A beautiful-looking edition of The Synapse, the biweekly psychology and neuroscience writing carnival has hit the net, as has another compulsive release of the BPS Research Digest – edited by our very own Christian Jarrett.
Just so you know, Mind Hacks will be the hosting the next edition of The Synapse.
Although I’ve yet to find out how to get hold of the submissions, it looks like you can submit links to your psychology and neuroscience writing here.
BBC News is reporting that AI researcher Rollo Carpenter has won the Loebner Prize for the second year in a row with Joan, a development of his Jabberwacky chatbot.
The Loebner Prize is an annual event where various computer programs are subjected to the Turing Test – a test where judges have to work out if they are in a online chatroom with a human or a computer program.
The Turing Test is supposedly a way of testing for artificial intelligence. No software has ever passed the test except in very limited circumstances, but every year the software that comes closest is awarded the Loebner Prize.
We reported on Carpenter’s success last year, and this year’s success is a tribute to the technology behind Jabberwacky, currently being developed by his company icogno.
You can see video of Carpenter’s previous prize-winning chatbot ‘George’ at another recent BBC News page.
Link to BBC News story ‘AI prize award for British firm’.
Link to BBC News page with video of ‘George’.
Link to Jabberwacky online.
I see this cherry, I feel it, I taste it: and I am sure nothing cannot be seen, or felt, or tasted: it is therefore real. Take away the sensations of softness, moisture, redness, tartness, and you take away the cherry, since it is not a being distinct from sensations. A cherry, I say, is nothing but a congeries of sensible impressions, or ideas perceived by various senses: which ideas are united into one thing (or have one name given them) by the mind, because they are observed to attend each other. Thus, when the palate is affected with such a particular taste, the sight is affected with a red colour, the touch with roundness, softness, &c. Hence, when I see, and feel, and taste, in such sundry certain manners, I am sure the cherry exists, or is real; its reality being in my opinion nothing abstracted from those sensations. But if by the word cherry you mean an unknown nature, distinct from all those sensible qualities, and by its existence something distinct from its being perceived; then, indeed, I own, neither you nor I, nor any one else, can be sure it exists.
George Berkeley Three Dialogues Between Hylas And Philonous
I picked up a copy of Classic Case Studies in Psychology (ISBN 0340886927) yesterday and have been hooked ever since.
It looks at some of the most famous case studies in psychology, including those that have inspired important clinical methods as well as those that have just given us an insight into the more curious corners of human behaviour.
A good sign is that the coverage of the case of Phineas Gage, the railroad worker who had parts of his frontal lobes blown away in 1840, is up to date and avoids many of the myths that have recently been debunked by Macmillan’s brilliant biography An Odd Kind of Fame (ISBN 0262632594).
Also included are the well-known cases of murder victim Kitty Genovese and amnesic patient HM, among many others.
A few of the less well-known are also present, including a case reported by controversial psychologist Hans Eysenck of a man who was sexually aroused by handbags and prams, and the 19th century report on the ‘wild boy’ of Aveyron.
The book is written in a straightforward yet engaging way, so older teenagers will be able to pick it up and read it, but cynical professionals will find much of interest in its pages.
Link to information on Classic Case Studies in Psychology.
“You’re an autism mum. I see them all the time. I saw you that first day we met, how you agonised over your boy, mute in his pushchair while all the other pre-schoolers made their clever observations about the world; I see how you worry now over his odd way of walking, the animal noises he will sometimes make instead of words. And I see how no amount of pain in the experience of caring for your son will put to death the fire of love you have for him.”
Teacher Andy O’Connor speaking to the mother of an autistic boy in the novel Daniel Isn’t Talking, by Marti Leimbach. This book and four other fiction and non-fiction books on autism were intelligently reviewed by Adam Feinstein in the Guardian a few weeks ago.
Link to Daniel isn’t talking.
Link to Guardian review of five books on autism.
There’s a useful article in this month’s Scientific American that poses the question ‘what is synesthesia?’ in the ‘ask the experts’ section.
The question is answered by neuroscientists and synaesthesia researchers Thomas Palmeri, Randolph Blake and René Marois, who give a concise description of what its like to have synaesthesia as well as explaining some of the science behind this intriguing condition.
Until 5 years ago, syneasthesia was largely ignored and thought to be a rare and relatively uninteresting oddity.
It is now being investigated after surveys found it far more common than previously thought.
It is thought that researching synaesthesia will also give an insight into the structure and function of perception in the brain, in both those with and those without the condition.
Link to SciAm article ‘What is synesthesia?’.
Quick links from the past [few weeks] in mind and brain news:
Michael Crawford discusses The Schizophrenic Symptom of Flat Affect, including insights from his own experience.
Can Freudian ideas help us explain fundamentalism and extremist ideologies? asks the New York Times
Dopamine helps punters spot their ‘best bet’ according to a recent news story in New Scientist.
The NPR Day to Day radio programme discusses the psychology of why people make false confessions to the police.
Difficulties with engaging areas of the prefrontal cortex may explain why teenagers can be more ‘selfish’ suggests new research.
Academic doping: Are kids being given drugs like Ritalin by their parents purely to improve their academic performance?
The Neuroethics and Law Blog tackles the legal and ethical implication of the recent study that suggested a coma-like PVS patient had conscious thought.
Do we all mean the same thing when we talk about colors? asks Cognitive Daily.
A drug used for treating Alzheimer’s drug may also combat brain injury, reports New Scientist.
Today has been designated as World Hearing Voices Day to raise awareness of the experience of hearing voices.
Although the stereotype is that hearing voices is associated with mental illness, the majority of people who hear voices do not have mental illness and are never in need or help or assistance because of their experiences.
There is now a world-wide hearing voices movement that aims to provide an alternative to the medical model (which has traditionally seen ‘voices’ as symptoms) and reframe them as part of the rich tapestry of human existence.
The movement has a curious beginning. Dutch psychiatrist Marius Romme was challenged by one of his patients who had found that her own explanation of her voices gave her far more relief than the psychiatric explanation.
Romme discovered that many other voices hearers had this experience, and, consequently, he and a voice hearer discussed this experience on a Dutch television chat show.
The show was flooded with callers who also heard voices, the majority of whom had never needed medical help.
From this, the Hearing Voices Network was founded in the UK to support voice hearers, and Romme has written a number of books on the subject.
Accepting Voices (ISBN 9781874690139) was co-written with journalist and now psychiatric researcher Sandra Escher and provides advice and information for those who experience voices.
Many voice hearers who do find their voices distressing, will often use both psychiatric help, and the help of non-psychiatric support groups to manage their experiences.
ABC Radio’s All in the Mind recently had a special on the science and culture of hearing voices and the transcript of the show is available online.
Link to Wikipedia article on Hearing Voices Movememt.
Link to transcript of All in the Mind on hearing voices.
Link to recent research on hearing voices (via BB).
NERO is an award-winning futuristic computer game where the player trains squadrons of android soldiers, to be released and pitted against soldiers trained by another player.
Crucially, the android soliders learn using a neural network that adapts via a genetic algorithm.
For the NERO project we are using a specific neuroevolutionary algorithm called NEAT, Neuro-Evolution of Augmenting Topologies. Unlike most neuroevolutionary algorithms, NEAT starts with an artificial neural network of minimal connectivity and adds complexity only when it helps solve a problem. This helps ensure that the algorithm does not produce unnecessarily complex solutions.
In NERO we are introducing a new real-time variant of NEAT, called rtNEAT, in which a small population evolves while you watch. (Most genetic algorithms use generation-based off-line processing, and only provide a result at the end of some pre-specified amount of training.)
The neural network is based on published research and the documentation page contains a raft of information on game play and the science behind the software.
There’s screenshots and video of the game in action, and it’s free to download.
Link to website for NERO.
In particular, must a cognitive theory about memory that would please you be stated in a way that could be tested by brain scientists?
Sure! But an even better idea might be to demand that a cognitive theory be stated in a way that the Almighty himself could pass judgment on.
Legendary memory researcher Endel Tulving setting high standards, from p93 of Conversations in the Cognitive Neurosciences (ISBN 9780262571173).
UK epilepsy support charity Epilepsy Action has created a MySpace profile – the first neuro charity I know that has a page on the social networking site.
It’s part of an drive to increase the availability of epilepsy information to young people.
The page has updates on the latest news from the charity, as well as advice so you can educate yourself on what to do if you find someone having a seizure.
On a related note, the BBC has an interview with well-known UK author and speaker Rabbi Lionel Blue on his own epilepsy diagnosis.
Link to Epilepsy Action MySpace profile.
Link to interview with Rabbi Lionel Blue.
A couple I missed when I was away… A new BPS Research Digest hit the net on 1st September with articles on job performance, season on birth and intelligence and the expert mind of the burglar among others.
Also edition 6 of The Synapse neuroscience writing carnival arrived, with writing on everything from the detection of musical phrases to the history of the discovery of the neuron.
It seems the story about the sleeping-pill zolpidem potentially helping people in a persistent vegetative state has turned up again, virtually unchanged from when it first broke in May.
Continuing on from Vaughan’s discussion of Psi research at the BA Festival – I wonder if the likes of Prof. Lord Robert Winston ought to have been more concerned about some of the content in one of the mainstream BA Psychology Section seminars.
Prof. Geoffrey Beattie of Big Brother fame was this year’s Psychology Section President so it was perhaps no surprise that he organised a seminar on body language and invited along his fellow Big Brother psychologist Dr. Peter Collett.
However, Collett’s talk was really just a collection of highlights from his channel 4 show, in which he identifies ‘tells’ that give away what a politician is really thinking. For example he said that compared with his cabinet colleagues, Gordon Brown exhibited about 5 times as many discomfort gestures (e.g. looking down, chewing his lip) when Tony Blair was giving a conference speech. This prompted a journalist next to me to ask – “wouldn’t it have been more logical to have compared how many discomfort gestures Brown made during Blair’s speech with how many he made during a speech by someone else?”.
“Yes, you’re right” Collett admitted, “but you’re talking about an actual experiment, this is just something I put together for a TV programme”.
Hmm. Well at least he was honest about that – but wasn’t this supposed to be the BA Science Festival?
Another audience member suggested that Brown might have been displaying these discomfort gestures because of other events in his life – the conference may have been near in time to when he lost his new-born baby, for example.
“Yes, the interpretation of these gestures is up for grabs” Collett answered. “It’s all about taking into account the context…but with individuals this IS NOT A SCIENCE“.
At least a lot of parapsychology research uses sound scientific methodology whereas this was, as Collett pretty much admitted, just a load of speculation put together for a TV programme.
Psychology Press have put together a slick site to promote and enhance their cognitive neuroscience books, and particularly their new textbook The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience with sample chapters, downloads and a podcast available online.
The books is written by Dr Jamie Ward who founded the synaesthesia research group at University College London and happened to be my MSc supervisor (and is a jolly nice chap to boot).
Jamie has co-ordinated the MSc in Cognitive Neuropsychology at UCL for several years, and it’s good to see he’s put together a textbook aimed at covering neuropsychology that is accessible to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
He is interviewed in an mp3 podcast about his own research and the field of cognitive neuroscience in general.
The first chapter of his book is also available online, and covers the history and development of mind-brain studies.
Link to Psychology Press ‘Cognitive Neuroscience Arena’ (via BrainEthics).
mp3 of interview with Jamie Ward.
Link to sample chapter.
The Telegraph reports that Professor Robert Winston has criticised the recent British Association Festival of Science for allowing an ‘unbalanced’ discussion of parapsychology as “I know of no serious properly done studies which make me feel that this is anything other than nonsense.”
This is a little ironic, as Winston recently had adverts for ‘clever milk’ pulled from newspapers by the advertising standards authority for being misleading.
In the adverts, he claimed that a brand of Omega-3 fortified milk boosted children’s intelligence. The authority did not find evidence to support this claim.
Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science column in The Guardian summarises the evidence as follows:
Contrary to what the pill-peddlers would tell you, the evidence for omega 3 pills being beneficial in children is really rather thin: only a handful of small trials have been published in proper journals, and at last count 3 were positive, 2 were negative, and none were in mainstream children.
The conclusion of these studies is about as strong as that drawn from a recent review in Psychological Bulletin on psychokinesis.
The review concluded by saying that the evidence was weakly positive in support of this ‘psi-ability’, but they couldn’t be sure that the effect wasn’t due to a reporting bias.
In contrast to the Omega-3 studies, however, the authors of the review found that the psychokinesis studies were generally of a high standard.
One of the ironies of this debate is that parapsychology studies are often some of most rigorously conducted in science, largely to avoid accusations of ‘pseudoscience’.
The fact that they tend to find a weak effect at best (and most commonly no effect) doesn’t make them bad science.
Furthermore, as pointed out by a 2004 New Scientist article, (pdf) the studies are typically better conducted and can produce greater supporting evidence than the often notoriously-biased pharmaceutical drug trial reports.
To quote psychologist William James “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices”.
Link to Telegraph article “Festival attacked over paranormal ‘nonsense'”.
Link to Times article “‘Misleading’ Winston milk ads pulled”.
pdf of New Scientist article ‘Opposites Detract’.
Mind Hacks 