Jul 29, 2017 12:52 AM
Psychopaths have feelings: can they learn how to use them?
https://aeon.co/ideas/psychopaths-have-f...o-use-them
EXCERPT: [...] There is now substantial evidence that psychopaths can in fact experience emotions – but only under the right circumstances. And they can display normal emotional responses – when the emotion is part of their goal, or when they are invited to respond to perceptually simple basic shapes or single objects. Yet their reactions to the same stimuli are deficient when their attention is focused on an alternative goal or to a complex situation. This means that, while psychopaths are capable of experiencing and displaying emotions in some situations, what confounds them is complexity.
[...] Psychopaths can use information that’s directly relevant to their goals. For instance, psychopaths are excellent at regulating behaviour and using emotions to con someone, as when a participant in our prison study stated that he feigned emotions of love and caring to beguile and manipulate his romantic partners into providing free housing, money and sex. But when information is beyond their immediate focus of attention, psychopaths are less able to use it adaptively to function, such as when they quit a job in the absence of another one, despite needing employment for probation, or when they seek publicity for a crime while wanted by police, despite the obvious consequence of this action.
[...] Some of our recent work has focused on how to change the mind of a psychopath....
MORE: https://aeon.co/ideas/psychopaths-have-f...o-use-them
How real magic happens when the brain sees hidden things
https://aeon.co/essays/how-real-magic-ha...den-things
EXCERPT: [...] Inattentional blindness is just one example of a more general feature of our visual experience known to cognitive scientists as ‘the grand illusion’. When we look at the world around us, almost everything in our visual field appears clear, vivid and rich in detail but, in experiments, our objective ability to detect change is more suggestive of an observer with a bag on his head, with just a small hole through which to see anything. This observation hole can be moved around by the observer himself or it can be manipulated automatically when interesting events occur in the environment. But at any given moment, the observer sees the world only through a small hole in a bag. The essence of the grand illusion is that you have the impression of a clear view, while in reality you are limited by what you can see through the little hole in the bag over your head.
The grand illusion, rather than the misdirection of attention by itself, is the crucial factor that enables the magician to create the experience of magic. A friend might misdirect your attention by claiming that Bob Dylan just entered the room, and grab your last french fry while you are looking for His Bobness. But when you turn back to your empty plate, you will at best feel slightly amused. Magic is the illusion of impossibility, and there is nothing impossible about not noticing something that you are not looking at. The real magic occurs when you don’t notice something that you are positive that you would have noticed if it really happened. Thus, it is not the inattentional blindness by itself that creates the magic, but rather your blindness to your inattentional blindness. Magic requires boldness. The magician must trust not only his or her own skill, but also in the spectators’ blindness to their own blindness....
MORE: https://aeon.co/essays/how-real-magic-ha...den-things
https://aeon.co/ideas/psychopaths-have-f...o-use-them
EXCERPT: [...] There is now substantial evidence that psychopaths can in fact experience emotions – but only under the right circumstances. And they can display normal emotional responses – when the emotion is part of their goal, or when they are invited to respond to perceptually simple basic shapes or single objects. Yet their reactions to the same stimuli are deficient when their attention is focused on an alternative goal or to a complex situation. This means that, while psychopaths are capable of experiencing and displaying emotions in some situations, what confounds them is complexity.
[...] Psychopaths can use information that’s directly relevant to their goals. For instance, psychopaths are excellent at regulating behaviour and using emotions to con someone, as when a participant in our prison study stated that he feigned emotions of love and caring to beguile and manipulate his romantic partners into providing free housing, money and sex. But when information is beyond their immediate focus of attention, psychopaths are less able to use it adaptively to function, such as when they quit a job in the absence of another one, despite needing employment for probation, or when they seek publicity for a crime while wanted by police, despite the obvious consequence of this action.
[...] Some of our recent work has focused on how to change the mind of a psychopath....
MORE: https://aeon.co/ideas/psychopaths-have-f...o-use-them
How real magic happens when the brain sees hidden things
https://aeon.co/essays/how-real-magic-ha...den-things
EXCERPT: [...] Inattentional blindness is just one example of a more general feature of our visual experience known to cognitive scientists as ‘the grand illusion’. When we look at the world around us, almost everything in our visual field appears clear, vivid and rich in detail but, in experiments, our objective ability to detect change is more suggestive of an observer with a bag on his head, with just a small hole through which to see anything. This observation hole can be moved around by the observer himself or it can be manipulated automatically when interesting events occur in the environment. But at any given moment, the observer sees the world only through a small hole in a bag. The essence of the grand illusion is that you have the impression of a clear view, while in reality you are limited by what you can see through the little hole in the bag over your head.
The grand illusion, rather than the misdirection of attention by itself, is the crucial factor that enables the magician to create the experience of magic. A friend might misdirect your attention by claiming that Bob Dylan just entered the room, and grab your last french fry while you are looking for His Bobness. But when you turn back to your empty plate, you will at best feel slightly amused. Magic is the illusion of impossibility, and there is nothing impossible about not noticing something that you are not looking at. The real magic occurs when you don’t notice something that you are positive that you would have noticed if it really happened. Thus, it is not the inattentional blindness by itself that creates the magic, but rather your blindness to your inattentional blindness. Magic requires boldness. The magician must trust not only his or her own skill, but also in the spectators’ blindness to their own blindness....
MORE: https://aeon.co/essays/how-real-magic-ha...den-things