Modelle:

Für eine Person, in deren Kopf sich einige schöne Modelle finden, wird manches oder gar vieles von dem, was sich um sie herum ereignet, redundant bzw. wenig überraschend oder verwunderlich. Ungewissheitsverringerung ist die erfreuliche Wirkung guter Modelle: Sie ermöglichen uns, die Zukunft teilweise, manche Aspekte der Zukunft zur Gänze, vorwegzunehmen, und erleichtern hierdurch sowohl die Einschätzung der Sachlage als auch das Treffen angemessener Entscheidungen.

Redundanz:

Salopp gesagt: Ein Maß für die Entfernung zwischen der tatsächlichen Unsicherheit und der maximalen Unsicherheit. Bzw. eigentlich: Ein Maß für die Differenz zwischen der maximalen Unsicherheit und der tatsächlichen Unsicherheit.

Unklarheit:

Lernen erfolgt wohl primär in Situationen, in denen ein gewisses Maß an Unklarheit darüber besteht, was getan werden sollte // wie eine Aufgabe gelöst werden sollte. Bewegen wir uns auf gar zu bekannten und sicheren Wegen, treffen wir nur selten auf Lernmöglichkeiten.

Handlungsunsicherheit:

Ein sinnvolles Maß an Handlungsunsicherheit ist sicherlich dem Nichtvorhandensein von Handlungsunsicherheit vorzuziehen. Bei allzu großer Handlungsunsicherheit ist der Mensch zur Passivität verurteilt. Bei Abwesenheit erstarrt das Handeln.

Dauerfernsehen:

Eine Art Flucht vor sich selbst.

Unterhaltsame Gesprächspartner:

Häufig sind das Personen, in deren Köpfen sich eine große Fülle an Modellen über Phänomene dieser Welt findet.

Verinnerlichung des Inhalts von Texten:

Z.B. indem man den Text in eigenen Worten zusammenfasst.

[Siehe auch: aufwändiges Erinnern]

Informationsgehalt von Texten:

Ein Text ist dann besonders informativ, wenn er uns ermöglicht innere Modelle zu überarbeiten oder unseren Vorrat an bestehenden Modellen um neue Modelle erweitert. Ein Text ist dann für einen Leser redundant bzw. informationslos, wenn er nicht dazu anregen kann, Gedanken zu überarbeiten oder den Vorrat an Gedanken mit weiteren Gedanken anzureichern.

Markierungen:

Es macht wenig Sinn, besonders informative Stellen eines Buches oder Textes zu markieren, wenn man sich anschließend nicht auch Zeit nimmt, den Informationsgehalt dieser Stellen abzubauen.

Regeln des Denkens:

Regeln nach denen wir Objekte zusammenfassen und nach denen wir Objekte unterscheiden.

Price and Steven's Group-Splitting Model:

"Price and Stevens (1998, 1999; Stevens & Price, 2000) advanced the hypothesis that schizotypal traits promote charismatic/religious leadership, and play an adaptive role at the group level by favoring the splitting and dispersal of human communities. Many aspects of positive schizotypy - magical thinking, paranoid ideation, and the tendency to form novel and unusual ideas and express them in idiosyncratic ways - can contribute to a compelling leader personality, often with religious and messianic overtones. According to Price and Stevens, schizotypal leaders act as catalyzers for the origin of new belief systems; if they are successful, the subgroup that form around them and their beliefs may eventually split from the original group and become new social entities. ... schizotypy works as a high-risk strategy for the individual, with potentially high gains (becoming a charismatic leader) as well as losses (ostracism, schizophrenia). In some respects, schizotypy would be analogous to the adaptive dispersal phenotypes found in many other organisms, whereby some individuals develop an alternative morphological and/or behavioral profile that causes them away from the natal territory (e.g. swarming locusts)."

Marco Del Giudice; Evolutionary Psychiatry

Intragenomic conflicts:

"Intragenomic conflicts (such as those between maternally and paternally expressed genes) also tend to produce maladaptive outcomes for the person as a whole. In the presence of intragenomic conflict, the developing phenotype is subject to opposing forces, much like in a game of tug-of-war. The tension between different sets of genes with opposite effects increases phenotypic variability and, consequently, the likelihood of reaching maladaptive levels of trait expression. If for any reason the dynamic equilibrium is broken - for example because of disruptive mutations on one side of the conflict - the resulting unbalance may easily determine dysregulated or frankly pathological outcomes. Conflicts between brain-expressed imprinted genes seem to play a role in the development of some mental disorders, most notably autism, schizophrenia, and other psychotic conditions ( Byars et al., 2014; Crespi & Badcock, 2008; Crespi et al., 2010; Wilkins, 2011)."

Marco Del Giudice; Evolutionary Psychiatry

Freundlichkeit & Feindlichkeit:

Freundlichkeit und Feindlichkeit lassen sich als Gestimmtheiten auffassen: als Kooperationsbereitschaft und als Kampfbereitschaft.

The diametrical model of autism and psychosis:

"At the core of the [diametrical model of autism and psychosis proposed by Crespi and Badcock] is the idea that psychosis spectrum disorders (including SSDs and BDs) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) arise at the opposite ends of a continuum of cognitive specialization, ranging from extreme investment in mentalistic cognition (psychosis) to extreme investment in mechanistic cognition (autism)."

Marco Del Giudice; Evolutionary Psychiatry

The spectrum of bipolar phenomena:

"Like the schizophrenia spectrum, the spectrum of bipolar phenomena ranges all the way from normal personality traits to severe psychotic symptoms. The broad dimension of personality underlying the risk of bipolar disorders is usually labeled hypomania. Hypomanic traits have two main facets: a facet of mood volatility (cyclothymia) that is strongly linked to neuroticism, and a facet of excitement and vitality (hyperthymia) that overlaps with extraversion and openness."

"Hypomanic traits are moderately correlated with schizotypy. Like positive schizotypy, hypomania is a robust predictor of artistic and verbal creativity, especially in combination with high intelligence. In addition to stimulating rich and unusual associations, hypomanic traits increase ideation fluency, allowing people to generate thoughts and ideas at a faster pace. Artists tend to be above average in hypomania, and creativity - both artistic and scientific - is elevated in the relatives of BD patients (Baas et al., 2016; Furnham et al., 2008, Jamison, 1993; Kyaga, 2015; Rawlings & Locarnini, 2008; Srivastava et al., 2010; Vellante et al., 2011). The evidence indicates that creativity is enhanced in hypomanic personalities and people with mild manic symptoms, but not in those experiencing full-blown manic episodes (Miklowitz & Johnson, 2013)."

Marco Del Giudice; Evolutionary Psychiatry

Mathematics:

"One might define mathematics as the study of structures involving specified sets of symbols that are combined using specified operations and that are related to each other in specified ways."

David J. Hand

"The idea of years of challenge-exceeding-skill practice leading to moments of challenge-meeting-skill flow explains why elite performance can look so effortless: in a sense, it is."

Angela Duckworth

"Almost anything can be interesting once. Only a few things ever become endlessly fascinating, and nothing is endlessly fascinating for everyone."

Paul Silvia

[See also: On Exploration and Play]

Affluence Scripts:

>How does script theory explain interests? Although Tomkins never specifically addressed interests, they would fall under the category of affluence scripts, “which address neither the damages, the limitations, the contaminations, nor the toxicities of the human condition, but rather those scenes which promise and deliver intense and/or enduring positive affects of excitement or enjoyment. These script the sources of the individual's zest for life” (Tomkins, 1991). Affluence scripts specify what the person will find to be fun and interesting. As with all scripts, they begin with a single scene involving an emotion and an object. An interest would develop when an activity arouses the interest affect—perhaps a high school student happens to watch a TV show on forensic science and is interested in how fiber evidence can catch untidy criminals. At this point it's impossible to know if an interest script will develop, unless the experience was so overwhelming as to form a script in itself. But perhaps the person runs across the same show the next week and is interested in how forensic scientists analyze questioned documents. Here we have the rudiments of script. These two experiences will cohere, given their core similarities, and be magnified by the emotional feelings of interest. A simple meaning emerges from this nascent script—“forensic science is fun,” perhaps.

The person can now predict and anticipate circumstances that will create interest—the script influences scenes. Should the student feel bored, for example, the script specifies forensic science as a promising possibility for interest and enjoyment. And, of course, this script can expand into a broader, more guiding script if more emotional scenes are added. The student might experience interest while reading a book on criminal profiling—this set of experiences would be assimilated and further magnify the script. The script might eventually become strong enough to influence major life decisions; the high school student might apply to colleges with good programs in forensic science. If these years of scenes continue to create interest and enjoyment, the script will influence career selection. But if they don't, then the script will change, either by being demagnified (incorporating scenes with relatively minor affect) or by including scenes with opposing affects.<

Paul Silvia, Exploring the Psychology of Interest

Interest and Learning:

"If interest doesn't enhance learning because of heightened attention, then how does interest affect learning? Research suggests that depth of processing might be responsible. ... Perhaps interest leads people to process text more deeply. In turn, deeper processing leads to better comprehension and recall of the text. Many experiments support this position (see Schiefele, 1999)." 

"Interest appears to promote learning through several mechanisms. Intuition to the contrary, interest doesn't seem to increase attention. Early experiments found that interest increased attention to text (Anderson, 1982; Asher, 1980); recent experiments found that interest reduced attention (McDaniel et al., 2000; Shirey & Reynolds, 1988). A second mechanism, depth of processing, has received stronger support. The interested reader approaches and processes text differently from the uninterested reader. Interest promotes focusing on the text's meaning and building a propositional representation, whereas boredom promotes focusing on the text's superficial aspects (Schiefele, 1999, 2001)."

Paul Silvia, Exploring the Psychology of Interest

Conflict:

"A common form of conflict is receiving information that differs from existing information, such as expectancy violation, or perceiving incongruent parts within a whole object. Stimuli can also arouse conflict by implying different and incompatible categorizations."

Paul Silvia, Exploring the Psychology of Interest

Complexity:

>Complex patterns have more elements than do simple patterns, more dissimilarity between the elements, and less integration of several elements into a single unit. All told, “one might say roughly that it refers to the amount of variety or diversity in a stimulus pattern” (Berlyne, 1960).<

Paul Silvia, Exploring the Psychology of Interest

Curiosity and Information Gaps:

>Loewenstein (1994) offers an intriguing theory of curiosity based on information theory. He proposes an information gap theory, which he says “views curiosity as arising when attention becomes focused on a gap in one's knowledge. Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation labeled curiosity. The curious individual is motivated to obtain the missing information to reduce or eliminate the feeling of deprivation”. Loewenstein defines information gaps using information theory's uncertainty formula, [formula]. The absolute size of an information gap is the person's “informational goal” (usually total certainty) minus the person's current level of information.< 

Paul Silvia, Exploring the Psychology of Interest

Uncertainty:

"Uncertainty has a technical meaning based on information theory (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). Information theory isn't a theory with a specific content or subject matter (Frick, 1959; Garner, 1962). It's probably better described as a perspective, a way of thinking about the nature and structure of information. As noted by Berlyne (1965): “A certain degree of uncertainty is said to exist when (1) any number of alternative events can occur, (2) there is no knowing in advance which will occur at a particular time, and (3) each alternative occurs with a specifiable relative frequency or probability”. Information theory specifies uncertainty as [formula] in which p is the probability that event i will occur (Attneave, 1959). According to this formula, uncertainty has some interesting properties. First, uncertainty increases as the number of alternatives increases, all else equal, because uncertainty is a sum across alternatives. For example, an election with five candidates is more uncertain than an election with two candidates. Second, uncertainty increases as the alternative events become equally probable. An election is more uncertain when all five candidates have an equal chance of winning and less uncertain when one candidate is the clear favorite. Combining these two properties, we see that uncertainty approaches a psychological maximum when a large number of alternatives are equally likely."

Paul Silvia, Exploring the Psychology of Interest

Novelty:

"The key, Paul [Silvia] explained, is that novelty for the beginner comes in one form, and novelty for the expert in another. For the beginner, novelty is anything that hasn't been encountered before. For the expert, novelty is nuance."

Angela Duckworth

Vögel und ihre Laster:

"Heinroth bezeichnet den jungen Kuckuck als ein «Laster» der fütternden Wirtsvögel, da er ihre Reaktionen viel stärker auslöst, als artgleiche Jungvögel."

Konrad Lorenz

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"Die ersten Untersucher des AAM (LORENZ, 1937; PETERS, 1937) waren ausgesprochener oder unausgesprochenermaßen der Ansicht, daß das natürliche Objekt, wenigstens in der Regel, die stärkste denkbare auslösend wirksame Reizsituation darstelle. Dem ist nicht so. Die Relation zwischen zwei Reizen läßt sich übertreiben, Kontraste können verstärkt, Konturausbuchtungen überhöht, die Aufeinanderfolge wechselnder Reize verschnellert werden und auch «absolut» wirkende Reize, wie Farbe und Größe, können wirksamer gewählt werden, als dies unter natürlichen Bedingungen je vorkommt. Auf diese Weise gewinnt man Attrappen, deren auslösende Wirkung die des biologisch adaequaten Objekts gewaltig übertrifft. Ein dunkelrotes, dünnes Holzstäbchen mit mehreren weißen Ringen am unteren Ende vor einem Möwenkücken vertikal auf- und abbewegt, löst die Bettelreaktion genau doppelt so stark aus, wie das fütternde Alttier, weil das absolute Merkmal rot, der Kontrast des roten Schnabelflecks gegen den Hintergrund, die Schmalheit, die Steilstellung und die Bewegungsweise, alles Schlüsselreize des Betteln auslösenden Mechanismus, im Vergleich zu den vom normalen Objekt ausgehenden verstärkt sind (TINBERGEN & PERDECK, 1950). Eine Silbermöwe verläßt ihr eigenes Gelege, um ein sehr viel größeres, kontrastreicher geflecktes Attrappenei zu bebrüten und kommt von diesem nicht los, obwohl sie die befriedigenden Endhandlungen, Einrollen, Niedersetzen und Brüten an ihm gar nicht durchführen kann (BAERENDS, 1954). Wie MAGNUS (1954) zeigte, wird der Balzanflug des männlichen Kaisermantels durch den Wechsel zwischen hellgelber und dunkler Farbe ausgelöst, den der Flügelschlag des Weibchens erzeugt. Die stärkste Wirkung liegt jedoch nicht bei der Frequenz, die der natürlichen Situation entspricht, sondern steigt mit ihrem Zunehmen bis zur elektrophysiologisch nachgewiesenen Verschmelzungsgrenze stetig an."

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"vieles, was beim Menschen als Laster bezeichnet wird, beruht auf der Suche nach übernormal auslösenden Objekten." 

Pseudo-ADD:

"Psychiatrists Edward Hallowell and John Ratey, both of Harvard, find that people afflicted with pseudo-ADD have inadvertently trained their brains to constantly seek new information rather than thoroughly process existing information."

Scott Hagwood

[Pseudo ADD ~ (maladaptive) hyperexplorative behavior; exploration and exploitation I, exploration and exploitation II, exploration and exploitation III]

"The mind consists of two very powerful but opposite forces —
the power to focus and the desire to drift."

Scott Hagwood

Bedeutungsgehalte:

Einem Menschen ist es nahezu unmöglich, sich in der Welt zu orientieren, wenn er sämtlichen Ereignissen, die sich um ihn herum ereignen, ein gleiches oder ein ähnliches Maß an Bedeutung zumisst.

Repetition:

"You’ve heard the old saying about the three most important things in selecting real estate: location, location, location. Unfortunately, too many people assign a similar importance to a basic memory technique: repetition, repetition, repetition. They seem to think that if we just hammer away hard enough and long enough with brute repetitive force, we’ll chisel the information into our long-term memory."

Scott Hagwood

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"Mastering your memory means learning to minimize the drudgery of repetition. Going over and over material is an enormous waste of time, energy, and effort. In order for your memory to grow, you must give the information enough time to incubate. A farmer who plants seeds in the field does not immediately return to the spot. A wise farmer understands the development cycle of each crop and returns at the appointed time to cultivate the new growth. So it is with memory. Treat repetition as a spice, using just enough to enhance memory."

Stereotypies:

"[The] development of stereotypies indicates that well-being has probably been poor, with the animal motivated to show a behaviour pattern that it could not perform normally or to completion."

C.J. Mason 

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"Stereotypies often develop in situations of low stimulus input, physical restraint, and inescapable fear or frustration. These are situations that behavioural and physiological data indicate to be aversive and stressful. Indeed, a behavioural sign of aversion or internal conflict, such as an attempt to escape or a displacement activity, is sometimes the very source from which a stereotypy develops. Furthermore, once well established, stereotypies are often elicited on exposure to a stressor, or to barren conditions."

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"Established stereotypies are also commonly performed when little is happening in the environment, and arousal is probably low. This is true, for example, of flying to and fro incaged birds (Hinde 1962), finger-sucking and other stereotypies in children (Levy 1944; Berkson 1967) and rocking in laboratory-caged chimpanzees (Berkson 1967)."

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"Like a scar, a stereotypy tells us something about past events. It suggests that previously, a behaviour pattern has been repeatedly elicited, and probably in an environment that has demanded little variation in performance. In captivity, sustained repetition may occur because the behaviour cannot reach a satisfactory, consummatory conclusion, and in barren conditions the behaviour is unlikely to be interrupted by higher priority behaviour patterns. Thus stereotypies should warn us that the animal has probably been in an unchanging and frustrating environment, and that its welfare has probably been unsatisfactory. Much evidence does indeed link the development of stereotypies with specific sub-optimal environments. The development of a stereotypy in an individual is therefore the sign of an animal that has probably been suffering, and whose well-being may be poor still."

"rule-governed competitive sports are 'played', but they are rarely if ever conducted playfully. Sports and many games are often treated as being deadly serious."

Patrick Bateson

Play:

"The more an individual has been deprived of play, the more it will play when given the opportunity, as though compensating for the previous shortfall (Jensen 1999). More saliently, an individual is prepared to work in order to be given the opportunity to engage in play."

Patrick Bateson

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"An individual absorbed in play seems not to require any external reward."

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"In the case of play, particularly when the individual is playing on its own, the motivation is intrinsic - that is, no external reward is needed."

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"In social play the reactions of the play partner may provide additional reward, increasing the likelihood that the initiator will continue playing. If the partner doesn't respond playfully the initiator will stop."

On Exploration and Play:

"Exploration and play with novel, inanimate objects decreases relatively rapldly, as an animal evidently becomes more familiar with the potentials of the object and as novelty wears off. More complex objects will be the focus of longer periods of attention (Welker 1956a. 1956b. 1956~). Conspecifics probably continue to elicit play because their complexity and thelr almost Infinite behavioral (play) repertoire renders them almost infinitely novel."

Suzanne Chevalier-Skolnikoff

The Play Face:

"One of the most prominent features of play is the play face."

Suzanne Chevalier-Skolnikoff 

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"Bateson noted that the >play< of monkeys is similar to aggression. He theorized that such behavior could occur and not turn into a fight only if the animals were capable of some kind of signal which would carry the message >This is play,< or >These actions in which we now engage do not denote what those actions for which they stand would denote.<"

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"Van Lawick-Goodall (1968) reports that play usually started without the initiator showing the play face, and that only one animal at her study site fairly regularly initiated play with the expression. She observed that it was after play was well under way and particularly during contact play that the play face became evident."

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"It seems reasonable to suggest that the play face serves primarily as the expression of an emotional state associated with intense playfulness."

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"I suggest that the nonhuman primate play face is basically an emotional expression representing the emotional feeling state, playfulness (which probably feels subjectively similar-pleasurable and exciting-both to nonhuman primates and to man)."

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"Van Lawick-Goodall has emphasized, that infants take chances and learn the skills of leaping only in the relatively safe context of play."

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"The well-known work of Harlow and his colleagues indicates that at least for rhesus monkeys peer contact, and presumably play, during infancy may be essential for the subsequent adult manifestation of appropriate sexual and maternal behaviors. While animals raised in isolation or in the exclusive company of their mothers do not attain normal adult sexual or parental competence, animals raised with peers do (Harlow 1971; Harlow and Harlow 1965; Harlow, Harlow, and Suomi 1971). "

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"In two subsequent experiments, six-month-old and one-year-old isolation-raised, and consequently abnormal, animals were given the opportunity to interact with three-monthold infants (Harlow and Suomi 1971; Harlow, Harlow and Suomi 1971). The isolates first responded to the tiny infants with fear and retreat. But the infants persistently followed the retreating isolates and clung to them as they would have clung to their mothers. Soon the isolates, unable to avoid contact with the persistent infants, began to respond to them with infant-like clinging. Clinging was followed by exploration, and within weeks play began to develop between the isolate-infant pairs. The more infantile play patterns appeared first, and the more mature kinds of play patterns appeared later. Within six months of interaction with their infant "socializers" the isolates' behavior, including their play behavior, appeared to be normal. Harlow (1971) has suggested that as play progresses from one ontogenetic stage to another, each stage may prepare the way for the subsequent stage. The finding that the older isolation-raised animals went through the same play stages as infants normally pass through during ontogenetic development strongly supports this theory. It may be that while early developmental stages may not function as direct practice for adult behavior, the complete series of stages may ultimately lead to the ability to perform adult behavior patterns. "

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"Curiosity, exploration, and play appear to serve one general adaptive function: to put an animal in touch with his animate and inanimate environment. They provide a motivational mechanism that will insure assessment, experimentation, and learning about the environment." 

"Few things are as important to your quality of life as your choices about how to spend the precious resource of your free time[.]"

Winifred Gallagher