Learning and Behavior Ted Talk Evaluation PDF

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Summary

This goes over the TedTalk of Michael Shermer, “The pattern behind self-deception”. It is being compared to psychologists experiments to explain association learning....

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Assignment 5

I chose to watch the TedTalk of Michael Shermer, “The pattern behind self-deception”. He explains that us humans all choose to believe in different things. It is the natural state as opposed to science, skepticism, and disbelief which is more difficult to grasp. We have a belief engine in our brains that explains we are “pattern-seeking primates connecting the dots''. This is association learning which is when we find patterns and make connections about things. Examples would be Pavlov’s dog salivating when it hears the sound of the bell, it learned the bell ringing means food will be present. In Skinner’s experiment, rats repeated a specific behavior knowing it will lead to a reward. Next, patternicity explains “the tendency to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless noise” which involves two types of errors. Type 1 errors are described as false positives, believing a pattern is real when it is not. Type 2 errors are false negatives, not believing a pattern is real when it is. We have a pattern detection problem in assessing the difference between Type I and Type II errors which is highly problematic, especially in split-second, life-and-death situations. As a result, we believe all patterns are real. In pattern-seeking brain processes, humans always find meaningful patterns. An experiment done by Jennifer Whitson at U.T. Austin concluded that feelings of uncertainty and out of control makes people see illusory patterns. People that are put in a condition of feeling out of control are more likely to see a pattern when something is actually patternless. Our right hemisphere is mainly where patternicity occurs and dopamine is a drug associated with patternicity (more effective when it's increased). Pattern detection devices can be fooled when we are looking at different angles of the same photo. When it comes to faces, we have a facial recognition software located in our temporal lobes, making it easier to notice faces in different objects. When looking at the same person side by side upside down, it can be easy to detect who the person is and recognize their face but may be more difficult to notice which photo looks “off” based on their

Assignment 5

facial features. This involves two types of cells: the rapid cell called the magnocellular pathway, detecting a general face and the slower cell called parvocellular pathway, detecting facial details (eyes, nose, mouth). Agenticity is the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention, and agency, often invisible beings. It can include the ideas of demons, spirits, government conspiracies, and even aliens. Invisible agents can hold power and intention to haunt and control our lives. It ties into conspiracy theories as well which can be a pattern detection problem, what is real and what is not? To wrap it all up, Shermer shares a video to explain the overview of the power of expectation and belief. The video was a fake audition telling girls to kiss the attractive models with the lipbalm being advertised. The girls were told to put on a blindfold while doing it. Then, they brought out monkeys which the girls were actually kissing. The girls explained the kiss was amazing and did not know it was actually a monkey! It goes to show that when you think very highly and positively (that you are going to kiss a model) your brain makes you think it is a wonderful experience but in reality you are kissing a monkey. This video relates to what I have learned in class because it explains a few topics, one being radical behaviorism. This includes complex human behavior, such as emotions, thinking, and verbal behavior. Skinner created this concept and the idea of operant conditioning which ties into an example we learned in class that was also brought up in the TedTalk. Shermer explained Skinner's experiments with rats and lever pressing as well as pigeons pecking keys. The behavior is a repeated pattern as the animals learn the specific behavior comes with a reward. Respondent conditioning was also mentioned which was studied by Pavlov and included the dog salivating to the sound of the bell when food is present. The dog learned the patter of associating the bell with food, making the dog salivate at the bell sound before food was even shown. In this class I also learned about scientific thinking and ways to determine what might be real and what seems to be

Assignment 5

pseudoscience. In the TedTalk there was mention of conspiracy theories and invisible beings and how us humans choose to believe in these things. We like to think that since one conspiracy is true, it makes sense to want to believe in all the others we hear, it's easier to just believe. What I learned though is that we should believe in things that come with factual information and think of simple explanations before believing the crazy ones. This ties into the principles of scientific theories which include: parsimony, falsifiability, comprehensiveness, honesty, and sufficiency. It is hard for us to truly believe something is real when there are no true facts about it, we can only make guesses based on the information and facts we have. Believing what we see ahear may be easier, but the main takeaway I learned in this class is to actually think more about it and try to understand the complexity of it. Basically, come up with other conclusions that may make more sense. This TedTalk did include things we did not discuss in class such as patterns of behavior when it comes to recognizing images and faces, making sense of images with no true meaning, or discussing why we believe in invisible things and conspiracies. But, what I can compare between the video and our class was that we learned the concept of how our behavior can repeat and form patterns based on experiences and familiarity in both humans and animals. In class we discussed conditioning, shaping, and punishment/reinforcement. Forming patterns allows us to turn unconditioned responses into conditioned responses. That is why the animal presses that specific button knowing a reward will come along, or why it avoids a certain stimulus over and over again if it results in harm. We learn from past experiences and from the environment around us on what we should believe and what the “right” thing to do is. Human behavior is very complex but we are able to understand and remember things as we grow and learn. Our brain works hard to help us form patterns and continue to respond to things in a favorable way as time goes on.

Assignment 5

Source:

https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception/transcript#t-102 5490...