Brain Myths Emails
When
I send out emails to the class via my mailing list, I try to remember to copy
them here for you. That way, if
you do not check the email address that I have for you or you deleted a message
as SPAM, you can see what I have told the class.
***MESSAGE
9/5***
Hi
all,
Thanks
so much for a great first day of class.
I know it was not terribly interactive, but I was pleased to see that
people did speak up when I threw out questions. That is always a good sign in a class like this, and it
definitely upped my enthusiasm. I
look forward to a great semester.
A
couple of things...
--I am
posting the correct syllabus on the main course website: http://www.psy.jhu.edu/~ashelton/courses/BrainMyths214
Everything
I said in class is correct, and the typos on the syllabus did not alter the
main policies, but I want everyone to have a nice clean version if they want
it. I apologize for any confusion.
--The
notes from this week are posted.
As a said in class, I am not going to post before class. I know there is some grumbling, but you
are going to have to trust my judgment and experience on this one. All of the evidence suggests people
learn more when they don't have the notes right there. I am sure there are some exceptions,
but as a cognitive psychologist/neuroscientist, I am going with the current
research. (Anecdotally, my classes
have had higher exam averages when I provide the notes after class rather than
before.)
--Reminder:
Thursday will be a quiz and a movie (Defending Your Life). Be on time and bring a cup or mug if
you want popcorn!
AS
***Message
9/7***
Hi
all,
It was
brought to my attention that the reserves list is incomplete. Although I am sure that the library
will get it up and running soon, I wanted to make sure you had the first few
readings. If you go to the course
website and click on the Readings link, there are two papers now linked. The first is the Beyerstein chapter,
which was missing from the library reserves website. The second is an added paper that I think might help you
think about some of the issues we are going to cover (Mayer et al., 2008). For the Mayer et al. paper, pay
attention primarily to the definitions and distinctions. I am going to discuss the notion of
emotional intelligence a bit in next week's lecture and it is relevant to the
movie (and therefore the thought paper).
Chad
will check the reserves list regularly and keep me posted if there are still
items missing.
See
you all on Thursday!
AS
***Message 9/16***
Hi
all,
A couple of comments and reminders.
First,
thought papers are due tomorrow at the beginning of class. NO EXCEPTIONS. If you procrastinated, fell ill, zoned
out, whatever and did not get it done, remember you have 5 more chance to get 4
decent papers. Missing this one
for a legitimate (or even totally ridiculous) reason is not the end of the
world... or your grade.
Second,
Laurie Santos from Yale University is speaking tomorrow at 5:00pm in Krieger
205. Her talk is titled "Sex,
evolution, and human nature: A quick introduction." It should be lively. I originally said I would not offer
extra credit, but I changed my mind.
If you attend the lecture AND you write up a response to it (summary and
your reaction to the ideas), we will give you UP TO 1 extra credit point depending
on the quality of the write-up. If
you have questions, ask at the end of class tomorrow.
Finally,
as I noted in class and on the website, scheduling as firmly changed our final
exam date and time to DEC. 12, 2:00-5:00pm.
See
you in class tomorrow!
AS
***Message 9/17***
Hi
all,
If any
of you have been trying to catch me in my scheduled office hours, you have
probably noticed that it is always busy.
(Sometimes, I've even had to close the door to focus on the student in
my office.) My advising load is
heavier than usually right now, so those students are taking up some of this
time.
Nobody
has complained yet, but I like to be proactive. I wanted to make sure that you felt I was accessible enough
for this class. A
such, I am going to strongly suggest that you drop me an email if you
need to talk. Also, if you are in
Ames Hall and see me in my office working, you can always stop in. I may not have time right then, but I
will find a time that works for our schedules. In any case, I will always find a way to make time for
students in this class, so just work with me.
Thanks,
AS
***Message 9/24***
Hi
all,
I know
this is long, but please read it carefully.
I
didn't have time in class to discuss broad issues with thought papers, so I
will summarize some key points here so that you can use this advice on the next
paper (due next Thurs. 10/1).
Overall, the papers reflected a good start, so I hope that individual
comments and this group feedback can only improve things.
1. Many people did a decent job of either
describing the movie or describing the readings, but many also missed the boat on
really connecting the two. For
/Defending Your Life/, there were multiple themes in the movie related to the
10% myth. An ideal paper would
state a theme, explain how it was used, and then provide the scientific basis
or contradiction to it. The best
papers link a couple of themes.
2. In writing about science, even
casually, avoid the use of direct quotes as much as possible. Direct quotes reflect weak writing
because they suggest that you do not understand well enough to paraphrase. They also disrupt the flow of thoughts
and limit your ability to flexibly use the content in your own specific
context. I am placing a moratorium
on direct quotes from the science readings. You may quote the movies and novels, but always paraphrase
the scientific readings. _If we
see direct quotes from the scientific readings, we will knock of a point or so.
_ (I know that there are occasional cases where you might effectively use some
quotes, but I want you to practice paraphrasing.)
3. Many papers read as if hastily written
and/or rambling. In particular,
there is a plague of excessively long paragraphs with too many different ideas. This type of writing muddles the ideas
and confuses the reader. It also
has a tendency to produce redundancy in the statements throughout the
paper. I strongly urge you to
outline your arguments, find your core points, and then devote one or more
paragraphs to each of the key points.
It is also clear that many of you are not proof-reading
or editing your work.
4. In addition to haste, there is
sometimes a laziness in the writing. Be nit-picky when you write. Consider word choices carefully and
make sure you are actually capturing concepts. For example, the 10% myth did not "originate" with
the self-help movement.
In addition, in the age of the internet, it is
a little lazy to get the names wrong in the movie. I don't expect you to get every detail correct (did Julia
save a dog or a cat?) but I do expect you to get some of the basics that can
easily be checked on IMBD or Wikipedia.
(Note, I am not advocating Wikipedia for the SCIENCE. It can be useful but it can also be
very, very wrong.)
5. If I commented about your writing, and
you feel that you really did put in effort to write clearly, consider going to
the writing center for some added help.
They can give you feedback on writing for any of your classes (and your
paying for these kinds of resources!).
When students have taken advantage of this resource, most report that it
was useful.
To
help you out, here are some of the possible themes and connections you could
have made for /Defending Your Life/ and the associated readings:
--The
premise that people on Earth can only use a small percentage of their brain
works because, like it or not, this has been ingrained in our society. Beyerstein does a nice job of
discussing the possible roots, but also why this is so appealing to us.
--It
is somewhat surprising just how effective this premise is, even to scientists
like me, because we know the evidence against it. At this point, it would be reasonable to highlight some of
the examples, including the Damasio et al.
--The
basic notion that brain use and intelligence are closely related is certainly
interesting and worth further consideration. Even among scientists, we tend to think of smarter people as
having more brain power. The movie really exploits this. Even if we concede that we use 100% of our brain, it is
interesting to think about whether some people are using their's
more efficiently. Exploring
this would give some room for personal insights.
--Emotion
played a very particular role in the movie version of the 10% myth. In particular, one had to conquer fear
in order to be able to handle having more brain power. Daniel exhibited poor control over his
fear and spends the movie trying to overcome it. This would link nicely to Mayer et al.'s ideas about
emotional intelligence. One could
discuss in pretty good detail how Daniel's behavior reflects each of the four
levels of EI. In addition, it
would allow a discussion of the potential relationship between emotional
intelligence and general intelligence.
Some
combination of these would be very effective.
Some
other minor notes:
--We
are not counting pages. We know
what a quality papers looks and feels like. I gave you guidelines for length
because people want guidelines for length. If you can do an effective job in a
shorter paper, great. Don't
exaggerate margins or add spaces between paragraphs to try to make it look
longer. Longer papers are not
always better--they often reflect poor editing!
--You
are welcome to print 2-sided if you have a printer that does so
conveniently. You also don't need
a cover page. Save a tree!
Hope
this helps!
AS
***Message 10/1***
Hi
all,
If you
are looking for today's notes, you will find that the recent migration of the
departmental website to the new JHU system has disrupted our course
website. Sit tight. We are working on a remedy as quickly
as possible.
AS
***Message 10/9***
Hi
all,
There
was a question yesterday about the readings for next week. We did add two readings specifically
about IQ that will make a HUGE difference when you start to approach your
thought paper. They were on the
reading list all along, but the updated schedule did not get saved. Both readings are pretty
straightforward, so I believe they will only help with next week's topic.
AS
***Message 10/21***
Hi all,
Just few reminders
1. Be on time tomorrow. The
exam will begin promptly. We will give you plenty of time, but you must
be done no later than **3:30pm**. (My hope is that everyone will finish
much sooner.3
2. Bring a pen. If you want
to use a pencil initially, you can, but you need to put your final answers in
pen.
3. Spread out when you come.
4. After the exam, you will have
a short break, and then we will watch a couple of very short, very relaxing
videos.
Also, I posted an old exam on the
course website. HOWEVER, both CONTENT and FORMAT are different on your
exam. Although some of the questions will be helpful, you should not
depend on this exam as a study guide. Your exam covers a lot of things
not on the previous exam, and I have added different formats.
Exam format will be fill-in-the-blank,
multiple choice, and short answer of varying lengths.
Good luck!
AS
**Original email said Ò2:30Ó but that
was just a late-night typo.
***Message 10/26***
Hi
all,
We are
still finalizing the last thought paper and working feverishly to get the
midterm graded.
Because
you have a thought paper due this week, I wanted to share three important notes
about thought papers:
1. NO DIRECT QUOTES from the scientific
readings. Seriously, some of you
just can't resist, but it really weakens your writing. I have yet to see a good use of them,
and I have said repeatedly not to do it.
For the remaining papers, _I am going to give you no higher than an 18
out 25 if I see direct quotes from the scientific readings. _ Harsh? Yes, but I have warned you repeatedly
not to use them.
2. Be sure you are clear what papers you
are linking to. Most people are
using the readings well, but there are still a lot of cases where opportunities
to talk about the scientific readings are being missed or it is unclear which
readings are being invoked.
3. You don't have to capture every
possible theme or every possible link to the readings in your papers. You should make sure you have read all
of the readings because many themes are overlapping and unexpectedly
related. (Example: the Mozart
effect deals with notions of "exposure" that are relevant to the book
for this week.) Your goal should
be a coherent paper that captures some of the major themes. POSITIVE: You are all using the
casual tone to your advantage.
Just keep it organized!
I will
try to make the papers available to you tomorrow or Wednesday just for
reference (so much grading in the past two weeks!). However, most of you have had plenty of feedback from other
papers.
AS
***Message 10/28***
Hi
all,
Your
thought papers are finally graded.
These took a lot of work, but they were largely very well done. If you want to see your comments
as you are making your final edits to your paper for tomorrow, you are welcome
to find Chad and pick them up this afternoon. He has office hours today. (I am sure he would be willing to give them to you if you
catch him in his office at any point.)
You
should have had enough comments prior to this one to get your paper done, but I
also know that every little bit helps.
I am sorry it has taken so long to get these back to you. With the exam and other things, it has
simply been a very busy couple of weeks!
See
you in class tomorrow!
AS
***Message 11/18***
Hi all,
Believe it or not, we
are down to the last two class sessions--yikes! As I won't be there tomorrow for the movie and quiz, I
wanted to send a couple of announcements...
1. Thought papers were good. Be sure to look at my comments before
doing your last one. A few general comments:
--Some people are still
using excessively long paragraphs.
This is weak and disorganized writing.
--Clarifications about
memory systems and /Memento/
--Short-term or working memory =
temporary store; requires keeping things in mind. HM and Leonard have INTACT short-term memory.
--Long-term memory = anything
maintained beyond short-term memory (i.e., after distraction) HM and Leonard cannot form NEW
long-term declarative memories.
--Remote memories = just older
long-term memories. HM and Leonard
have these, although the quality has been questioned.
--Have readings with
you when you write. Get simple
facts right (e.g., HM's age of accident, age at surgery, etc.) Same for movie. With readings on hand and IMBD for
movies, there is no excuse for errors in the simple facts.
2. We were having trouble transferring
grades to WebCT because it kept resorting the names on us. As result, I asked Chad to pull
them down. We will post your
current point total after tomorrow's demo/quiz. We will update it again once the final demo/quiz and final
thought paper are graded. You
should have all of your own work in hand, so you can verify that things seem
right. If you need to know
something about your grade before then, please let me know. (_Due to FERPA, I do not send grade
info by email unless you explicitly state that it is OK for me to send it via
email._)
3. With specific respect to thought
papers, many of you have four or more done, but many do not. If you are not certain about whether
you are REQUIRED to do the last thought paper, please ask! I can tell you how many I have
recorded for you.
This semester has gone
very, very well, so I have not focused on the grades much, but I know it is
important to know where you stand going into the final. We'll do what we can to make sure you
have as much information as possible about your standing in the class. As always, if you are not sure or
just want to confirm things with us, ASK!
Have fun watching Eternal
Sunshine!
AS
For problems with website, contact:
ashelton@jhu.edu
Last updated: 11/18/09