were times while working on the project, where I didn’t feel like I was on the same page as my partners. Fortunately though, they took the time to explain their thoughts/ideas to me and gave consideration to my input as well. This project taught me that creativity, cooperation and sharing of ideas are important for success in a group environment. It was good preparation for similar group assignments I may find myself assigned to in the real world.

Dog Social Cognition

Posing for the camera

For as long as I can remember, I've had a keen interest in and have been fascinated by my dog’s social cognition. When I was 10, my family got our first dog, an eight-week-old Golden Retriever. She is the cutest dog in the world and I named her Caramel after her golden brown coat.  She has been my best friend ever since and even inspired me to want to become a veterinarian. 

Growing up with her, I have always been intrigued by her ability to communicate. She lets me know her intentions and she understands much of my commands, gestures, and body language. I taught her many new behaviors, starting with the usual commands like "sit," "stay," "come," and "shake" and then games like fetch and even hide ‘n’ seek. Teaching her to play hide ‘n’ seek, I went and hid, with a treat in hand, and then called for her to come look (or sniff) for me. After a short time, she figured out that after she waited, I would call for her, letting her know that it was time for her to search.

I also performed many cooperative communicative experiments with her. She performs excellently on the pointing task, which involves me hiding food in one of two places and indicating to her (by pointing where it is hidden), where I hid the food. As I soon figured out, she represents her species well in that she only understands pointing with my hand. If I indicate where the food is with a novel cue, such as pointing with my foot for example - not something she typically sees - she has a difficult time understanding my gesture. 

Please see the video below for "What do dogs understand?" - A short segment on Dr. Brian Hare of Duke's Canine Cognition Center.

 

What is it like to be a Bat?

Nagel in the classrom

Thomas Nagel made several intriguing and thought-provoking arguments in his essay “What is it like to be a Bat?” In this essay, Nagel attacked physicalism, or the theory that all facts are physical facts, where facts are defined as propositions or states of affairs. For example, the proposition that "I am in pain" is about the state of affairs of my being in pain. If physicalism is true, then all facts about the mind, such as my state of being in pain, are made true by physical states of affairs. However, Nagel argues that some facts, for instance, what it’s like to be an organism (in this case, a bat) are characterized by the subjective nature of the experience - not their objective nature.

Funny cartoon - Nagel's argument in a nutsehll

I liked that he chose bats as his primary example because bats use of echolocation as a means to orient themselves in their environment, navigate, find food... etc. is rather unfamiliar to us. As humans, Nagel argues that we can’t conceptualize what it's like to be a bat because the subjective character of experience (ie. sensing the world through echolocation) is only accessible by a single point of view (ie. the bat). As humans attempt to characterize the experience scientifically, or in objective terms that are accessible from many points of view, we move way from the subjective character of the experience. In other words, he argues that the subjective nature of what it is like to be a bat cannot be explained by science or in a way that humans can understand. Nagel thus concludes that physicalism, or everything that exists is no more than its physical properties, is false.

Ultimatum Game

My favorite economic game is the Ultimatum Game. This is an economic game in which two players interact to split a sum of money. The first player proposes an offer that the second player either has to accept or reject. If the second player accepts the first player’s offer, then they split the money according to the offer. However, if the second player rejects the offer, then neither of the players wins any money.

This is my favorite economic game because studies have shown that people do actually reject offers. In my opinion, rejecting an offer makes no sense at all, even if the offer is too small or imbalanced. I could understand someone rejecting an unfair offer to save his or her pride, but in a game where one’s opponent is a computer, I just do not understand why someone would ever reject an offer.

 

Above is a short video clip explaining the Ultimatum Game in terms of two children dividing a dozen cookies.

Violating a Social Norm

I was brainstorming of all the possible things I could do to violate a social norm, but felt that by doing some of them, such as randomly standing up and doing twenty-five jumping jacks in the middle of class, I would severely put my reputation at stake. Social norms, or the unwritten laws of our society that tell us what behavior is acceptable and what is not, take some courage to break. My reluctance to do such tasks like jumping jacks in the middle of class goes to show just how powerful social norms are in guiding our behavior in society. In the end, I decided that for my violation of a social norm, I would cut in line. 

People waiting in line for the iPhone5

Standing in line, or waiting one’s turn, is a very common practice that people do almost everyday when there are only a certain number of people that can be helped or served at any given time. Waiting in line can be boring and sometimes even frustrating since the item or service that is wanted is in high demand. Unfairly gaining an advantage by cutting in line is disrespectful to other people who have been patiently waiting their turn and they are likely to get upset.

Upon violating this social norm at Au Bon Pain, I expected someone to react and get upset and tell me to wait my turn or go to the back of the line. However, no one said anything to me and I didn’t even notice any dirty looks. Perhaps no one noticed that I cut or didn’t feel like speaking up to tell me to get back in line. Either way, violating this social norm was a bit uncomfortable, but in the end worth it as I got my sandwich about 10 minutes earlier than I would have if I hadn’t cut.

A song that goes along with my theme of waiting:

What are you Waiting For by Sebastian Ingrosso

Hormones

A case that comes to mind when I think hormones affected someone’s behavior was a time during my freshman year when I went out to a party with a friend. My friend and his girlfriend had just broken up and he was devastated. We decided to go to a party at UNC and help him get his mind off the subject. He drank a lot of alcohol before the party and even though I had seen him drink this much, I hadn’t seen him act this way before. After drinking he soon became very aggressive and belligerent (very atypical behavior for him) and eventually got himself in an altercation that lead to a fistfight. The next morning, except for cuts and bruises, he seemed to have forgotten the whole event and was “moving on.”

Testosterone

Now that I think back on the event, I’m thinking that the break up with his girlfriend triggered a surge of hormones that caused him to react the way he did. I’m not sure which hormones caused him to behave this way, but some studies have found that aggressive and irrational behavior in males aged 13 to 20 tends to rise when testosterone levels are high. Due to an increase in his testosterone levels, the fistfight may have acted as an outlet for all his built up tension, which allowed him to start getting over the break up. 

Testosterone

Emotion

To me, there is no one thing that can describe emotion. Human emotion is very complex in that there is no one single thing that must be present and if present means that there must be an emotion associated with it. Emotions are sometimes there for purposes of communication in that nearly all emotions have a signal in our faces or voice that informs others to an extent what we are feeling. I also think that emotions can signal to other species (such as dogs) what we are feeling.

The six universal human emotions

From studying emotion, I’ve learned that some are universal across people, such as anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise and enjoyment. However, these can often be broken down in several, very distinct categories. For example, enjoyment can be broken down into relief or amusement. These emotions share the same basic facial expression (a smile along with the flexion of muscles around our eyes), but in terms of voice, they are expressed very differently.

Also, another aspect I think is important in defining emotion is that neither observers nor the person feeling the emotion can always pinpoint the object or event that triggered the specific emotion. Emotions can be triggered by almost anything, whether it’s from one’s memory to imagination to the weather, people can become emotional about almost anything (sometimes you don’t even know why you’re emotional). Emotions can also occur very briefly. They aren’t voluntary in that they seem to just happen to us - from one moment to the next you may be happy and then sad.

In the Youtube clip above, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson of UNC discusses positive emotions. Hopefully in the future, we will be able to use fMRI and other techniques to look at the activity of the brain associated with specific emotions and be able to decipher what exactly a particular emotion.

Thermal Grill Illusion

As a child, I remember being amazed by the thermal grill perceptual illusion in a science museum. In this illusion, subjects feel an unpleasant burning sensation when simultaneously touching juxtaposed cold and warm bars of a grill. However, when touching only warm bars or only cold bars, the subject does not report a feeling of pain (just the warm or cool temperatures).

Thermography of the grill surface. Panel C results in the Thermal Grill Illusion (alternating warm and cold temperatures)

In an interesting fMRI study, researchers (Lindstedt et al.) examined this phenomenon of the thermal grill illusion. It was known that touching warm and cold temperatures at the same time caused an imbalance of firing from spinal neurons, but more neurophysiological evidence and spatio-temporal data on human brain function was needed. In the Lindstedt at al. study, participants placed their left leg on the cold and warm bars on the surface of the grill so their calf muscle was in contact with the stimulating surface. While their leg was being stimulated, fMRI recordings were taken from their brain to image the supraspinal activation from the thermal grill illusion. After statistically analyzing the results, the most notable finding was a strong activation of the contralateral thalamus as compared to the patterns of activation seen by its constituent temperatures.

Thermal Grill Illusion activation (right thalamus) vs. constituent cold or warm activation

The results of this study are really interesting as they can be compared to future fMRI studies analyzing neuropathic pain. 

Mind Reader

One of the first ideas that came to my mind was a machine that is able to read the minds of criminals. Instead of wasting endless hours interrogating them, however, my ideal invention would be a device that enables people who cannot communicate, to make their thoughts known. 

I would use a simple chip that sticks onto someone’s forehead (or wherever they want to stick it) that transmits thoughts wirelessly to a computer screen (iPad, tablet… etc.) in the same room. Individuals who are unable to communicate verbally, with sign language or through writing could use the machine. Perhaps, some day, the device could even translate thoughts into spoken words. The user would also be able to manipulate the device to suppress thoughts that he/she does not want to share. Disabled individuals, who yearn to express themselves or just socialize, could make use of this device. I guess the device could also be used as an alternative to interrogation, but then the feature that deactivates unwanted thoughts would have to be turned off.  

Dr. Fiske and (de)humanization

Stereotype Content Model (SCM)

I really enjoyed Dr. Fiske’s lecture on Friday on (de)humanization as she discussed the ways in which people make sense of other people and how this affects their responses in various situations. The results of her research regarding the stereotype content model (SCM, pictured to the right) show that not all stereotypes are negative and that emotions play a large part in forming them.  


In addition, I found the “trolley dilemma,” (pictured below) which illuminates how individuals decide upon the most appropriate action when confronted with moral uncertainties to be a very interesting concept. Her explanation of the systematic differences between in-groups and out-groups also really resonated with me.

Trolley Dilemma: What would you do?

I particularly liked her segment on “over-humanization” in which she spoke about how people differentially attribute social cognition to different species of animals. It’s fascinating to realize that we do in fact have feelings of pride and admiration when thinking about cats, dogs, monkeys or elephants. Overall, the research shows that prejudice is not just a general feeling of dislike for a certain group and that the concept is actually much broader and goes much further in affecting how individuals conduct their daily lives.

There is Still Hope

At the age of 14, one of my closest childhood friends was struck by a car that ran a red light and hit him and two other people in the crosswalk. My friend suffered critically severe head trauma. I don’t know the specific details of his brain injury, but I remember visiting him in the hospital when he was in a medically induced coma and half of his skull had been removed to help accommodate the swelling of his brain. Doctors and neurosurgeons did everything they could, but, at the time, they did not ever expect him to regain consciousness. After two long and grueling years during which he endured countless brain surgeries, regular physical therapy and other forms of mental stimulation, he miraculously woke up and slowly began the long road to recovery.  

Since he regained consciousness, he has had to relearn everything and I mean EVERYTHING. He started from moving just his eyes, then his head and since then he has relearned how to breath (without a breathing tube), eat, walk, talk and every other basic everyday function that we all take for granted. It is now about five years since the accident and although he seems to keep improving, making small steps all the time, the road to full recovery is extremely long. Although I am afraid he may never reach 100%, given where he is now compared to where he came from, I will not give up hope. He is incredibly resilient and very determined. I am in absolute awe of the improvements he has made and what he is capable of today.

Journal Articles are Confusing!

The thing I find most confusing about journal articles is definitely the complicated jargon that authors use. Instead of reading and understanding the experiment and trying to interpret results on my own, I often find myself on Wikipedia trying to find out what some of their fancy language means.

When I understand the articles, my next biggest problem is length. I sometimes think the authors include way too much detail that distracts readers from the significance of their study and why it is relevant in the field today.

A third difficulty I have had with journal articles is interpreting the statistics they have provided. Sometimes it seems that if the results the experimenters obtained were not statistically significant, they would not have included those results in their study. Other times, it seems like conclusions that researchers draw from their results are a bit of stretch.

Synapse: Animations are easier to understand!

Finally, one last thing I find confusing about journal articles are their diagrams/figures. Unlike textbook pictures, these diagrams are almost always real images (instead of animations) that to a reader like me (not an expert in their field of study) are really confusing. The captions sometimes make it easier to follow, but authors often use their own abbreviations (ie. for new proteins) to describe their images that just aren’t that clear. Although I think including an animation might not be that scientifically professional and could potentially oversimplify findings, I think readers might be able to reach a higher level of understanding.

Why Neuroscientific Approaches to Social Behavior?

Hi, I’m Ross, I like neuroscience and this is my blog. I have always had a fascination with the human brain and after taking Bio Bases of Behavior, I changed my major to Neuroscience. I particularly like neuroscience as a field because as new technology becomes available, we are able to make many meaningful breakthroughs related to the science of the human brain.

As a neuro major, this class fulfills an elective requirement and perfectly fits my schedule (I don’t like morning classes). I have taken a few courses that give me a background in neuroscience as well as social psychology and this class seems to be the perfect intersection of the two. In this course, I hope to find out more about the neural biology that gives rise to our complicated social behavior.

One of my favorite social psychology experiments, which studies how long four-year-olds can delay gratification of eating one marshmallow to eat two at a later time and relates their resistance time to future success, can be seen below. Thanks for reading!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EjJsPylEOY