Artistic Vision » Science

Multitasking: You can’t pay full attention to both sights and sounds

JWP — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:54:23 +0000

One of the issues I face in my classroom as an art teacher is when my kids tell me that talking to their friends while working is okay for them, actually critical. A 2005 Johns Hopkins’ study, which specifically addressed cell phone use while driving, would also seem to speak to my classroom situation.

Professor Steven Yantis states,

“Directing attention to listening effectively ‘turns down the volume’ on input to the visual parts of the brain. The evidence we have right now strongly suggests that attention is strictly limited — a zero-sum game. When attention is deployed to one modality — say, in this case, talking on a cell phone — it necessarily extracts a cost on another modality — in this case, the visual task of driving.”

Again, the implications from this would seem to indicate that concentration in any one modality is compromised when another is introduced. So, I guess this would also give me an answer when my students say listening to their iPods helps them concentrate while they work on my projects. LOL!

Changing brain structure through repetition

JWP — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:10:21 +0000

I found an interesting article documenting a study regarding changes in actual brain structure. The source cited was a 2000 study referencing work done with taxi drivers. Apparently, “the longer a taxi driver had been driving, the larger a specific part of the brain (the part that we believe stores spatial representations of our environment).” In the words of the author, “(s)imply by doing something repetitively, or doing something differently, can affect a change – not only in your actual brain’s structure.”

I can’t say I’m shocked. Frankly, this report makes perfect sense to me. Addictions are forged in the brain through repetition; their resolution could only come similarly. Reading something like this, though, makes me question why pro-gay activists would discourage individuals who seek to undo years of addictive behavior that reinforced same-sex attraction? All addictive behavior causes chemical changes in the brain and, now, it would seem that it doesn’t just stop there.

Hopeful news for those who seek to make positive changes on many fronts!

The deceit of self-esteem

JWP — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:44:09 +0000

Very telling quote:

“We could focus on the latest worrisome news in education: the results of an international test released last week that show American 15-year-olds don’t know much about science and are falling behind their peers in other industrialized nations. But why get depressed? There is an aluminum foil lining: The test also found that our teens don’t let their ignorance bother them. They may not know as much as students in Finland, Canada or New Zealand, but they think they do. When asked to rate their own scientific abilities, they put themselves at the top with their better-educated peers. This is the real trend in American education. No one can match us when it comes to self-esteem.” —Los Angeles Times