Blog Profile / Brains On Purpose
| URL : | http://westallen.typepad.com/brains_on_purpose/ | |
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| Filed Under: | Academics / Neuroscience | |
| Posts on Regator: | 331 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.4 | |
| Archived Since: | January 19, 2009 | |
Blog Post Archive
Using neuroscience in your personal or professional life? Reading this book may make you more discerning—and accurate
I often warn about the neuroscience I see and hear in the field of conflict resolution because some (maybe much) of it ranges from mildly inaccurate to wildly outlandish. Now, if I want to inject some caution in the conversation, I can recommend a new, easy-to-read book: Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience. When I was at the annual...
Videos from APS: Memory formation, brain diversity, and our brains as conductor-less orchestras
Last time I went to the annual conference of Association for Psychological Science, I was grateful for all that I learned. I attended again this year and the experience was no less valuable. Even if you did not attend, several of the talks are available online for you to view. Below I will link to some of them. Michael Gazzaniga...
Experts in Emotion: Listen to Kevin Ochsner talking about emotion regulation
Click to listen to Columbia University's neuroscientist Dr. Kevin Ochsner talking about emotion regulation. The interview is a part of a Yale interview series. He talks about reappraisal and reframing, generating emotions, and using cognitive control. One of the processes he studies is using high-level thoughts to adjust the amygdala response; he explains in this interview.
Visual vocabulary: Some tips for your pictograph path
We've looked at the brain-friendliness of visual communication in past posts. Today I am creating a very short post just to give you a couple of resources you may find helpful on that pictograph path—if you decide to follow the visual way. First, a blog post on building your visual vocabulary: "Sketchnote building blocks + visual vocabulary" (Cheryl Lowry). This...
Filters and frames: Mediation is all about the viewfinder
Our brains are vigilant, hyperaware of any sensed change to see if it represents danger. Partly because they use a lot of our energy, our brains seek to deal with new information quickly and easily. So, rather like a photographer, the brain applies filters and frames. The filters shift, accentuate, and diminish what is seen. And the frames limit what...
Conflict concert? Dispute ditty? Mediation minuet? Can the speech of angels lead to agreement?
Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite. --Thomas Carlyle It's been a while since I last blogged about the role of music in conflict resolution. But I was reminded of its potential by a recent...
Coming to DC in May? April 1 is the last day for early bird rates
Want an opportunity to learn from many of the top psychologists and neuroscientists, and at a reasonable cost? Then sign up now for this year's annual conference of the Association for Psychological Science. I attended in 2011, and will do so again this year. It's a terrific learning experience, a way to keep up on many areas of science related...
What is the biggest, scariest mediation monster of all?
Before I venture an answer to the question in the title of this post, let me put forth a definition of monster, one of which I am particularly fond: Monster derives from the Latin word monstrum, which in turn derives from the root monere (to warn). To be a monster is to be an omen. --Stephen T. Asma, On Monsters:...
Another clue that brain locationism is likely wrong or misleading: Why is the location concept sticky as glue?
Locationism is when people talk about the brain as if its activities or functions happen or are governed in just one location. For example, someone may say, "Here is the place in the brain for talking and the location for balking and the place for walking." I have blogged about this misperception before, e.g, here, here, and here. For some...
Want to improve visual communication? Here are 10 principles
We have looked at the pictograph path in past posts and considered the benefits of visual communication in conflict resolution (or in almost any situation when you want thoughts and feelings better understood). I recently discovered a terrific resource to help us communicate with pictures. It's a book with the title Picture This: How Pictures Work. In this delightful book,...
Lessons from Poe: Detecting the Inner Mediator—Join us this May in Baltimore
I will be presenting three programs in Baltimore on May 2 and 3. They are being offered by the ADR Section of the Maryland Bar Association at Westminster Hall, site of the Edgar Allan Poe crypt. Below is the description of the day-long program being held on May 2. I will also give a keynote that evening. And, if 20...
Learn about your brain from a comic book? Yep, this one's from an artist/neuroscientist team
Soon you will be able to read a neurocomic, a book created by a comic artist and a scientist who studies the brain. Click to learn more and watch a short video (The Verge) about the forthcoming graphic novel. More about the book in this video from The Guardian.
The Future of Emotion Regulation Research: Capturing Context
Abstract from "The Future of Emotion Regulation Research: Capturing Context" (Perspectives on Psychological Science): Emotion regulation has been conceptualized as a process by which individuals modify their emotional experiences, expressions,...Show More Summary
Walking down the pictograph path again: Let pictures carry your message
I have a longstanding goal. I'd like to give a presentation using only visual messages: pictures, images, colors. Why? The brain-friendliness of visual communication is one reason, one about which I have already blogged. I also believe that doing so will cause me to finely hone my message, to seek a new degree of precision. In my imagination, the discussion...
Mindfulness: Some benefits and brain science from Jeffrey Schwartz
A movie on mindfulness is coming out in the summer of 2013. Click to learn more about The Mindfulness Movie. Click to read the list of experts involved. One of the experts is Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz; you may watch a short interview of him here. Four other interviews on mindfulness are available here and here.
Quick and entertaining reminder of the fallibility and malleability of our memories
I bet if you take the 18 or so minutes to watch this TED video, you will not think your time was wasted. Forensic psychologist Scott Fraser is a good storyteller and his short talk "Why eyewitnesses get it wrong" is a good reminder for us to be very careful when trusting our own memories, or the memories of our...
36 cites in the new edition of MINDFULNESS RESEARCH MONTHLY
From the February, 2013, edition of the monthly newsletter: 17 Interventions 6 Associations 2 Methods 7 Reviews 4 Trials
Conflict coaching seminar with Dr. Tricia Jones: June in Denver
Click to read all the details over at idealawg.
47 new cites in the current edition of MINDFULNESS RESEARCH MONTHLY
From the January, 2013, edition of the monthly newsletter: 17 Interventions 18 Associations 2 Methods 8 Reviews 2 Trials
Is your clients' conflict water, ice, or vapor? Insights from the science of complexity
Reading the Executive Summary of a presentation that will be given this week in Davos reminded me of some of the problems with the use of neuroscience in conflict resolution: reductionism, for example. And reminded me that mediators should be paying as much (maybe more) attention to complexity as they are to neuroscience. Why, you may ask? Take a few...