The Nonverbal Mediation of Self-fulfilling Prophecies in Interracial Interaction
The concern and issue of this article is stated in the title and
the abstract--Self-fulfilling prophecy. It's that positive or negative
thoughts will lead to positive or negative behaviors; these behaviors
will trigger behavior in others. Others will react, which will
reinforce the initial subject to continue to act in that negative or
positive way. In the end, the subject reaps the exact rewards or
punishments that he or she expects. In the paper, the researchers call
it a "false definition," however, I believe that it can be positive
behaviors as well. If someone acts and thinks and behaves in a
positive way, others may behave accordingly, reinforcing the positive
behavior.
Self-Fulfilling prophecy is similar to demand characteristics.
Researchers may subconsciously shape subject behavior through words
and reactions--eliciting the hoped-for results. If researchers know or
expect certain behaviors, or to look for behaviors in their test
subjects, they may subconsciously positively reward or punish the
behaviors they do or don't want. Double-blind studies, where research
administrators don't know which variable is being studied, are useful
to combat demand characteristics. Self-fulfilling prophecy takes it
one step further--instead of just acting accordingly, the subject
thinks accordingly. When the subject thinks a certain way, he or she
acts a certain way. The subjects subconsciously pick up on these cues.
In the end, the test results may be skewed and inaccurate.
Studying self-fulfilling prophecy is important because the concept
of self-esteem is so important. Those with higher self-esteem perform
better in work, school, and in relationships. They're more productive
members of society. It behooves a society to enable its citizens to
work, act, and produce at the best of their ability. Low self-esteem
can lead to depression, addiction, unemployment, incarceration, and
divorce. A worker who is employed and happy contributes to the
greater societal good. Studying something as basic as human resources
and interviewing techniques is fundamental in both western and eastern
societies.
This study was performed in 1974--almost 40 years ago and only 10
years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. Those who
participated (college and high school students) were a little young to
remember how it had been before the passage, but their parents
remembered. The students may have heard or experienced deep prejudice
in their homes and schools. Even though laws may change overnight, it
takes a little longer for culture to catch up. It takes three
generations for a society to shed a trauma; the first generation lives
through the crisis (i.e. the great depression), the second generation
is reared by the first who lived through it, but the third generation
is not stymied by the experience.
The researcher writes on page 111, "It has been demonstrated time and
again that white Americans have generalized negative evaluations
(e.g., stereotypes) of black Americans." Times have changed since this
article was written; however, contemporary researchers would probably
garner similar results using similar populations. There are different
groups all over the country (and the world) who are in conflict with
each other. There is still rampant sexism, racism and homophobia.
Disabled and overweight people are regularly treated with disrespect.
For example, we could probably recreate these findings here in America
using overweight people, or people with visible deformities. We could
replicate these findings in England possibly using Irish applicants or
in India with its rigid caste system.
The researchers claim that others found similar results using
different populations. Kleck (page 110) found that "normal
interactants were found to terminate interviews sooner...with a
handicapped person...and employ greater interaction distances with an
epileptic stranger (Kleck et al., 1968)." Instead of prejudice, it
could be anxiety which causes people to act inappropriately.
Interviewers may have had many negative stereotypes built up around
minorities, but didn't have as many around disabled. Therefore, the
anxiety caused by an unknown situation and unknown proper etiquette
could have caused them to terminate the interview early--not racism.
This study was done with privileged, male, white, ivy-league students.
It's probable that researchers would garner a different result with
this study in the 21st century due to better education and increased
sensitivity in schools to race. I would be curious to see how "white
guilt" could play a part. White guilt, or the over compensating by the
dominant class for perceived potential racism, could even out the
interview interactions and perhaps even skew the results in the
opposite direction. The white interviewers would spend more time with
the black students in the first interview.
It would be interesting to see if these results hold true with women
interviewers; women are more stereotypically in tune with their own
and the behavior of others. Women are shaped to be more sensitive to
social cues and female subjects/interviewees would definitely read
more into interviewer behavior--thereby perhaps showing more varied or
stronger results.
In the first study, the independent variable is race...yet even within
race there are shades of grey. There are African Americans who were
born in the south and who were born in the north; there are Africans
who are immigrants to this country. All could be initially assessed
and therefore treated differently by the research subjects.
12/09/2012
Sitting here at 4:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon; it's raining and getting dark outside.
Had a great weekend! Yesterday, I headed out into the world at about 11:00 am. Walked down 145th to the ACBD train station (picked up a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich at 145th and Amsterdam?). I love my neighborhood. Was at Harlem 125th Metro North within 45 minutes. Well within the amount of time. Read my counseling textbook all the way to Brewster--the chapter on Existential Psychology.
Lr picked me up at the Station and we headed to Niantic, CT, which is near the ocean. It was about a two-hour drive but I'd made some xmas cds for us to listen to. Those went over well. We stopped at an outdoor bookstore called the Book Barn that had free coffee and donuts. I only bought one book (I was overwhelmed) but she bought several books.
Then, we went to her friends house. It was like Martha Stewart. Very homey but lovely presentation. We stuffed ourselves on the cooking; the Paula Dean corn pudding was my favorite with many of the pastries close seconds. Everything was homemade so I felt no guilt. What a treat! When do I get home cooking like that?
Lr was smoking cigarettes outside (she's a bad girl). Smoking cigarettes with Lr outside has always been one of life's pleasures so I had a camel light--with the filter ripped in half like I used to. I can't remember the last time I had a cigarette. Must have been last year when I bought that pack during grad school and smoked them out my window. This was more pleasurable. It gave me quite a kick and buzz. I had to lean up against the house because there was no where to sit. It was cold and rainy out.
I spent the night on the couch and this morning she made scrambled eggs with cheddar bacon muffins. What a delicious breakfast. I'm still not all that hungry. I kind of wanted to hit the road, though. She drove me home and they continued on to the East Village to visit the Puerto Rican trading company. I used to buy beans from there YEARS ago when I lived on Allen Street. I could get a pound of coffee for about $4.99 or $5. Those days are long gone. So it goes.
I showered and logged into the computer. I'm still not all that hungry. I need to go to the grocery store and buy lunch meat for my lunch tomorrow. I thought I maybe should cook or something, but I'm so lazy and may just do Taco Bell for dinner. I have stuff around here so could also just do vegetables and rice with beans. I don't want to prepare a thing.
I don't like the cards I bought this past year. So it goes.
Had a great weekend! Yesterday, I headed out into the world at about 11:00 am. Walked down 145th to the ACBD train station (picked up a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich at 145th and Amsterdam?). I love my neighborhood. Was at Harlem 125th Metro North within 45 minutes. Well within the amount of time. Read my counseling textbook all the way to Brewster--the chapter on Existential Psychology.
Lr picked me up at the Station and we headed to Niantic, CT, which is near the ocean. It was about a two-hour drive but I'd made some xmas cds for us to listen to. Those went over well. We stopped at an outdoor bookstore called the Book Barn that had free coffee and donuts. I only bought one book (I was overwhelmed) but she bought several books.
Then, we went to her friends house. It was like Martha Stewart. Very homey but lovely presentation. We stuffed ourselves on the cooking; the Paula Dean corn pudding was my favorite with many of the pastries close seconds. Everything was homemade so I felt no guilt. What a treat! When do I get home cooking like that?
Lr was smoking cigarettes outside (she's a bad girl). Smoking cigarettes with Lr outside has always been one of life's pleasures so I had a camel light--with the filter ripped in half like I used to. I can't remember the last time I had a cigarette. Must have been last year when I bought that pack during grad school and smoked them out my window. This was more pleasurable. It gave me quite a kick and buzz. I had to lean up against the house because there was no where to sit. It was cold and rainy out.
I spent the night on the couch and this morning she made scrambled eggs with cheddar bacon muffins. What a delicious breakfast. I'm still not all that hungry. I kind of wanted to hit the road, though. She drove me home and they continued on to the East Village to visit the Puerto Rican trading company. I used to buy beans from there YEARS ago when I lived on Allen Street. I could get a pound of coffee for about $4.99 or $5. Those days are long gone. So it goes.
I showered and logged into the computer. I'm still not all that hungry. I need to go to the grocery store and buy lunch meat for my lunch tomorrow. I thought I maybe should cook or something, but I'm so lazy and may just do Taco Bell for dinner. I have stuff around here so could also just do vegetables and rice with beans. I don't want to prepare a thing.
I don't like the cards I bought this past year. So it goes.
12/08/2012
It's Saturday morning; I've gotten a lot accomplished. No running today. Who knows if that may have been contributing to the insanity the past couple years. Maybe I need to go back to running.
Yesterday, P and I were alone in the office. She asked me about Chandi foods up on 29th street--where I go for lunch and love. She said she wanted some Indian comfort food. At 2:00 pm, we put on our coats. She asked, "Should we shut the office door?" We shut--and locked--the door. We had no key. We shrugged our shoulders and went to lunch.
She's vegetarian and I ordered what she ordered. We sat and talked.
We walked back to the office and P got the key from the 11th floor and we got back to work. Boyfriend headed off to Italy yesterday. I got a couple emails from him.
Came home and read about Adler on the subway. I should have gotten up and read more of the textbook but I did not. I sent out my recommendation forms this morning and got that off my plate. What a relief. This may all be over for now--to start up the madness next fall. I'll have to put that in God's hands.
I read something that journaling is just rumination. It just reinforces the madness. I know that's true. Distraction is key.
Yesterday, P and I were alone in the office. She asked me about Chandi foods up on 29th street--where I go for lunch and love. She said she wanted some Indian comfort food. At 2:00 pm, we put on our coats. She asked, "Should we shut the office door?" We shut--and locked--the door. We had no key. We shrugged our shoulders and went to lunch.
She's vegetarian and I ordered what she ordered. We sat and talked.
We walked back to the office and P got the key from the 11th floor and we got back to work. Boyfriend headed off to Italy yesterday. I got a couple emails from him.
Came home and read about Adler on the subway. I should have gotten up and read more of the textbook but I did not. I sent out my recommendation forms this morning and got that off my plate. What a relief. This may all be over for now--to start up the madness next fall. I'll have to put that in God's hands.
I read something that journaling is just rumination. It just reinforces the madness. I know that's true. Distraction is key.
12/5/2012
Last night was the first night in four nights I spent at home. I went to bed and it was roasting but it cooled off; I guess super turned off the heat. It's quite pleasant right now with the heat off. It's warm out because it's rainy weather. I have the feeling the temperature will plummet some time during today.
Things are shaping up with me. I started the application process for the program.
Had a good and long weekend. On Friday night, I went to Jersey and we ate at the Blue Moon restaurant. We then went back to Gvnni's to watch and episode or two of The Event. I'm not that crazy about the series, but Gvnni likes it. On Saturday, we came back into the city so that he could do the training and I could run a ton of little errands.
When he got back from training, we went to the Subway for a sandwich and shared it at my little table for two. Then, we headed back into Jersey where we watched more episodes of The Event and Gvnni ended up watching all five episodes; he didn't have any episodes to watch on Sunday night. On Saturday night, we went to the Indian restaurant again. It has fantastic food, but the service is a little odd. The first time we went, we were ignored and had to beg for menus. This time, our food came with no spoons of any kind (and a lot of drippy gravies and curries).
On Sunday, we drove into the city again to attend the New York Public Library open house. We shared a Subway sandwich ahead of time, which turned out to be pointless. When we got there, the affair was heavily catered and there was too much food. We met my friend in line and she had brought her camera. She says she brings it everywhere. Gvnni had a good time; he loved the food and enjoyed looking at the building and the paintings.
When we left, we walked through the Bryant Park Christmas fair. Then, we walked up Fifth Avenue to the Abercrombie and Fitch store (which is a hell mouth). He wanted to buy some clothes for his niece. The shopping bag had a naked male torso on it so I offered to carry the bag for him. When we got to Columbus Circle, he wanted to stop at Grom--the gelato place. Typically, he doesn't stop for sweets and we'd been eating all afternoon. He'd had a couple of glasses of wine to boot. No worries! I enjoyed.
I like talking about myself with people who love and care about me; I hate having to do small talk about myself in social situations. I just don't care about talking about my career (photoretouching) and school (which is a major stresser).
When I got back into the city, Gvnni texted me that he wasn't going to training and did I want to hang out! I said I wasn't going to Jersey, but he could come into the city and we could go to Dinosaur BBQ at 9:00 pm. He picked me up and had a great meal.
Things are shaping up with me. I started the application process for the program.
Had a good and long weekend. On Friday night, I went to Jersey and we ate at the Blue Moon restaurant. We then went back to Gvnni's to watch and episode or two of The Event. I'm not that crazy about the series, but Gvnni likes it. On Saturday, we came back into the city so that he could do the training and I could run a ton of little errands.
When he got back from training, we went to the Subway for a sandwich and shared it at my little table for two. Then, we headed back into Jersey where we watched more episodes of The Event and Gvnni ended up watching all five episodes; he didn't have any episodes to watch on Sunday night. On Saturday night, we went to the Indian restaurant again. It has fantastic food, but the service is a little odd. The first time we went, we were ignored and had to beg for menus. This time, our food came with no spoons of any kind (and a lot of drippy gravies and curries).
On Sunday, we drove into the city again to attend the New York Public Library open house. We shared a Subway sandwich ahead of time, which turned out to be pointless. When we got there, the affair was heavily catered and there was too much food. We met my friend in line and she had brought her camera. She says she brings it everywhere. Gvnni had a good time; he loved the food and enjoyed looking at the building and the paintings.
When we left, we walked through the Bryant Park Christmas fair. Then, we walked up Fifth Avenue to the Abercrombie and Fitch store (which is a hell mouth). He wanted to buy some clothes for his niece. The shopping bag had a naked male torso on it so I offered to carry the bag for him. When we got to Columbus Circle, he wanted to stop at Grom--the gelato place. Typically, he doesn't stop for sweets and we'd been eating all afternoon. He'd had a couple of glasses of wine to boot. No worries! I enjoyed.
I like talking about myself with people who love and care about me; I hate having to do small talk about myself in social situations. I just don't care about talking about my career (photoretouching) and school (which is a major stresser).
When I got back into the city, Gvnni texted me that he wasn't going to training and did I want to hang out! I said I wasn't going to Jersey, but he could come into the city and we could go to Dinosaur BBQ at 9:00 pm. He picked me up and had a great meal.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
February 2012
The National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism (NIAAA), a division of the United States Department of Heath and Human Services, defines Alcoholism as a disease that has four symptoms: a strong craving for alcohol, a loss of control over drinking alcohol once drinking has begun, a physical dependence on alcohol that can result in physical withdrawal symptoms if drinking is stopped, and an increased tolerance of alcohol so that more and more is required to receive the same effect.
In the United States, about 1 in every 12 people abuse or are dependent on Alcohol. On average, men more than women tend to be alcoholic and rates are highest between the ages of 18-29.
Alcoholism is considered a chronic disease in that it can’t be cured and it lasts a lifetime. Treatments programs include detoxification and counseling centers, medication, and self-help programs. There are some medications that are used to treat dependence or withdrawal symptoms.
The longer someone abstains from alcohol, the likelier the alcoholic will avoid relapse and stay sober. While some people can cut back on their drinking and drink moderately (two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women), for recovering alcoholics NIAAA recommends complete abstinence from alcohol as the safest course.
For more information, the NIAAA suggests The National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Referral Routing Service toll-free number (1-800-662-HELP) and also a link to Alcoholics Anonymous.
Lab rat
One lab rat pressed a lever 6400 times to get one dose of coke!
On the flip side, rats don't like LSD or Prozac.
On the flip side, rats don't like LSD or Prozac.
Gerard Depardieu 'sorry' to have urinated on plane carpet - Telegraph
Gerard Depardieu 'sorry' to have urinated on plane carpet
Gerard Depardieu's entourage has said he tried to urinate into a bottle "as discreetly as possible" while on a flight, and said he was "sorry" to have spilt some on the plane's carpet.
Our Favorite Novels - NYTimes.com
Well, hello again. After digesting your additions to, and critiques
of, our nonfiction list, we decided to reconvene our panel of
nonexperts (ourselves) and come right back at you with a list of the
best fiction of all time. Using our customary precise, scientific
approach, we asked each member of the staff to pick their five
favorites. The full list is after the jump.
And the winner is … "Lolita"! Before bestowing this glorious honor, we
went through an exhaustive series of bonus rounds. First, we asked
everyone to vote again, this time for one book that a colleague cited
but they had not. The second round helped "The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier & Clay" gain ground on "Lolita," which had been an early
leader. A dark horse, "The Great Gatsby" pulled out from the pack and
gained on the front-runners. Coetzee's "Disgrace" made a late surge.
"Anna Karenina" fell back.
What to do? A bonus-bonus round, of course, pitting Vladimir Nabokov
against Michael Chabon. It was a thrilling last leg of the race. Sweat
beaded on the brows of editors as they e-mailed in their votes. Sam
Anderson declared that as the magazine's critic at large, he had the
right to break the tie all by himself. From one photo editor came this
primal howl: "L-O-L-I-T-A!!!!!!!" In the end, "Lolita" won by seven
votes. (Sam approves.)
The biggest lesson learned from this exercise are that we have some
high-falutin' readers in this office. Tenth-grade English teachers all
over the country can congratulate themselves on a job well done. I was
personally distressed that nobody saw fit to join me in endorsing "The
Godfather." Also, I'm sorry, but "White Noise" is overrated — a great
novelist cracking grad-student one-liners. I'll take "Libra" any day.
Just my opinion.
Another lesson: Having fancy literary taste does not predispose one to
abide by rules. Yes, we had a rash of folks who broke the five-book
limit, including one nonconformist who tried to pass off "all P.G.
Wodehouse" as one book (ahem, Mr. Bittman.) There was also all kinds
of complaining about the reductiveness of lists, how impossible it is
to pick favorites, etc. What is it about books that make people so
annoying?
Below is the full list, with the five-book groupings of each staff
member intact. Check back in next week, when we'll write about which
books people are planning to read this summer. As always, please write
in with your own suggestions.
"The Awakening," by Kate Chopin
"The Passion," by Jeanette Winterson
"The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald
"To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee
"A Visit From the Goon Squad," by Jennifer Egan
"Crime and Punishment," by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"At Swim-Two-Birds," by Flann O'Brien
"Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace
"Ulysses," by James Joyce
"Molloy," by Samuel Beckett
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Rabbit, Run," or anything by John Updike
"American Pastoral," or anything by Philip Roth
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"Middlesex," by Jeffrey Eugenides
"For Whom The Bell Tolls," by Ernest Hemingway
"The Mezzanine," by Nicholson Baker
"The House of Mirth," by Edith Wharton
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The Master of Go," by Yasunari Kawabata
"The Golden Bowl," by Henry James
"In Search of Lost Time," by Marcel Proust
"The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis," by José Saramago
"The Savage Detectives," by Roberto Bolaño
"Light Years," by James Salter
"Green Wheat," by Colette
"To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee
"The Sound and the Fury," by William Faulkner
"Neverwhere," by Neil Gaiman
"The Turn of the Screw," by Henry James
"All the King's Men," by Robert Penn Warren
"Snow Country," by Yasunari Kawabata
"Plainsong," by Kent Haruf
"Eventide," by Kent Haruf
"The Sportswriter," by Richard Ford
"Sense and Sensibility," by Jane Austen
"The God of Small Things," by Arundhati Roy
"Cathedral," Raymond Carver
"Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen
"Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
"Jane Eyre," by Charlotte Brontë
"The Shipping News," by Annie Proulx
"Underworld," by Don DeLillo
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being," by Milan Kundera
"White Noise," by Don DeLillo
"Mating," by Norman Rush
"Another Marvelous Thing," by Laurie Colwin
"American Pastoral," by Philip Roth
"A Sport and a Pastime," by James Salter
"V.," by Thomas Pynchon
"Cat and Mouse," by Gunter Grass
"The Floating Opera," by John Barth
"The Blood Oranges," by John Hawkes
"A Confederacy of Dunces," by John Kennedy Toole
"Passage to India," by E.M. Forster
"Wolf Hall," by Hilarty Mantel
"Atonement," by Ian McEwan
"The Tin Drum," by Gunter Grass
"White Teeth," by Zadie Smith
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being," by Milan Kundera
"Middlesex," by Jeffrey Eugenides
"To The Lighthouse," by Virginia Woolf
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Moby-Dick," by Herman Melville
"Pale Fire," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Dead Souls," by Nikolai Gogol
"A Confederacy of Dunces," John Kennedy Toole
"The Power and the Glory," by Graham Greene
"The Age of Innocence," by Edith Wharton
"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," by Carson McCullers
"Brideshead Revisited," by Evelyn Waugh
"The Leopard," by Giuseppe di Lampedusa
"Crime and Punishment," by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"Leviathan," by Paul Auster
"My Name Is Asher Lev," by Chaim Potok
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," by Mark Haddon
"Cloud Atlas," by David Mitchell
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"The Executioner's Song," by Norman Mailer
"London Fields," by Martin Amis
"Disgrace," by J.M. Coetzee
"Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison
"Moby-Dick," by Herman Melville
"The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger
"Jaws," by Peter Benchley
"1984," by George Orwell
"Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman," by Haruki Murakami
"Remains of the Day," by Kazuo Ishiguro
"Against Nature," by Joris-Karl Huysmans
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Disgrace," by J.M. Coetzee
"Birdsong," by Sebastian Faulks
"CivilWarLand in Bad Decline," by George Saunders
"Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy
"American Pastoral," by Philip Roth
Also: "James & the Giant Peach," by Roald Dahl
"Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," by James Joyce
"A Personal Matter," by Kenzaburo Oe
"To the Lighthouse," by Virginia Woolf
"Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison
"Sirens of Titan," by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Godfather," by Mario Puzo
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"The Thin Man," by Dashiell Hammett
"The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.," by
Robert Coover
"Bright Lights, Big City," by Jay McInerney
"A Confederacy of Dunces," by John Kennedy Toole
"Catch-22," by Joseph Heller
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain
"Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Middlemarch," by George Eliot
"Persuasion," by Jane Austen
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"The House of Mirth," by Edith Wharton
"Franny and Zooey," by J.D. Salinger
"Cruddy," by Lynda Barry
"Chelsea Girls," by Eileen Myles
"House of Leaves," by Mark Z. Danielewski
"The Rules of Attraction," by Bret Easton Ellis
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," by Douglas Adams (God, I'm such a nerd)
"Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen
"Pere Goriot," by Honore de Balzac
"We All Love Glenda So Much and Other Tales," by Julio Cortazar
"Middlemarch," by George Eliot
"White Mule," by William Carlos Williams
Right now I am reading, in honor of the capture of Whitey Bulger, "The
Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V.Higgins, a fantastic crime novel
set in Boston, composed almost entirely in dialogue.
"Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace
"The Golden Notebook," by Doris Lessing
"Catch-22," by Joseph Heller
All P.G. Wodehouse
"Alexandria Quartet," by Lawrence Durrell
"Baron in the Trees," by Italo Calvino
"Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand
"Dance, Dance, Dance," by Haruki Murakami
"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," by Mark Twain
"Strange Pilgrims," by Gabriel García Márquez
This Summer: "Don Quixote" by Miguel De Cervantes
"The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger
"A Prayer for Owen Meany," by John Irving
"Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen
"To Kill a Mocking Bird," by Harper Lee
"My Antonia," by Willa Cather
"The Sportswriter," by Richard Ford
"Independence Day," by Richard Ford
"All the King's Men," by Robert Penn Warren
"The Moviegoer," by Walker Percy
"Slaughterhouse Five," by Kurt Vonnegut
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy
"The Sound and the Fury," by William Faulkner
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle," by Vladimir Nabokov
"The Needle's Eye," by Margaret Drabble
"The Master," by Colm Toibin
"Middlearch," by George Eliot.
"The Ambassadors," by Henry James
"The History of Love," by Nicole Krauss
"Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy
of, our nonfiction list, we decided to reconvene our panel of
nonexperts (ourselves) and come right back at you with a list of the
best fiction of all time. Using our customary precise, scientific
approach, we asked each member of the staff to pick their five
favorites. The full list is after the jump.
And the winner is … "Lolita"! Before bestowing this glorious honor, we
went through an exhaustive series of bonus rounds. First, we asked
everyone to vote again, this time for one book that a colleague cited
but they had not. The second round helped "The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier & Clay" gain ground on "Lolita," which had been an early
leader. A dark horse, "The Great Gatsby" pulled out from the pack and
gained on the front-runners. Coetzee's "Disgrace" made a late surge.
"Anna Karenina" fell back.
What to do? A bonus-bonus round, of course, pitting Vladimir Nabokov
against Michael Chabon. It was a thrilling last leg of the race. Sweat
beaded on the brows of editors as they e-mailed in their votes. Sam
Anderson declared that as the magazine's critic at large, he had the
right to break the tie all by himself. From one photo editor came this
primal howl: "L-O-L-I-T-A!!!!!!!" In the end, "Lolita" won by seven
votes. (Sam approves.)
The biggest lesson learned from this exercise are that we have some
high-falutin' readers in this office. Tenth-grade English teachers all
over the country can congratulate themselves on a job well done. I was
personally distressed that nobody saw fit to join me in endorsing "The
Godfather." Also, I'm sorry, but "White Noise" is overrated — a great
novelist cracking grad-student one-liners. I'll take "Libra" any day.
Just my opinion.
Another lesson: Having fancy literary taste does not predispose one to
abide by rules. Yes, we had a rash of folks who broke the five-book
limit, including one nonconformist who tried to pass off "all P.G.
Wodehouse" as one book (ahem, Mr. Bittman.) There was also all kinds
of complaining about the reductiveness of lists, how impossible it is
to pick favorites, etc. What is it about books that make people so
annoying?
Below is the full list, with the five-book groupings of each staff
member intact. Check back in next week, when we'll write about which
books people are planning to read this summer. As always, please write
in with your own suggestions.
"The Awakening," by Kate Chopin
"The Passion," by Jeanette Winterson
"The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald
"To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee
"A Visit From the Goon Squad," by Jennifer Egan
"Crime and Punishment," by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"At Swim-Two-Birds," by Flann O'Brien
"Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace
"Ulysses," by James Joyce
"Molloy," by Samuel Beckett
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Rabbit, Run," or anything by John Updike
"American Pastoral," or anything by Philip Roth
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"Middlesex," by Jeffrey Eugenides
"For Whom The Bell Tolls," by Ernest Hemingway
"The Mezzanine," by Nicholson Baker
"The House of Mirth," by Edith Wharton
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The Master of Go," by Yasunari Kawabata
"The Golden Bowl," by Henry James
"In Search of Lost Time," by Marcel Proust
"The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis," by José Saramago
"The Savage Detectives," by Roberto Bolaño
"Light Years," by James Salter
"Green Wheat," by Colette
"To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee
"The Sound and the Fury," by William Faulkner
"Neverwhere," by Neil Gaiman
"The Turn of the Screw," by Henry James
"All the King's Men," by Robert Penn Warren
"Snow Country," by Yasunari Kawabata
"Plainsong," by Kent Haruf
"Eventide," by Kent Haruf
"The Sportswriter," by Richard Ford
"Sense and Sensibility," by Jane Austen
"The God of Small Things," by Arundhati Roy
"Cathedral," Raymond Carver
"Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen
"Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
"Jane Eyre," by Charlotte Brontë
"The Shipping News," by Annie Proulx
"Underworld," by Don DeLillo
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being," by Milan Kundera
"White Noise," by Don DeLillo
"Mating," by Norman Rush
"Another Marvelous Thing," by Laurie Colwin
"American Pastoral," by Philip Roth
"A Sport and a Pastime," by James Salter
"V.," by Thomas Pynchon
"Cat and Mouse," by Gunter Grass
"The Floating Opera," by John Barth
"The Blood Oranges," by John Hawkes
"A Confederacy of Dunces," by John Kennedy Toole
"Passage to India," by E.M. Forster
"Wolf Hall," by Hilarty Mantel
"Atonement," by Ian McEwan
"The Tin Drum," by Gunter Grass
"White Teeth," by Zadie Smith
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being," by Milan Kundera
"Middlesex," by Jeffrey Eugenides
"To The Lighthouse," by Virginia Woolf
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Moby-Dick," by Herman Melville
"Pale Fire," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Dead Souls," by Nikolai Gogol
"A Confederacy of Dunces," John Kennedy Toole
"The Power and the Glory," by Graham Greene
"The Age of Innocence," by Edith Wharton
"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," by Carson McCullers
"Brideshead Revisited," by Evelyn Waugh
"The Leopard," by Giuseppe di Lampedusa
"Crime and Punishment," by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"Leviathan," by Paul Auster
"My Name Is Asher Lev," by Chaim Potok
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," by Mark Haddon
"Cloud Atlas," by David Mitchell
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"The Executioner's Song," by Norman Mailer
"London Fields," by Martin Amis
"Disgrace," by J.M. Coetzee
"Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison
"Moby-Dick," by Herman Melville
"The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger
"Jaws," by Peter Benchley
"1984," by George Orwell
"Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman," by Haruki Murakami
"Remains of the Day," by Kazuo Ishiguro
"Against Nature," by Joris-Karl Huysmans
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Disgrace," by J.M. Coetzee
"Birdsong," by Sebastian Faulks
"CivilWarLand in Bad Decline," by George Saunders
"Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy
"American Pastoral," by Philip Roth
Also: "James & the Giant Peach," by Roald Dahl
"Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," by James Joyce
"A Personal Matter," by Kenzaburo Oe
"To the Lighthouse," by Virginia Woolf
"Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison
"Sirens of Titan," by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Godfather," by Mario Puzo
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
"The Thin Man," by Dashiell Hammett
"The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.," by
Robert Coover
"Bright Lights, Big City," by Jay McInerney
"A Confederacy of Dunces," by John Kennedy Toole
"Catch-22," by Joseph Heller
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain
"Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Middlemarch," by George Eliot
"Persuasion," by Jane Austen
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"The House of Mirth," by Edith Wharton
"Franny and Zooey," by J.D. Salinger
"Cruddy," by Lynda Barry
"Chelsea Girls," by Eileen Myles
"House of Leaves," by Mark Z. Danielewski
"The Rules of Attraction," by Bret Easton Ellis
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," by Douglas Adams (God, I'm such a nerd)
"Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen
"Pere Goriot," by Honore de Balzac
"We All Love Glenda So Much and Other Tales," by Julio Cortazar
"Middlemarch," by George Eliot
"White Mule," by William Carlos Williams
Right now I am reading, in honor of the capture of Whitey Bulger, "The
Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V.Higgins, a fantastic crime novel
set in Boston, composed almost entirely in dialogue.
"Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace
"The Golden Notebook," by Doris Lessing
"Catch-22," by Joseph Heller
All P.G. Wodehouse
"Alexandria Quartet," by Lawrence Durrell
"Baron in the Trees," by Italo Calvino
"Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand
"Dance, Dance, Dance," by Haruki Murakami
"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," by Mark Twain
"Strange Pilgrims," by Gabriel García Márquez
This Summer: "Don Quixote" by Miguel De Cervantes
"The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger
"A Prayer for Owen Meany," by John Irving
"Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen
"To Kill a Mocking Bird," by Harper Lee
"My Antonia," by Willa Cather
"The Sportswriter," by Richard Ford
"Independence Day," by Richard Ford
"All the King's Men," by Robert Penn Warren
"The Moviegoer," by Walker Percy
"Slaughterhouse Five," by Kurt Vonnegut
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy
"The Sound and the Fury," by William Faulkner
"The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle," by Vladimir Nabokov
"The Needle's Eye," by Margaret Drabble
"The Master," by Colm Toibin
"Middlearch," by George Eliot.
"The Ambassadors," by Henry James
"The History of Love," by Nicole Krauss
"Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy
DUAL CODE SYSTEMS
DUAL CODE SYSTEMS
People have an attentional bottle neck and limited cognitive resources. In a perfect world, we would notice every stimulus, process it, and catalog (remember) it accordingly. Unfortunately, we often just don't have the time to give things as much thought as they require. The upside is a lot of what happens in life doesn't need that much attention. We can get away with easy and rote answers and solutions to similar problems we've had numerous times before.
There are two ways of measuring memory: recall and recognition. Recognition is a two-level process.
Recognition: The first level is always quick and easy. We rely on a heuristic to decide and pass judgment on what we should proceed. This can be the availability heuristic (we sample what is recent, prototypical and emotionally charged). We look at an object and ask: Is this familiar? We can get a quick, gut reaction from it. If it's not familiar, we don't recognize it. Or, it may have a sense of "familiarity" which can lead to false recognitions. A ticket taker points to a man he thinks robbed him because the man looks familiar: turns out the man is just a soldier who has bought tickets from him in the past.
The problem with recognition system one is when nothing looks "familiar." While taking a multiple choice test, if all the multiple choice answers seem good, then one must have to go to the second level of processing. This is slow, methodical recall.
Recall is better if something is over learned and has many connections/memories attached to it. It's easier to re-learn something the second time. If the connections are there, one is not starting from scratch.
In the feature model concepts have a list of features: defining features (features an object must have to belong to the category) and characteristic features (features an object could have but are not defining). The theory is it's easier to put something in a category if it contains all the features of what we view as the defining feature of the category. For example, we compare a ROBIN that has feathers, a beak and two legs with what we know of typical BIRD which is it has feathers, a beak, and two legs. The defining, essential, characteristics are feathers and a beak. The characteristic features (non-essential) are two legs.
In order to come up with a sentence "Is a robin a bird?" we scan two sets of features and look for overlap. It's a stage 1 process that's quick and parallel. It generates a fast answer. If you're faced with an intermediate object that doesn't have defining characteristics, you have to kick into system 2: slow, serial processing. "Is a penguin a bird?" should be a slower yes. A robin has many of the defining features of what we determine a bird should have; a penguin does not.
There is a dual code theory of imagery. The theory was divined to explain the phenomenon that concrete words (eg flag) are easier learned than abstract words (eg democracy). When people imagine "democracy" they imagine a flag. Concrete words have the cognitive advantage over abstract words because
- Concrete words are represented both in language systems and in the image system" i.e. "brick"
- Abstract words are only represented in the language system (i.e. love/hate). They're difficult to define but they're communicable.
Abstract words are words we use because of context and not because we memorize the definition. In brain damage, we're more likely to retain concrete words than abstract words. Concrete words are learned younger at a basic level. If we pair memories with words and words with memories, this will help us with memory retrieval in the future—we have two paths to get to the same concept.
There are two subsystems of human cognitive processing that work simultaneously: one dealing with verbal objects—linguistic information--and one dealing with visual stimuli—images and pictures. Although they're processed independently, they're connected in memory. For example, when one watches a nature program on television that's narrated. we can look and process the pictures while we're hearing and processing the words. These are happening simultaneously and don't interfere with one another; in fact, they help future memory retrieval. The narration/words will trigger the pictures and the pictures will trigger the narration/words.
In this dual code task, the better system for retrieval is the pairing of the concrete word with the word that represents it. This leads to the quickest reaction times as both input (word and image) are triggers for the other. An abstract word that is not paired with a concrete image—perhaps due to rote rehearsal—will have slower reaction times because someone has to search his/her memory for a definition of the word. There is no word that symbolizes the abstract word.
Rote rehearsal is repeating something over and over shallowly in order to keep it in short term memory. However, as soon as it's allowed to leave short-term memory, it's gone. It hasn't been processed to long term memory. This is fast and quick and easy for short-term projects—i.e. just keeping a phone number in your head in order to write it down. If one wants to remember something for the long haul, he or she needs to give the input context and connect it to meaning. This means processing it deeply and thinking about it and connecting it to earlier memories. For example, if I ever lose my phone and my keys, I have my one emergency phone number of a friend to call. Of course, I have to memorize this number because I will be without my pre-programmed phone. I went through his phone number segment by segment and gave all the numbers meanings. I can recite it now and will probably be able to recite it for the rest of my life! Obviously, the latter of the two systems is preferred here, but it took time and energy for me to infuse his phone number with that much connecting information. I don't have the time and interest to do that with every phone number in my phone; I choose to spend my cognitive energy elsewhere.
Kahneman and Tversky came up with a two-stage process for judgment- and decision-making. The first stage is Stage 1 processing: it's quick and easy and relies on heuristics (strategies). One of the most "popular" heuristics is the availability heuristic: we judge the world on what happened to us most recently, what has affected us the most emotionally, and what we come in common with the most. Most of the time, we rely on this system because it requires few cognitive resources and it does the job just fine. Unfortunately, with the efficiency comes the loss of accuracy.
System 2 is slow, methodical, and guaranteed to lead to the right solution if one gives it enough time. Sometimes years and decades is the right time. We can see this with problem solvers who are tackling a large, complex problem. Instead of making a snap decision, they apply an algorithmic solution—which is slow, serial, and methodical.
Grand masters do a lot of processing on system 1. They can look at a glance at patterns on a chessboard and memorize them. Most people can replicate the chess board set up—but that's it. Grand masters can do that if the pieces are in typical patterns; if the pieces are out of context or placed randomly, they can't memorize them. It depends on the context and the meaning of the placement. Grand Masters have learned from previous games and what moves are possible. They know how games are resolved and have been resolved in the past. Grand Masters do deep processing: they try to look ahead several moves. They don't try to this more than 3-4 moves ahead—which is the amount of units or 'chunks' we can keep in our short term memory.
An algorithm may seem a good choice—always leads to the correct answer eventually—but this isn't a great strategy when one is pressed for time. For example, if you're playing chess, you wouldn't use a "brute force" approach—going though the entire game and exploring every possible solution in detail. As soon as one player moved a chess piece, the next move possibilities would almost be endless. It's in times like this, you need to seek patterns.
When people act unconsciously, they're freeing up cognitive resources to think and process other things. For example, they've done their bedtime routine so many times that they can brush their teeth and put the cat out all the while thinking about their upcoming final exam. However, these routines have to very systematic. As soon as something happens to shove one out of her routine (eg out of toothpaste), she's jarred out of it and has to rely on conscious thinking until she solves any problem and can go back to autopilot. Also, with unconscious processing, there's a problem with action slips: I'm so engaged in my thoughts I forget to take my glasses off before applying a huge handful of face cream. That set me up for a little system 2 problem solving!
Most if not all of the stage one processes tend to be quick and easy and efficient. They free up the mind to do higher calculations and planning. However, one gives up precision and exactness. Precision and exactness come at the price of time—which sometimes one doesn't have. It's a delicate balance.
According to Kahneman and Tversky, we are not utilitarians always doing what's best. We think we're rational human beings who will always do the correct thing but we're swayed by our faulty logic. We're swayed by recent events ("a woman got killed on an elevator so I'm not setting foot on one!"), the amount of emotion (the visit to the doctor has one momentary finger prick so I think it hurts to go to the doctors), and how much something resembles an ideal prototype (It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck: must be a duck!). We're affected by framing effects (how things are worded and presented) and "man-who" arguments (samples of one). All of these examples are System 1 processing. They're fast and easy and right most of the time.
One of the best ways to combat default stage 1 processing seems to be education—especially statistics. Once people have more statistical knowledge, they're more aware of probabilities versus possibilities.
At the airport. Reminds me of that morning I was at SEATAC waiting for Aunt Weslie and Uncle Gordon. I like traveling on my own. Last night I got a taste of living alone and it was awesome. Who knows what is waiting for me when I get back to the states.
At the airport. Reminds me of that morning I was at SEATAC waiting for Aunt Weslie and Uncle Gordon. I like traveling on my own. Last night I got a taste of living alone and it was awesome. Who knows what is waiting for me when I get back to the states.
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