Former FBI agent Joe Navarro explains ways to calm people down with non verbal communication.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Teaching Cross-Eyed People to See in 3-D
Susan R. Barry, Ph. D
I have been cross-eyed (strabismic) and stereoblind since early infancy. Since the first months of life, I looked at things with one eye and turned in the other. Three childhood surgeries made my eyes look straighter but did not change the way I used them. I continued to look with one and turn away the other. My crossed eyes may have been less noticeable after the operations, but I still suppressed the input from the turned eye and saw an abnormally flat, less detailed, and less vibrant view of the world. I did not see in 3D; I was stereoblind.As I grew older, my vision became more troublesome. So at age 48, I consulted a developmental optometrist. I went to see her not to gain stereovision; that possibility was not even on my radar. Instead, I spoke to her about my unstable gaze. My view of distant objects was jittery which made driving difficult and frightening. I wanted to gain more competence and confidence for chauffeuring my children around town.
Over the next year, my developmental optometrist, Dr. Theresa Ruggiero, taught me something that most infants learn within the first months of life - how to aim both eyes at the same place in space at the same time. This required a great deal of practice using a variety of elegantly-designed vision therapy tools. To my astonishment, I began to see in 3D. Ordinary things looked extraordinary. Sink faucets reached out toward me, hanging light fixtures seemed to float in mid-air, and I could see how the outer branches of trees captured whole volumes of space through which the inner branches penetrated. Borders and edges appeared crisper; objects seemed more solid, vibrant, and real. I was overwhelmed by my first stereo view of a snowfall in which I could see the palpable pockets of space between each snowflake.
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You See Me As What Now?
Across the vast array of friends and acquaintances hold many different perceptions of you. One of your friends could say your a warm hearted individual and other could say you're vindictive. The perception of you can change day to day if you have a combination of wardrobe. A classification of their perception of you can be locked in time if you havent seen them in a while. You could wear and act in a way of a jock (wearing sports jerseys, gym shorts, sweatpants) in high school. Then go off to college and start wearing more profession clothing (dress shirts, slacks, dressier shoes, suits). If that person that saw you in Highschool in the "jock" style moved away then reconnected with you when they moved back will still hold that perception of a "jock" until they see your new style, while others around you hold the perception of you as a level-headed professional. The littlest change in your day to day wardrobe can change others perceptions of you.
Here is an article from Psychology Today going into more detail about perception and how it change.
DO YOU HAVE A PERCEPTION PROBLEM?
Have you ever been surprised by the way someone else sees you?
I was once told by a former co-worker that I intimidated her. At four-feet-eleven-inches tall, the thought of me intimidating someone else was laughable to me. But that was her perception. And, in the end, it's our own perceptions that form our reality.
I was recently told by someone else to "be the confident person I know you are" before I had to head into a difficult conversation. That also gave me pause -- did I seem unconfident? Did I appear uncomfortable in my own skin?
It can be quite jarring when your vision of yourself is out of sync with the way you're seen by others. Whether it's a physical quality or an aspect of your personality, that feeling that you're not being truly seen is uncomfortable. But the thing about perception is that it's incredibly subjective - to perceive, literally, means to "know or identify by means of the senses." Quite simply, we feel what we feel, sometimes in spite of what our eyes alone tell us.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
The Limits Of Humans
HUMAN LIMITATIONS
1. Human Speed: Last year, Usain Bolt stunned athletics fans when he hacked 0.11 seconds off his previous world record for the 100-metre sprint. But what's the ultimate human speed limit?
2. Concentration: It's a challenge that most of us have faced when up against an essay deadline, a late-night crisis in the office or perhaps a long car drive. Just how long can we push ourselves mentally before our brain needs a break?
3. Survival in a Vacuum: Sadly we know how long humans can survive if suddenly exposed to the vacuum of space. Three Soviet cosmonauts died in 1971 when a faulty valve caused their Soyuz 11 capsule to depressurise at an altitude of 168 kilometres, shortly before re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Investigations revealed that the cabin pressure dropped to zero for 11 minutes and 40 seconds, until the capsule hit the atmosphere. The crew died within 30 to 40 seconds from hypoxia. "You need both oxygen and air pressure to deliver oxygen to the brain," says Jonathan Clark, a former space shuttle crew surgeon.
4.How Much Can We Remember: Remembering an 11-digit telephone number is hard enough for most of us. Yet one of the current record-holders for a feat of memory, Chao Lu of China, was able to accurately recite 67,890 digits of pi from memory in 2005. But is that a mere drop in the ocean compared to the brain's true capacity?
5.Holding Your Breath: Most people find it hard to hold their breath for more than a minute, so imagine the extreme self-control Stephane Mifsud mustered on 8 June last year when he held his breath for 11 minutes and 35 seconds, setting a new world record for stationary breath-holding, or "static apnoea".
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Scientific American: Cursing Alleviates Pain?
Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief
Bad language could be good for you, a new study shows. For the first time, psychologists have found that swearing may serve an important function in relieving pain.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Perception of Time And Mood
I found an article on the Perception of Time and "anticipated duration". The article asks the question: "Ever noticed how the more you look forward to something, like Christmas, the longer it takes to arrive but the exams you dreaded came only too quickly?" It can be said the same for waiting for the kettle to boil the water. I want the tea and know that boiling water doesn't take very long, but I feel as if the boiling process takes an hour. I also believe that the instant gratification world that we live in has had an effect on our perception of time. We are so used to expecting outcomes instantaneously the more and more we use instant delivery options (iTunes, Email, Netflix). When occupational delivery (USPS, UPS, Fed-EX) is compared to Email, an obvious assumption that the duration of delivery differs drastically.
The perception of time for an anticipated duration can change the mood if the package you ordered was delayed due to a holiday, customs checks, and in the worst case, if they loose your package. You feel at a loss and sometimes an offense to you. This is why I can see that the perception of time can influence mood.
The TELEGRAPH Article:
Richard Alleyne
The researchers at the Paris School of Economics found that different types of anticipation for an event affected how long people felt it took to arrive - what is technically called its "anticipated duration".
The feeling that you "can't wait for something" actually made it appear to take longer to come. The dread of a task, on the other hand, makes time appear to fly.
