Neuroanthropology

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Archive for June, 2009

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Wednesday Round Up #66

Posted by dlende on June 3, 2009

Route 66
This week I’ve got two lists – the good blogging/online stuff from around the Web, and then a collection from the NY Times this past week, which had plenty of interesting and relevant stories. Enjoy!

The List

Open-Access to the journal Neuroethics
Neuroethics is now open-access for a temporary field, so feel free to download articles like this one, Neuroethics as a Brain-Based Philosophy of Life: The Case of Michael S. Gazzaniga – quite a neuroanthropological piece actually.

Claudine Beaumont, Is Microsoft’s Natal the Future of Gaming?
I stuck this in the students’ post yesterday on videogames, but also wanted to highlight it here. Natal looks very cool! Besides the video below, here’s the E3 Microsoft comprehensive presentation showing how Natal works live, another promo featuring some fascinating interactive painting, and Milo the interactive boy. Kotaku’s Brian Crecente gives us a hands-on review here.

Russell Poldrack, Neuroimaging: Separating the Promise from the Pipe Dreams
Dana Foundation on core issues for both science and application involving brain imaging

Tracy Alloway, 10% Students May Have Working Memory Problems: Why Does It Matter?
SharpBrains gives us the latest on this emerging area of research and education intervention

Ben Goldacre, Dodgy Academic PR
A study of academic press releases on research shows the limitations of journalism/press coverage even coming from leading institutions

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Posted in Wednesday Round Up | 1 Comment »

Can Videogames Actually Be Good For You?

Posted by dlende on June 2, 2009

By Ryan Hoff, Kasey Kendall, Harrison Smith, and Gabriela Moriel
Games and Learning
We’ve all heard people say that video games are increasingly violent and have a negative impact on kids’ behavior. But video games can actually be beneficial to a child’s development!

Video games are used in almost every classroom setting in the United States. Many games, like Math Blaster and Star Fall, focus on promoting students’ cognitive development and strengthening problem-solving skills.

Even seemingly non-educational games such as Sonic the Hedgehog have found their way into the classroom where students play the game in order to better understand Odysseus’ journey home. Playing an adventure game like Sonic the Hedgehog where the player must complete a series of missions or tasks and overcome various obstacles, students can learn not only by simply reading the Odyssey but also by interactively participating in their own quest.

Professors are even proposing the idea of developing a new public school with a game-centered curriculum, as this Christian Science Monitor article Video Games Start to Shape Classroom Curriculum states. Katie Salen, an associate professor of design and technology at the Parsons School of Design, describes this new approach:

“Kids are challenged to step into identities—mathematicians, scientists. They are immersed in and interdisciplinary setting, and instead of completing units, they go on a series of missions or quests, each of which has a goal.”

The Development of Interactive Video Games

The progression of interactivity throughout the history of video games plays a central role in current research of the potential benefits of video games. As video games have become more interactive over time (especially in the last decade), they have increasingly become a medium for the development of cognitive and problem-solving skills.

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Posted in Learning, Video Games | 8 Comments »

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Posted by dlende on June 1, 2009

Shop I Am
By Jackie Dolan, Maria Brooks, Diana Harintho, and Jackie Doherty

Do you feel a thrill when you swipe your card at the register? Come home from the store with things you didn’t plan on buying? Buy things you never use? Run your credits cards up to the limit? If your answers to these questions are yes, you may be a shopaholic.

Shopping and Other Addictions

Newsflash: Shopping addictions are not as glamorous and humorous as the media often portrays them to be. In fact, shopping compulsions are similar to other serious drug addictions that our culture faces today. Donald Black, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa, College of Medicine states:

“Like other addictions, it basically has to do with impulsiveness and lack of control over one’s impulses. In America, shopping is embedded in our culture; so often, the impulsiveness comes out as excessive shopping.”

As is seen with all other addictions, compulsive shopping can destroy a person’s life, family, and finances. Take a look at this clip from the show Intervention, which starts with Heidi on a shopping spree.

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Posted in Addiction | 2 Comments »

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