Culture, Brain, and Development Student Group Fall 2012

We meet every Wednesday in ASH Lobby from 6:00-7:30pm. Dinner and lively discussion is always provided! Readings for article discussions can be found on the CBD rack in the ASH Lobby and also in the CBD office (ASH 100).

SEPTEMBER Meetings will explore: CBD & CREATIVITY

Wednesday, September 12th: Get Creative with CBD! Get to know the group, make mind maps, and eat brain food at our first meeting of the semester.

Wednesday, September 19th: Article Discussion of "Becoming Bi-Cultural Makes You More Creative" by Art Markman, Ph.D (Psychology Today, August 31, 2012) read the article online or pick up a hard copy in the ASH Lobby. Still want to know more? You can also pick up the supplementary reading "Getting the Most Out of Living Abroad: Biculturalism and Integrative Complexity as Key Drivers of Creative and Professional Success" by Carmit T. Tadmor, Adam D. Galinisky, and William W. Maddux (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, July 23, 2012) Join us for dinner from Amherst Chinese (vegetarian, vegan & gluten free options)& great conversation!

Wednesday, September 26th: "Feeling and Creating: Three Facets of Emotionality that Predict Creativity" Student Presentation followed by an open discussion of emotionality and creativity. No prior knowledge necessary! Come, listen, learn and discuss. Dinner (with vegetarian, vegan & gluten free options) from Paradise of India will be provided.

OCTOBER meetings will explore: CAMPAIGNS, BIAS, & DEMOCRACY: Why we vote the way we do? Explorations in social psychology, voter culture, & the upcoming election.'''

Wednesday, October 17th: Meeting of Voter ID!

We look forward to seeing you in our continuing series of political talks in anticipation of the upcoming election. This week we will be reading the articles "Measuring the Effects of Voter Identifications Laws" and "The Disproportionate Impact of Voter-ID Requirements on the Electorate - New evidence from Indiana". These articles focus on how some state voter identification laws suppress certain voices from exercising their rights to vote during presidential elections - particularly African-Americans, the elderly, students, and people with disabilities. Such laws make it burdensome for these marginalized parties to become registered voters. What's your take?

Wednesday, October 24th: Planning Session for Brain Awareness Week!

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is a global campaign to increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research. Brain Awareness Week will be taking place March 11-17th of 2013! CBD needs creative, fun, outside the box ideas for BAW events, activities, and more! Every March, BAW unites the efforts of partner organizations worldwide in a celebration of the brain for people of all ages. Events are limited only by the organizers' imaginations and include open days at neuroscience labs; exhibitions about the brain; lectures on brain-related topics; displays at libraries and community centers; classroom workshops; and more.

Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween Film Screening: The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

Synopsis: After a horrible accident, Dr. Bill Cortner (Jason Evers) rescues his fiancée, Jan (Virginia Leith), by keeping her disembodied head alive in a dish. Cortner hunts for the perfect female body for his love, but Jan wishes he'd just let her die. Soon, Jan develops telepathic powers and begins communicating with one of the doctor's failed experiments, a hideously deformed beast he stores under the stairs.

NOVEMBER meetings

Wednesday, November 7th: A discussion of Matthew Hurley's "Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind."

Thursday, November 8th: ''Public Lecture: Mirth: What is it Good For? by Matthew M. Hurley ''

Matthew M. Hurley is a research associate at the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition at Indiana University where he works with Douglas Hofstadter. He earned his BA in computer science and cognitive science at Tufts University in Medford, MA, and is finishing up his Ph.D. at Indiana this year. His book, Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind (MIT Press, 2011), coauthored with Daniel Dennett and Reginald Adams, is an expansion on his undergraduate thesis that presents an evolutionarily grounded theory of humor in terms of its cognitive and emotional mechanics. His current research is focused on a naturalistic theory for the source of teleology and agency in our world.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary theory invites us to view traits in terms of their adaptive function. Although not every trait has such a function (there are spandrels), the enjoyment of humor seems nonetheless to be one trait that does lend itself to adaptive explanation. The pleasures and pains that constitute human emotional life each appear to provide a functional benefit in motivating a certain class of behaviors. But the purpose of mirth--the emotional component of humor--is less obvious than with many other emotions. I will present a theory in which the role of mirth in our lives is one of an epistemic motivator--a kind of mind candy, which makes enjoyable a certain kind of cognitive cleanup. Humor is an evolved solution to the epistemic problem of a certain kind of conclusion that is automatically inferred during comprehension. Once such a reward system exists, it also becomes available to be co-opted towards other uses and even abuses (cf. the use and abuse of confections well beyond the biological requirement of encouraging consumption of fruits, as well as the similar concept of masturbation).

Wednesday, November 14th: Discussion of "Entextualized Humor in the Formation of Scientist Identities among U.S. Undergraduates" Bucholtz et al. 2011

Undergraduates studying science are novices, finding their way in a foreign "scientific culture of academia." One way to navigate this transition, is though humor and funny "sciencey" text messages. Recipients of these humorous texts may align or disalign with the scientist identity.

Wednesday, November 28th: MINDFULNESS & LOVING-KINDNESS MEDITATION

Join the CBD student group this week for a guided mindfulness meditation, as well as loving-kindness meditation, led by contemplative life adviser Susal Collins. The meditation will be followed by a discussion of the contemporary implications of contemplative practice on the mind, the way we approach suffering, and how this affects our society as a whole.

The Mind and Life Institute, founded originally by the Dalai Lama and neuroscientists, has recently been given a 3 million dollar grant to develop " an integrated approach to addiction treatment, a research program to study positive qualities such as compassion and ethical conduct, and the further development of its global network of scholars, researchers and contemplative practitioners." In light of the institutions proximity to us, in Hadley, and the relevance of the topic in our modern world, we will base our discussion around compassion.

You can pick up the article, "Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative Expertise" in the ASH lobby for context. If you're further interested, you may find this comprehensive article on mindfulness insightful: "Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness"