Category Ask the Psychologist

If you ever listen deeply to a song on your headphones and focus intensely, you might sometimes see colours emerging in your mind that align with the songs mood or pace.

The science of perception

 Perception is highly variable. As human beings, our range of perception evolved to exclude the nanoscale and macroscale, and we learned to perceive only “medium-sized objects moving at medium speeds”. We, as evolutionary organisms, have developed brains that understand only what we need in order to function in the world. And that means our tools of sensory perception are cultivated and specialised according to our domain of operation. We’re perception specialists. And specialists can only ever handle a narrow dimension. But here’s the good news dimension. But here’s the good news: this doesn’t have to limit our ability to put our extinction tools of preception to much better use and produce a much more lucid mental model of our reality.

Synaesthesia is the ability of brains to create collaboration between our memories and the sensory regions; here, sights, sounds, colours, tastes, shapes all interact to produce cross-integrated modes of perception – you can hear in colour, taste sights, see sounds, and all that jazz, as per Sussex-University research.

The combinatorial strategy

A well-documented tool of information-processing and storage is Mnemonics a mental tool that help us remember things more easily. Mnemonics employ a similar mechanism to synaesthesia. It works on the same principle of interconnecting concepts and associating new objects with pre-existing memories.

Any higher level of perception and information-processing seems to require a combinatorial strategy. Given that our perception is limited by the bandwidth of our senses, it becomes all the more useful – if not imperative – that we make efforts to increase interaction between the brain’s domains and sensory inputs to produce a more cohesive and comprehensive view of the world.

Disinhibited feedback theory

 Neurobiologist J. Neufeld believes that the brains of synaesthetes are not much different from that of your everyday friend. But synaesthetic sensations can occur when the barriers between our sensory-processing regions of our brain recede or fall away. In this state of disinhibition, cognitive signals flow more freely between and along our sensory hierarchies and neural pathways. Thus, an optical stimulus (an object or word we see or read) might trigger or bleed into the olfactory (smell-sensing) cortex, producing a sensation of fragrance or odour associated with the word or object.

How does it work?

Synaesthesia is about the interaction between domains of your brain that hitherto worked in isolation. It’s collaborative, integrative, interactive. It seems to fortify or strengthen a perception by combining more layers of sensory input in its formation. Like an artist fully recreates a face by accreting dabs of paint of varied shades to define each contour. Like a lump of sugar dissolves fully into a cup of tea to make it sweet. Like you find a joke hilarious because you’ve processed the punchline simultaneously in two different dimensions of perception the literal, and the ticklish nonsensical – and, therefore, the double-entendre shocks you into laughter.

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Have you heard of the expressions reverse psychology”, “reverse auction”, “reverse brainstorming” or reverse mentoring”? What do they mean? Come on, let’s find out.

Reverse psychology

Reverse psychology is a technique by which one can get the other person to do what one wants by asking him to do just the opposite. For instance, a mother can ask her child to remain indoors when she actually wants the child to play outdoors. The naturally resistant child will surely go out to play. This manipulative method generally works with many people, but excessively sharp children or adults can sense the truth, especially if there are repeated instances.

This technique is used in treatment of patients. Agreeing with the patient rather than advising him against a particular unacceptable behaviour can actually dissuade the person from doing what he wants. This ‘anti-suggestion’, pretending to agree puts the situation or the person’s thinking in a new perspective.

For example a school girl who is extremely troublesome in school is brought to a doctor. After listening to what she does in school the doctor says. “If I were you I would do more. Try more tantrums. It will be fun. “Then the girl will start trying to heed the doctor’s advice but in the process lose interest in her odd behaviour.

Reverse auction

In a regular auction, the buyers compete with one another, quoting higher and higher prices for a product. In a reverse auction, the buyer puts up a request for a product or service. Sellers then place bids for the amount they want. The sellers underbid each other and at the end of the auction, the seller bidding for the lowest amount wins. Reverse auctions work when there are multiple sellers connecting with a buyer. They are more common online.

Reverse brainstorming

The method of reverse brainstorming is used in commercial fields. A company that wants a product assessment and is looking to find ways to improve it can throw negative questions at the customer. For example, what is the worst thing about this product? Or what would you suggest to make this product fail? A light-hearted session may lead to amazing insights into the product and ways of improving it at the same time winning customer’s faith.

Reverse mentoring

Reverse mentoring is a method adopted in companies where old executives are paired with young employees so that they (older executives) can be guided on new technology, current trends and social media. This kind of mentoring has also been found to close the generation gap and create a cordial atmosphere, ruling out conflicts.

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We may be afraid of many things in life? But is there a difference between normal fears and phobias? How can phobias be overcome? Let’s find out…

Is there something that scares you? Maybe you are scared of being alone in the dark or of heights. It could be a spider that induces fear in you, or maybe a snake? These are among the most common fears.

What are phobias?

It is normal to have fears. But there is a difference between normal fear and phobias. In the case of phobias, the fear may be excessive. It is normal to feel scared when you see a big dog coming your way and barking and snarling at you. However, a person with a phobia of dogs may feel terrified and be very distressed when he sees any dogs, even one that is friendly. He may avoid any place where he is likely to find dogs. For instance, he may avoid going to a friend’s house just because the friend owns a dog and may therefore end up missing out on social events, or he may avoid streets where there are many street dogs and take longer or more inconvenient routes to get to his destination.

How do phobias develop?

There isn’t one single answer, but researchers have come up with some explanations. Some say that certain fears, such as the fear of snakes or spiders, may be inherited from our ancestors. Our ancestors needed to be careful around these creatures in order to protect themselves, and those who were able to show an appropriate fear response and avoided these situations, were more likely to survive. Over generations, humans may have developed an inborn tendency to fear some things more than others. Some researchers, however, say that these fears are not inborn but rather, leant. Like ‘the burnt child who dreads the fire’, if our previous experiences with an object or a particular situation have been bad, we get scared of that object or situation thereafter if you have been bitten by a dog or know someone who has been bitten by a dog, you may be more likely to start feeling scared of dogs. We also tend to fear things our parents or friends are scared of.

How can one overcome phobias?

The answer lies in this basic idea- the more you avoid something you are scared of, the fewer opportunities you have of learning that it is actually not as scary as you imagine it to be, and hence, your fear will remain strong. However, if you expose yourself to the thing you are scared of, you will get more opportunities to learn that it is actually not as dangerous as you believe it is, and that will help to reduce the fear. For someone with a phobia of dogs, a psychologist may first teach some exercises to help him relax. Then, in a safe environment, he will expose the person to the least feared stimulus, for instance, a picture of a dog, and teach the person to do those relaxation exercises while looking at the same. Slowly, he may expose the person to the sound of a dog barking. Then he may take him to watch a dog in a kennel. After that he may take him to see a friendly unchained dog but from a distance, and as the person learns to relax in these progressively more scary situations, he or she will reach a point where he/she may be comfortable even petting a dog.

Watching others who are unafraid of the situation may help to reduce your own fears. For instance, watching your friends petting dogs and playing with them, may make you feel less scared and more willing to play with the dogs as well.

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Journey through history and trace the roots of the phrase “think outside the box’ back to the “nine-dot” puzzle.

We often hear the phrase “think outside the box’ as a rallying call for innovative thinking, urging us to challenge our assumptions and perceive the world from a fresh perspective. It encourages us to break free from conventional thought patterns and liberate our minds from the shackles of past experiences.

Origin

The origins of this phrase lie in a captivating puzzle known as the “nine-dot” challenge. Imagine a three by three square grid composed of nine dots, and the task is to connect all of these dots using no more than four straight lines, without lifting the pen. While the exact age of this puzzle remains uncertain, variations of it can be traced back to American puzzle maker Sam Loyd’s ‘Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrum’s With Answers, published in 1914. Some even speculate that the current version of the game was developed by the British mathematician Henry Dudeney.

However, it was in the 1970s that the nine-dot puzzle gained prominence as a tool for academics to explore human thinking and problem-solving approaches.

American psychologist J.P. Guilford conducted experiments involving this puzzle in the early 1970s, while British leadership expert John Eric Adair claimed he had introduced it in 1969. This captivating challenge began to capture the imagination of many, as it demonstrated the intricate workings of the human mind.

The phrase

Coinciding with the puzzle’s rise to popularity, the phrase “think outside the box’ emerged as a means to describe this innovative mindset. The earliest recorded instance of this phrase, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, dates back to a 1971 article in the journal Data Management. Since then, it has become a widely adopted mantra for those seeking to unlock their creative potential.

So, does thinking outside the box truly facilitate creativity? While it may be an oversimplification to attribute creativity solely to this concept, embracing it can certainly serve as a catalyst for original thinking.

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I am a first year MBBS student. I am having … difficulty in preparing for my exams thereby decreasing my efficiency. Kindly guide.

Studying as an MBBS student may be overwhelming sometimes. Since the syllabus is vast, you can benefit by dividing the portion equally and preparing an organised daily timetable to help you learn better. Make sure you keep some time as free time or a break time to avoid getting too bogged down by the syllabus. Try learning in terms of pointers first and later elaborate on what you have learnt. Use a highlighter wherever required, this would help to magnify important words or statements. Try to maintain a book on pointers only, this will help you revise your entire portion at one glance, last minute. You can also audio record yourself as you read out a difficult answer and hear it later; according to studies, listening to your own voice repeatedly can help you memorise better.

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I am not good at controlling my anger. If I let it out, I worsen my relationship with my friends and family. If I keep it in, it keeps bothering me from within and affects my overall personality. It is making my life difficult and I have started talking to less and less people. I fear I will explode if someone talks to me because I do not feel comfortable with the people in my surroundings. What can I do to be at peace with myself as well as with everyone else?

I appreciate your honesty. Talking to fewer people may not always be the best solution, because in life you will have to talk to many other people over time. Indulging in daily physical activities is said to reduce anger. You can go for a run or brisk walk every day; this will help you unwind. Whenever you get angry, it is best to take a brief timeout of maybe 10-15 minutes wherein you can hold yourself better and gather your thoughts, too, before you speak. Simple stretching exercises and focussed breathing exercises (breathe in and breathe out very slowly) will also help you calm down. It is also important to have a friend that you can speak to and vent your emotions and fears to.

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