Cool! and something relevant to teaching Psych! Worth exploring. Thanks! Gary
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology Saginaw Valley State University University Center, MI 48710 989-964-4491 peter...@svsu.edu ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Britt" <mich...@thepsychfiles.com> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 12:24:35 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [tips] I knew it! Psychology sunk the Titanic! You may have heard that there are new details regarding what caused the Titanic to sink. It did indeed hit an iceberg, but here is what Louse Patton (grand daughter of Charles Lightoller, Second Officer who survived the Titanic) said her grandfather told her: "Instead of steering Titanic safely round to the left of the iceberg, once it had been spotted dead ahead, the steersman, Robert Hitchins, had panicked and turned it the wrong way.’ Titanic was launched at a time when the world was moving from sailing ships to steam ships. My grandfather, like the other senior officers on Titanic, had started out on sailing ships. And on sailing ships, they steered by what is known as “Tiller Orders” which means that if you want to go one way, you push the tiller the other way. [So if you want to go left, you push right.] It sounds counter-intuitive now, but that is what Tiller Orders were. Whereas with “Rudder Orders’ which is what steam ships used, it is like driving a car. You steer the way you want to go. It gets more confusing because, even though Titanic was a steam ship, at that time on the North Atlantic they were still using Tiller Orders. Therefore Murdoch gave the command in Tiller Orders but Hitchins, in a panic, reverted to the Rudder Orders he had been trained in." A case of proactive interference (something you learned earlier interferes with your ability to learn something new)? Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8016751/The-truth-about-the-sinking-of-the-Titanic.html Michael Michael Britt mich...@thepsychfiles.com http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: mbritt --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: peter...@svsu.edu . To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd94b&n=T&l=tips&o=5106 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-5106-13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=5107 or send a blank email to leave-5107-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
