Lying on the Couch

Brooklyn College
Psychology Magazine
Spring 2015
Volume 3, Issue 2

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OF

Magazine Credits
......................................................................... Page 2

Letter from the Editor

......................................................................... Page 3

C ONTENTS
Shame Memories as a Predictor of Psychopathology
Alexa Marshall ............................................Page 32
Nicotine Addiction and Quitting
Fanni C. Nyari ............................................Page 35

General Topics
The Effects of Food on Presentation
Lauren Fink...................................................... Page 4

Artificial Intelligence and its Implications

for Medicine
Zaki Azam ...................................................... Page 7
Freudian Slips Explained
Fanni C. Nyari ............................................ Page 14
The Interplay between Memory and
Dreams
Lauren Fink ................................................. Page 16
The Psychology of Music
Danielle Silberman .................................... Page 20

Special Topic:
Psychopathology
Mirror Neuron Activity and Autism Spectrum Disorder
Deborah Borlam......................................... Page 21
DISCERN: Can a Computer Develop
Schizophrenia?
Sara Babad .................................................. Page 25

Student Research
The Fundamental Attribution Error
Alexa Marshall ............................................Page 38
Differences in Gender Recall
Ariella Nagel ...............................................Page 42

Features
Case Study
Professor Kristine Stigi .............................Page 46
Opinion: Romanticizing Mental Illness
Donia Desouki.............................................Page 47
Movie Review: Melancholia
Hind El Guizouli .........................................Page 49
Show Review: Criminal Minds
Ariella Nagel ...............................................Page 51
Book Review: Brainwashed
Sara Babad ..................................................Page 54
Fiction: Counter Transference
Batya Weinstein ..........................................Page 55

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M AGAZINE C REDITS
Editorial Board:
Editor-in-Chief: Sara Babad
Managing Editor: Aniqa Bari
Assistant Editors:
Joey Bukai, Lauren Fink, Geena Bell, Fanni C. Nyari, Ariella Nagel
Layout and Design Editor: Lauren Fink
Layout and Design Team:
Ariella Nagel, Lauren Fink, Geena Bell, Fanni C. Nyari

Contributing Writers:
Professor Kristine Stigi, Lauren Fink, Sara Babad, Fanni C. Nyari, Zaki Azam, Hind El Guizouli,
Daniella Silberman, Deborah Borlam, Alexa Marshall, Batya Weinstein, Donia Desouki

Cover: Sara Babad

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Aaron Kozbelt
Club Liaison: Michelle Vargas
Executive Board:
President: Sara Babad
Vice President: Laurn Fink
Secretary: Aniqa Bari
Treasurer: Joey Bukai

Contact Us: Lyingonthecouchbc@gmail.com

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L ETTER FROM THE E DITOR

Dear Readers,
Welcome to Lying on the Couch Spring 2015 edition! This semester we have an
interesting array of articles discussing artificial intelligence, food presentation,
and mirror neurons, to name a few. Thank you to all our student writers for their
contributions.
Thank you also to Professor Kozbelt, our faculty advisor, for his input and support
and to Professor Stigi for her contributions to our features section. And, of
course, this magazine would not be possible without our dedicated and super talented staff. Specifically, Lauren Fink and Aniqa Bari did an excellent job pulling
this together.
We apologize for any types of errors. If they exist, they certainly werent intentional.
Enjoy!
Best,

Sara Babad
Sara Babad
President, Lying on the Couch

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T HE E FFECTS OF F OOD P RESENTATION O N F OOD P ERCEPTION

By: Lauren Fink
Hey, what do you want to eat for dinner? Daily, this
is one of the most commonly heard questions. Food is
certainly required for sustenance, but it is also served
as a delicacy. While taste is important, aesthetics play
a role too, as the way food is presented to consumers
can have an impact on the amount of food they consume. When people go grocery shopping, they are
met with a wonderful array of foods contained within
various types of packaging. In todays self-serving
economy, packaging functions as a form of advertisement or product promotion, as it enables manufacturers to persuade prospective consumers to select particular brands (McDaniel & Baker, 1977). The fresh look
of vegetables in a large salad bought at a restaurant, the
artistic arrangement of sushi pieces presented on a rectangular ceramic plate, or even the bright color
of gummy worms - all exemplify the visual properties
of food that can have an effect on the way people perceive food, as well as on the amount of food they consume.

The way food is presented to

consumers can have an impact
on the amount of food they
consume.
In another common instance, when people go out to
eat at restaurants, the way in which servings of food
are presented to them can impact their perception of
how much food is on their plate. Some restaurants
take advantage of this phenomenon for economic benefits by presenting food in a way that causes consumers
to perceive a relatively greater amount of food than
there actually is. Individuals intent on losing weight
may also make use of such manipulations so that they
end up consuming less - perceiving their intake as
greater than it is - and thus more easily reaching their
goal weight. Supporting the effectiveness of this strategy, previous research has shown that when consumers
replace larger dinnerware with smaller dinnerware,
overall food consumption is reduced.

The aforementioned phenomenon can be explained, in

part, by an optical illusion known as the Delboeuf Illusion (Ittersum & Wansink, 2012).The Delboeuf Illusion
occurs when two circles of identical size are perceived
differently when one of them is surrounded by a much
larger circle while the other is surrounded by an only
slightly larger circle. More specifically, a circle appears
smaller when it is surrounded by the much larger circle
than when its surrounded by the only slightly larger
circle (Nicolas, 1995). The effect of this illusion is best
explained by contrast and assimilation. When the separation between both circles is small, both circles are
perceived as a whole. In this case, the two circles are
assimilated together in the brain, and the differences
between the stimuli (the circles and their larger surrounding circles) are averaged and aggregated together
in the brains short-term sensory store in a process
known as pooling (Nicolas, 1995). The assimilation of
stimuli accomplished by pooling leads to the perception
of stimulus elements as appearing more similar than
they are physically (Nicolas, 1995). However, when the
gap between the circles is large, both circles are perceived as separate stimulus elements and are seen correctly. In this instance, the differences between the two
circles are emphasized and the two circles are contrasted in the encoding process in the brain (Ittersum &
Wansink, 2012). The effect of the Delboeuf Illusion on
serving behavior was tested by manipulating the ratio
between the diameters of target serving sizes and the
diameters of the bowls they were to be served in - and

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ice cream. Participants were blind

to the conditions, and since they
served themselves to the ice cream
in the line, they werent aware that
other participants had been given
different-sized bowls and serving
spoons. After they served themselves, they completed a brief survey as their ice cream was being
weighed. In this survey, participants were asked to estimate how
much they believed they had served
(in ounces and in calories), how
many spoonfuls of ice cream they
believed they took, and how full
their bowl was on a scale from 0%100%. Depending on the size of the
bowl given to them, 17 oz of ice
cream would leave the bowl either
50% full or 100% full. They were
also asked how much the size of the
bowl and the spoon differed from
what they normally use.
then observing the amount of food participants served
attempting to plate the target serving size. It was found
that larger bowls led to over-serving (plating of more
than the target serving size) - since the serving appeared
smaller when assimilated with the serving bowl - while
smaller bowls led to underserving due to the opposite
effect (Ittersum & Wansink, 2012).
Building on the idea of the size-contrast illusion and its
role in food perception, a study involving nutrition experts as participants was conducted to examine whether
the size of a bowl or a serving spoon can bias how much a
person serves and eats (Wansink, Ittersum, & Painter,
2006). The researchers posited that people eat most of
the food they serve themselves, so contextual cues that
lead people to over-serve themselves would also lead
them to over-eat. The nutrition expert participants attended an ice cream party to celebrate the success of a
colleague. When they entered the ice cream line in the
cafeteria, they were randomly given either a smaller (17
oz) bowl or a larger (34 oz) bowl and either a smaller (2
oz) or larger (3 oz) ice cream scoop to help themselves to

It turns out that when the nutrition

The same exact amount

of food comes across as
more plentiful in a small
dish than in a large dish.
experts were given either a larger bowl and/or a larger
spoon, they served themselves more ice cream. Those
who received a larger bowl served and ate 31% more ice
cream than those who received a smaller bowl. However, they did not realize they were serving themselves
more ice cream, as their estimates of how much they had
plated were lower than what they had actually done. Additionally, when the size of the serving spoon was increased by 50%, from 2 to 3 oz, participants served
themselves and ate 14.5% more ice cream that those

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who were using the 2-oz spoons - regardless of the size

of the bowl. Finally, the effects of spoon and bowl size
were shown to be additive, as participants who used a
larger spoon to serve themselves ice cream into a larger bowl served and ate 56.8% more ice cream than the
participants who used a smaller spoon and a smaller
bowl.
This study demonstrates how the size of food utensils
and dishes can impact the amount of food consumed.
Small contextual factors, such as differences in the size
of a bowl and spoon, significantly impacted food consumption even for nutrition experts, who generally
spend a great deal of time working with and discussing
food. Furthermore, when given a big bowl or spoon,
they were unaware that they had eaten more, thus
demonstrating the power of such environmental
cues. Peoples cognitive processes fall prey to the
Delboeuf Illusion time and and time again in everyday
life, as they do not always realize that the same exact
amount of food comes across as more plentiful in a
small dish than in a large dish.
Clinicians dealing with patients experiencing weight
concerns can take advantage of the cognitive bias related to food presentation by re-engineering their pa-

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tients immediate environment with the appropriately

sized dishes and utensils (Wansink et al., 2006). Those
interested in losing weight could use smaller dishes and
utensils to avoid over-consumption due to the reasons
mentioned above. Additionally, prior research found
that using smaller bowls led people to feel less like they
are sacrificing their food or struggling with a diet because their minds perceive more food present when it
fills up more area on a small dish compared to filling up
a smaller area on a large dish (Wansink et al., 2006). In
contrast, those who need to gain weight - such as the
undernourished elderly, children, or those suffering
from anorexia- would be encouraged to use larger
dishes and utensils. Whether it be a mother trying to
help her child get his daily serving of vegetables, or a
hospital dietician trying to ensure that patients are consuming enough protein and nutrients, the manipulation
of plate sizes can be immensely helpful for taking
healthy steps forward. While some people may assume
that the Delboeuf Illusion is a mere optical illusion, its
important to remember that things arent always what
they appear to be.
References:
Ittersum, K. V., & Wansink, B. (2012). Plate Size and
Color Suggestibility: The Delboeuf Illusions Bias on Serving and Eating Behavior. Journal of Consumer Research,
39(2), 215-228.
Mcdaniel, C., & Baker, R. C. (1977). Convenience Food
Packaging and the Perception of Product Quality. Journal
of Marketing, 41(4), 57.
Nicolas, S. (1995). Joseph Delboeuf on Visual Illusions: A
Historical Sketch. The American Journal of Psychology,
108(4), 563.
Wansink, B., van Ittersum, K., & Painter, J. E. (2006).
Ice Cream Illusions Bowls,Spoons, and Self-Served Portion Sizes. American Journal Of Preventive Medicine, 31
(3), 240-243. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2006.04.003

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR MEDICINE

By: Zaki Azam
Abstract
Human cognition is an intricate set of phenomena and Artificial Intelligence systems can relate to it in very different
ways. In its relevance to the dynamic field of medicine,
Artificial Intelligence can help enhance human health and
endurance through inventive and intelligent software that
can advance medical research, disease deterrence, and
healthcare service. Whether this is entirely beneficial, however, is a significant dilemma. While Artificial Intelligence
may allow for the better care of patients, there are a number of ethical implications that surround its use, especially
concerning patient privacy and access to information that is
otherwise considered unethical by guidelines set through
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA), for anyone other than a qualified physician to
obtain. With terms of empathy, accessibility and cost surrounding it, Artificial Intelligence promises a number of
positive yet adverse implications for the field of Medicine,
as we know it today.

gence is not necessarily real or it provokes natural intelligence. Whatever perspective it is looked at however,
Artificial Intelligence is to not be confused with tasks that
do not require the ability of computers or machines to
exhibit intelligence. Computer security or computer
graphic design for instance would not be considered Artificial Intelligence.

The question then becomes what is it that makes humans

intelligent? Humans possess knowledge, the ability to use
language and perception, as well as the ability to reason
and learn. All of these together are relevant to the major
sub-areas of Artificial Intelligence. If these areas of intelligence in humans are related to Artificial Intelligence,
then the question addresses how to make computers intelligent. In other words, do we make computers intelligent by modeling human intelligence? Although this is a
plausible thought, it is not so easy to model. This is primarily because the human brain, however much of it is
understood to date, is not entirely the same as a computer processor. Whereas humans are effective at distinIntelligence
guishing and remembering patterns, one of the strengths
Intelligence, in general terms, is the ability to act for the of computers lies in crunching numbers. Moreover, modcorrect or best thing in any given situation in order to reach eling computers based on human intelligence is a conceda particular goal. Humans and some organisms demonstrate intelligent behavior, something that can be classified as
intelligence in nature. Artificial Intelligence, is the capacity of a human-made
machine to show some sort of intelligent
behavior (Nordlander et al., 2001). This
includes a robot or a machine such as, a
car that can make its way around, and a
computer that can diagnose a patients
symptoms to a particular medical condition. It is possible to define Artificial Intelligence according to a number of perspectives as it itself is a research area that
combines computer science, philosophy
and biology. Some suggest that a better
working definition of Artificial Intelligence is, Computational Intelligence
because the former implies that intelli-

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I N TERMS OF KNOWLEDGE
REPRESENTATION , A RTIFICIAL
I NTELLIGENCE CAN HELP DE-

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Intelligence to distinguish such things as cancerous radiology imagery from non-cancerous imagery, for instance.
Parallel to the ability of humans to naturally process language computers have to also address clinical issues using a
database of research articles, while being able to recognize
and process natural languages such as English, Spanish and
Chinese. These varying sub-areas are significant to Artificial Intelligence as it elicits the use of surgical robots and
their ability to plan and produce effectively in a hospital
environment.

SIGN EFFECTIVE ONTOLOGIES

FOR THE EXCHANGE OF DATA ,
COMMUNICATION AND STAND- State of the Art technology has allowed Artificial Intelligence to become a science in using real world applicaARDIZATION .

ing approach. A computer can be modeled after human

intelligence as much as possible but it should also incorporate its own ability to manipulate numbers effectively,
allowing it to adapt to both strengths. Airplanes, for example, have wings that are modeled after birds but do
not flap, instead using engine technology to propel forward.
Artificial Intelligence
As it relates to medicine, it is necessary for artificial intelligence to use a similar sense of probabilistic reasoning
and adapt to encode knowledge about symptoms and
disease that would ultimately enable it to formulate diagnoses, just as human have the ability to represent
knowledge and reason that allows them to use first order
logic and common sense knowledge. For its use in the
constantly changing field of medicine, Artificial Intelligence must exhibit machine learning, or the ability to
improve by learning through example. Just as humans
learn to walk and develop special skills, Artificial Intelligence has to have the capability of learning to diagnose a
disease from patient history and previous data for it to be
effective in the medical field. Additionally, a computer
vision sense is important that can enable artificially intelligent machines to recognize aspects such as a human
face from a particular image. This of course is modeled
after the corresponding Fusiform Face Gyrus in humans
that allows us to distinguish faces in day-to-day situations. Computers must also be able to also construct a
three-dimensional representation from two-dimensional
images in order to be effective within the field of medicine. This computer vision is instrumental for Artificial

tions; this includes making claims on solid evidence

through experimentation and analyzing the significance of
statistical results while making the tools and data to further replicate experiments available. Most comparably,
IBM computer Watson, on February 14 to February 16
2011, was able to compete and beat human champions on
the television show, Jeopardy (Nordlander et al., 2001).
Because Artificial Intelligence systemizes and programs
intellectual tasks much like Watson has shown capability
of doing, it has far reaching relevance to essentially any
intellectual activity, including medicine. In fact, medicine
today faces the inevitable obstacle of obtaining, evaluating
and applying significant resources and extent of knowledge
to solve intricate clinical issues; Artificial Intelligence, being a sub-field of Biomedical Engineering and Computer
Science effectively complements these needs.
In the past couple of years, the field of medicine is becoming more of a quantitative field, one that is concentrated
with data due to different electronic data capturing methods and data managements systems for biomedical research as well as clinical care. Medicine itself is changing
from an art to science just as previously alluded to recent
advancements have allowed Artificial Intelligence to do.
The need and range of automatic intelligent processing
using Artificial Intelligence methods has been greatly increased because of the availability of data in electronic
form, such as physician notes and electronic health records
(Szolovits et al., 1988). Because diagnosis and treatment
depends on a great number of interactions among clinical,
pathological and biological variables, there is a substantial
need for tools to analyze them. Ironically, many methods
of Artificial Intelligence in medicine are becoming so increasingly integrated into medical applications that it has
led to a loss of accountability and a lack of clear delinea-

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other computers in natural

language and will ask clinical question using the language of the clinic and
search for relevant research.

tion whether an Artificial Intelligence technique is in fact

the effect of Artificial Intelligence or the doings of a doctor.
Health Applications of Artificial Intelligence
Health applications implicate a certain degree of success for
Artificial Intelligence in medicine. Among its applications,
Artificial Intelligence has helped diagnose and make remedial decisions, help lead researchers in making discoveries,
predict results, and support professionals in health related
fields to obtain and analyze data among others (Reed et al.,
2004). But it also has certain implications for the future. In
terms of knowledge representation, Artificial Intelligence
can help design effective ontologies for the exchange of
data, communication and standardization. It can also help
embed rules gathered from professionals to automatically
process and reason, leading to new discoveries and inventive knowledge while refining knowledge already existing. As it relates to natural language processing, Artificial
Intelligence can help uncover what is hidden among vast
textual records in order for content to be automatically
processed. Currently, Artificial Intelligence has taken steps
to retrieve information, including finding relevant information from a database of documents. In the future, Artificial Intelligence will use this same ability to interact with

Some of the most profound

effects Artificial Intelligence
has had on medicine include
zapping germs and helping
reduce infection rates
(Szolovits et al., 1988). It
has helped amputees walk
again, doctors cut open patients and keeping them and
the elderly company. When
the idea of compassion is
such a huge dilemma, the
ability of Artificial Intelligence to keep elders and
patients company is especially significant. It helps
patients psychologically cope with their problems not
only physically, but also cognitively as it gives them a
sense of companionship in an often-lonely hospital setting, where they may stay for months at a time with occasional family visits. Thats not to say that Artificial Intelligence can replace family members, but it is certainly
helping patients cope with their health internally and
emotionally, which is the first step in alleviating symptoms physically.
Beyond the fundamental attributes Artificial Intelligence
must entail to be effective in the medical field, it also can
lead to new advancements in other ways. Artificial Intelligence, for instance, can act as decision support systems,
accumulating uncertain pieces of evidence across a number of sources and forming its own diagnosis based on
probability. Alternatively, Artificial Intelligence can act
as machine learning systems, helping analyze images and
segments in radiology, for instance and completing
waveform analyses. Pattern recognition in the medical
field could be a significant contribution of Artificial Intelligence in the future.
Global Accessibility of Medical Artificial Intelligence
In Japan, Artificial Intelligence robots are on the brink of

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success as their experimental use continues in some hospitals. Robot nurses for instance, are being tested to help
assist patients and addressing basic needs. Because Artificial Intelligence is not only about its overt effects physically, robots are being programmed to have a beneficial
psychological effect on patients (Kassirer et al., nd). Humans deal better with and relate to fluid movements as
opposed to robotic movements. Therefore, robotic nurses are being programmed to have continuous arm and leg
motions, in order to help patients break the psychological
boundary between themselves and relate to a robot that
they may otherwise not be so inclined to receive assistance from. This shows
the progression of Artificial Intelligence because
initially it did not concern
the psychological aspects
of the people it had an
effect on.
Innovative temperature
toilets, also in Japan, have
been created for the analysis of urine and feces
samples. The results go
directly to physicians. For
it to work, the toilet must
be used by the patient
only, and based on the
waste excreted, certain
deficiencies or abundances
of sample and frequent
bathroom visits are recorded. From one urine sample,
the toilet can analyze if a patient has a low concentration
or volume of urine, allowing the physicians to consider
where the problem within the body may have been elicited. It may have been the production of the inactive zymogen or a subsequent production of renin and AntiDiuretic Hormone (ADH), which ultimately lowers
urine volume and concentration. But even with such a
groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence system, many wonder if this form of technology is too invasive. Marc Stein,
a researcher that that has spent years studying Artificial
Intelligence and its role in medicine insists, When it
comes to caring, give me a human being any day. No robotic hospitals for me (Kassirer et al., nd).
One of the greatest implications of Artificial Intelligence

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in medicine is that it keeps doctors present even when they

arent particularly through the use of mobile videoconferences. Mobile videoconference machines are devices that
move on wheels that are about 5 feet tall and have a large
screen that projects a doctors face (AIpower 1). These
machines have cameras, speakers and microphones. They
allow a doctor and patient to talk and see each other and
the machines model the interaction that would take place in
a real-world hospital setting. This form of Artificial Intelligence is especially important to expand access to medical
specialists in rural underserved areas. This includes areas
where the ratio of doctors to patient is explicitly low and
there is a clear shortage of
doctors. Nicaragua, for instance, is the second poorest
country in the western hemisphere with an extreme shortage of doctors, but Artificial
Intelligence is helping bring
the specialties of doctors
around the world to them
without any actual physical
means of being there. People
in a country such as Nicaragua
will go their entire lives using
their broken foot and living
with it knowingly or unknowingly. However, with the advent of Artificial Intelligence,
specialist advice and treatment
plans are more accessible in
not only assisting patients in their physical health, but also
teaching them the importance of hygiene and how to better
sustain their health on their own.
Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
With advancements such as these, patient privacy becomes
a concern. Not only do Artificial Intelligence machines have
access to vital patient information, they are also being sent
to governmental agencies such as, the U.S Department of
Defense (Schwartz et al., nd). If the government and other
agencies are using vital patient information for their own
knowledge, then how private are the matters that patients
trust with physicians in the first place? With the advancements of Artificial Intelligence in medicine, who is to say
that Artificial Intelligence systems should have access to
patient information? Although the information may lead to

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A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THE

INTEGRATION OF A RTIFICIAL
I NTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS INTO
MEDICINE IS THAT PHYSICIANS
ACTUALLY MAY BE TAKING ON
LESS OF A ROLE IN THE
CLINICAL SETTING .

effective diagnoses and treatments, it mays also have effects

outside of the hospital. It seems patients dont even have a
say on their own matter in hospitals, especially in certain
locations as Japan. In Japan, a patient is subject to the best
course of action that a doctor gives, with or without patient
preference. A difference in culture also playing a role in
Japan, it is expected that patients comply with the physician. How the doctor may arrive at a certain prognosis is
not at the patients discretion to accept or refuse because
ultimately it is about healthcare, and all matters beyond
such as patient consent is believed to be trivial in comparison.
According to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), guidelines are particularly set so that
information of a patient and his history do not go past the
realm of physicians. Medical students take the Hippocratic
Oath, an oath that warrants the practice of medicine honestly, before receiving training to ensure that patient confidentiality is kept in check. However, with the advent of
Artificial Intelligence, machines are being entrusted with
information of disease and symptoms based on private information that patients provide. Even then, if it is ethical
for Artificial Intelligence to analyze symptoms in the hospital setting, it is ethical for it to directly interact with the
patient. Experts believe that with a sense of touch, Artificial Intelligence in the future can make more accurate diagnoses. However, is it ethical for a machine to touch a patient? Some may justify it by relating to the goal of health,

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that through whatever means it takes, proper healthcare

is the ultimate goal. Still others may question what exactly proper healthcare is defined as, because for a machine that is not capable of feeling emotion, touching a
patient directly is not so proper. It is a back and forth
argument that rests on the debate over whether health is
our ultimate goal or how the means through which we
attain our health is. In todays medical settings, some
physicians are so caught up and busy that they themselves are no better than an uncompassionate robot in
interacting with patients. They do what is medically necessary and leave perhaps to go onto the next patient or
simply take a lunch break. So should the realm of compassion even come into play? Essentially, if robots in the
medical field are indeed developed to feel emotion in
the future, then these robots will be better off dealing
with patients than physicians are, in terms of compassion
(RobotsBattle 1). In terms of medical knowledge,
experts believe they are a long way to attaining that
compassion.
Adapting Artificial Intelligence into Medicine
Many believe the beneficial implications of Artificial Intelligence overcome the negative. How people adapt
Artificial Intelligence into the field of medicine becomes
important. Because medicine is a human venture, Artificial Intelligence systems need to consider human issues
not necessarily connected to health. These include
workflow and usability among others. Medicine is a field
that has been developed by human knowledge over hundreds of years and cannot simply be dismissed by the
rediscovery or analysis of data. Essentially, Artificial Intelligence must be adapted into medicine rather than
replace it, which ideally calls for integration of methods
that foster machine learning with human professionalism. Rather than solely analyze data, Artificial Intelligence should use existing knowledge and either refine or
enhance it.
It is vital to make Artificial Intelligence more relatable to
patients as well. Consider, for example a dialogue between patient and doctor. If the doctor informs the patient that he needs to cut off his leg, the patient may
question the reasoning for this. If the doctor explains
that the reason that an Artificial Intelligence machine
with state-of-the-art statistical learning capabilities says
to, the patient may feel upset. If the doctor says that he
needs to cut the patients leg based on a rational decision

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he made in the best interest of the patient and his family

with the help of Artificially Intelligent agent, the patient
can still feel overwhelmed. However, it would almost
certainly be less upsetting because the doctor is the one
who is perceived to make the call and being in control as
opposed to a machine. This scenario serves to alter the
psyche of the patient because it relates his perception of
Artificial Intelligence to the doctor making a decision as
opposed to a machine itself.
T O

professionals do?
To further adapt Artificial Intelligence into medicine, the
output of systems has to be readable to humans. In other
words, it should have the ability to present results through
a learning method that is more interpretable instead of
statistical methods that are not so readable. Medical analysis is based on arguments, in the sense that it is not necessarily the accuracy of the hypothesis that is the most significant, but rather its communication and description
(Szolovits et al., 1988). As such, visualization methods are
especially helpful in analyzing data, which is an area that
Artificial Intelligence is effectively adapting. It can also
employ a system of case based learning, where a new case
is managed according to its similarity with previous ones.
This is becoming increasingly demonstrative in medical
Artificial Intelligence because it essentially models how
medicine today is practiced. It is particularly effective in
such a system with imbalanced data because medicine itself
is so dynamic and often imbalanced that there is one apparent disease related symptom to thousands of opaque disease free symptoms (Reed et al., 2004).

CAT CH T HE R E ADE R ' S AT T E N T ION , PL ACE AN IN T E R E ST IN G SE N TE N CE OR QUOT E F R OM T HE ST OR Y HE R E .

Issues of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

A major problem with the integration of Artificial Intelligence systems into medicine is that physicians actually
may be taking on less of a role in the clinical setting.
Their reliance on such machines can prove to be fatal
both for the patient as well as themselves. This is especially concerning for doctors currently practicing and
training now because the education they have received is
not one that is conducive to relying on machines. In the
future, further revision and alteration of medical education, which includes a subset of operating Artificial Intelligence machinery and accounting for their possible misdiagnoses may be warranted. And if such systems are becoming increasingly relevant in the medical field, then
training of Artificial Intelligence machines itself becomes
significant. Not everyone is permitted to make significantly life altering decisions in the medical field that deals
with peoples most important aspect of life, so should all
machines be able to? For it to do the same as trained professionals and experts look at wide ranges of circumstance and formulate decisions based on it, does it become necessary then for Artificial Intelligence systems to
acquire medical training just as medically related health

Even adapting Artificial Intelligence into medicine must

take into account a number of concerns, which has caused
its assimilation to be relatively slow. As doctors get access
to information on their patients, DNA specifics for example, is there anything being done to protect patient privacy
especially if it is being entrusted to a machine? Additionally, assimilating Artificial Intelligence will inevitably question who gets access to information that is potentially very
valuable, especially in making prediction that effects something as important as a patients health. In essence, whos
to say that machines need access to a patients medical
history and subsequent knowledge of what diseases or
disorders they may be susceptible to, if we dont even
provide that information to people in general?
The accessibility and availability of Artificial Intelligence
is also a point of concern not only in terms of privacy,
but also cost. The cost of Artificial Intelligence and
equipment is very expensive. Who determines which
hospitals and health care providers get access to some
Artificial Intelligence? Additionally, how will hospitals
afford such technology especially when many local hospitals, such as Long Island College Hospital, are shutting
down from a lack of funding? Many hospitals especially
locally in New York are in financial trouble; should access to Artificial Intelligence be limited to them because

2, IIISSUE
1,
SSUE
SSUE 12
2
V OLUME 3,

of their costs or should Artificial Intelligence costs be reduced for them, taking into consideration that tri-state area
hospitals see some of the most diverse and greatest number
of medical cases in the nation?
Looking Ahead
Artificial Intelligence has also adopted into medicine slowly
due to a number of cultural, political and financial reasons.
This is in part due to the number of questions that surrounds its implication, although there has been a lot of success in the provisions Artificial Intelligence provides for
medicine. For example, will doctors trust computers too
much? In other words, how much can doctors or even patients rely on the information that Artificial Intelligence
systems give us? Do physicians feel that they are being replaced? In other words, will the standard of care from doctors particularly decrease because they feel Artificial Intelligence systems are doing much of their job anyway, which
they trained for and put so much time into? If a computer
does make a wrong diagnosis, who should be legally and
morally responsible and should it be that this responsibility
is a concern only if it leads to negative effects? And if
healthcare workers are not computer-oriented, then how
can we make Artificial Intelligence more relatable to them
or should we alter the training they undergo in order to
understand its usability and effects?

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It has been found that in its many farreaching positive impacts, Artificial Intelligence applications best complement
medicine as a tool of support, especially
in its diagnoses and statistical probability,
rather than systems that work completely
independently. Artificial Intelligence can
cover for certain vulnerabilities of humans whether it is forgetfulness, such as
reminding for particular tests or medication, or identifying possible errors. It
best works as a system that complements
human knowledge from experience, especially in its ability to search through
and uncover a vast amount of data that is
otherwise not humanly possible to do. It
may then present the data to doctors in
order to make decisions that are in the
best interests of all those involved with
all factors considered, better than doing
so individually. Artificial Intelligence has
ultimately overcome, at least on the surface, its potential
concerns, and promises to be an innovative support for
the field of medicine to come.
References:
Artificial Intelligence set to exceed human brain power. CNN.com. (2006).
Kassirer J. Clinical problem solving: a behavioral analysis. Annals of Internal Medicine. 248-255.
Nordlander, Tomas. Artificial Intelligence Surveying:
Artificial Intelligence In Business. De Montfort University. (2001).
Reed, R. Heart sound analysis for symptom detection
and computer-aided diagnosis. Simulation Modelling
Practice and Theory 120-129. (July 2004).
Robots Beat Humans in Trading Battle. BBC. (2001).
Schwartz, W. Medicine and the computer: the promise and problems of change. New England Journal of
Medicine. 1259-64.
Szolovits, Peter. Artificial Intelligence in Medical Diagnosis. American College of Physicians. 80-87.
(January 1988).

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

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F REUDIAN S LIPS E XPLAINED

By: Fanni C. Nyari

Freudian Slips encompasses many different things;

such as forgetting names of people, objects or foreign
words, reading/writing errors, pronunciation errors,
and speech errors (Jones, 2012). Freud went into
great detail regarding Freudian Slips in his book The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life. He referred to
them as lapses linguae, or Latin speech errors. Freudian Slips mainly refer to speech errors, especially when
an intended word is substituted with a non-intended
one. Psycholinguists call this kind of speech error a
semantic substitution error and relate its cause to
breakdowns in different parts of the speech production
process. Freud (1914) viewed these errors not as errors, but as meaningful behaviors related to the functioning of the unconscious. Furthermore, he believed
that they revealed the true inner thoughts of an individual that may be conscious, subconscious or unconscious.
Freud (1914) would agree with modern psycholinguists in that word substitution, or lapsus linguae, are
words that are associated with each other in our
speech consciousness (p. 23). According to him,
words lie close together and thus are easily evoked

incorrectly (Freud, 1914). He

also acknowledged that added
impatience, or time pressure,
may play a role in speech errors
(Freud, 1914). However, Freud
concluded that there must be
something underlying these errors; a disturbing influence of
something outside of intended
speech, otherwise known as a
single unconscious thought or a
general psychic motive (p. 24).
Furthermre, he thought that some
word substitutions are means of
self-betrayal, meaning that these
mistakes often express what one
does not wish to say but either
consciously, subconsciously, or
unconsciously truly thinks. In his
book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, he provided numerous examples of lapsus linguae along with his
analysis of them and used these cases as evidence to support his beliefs about speech errors.
One of the many examples he provides goes as follows:
A young man of twenty years presents himself
during my office hours with these words:
"I am the father of N. N., whom you have treated - pardon me, I mean the brother; why, he is
four years older than I." I understand though this
mistake that he wishes to express that, like the
brother, he, too, is ill through the fault the father; like his brother, he wishes to be cured, but
that the father is the one most need of treatment. At other times an unusual arrangement of
words, or a forced expression is sufficient to disclose in the speech of the patient the participation of a repressed thought having a different
motive.
(Freud, 1914, p. 29)

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

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Freud often interpreted his patients speech errors and

incorporated the analysis of them into the treatment.
Modern psycholinguistic theories conceptualize speech
errors as breakdowns in various parts in speech production. According to modern psycholinguists, as Traxler
(2012) explains, semantic substitutions, or slips of the
tongue occur in systematic patterns and they relate these
patterns back to the speech production process.
One of the popular models mentioned by Traxler for
speech production is Levelts WEAVER++ model, in
which concepts are stored in the long-term memory as
networks or collections. In those networks, concepts
that are related are connected to each other, and thus if
one concept gets activated other concepts related to the
initial one get activated as well (Traxler, 2012). According to the WEAVER++ model, semantic substitution
may occur when you think of a certain concept, but others around it get activated too. By failing to ignore the
related concepts one ends up selecting the wrong concept (at that point lemma) from ones mental lexicon.
Consequently, the incorrect lemma will go through
speech production and get articulated instead of the intended one. In this instance, the speech error is due to a
breakdown in the conceptual preparation component of
the speech production process (Traxler, 2012). Another
cause behind semantic substitution error may be at the
lemma-selection level, an error in the lexical selection
component of speech production (Traxler, 2012). In
other words, a concept gets activated and other related
concepts get activated as well, feeding activation to the
lemmas associated with them. Thus, when a word substitution occurs the speaker chooses the wrong activated
lemma. This is very similar to an error made at concept
selection. The difference lies in that when an error is
made at lexical selection, the error occurs because the
wrong lemma is selected in contrast to the wrong concept being selected.
Some aspects of Freuds theory about word substitutions
seem to be in accord with what modern psycholinguists
are finding, such as time pressure, and words associations in the brain. Despite this, modern day psychologists do not support his views about the influences of
unconscious thoughts underlying speech errors, and the
interpretations of slips in treatment.

WEAVER++

References:
Freud, S. (1914). The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
(A.A. Brill, Trans.). New York: The Macmillan Company. (Original work published 1901).
Jones, J. (2012). Freudian Slips and Mistakes Definition and
Examples. Retrieved from: http://www.freudfile.org/
psychoanalysis/ freudian_slips.html
Traxler, M.J. (2012). Introduction to Psycholinguistics:
Understanding Language Science. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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T HE I NTERPLAY B ETWEEN M EMORY AND D REAMS : A N A NALYSIS

By: Lauren Fink
While people are sound asleep, their minds remain
wide-awake dreaming. Dreams are multifaceted and
elicit a wide array of theories to study their universal,
yet personal nature. The analysis of dreams can be
used in clinical and therapeutic settings, where elaborate dream reports are encouraged to consider the underlying meaning or emotion represented by the images in the dream. Research suggests that an understanding of the recall trends between dreams and waking
experiences can enhance our
understanding of dreams as
memories (Horton, 2011).
Emotions can have a significant impact on memory recall. The intensity of emotions associated with recall
of positive autobiographical
events fade less rapidly over
time than do the intensity of
emotions associated with the
recall of negative events
(Ritchie et al., 2006). The
difference in fading of the
emotions stimulated by autobiographical event recall is
known as the Fading Affect Bias (FAB). There tends to
be a powerful initial reaction to negative effects, but
biological, cognitive, and social processes minimize
the impact of such negative events over time. People
use their cognitive processes to amplify and sustain
positive moments in their lives by; reminiscing about
past experiences to rekindle the good feelings, cherishing the joy of present moments, and anticipating good
feelings for the future (Ritchie et al., 2006).
Ritchie et al. (2006) conducted a study where college
students had to describe autobiographical events at
specific time periods in their lives, such as recording
20 events that occurred between their 16th birthday
and one year ago. They were asked to provide a range
of events (i.e. memorable, not so memorable, positive, negative etc.) and ratings of each event to help
measure the intensity of affect provoked by an event at

its occurrence. Also rate its recall, and rate regarding

the typicality and self-defining quality of the event. Participants reported the frequency with which each event
was rehearsed since the event occurred, and had to be
specific about the type of rehearsal they used for each
event rehearsal for no apparent reason, so that it was
not forgotten, in response to ones good or bad mood,
when reminded by environmental cues, by describing
the event to inform others, etc. (Ritchie et al., 2006).
Results showed that affect associated with events that are high in
self-importance fade less than affect associated with events that are
low in self-importance (Ritchie et
al., 2006). This effect is more pronounced for negative affect than
for positive affect. Events that are
important to the current self are
associated with high levels of affect
when recalling an event. One may
gain satisfaction when recalling self
-relevant events that confirm their
status, while self-relevant events
that contradict that status, may be
particularly threatening to the self.
Therefore, those events provoke considerable negative
affect when recalled. Some events persistently produce
negative affect when recalled, even after much time has
passed, because traumatic events may be especially selfrelevant. Thus the events are unlikely to show emotional fading over time.
People can savor positive life events in an attempt to
enhance their life satisfaction, as well as ponder the past
to make sense of the negative events that occurred.
People are good at finding the meaning in their past
experiences, even in events that pose personal hardships. This mental activity can reduce the feelings associated with the negative event. When people try to understand why a negative event occurred, they initiate a
self-distancing approach of reflection on unpleasant
events. This approach allows people to remember the
negative event without having to re-experience the in-

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

tense unpleasantness. The self-distancing approach allows repeated activation of an event memory without
having to activate the intense emotion, allowing a longterm decrease in the negativity associated with the event
memory. Those who engage in a self-immersion approach, reliving the negative event, do not show the
fading effect as a result of their event rehearsal. For
these people in particular, event rehearsals keep the central details of the negative events very active and prominent. It is likely that negative events are best explained
by self-distancing, while positive events tend to be relived and savored, using the self-immersion approach
(Ritchie et al., 2006). An individual is more likely to
experience strong positive emotions when recalling unexpected positive events, and especially likely to experience strong negative emotions when recalling typical or
usual negative events in his or her life. This finding suggests that daily hassles can pose a bigger threat to a person than one-time negative life events (Ritchie et al.,
2006).

P AGE 17

as well as certain types of experiences (everyday, personally significant, concerning, and novel) influence the
likelihood of a waking-life experience being incorporated into a dream. Psychology students were requested
to record as many of their dreams as possible, in as
much detail as possible, upon awakening from sleep
either at any part of the night or in the morning. Also,
their waking-life experiences were recorded in a daily
activity log. For each waking-life experience and
dream, participants were asked to rate the emotional
intensity and stressfulness. Participants provided a report of how each dream related to their waking life, and
rated the similarity of individual waking-life elements
that appeared in their dream (Malinowski & Horton,
2014).
The study found that waking-life experiences that were
incorporated into dreams were significantly more emotional and less stressful, than waking-life experiences
that were not incorporated into dreams. Emotional experiences tend to be dreamt of repeatedly until they are
finally resolved. Furthermore, dreams may enable the
amelioration of emotions attached to waking-life experiences, especially when it comes to the emotion of
fear. Dreams reflect a sleep-dependent memory consolidation process, and may help strengthen emotional
memory. Alternatively, it may simply be easier to recall
intensely emotional dreams than less emotional ones, so
the results reflect a memory bias for more intensely
emotional dreams. This may relate to more intensely
emotional waking-life experiences (Malinowski & Horton, 2014).

Dreams may enable the

amelioration of emotions atWaking life experiences, including activities, thoughts,

and emotions, are carried over into dreams, and dreams
are continued into waking life in what is known as the
continuity hypothesis (Malinowski & Horton, 2014). A
study was designed to investigate whether certain factors, such as emotional intensity, stressfulness intensity,

tached to waking-life
experiences, especially when it
comes to the emotion of fear.

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

The emotional memory assimilation theory may best

explain why intensely emotional waking-life experiences are incorporated into dreams (Malinowski & Horton, 2014). Emotions may provide unconscious information about which experiences from waking life are
important to be stored in the memory system, thus we
incorporate emotional memories to help us assimilate
important information. In fact, emotional stimuli are
better recalled than neutral ones and emotions even
facilitate recall more than the purposeful effort to recall. Memory encoding in the brain is facilitated by
emotional arousal similarly for negative and positive
stimuli, so the intensity of emotions is important, and
not so much the valence. Sleep helps to unbind the
emotional elements of memories for selective consolidation, showing how emotions guide the process of
determining which memories are chosen for encoding
during sleep. Emotions tell us what is important to recall, thus dreams selectively incorporate emotional experiences in order for these memories to be integrated
and assimilated into the wider memory system
(Malinowski & Horton, 2014).
One of the main issues with all memories is that they
are subject to being forgotten, but dream memory is
especially sticky. Memory involves multiple events intertwining, often with forgotten items filled in by unrelated events and the blending of memories together.
Memories are incredibly powerful because it is the
blending, summarizing, and condensing of memories
that is necessary for our sense of identity (Rosen,
2013). Our memories smooth the boundaries between
different moments in our lives, interpreting and reinterpreting our unique, personal experiences in the context of the whole, so that we can produce a consistent
life story. The reconstruction of memory does not necessarily render memories false, but rather is necessary
for remembering, since all memories are reconstructed. Remembering isnt just replaying the event over in
ones mind exactly the way it was, but rather interpreting and integrating memory traces. Dreams can be
quite murky, fading much more quickly and being
more difficult to retain than memories from waking
events. Most dreams are forgotten instantly, especially
if we do not wake immediately after dreaming. Dreams
also differ from waking memory reports since other

P AGE 18

observers can verify waking memories, while this is

impossible for dreams. The dream atmosphere is internally generated and cant be externally verified.
Dream states may suggest a level of dissociativity,
which refers to disruptions in episodic memory leading
to difficulties distinguishing between real and imagined
events (Rosen, 2013). Research found that subjects
generally have difficulty discriminating between their
own dreams and reports of others dreams. This signifies that dreams lack the conscious cognitive operations
that help identity the origin of information generated
in a waking state (Rosen, 2013). Dreams are generated
unconsciously, and tend to lack the vital cues that help
us distinguish imagined from experienced events.

Memories are incredibly

powerful because it is the
blending, summarizing, and
condensing of memories that is
necessary for our sense of
identity.

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

Dreams are also hard to distinguish from other mental

states because we cant really test them to distinguish
between imagination and dream memories. Waking
memory can be judged as plausible if it is consistent with
other waking events, while dreams cannot (Rosen,
2013).
In the future, people will continue their efforts to uncover and understand the mysterious realm of dreams.
Whether the symbolic meaning of dreams unlocks the
key to our unconscious, or the conglomeration of waking life experiences incorporated into a bizarre, shadowy
dream world helps solidify our sense of self, the universal and subjective nature of dreams will continue to intrigue many for years to come.

P AGE 19

References:
Horton, C. L. (2011). Rehearsal of dreams and waking
events similarly improves the quality but not the quantity of autobiographical recall. Dreaming, 21(3), 181196.
Malinowski, J., & Horton, C. L. (2014). Evidence for
the preferential incorporation of emotional waking-life
experiences into dreams. Dreaming, 24(1), 18-31.
Ritchie, T. D., Skowronski, J. J., Wood, S. E., Walker,
W., Vogl, R. J., & Gibbons, J. A. (2006). Event Selfimportance, Event Rehearsal, and the Fading Affect Bias
in Autobiographical Memory. Self And Identity, 5(2),
172-195.
Rosen, M. G. (2013). What I make up when I wake up:
Anti-experience views and narrative fabrication of
dreams. Frontiers In Psychology, 4, 1-15.

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

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C HILD AND ADOLESCENT COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN

MUSICAL EXPERIENCE
By: Danielle Silberman
In the early 1990s, a powerful media campaign about

the intellectual benefits of music generated much interest among researchers, educators, parents, politicians, and the general public. Almost overnight, the
effects of music instruction on cognitive development became a popular topic of discussion
in talk shows, magazines, and newspapers. These discussions centered on the belief that music lessons and
listening to music increase intelligence and improve children's cognitive development.
The major research event to spark the debate was the
now infamous publication of an article in Nature 20
years ago by Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky, 1993. The thesis
argued by the paper was that listening to music makes
you smarter. Rauscher et al. had one group of people
listen to Mozart and had the other group just sit idly.
Afterwards, they administered tests that measured
what is known as spatio-temporal reasoning to those
groups. The groups of people who listened to Mozart
performed better on these tests than those who did
not. Thus, they concluded that music makes you
smarter.

The idea that listening to music makes you better at

spatio-temporal reasoning then became, through the
magic of the media and public consciousness, the idea
that listening to music makes you smarter. The natural
question then becomes whether that claim is really
true? Can listening to music, or learning music, actually make you smarter? A fascinating research question

in its own right, this question also has broad practical

implications. If it indeed is the case that listening to and
learning music enhance cognitive development,
therere ought to be broad reforms in public education
that would include musical instruction in the curriculum. The status quo is that music does not exist as part
of our educational curriculum, presumably because as
far as policy makers and educators have understood it,
music is a leisure activity to be enjoyed on the students
free time. If there are compelling reasons to rethink this
line of reasoning, scientists owe it to the community to
pursue such ideas.

Can listening to music, or

learning music, actually
make you smarter?
The theory that music makes you smarter is broad and
difficult to prove, and so we need to further refine the
question to make it approachable. Particularly, what do
we mean by smarter? Do we mean global, general intelligence? Or do we mean certain cognitive skills, such as
spatio-temporal reasoning, or perhaps reading? The
notion that music makes you smarter is all fine and
well, but it lacks significance if we are not precise in
our definition of smarter. Needless to say, researchers
have debated this term for quite some time. For our
purposes, we will use IQ as measure of intelligence, but
we also admit that this is not an ideal situation since not
everyone agrees on what the meaning of the IQ score
is.
Additionally, we should further clarify what we mean
by listening to and learning music. Are we discussing a
long period of time, say years, of listening to music? Or
are we confining the question to the difference in performance after a brief session of music listening? Moreover, are we referring to music listening, or instrumentation? Presumably, these activities recruit different

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

cognitive resources and thus have different effects on

intellectual development.
Researchers have been interested in whether there was a
correlation between music learning and IQ for quite
some time. In 1945, Antrim administered IQ tests to
high school students. He divided the students into two
groups, one who were musicians and one who did not
have any musical involvement. His data shows that the
students who were musicians tended to have higher IQs
than non-musician students. Antrim suggested that the
mechanism for this enhancement is the study of music
which assists in the development of attention, a prerequisite to performing well on any test, let alone an IQ
test. Thus, it seems like musical involvement did have
an effect on general cognitive abilities.

Research indicates that music involvement seems to

make you smarter. While that is fascinating and perhaps
unexpected, an even deeper question to ask is whether
music makes you smarter in general? Or, perhaps, are
there specific areas that music serves to enhance? These
questions are important because they clarify what we
mean by smarter. Thankfully, there are numerous examples in the literature where researchers have tried to
answer these exact questions. That is, researchers have
looked at specific areas of cognitive performance and
tested whether those areas were enhanced through musical involvement.
In one study, 4-year-old children who received individual 10-min piano lessons once or twice a week for 6 to 8
months performed better on a test of spatial skills than
children who were assigned to control conditions
(Rauscher et al., 1997). The literature contains many

P AGE 21

other examples of cases where music instruction and

involvement helped to enhance particular cognitive
functions. For example, music lessons also help listeners to perceive pitch patterns (i.e., prosody) in speech
(Magne, Schon, & Besson, 2006) and to decode the
emotions conveyed by such patterns (Thompson, Schellenberg, & Husain 2003).
In another study, young children assigned to keyboard
lessons demonstrated enhanced performance on tests of
spatialtemporal abilities but, crucially, not on memory
tests (Rauscher, 2002). This is a prime example of music enhancing specific cognitive abilities, without necessarily raising global intelligence. The skill of memory
does not improve in correlation with the skill of spatiotemporal awareness. Thus, we may be led to believe
that the explanation for Antrims results is that the enhancement of certain specific abilities (such as spatiotemporal reasoning) is what accounts for higher IQ
scores among musically involved students. Thus, it is
somewhat of a misnomer to say music makes you
smarter. We should actually say that music makes you
smarter at certain things.
For my experiment, I would further clarify what is
meant by the notion that music makes you smarter.
Specifically I would test the ability of music to make
you perform better on all facets of an IQ test. As a result, rather than simply testing for cognitive enhancements of a particular skill, such as spatial reasoning, I
would give a full IQ test that measured the increments
in all skill areas. This way, we could have conclusive
evidence regarding the question of whether music
makes you generally smarter or smarter only in specific
areas. Moreover, I would further clarify what is meant
by music instruction and involvement. There are two
distinct areas to learning music; listening to music and
learning an instrument. Perhaps, the different music
skills produce distinct cognitive effects. Again, this is a
practical question as well, since this would directly impact our conception of what a school curriculum should
contain. Another question I would explore is the length
of musical training and its effect on cognition. It is reasonable to suppose that you only see the benefits of music training after a set period of time, and that those
benefits tend to revert back to normalcy if music training is not continued.

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

Many studies contain third factors that could also account for
part or all of the observed
associations.
For my sample, I would avoid many problems created by
other researchers in the field. Many studies contain third
factors that could also account for part or all of the observed associations, and thus limit the ability to extrapolate the research findings. For example, children who
take music lessons tend to have well-educated and financially successful parents (Sergeant & Thatcher, 1974) and
so it may be the case that socioeconomic status, with its
emphasis on higher education in general, is what is responsible for the differences in musical versus nonmusical children and cognition. IQ is also known to have
a substantial genetic component (Plomin, Fulker, Corely,
& DeFries, 1997) and thus it is unclear if the enhanced IQ
test scores mean actually enhanced IQs, or just a reflection of differences already present and not due to the additional musical instruction. Previous correlational research has failed to account for these potentially confounding variables, either through statistical means or by
recruiting groups that are equivalent on these dimensions.
Regarding the procedure of my experiment, I would
measure how musical instruction for instruments and
auditory instruction affect IQ scores over time. My sample would consist of a large group of children who would
be divided into three groups. One group would receive
musical instruction on an instrument. The second group
would receive auditory lessons. They would learn how to
distinguish different pitches in music, and to identify
notes, etc. The third group would be a control group
who would receive no formal musical instruction. Confounding variables, such as socioeconomic status and IQ,
would be controlled for. Selecting students from similar
economic and educational background would control for
socioeconomic status. Administering IQ tests to students
as a preliminary qualifier for study participation could
control for hereditary differences in IQ. Students with IQ
scores within one standard deviation of the mean would
be the only ones accepted. All three groups would re-

P AGE 22

ceive IQ testing once every three months for three

years. This way, I could measure the short-term versus long-term impact of musical lessons. Moreover,
with this methodology I could also distinguish between the benefits of musical instruction that is instrumental and musical instruction that is auditory,
and determine if the two have distinct effects on the
cognitive abilities of the children.
References:
Antrim, D.K. (1945). Do musical talets have higher
Intelligence?. Etude, 63 127-128.
Magne, C., Schn, D., & Besson, M. ( 2006). Musician children detect pitch violations in both music
and language better than nonmusician children: Behavioural and electrophysiological approaches. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 199 211
Plomin, R., Fulker, D. W., Corely, R., & DeFries,
J. C. ( 1997). Nature, nurture, and cognitive development. Psychological Science, 8, 442 447.
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N. ( 1993).
Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365,
611.
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., Levine, L. J., Wright,
E. L., Dennis, W. R., & Newcomb, R. L. ( 1997).
Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatialtemporal reasoning. Neurological Research, 19, 2 8.
Rauscher, F. H. ( 2002). Mozart and the mind: Factual and fictional effects of musical enrichment. In
J.Aronson ( Ed.) ,Improving academic achievement:
Impact of psychological factors on education (pp. 267
278). San Diego: Academic Press.
Sergeant, D., & Thatcher, G. ( 1974). Intelligence,
social status, and musical abilities. Psychology of Music, 2, 32 57.
Thompson, W. F., Schellenberg, E. G., & Husain,
G. ( 2003). Perceiving prosody in speech: Effects of
music lessons. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, 999, 530 532.

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M IRROR N EURON A CTIVITY AND A UTISM S PECTRUM

D ISORDER
By: Deborah Borlam
Mirror neurons become activated when one performs
an action or watches the action being performed by
others. Thus, mirror neurons encode a complete action. In the experiment we studied in class, monkeys
were presented with a human hand reaching to grasp a
target, a human hand reaching without a target, and a
human hand grasping a hidden target. Mirror neuron
activity in the premotor cortex was monitored. When
the hand reached the target and when the target was
hidden, the mirror neurons fired; the hand movement was simulated in the
monkeys premotor cortex. However, the mirror
neurons did not fire when
the target was absent, as
there was no action to encode.
Mirror neurons play a role
in communication with
others. It has been suggested that mirror neurons are
implicated in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a
neuro-developmental disorder characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction,
repetitive actions, and restricted interests. The
broken mirror hypothesis (Enticott et al., 2012, pp.
427) argues that the impaired social interaction observed in individuals with ASD can be attributed to the
dysfunction of mirror neurons. Given mixed research
findings regarding the broken mirror hypothesis
(ibid), Enticott et al. (2012) used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to study the activity of mirror
neurons in individuals with ASD and investigate the
effects of potential modulating variables. Their study
used transitive stimuli (Enticott et al., 2012, pp.
428), a hand executing a goal-directed action, which at
the time of publication had not been used when studying individuals with ASD, although necessary for activation of mirror neurons. As noted in the study above,
the monkeys' mirror neurons were activated only

when the hand reached or appeared to reach the target,

which are both transitive movements. Enticott et al.
(2012) hypothesized that individuals with ASD would
have lower corticospinal excitability (CSE) when observing a transitive movement, and that corticospinal
excitability would increase with age. They also hypothesized that the greater the impairment in social interaction in individuals with ASD, the lower their corticospinal excitability.
Enticott et al. (2012) recruited 34 individuals with
ASD and 36 neurotypical
(NT) subjects. TMS was
administered to the left primary motor cortex while
subjects watched a sequence
of five different video clips:
a still hand, a still hand with
a mug, a pantomimed grasp,
a pantomimed grasp with
the mug present, and a hand
grasping the mug. Each clip
lasted 3 seconds and was presented ten times, resulting
in a total viewing time of four minutes and thirty-nine
seconds. An experimenter monitored subjects while
they were watching the video to ensure they were looking at the screen, and subjects were questioned about
the content of the videos after viewing them. Subjects
also completed several measures of autism symptomatology. Enticott et al. (2012) analyzed both the increase in CSE during observation of the transitive action, which represents a spectrum view of mirror neuron activity, as well as the presence or absence of mirror neuron activity, which represents abnormal mirror
neuron activity as a possible subtype of ASD. Both a
standard and a logistic regression were used.
When predicting the percent change in motor evoked
potential (MEP-PC) between viewing of the static hand
and transitive hand movement, group (ASD vs. control)
was found to be a reliable predictor, while verbal IQ,
gender, and age were not. When predicting the percent

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

change in motor evoked potential (MEP-PC) between

the two states, the Autism Spectrum Quotient- Social
approached significance, while verbal IQ, gender, and
age did not. However, when predicting the presence or
absence of a mirror neuron response, the Autism Spectrum Quotient- Social was found to be significant.
When predicting mirror neuron response for individuals
with ASD and control subjects separately, the Autism
Spectrum Quotient- Social was found to be significant
for the ASD group. Thus, Enticott et al.'s (2012) first
hypothesis was correct in that lower CSE was observed
in the ASD group, but incorrect in that there was no
relation between CSE and age. Their second hypothesis
was correct, as greater social impairment was associated
with lower CSE. These findings support the broken
mirror hypothesis, (Enticott et al., 2012, pp. 427) that
dysfunction of mirror neurons limits understanding of
others actions, which contributes to social impairments
among individuals with ASD. As the present study monitored the left primary motor cortex, findings suggest
that individuals with ASD have difficulty with the perception of motor movement, the intention behind those
actions notwithstanding. The neuropsychological significance of these findings is that if, as Enticott et al. (2012)
suggest, there is a subgroup of individuals with ASD
with disrupted mirror neuron activity that form a
neurobiological subtype of ASD (Enticott et al., 2012,
pp. 429), neurobiological treatment can be targeted towards these individuals.
Given the possibility of a subtype of
ASD with disrupted mirror neuron
activity and its
implications for
treatment, I would
like to see more
studies investigating mirror neuron
activity in individuals with ASD.
While the present
study employed individuals with high-functioning autism
or Aspergers disorder, who were able to provide written informed consent for their participation, I am curi-

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ous to see how the mirror neuron activity of lowerfunctioning individuals with autism compares. If, as
according to Enticott et al.s (2012) findings, individuals with greater social impairment had lower mirror
neuron activity, I would expect lower-functioning individuals with autism, who presumably have greater social impairment, to have lower mirror neuron activity
in comparison. I also believe that for purposes of treatment development, it is important to study lowerfunctioning individuals, because they can benefit the
most from treatment. I suspect that the reason higher
functioning individuals were recruited in this study
involves obtaining consent from participants: the subjects in the present study were able to provide written

There is a subgroup of individuals with ASD with disrupted mirror neuron activity that form a
neurobiological subtype of
ASD
informed consent, while lower-functioning individuals
may not be able to do so, and parents or guardians may
be reluctant in providing consent for them to participate. In any event, I believe research on mirror neurons
and autism should be continued, as it has provided empirical evidence of altered brain chemistry in individuals
with ASD, which, in my opinion, may lead to greater
insight in unlocking the mystery of autism.
References:
Enticott, P. G., Kennedy, H. A., Rinehart, N. J.,
Tonge, B. J., Bradshaw, J. L., Taffe, J. R., & ...
Fitzgerald, P. B. (2012). Mirror Neuron Activity Associated with Social Impairments but not Age in Autism
Spectrum Disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 71(5), 427433. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.09.001

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DISCERN: C AN

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C OMPUTER H AVE S CHIZOPHRENIA ?

By: Sara Babad

Abstract

DISCERN: Schizophrenia in a Computer?

Schizophrenia is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms, as well as cognitive deficits. Hallucinations and
delusions are two very common positive symptom
manifestations. DISCERN is a computer that was
taught a series of narratives through machine learning
and was then impaired, overloading its working
memory stores and impairing its ability to relate coherent narratives that it had previously been adept at
doing. According to the theory of cognitive dysmetria,
all the deficits inherent in schizophrenia can be traced
back to a single general cognitive dysfunction that affects the whole brain. It is, in essence, an overload, or
inability to carry information while maintaining its
accuracy and integrity. DISCERNs designers work
according to this theory, arguing that DISCERNs garbled accounts after tampering with its circuitry (so that
it can no longer carry its original information load)
mimic the hallucinations and delusions of schizophrenia. Mind Design allows for using machines to understand the human mind by working backwards, which
DISCERN does perfectly. While it is arguable that
DISCERN only manages to reflect a small subset of the
symptoms of schizophrenia, it is still a substantial step
towards elucidating the nature of the illness and has
room to grow.

I. Schizophrenia
1. A Brief Background on the Pathology
Schizophrenia is a disorder on the psychosis spectrum
that includes positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms. Positive symptoms consist of delusions (false beliefs that are not based on fact) and hallucinations (false
sensory perceptions). For example, someone with
schizophrenia is likely to believe that he is a very important person (delusions of grandeur) or that people in
the television are talking to him (auditory hallucinations). Furthermore people with schizophrenia really
believe these positive psychotic symptoms to be true;
they cannot separate between reality and their symptoms. Negative symptoms include blunted affect, anhedoina, and alogia. A person with schizophrenia will
show an inability to feel pleasure (anhedonia), or will
speak in a monotone with no inflection (flat affect).
Disorganized symptoms manifest as disorganized speech

A person with schizophrenia

will often speak nonsensical
sentences that are syntactically impossible.
and behavior such as clang associations (Beidel et al.,
2012). A person with schizophrenia will often speak
nonsensical sentences that are syntactically impossible
(disorganized speech) or will speak a string of words
that sound similar but have no meaning (clang assocaitions). For example, when prompted with the word
cat, someone with schizophrenia might respond with
cat, bat, hat, sat.
Cognitive deficits are another key aspect of schizophrenia, even if they are not mentioned in the DSM as one
of the qualifying criteria for diagnosis. This includes an

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inability to pay attention, impaired memory and social

cognition, and slower information processing
(Nuechterlein et al., 2012). Patients with schizophrenia
will perform worse on visual cognitive tests and
memory tests and will be unable to function normally in
the regular world. They are often unable to hold down a
job and are unable to function normally in a social situation, even after treatment has been initiated (Carter et
al., 2010).
These symptoms are, collectively and individually, debilitating such that people with schizophrenia cannot
function in regular society and even with treatment,
they very rarely return to their pre-illness functioning
(Carter et al., 2010). For this reason, it is becoming
increasingly obvious that better understanding of what
puts people at risk for schizophrenia and thereby intervening before the illness manifesting in the first place is
the best possible treatment approach to this terrible illness. Scientists are, therefore, focusing their efforts on
discovering the etiology, causes, and mechanisms of psychosis so they can better understand and treat this illness.

connectivity. Diagram 1 on the next page is a working

model of how these factors collectively act on an individual to cause the expression of schizophrenia
(Andreasen et al., 2000).
Andreasen, however, stresses the often-overlooked
importance of qualifying the phenotype for schizophrenia as opposed to just trying to explain how one develops it (Andreasen et al., 1999). In doing so, she tries to
connect the often-disparate research on phenotype
(external symptoms) and biotype (underlying internal
deregulations). She puts forth the Dysmetria theory of
schizophrenia as a general underlying explanation to
account for all the symptoms observed in this disorder.
According to this theory, the positive, negative, and
disorganized symptoms observed in schizophrenia dont
only occur, as previously indicated, in conjunction with
cognitive symptoms, but rather as a direct result of a
fundamental deficit in cognitive processing (Andreasen
et al., 1999).
This Dysmetria Model of Schizophrenia explains the
progression of psychosis as follows. Brain structure abnormalities lead to functional connectivity deficits,
which in turn lead to loose cognitive connections. The

Diagram 1: Working Model of Etiology of Schizophrenia

2. Theoretical Explanations: Cognitive Dysmetria

The root cause of schizophrenia has thus far eluded the
scientific community. It is now widely believed that the
development of schizophrenia can be attributed to a
complex interaction of factors, namely genetic predisposition, teratogens, a disruption in the expression and
regulation of the developing fetus, and impaired neural

sum total of many loose cognitive connections can be

called a metaprocess, or overarching process that governs smaller processes in the brain. This damaged cognitive metaprocess of loose connections can be said to
account for the entirety of symptoms in schizophrenia,
leading to the understanding that schizophrenia is an
inherently cognitive disorder. The general cognitive
deficit is called Cognitive Dysmetria and is defined as a

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

disruption in the fluid coordination of mental activity that

characterizes normal cognition. This could manifest as a
disruption in timing, in information flow, and in coordination in any cognitive capacity (Andreasen et al., 1999).
Andreasen (1999) links this Cognitive Dysmetria to a
neurobiological deficit in the cortico-cerebellar-thalamiccortical circuit (CCTCC), the mental system that is believed to account for the fluid execution of mental activity. There is evidence for dysfunction in the CCTCC in
patients with schizophrenia (Varambally et al., 2012),
and such dysfunction could lead to the confusion of external and internal events and processes and garbled and
incoherent speech, as well as uncoordinated motor activities. These symptoms map nicely onto hallucinations,
delusions, disorganized speech, and frozen body states
often found in patients with schizophrenia (Andreasen et
al., 1999). Further evidence for this theory has been
found with more recent studies showing reduced volume
and dysfunctional firing patterns in the brain areas associated with the CCTCC (Volz, et al., 2000; Varambally et

P AGE 27

DISCERN is computer that

uses neural network modules
to do machine learning.
al., 2012). The Cognitive Dysmetria Model allows for a
single phenotype of schizophrenia to be established and
therefore clears the way for more focused research into
finding causes and effective treatments. DISCERN is
one attempt to use this cognitive model to better understand the mind of a person who has schizophrenia.
II. DISCERN
1. DISCERN: A Brief Introduction
A. How DISCERN WORKS: Neural Networks
and Machine Learning
DISCERN is computer that uses neural network modules to do machine learning. This means that the computer consists of nodes and connections between the
nodes, each with varying weights (or strengths). The
computer has an input layer, a hidden layer, and an output layer. The input is, as it sounds, the input given to
the computer. The hidden layer performs an operation
on the input and the output layer is what the computer
spits out of the hidden layer. A computer that just takes
input and spits out output is a relatively simple, but
more complex computers are able to do machine learning using backpropagation.
Backpropagation, or backward propagation of errors, is
a method through which computers learn. Information
for which the input and output is known to the programmer is fed into the input layer. After going
through the hidden layer, the output layer presents a
solution, which, on the first attempt, is most likely
wrong. The computer is told that this is the wrong answer and calculates how incorrect it was, officially
termed the gradient of loss. This gradient of loss is then
used to update the weights between the nodes and the
computer is fed more information, for which the input
and output is known. Each time the computer makes a
mistake, it calculates the gradient of loss, readjusting
the weights in an attempt to bring the loss down to as

Diagram 2: Schematic Representation of Architecture of DISCERN

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low a number as possible. Eventually, after giving the

computer thousands of trials, the programmer can feed
it input for which the output isnt necessarily known and
the computer can be expected to reliably produce a correct output.
DISCERN uses back propagation to learn language and
narratives. The basic process is as follows. First, word
representations are entered into the sentence parser one
at a time. The sentence parser builds sentences by using
syntactical rules such as verbs follow the agent of action.
The sentence parser is thus able to put together a sentence, which is then passed on to the story parser. This
parser sequences the sentences into script representa-

P AGE 28

ative. DISCERN back propagated based on discrepancies between observed and predicted language; in order
to successfully learn, DISCERN back propagated 5,000
to 30,000 learning cycles for each module (Hoffman et
al., 2011).
B. How DISCERNs neural network maps onto
the brain

The modules in DISCERN use

similar activation patterns for
word recognition to how the
brain represents words in semantic memory.
tions, or multi-sentence schemas. Stories are sequences
of these scripts. These scripts are stored in the episodic
memory module and are accessed when the story needs
to be generated as output. The story generator taps into
the episodic memory module and turns the memory
representation into sentences, which are passed on to
the sentence generator and are given as output. In this
way, DISCERN is able to hold stories and generate
them when prompted with the first line of the story
(Hoffman et al., 2011). (see next page Diagram 2 from
Hoffman et al., 2011).
DISCERN was taught 28 stories, half of them impersonal crime stories and the other half autobiographical. This
means that former stories contained statements like
Tony was a gangster while the latter contained statements like I was a doctor. Notice how both these sentences use the same scripts; the only difference between
them is the agent of action and the occupation. This allows for possible confusion as will be demonstrated
shortly. Also, each script was accompanied by an emotion code rating, ranging from very positive to very neg-

It is certainly fascinating that a computer such as DISCERN can learn autobiographical stories and master,
so to speak, language. But even more remarkable is
DISCERNS close correlation to how the brain functions, making it an ideal candidate for testing hypotheses about how the brain works. The nodes and weighted
connections between them map onto the way neuronal
connections work in the brain with connections getting
stronger and weaker based on how often they are accessed. The modules in DISCERN use similar activation
patterns for word recognition to how the brain represents words in semantic memory. Moreover, the emotion code rating assigned to the scripts mimics the emotionality found in human memory retrieval. This emotionality often affects narrative and scripts in human
subjects and presumably in DISCERN as well (Hoffman
et al., 2011). For these reasons, it seems plausible to
utilize DISCERN as a means to better understand the
workings of the human brain.

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2. Giving DISCERN Schizophrenia

A. Inducing Schizophrenic Symptoms in DISCERN: Silicon and Biological Correlates
The programmers attempted to induce schizophrenia in
DISCERN by creating deficits that mirror biological ones
found in people. They were attempting to see which of
the eight breakdown profiles they created would most
closely match the biological breakdown profile observed
in patients. The assumption being that whichever profile

P AGE 29

increased activation in the semantic network in humans.

Semantic network outputs were blurred so that DISCERN could copy the heightened semantic priming
found in humans with schizophrenia and back propagation was amplified to mimic exaggerated predictionerror signaling, which has been linked to delusional
symptomatology. Each of these profiles was compared
against a human population (Hoffman et al., 2011). Scientists then taught three stories to normal subjects (N
=20), outpatients with schizophrenia (N = 37), and
DISCERN. Two of the stories shared references and
themes. All subjects tested were cued for immediate
recall of the stories, 45-minute recall, and a week later
recall.
B. DISCERN: Success?

best matched the patient profile could provide insight into

the most relevant dysfunction in schizophrenia.
The different breakdown profiles were based on previous
research on the human brain. In one profile, scientists
pruned Working Memory (WM) connections in the story
generator if they fell below a certain threshold to mimic
cortical disconnections in the WM network of the human
brain. In another, they added Gaussian noise to the story
generator to copy the excessive cortical noise and reduced
signal-to-noise ratio often found in patients with schizophrenia. They also reduced the response curve of neurons
in the hidden layer of the story generator to mimic the
reduced neural response and activation in patients with
schizophrenia when doing a WM task. Patients with schizophrenia often have elevated arousal, a symptoms that was
accomplished in DISCERN by laterally shifting the response curve in the story generator. Noise was added to
word representations in the semantic network and output
was increased in DISCERN to correlate to the noise and

The results indicated that hyperlearning in DISCERN

best matched the narrative breakdown found in patients. They believe this hyperlearning in the computer
captures deficits in prediction-error signaling during
memory consolidation. In this profile, DISCERN confused agents in stories in a consistent manner, mimicking the persistent and consistent delusions in human
subjects with schizophrenia. In the same profile, DISCERN also tended to mix up autobiographical stories,
correlating to patients inability to maintain coherent
narrative sequence. It would therefore seem that hyperlearning in DISCERN created symptoms most similar to
biological schizophrenia, perhaps indicating that the
neural deficits in this particular profile in DISCERN can
relate back those found in humans. Moreover, the hyperlearning in DISCERN can be used to further support
the theory that excess dopamine in the schizophrenic
brain and increased hippocampal activation are at the
root of episodic memory dysfunction in schizophrenia
(Hoffman et al., 2011).
While these results seem very promising, it is worthwhile to note that they are far from conclusive. In the
first case, while DISCERN is certainly impressive in its
ability to mimic human neuronal structure, it leaves
gaping holes not only in the human neural network in
general, but in the specific areas that are known to be
faulty in schizophrenia.

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DISCERN did not account for executive functioning

deficits, which are fairly common in schizophrenia. Even
more glaringly, it does not even mention negative symptoms or other positive ones such as hallucinations, leaving large gaps in its attempt to model schizophrenia
symptoms. Also, the human brain does not process WM
exactly as DISCERN does so even if it can be shown that
both human and machine exhibit similar patterns of observable dysfunction, this does not mean the underlying
causes look anything alike.
DISCERN bases itself off of specific biological and neurological deficits found in the schizophrenic brain and on

DISCERN implies that by pruning a

system and inducing large-scale silicon-based cognitive deficits, one
can induce schizophrenia-like symptoms.
the theory of cognitive dysmetria. DISCERNs engineered deficits were induced based on previous studies
of the brain and the current understanding of the corresponding behavioral manifestations. In regards to cognitive dysmetria, which explains that the deficits in schizophrenia can be attributed to one broad underlying cognitive deficit, DISCERN implies that by pruning a system
and inducing large-scale silicon-based cognitive deficits, one can induce schizophrenia-like symptoms.
However, DISERN only accounts for one small area of
symptomatology and fails to explain broad cognitive
deficits.

P AGE 30

see if they can elucidate anything about human behavior

(Haugeland, 1997). But this begs the obvious question
of whether it is possible to draw such a correlation between a machine and a human brain. The crux of what
is being observed is behavioral, which, much like Skinners banner, doesnt elucidate the reasons why behavior is happening. This would seem to indicate that DISCERN is a faulty tool for the advancement of schizophrenia research.
Conversely, DISCERN does appear to meet at least
some criteria that bring it that much closer to humans
in that it passes a Turing test of sorts. In the original
test, a computer is said to pass if it can fool a human
into thinking that it too is human. However, in the
case, DISCERN is considered successful if it can fool a
human into thinking it is just as flawed and incoherent
as the average schizophrenic human. And it did, in
fact, mimic this behavior accurately. The question that
still remains, however, is whether this behavioral correspondence can be used to elucidate biological causes.
Talking alone does not make a computer close enough
to a human to draw perfect corollaries and talking, or
output, is all that DISCERN is able to do.
This leaves DISCERN in a precarious position. On the
one hand, it may not be similar enough to a human to
be useful in understanding inherently human mechanisms, but on the other hand, in discrete amounts, it is
able to accurately enact human behavior based loosely
on biological realities. Its incompleteness is balanced by
the relative accuracy of its narrow depiction of a single
symptoms cluster. Arguably, DISCERN is not a useless
endeavor, but it is doubtful how much it will be able to
establish in explaining the root of schizophrenia.

3. A Philosophical Digression: Can a computer

explain human behavior?

III. Concluding Thoughts

Specifics aside, it is necessary to briefly discuss whether

it is even feasible and beneficial to use a computer as a
model of a biological illness. Mind design is the idea of
trying to understand the mind in terms of its design.
This is done through reverse engineering such that a
computer is made to mimic human behavior and then
the mechanisms behind this behavior are analyzed to

DISCERN accurately mimics a piece of the

large puzzle of Schizophrenia. According to the cognitive dysmetria model, one can overload a computers
WM just like it is hypothesized that human working
memory is overloaded. In doing so, one can induce hallucination and delusions-like symptoms, representing a
small subset of the positive and arguably, cognitive defi-

1. What is DISCERN telling us?

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

cits in schizophrenia. By treating the human brain as if

its biological mechanisms have a feasible corollary in
silicon-based machines, DISCERN was able to mimic
behaviors, but only some behaviors and not all. Even
so, DISCERNs narratives that tell a ludicrous story
could map onto hallucinations and the inaccuracies in
the stories it told could be delusions. If this is, in fact,
the case, then it would seem that DISCERN has accomplished something through mind design. It has, in effect,
created a schizophrenic mind (or at least the beginnings
of one) and can work backwards to determine how that
happened. And I respect that.
I do not, however, attribute too much significance to DISCERN for the following reason. If cognitive
dysmetria implies that there is a whole brain cognitive
deficit that can explain all the other deficits that manifest
in schizophrenia, and DISCERN is working from the
principle that there is a whole-brain overload happening,
then shouldnt DISERN be able to produce all these effects? Wouldnt the computer have also exhibited signs
of anhedonia and clang associations, among other symptoms? I think, though, that I am getting ahead of myself.
The scientists working on DISCERN only tweaked one
very small part of it and only taught it a limited amount
of information that it could garble. Theoretically, if DISCERN had as complex a web of information as the average human brain, then it might exhibit a large amount of
symptoms very similar to those of a human. I therefore
admit that there is definitely a huge benefit to pushing
the limits of what DISCERN can discover and that it is
most probably capable of being pushed that far. But until
that point, I reserve judgment on making any sweeping
statements about its ability to explain schizophrenia in
its entirety.
2. Directions for future research
DISCERNs designers should continue to develop it so that it can retain myriads more pieces of information and then try to overload it. If, when they do this,
DISCERN mimics more than two symptoms of schizophrenia, they will have gone a long way in elucidating
this debilitating illness.

P AGE 31

References:
Andreasen, N. C. (2000). Schizophrenia: the fundamental questions. Brain Research Reviews, 31, 106112.
Andreasen, N. C., Nopoulos, P., OLeary, D. S., Miller, D. D., Wassink, T., & Flaum, M. (1999). Defining
the phenotype of schizophrenia: cognitive dysmetria
and its neural mechanisms. Society of Biological Psychiatry, 46, 908-920.
Cohen, J. D., Barch, D. M., Carter, C., & ServanSchreiber, D. (1999). Context-processing deficits in
schizophrenia: converging evidence from three theoretically motivated cognitive tasks. Journal of Abnormal
Psychiatry, 108 (1), 120-133.
Schreiber, D. (1999). Context-processing deficits in
schizophrenia: converging evidence from three theoretically motivated cognitive tasks. Journal of Abnormal
Psychiatry, 108 (1), 120-133.
Haugeland, John. (1997). What is Mind Design? In J.
Haugeland (Ed.), Mind Design II: Philosophy, Psychology, Artificail Intelligence (2nd Ed.) (pp. 1-28). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Hoffman, R. E., Grasemann, U., Gueorguieva, R.,
Quinlan, D., Lane, D., & Mikkulainen. (2011). Using
computational patients to evaluate illness mechanisms
in schizophrenia. Biology Journal of Psychiatry, 67, 997
-1005.
Varambally S, Venkatasubramanian G, Gangadhar BN.
Neurological soft signs in schizophrenia - The past, the
present and the future. Indian Journal of Psychiatry
2012;54:73-80.
Volz, H-P, Gaser, C., & Sauer, H. (2000). Supporting
evidence for the model of cognitive dysmetria in schizophrenia a structural magnetic resonance imaging
study using deformation-based morphometry. Schizophrenia Research, 46, 45-56.

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S HAME M EMORIES AS A P REDICTOR OF P SYCHOPATHOLOGY

By: Alexa Marshall

Shame can shape our identity

and memories as well as
influence our behavior.
Abstract
This paper assesses two research articles published recently that explore the relationship between shame
memories and psychopathology. Cunha et al. (2012)
proposed the biopsychosocial model of shame in adolescence, in which shame experiences that are traumatic and central to ones self-identity mediates his or
her anxiety and depressive symptoms. Pinto-Gouveia
and Matos (2011) investigated whether early experiences of shame indicate the centrality characteristics of
memory. They concluded that the centrality of shame
memories is linked to current feelings of shame in
adulthood.
Shame Memories as a Predictor of Psychopathology
Shame is a two-fold emotion that emerges from the
innate human need of attachment and social belonging
(Pinto-Gouveia & Matos, 2011). Though many researchers have different viewpoints on what shame is,
Gilbert (1998) argues that shame is both internal and
external. The inner experience of shame arises from
private negative feelings about oneself, while the exter-

nal experience is linked to social encounters in which one undergoes rejection or personal scrutiny (Gilbert,
1998). Thus, shame can shape our
identity and memories as well as influence our behavior. Over the past two
decades, studies have been conducted
that evaluate the association between
shame memories and a number of psychopathological symptoms and illnesses, such as, anxiety, dissociation, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (Pinto-Gouveia & Matos, 2011).
In their study, Marina Cunha, Daniela
Faria, Marcela Matos, and Sofia Zagalo
(2012) , explored whether memories
of internal and external shame have an
impact on the depressive and anxiety
symptoms of adolescents. Similarly,
Jose Pinto-Gouveia and Marcela Matos(2011) evaluated
how shameful memories become a significant aspect of the
personal identities and lives of adults, and whether they
contribute to the development of depression, anxiety, and
stress. In their study of the pathogenic nature of shame,
Cunha and colleagues hypothesized that adolescents who

They proposed that both

internal and external shame
would be strongly linked to
symptoms of depression and
anxiety.
viewed their shame memories as central to their identities
and highly traumatic would experience (and report) greater levels of depression and anxiety (2012). Furthermore,
they proposed that both internal and external shame
would be strongly linked to symptoms of depression and
anxiety within their three hundred and fifty four adoles-

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cent (ranging from twelve to eighteen years ago) participants (Cunha et al., 2012). Correspondingly, Pinto
-Gouveia and Matos (2011) hypothesized that there
would be an increase in the symptoms of depression,
anxiety and stress among adults whose shame memories emerge as central for the organization of autobiographical knowledge. Thus, these researchers expected that individuals who experienced shame as a
salient part of their identities, out of their eight hundred and eleven subjects (with a mean age of 28.82),
would report higher levels of internal and external
shame (Pinto-Gouveia & Matos, 2011).
Methods
Both studies used the same four self-report questionnaires to measure external shame, shame memory
characteristics and psychopathology: the Other as
Shamer Scale, the Impact of Event Scale, the Centrality of the Event scale and the Depression, Anxiety and
Stress Scale. However, Cunha et al. (2012) assessed
each participants level of internal shame by using the
Experience of Shame Scale, while Pinto-Gouveia and

P AGE 33

Matos (2011) used the

Internalized Shame Scale.
The Other as Shamer
Scale gauges a persons
feelings on how others
view them by their ratings of statements on a 5point Likert scale (Cunha
et al., 2012). According
to Pinto-Gouveia and
Matos, the higher the
ratings on statements like
I think others look down
on me, the higher the
individuals level of external shame (2011). On
the Impact of Event
Scale, twenty-two statements, i.e., I was jumpy
and startled measure the
three aspects of traumatic
memories: hyperarousal,
avoidance, and intrusion (Cunha et al., 2012). A higher
rating on the 5-point Likert scale of this questionnaire
illustrates a persons vulnerability to stress and post-

Results in both studies

convey that the two-fold
nature of shame memories
elevates an individuals
vulnerability to psychopathology.
traumatic stress disorder. Assessments of whether the
memory a stressful event forms a reference point for
personal identity and for the attribution of meaning to
other experiences in a persons life was measured by using the Centrality of the Event Scale, through statements
such as This event has colored the way I think and feel
about others experiences and I feel that this event has

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

become part of my identity (Pinto-Gouveia & Matos,

2011). The forty-two statements on the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale measure these three psychopathological symptoms. Lastly, both the Experience of Shame Scale
and Internalized Shame Scale display how an individual
feels about his or her self through the ratings of positiveworded statements (All in all, I am inclined to feel that I
am a success) and negatively-worded statements
(Compared with other people, I feel like I somehow never measure up) (Cunha et al., 2012).
Findings and Results
The results of both Cunha et al.s 2012 study on adolescents and Pinto-Gouveia 2011 studys on adults indicated
that there is a moderate to strong positive correlation between the centrality of shame memories and shame (both
internal and external). Moreover, the centrality of shame
memories was shown to moderately and positively correlate with depression, r = .31; p<. 01, and stress, r = .32;
p<.01, as well as significantly correlate with anxiety, r
= .23; p<.01, (Pinto-Gouveia & Matos, 2011). Cunha et
al. (2012) furthered their findings and had results which
demonstrated that the centrality of shame memories predicts greater depressive, bCES178, 98%, and anxiety,
bCES= .148, 95%, symptoms in adolescents who experienced both internal and external shame. In regard to
shame traumatic memories, results on the Impact of Event
Scale illustrated that heightened feelings that memories are
highly distressing partially predicts depression in adolescents (Cunha et al., 2012). In all, the results in both studies convey that the two-fold nature of shame memories
elevates an individuals vulnerability to psychopathology.
These results are consistent with the proposed hypotheses
of each study.

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Discussion
There were various methodological limitations in the discussed research papers. As noted, the cross-sectional design of each study inhibited the researchers abilities to
interpret a causal relationship between shame memories
and psychopathology (Cunha et al., 2012). In future studies, researchers should use longitudinal or prospective
designs to underscore the link between these two variables. Also, because both studies were retrospective
(participants had to recall memories) and subjective (selfreport questionnaires were used), the selective memories
as well as the current emotional states of the participants
may have influenced the data collected. Future research
might benefit from conducting structured interviews to
foster a deeper understanding of the reported shame
memories (Pinto-Gouveia & Matos, 2011).
Although more research needs to be conducted to establish the connection between shame memories and psychopathology, the aformentioned studies illustrate that the
presence of shame memories is related to the symptoms
of depressive, anxiety, and stress disorders.
References:
Cunha, M., Matos, M., Faria, D., & Zagalo, S. (2012).
Shame Memories and Psychopathology in Adolescence:
The Mediator Effect of Shame. International Journal Of
Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 12(2), 203-218.
Gilbert, P., & Andrews, B. (1998). Conceptual Issues .
Shame Interpersonal Behavior, Psychopathology, and Culture (pp. 1-54). New York: Oxford University Press.
Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Matos, M. (2011). Can shame memories become a key to identity? The centrality of shame
memories predicts psychopathology. Applied Cognitive
Psychology, 25 (2), 281-290. doi:10.1002/acp.1689

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N ICOTINE A DDICTION & Q UITTING

By: Fanni C. Nyari
Problem Statement
Many smokers are not aware of their
nicotine addiction. The CDC defines
smokers as people who report to
smoke at least one hundred cigarettes
during their lifetime and smoke everyday or almost everyday during the
time of their report. Quitting is perceived as something
difficult and the success rates are variable at best. However, there are several ways to go about quitting smoking.
Prevalence
According to the CDC, overall smoking prevalence declined from 2005 when it was 20.9% to 18.1% during
2012. An estimated 42.1 million people, or 18.1% of all
adults are current smokers in the United States, adults
being defined as anybody 18 years and older. There are
differences in the prevalence across demographics.
Smoking is more common among men (20.5%) than
women (15.8%). By U.S. Census region, during 2012
prevalence was higher in the Midwest (26.0%) and the
South (19.7%) than in the Northeast (16.5%) and West
(14.2%)(CDC, 2014). Furthermore, adults aged 25-44
years had the highest prevalence across the time period
of 1978-2012 (Michaelis, 2013).
Mortality
Nicotine is one of the most widely used/addictive drugs
in the United States and the leading cause of preventable
death, disease, and disability worldwide. Smoking accounts for more than 480,000 deaths, or one in every
five deaths, annually in the United States. In addition,
more than 16 million Americans suffer from a disease
caused by smoking. The statistics are just as shocking
worldwide, it is estimated that around five million
deaths can be attributed to cigarette smoking every year,
including the nearly half of a million in the States. To
give you a comparison, this is like having a September
11th every four hours, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
(Carr, 2011). As the CDC reports, smoking relates to
90% of lung cancer cases in the United States and second

hand smoking is responsible

for about 38,000 deaths each
year (NLM).
Goals of the Paper
The goals of this paper are to
identify the key effects of
nicotine on humans, to explore nicotine addiction, and
to review different methods of quitting smoking.

It is estimated that around five

million deaths can be attributed to
cigarette smoking every year.
Literature Review
Key Topic 1 - Effects of Nicotine
Some of the diseases smoking can potentially cause
were discussed above. However, smoking has other
effects on the body such as decreased appetite, increased activity of intestines, increased heart rate by
around 10 to 20 beats per minute, stimulated memory
and alertness.
Pharmacodynamics of Nicotine: Tobacco plants
naturally produce an alkaloid, namely nicotine, as protection from being eaten by insects. It is also a substance that acts as a stimulant when it is consumed by
humans, and is the main factor responsible for tobacco
dependence. When nicotine enters the body, it is distributed quickly through the bloodstream and can cross
the blood-brain barrier to enter the central nervous
system. There, it binds with two main types of nicotinic
acetylcholine receptors: the ganglion type and the Central Nervous System type. Afterwards, it acts on both
dopamine and epinephrine (Mi, Swan, Benowitz, Tyndale, Thomas, & Gong, n.d.).
Pharmacokinetics of Nicotine: Nicotine is a weak
base (pKa=8.0) and its absorption through mucous
membranes depends on pH. Smoking is a highly efficient form of drug administration as the drug enters the

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circulation fast through the lungs and gets to the brain

within a couple of seconds, escaping the first-pass intestinal and hepatic metabolism. The quicker the absorption and entry of a drug into the brain, the greater the
rush and the more reinforcing the drug is, explaining
why nicotine is so addictive. The half-life of nicotine is
about two hours and it accumulates in the body after
about six hours of continued consumption (Benowitz,
2009). Nicotines short half-life in fact explains why
most people smoke about 20 cigarettes a day, or about
every 45 minutes (Carr, 2011).
Key Topic 2 - Nicotine Addiction
Addiction is a condition that results from a person consuming a substance that gives him or her pleasure sensations but the continued use of which becomes compulsive and interferes with day to day functioning. Nicotines chemical signature is so similar to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that once nicotine is inside the brain
it fits chemical locks that permit direct and indirect control over the flow of hundreds of neuro-chemicals, most
importantly, dopamine. The brains dopamine pathways
function as a built-in teacher, and thus our brain perceives nicotine as essential for our survival, making quitting very difficult (Polito, 2014).
Withdrawal: Feelings of discomfort, distress, and intense craving for a substance occur when one withdraws, or stops using the substance (Psychology Today,
n.d.). Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal typically appear
within two to three days after last use of tobacco. Those
who smoked a greater number of cigarettes and those
who have been smokers for the longest time are more
likely to experience withdrawal symptoms. Common
symptoms include, anxiety and depression, restlessness
and frustration, insomnia, increased appetite, sad headaches (MedlinePlus, n.d.). An important and poorly
understood part of withdrawal is the psychological craving which may persist for six months or longer after
quitting, and it is a big obstacle to successful abstinence
from nicotine (Psychology Today, n.d.).
Tolerance: Repeated exposure to nicotine results in
the development of tolerance, which is the condition in
which higher doses of the same drug are required to
reach the initial effect. Since nicotine is metabolized
quickly, some of the tolerance is lost overnight and tolerance progresses as the day develops and later cigarettes have less effect (Psychology Today, n.d.).

P AGE 36

Symptoms include, anxiety and

depression, restlessness and frustration, insomnia, increased appetite, sad headaches.
Key Topic 3 - Quitting Smoking
Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT): As mentioned earlier, nicotine in cigarettes leads to physical
dependence and causes uncomfortable withdrawal
symptoms. These symptoms are a major obstacle to
quitting in many cases. NRT aims to relieve these
symptoms by providing nicotine for the body and allows one to concentrate on the psychological aspects of
quitting. This kind of therapy is available through gums,
patches, sprays, lozenges, and inhalers. It is rare for an
adult to overdose while using these products yet it is
possible (American Cancer Society, 2014). Success
rates for NRT vary depending on which research is
read, but it ranges from about five to ten percent (Carr,
2011).
The Easyway Method: This method was created
by Allen Carr, a former smoker himself and is available
through different mediums such as books, webinars,
seminars, and podcasts. It approaches smoking from the
smokers perspective and does not use scare tactics.
The Easyway works by removing the desire to smoke
and reduced willpower to not to smoke. Therefore, this
method deals with the psychological component of the
addiction and is so successful (according to Easyways
website it has an over 60% success rate) that the seminars even offer a money back guarantee.
Other Methods: Hypnosis is a state of deep concentration where the individual is guided through thoughts
and feelings, and as a method to quit smoking it aims to
decrease the desire to smoke and increase the will to
stop. Another alternative is acupuncture that tries to
relieve withdrawal symptoms and promote stopping
smoking this way. Laser therapy uses light intensity lasers on certain parts of the body with the purpose to
minimize discomfort from withdrawal (smokefree.gov,
n.d.).

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

P AGE 37

References:
Discussion
There are absolutely no advantages to smoking; in fact its
nature is poisonous. It is very harmful to our bodies and
can lead to several potentially lethal conditions. Nicotine
addiction is so widely spread that it is a big issue worldwide and accounts for more than five millions deaths annually. There are numerous ways to go about quitting
smoking, each suited to an individuals needs, some offering higher rates of success than others.
Summary and Conclusions
Smoking is not a habit, it is nicotine addiction and even
though society is aware of this, most smoking individuals
are not. About forty-two million Americans are still addicted to nicotine, so smoking is still a big issue that
should be taken seriously. Different methods of success
vary from 5-60%, and I think success is a highly individual concept because what may work for one might not
work for another. Nicotine addiction is still highly prevalent even though there has been a decrease in the past
couple of years. Furthermore there is a need for new ap-

Prevention is always better than

cure.
proaches to quit smoking and prevent it with higher success rates.
Recommendations
Scare tactics that are promoted by the media are not
working; therefore there is a need for new campaigns
that address the issue from a different perspective. Prevention is always better than cure; therefore new campaigns should target younger audiences and those who
have not started smoking yet. The media should stop glorifying smoking by showing it in movies rated G, PG,
PG13. Furthermore, different methods of quitting should
be promoted too by the health profession, not only NRT.
On the individual level, each individual should experiment with a variety of methods of quitting and decide
what works best for him or her.

American Cancer Society (2014) . Nicotine Replacement Therapy. Guide to Quitting Smoking. Retrieved
December 11, 2014, from http://www.cancer.org/%
20healthystayawayfromtobaccoguidetoquittingsmoking/guide-to-quitting-smoking-nicotine-replacementtherapy
Benowitz N.L. (2009) . Pharmacology of Nicotine: Addiction, Smoking-Induced Disease, and Therapeutics.
NIHPA Author Manuscripts. Retrieved December 10,
2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
articles/PMC2946180/
Carr, A. (2011) . Allen Carrs Easy Way to Stop Smoking. Clarity Marketing USA: New York Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2014) . Adult
cigarette Smoking in the United States: Current Estimates. Smoking & Tobacco Use. Retrieved December
9, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/
data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/
MedlinePlus (n.d.) . Nicotine and Tobacco. Retrieved
December 10, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/
medlineplus/ency/article/000953.htm
Mi H., Swan G. E., Benowitz N., Tyndale R.F., Thomas P.D., & Gong L. (n.d.) . Nicotine Pathway
(Dopaminergic Neuron), Pharmacodynamics. PharmGKB. Retrieved December 10, 2014, from https://
www.pharmgkb.org/pathway PA162355621
Michaelis, P. (2013) . Tobacco: Acting Against Society
but Thriving? . Alliance Trust Investments. Retrieved
December 9, 2014, from http://
www.alliancetrustinvestments.com/sri-hub/
posts/2013/December/Tobacca-investing
Polito, J. R. (2014) . Nicotine Addiction 101. Retrieved December 11, 2014, from http://
whyquit.com/whyquit/LinksAAddiction.html
Psychology Today (n.d.) . Addiction. Psych Basics. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://
www.psychologytoday.com/basics/addiction
Psychology Today. (n.d.) . Nicotine. Diagnosis Dictionary. Retrieved December 11, 20014, from http://
www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/nicotine
smokefree.gov (n.d.) Find a Quit Method that Works
for You. Retrieved December 11, 2014, from http://
smokefree.gov/explore-quit-methods

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T HE F UNDAMENTAL A TTRIBUTION E RROR : R ATINGS OF

K NOWLEDGEABILITY B ASED ON P ARTICIPATION IN Q UIZ G AME
By: Alexa Marshall
Abstract
We investigated the Fundamental Attribution Error
(FAE) by having students create a quiz game in which
they played the roles of questioners, answerers and
observers, interchangeably. After the completion of
the quiz game, students rated themselves and their
fellow participants in questionnaires. We found that
participants judged themselves as more knowledgeable when they were the questioners; however, participants judged themselves as less
knowledgeable when they were the
answerers. Also, observers judged
questioners as more knowledgeable
than the answerers. This study is
important to understanding how our
perception of ourselves and others
differ in similar situations.
Introduction
You may have asked another person
for assistance and received a rude
response instead. Naturally, you may
assume that this person has an overall bad attitude. On the other hand,
when you impolitely respond to a
person, you may justify your actions
by attributing it to a bad day
judging yourself based on your situation rather than your personality. This is an example
of the Fundamental Attribution Error: attributing the
actions of others to their personality while attributing
your own actions to situational factors (Langdridge &
Butt, 2004).
We plan to test this phenomenon by employing a quiz
game, where students will ask each other ten selfmade questions every college-educated students generally know the answer to. Then, participants serving
as either a questioner or an answerer will rate their
own knowledgeability and the knowledgeability of
their partner; participants serving as observers will

rate the knowledgeability of the quiz game participants.

We hypothesize that participants rate themselves as
more knowledgeable compared to answerers when they
are the questioners. Furthermore, we expect participants to rate themselves as less knowledgeable than
questioners when they are the answerers. This is because they are expected to make situational judgments
of others, as suggested by the Fundamental Attributional Error. Furthermore, we expect to
find that observers rate questioners as
more knowledgeable than the answerers. This is because the quiz game
was set up to showcase the knowledgeability of the questioners (who created
the questions from their own knowledge
base) as well as highlight the lack of
knowledge of the answerer (who does
not have the same knowledge base as the
questioner).
Methods
Participants
Seventy-three Brooklyn College students participated in the study as part of
their Experimental Psychology class.
Students were organized in a 2x2 mixed
design. Therefore, during the quiz
game, students were divided into a between-subject
design: two students served as observers, one student
served as an answerer and one student served as a questioner. Moreover, during the completion of the questionnaire, students were a part of a within-subjects design: each student answered the questions relevant to
his/her role as an observer as well as another set of
questions relevant to his/her role as a participant
(questioner or answerer).
Materials
Students were asked to create a quiz game of 10
straightforward challenging questions college-educated

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students should likely know the answer to. For example ,Who created the iPad? (Answer: Steve Jobs).
Each student was randomly assigned to groups of four by
a random generation numerical program. Within these
groups, students were further divided into groups of
participants: one questioner and one answerer, and observers through the use of the Rock-paper- scissors hand
game. The quiz game was played two times, in which
students who were participants in the first game were
required to be observers in the second game. Those who
were observers in the first game were required to be
participants in the second game. Students created their
own questions and answers if they were assigned the
role of a questioner. Answerers responded to the questions posed by the questioners while observers witnessed the quiz game being conducted. Both questioners and observers were required to calculate how many
questions the answerer answered correctly.
At the conclusion of the quiz game, students completed
a questionnaire specific to their roles as an observer as
well as questions about their roles as participants. The
number of questions accurately answered were recorded
at the top of each questionnaire. When students were
observers, they were asked to rate the knowledgeability
of both the questioner and the answerer. For example,
one question used was: Compared to typical Brooklyn
College students how knowledgeable would you judge
the questioner to be? For this question, a rating system
was used ranging from 0 (not at all) to 6 (extremely
well). On the other hand, when participants were questioners or answerers, they were asked to rate their own
knowledgeability as well as that of their partner. For
example, one question used was: Compared to typical
Brooklyn College students how knowledgeable would
you judge yourself to be? For this question, a rating
system was used ranging from 0 (not at all) to 6
(extremely well). For the full set of questions, please
refer to Appendix A.
Procedure
Students were instructed to create ten questions and
answers at the beginning of the study. Subsequently, the
students were randomly assigned into groups of four.
After this arrangement, the roles of students were randomly assigned in the two quiz games: one questioner,

P AGE 39

one answerer and two observers. The questioner subsequently asked the answerer their ten questions out loud
and recorded the number of correct responses. Observers witnessed this interaction between the questioner
and answerer. The quiz game was played twice, allowing participants to alternate to the role of observers and
observers to alternate to the role of participants. At the
conclusion of both rounds, all four participants in the
quiz game filled out the section of the questionnaire
pertinent to their role in the quiz game. This information was recorded in SPSS.
Results

In this study, we examined the difference between observers rating of questioners and answerers by conducting a t-test (p = .815). Observers rated questioners
(M = 4.79) as significantly more knowledgeable than
their ratings of the answerers (M = 4.08) when asked
questions such as, Compared to college students in
general, how knowledgeable would you judge the Answerer to be? and Compared to college students in
general, how knowledgeable would you judge the
Questioner to be? Next, we explored the data to see
whether participants rated themselves as more knowledgeable when they were questioners or answerers.
Depending on which role participants were in, significant interaction results were observed in our analysis of

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

when they were questioners compared to ratings of their

own knowledge when they were answerers. To investigate this difference, we used a Mixed 2x2 ANOVA,
which indicated significant results (p = .005). On Self vs.
BC questions, we found that questioners rated themselves (M = 4.66) as significantly more knowledgeable
than answerers (M = 4.27). Conversely, on Partner vs.
BC questions, questioners rated answerers (M = 4.29) as
less knowledgeable than answerers rated questioners (M
= 4.55).

Discussion
The findings of this study supports our hypotheses that
participants judge themselves more knowledgeable when
they are the questioners and less knowledgeable when
they are the answerers; observers judge questioners as
more knowledgeable than the answerers. Moreover, our
results reinforce the theory behind the Fundamental Attribution Error: people have a tendency to interpret others actions as indicators of internal characteristics while
attributing their own actions to external factors.
The quiz game itself was established to underscore the
knowledgeability of the questioners and undermine the
knowledgeability of the answerer. Just as questioners
appeared (and judged themselves) as more knowledgeable because the questions posed were derived from their
knowledge base rather than that of the answerer, authority figures may appear (and judge themselves) as more

P AGE 40

powerful because their influence is derived from their

responsibilities rather than those of their subordinates.
This is important because the Fundamental Attribution
Error is just as its name states: an error. It is a perceptional bias impacted by ones vantage point and own
interpretation of a situation, instead of the truth of the

People have a tendency to interpret others actions as indicators of

internal characteristics while attributing their own actions to external factors.
events observed. Future research is necessary to further
understand the scope of Fundamental Attribution Error. As a suggestion, a sample of the American government officials and a sample of the population they serve
should be given questionnaires evaluating how each is
perceived by the other. Generalizing for the results of
this study, officials would view themselves as powerful
and appear to be so by their fellow citizen, while citizens would be judged (and perceive themselves) as less
formidable than those elected to serve them. Such biases may culminate in officials not listening to the concerns of those who elected them and the population
feeling inferior to their governmental representative.
Surely, the power deferential created by Fundamental
Attribution Error is inaccurate at best and harmful at
worst. Thus, Fundamental Attribution Error should be
the subject of further research as a means for psychologists and everyone alike to address their own biases.

Reference:
Langdridge, D. & Butt, T. (2004). The fundamental
attribution error: a phenomenological critique.
British Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 357-369.

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D IFFERENCES IN G ENDER R ECALL U SING A L IST OF

N UMBERS AND W ORDS
By: Ariella Nagel
Abstract:
The magical number seven plus minus two, refers to
the amount of items that each person can hold in his or
her short-term memory (Miller, 1956). This current
experiment was conducted to compare the recall a list
of numbers and words based on gender. Forty-four
people from Brooklyn, New York participated in the
experiment. Participants were
shown a list of ten words for
thirty seconds and had an additional thirty seconds to recall the
words by writing them down.
The same participants were then
shown a list of ten numbers for
thirty seconds and had an additional thirty seconds to recall by
writing them down. The data
was analyzed by a 2x2 ANOVA
design and the study was with
within subjects. The main effect
for gender was significant whereas the main effect for
list and the interaction between gender and list was
not significant. Conclusively, females recalled more
than males but the type of list did not have an influence on each genders memory. Words were recalled
more than numbers, but it was not a significant difference. Implications suggest that this experiment can
help people with their studying habits since they will
know how many items can be stored in the memory
within a short period of time.
Keywords: gender, recall, words, numbers
Differences in Gender Recall Using a List of
Numbers and Words :
According to George Miller, people can hold seven
plus or minus two items in their short term memory
(Miller, 1956). This concept helps people understand
how many items, such as a grocery list, they can memorize. Also if a student has to memorize concepts for a
test, there is a certain amount of words that can be

stored in the short term memory. When it comes to

gender, it seems females have better memories than
males (May & Hutt, 1974). This may be because females are better at using words than males (Haden,
Haine, & Fivush, 1997). Therefore, when a person asks
a female to recall items, a female may have more accuracy as opposed to a male. Understanding memory is
important in a persons daily
life so that one can learn
how to improve memory in
daily life.
When a visual stimulus was
involved, recall was much
better than using auditory
stimuli (May & Hutt, 1974).
May and Hutt conducted an
experiment on recall, comparing eight to ten year old
males and females. A list of
items was presented to the
children as a visual stimulus and auditory stimulus (a
female voice was recorded and was played for the children). Children performed better visually and females
recalled more nouns than the males (May & Hutt,
1974). Females appeared to be better at expressing
themselves and using words than males, based on the
experiment conducted by Haden, Haine, & Fivush
(1997). Children were told to repeat that events that
occurred to them, afterwards to their parents. Girls
were found to produce more narratives than the boys
(Haden, Haine, & Fivush, 1997).
In terms of recalling numbers, were better at recalling
than females (Benbow & Stanley, 1980). Benbow and
Stanley gave an SAT test, containing math and verbal
tests, to advanced junior high students. Boys scored
higher than the girls on the SAT math test. This may be
a result of the efficiency with which males can recall
numbers in comparison to females (Benbow & Stanley,
1980).

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

The horse-race model is when stimuli compete to get

processed by the brain (Macleod, 1991). People usually
process words more quickly (e.g., blue) over the color
of the words (e.g., the word blue with red ink)
(Macleod, 1991).
An experiment was conducted to combine the concepts
of short term memory using words and numbers. Participants memorized a list of words and a list of numbers
and had to recall each list. This was a 2x2 withinsubjects ANOVA design. The independent variables
were gender and the type of list presented. Male and
female were the levels of the gender variable, whereas a
list of words and numbers were the levels of the list variable. The dependent variable was the total amount of
items recalled. The first hypothesis of this experiment
was that there would be a main effect of gender, meaning that females would recall more items than males,
based on the experiment conducted by May and Hutt
(1974). Additionally, a main effect of list was predicted,
meaning that a list of words was recalled more than a list
of numbers. This hypothesis was based on how the brain
processes words at a fast rate, since language is developed at a young age for people (Macleod, 1991). Therefore, reading words is more automatic (Macleod, 1991),
making word memorization faster than number memorization. Furthermore, an interaction effect was predicted, in that a list of numbers would be recalled better by
males and a list of words would be recalled better by
females. This hypothesis was based on the experiments
by Haden, Haine, and Fivush and Benbow and Stanley

P AGE 43

(1980). Haden, Haine, and Fivush (1997) stated that

females were better at expressing with words than
males and Benbow and Stanley (1980) stated that males
are better at math than females. Since females appear to
be exceptional with vocabulary, perhaps they would
memorize a list of words better than numbers. Furthermore, since males seem to work well with numbers,
perhaps they would remember a list of numbers more
efficiently.

People usually process

words more quickly
Method
Participants
Participants consisted of forty-four people (22 males,
22 females) from Brooklyn, New York. The majority of
participants were Caucasian (86.4%), African American
(6.8%), Biracial (2.3%), Hispanic (2.3%), and Asian
(2.3%). The ages ranged from 19-61 years. Each experimenter recruited at least ten participants. Undergraduate students at Brooklyn College, family members,
friends, and co-workers were asked to participate.
Materials
A piece of paper contained a list of ten words and ten
numbers. The list of words comprised the following
words; humble, notebook, floss, library,
jacket, tour, chair, excited, crazy, and
kitchen. The list of numbers comprised the following;
12, 72, 56, 23, 45, 81, 37, 62, 10, 92. The font used
was Times New Roman, size eighteen, and there was
double spacing between each word and number. Each
first letter of a word was capitalized (eg, Jacket). A
timer from a cellphone was used set to thirty seconds
which was the time given to memorize the type of list
(words/numbers). Furthermore, another thirty seconds
was set to recall the type of list. Pen and paper were
used to write down the words being recalled.

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Procedure
A 2x2 factorial ANOVA design was conducted and was a
within-subjects design. The independent variables were
gender and type of list. The two levels of gender were
male and female, and the two levels for list were words
and numbers. Two trials were conducted; memorizing
the list of words, recalling the words, memorizing the list
of numbers, and recalling the numbers. The dependent
variable was the amount of
items recalled from each list.

P AGE 44

interaction between gender and list, F(1,21)=.002,

p=.963. The first main effect (gender on recall) was
expected but the other main effect (list on recall) and
interaction effect were unexpected. The mean total
recall for male*word was 6.6364 and for female*word
total recall was 6.9545. The mean total recall for
male*number was 5.8182 and for female*number total
recall was 6.1818.
Discussion

The experiment supported the

This experiment was divided
hypotheses partially, only a
among four experimenters.
main effect of gender was
Each participant was asked to
found. This experiment was
record his or her gender, age,
conducted to determine if
and ethnicity on a piece of
females recalled better than
paper given. After this, particmales (May & Hutt, 1974),
ipants were asked to memoespecially with words
rize the list of words provided
(Haiden, Haine, & Fivush,
for thirty seconds. Once the
1997). Based on Haiden,
timer began on a cellphone,
Haine, & Fivushs experiment
participants memorized the
(1997), females should have
words. After the thirty secmemorized a list of words
onds were up, each person
more efficiently than males.
had another thirty seconds to
Also, since males were more
record the words they reefficient at working with nummembered on paper. After
bers (Benbow & Stanley,
this was completed, partici1980). Therefore, they should
pants were asked to memorize
have memorized numbers betGraph of Total Recall
a list of numbers for thirty seconds. Afterter than females. However, in the exwards, participants recorded as many numbers as re- periment, males did not have a better recall for a list of
membered on the same paper for another thirty seconds. numbers and females did not have a better recall for a
All the data was gathered and entered on SPSS.
list of words. While females did recall more items than
males, consistent with May & Hutts experiment
(1974), there was not a significant difference in regards
to a list of words or numbers presented. There was no
significant difference found between the levels of the
list variable. Interestingly, participants recalled more
words than numbers, however the total amount of
words recalled was not much more than the total
Results
amount of numbers recalled. This may have been beThe mean of items recalled for each condition were sub- cause people were habituated to reading words, which
mitted to a 2x2 within-subjects ANOVA design. The re- are in turn processed more automatically in the brain
sults are shown on Graph 1. There was a significant main (Macleod, 1991). Given the case, it was perhaps easier
effect of gender on recall, F(1,21)=7.728, p<.05. There and quicker to memorize a list of words than a list of
was no significant main effect of list on recall, F(1,21) numbers.
=1.091, p=.308. Furthermore, there was no significant

There was a significant main

effect of gender on recall

V OLUME 3, I SSUE 2

There were several limitations with the present study.

The list of numbers may have been too complicated to
memorize. In addition, there was no way to make a connection between the items. This may have been a limitation to why participants had trouble memorizing and
recalling the list of numbers. As for the list of words,
connections were able to be made, which helped participants recall more words. For example, a connection
between notebook, chair, and library could be
made by a person imagining themselves sitting in a chair,
at the library, writing in a notebook. If the list of words
had less of a connection or the list of numbers had more
of a connection, perhaps the results would have differed.

P AGE 45

orize a list of numbers better than females nor did females memorize a list of words better than males. This
experiment supported Haiden, Haine, and Fivushs experiment (1997), May and Hutts experiment (1974),
Millers experiment (1956), and Macleods hypothesis
(1991). However, Benbow and Stanleys experiment
was not supported from the current experiment.

This experiment gave an insight

into short-term memory.
Future participants should not have a career in Math or
English fields. That may have had an effect on the outcomes of the present experiment. People who have careers in math may have done better in recalling numbers, since they work with numbers on a daily basis.
Similarly, those who are in the field of English may have
had a greater recall for the list of words.
This experiment gave an insight into short-term
memory. As proposed by Miller, people can remember
plus seven minus two items for a short period of time
(Miller, 1956). In this study, most participants were
able to recall five to seven items on each list, which supports Millers hypothesis. This also gave a clear understanding of gender differences in memory, being that
females recall better than males. This can motivate psychologists to further study each genders brain and look
further into structural differences in the brain between
genders. This experiment could help people comprehend how to study for tests. This experiment can motivate students to spread out studying time, since there is
a certain quantity of items that a person can accumulate
into his or her memory.
Overall, females had better recall no matter what type
of list was presented. Furthermore, males did not mem-

References:
Benbow, C. P., & Stanley, J. C. (1980). Sex differences
in mathematical ability: Fact or artifact? Science, 210
(4475), 1262-1264.
Haden, C. A., Haine, R. A., & Fivush, R. (1997). Developing narrative structure in parentchild reminiscing
across the preschool years. Developmental Psychology, 33(2), 295-307.
May, R. B., & Hutt, C. (1974). Modality and sex differences in recall and recognition memory. Child Development, 45(1), 228-231.
Macleod, C. M. (1991). Half a century of research on
the Stroop effect: An integrative review. Psychological
Bulletin, 109(2), 163-203.
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus
or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 8197.

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P AGE 46

C ASE S TUDY
By: Kristine Stigi
Your 26 year old male patient K. L. was
in a car accident and has suffered brain
injury. You don't have access to the imaging and your patient is unable to verbally
confirm where he hit his head. Upon
bedside examination you notice the following in his behaviors: 1) poor working
memory (can't hold a short list of items in
mind for a few seconds), 2) minor trouble
with long-term memory (doesn't remember what he eats for breakfast, but knows
his personal history well through yes & no
questions), 3) exhibits dis-inhibition in
behavior (makes lewd gestures to the female nurses), 4) demonstrates limited
expressive verbal ability (his speech is non
-fluent and low in output), and 5) he appears a-motivational, as he doesn't want
to get out of bed or follow the physical
therapist's instructions. The family reports these are all significant changes from his previous
level of functioning except for poor long-term memory,
which he has always had some minor problems with.

1) Which part(s) of the brain were affected and is their

evidence the condition is specific to one hemisphere?
2) Which lobe would you rule out as being damaged?
3) Are there any general conditions he seems to be exhibiting as a result of his brain
injury?
Answers:
1) Frontal lobes, with greater
damage to left hemisphere
than right.
2) May suspect temporal
lobes due to memory issues,
but rule out on basis of intact
long-term explicit memory.
3) General conditions: Broca's
aphasia (loss of expressive
speech), and Abulia (loss of
motivation-based behavior).

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P AGE 47

A DOLESCENT W OES : T HE R OMANTICIZATION OF M ENTAL I LLNESSES

By: Donia Desouki
I am thrilled to see that the stigma attached to mental
disorders has shifted tremendously. If this was 300 or
more years ago, we would have had a bunch of priests
walking around performing exorcisms on a mentally ill
people to remove the demons and evil spirits that
were crippling their souls. Clearly, times have changed.
We now have more rational and empirical etiologies to
guide us through the dark world of mental illnesses. Although perceptions have changed as to what causes mental
disorders and how they are treated, I am saddened to see
that todays youth, primarily teenage girls, have an infatuation with pain and despair. This in turn romanticizes
the struggles associated with harboring a mental disorder.
It almost seems as if they are stuck in this pit of excessive
rumination because it makes one appear deep and
artistic. I respect the fact that people are opening up
about their psychological struggles; however there is a
fine line between falsely diagnosing yourself with depression and bipolar disorder because of something you saw
on a Tumblr meme, versus actually being depressed and
bipolar.
Upon much thinking, I have come to believe that this
perpetuation of pain and depression as being some sort of
esoteric enigma has made
many teenage girls actually
want to have a mental disorder
without even realizing it.
When a person first becomes
depressed, they are likely to
be shown more attention. The
point a teenage girl might miss
is that as time progresses, people are going to start avoiding
them like the plague because
theyre just too sad to be
around. Its scenarios like the
one I just mentioned that can
actually cause a teenage girl
who is still developing cognitively to develop a mood or

anxiety disorder because of the destructive priming that

takes place on many facets of social media. In recent
years, Tumblr.com has evolved into a safe haven for
teenagers. It allows its users to blog graphics that detail
the inner workings of their creative and developing
minds. There are poems, pictures, videos, and memes
that illustrate the pain, the beauty, and the madness that
encompasses almost every dimension of what it is to be
human. The problem is, it encourages every aspect of
behavior that is downright self-destructive, catastrophic,
and just simply detrimental to someone already suffering
from the normal pains of adolescence. All it seems to do
is exacerbate an already fragile mind, setting the stage
for what could possibly turn into a metaphorical death
sentence if one does not take precautionary measures.
I would be making faulty assumptions if I said that these
teenagers arent suffering from what could be depression or bipolar because they might be. Yet the very thing
that I have a problem with is how they confine themselves to the internet and dwell in their sadness instead
of actually seeking out help for their issues. At the same
time, most humans do that. We can be too proud as
human beings; we would rather keep our mouths shut,
or complain and not do anything
about it believing that we have
enough control to change our circumstances when in reality, we
sometimes dont. It's okay to admit
that we dont have as much control
as we would like to believe. Sometimes we need that extra push. We
need someone to challenge our
thoughts and faulty belief systems to
guide us into the light. My therapist
says that the only way you can learn
about yourself is through other people, and it's absolutely true. Contrary to popular belief, going to a therapist doesnt mean youre "crazy", it
just means you need some help in

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P AGE 48

overcoming internal issues, and trust me, we all have

them.

ble trying to conceal who we truly are; not even realizing that we lose ourselves in the process.

As someone who has suffered through the terrors of various mental disorders for the better half of her life, I personally wouldnt wish it on anyone. When I was about 16 I
began to rapidly cycle from bouts of mania to spells of depression and I can't even begin to describe to you how sane
I actually believed I was. Being manic is dichotomous at its
best; it's one of the greatest feelings you will ever experience because nothing phases you. On the other hand,
youre not emotionally prepared to deal with the aftermath of what you have done when you were manic. The
true realities of the erratic and self-destructive behaviors
that come with being bipolar and having depression are
rarely glamorized, yet this notion of them being artistic is.
There is nothing artistic about sexual promiscuity, addiction, and suicide. There is absolutely nothing artistic about
being grandiose, delusional and paranoid. Of course it can
create great art, but the behavior itself is just all around
scary. I dont understand how far we have declined into a
state of decadence that some of us are willing to sacrifice
our own sanity and happiness for the sake of appearing
mysterious and deep to others. We go through more trou-

They say you should never mock a pain that you have
never endured. At first glance, it really seems like thats
what I'm doing. However, I'm not mocking the pain
itself but rather, calling out the glamorization of pain
that is masked as a fashion statement. All it seems to do
is, one: create problems that weren't even there to begin
with and two: trigger and promote unhealthy thoughts
and emotions. There is no denying that these micro
communities on Tumblr allow people to feel like they're
not alone. When you suffer from a mental disorder, you
absolutely need someone to lean on. I appreciate the fact
that our culture has evolved to the point where people
can describe their pains without being judged. They
know that there is someone going through exactly the
same things as they are. What I dont appreciate is the
online portrayal of it as being something desirable and
beautiful. There is nothing beautiful about being depressed, battling addictions, and being suicidal, no matter how many pretty little graphics illustrating pain as
depth are being blogged daily. The sad part is, this unconscious brainwashing eventually reaches a point where
the damage is already done. What started out as typical
adolescent woes has turned into a full blown war in the
depths of your mind. Our society has to find the right
balance between promoting mental health disorders,
and actually taking the right measures to treat them. The
internet has become a toxic means of cathartic expression, trivializing the entire reality behind being mentally
ill. Developing teenage girls should be told theyre
beautiful; they should be uplifted and edified. They
should not be constantly reminded of self-hatred that
might not even be completely there to begin with. Being
a teenager already sucks as it is, and in this day in age,
social media just adds fuel to an already burning fire.

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P AGE 49

A R EVIEW OF L ARS VON T RIER S M ELANCHOLIA

By: Hind El Guizouli

What if our most pessimistic attitudes turn out to be justified?

In the art film Melancholia (2011), director Lars von
Trier takes a haunting approach to the cinematic and
metaphorical depiction of clinical depression, in all of
its stages. Additionally, the film in many ways plays to
those familiar with clinical depression as a journey
through the diagnostic criteria and associated features
of depression. While most viewers would shun the
film for being a downer or overwhelmingly depressing, others give the film its light of day and claim that
it is a stimulating character study of a depressed individual in the face of imminent destruction and inevitable death. As evident by the title, this film is most definitely not meant to be seen as having a clichd happy
ending scenario. In fact, von Trier makes an otherwise unpleasant and drastic choice to reveal the ending
of the film in the surreal opening sequence of the film.
According to von Trier, the concept of the film had
occurred to him during a personal experience of a depressive episode. In one of his sessions, von Trier was
told by his therapist that depressed individuals tend to
be much calmer than others under otherwise stressful
and catastrophic circumstances. This is due to the fact
that most depressed people already hold pessimistic
future expectations for things to become much worse.

Takes a haunting approach

to the cinematic and metaphorical depiction of clinical depression
The main heroine of the film, played impressively by Kirsten Dunst, is a newly-wed bride named
Justine who begins to suffer from a severe subtype of
depression. As this is occurring, an astronomical phenomenon seems to have taken shape in that the Earth
becomes in danger of catastrophically colliding with an

approaching rogue planet. The setting of the first half of

the film is Justines wedding. On what was supposed to
be the happiest day of her life, Justine is strangely unable to get joy from any of the planned festivities, reflecting a real symptom of depression known as anhedonia. Further into the ceremony, Justine becomes so
depleted of energy and begins to wander through the
guests in a zombie-like fashion, thereby exhibiting fatigue, another key feature in a depressive episode.
Eventually Justine becomes so exhausted that she retreats for a nap in the middle of her wedding afterparty. This is a characteristic behavior known as hypersomnia and is seen in individuals who are diagnosed
with severe depression. Justine also begins to speak,
move and even react much more slowly than expected
of a normal person, a common symptom in depression
known as psychomotor retardation. As it becomes apparent in the films second half; Justines mental attitude begins to constantly focus on negative aspects
about herself as well as everyone and everything around
her, a psychological concept known as rumination. She
also shows no change in emotion even when tragedy
strikes within her familial relatives (a form of a constricted affect) and even passively welcomes the end of
the world.

Eventually the most obvious question arises forward:

Why is Justine so depressed? Unfortunately, that question is not explicitly addressed by the film itself. However, the viewers are given hints into Justines seemingly ideal life. As she arrives severely late to her own
wedding party, Justine meets up with her cold, distant,
bitterly divorced and self-centered mother, Gaby, and
her bizarrely aloof and eccentric father, Dexter.

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At first look, both parents may seem to border on caricature, the film is savvy to portray Justines parents as
likely to be suffering from mental problems themselves,
as clinical depression has been found to be highly heritable by decades of research. Although the film does not
show us the direct cause of Justines depression, it definitely shows us the consequences. She displays profound acts of cruelty toward her doggedly devoted sister
Claire, her sisters husband John and her arrogant boss
Jack, and for this, she pays dire consequences. Claire
ultimately berates her sister for her cynical attitude. Justines husband of only of a few hours, Michael, ultimately calls it quits on their marriage, and Jack loudly fires
her in front of her guests. Few individuals with clinical
depression do things as extreme as Justine, but the notion of stress generation (the often unintentional selfselection into, or creation of, environments that unfortunately perpetuate further depression) is well supported by research.
In the second and final half of the film, Justine paradoxically grows calmer as the end grows nigh, even as the
previously stronger members of the family fall apart.
Siblings Justine and Claire swap their respective roles of

P AGE 50

Melancholic people appear to

be of a more enlightened breed
of souls.
For von Trier, who identifies with his depressed heroine, melancholic people appear to be of a more enlightened breed of souls who feel displaced and unfortunately suffer because this world is inadequate for them.
These people always have a heavy cross to bear as they
search for true values and even to experience some
transcendence. According to him, this film visually
achieves that transcendence, only at the cost of portraying the destruction of our only home in the universe. For its interested and considerate viewers, von
Trier seems to be inquiring on what if all those thoughts
of personal Armageddon that we have been told to disregard as deluded turn out to be real? What if our most
pessimistic attitudes turn out to be justified? Nevertheless, von Trier does manage to succeed in portraying a
cinematic allegory that validates the effects of having
clinical depression in that it can make its victim feel, in
some respect, as if it is truly the end of the world.
References:
The Jung Page Melancholia: A Review:http://
www.cgjungpage.org/learn/articles/film-reviews/939
-melancholia-a-review

a sick woman and a nurse. The previously stable Claire

becomes increasingly panicked and hysterical at the realization that the rouge planet is going to decimate the
Earth. Claire is pushed even further towards the edge as
her husband commits suicide after realizing that he miscalculated the supposed trajectory of the rouge planet
and that everyone on the Earth is doomed. The cosmic
catastrophe confirms the wisdom of Justines depression
and pessimism, so she helps Claire and her little nephew
Leo, meet the end together.

Reelviews
Melancholia
review:
http://
www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?
identifier=2377
The New York Times Brides Mind Is on Another Planet: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/movies/
lars-von-triers-melancholia-review.html

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P AGE 51

C RIMINAL M INDS : C OMPULSIONS

By: Ariella Nagel
The FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit received a video recording from Bradshaw College, located in Arizona.
According to the tape, recorded by a college student, a
building across from the dorm of the student was
burning from a fire. It turned out that the students
friend who resided in the burning building, Matthew
Roland, had smelled gas in their room and went towards the door. As soon as Matthew had turned the
doorknob, he caught fire along with the building.
Some of the FBI team members, Jason Gideon, Aaron
Hotch Hotchner, Dr. Spencer
Reid,
Derek
Morgan, and Elle
Greenaway, suspected that a serial arsonist had
caused the fire.
The unit tried to
figure out when
the next attack
would occur, and
why the attacker
would be setting
fires at Bradshaw
College. The
crew interviewed
different suspects
they had in mind
and conducted an investigation at the campus. Jason
Gideon was talking to a staff member in one of the
campus buildings, and looked around while the woman was talking. He felt something wasnt right. Meanwhile, a teacher at the college named Professor Wallace was in his office, when he smelled something odd.
He went to his closet, turned the light on, and a fire
erupted. As soon as the professor turns the light on,
Gideon is shown getting everyone to evacuate the
building; apparently he had known the fire was going
to happen. Gideon noticed that the fire was coming
from a professors office and tries to rescue Wallace,
but is dragged out by Derek Morgan.

Jeremy, a college student, comes to detective Dean

Turner, another one of the members of the unit, and
says that he and some other classmates knew how the
criminal started the fire in the office. Dr. Spencer Reid
and Aaron Hotch Hotchner then speak to the students, who explained that all one had to do to start a
fire was drill a hole in the side of a light bulb, fill it with
gasoline, and turn the light on. Among the students
speaking was Clara Hayes. She says, Its so simple to
make a fire - it can be found on the internet, and anything can be
used to make it.
As an aside, she
added that the
three ingredients
used to make a
Molotov cocktail
were potassium,
sulfur, and sugar. She said sugar two more
times after that.
Also, as she said
the three ingredients,
she
counted them
on her fingers.
This information
helped the unit
understand how the fire was created. As Jeremy was
leaving, Hotch asked why he wasnt in his dorm and
Jeremy replied that he had work to do. He also mentions that he has the key to the elevator so he can use
the elevator at a late hour.
As the detectives try to figure out who would cause
such horrible disasters, Reid discovers that the person
who did the crimes was not an arsonist - it was someone with OCD. Reid proves his thought by showing the
clip of the fire at Matthew Rolands house again to
Hotch and Gideon. Reid explained that before the fire
started the doorknob was turned three times. The fire
happened on the third floor of the dorm building on
March 3. Also, Professor Wallace taught on Tuesdays

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P AGE 52

(the third day of the week) at 3:00 p.m. His office number was three. Hotch realized he knew who was behind
the crimes - Clara Hayes. She said three ingredients
while counting them on her fingers and had to say sugar
three times. Also she had turned the ring on her finger
in intervals of three. Clara and the other students were
working on a project about gravitational pull, which was
a three part body-diagram problem. Now the unit now
figure out what instigated the perpetration of these
crimes.

inner parts of the brain (such as the striatum) and the

orbitofrontal cortex, he says. Hotch then concludes
that Gideon wouldnt be able to talk sense into a person
with a physiological problem. In the next scene, Reid is
researching information about Clara and tells Hotch
that that she is a science researcher, but is failing in her
classes. Hotch responds that the science building was
sealed, and Reid notes that the third floor is under construction. Hotch then goes to check out the third floor
of the science building.

Two of the detectives, Derek Morgan and Elle Greenaway, search Claras room in the science building, and
see that she had different verses on her wall about fire.
A demon named Molech, which the Canaanites sacrificed to so that his anger would subside, was also mentioned on the wall. There was an article on the wall reporting that Clara was saved from a fire in her house,
with the number of her house being 333. The article
also mentioned that her mother said that G-d chose her
to be saved. The detectives then surmised that whenever
three threes showed up in relation to certain people,
Clara felt G-d wanted her to test them by setting fires
near them. To ensure that Clara wouldnt attack again,
Morgan alarms the buildings and makes sure they are
sealed. The scene then moves to Gideon, who was going
to start searching for Clara. Hotch warns Gideon that
although Clara may be a good person, she had been
proven to think irrationally. Reid then cites a common
hypothesis used to explain the physiological basis for
OCD. There is abnormal communication between the

Three students, including Jeremy, were on the elevator

of that building and reached the third floor, where the
elevator suddenly stopped moving. The other two stu-

Reid then cites a common

hypothesis used to explain
the physiological basis for
OCD. There is abnormal
communication between the
inner parts of the brain (such
as the striatum) and the orbitofrontal cortex, he says.
dents asked Jeremy why he didnt have the key to the
elevator and he said he had left it in the office. Jeremy tried opening the elevator doors but only got it
open slightly. The emergency button didnt work
either. Clara appeared and the students begged her to
get the key and get them out of the elevator. Clara
just reassured them that it was going to be okay, that
she was there to save them, and proceeded to throw
gasoline on them. She then chants Father, son, Holy
Ghost (in a tripled sequence). The scene shifts back
to Hotch, who recalls that Jeremy was missing, and
that he usually had the key to the elevator. Maybe the
elevator was still moving, even though the building was
shut down?, he thinks to himself. Hotch finds Clara and
the other students after Clara had just doused them in
gasoline, and tries reasoning with her. He pleads with
her and declares that she knows this is irrational, and that

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P AGE 53

she should force herself to stop. Clara says something terrible will happen if she doesnt do this.
Whats gonna happen, Clara? A flood, An earthquake?, counters Hotch. Back and forth went the
argument, with Clara saying that she had to test
these students, despite Hotchs attempts at reason.
Clara was about to set the elevator on fire, when
Gideon comes in and shoots her in the leg. He
mentions to Hotch You cant reason with her,
and the show ends.
It seems that the stressor that may have caused
Claras OCD to surface was the fact that Clara was
failing at school. She also had obsessive thoughts
that if she did not test people with fire, G-d
would be angered and something terrible would
happen to her, which may have resulted from her
own near-death experience in a fire. Her compulsions involved having things done in a sequence of
threes, since her house number was three and she
was chosen to be saved in that house. These compulsions were observed when she counted the
three ingredients used to make a Molotov cocktail,
turned her ring around her finger three times, and
said the word sugar three times. She set a fire in Matthew
Rolands room, which was on the third floor on March 3,
after turning the doorknob three times. Clara set fire to
Professor Wallaces office, who taught on Tuesdays at
three - and whose room number was three. When Clara
attempted to set fire in the elevator with Jeremy and the
two other students (three students together) she said
Father, son, and Holy Ghost - also a sequence of three.
Clara couldnt get herself to stop because of her obsessive
thoughts. Clearly, the viewers were able to see that she
was exhibiting the symptoms of OCD.

Her compulsions involved

having things done in a sequence of threes, since her
house number was three and
she was chosen to be saved in
that house.

References:
https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/
search;_ylt=A0LEV7s29zNVbgwAwHAnnIlQ;_ylc=X
1MDMTM1MTE5NTY4NwRfcgMyBGZyA3locy1tb3p
pbGxhLTAwMQRncHJpZAN5dE0ybWViTlJtSzlUalBo
VkZ3ejZBBG5fcnNsdAMwBG5fc3VnZwM0BG9yaWd
pbgNzZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3
RyAwRwcXN0cmwDBHFzdHJsAzI2BHF1ZXJ5A2Nya
W1pbmFsIG1pbmRzIGNvbXB1bHNpb25zBHRfc3Rtc
AMxNDI5NDY5MDAx?
p=criminal+minds+compulsions&fr2=sb-topsearch&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

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B RAINWASHED : A B OOK R EVIEW

By: Sara Babad
feld make their points using current court cases, lawyers statements, well and lesser known psychology and
neuroscience studies, as well as input from psychologists and philosophers. These myriad sources lend a
certain credibility and universality to the book, with
something to interest the historian, philosopher, or scientist.

When I started learning neuroscience in depth, a mentor of mine suggested I read Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience by Sally Satel
and Scott O. Lilienfeld. Written by neuroscientists,
this book is seemingly paradoxical in that it impugns
neuroscience as the panacea that many claim it to be.
Satel and Lilienfeld discuss the advances brain imaging
has made in terms of marketing, addiction, anger, aggression, and moral responsibility and the actual limits
of what this current knowledge tells us. Each essay
addresses a different aspect of neuroscience, posing
questions like: can neuromarketing predict what consumers will buy? Is the human brain wired to be an
addict? Is anger something people can control or is the
brain programmed to respond without any conscious
input? Can neuronal firing explain behavior? Are people automatons with no free will?
As the title suggests, the authors systematically disprove the idea that having pretty pictures of someones
brain explains the totality of ones actions and
thoughts. They do so systematically and clearly, first
presenting enough background to understand the issue
at hand and then their argument as to how neuroimaging fits into the puzzle. Well written and sometimes
funny, the book succeeds in engaging the reader without providing too much information. Satel and Lilien-

However, Brainwashed isnt a light read. While the

authors do provide enough background to understand
the arguments they present, if the reader doesnt have a
cursory knowledge of the subject at hand, he is unlikely
to fully grasp the rest of the essay. Take, for example,
the light background on the basic neuroscience of the
brain or the philosophical discussion of free will. Having taken both philosophy and neuroscience courses, I
was familiar with the basic tenets the authors laid down,
but I doubt someone without this knowledge would
have understood the essays in their entirety. Thats not
to say its not worth reading. The arguments are clear
enough so long as the reader is ok not understanding all
of the finer points and some of the bigger picture.
What makes the book unsettling is that it doesnt, in
essence, say anything definitive. It argues that neuroscience doesnt tell us all that much. The end. The reader
doesnt walk away with a strong idea of what is so much
as an idea of what isnt. Nonetheless, the educated consumer should have a healthy interest in what marketers
can and cannot discern about their brains and whether
the courts have a right to absolve people of guilt. Satel
and Lilienfeld dont discount neuroscience as an advancing field. Rather, they explore the limits of what
neuroscience can actually say with certainty and what
makes people human.

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C OUNTERTRANSFERENCE : P SYCHOTHERAPY F LASH F ICTION

By: Batya Weinstein
He glued her together for the past two years. Some of
the jagged edges of her brokenness somehow managed
to be put back into place, perhaps a bit unevenly. But
it was just yesterday that everything he put together
came undone. It was as if the glue was an illusionthe
glue was him.
We are not talking about it!
His usually kind brown eyes were now leveled at her
in a cold stare and his thin lips that somehow always
managed to form a hidden smile was set in a straight
line. He wasn't willing to help her battle her cognitive
distortions. Perhaps her deepest fears somehow mirrored his; or, maybe her cognitive distortion wasn't a
distortion but a cold hard reality that he couldn't help
her face.
Is a therapist allowed to do that; to refuse to talk
about a subject?
He nodded.
Two years of therapy had come to this? What would
Freud call resistance on the part of the therapist? A
countertransferential resistance?is there such a
word, a term, a construct?
Lets talk about termination. How many more sessions do you think you will need

Her healing had come undone. She had regressed and

her scars were freshly wounded. His frustration and
anger traced her scars evenly and the wound of the now
blended with the wounds of the then until they were
indistinguishable.
********************************************
*******************************************
Today, she is him, but this time sitting in her armchair
opposite the couch; listening to someone she used to
be: her patient.
Soon, I will no longer have to worry
Why is that?
Ill disappear
What do you mean by that?

She glared, this will be my last one.

I am going to kill myself.

They argued a bit more.

Like her former therapist, anger and frustration surged

through her veins; and, for the first time she understood what he might have felt. Annoyance masked concern and fear; distance was safer.

She was stunned. This was not how therapists were

supposed to act, she thought. She should know, her
textbooks spouted all sorts of technical jargon, of
code, of the therapeutic process.
She stormed out of his office.
But when she got home, her defenses weakened and
the anger that she had used as a shield was lowered,
revealing the slow tearing of the self that had her shaking internally. She brought her knees to her chest and
wrapped her arms around them and rocked back and
forth, rhythmically. She tried to cry but nothing came
out.

While she tended to her patients wounds, her own

scars began to heal. This time, though, it was bits of
insight and the deconstruction of a fractured termination that formed the stitches which put her broken pieces back together, evenly.

While she tended to her

patients wounds, her own scars
began to heal.

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P HOTO C REDITS
Cover

https://
ichemepresident.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/
memory-loss.jpg

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/175/9/4/
on_the_sea_of_broken_dreams_by_kameolynnd6aizl1.jpg

http://imgkid.com/psychology-symbol-png.shtml

1. The Effects of Food Presentation On Food Perception

https://s-media-cacheak0.pinimg.com/236x/87/9f/21/879f215fe2a116
6f54c9250f709c7695.jpg

https://img1.etsystatic.com/003/0/6178524/
il_570xN.379474329_snec.jpg

https://amazingpict.com/wp-content/
uploads/2014/01/Picture-of-Ice-Cream-In-aBowl.jpg

2. Artificial Intelligence and its Implications for Medicine

5. The Psychology of Music

https://cml.music.utexas.edu/research-programs-inthe-center/music-teaching-and-learning/

http://www.peanutsdaily.com/music-and-iq-study-iqdepends-on-the-music/

6. Mirror Neuron Activity and Autism Spectrum Disorder

https://
scienceofsingularity.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/
artificial_intelligence.jpg

http://readandgetrich.com/blog/wp -content/
uploads/2013/11/Thoughts-on-Mirror-Neurons-Whywe-feel-Empathy-1024x576.jpg

https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?
id=JN.pF5943NsBjM5d3Q%
2bNQ7KiQ&pid=15.1&P=0

http://www.beyondblackwhite.com/wp-content/
uploads/2013/04/WAAD-4.png

3. Freudian Slips Explained

https://sociallyuncensored.com/entry/6898freudian-slip/

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/
Bilingualism%20Models%20and%20Memory.htm

4. The Interplay Between Memory and Dreams: An

Analysis

http://www.lovethispic.com/
uploaded_images/21679-Dream-CatcherSunset.jpg

http://
onefrenchieintheus.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/
black-blackandwhite-fun-grey-memories-favimco.jpg

7. Discern: Can a Computer Have Schizophrenia

https://
computingforpsychologists.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/000012225873.jpg

(diagram): Andreasen et al.

(diagram): Hoffman et al., 2011

http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/
cm/15/05/54cac2fb22112_-_schiz-computer-0511mdn.jpg

http://g4.psychcentral.com/lib/wp-content/
uploads/2014/02/schizophrenia-bigst.jpg

8. Shame Memories as a Predictor of Psychopathology

http://www.collectiveinquiry.com/perspectives-on-

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P HOTO C REDITS
shame-part-i/

http://www.chicagonow.com/moms-who-drinkand-swear/files/2013/10/stop-the-stigma-ofmental-illness-e1381250784828.png

https://
ismmentalillness.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/
bipolarartwork_web.jpg

http://samingersoll.com/shame/

9. Nicotine Addiction & Quitting

https://quitsmokingcommunity.org/how-to-quitsmoking/nicotine-addiction/

http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-content/
uploads/2013/12/quit-smoking.jpg

14. A Review of Lars von Triers Melancholia

https://reelclub.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/ona-collision-course-with-depression-unpacking-vontriers-melancholia/

http://imgkid.com/melancholia-moviewallpaper.shtml

10. The Fundamental Attribution Error: Ratings of

Knowledgeability Based on Participation in Quiz Game

http://aldywaldy.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/
stack-of-books.jpg

http://s2.hubimg.com/u/7469075_f260.jpg

http://www.saintpetersblog.com/wp-content/
uploads/2015/02/judgepic13.jpg

11. Differences in Gender Recall Using a List of Numbers

and Words

http://myhatsma.com/wp-content/
uploads/2014/11/gender_test_1.jpg

http://cdn.dickblick.com/items/632/09/63209group3ww-l.jpg

SPSS graph Ariella Nagel

https://sbouaphan.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/
memory_misconception_survey.jpg

12. Case Study

15. Criminal Minds: Compulsions

http://deportesmx.terra.com.mx/shared/series/
img/downloads/
wallpaper_criminalminds_1024x768.jpg

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/
quiz/791000/791618_1329101612695_500_283.j
pg

http://images.movieplayer.it/
images/2008/05/05/jennifer-hall-nel-ruolo-diclara-una-piromane-affetta-da-manie-ossessivocompulsive-nell-episodio-compulsion-della-seriecriminal-minds-59570.jpg

16. Brainwashed: A Book Review

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/
I/71WzQqjs-EL.jpg
http://www.uleth.ca/artsci/sites/artsci/files/
images/Photoxpress_3489827.jpg

http://www.intropsych.com/
ch02_human_nervous_system/02brainlobes.gif

http://www.accuratescenesolutions.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/10/cartoon-car-crash-1.jpg

17. Countertransference

13. Adolescent Woes: The Romanticization of Mental Illnesses

http://www.tricitypsychology.com/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2008/06/patient-therapist300x265.jpg