Everyone has spent at least a few hours playing Tetris, but what happens if you play it for too long? Do you get square eyes? Well, sort of. Just like looking into bright lights leaves an after image on your retinas, you can see this when you blink. Look at this white square for 10 seconds, and then blink. Okay, now rapidly blink. The Tetris effect is similar to that after image, the difference is that the after image is present in the brain. Continue reading The Tetris Effect
Learned helplessness was discovered by Martin Seligman at the university of Pennsylvania. Seligman was conducting behaviourist style experiments on dogs, when he discovered that dogs placed in a position of helplessness learn about their helplessness and then give up all hope.
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‘Abnormality’ was defined by Rosenhan and Seligman (1989) as the absence of normality. This however raises a problem, what is normality? What is it to be normal? Definitions of normality is a controversial topic in Psychology. For now, the simplest way of definition abnormality is: dangerous or harmful behaviour which deviates from the statistical norm. For example a person who self-harms may be labelled as abnormal through this definition. This definition is known as the statistical criterion. Psychologists may use interviews, psychometric tests, neurological tests or observations to diagnose people as abnormal. Continue reading Abnormality