When this Spring semester began a few weeks ago, I gave a short pre-test to students in my 3rd-year level Brain and Behavior classes. One question read something like, "Generally we use _____." the answers were a. 10%, b. 20%, c. either the left half or the right half of the brain exclusively. d. our entire brain. Sadly, in two sections of approximately 30 students, a little over half chose an incorrect answer. This is after three years of college, and all of these students have had Intro Psych and I know they covered at least one chapter on biopsych in it. I didn't look at which item they chose most often, but I may go back and do just that. I wonder if I give it at the end of the semester I can compare and see an "improvement" from 10% (choice a) to 20% (choice b). Sigh...makes me want to bang my head against the wall.
On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 9:41 PM, Mike Palij <m...@nyu.edu> wrote: > So, I'm watching the last couple of minutes of the Super Bowl (for non-U.S. > Tipsters, it is a football [no, not soccer] game) and a commercial for a > new > movie comes on. Now, I've tried to turn off my attention when commercials > come on but then I hear a voice over say something like "what if you could > use more than 20% of your brain?" It is for a movie starring Bradley > Cooper > and Robert De Niro (Oh! How the mighty have fallen!) titled "Limitless". > My first response was "well, I hope those folks would stop making > commercials > like this" but I digress. This was the first time I heard of people only > using 20% > instead of the traditional 10% (for debunking the 10% myth of brain usage, > see: > http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html > and/or > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10%25_of_brain_myth ) > > Now I'm wondering: "Did I mis-hear the commercial? Did they really say > 20% instead of 10%?" A quick search of the InterWebs indicate that > indeed, we must be getting smarter because we are now using 20%. > Consider the following article that previews the movie "Limitless": > http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/22/limitless-trailer-bradley-cooper > > So, if drugs can make you use more of your brain, clearly drugs are a > good thing (which is an argument I imagine used by undergraduates who > use provigil and adderall to keep pepped up during the semester). In > any event, I guess we should expect students to ask about why we only > use 20% of our brains and have an answer prepared for them: > > "Only some people in Hollywood appear to use only 20% of their brains." > > -Mike Palij > New York University > m...@nyu.edu > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: devoldercar...@gmail.com. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=177920.a45340211ac7929163a0216244443341&n=T&l=tips&o=8558 > or send a blank email to > leave-8558-177920.a45340211ac7929163a0216244443...@fsulist.frostburg.edu > -- Carol DeVolder, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology St. Ambrose University 518 West Locust Street Davenport, Iowa 52803 563-333-6482 This e-mail might be confidential, so please don't share it. --- 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=8560 or send a blank email to leave-8560-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
