Comments on: Attentional Blink and the Stream of Consciousness

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:26:57 +0000

Mike, I did not see the moon walking bear LOL This is exactly why implicit memories are so important to the type of skill performance.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:28:29 +0000

Kat I've been wondering the same thing, good question. No answer, but this is interesting/funny, relating to the attentional blink.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

By: Kat

Kat — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:55:57 +0000

Thank you Bronson, I am still working on Emotional Brain. Many, many years ago I took antidepressants for depression. What is my learning style? Somebody should have asked me that question. I learned through experience (wasn't much of a studier). The antidepressants worked like magic – no more depression. What did I learn from the experience? I learned that antidepressants worked like antibiotics. I believed that rape had been “killed” by those little pills. Fast forward fifteen years … full blown PTSD. I was raging mad when I realized that antidepressants hadn’t solved my problem. Felt kind of dooped. I decided not to use psychology or psyche drugs right then and there. Bought a Bible, got through it all. Butttt I have softened a bit and now do believe that inductive reasoning can get at the truth and that if God chooses to help the world through medicine, who am I to refute Him.

By: Bronson

Bronson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:47:42 +0000

Most cognitive psychologists are not interested in "individual differences", they are usually interested in the universal aspects of how the mind works, those aspects that all people share. They do this by using large samples of people in their experiments (usually more than 20 people). Any individual differences should cancel out, leaving only what is shared by all the participants.
What is interesting about the attentional blink experiments though is that the effect (the blindness) wears off with practice, a fact which rarely appears in the scientific literature (but is known by many researchers).
Kat, there has been a huge interest in meditation and how that changes your ability to focus your attention. This research is very new (it's only started to be looked at over the last ten years). I'm sure there are some good books out there on it.

By: llama

llama — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:42:38 +0000

i agree with you kat! i do think that would change the results... but i am also sure that researchers have most things into account when they conduct studies..

By: Forrest Wood

Forrest Wood — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:07:20 +0000

I was in an elevator on the 1st floor. i close my eyes, take a breath, and the doors open to reveal the 24th floor, and my stop

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:41:41 +0000

Psyblog Guy or Gal? I do have a question about how “research studies" are conducted. In the Christian realm some people are taught to pay attention to their feelings (this is how they believe God communicates with them), others are trained to pay attention to their own thoughts, and still others pay attention to a source outside of themselves (like the Bible). I am wondering if research studies take into account how a person has been taught to pay attention. This would make a big difference in the results, wouldn’t it?

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:46:25 +0000

I am glad that attention is getting so much attention.