Chapter 2 weekly reflection
This week's reading provided a lot of information about how we process everyday concepts through visual and auditory recognition. It's eye opening to read about the factors that contribute to the mental process of seeing and hearing, a process that occurs naturally with development, is something that many take for granted, including me.
With this being the first chapter to analyze, I'd have to say that so far the information is all logical and appropriate for the class. Based on what I have learned through previous research about cognition, learning about how the mental process of how we connect to the objects and noises we hear makes sense so far!
A question that I still had regarding this chapter was why some people are better at unscrambling words than other people. Are they more cognitively developed in a certain part of the brain? Is it something that people can improve on?
The chapter is very easily applied to everyday life, for example, how I pick out a shirt from the drawer without pulling all of them out, but rather just using a portion of the shirt to recognize its whole. Through processing we are able to move at quicker speeds and recognize objects by their color and shape in comparison to others. If ever spice was in the exact same container, same color, same shaped bottle, it would take me twice as long to cook because I wouldn't be able to rely on my shortened processing information.
I liked that the author included the example about the person not recognizing changes when an obstacle obstructs their view. Providing the examples and case studies makes it really believable.
This information is helpful in explaining why students have difficulty reading, why memories lapse with old age, and the overall importance of thinking about a situation from another's point of view- one who can not visually or auditorally process information as most people can. I think that I could apply this information in a classroom by using it to explain to children the importance of watching a person when they are speaking.
I don't think there are other ways of accomplishing this task any faster or cheaper. Video taping provides a second resource, but it is more expensive and much slower than visual and auditory process recognition.
A lot of the examples in the book talk only about words or numbers. I enjoy examples that use objects, such as shirts and spice jars. It really helps to have multiple examples to explain the text, as well as hearing someone else view of them.
ReplyDeleteI am also unsure why some people can unscramble words faster than others. My boyfriend and I play text twist online and he is so much better at unscrambling the words than I am. If you figure out how to unscramble them faster...let me know!
Thanks Kerry. Good points. I also don't know why some people can unscramble words faster than others. My wife always beats me at Boggle and Scrabble. I would guess it has to do with verbal knowledge as well as spatial ability.
ReplyDeleteOne question - what did you mean by "I don't think there are other ways of accomplishing this task any faster or cheaper. Video taping provides a second resource, but it is more expensive and much slower than visual and auditory process recognition."?
I also wonder why some people can unscramble words better than others. Have you ever seen the following, and can you read it?
ReplyDeleteAoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Or rather...
According to a researcher (sic) at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself but the word as a whole.
I would be interested to see how many from our class can fluently read it.
I liked your example about the spices having different containers. I could see that a lot of things in life could take much longer if we did not process differences so quickly. I was able to read quickly through what Jill had sent but I have always been pretty quick at unscrambling words. I assume what the book said about seeing the first and last word correctly makes all the difference. If we looked at every letter it would probably take a quite a while to read each chapter of the Cognition book. I think that the paragraph above would have been more difficult if a couple of letters in the middle were correct rather that the outside letters because according to the book we don't read using the middle letters as much.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify my last paragraph, I just meant to say that a human's overall ability to process visual and auditory information is unique to itself. The process is something that can be done instantaneously with no cost, so in theory there is nothing that would replace one's natural ability. However, video taping and recording are accurate ways to enhance processing ability at a slower and more costly process.
ReplyDeleteA question that I still had regarding this chapter was why some people are better at unscrambling words than other people. Are they more cognitively developed in a certain part of the brain? Is it something that people can improve on? I think people can be trained to do those tasks. If we train our brain enough it can definitely get better through out time. I also think that prior knowledge of words plays a big role.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to 3, I wonder if he drew the rest of the circle because his background knowledge led him to know that a clock is a full circle. I also wonder if when they asked him to draw the figure they said, "Please draw this clock." The study does not go into full detail (I'm assuming none of them do or the book would have an additional 800 pages!) so I'm not sure if that is the case and the man began by drawing a circle and then looked at the picture. But, then I would also guess he would complete the clock also due to his background knowledge. That is an interesting way that you looked at the picture and had that thought. I am now wondering that as well.
ReplyDelete