Much like the TV drama, The Mentalist, real life mentalists depend upon sensation and perception to draw conclusions from their environments, as well as different memory techniques to remember minute details at any given time. A mentalist is a person who demonstrates highly developed mental or intuitive abilities.
Mentalists will perform "cold readings" on individuals to determine a person's own characteristics and motives, often with unknowing help from the individuals themselves. By using techniques similar to the "sleight of tongue" they combine this with watching the physical cues of a person to determine when they've made an accurate assumption. For example, when asking about general item such as an illness in the family, when guessing through family members, they wait to see which family member mentioned illicits a physical reaction of some sort, like an involuntary facial reaction. However, one would ponder, what would be the difference between mentalists and fake psychics who use similar techniques to create fake psychic readings on an individual? Possibly the biggest difference is deception used on the individual.
While there are different ways to remember what you've seen or experienced, many "mentalists" are actually gifted with an exceedingly rare phenomenon of eidetic imagery, a form of iconic memory called "photographic memory." People with photographic memory can supposedly hold a visual image in their minds with such clarity that they can describe it almost perfectly. Many who call themselves mentalists have such memories and can keep much more information about minute details than the average person, which allows them to interpret such information that the average person wouldn't have picked up on.
Since the idea of having expanded mental capacity amazes and interests many people this concept has been used over and over again in entertainment. From shows like The Mentalist, Psych, and Mindfreak, mentalists have appeared in pop culture even as far back as Sherlock Holmes. I think the mental abilities of these people is amazing, but it makes one wonder, is it a double edged sword knowing all sorts of things the average person doesn't simply by looking at someone or something?
kochx212: May 2012 Archives
In five years from now, I plan to be teaching math in a classroom setting, preferably high school. While math was my favorite subject in high school, I know most other people hated math due to various reasons such as not understanding the topic or disliking the methods or their math teachers. Therefore, I know I will experience a lot of resistance when trying to teach math in the future, but understanding this fact is a very important first step to finding a solution.
Most of my students do not want to be there and could care less what I was saying. This is where I would apply the psychology I've learned about in this class. I can use methods like operant conditioning to help motivate my students to learn. For example, if while lecturing, I rewarded a piece of candy to any students who could answer my questions or did well on a test, this would be a form of operant conditioning using positive reinforcement. However, this can also act as a form of punishment to those who cannot or simply are not answering the questions. This can demotivate them and cause them to stop trying.
While I haven't quite determined a completely successful teaching method, I have quite some time and the use of the learning psychology I learned about in this class to help assist me to find a successful teaching method which will motivate the most students to doing well.
When people hear the term "anorexia," they typically associate it with negative opinions and disgust. We all consider this a type of psychological disorder, and those affected by it to have a problem, but while researching different dieting fads, I found many pro-anorexia sites, some giving tips on how to stay anorexic! These sites treat it like it's some difficult diet to maintain, not as if it's a serious psychological disorder, and give off a support-group feel.
http://www.anorexia10.com/anorexia/tips-for-anorexics-2/
On this site it gives 20 tips on how to be anorexic. At the bottom of this list were many mixed comments, ranging from those who claimed this list helped them stay strong and beautiful to those who yelled at these people, calling them idiots for thinking this was healthy and attractive, then those who countered these people saying they didn't understand and the haters were awful people for putting them down. This didn't surprise me when even in the textbook it states "Individuals with anorexia stubbornly deny the seriousness of their condition and resist pressure from family and friends to gain weight" and don't seem to understand that with a "mortality rate for anorexia at 5-10% [... this makes] it one of the most life-threatening of all psychological conditions."
It always shocked me to hear those with anorexia felt they were always fat, but I was in utter disbelief when I discovered such sites existed. One question to consider is, with such "positive" sites for maintaining anorexia, how would this affect an anorexic person's recovery or lack thereof?
