Classic A02 point gets the humorous podcast treatment here at the ever entertaining Psychfiles site.
Posts archived in Psychology AS
“IT IS probably the most famous greeting in the universe.
But the simple Vulcan salute left makers of the new Star Trek film with a galactic-sized headache – because Mr Spock just couldn’t do it.
After much head-scratching, experts on the $150 million blockbuster – which boasts stunning high-tech effects – hit upon a low-tech but logical solution – gluing actor Zachary Quinto’s fingers together, The Mail on Sunday newspaper in the UK reports.
Quinto, 31, admitted he found it impossible to form his fingers into the distinctive V-shaped gesture, saying: “It’s much harder than it looks. Seriously.”
One on-set insider said: “Zach could do the salute some of the time but only after he’d positioned his fingers the right way off-camera.
“In some scenes he has to do the salute while speaking his lines so they ended up using skin-protective superglue, like they use in hospitals, to stick his fingers together.”
William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in the long-running TV show and the first seven Star Trek films, was also unable to do the salute, so he used fishing line to tie his fingers together”. (Link)
So what’s going on there then? If the first Spock had Vulcan Hand Signal Ability (hereafter referred to a ‘VHSA’) why not the new guy?
Is it a genetic thing like tongue rolling? You’ve got the gene or you haven’t? Or is it a learnt thing like juggling or tying shoelaces? Once you’ve got the enactive ‘muscle memory’ in place you don’t have to think about VHSA anymore? Surely if it was a practice thing then the new Spock would beat himself up trying to master this skill…. I’m sure Christian Bale would put the effort in if he found himself in such a position.
My own limited research during lunch today indicates that it does get easier with practice, but you still have to think about the physical position of your fingers quite a lot. It also seems to help if you position your fingers whilst your arms are lowered and then raise them, but I’m not sure it looks as cool. So I don’t know… maybe I’ve just got the VHSA gene. But if I have, what possible evolutionary advantage could that have? I’m pretty certain that the ability to mimic characters from Star Trek is unlikely to enhance one’s reproductive potential……
(Couldn’t quite work out where this fitted in on the syllabus, but obviously had to get it in somewhere so, if you click on the ‘see rest of post’ link below, it’ll take you to the “VHSA Research Methods Worksheet”).
I love the word ‘anthropomorphosis’…. it sounds like something that should happen to you in a fifties alien invasion B-Movie…. but really, of course, it means to treat something non-human as if it were human – A major danger for psychologists who pursue animal research. We must take care when we extrapolate research findings from animals to humans (‘extrapolate‘ – another lovely term) to ensure that we recognise differences between species.
But then again, let’s take flies for example, as one researcher points out:
“Flies do most things that humans do—they eat, they sleep, they fight, they mate, they forage for food”
Furthermore, as this article seems to indicate, flies can’t sleep if they drink too much coffee and find the whole business of trying to attract members of the opposite sex exhausting.
So maybe they’re not so different after all….
Just found this excellent set of ‘Mind Bites’ – funky little poster style summaries of psychological research. Excellent I think for lessons on hypothesis formulation and testing.
There’s also a brilliant photo archive here, containing hundreds of images of old psychological research equipment. (Including Milgram’s fake shock machine). I love all this stuff…. maybe it’s a bloke thing, but I love the aesthetics of it… all that wonderful old brass gadgetry and paraphenalia, all a bit Heath Robinson or old skool Doctor Who… Certainly useful in illustrating the empirical, laboratory-based aspects of psychology.
I’ve just found an excellent article for one of those ‘Introduction to Psychology’ induction style activities. It concerns Jill Price, a woman who appears to have exceptionally accurate recall for dates and events. As the author explains:
“I first saw Price last May in a YouTube clip of her on 20/20. Diane Sawyer asks Price, an avid television viewer, to identify certain significant dates in broadcast history. When did CBS air the “Who shot JR?” episode of Dallas? When was All in the Family‘s baby episode shown? And so on. Price nails every question. She not only gives the date for the final episode of MASH but describes the weather that day”.
As is so often the case with such case studies, the truth behind the simple headline is at once more complex and more mundane than it initially appears.
I think that the article is a good one for use with classes because it starts off with consideration of cognitive and biological factors, veers into psychopathology and ends up with conclusions that are more psychodynamic in tone. On the way it touches upon a range of research methodologies and ethical issues – all in an accessible tone well suited to an introductory lesson.
No card from your loved one ?
Feeling rejected this Valentine’s Day?
Maybe it’s you….. maybe you’re just too clingy….. check out your style with the LOVE QUIZ
(Mind you, you can’t take too much notice of these things – there’s always a statistician trying to spoil things isn’t there?)
Or maybe it isn’t you…. maybe it’s them. But don’t be too hard on your loved one if they’ve forgotten you. It’s not their fault they’re an affectionless psychopath.
… I blame the parents….
I got sent details of a lovely new website a while back. It has test questions, resources, filmclips, a shrine to Sigmund Freud… what more could you want?
Less pleasingly, it carries on the preoccupation with cats that has so bedevilled psychology of late. I appreciate the marketing genius of designating a textbook ‘The Cat Book’ - it is, after all, the first word anyone learns to spell, so brand recognition is pretty much guaranteed, but I am, it must be said, generally troubled by catowners. Such folk are only encouraged by the internet. I saw one post something online the other day along the lines of: ‘Love your cat, they only live to love’…… tell that to your local songbird population.
I think it’s important to point out to folk that YOUR CAT DOES NOT LOVE YOU. Indeed, it’s possible to establish online that your cat hates you. Go and have a look. You may question the validity of this questionnaire as a research tool (and if you’ve finished unit one, you should be rather good at this), but let’s face it, is it any easier to establish if a baby loves you?
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(pic: A cat blunders into the Ames Room)