Monthly Archives: March 2018

First Impression Post #7

--Original published at Miguel's College Blog

For this first impression post, I watched the TED talk titled “Different Ways of Knowing” by Daniel Tammet. His TED talk centered around his experience living with Synesthesia, where people have one or more senses linked to another. I have heard about Synesthesia, but never have I actually seen examples explained clearly like it was a mathematical equation. After listening to Tammet’s talk, I understand now that Synesthesia is beyond just hearing colors or seeing sounds. Synesthesia is much more complex in that certain numbers have a less defined shape or reaction with color, or words in a phrase can be linked through color, or simply a poem can be better understood when certain words are linked through number or color. To people with Synesthesia, it makes sense that these words or numbers are linked and it helps them understand things clearer. After hearing Tammet explain his three questions prompted on the screen, I too understood what he was saying – and seeing.

A person living with condition may have both positive and negative experiences. I think that if a person with Synesthesia have not linked there shared senses together consciously, it could be confusing to them during school because other classmates are not seeing what they are seeing, as well as understanding something as they do. On the other hand, because some senses are linked together, a person with Synesthesia may be able to encode and store information better than others without Synesthesia because the words and numbers are already associated with something other than just a number or word. Being able to process that information semantically may allow a person with Synesthesia  to remember more things and retrieve those memories better than people without Synesthesia. Hopefully, a person with Synesthesia are not constantly crowded with images of colors and sounds so much that it detracts from their experience of day to day life. Having images and sounds constantly occupy brain space could be draining.

Spring Break Post: Option 1

--Original published at Collin's Blog

I watched the TED talk “Different Ways of Knowing” by Daniel Tammet because it seemed interesting how senses can activate each other and work together to gain different understandings of common concepts. Such as calculations, Tammet uses shapes and simple multiplication to solve complex math in a simpler way than taught in schools. His synesthesia also enables him to see color in words, this helps him pick out meanings in phrases and piece together figurative language like alliteration and syllables in words. I never knew there was a condition like synesthesia, it was interesting to see how someone like Daniel Tammet perceived the world using all his senses collectively.
This condition would probably change a person’s perception of the world completely. Not only just reading words and seeing color but being able to understand complex problems and pick up on fine details in literature. A person with the condition would have an incredible gift but it could become overwhelming and sometimes impractical in the modern world. It may be hard for common people to fully understand the condition of someone with synesthesia, as said by Tammet when he explains his own daily life where his conversations with other people can be awkward when they learn of his condition. Daniel Tammet says that the condition is manageable, but to someone who is unaware that they may have synesthesia the common world can be complicated, and their own perception can feel overwhelming.
According to Daniel Tammet, his condition can also be useful, being able to perceive problems using different senses could be helpful for problem solving skills and comprehending an author’s tone in their literature. Daniel is able to manage his condition which allows him to gain heightened perception from his sense without being completely overwhelmed.

Week 9 First Impression Post

--Original published at Site Title

For this weeks first impression post, I chose to discuss the less than optimal sleeping habits that most of us college students possess. We are constantly juggling so many different things, that we are left with no choice rather than to stay up late doing work, just to wake up early to resume that work.

Personally, I feel that my sleeping habits could be worse, but they could also be better. While I do manage to get into bed at a reasonable time most nights, there are usually one or two nights a week that I find myself staying up much later than I should be, and I can certainly feel the consequences of doing so the next day. However, I overall feel that I have relatively healthy sleeping habits. My goal for each day is to be in bed by midnight, and to wake up around 8 am. Therefore, I usually get the recommended 8 hours of sleep during normal sleeping hours, and for that reason I believe that my sleeping habits are pretty healthy, especially for a college student. However, they are not perfect and there are many things that could be done to improve them.

Many college students may feel that getting 8 hours of sleep at night is not a reasonable goal. For some individuals who have taken on busier schedules, this may be true. However, there are still things that can be done to help college students get as much sleep as they possibly can. There are two particular things that  I have done in order to help me achieve my goal of getting 8 hours of sleep each night. A major thing to help with this is having organization. If you have a set schedule of everything you have to do for the day, you are less likely to waste time. This means that at night instead of worrying bout doing the work that you’ve put off all day, you can go to bed. Another thing that you can do is avoid distractions. This may mean avoiding them throughout the day when you’re trying to get your work done, or this may mean putting your phone away at night when you’re ready to go to bed. Doing these two things is a great start at improving sleeping patterns.

Spring Break First Impression Post #5

--Original published at KatiesPerspectives

Daniel Tammet sees the world  in a different way – a more numerical, colorful, and linguistic way. This is called Synesthesia and it involves a more intricate interwoven interpretation of the world. He is constantly reminded of why he became an Author by the way people treat him differently when they find out that he lives with this. He believes, “our personal perceptions are at the heart at how we acquire knowledge.” Daniel mentions how our aesthetic judgements, rather than abstract reasoning, guide and shape the process by which we all come to know what we know. Admitting that he is an extreme example of this, Daniel shows many examples of how he connects colors and shapes and numbers. Daniel shows how he paints pictures of how numbers look in his head and how equations show up on paper for him.

While I was watching this video, I thought it was absolutely incredible what Daniel can do with his mind and how he chooses to use his “superpower.” I became somewhat baffled by how he saw the world and his attempted explanation of how he can connect many things in his mind. Many of the things he mentioned and the connections he made, made absolutely no sense to me and how he is capable of keeping all this information organized in his mind is absolutely astonishing. Daniel is incredibly well spoken and is very bold for speaking out about Synesthesia and the things that go on in his mind. Realizing that there are such amazing people in the world who are able to do such cool things with their minds (whether they mean to or not) it so incredible. Overall, I thought it was incredible to step inside Daniel Tammet’s mind and try and see things from his perspective while he was talking. .

One could argue that having this condition would be an advantage in every-day life and in the world today. Being able to see things from different perspectives and take on simple things from a multitude of different angles might, in fact, be more of a curse than you think. I would argue that although these skills might help someone pass their math or history exams, it would be absolutely overwhelming all the time to be thinking about details so much. Having to explain such a complex condition to people you meet who might not understand could become exhausting too. Synesthesia is not something that I imagine is easy to live with and, in my opinion, would be a curse rather than a blessing.

First Impression Week 9

--Original published at Madison's Blog

College students often have to sacrifice well needed sleep in order to maintain a social life, get homework done, study, eat, and exercise daily. All these activities cuts into the nighttime, when sleep should be the main priority. For me, I need to sleep at least seven hours a night in order to be fully functional the next day. I have 8am classes four days a week, so the early mornings highly influence my nightly routine. I make sure to be in bed, or getting ready for bed by 11:15pm. If I push my limits and stay up past midnight, I will be too tired the next day to be awake and tentative in class. I am not a huge nap-taker, so my sleep at night is my main rest time. I know other students who are awake all night, and maybe only receive five hours at night or less. I personally cannot do that, my body will not run on that little of sleep for very long. I try to offset my nightly studying by doing as much homework during the day as possible. This allows me to get all my needed work done, but also not delay my sleep schedule. I can improve my sleep habits a little bit by making sure the room is completely dark when I try to sleep, since darkness is easier to sleep in. My roommate stays up later than I do, so I am used to falling asleep in a fully lit room. The lights make it harder to relax and calm down enough to fully fall asleep, so that is something I can work on. I think for a college student, sleep is key to success. Nobody can succeed while being sleep deprived, since it weakens your immune system. Sleep is essential to life, and for a busy college student, I think the more sleep the better. I set a strict sleep schedule for myself, and I function well during the day. For others, I think setting a strict sleep schedule for yourself is a goal to keep. Even if you need to stay up late to do work, if you get your body into a routine, the transition from work to sleep will be easier.

Spring Break First Impression

--Original published at Madison's Blog

In the TED Talk entitled “Different Ways of Knowing,”  Daniel Tammet tries to explain and explore his experiences dealing with Synesthesia. His condition allows his senses to cross over, and activate each other in unusual ways. He can associate words with colors and emotion, or he sees numbers as each having their own color and symbol. He sees the number 6 as a tiny and sad black hole, and 1 as a bright flash of light. He also sees numbers as different colors, for example the number 4 is blue and the number 5 is yellow. He perceives the world very differently than normal people do, his thought process is skewed. To normal people, this condition would seem to cripple us. To others, the condition of Synesthesia seems to be an advantage, since Daniel talked about being able to envision mathematical situations in a logical way, and solve problems easier. To break down a difficult math multiplication problem, he envisioned a chess board being 64 squares, and 75 squares being 3/4 of 100 and creating a mental picture. To us, this seems complicated and misleading, but to him it easily solved the problem. Although, people could take either side, saying it could pose some “superpowers” or create internal chaos. The fact of having more than one sense associated with a word, number, or everyday thought seems to fascinate people. I don’t think I could imagine having the fleeting glances of light and colors while simply trying to read a book. It would frustrate me to not have control over the associations my senses were making, since they could influence you. In the TED Talk though, Daniel didn’t seem to be phased by his condition, since he has always had it. He acknowledges his difference, and is striving to explain his perceptions to the general public. I think the concept of “seeing sounds and hearing colors” is interesting, but I personally don’t think it would benefit me.

Spring Break First Impression Prompt – Sensation & Perception (my 5th)

--Original published at CurtisCollegeBlog

I enjoyed this video because of how it made me think of the way that I learn. The one sentence he said, “our personal perceptions are at the heart of how we gather knowledge,” and that stuck out to me. I tend to learn things by creating some sort of learning base. Then, in addition to that base I try to add more knowledge on to it. I try to make associations from the new things that I’m learning to add to the base. I feel like its easier than trying to remember a bunch of different things rather than one set system of things that can be built from. I generally do this with math, but sometimes I make the base wrong or incorrectly associate and then I struggle doing problems.

To move on to synesthesia, I think it would be more of a help than a hindrance in day-to-day life. I think it would also be an annoying part of your life. When he mentioned that sentence at the end, he analyzed so deeply that I felt it was unnecessary. I don’t know if his synesthesia made him do that, but I feel like that would be pretty annoying if every time I read something I had to think about other words that could be used in place.

Spring Break, First Impression Post

--Original published at JD's Blog

I was amazed as I watched the video. The way Daniel Tammet describes his perception of different things is very interesting. I lie how he started by asking the audience to perceive the three questions. He forced them to think and even try thinking out of the box. After he had the audience try it he explained how he saw it. It was intriguing that he saw a different shape for each number. Not only did he see different shapes, but different colors as well. The painting he made where he wrote out the numbers and placed the colors together to solve math problems or even express the numbers of Pi; absolutely amazing! I can’t even imagine how it is living every single day with this condition. In some ways it seems like a blessing. The world seems to appear more alive to him and gives each and every little thing its own personality. His ability to decipher and obtain knowledge or use it solve problems is unbelievable. To be able to see the world through a different perspective must be awesome. He can use his skill to take calculations and questions designed for a pen and paper or even a calculator and solve them through his head. He can even explain how he simplifies it down into a grid or shapes to teach others how to compute it. I think this would help in day to day life through. Problem solving, but it could potentially be distracting with each and everything having so many different meanings. Overall, I feel that this condition would be hard to control, but would allow one to see and learn in a whole new way.

First Impression Week #9

--Original published at Nadia's Blog

It is very well known that sleep is important and a necessity to remain healthy. Inevitably a typical college student most likely lacks the recommended amount of sleep. For most individuals getting a full 9 hours of sleep a night is not a realistic goal. With balancing classes, homework, studying, activities and socializing, sleep tends to get pushed aside. Personally I never realize how much a lack of sleep will affect me until I have to wake up the next morning.  Most students have classes all day, not allowing them to start their work until the midafternoon. During this time it may not be possible to do work, because students seem to be tired after a full day, or they have a prior commitment to another activity. This pushes off the work that needs to be done, which further prohibits the time they will go to sleep.  Personally I believe that I started off with good sleeping habits my first semester, but they have progressively gotten worse.

I typically do my homework and studying as soon as classes finish, this way I don’t have time to get unmotivated or too relaxed. I found this very helpful, because if I was to lay in bed for an hour and then do my work, I would have a much more difficult time getting up. This also makes it possible for me to get to bed earlier rather than pushing off my work to do later. Over the course of this semester, my work load has gotten heavier which has changed my sleeping habits. Now days I won’t get to bed before midnight. This leaves me with getting only 7 hours of sleep a night, since I have an 8 am every day. On average I sleep 6-7 hours a night which has definitely put a toll on my body and mind. Even when I do decide to go to bed around midnight, it may take a while to actually fall asleep since living in the dorms is not the quietest.  One thing I am trying to avoid is going on my phone before bed. I tend to check my phone and reply to people right before I go to bed, because it seems to be the only available time I have, but this often gets me distracted and I can get lost on my phone. This would most likely improve my sleep habits by calming my brain down before sleeping.  Overall it seems to be an unrealistic goal to get a full 8 hours of sleep every night for a college student who is trying to balance a variety of things.

Extra Credit Bullying Event

--Original published at Emily's Blog

The event I attended was called Best Practices in Bully Prevention. It occurred in Gibble Auditorium at Elizabethtown College on February 28, 2018. The event was put on by the Psychology Department specifically by the Psi Chi Honor Society to raise awareness for bullying.

The woman who was the speaker at the event was from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She has worked there for six years writing bills and fighting for Pennsylvania to implement more anti-bullying acts. She began her speech by sharing about her credentials and experiences working with bullying. The woman started as a school counselor and this helped her realize her passion for helping kids.

The speaker went on to talked about the definition of bullying. She quoted Dan Olweus and described bullying as, “a person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative action on the part of one or more other persons and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself.” She shared a list of words and phrases she thinks of when talking about bullying including, aggressive, antisocial, repeated over time, and one sided.

The next part of the presentation included a bullying simulation. I volunteered and went up to the front of the room. There were many roles to play such as, the bully, the person being bullied, and the bystanders. I was known as the follower of the bully. My role was to go along with what the bully said but not to initiate any of the bullying myself. The card explaining my character said I enjoyed the bullying and would take an active part. It was a powerful simulation as there were numerous roles I have seen myself take part in in the past. I did not realize there were so many people involved in bullying and how little people often chose to help.

The speaker went on to share history involving bullying and how we as part of the school system can help this problem going forward. I learned more about how serious bullying is and how many people are a part of it. I also saw how this could be applied to my life and my major as I go forward. This meaning making sure other students in my classes feel accepted and included. As an Occupational Therapist, I can inform the correct people if a client is struggling, provide emotional support, and encourage my colleagues to look out for bullies and people being bullied.

The target audience of this presentation was college age students. The speaker mentioned numerous times she was so excited to talk to all of us about this and how we are the most important audience she has ever spoken to. She believes this is because of all the recent experiences we have had of bullying and violence in the media.

This relates to psychology in the reasoning behind the bullying. A person may bully others because of the home situation they have grown up in, or they themselves have been bullied. Psychology gets to the root of the issues facing the people to understand why they do what they do and why it has affected them. We have not talked specifically about bullying in class, but we have addressed different parenting styles and how this will later affect the kids. We also talked about modeling as an example of how children learn. This is part of the reason why many children can follow in their parent’s footsteps if they are abusive bullies.

If I oversaw the event I would continue to raise awareness of bullying but gear it specifically towards college aged people. This presentation was great, but it was focused more about grade school aged children. I believe especially with such an emphasis on social media today, we should investigate cyberbullying as it is more common than “traditional”, face to face bullying today. Bullying can be applied to many areas of life even in the workplace as an adult and I believe our college and many others should be more informed about it. Conducting additional research could include taking surveys of those who have been bullied and see how it has affected their lives as adults. Also, following adolescents who are being bullied and see how they later adapt to different environments. The coordinators of this event did a good job, but I believe this could be added into more topics of discussion including orientation when the school talks about inclusion and diversity.