Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: neilep on 20/05/2005 20:00:06
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I can see quite clearly, with peripheral vision there in the boundary, I can taste a concoction of ingredients but still pick out individual flavours, I can do the same with aromas, I think I can handle touch quite well, and in a noisy room if you concentrate you can pick out an individual voice amongst a cacophony of others....so why is it very difficult to digest and discern two voices at the same time ?...If I try very hard I might just be able to do it....
Our brain can multi-task a whole myriad of senses and perform actions all at the same time, so why not hearing speech too ?...I realise you would not be able to respond to two people at the same time but perhaps, if we had two mouths we might eh ?
Please don't answer all at once [:)]
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Finstagiber.net%2Fsmiliesdotcom%2Fcontrib%2Ficw%2F003.gif&hash=f326f525e3f6c60d4ea3ecbb24d1df2a)Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Finstagiber.net%2Fsmiliesdotcom%2Fcontrib%2Ficw%2F003.gif&hash=f326f525e3f6c60d4ea3ecbb24d1df2a)
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No, they actually performed experiments with students, who learned in 6 weeks or so to both take and give highspeed dictation/notations of teaching material at the same time. So yapping away from a texbook while writing down what the other guy is yapping and vice versa.
Takes some getting used to, including some headache etc. but basically everybody can do it, and is supposed to be pretty awesome to watch in action. The ability doesn't wear off easily, either. I'll see if I can find the name of the psychologist who came up with it...
The living are the dead on holiday. -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)
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Also some people can do some tasks together whilst others can't, it depends how you "think". If I asked you to guess counting a minute and read, could you do that? Or how about counting a minute and also talk to someone? Or count a minute and do something active like balancing something on the end of your finger. All of these tasks interfere with different people, some people imagine a clock counting the seconds so its hard for them to read at the same time because they need to "see" the clock at the same time, others count the seconds silently in there head so talking messes that up, other people do some wacky physical imaginary thing like counting it off on your fingers, so using your hands messes that up. Just try it with your friends; it's quite scary how different everyone is when doing this. Heh I just did an exam on this sort of stuff Human Computer Interaction, its all to do with three sensory "channels" in you brain, iconic (visual) haptic (touch/physical) and echoic (aural/audio). You only have a limited short term memory to deal with everything and bits of it are assigned to certain ways of thinking. So if you can combine all three in some strange way you could at most do three complicated cognitive tasks at once, doing more gets harder and harder and will effect the quality of what you are doing. [:D] Wow computer science is all encompassing…
Taste and smell BTW work a bit differently (apparently) you don’t have bits of your memory taking them up because smells are blended together and you take it in like one smell, so the taste of strawberries AND chocolate, is just that! But later on your mind splits it up so there is far less "data" to deal with. So if you could make some smelly thinking board you could assign ideas to combine smells and train yourself to quickly do things with smells... in theory without interfering with anything else. Thinking about it you dont "recall" smell and taste exactly like you do everything else, you dont taste it again...??? When I remember a sound I sort of hear it again or remembering a scene I see it again, but smell I mostly remember the thing that I ate/smelt and vice versa...? In fact for me smell normally triggers memories of images or sounds rather than anything else. Like coming home and "smelling home" just reminds me of when I was a little kid. I don't think wow thats the smell of home...
wOw the world spins?
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quote:
Originally posted by chimera
I'll see if I can find the name of the psychologist who came up with it...
David Meyer, Norbou Buchler, Paul Burgess. Also Cocchini, G., Logie R. H., Della Sala, S., MacPherson, S. E., & Baddeley, A. D. (2002). Concurrent performance of two memory tasks: evidence for domain-specific working memory system. Memory & Cognition, 30, 1086-1095
It wasn't me - a big boy did it & ran away
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quote:
Originally posted by DoctorBeaver
quote:
Originally posted by chimera
I'll see if I can find the name of the psychologist who came up with it...
David Meyer, Norbou Buchler, Paul Burgess. Also Cocchini, G., Logie R. H., Della Sala, S., MacPherson, S. E., & Baddeley, A. D. (2002). Concurrent performance of two memory tasks: evidence for domain-specific working memory system. Memory & Cognition, 30, 1086-1095
It wasn't me - a big boy did it & ran away
Thx. Saves me a pile of books to rummage through. [:D]
The living are the dead on holiday. -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)
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Rob - there are a lot of others but to be honest I can't be arsed to list them all
It wasn't me - a big boy did it & ran away
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Oh go on !!!......I love lists !!
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Finstagiber.net%2Fsmiliesdotcom%2Fcontrib%2Ficw%2F003.gif&hash=f326f525e3f6c60d4ea3ecbb24d1df2a)Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Finstagiber.net%2Fsmiliesdotcom%2Fcontrib%2Ficw%2F003.gif&hash=f326f525e3f6c60d4ea3ecbb24d1df2a)
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quote:
Originally posted by DoctorBeaver
Rob - there are a lot of others but to be honest I can't be arsed to list them all
No need, I think. AI and related brainfood has had my interest for over a few years now, but still have quite a few to chew my way through so I'll stick to those.
Interesting phenomenon, tho. I take it everyone is familiar with the old kid trick of 'rubbing' your chest with one hand while 'beating' it with the other? I think everybody shared the same sense of strange wonder first time you get that to work... [:)]
The living are the dead on holiday. -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)
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Try standing on 1 leg & moving your foot in a clockwise (from your own perspective) circle while drawing a figure 6 in the air. Check what happens to your foot
It wasn't me - a big boy did it & ran away
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Nice one. Works easier if you start with your eyes closed, then slowly open them.
The living are the dead on holiday. -- Maurice de Maeterlinck (1862-1949)
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well as far as brain is concerned it gets stronger and stronger in a way you are using it. so if you think you are able to do it using a very intense concentration practice it for an hour daily and you will be able to discriminate it quite oftenly a few days after.
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quote:
Originally posted by Ultima
[...]"In fact for me smell normally triggers memories of images or sounds rather than anything else. Like coming home and "smelling home" just reminds me of when I was a little kid."
This is just an interesting writing about olfaction and memory: http://www.macalester.edu/~psych/whathap/UBNRP/Smell/memory.html.
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Hey thanks for the link, interesting stuff.
wOw the world spins?