PSYCH 3WA3: Midterm 1

What are the four ways to achieve 'MAWA'

True MAWA

"Art Modules"

Joint Evolutionary Processes

Applied Arts Effects on Cognition & Behaviour

What is true MAWA?

True MAWA is understanding how the arts such as literature and theatre shaped our social behaviours

For example, in theatre indv play many roles that impact their behaviours on stage. In real life, the same can be said, everyone takes on different roles that reflect different behaviours

How does the term "Art Modules" relate to MAWA?

Understanding the novel arts functions in humans

Humans are the only creatures able to convert perception into a physical drawing ex. figurative drawings

How does joint evolutionary processes relate to MAWA?

Language and music co-evolved together

one was not there without the other

How does the applied arts effect on cognition/ behaviour relate to MAWA?

Studies found that music inotation therapy helped regain language abilities in stroke pt's better than regular speech therapy

Standard Model vs MAWA Concept

Standard Model

• the arts reflect cognitive capacities.

• Our cognitive capacities allow us to perceive art forms

• liner relationship

MAWA Concept

• the arts shaped cognitive capacities.

• Our cognitive capacities and perception of art forms are linked

• how we perceive/ behave is shaped by the arts

• how the arts shape the nature of human cognition

Creativity Definition

• how we think.

Aesthetics Definition

• what we desire.

How do you classify the arts?

• Narrative Arts

• Coordinative Arts

• Performance (e.g., dance, music)

*performing arts

Performing Arts

the coordination of the performance in both the narrative and coordinative arts.

• based on phrases → some type of language.

• Music

• Theatre/Story Telling

• Dance

Narrative Arts

• Static (e.g., painting, poetry, sculptures)

• Performance

  • Narrated (e.g., oral, songs with words, pantomime)

    • third person

  • Acted Out (e.g., theatre, opera, mime)

    • first person

Coordinative Arts

• Performance (e.g., dance, music)

What is the Narrative Triad?

• Gesture

  • dance

• Image

  • visual arts

• Language

  • theatre/storytelling

What is the Performance Triad

• utterances

  • theatre/storytelling

• melodies

  • music

• dance phrases

  • dance

Visual arts are _____ narrativity.

• static

  • a moment frozen.

Theatre/Storytelling is _______ narrativity.

• dynamic

  • movement, flow, etc.

Dance is:

coordination of bodies.

Music is:

coordination of voices.

Character

• exist in a separate world from you → don’t know you → asymmetric.

• you can get emotionally involved with them but not vice versa.

• found in:

  • visual arts & theatre/storytelling.

Partner

• exists in your world → interaction → symmetric.

• found in:

  • music & dance.

Systems of Core Knowledge

• The foundation of behaviour.

Top 10 Systems of Core Knowledge

Objects (5)

1. Objects & their Categorization

2. Language

3. Numerical Cognition

4. Logic & Deductive Reasoning

5. Spatial Cognition & Orientation

Events (2)

6. Causal Inference through Inductive Reasoning (ability to predict in the long term)

7. Mental Time Travel (proactive/ retroactive/ imagining)

Agents (3) - social beings, other people in our network, communication

8. Mentalizing

9. Social Intelligence; Categorizing People

10. Self-awareness; Self-regulation

Objects & their Categorization (CK)

• recognize what things are and whether they’re useful for survival or not.

• coherence.

Language (CK)

• concepts that relate to the object → convey information about them.

  • symbols → representations of the object → a stand in.

  • icon → words that sound how they look.

Numerical Cognition (CK)

• sense of count.

  • precise counts

    • “there are 3 people in the room”

  • approximate counts

    • “there are about 100 people at the show”

Logic & Deductive Reasoning (CK)

• describe things in terms of absolute properties.

• analogical reasoning, learning about relationships between things.

Spatial Cognition & Orientation (CK)

• navigate through spaces to approach or avoid things.

Causal Inference through Inductive Reasoning (CK)

• probability, sense of causation based on things that happened in the past.

• develop inferences for things that may happen in the future (predictions).

Mental Time Travel (CK)

• living in the present moment but having the capacity to think about the past or future.

Mentalizing (CK)

• making inferences about other people’s mental states.

  • beliefs, emotions, motivations, etc.

• theory of mind.

Social Intelligence; Categorizing People (CK)

• e.g., friends vs. foes.

Self-awareness; Self-regulation (CK)

• adapt to problems, predators.

Domain-General

• applied to a wide variety of tasks and functions, rather than one specific function.

  • attention → can apply to many sensory, motor, and cognitive things.

  • forming associations between things.

  • working/short-term memory.

  • multi-tasking/ task switching.

  • Inhibition/ Suppression.

  • Self regulation/ self monitoring.

Domain-Specific

• system that works on one specific thing.

Unique Art Capacities to Humans

1. Mime/Pantomime

• iconic gestures: resembles the thing it’s representing

2. Figurative Drawing

• (iconic images in 2D - creating a 2D )

3. Acting (impersonation/pretending)

• not considered a deception.

4. Rhythmic synchronization of movement to other people through group dance

5. Most diverse musical scale systems of any species

• birds use a single/very simple musical scale.

6. Most diverse and complex chorusing types of any species

• unison, etc.

7. Most elaborate group rituals of any species

*5, 6, 7 not unique just more diverse*

Evolutionary Psychology

• we are cooperative species.

• altruism, food sharing, collaborative actions (music, dance, hunting, etc.)

• this isn’t natural → we’re supposed to be selfish.

What is the Biological Paradox of Group Living?

• individual organisms are supposed to be self-serving (selfish).

• biological function supposed to be: pass on genes, maximize reproduction.

• people oppose the basic tenets of darwinism → that people are self serving.

• if there are too many "cheaters" (ppl who reap the benefits of the cooperation without paying the cost); the community will fall

• groups are fluid and unstable (ppl will constantly jump ship)

• we are neither purely selfish nor purely selfless → somewhere in the middle.

What balance needs to occur in order for the biological paradox to exist?

• Within Group and Between Group cooperation and competition.

• A balance between these two is what allows for the paradox to exist.

Within Group:

• Competition: me vs. you (very darwinian)

• Cooperation: us

Between Group:

• Competition: us vs. them

• Cooperation: us + them (human thinking now)

The Social Brain Hypothesis

• Expansion of the human brain was driven by the need for increased social interaction and social intelligence.

• the larger the group size the larger the brain

  • 150 is thought to be the perfect group size.

• Group Size increases → number of social relationships increases → brain size increases.

What is Social Intelligence?

1. keeping track of social relationships (friends vs. foe)

2. categorizing the self and others into groups (us vs. them)

3. theory of mind → making inferences about people’s mental states (never really know)

4. folk psychology → explaining people’s behaviours with regard to their mental states (people do things for a reason → out of anger, sadness, etc.)

5. Empathy → sharing in people’s emotional states.

6. altruism → helping behaviour with no benefit to you.

Why do we help others?

• Social exchange; reciprocity; tit for tat

Reciprocity works best in dyads, so how has it been able to work in large groups?

• Elaborate group rituals that stimulate coordination (demonstrate commitment to groups, increases cohesion) → Behavioural coordination → cooperation in the group.

• performance rituals where we synchronize with each other support group functionality & cohesion.

  • connection.

  • sync together, think together.

• e.g., singing, dancing, chanting together.

Ceremonies-As-Arts Hypothesis* MAWA

• religious ceremonies are (nothing more than) collections of arts behaviours and objects.

  • Thus the arts have shaped our social cognition/ psychology/ cohesion.

Creativity is…

• Ideas or products (intangible/tangible) that are NOVEL, SURPRISING and USEFUL.

  • has to be novel and useful.

Creativity is not…

• copying/reproducing/imitating another work/nothing novel.

  • not always bad.

• routines, habits, rituals, and traditions.

Is creativity a domain general or domain specific process?

• domain general.

• it is generic, not art specific.

fMRI Studies on Creativity

non-creative task: playing a familiar piano piece [music] or reciting a familiar poem [language].

creative task: jazz piano improvisation [music] or poetry improvisation [language].

• subtracted baseline non-creative control task (still domain specific) from the creative condition (also domain specific).

• transition from non-creative to creative could be mediated by the same domain-general process.

Domain General Approach: Divergent thinking

• AUT: given common object → "How many things can this brick be or be used for?" → where the higher you score the more creative you are.

• rater judges on:

  • originality, how many ideas, how much detail.

• dominant approach.

• This is considered the quick and dirty method of evaluating creativity because there is no real need for expertise, nor is there motivation.

Two types of creativity?

• Functional Creativity (novelty for solving problems)

• Display Creativity (novelty for its own sake)

• There is an interaction b/w the two

  • E.g. Science research to be displayed at a conference/ event (Functional → display) OR animals bright colours allow it to attract mates (Display → functional)

What is Functional Creativity?

• developing novel solutions for existing problems.

  • e.g., developing novel vaccines for global pandemic.

• trial and error approach (operant conditioning)

  • find another solution.

• Problem solving links creativity to a domain.

What is the first step to creative work?

PROBLEM FINDING!!!

• Problem formulation → solution formulation → solution implementation

Creativity is Incremental or Revolutionary?

INCREMENTAL!

• a gradual change that occurs over time due to cumulative culture → build on what came before.

• Revolutions are so very rare, and are often blimps on the normal domain.

• small improvements to existing products/ ideas = cumulative culture

• modification of some existing product.

Geneplore Definition

• “gene” = generation

• “plore” = exploration

The Problem Solving Cycle (Geneplore Model)

• Cyclic relationship between generation and exploration

• Problem Formulation (Generation/Emotion/Motivation) → Solution Formulation (Exploration/ Decision making/ making plans) → Solution Implementation

• a trial-and-error cycle (iterative) → your first solution might not work, keep trying.

Creative work is driven by...?

• a CORE idea

  • generation happens here.

• idea is not fully random or fully formed → requires exploration.

• E.g. Core Idea: Modern Musical Romeo and Juliet

  • Exploration: location, ethnicities, name

What is the source of novel ideas?

• building upon things that have been done before.

• constantly changing and improving existing ideas.

Source of Generation

• divergent thinking = thinking outside the box = brainstorming.

• creative ideas are mysterious and appear out of the blue.

• moment of insight → illumination → Eureka moment.

• divergent ideas can come from divergent thinking → mental illness, psychotropic drugs, etc.

  • not always → mental illness can also inhibit creativity.

Analytical Thinking & Creativity

• creativity is more linear, building upon ideas from the past/other sources and tweaking it.

• a new product follows from existing products.

• being inspired by someone else.

Creativity as “Strategic Theft”

• using other people’s ideas and improving/reworking it.

  • not very creative.

Divergent Thinking

• Novel ideas that are outside of the box

  • Some take psychedelics to reach this point

    • "How many ways to use a brick"

Convergent Thinking

• Modification/ Expansion on someone else's idea or continuation of your own work

Phases of Creative Work

1. Conception (mostly convergent thinking)

~Generation~

2. Idea Development (planning, often ideas are shelved/ forgotten)

~exploration~

3. Production (working with physical things - prototypes)

~Revision → cycles between development and production~

3. Completion (hard for some to say their work is done)

Creativity/Aesthetic Cycle

Creativity (production) → Aesthetics (Perception; consumer approval) → Creativity

• creators are producers, everyone else is a consumer.

• feedback loop → positive feedback encourages people to stick with what they know works and keep recycling that.

• creators produce their work to appeal to target audience.

creativity example: project runway → creating the clothes.

aesthetics example: say yes to the dress → picking what you like.

Cultural Evolution

Follows the logic of biological evolution

1. Variations (different things are created)

2. Cultural Selection (What is popular i.e. most aesthetically pleasing is chosen)

3. Cultural Evolution (the most popular survives, and the others perish, i.e. a change in frequency of what is popular/ produced → can change over time)

Summary of Modification

• builds upon existing ideas

• based on analytical thinking

• an incremental change (small improvements)

Mechanisms of Idea Generation

• Modification

• Blending

Modification

• 1 source

• Convergent thinking

• Occurs within comfortable stylistic domain

Blending

• 2 sources

• forming associations between things.

• Conceptual Blending

• example:

  • the eye is a camera, the brain is a computer.

Conceptual Blending

• involves analogical reasoning.

• e.g., he was a fish out of water.

  • meaning discomfort.

Natural Selection is a blend of …

• nature + selection

• breeding was called selection in Darwin’s time.

  • selecting specific features to breed in pets.

Cultural evolution is a blend of…

• culture + biological evolution.

• intercultural mixtures to create fusion.

  • call and response: common in jazz.

  • jewish band: European instruments, middle eastern scale.

  • bollywood, tex-mex, etc.

Aesthetic Perception

• perceiving beauty → can also have a negative connotation.

• focus on:

  • production

  • perception

• looking at the connection between cognition and emotion

Emotions are…

• appraisals (evaluations) based on what will consequently be beneficial to you and what will cost you.

  • emotional valence (+/-) → what we find good or bad for us.

The 3 Dimensions of Emotions

• Valence

• Intensity

• Focus

Emotional Valence

• positive or negative emotions

• Binary/categorical → one or the other, never both or in between.

  • e.g., feel good or bad.

Emotional Intensity

• weak to strong

• On a continuum (graded)

  • e.g., feeling good vs. feeling great.

Emotional Focus

• What the emotion is about

1D Model of Emotion

Basic Emotion Theory → one dimension: Focus

• basic emotions that are fundamental and biologically grounded, independent of culture, etc.

  • happy, sad, angry, surprised, disgust, and fear

• All of which have some sort of survival value allocated to them.

  • e.g., fear is a response to threats.

• Critique: it doesn’t account for a lot of emotions, not a universal representation of emotion/ not fully comprehensive.

The Circumplex Model of Emotion

2D Model of Emotions → two dimensions: Intensity + Valence

• On a spectrum, that all emotions are able to fall into.

• 2×2 scheme → is the valence positive or negative, is the intensity high or low.

• can categorize all of them.

The OCC Model of Emotion (Ortony/Clore/Collins)

3D Model → 3 dimensions: Intensity + Valence + Focus

• All emotions can fall into the following foci (3)

  • Outcomes (motivational emotions)

  • Objects (aesthetic emotions)

  • Agents (moral/social emotions)

Outcomes: Motivational Emotions

• appraise the outcomes of something based on how we feel → pleased (+) ←→ displeased (-)

• Retrospective → looking in the past and reflecting

  • happiness (+)

  • sad (-)

    • e.g., did a midterm last week → got a grade back today.

• Prospective → looking into the future

  • Hopeful (+)

  • Apprehensive/afraid (-)

    • e.g., did a midterm today → thinking about the future grade you’ll receive.

Objects: Aesthetic Emotions

• encountering things we find appealing or not appealing → liking (+) ←→ disliking (-)

  • e.g., walking into a dirty bathroom → disliking.

*note: wouldn’t use when talking appraising the outcome of an event → wouldn’t say “ew” to failing a midterm.

Agents: Moral/Social Emotions

• see something good or bad happen → a social disgust, etc. → approving (+) ←→ disapproving (-)

  • e.g., a politician whose behaviours you don’t approve of → disapproving.

What two foci of emotions under the OCC Model are related in an interesting way?

• Objects (aesthetic) + Agents (moral/social emotion).

  • Aesthetically pleasing objects are thought to be morally good/ approved.

• Where as aesthetically displeasing objects are thought to be morally bad/ disapproved

• + linked to +, - linked to -

• we don’t like when the two don’t align…

  • e.g., a beautiful villain.

Beauty-as-Good Relationship is a relation of which two foci?

• Objects (aesthetic) + Agents (moral/social emotion).

• villians are ugly, heroes are beautiful.

  • e.g., Wizard of OZ

    • the good witch: morally good (agent) = beautiful (object)

    • the wicked witch: morally bad (agent) = ugly (object).

The halo effect is an example of

• The link between the foci of emotions objects and agents.

• Ex. Attractive people are rated as being nicer than unattractive people.

• sometimes put a _____ on attractive villains too though.

Cognitive dissonance occurs between objects and agents in the OCC model when...

• There is opposing stimuli

  • Ex. An attractive person is morally bad

Aesthetics are commonly mistaken to be...

The perception of beauty in ARTWORKS

• critique:

  • they’re not art-specific - they’re general

    • people, places, etc.

  • not just about positives, also about negatives → beauty and ugliness.

  • not just perception → also about production.

    • e.g., putting on makeup → creating.

Aesthetics are actually the study of...

• our sensory understanding of everything and anything we can appraise as liking or disliking.

What do we Appraise Aesthetically?

• for most of human history it has been others.

  • b/c we didn’t know what the self looked like.

Aesthetic Systems Evolved to Appraise:

• other people

• natural objects and spaces (sunsets, mountains, seasons, etc.)

• products of human creativity (urban aesthetics)

Cognition/Emotion Relationship

• they drive our motivation to do something.

  • e.g., bad grade → drives you to do better.

• 3 steps:

  • emotions → what you’re feeling.

  • motivation → desire to act.

  • decision making → alternative actions (weigh cost and benefits)

The Problem Solving Cycle and Emotion

Real Emotion

• perceived emotion → e.g., see friend is sad.

  • empathy.

• felt emotion → e.g., you feel sadness too.

• perceiving doesn’t mean you have to feel the same way as them, you can feel the opposite too.

  • e.g., happy when someone else sad.

Character Emotion

• perceived acted-out emotion.

  • empathy

• acted-out emotion.

In group ceremonies/rituals people experience _________

• coordinated emotions

• catharsis

Group emotional expression:

• individual emotional expression

• *emotional attunement → contagion*

• a shared emotional experience → feel more connected.

  • common in collective rituals.

Display Creativity

• novelty for its own sake.

• artification.