One of my introductory psychology students recently completed an extra credit activity which involved a couple of activities on the CD that came with the textbook and reviews of a couple of websites. When the student completed the implicit memory/lexical decision experiment, he showed absolutely no priming effect. Well, maybe he wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing.
His reviews of the two web pages are more interesting. In his 5 sentence review of the web page for a sleep disorder center, his most interesting statement was “They have a lot of luxurious rooms, it almost reminds me of “The Best Little Whore House In Texas.” That should prime you for his brief review of a page at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. I reproduce it here in its entirety -- pay special attention to the concluding sentence:
“They call themselves the Monell Chemical Senses Center I wondered off the bat if they could measure any sixth senses. I click on the link perception and sensation link. Unfortunately it just talked about the regular 5 senses and mostly about their ongoing research as to why we perceive things and we do pertaining to our senses. It amazes me how everyone has to figure out exactly how everything works and why, how come people can’t just be satisfied with the way things are?”
My, that certainly seems to indicate a disdain of curiosity. I am temped to respond with a
brief discussion of the value of curiosity, from a functionalist
(adaptive/evolutionary) perspective. Would that be appropriate? Can any of you suggest a better way to
reach out to students like this?
Karl L. Wuensch, Department of
Psychology,
East Carolina University, Greenville NC
27858-4353
Voice: 252-328-4102 Fax:
252-328-6283
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/wuenschk/klw.htm
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
