Attention with effort:

"for to say that an object is interesting is only another way of saying that it excites attention. But in addition to the attention which any object already interesting or just becoming interesting claims — passive attention or spontaneous attention, we may call it — there is a more deliberate attention, — voluntary attention or attention with effort, as it is called, — which we can give to objects less interesting or uninteresting in themselves."

William James

[Also see: John Cleese on English Education]

Das Wahrnehmen:

"Sage mir, welche Eindrücke du sammelst, und an welchen Eindrücken du vorüber gehst, und ich sage dir, wer du bist."

Depressive Verstimmung:

Eine Verstimmung, bei der positive Voraussagen (z.B. Erfolgserwartungen) mehr und mehr durch negative Voraussagen (z.B. Misserfolgserwartungen) verdrängt bzw. ersetzt werden.

-----

Umgekehrt bei Überdrehtheit: Positive Voraussagen verdrängen negative Voraussagen.

Toward a Neural Model of the Openness-Psychoticism Dimension

Toward a Neural Model of the Openness-Psychoticism Dimension: Functional Connectivity in the Default and Frontoparietal Control Networks

Scott D Blain, Rachael G Grazioplene, Yizhou Ma, Colin G DeYoung (October 2019)

Abstract

Psychosis proneness has been linked to heightened Openness to Experience and to cognitive deficits. Openness and psychotic disorders are associated with the default and frontoparietal networks, and the latter network is also robustly associated with intelligence. We tested the hypothesis that functional connectivity of the default and frontoparietal networks is a neural correlate of the openness-psychoticism dimension. Participants in the Human Connectome Project (N = 1003) completed measures of psychoticism, openness, and intelligence. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify intrinsic connectivity networks. Structural equation modeling revealed relations among personality, intelligence, and network coherence. Psychoticism, openness, and especially their shared variance were related positively to default network coherence and negatively to frontoparietal coherence. These associations remained after controlling for intelligence. Intelligence was positively related to frontoparietal coherence. Research suggests that psychoticism and openness are linked in part through their association with connectivity in networks involving experiential simulation and cognitive control. We propose a model of psychosis risk that highlights roles of the default and frontoparietal networks. Findings echo research on functional connectivity in psychosis patients, suggesting shared mechanisms across the personality–psychopathology continuum.

Ethology:

Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics, 1982:

"The greatest difference between ethology and psychological behavioral study of animals lies in ethology's strong emphasis on spontaneous behavior in the natural environment, or at least under the most natural conditions possible. Ethologists do conduct experiments, but never completely detached from their fieldwork. They are first and foremost patient observers. This attitude of waiting to see what the animals do of their own accord, instead of encouraging a particular kind of behavior for experimental purposes, also characterizes our research in Arnhem."

Frans de Waal on Perception:

Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics:

"Everyone can look, but actually perceiving is something that has to be learned. This is a constantly recurring problem when new students arrive. For the first few weeks they 'see' nothing at all. When I explain to them at the end of an aggressive incident in the colony that 'Yeroen rushed up to Mama and slapped her, whereupon Gorilla and Mama joined forces and pursued Yeroen, who sought refuge with Nikkie,' they look at me as if I am crazy. Whereas to me this is a superficial summary of a fairly simple interaction (only four chimpanzees were involved), the students have only seen a few black beasts chaotically charging around uttering ear-piercing screams. They probably will have missed the hard slap.

At such times I have to remember that I too went through a long period when I found myself wondering at the apparent lack of structure in these episodes, whereas the real problem was not the lack of structure but my own lack of perception. It is necessary to be completely familiar with the many individuals, their respective friendships and rivalries, all their gestures, characteristic sounds, facial expressions, and other kinds of behavior. Only then do the wild scenes we see actually begin to make sense.

Initially we only see what we recognize. Someone who knows nothing about chess and who watches a game between two players will not be aware of the tension on the board. Even if the watcher stays for an hour, he or she will still have great difficulty in accurately reproducing the state of the play on another board. A grand master, on the other hand, would grasp and memorize the position of every piece in one concentrated glance of a few seconds. This is not a difference of memory, but of perception. Whereas to the uninitiated the positions of the chess pieces are unrelated, the initiated attach great significance to them and see how they threaten and cover each other. It is easier to remember something with a structure than a chaotic jumble.

This is the synthesizing principle of the so-called Gestalt perception: the whole, or Gestalt, is more than the sum of its parts. Learning to perceive is learning to recognize the patterns in which the components regularly occur. Once we are familiar with the patterns of interaction between chess pieces or chimpanzees, they seem so striking and obvious that it is difficult to imagine how other people can get bogged down in all kinds of detail and miss the essential logic of the maneuvers."

[Siehe auch: Konrad Lorenz über die Gestaltwahrnehmung]

Kunst:

Salopp: Bei der Berührung mit Kunst geht es darum, Leben aufzufinden.

[Siehe auch: Systemizers, Empathizers]