A WINE EXPERT AND A WINE NOVICE: WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE?

Oaky, racy, toasty, thick, corky, fruity, flabby, muddled. Whenever I hear someone in a formal affair starting to blabber about these fancy wine terminologies, I think to myself, does this guy in the black suit really know the difference? And most of all, how does he do it? These terms I have described above are only a few of the wide array of terms wine experts use to recognize and identify wines based on their olfaction. Being a self-proclaimed wine ignorant, I always think to myself, what underlies a wine expert’s ability to identify his favorite bottle of cabernet sauvignon through his nose? Clearly, olfaction is an important process when assessing complex mixtures such as wine where flavor that can be derived mostly from the aroma. The apparent volatility of wine has indeed played a vital role in affecting the judgment of the quality of wine one receives. The nose, with years of wine-tasting experience, can evaluate the wine’s age, condition, and its overall quality. Amazing, right?

In addition to this, I always ask myself, “What makes the difference between wine experts and their novice counterparts in recognizing and identifying wine-relevant smells? Is it their broad knowledge in wine vocabulary or is it their enhanced sensitivity?” The study by Parr et al.(2002) answers exactly what makes the difference. The research sample consists of 11 wine experts and 11 novices and they were asked to participate in tasks measuring odor recognition and odor identification. Results have shown that superior olfactory recognition is present in expert wine judges. However, their olfactory sensitivity, bias, and odor identification were found to be similar to those of novices.  In addition to this, the ability to recognize odors and ability to name odors were not positively associated. This suggests that the cause of superior odor recognition in wine experts was not based on improved recall and linguistic competencies. It was interpreted in the study that the difference happens on the effect of verbal shadowing on novices and experts. When forced to classify the odorants, experts' superior perceptual skills safeguarded them from verbal interference, whereas novices' generated verbal representations of the odors were emphasized at the expense of the odorant itself. Thus, it is the perceptual skill that makes this distinguishable disparity between wine experts and wine novices.

            Wine tasting is an art form and for some, it is seen as occupation. Instead of just trying to figure a way out of an indecipherable wine tasting jargon, I suggest that you do the actual wine tasting itself. Through the years you may be able to figure out the difference between corky and oaky, and you can eventually identify red wine varietals such as merlot, cabarnet franc, shiraz, etc. The most important reminder of all, however, is just make sure you are over 18 to do this.

Parr, W., Heatherbell, D., and White, K. (2002) Demystifying Wine Expertise: Olfactory Threshold, Perceptual Skill and Semantic Memory in Expert and Novice Wine Judges, in Chemical Senses, 27(8): 747-755 

Why do they have to taste so good?

I really love eating. My favorite dish is fried chicken. I love chocolates and I cannot end a meal without having dessert. I remember that before, a half-gallon of ice cream in our house would not last a week because I would have it every after meal and also for my merienda. This love for food might have been the main cause for my weight gain when I was a child, making me a fat kid. I was usually the butt of jokes in my family due to my weight. They would always call my attention whenever a television commercial of hog feeds are showing so that I could watch “my mother’s” advertisement. My cousins who are super thin also call me “Ate Baboy” back then. Although I know that they meant everything as a joke, I still cannot help but feel offended. I became more conscious about my weight. Even now, when some of my friends call me biik, I still feel sensitive about their jokes but I try my best to just brush it all off.

This made me think about how my food preferences might have contributed to my weight. It is a good thing that in 2009, Matsushita and his colleagues had the idea to check what role food preferences play, particularly their taste, on the weight of individuals. They asked about the taste preferences and weight of around 30,000 Japanese men and women. After ten years, they asked them again how much they weigh and checked whether there is a relationship between the two variables. Aside from weight and taste preferences, they also took into consideration other factors such as age, gender, medical history and health-related lifestyle activities.

The results of their study showed that there is a correlation between the preference for rich and heavy tasting food, such as fatty and well-seasoned dishes, with an increase in weight. This resulted to an increase in the BMI of the participants who preferred eating rich and heavy food. It was also observed that preference for fatty and well-seasoned food lead to weight increase in individuals aged around 20 years old. This may be due to the decrease of fat intake in older participants which also lessened their weight gain brought about by consumption of heavy and rich food. Their study also yielded results that show how preference of sweet tastes in women who are around 20 years of age may lead to weight gain. These findings were not observed in their male participants of the same age. Men in the study do not often eat snacks in between main meals which may contribute to their lesser preferences for sweet tastes and thus, a lower increase in weight due to sweet foods. However, the preference of sweet tastes in men increases by their late 30s which may make them gain weight.

After reading the study, I know now what I did that made me a fat kid. I was both into fatty and sweet foods. From now on, I will be more conscious of the food that I eat. Instead of eating fried chicken, I may slowly shift my preferences to grilled chicken which is less fatty. Also, I will also try to make fruits as substitutes for my cravings for sweet food after every meal. That way, I can avoid chocolates and ice cream with not much difficulty. Aside from controlling my diet, I will also see to it that I find time to exercise and engage in other activities that will help me burn calories. That way, it will not be so hard to maintain my current weight.

Matsushita, Y., Mizoue, T., Takahashi, Y., Isogawa, A., Kato, M., Inoue, M., Noda, M. & Tsugane, S. (2009). Taste preferences and body weight change in Japanese adults: the JPHC Study. International Journal of Obesity, 33, 1191-1197.

This Bud's For You

Eating has always been one of the simple joys and pleasures in life that has been there since the dawn of mankind. Beginning from the tough uncooked meat and vegetables our large-jawed ancestors had to chew on every day, we now have such a wide variety of different cuisines and unique food dishes that we can fill our stomachs with. Although we may form preferences for certain tastes or types of food, all the world’s cuisines are an all-you-can-eat buffet that can tickle our taste buds in many different ways. Just so long as you are adventurous enough to try, that is.

Mmmm, exotic food...

Nowadays though, many people take this for granted and choose to deprive themselves of the simple pleasure of eating. In our fast-paced and competitive world, many people choose to forego eating breakfast, which is often said to be the most important meal of the day. Also, in a society that places a major emphasis on one’s body and figure, food is generally viewed as the principal obstacle to overcome to attain their desired weight loss, hourglass figure, and six-pack abs.

It is a common assumption that people who are more sensitive to taste, or supertasters, are more likely to have higher food consumption than regular tasters or non-tasters (“taste blind”). The most likely line of reasoning is that, because the taste sensation they experience is a lot fuller, richer, and more intense, they are more likely to eat a lot more than the typical, non-supertaster individual. But apparently, the way we are able to taste and enjoy the flavor of our food is not a hindrance to the model-esque body we long and desire for.

In a 2007 study conducted by Sitton and Sullivan, they studied the relationship of one’s sensory acuity to their tendency to binge eat. Acuity for the sense of taste was measured in terms of the number of fungiform papillae on each participant’s tongue, while olfactory acuity was measured using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Intensity Test (UPSIT). Values were also obtained for the participants’ body mass index (BMI) and from the Binge Eating Scale.

Just look at the size of those papillae!

Contrary to the belief that having a richer taste experience leads to eat more, they found that those with higher sensitivity for experiencing flavor actually had the lowest BMIs among the participants. It is believed that, because the supertasters are able to experience more intense flavors than non-tasters, they become more quickly satiated. In addition, because their threshold for being able to detect and recognize tastes are lower, supertasters may also be able to observe a high-fat diet that leads to a quicker feeling of satiety. In being distinguish the high-fat food from the low-fat food, the supertasters can ultimately consume less calories than the non-tasters. Although increased sensory acuity should also predict supertasters avoiding certain bitter foods, no difference was found between their food preferences as compared to non-tasters.

High-fat goodness!

Although there is a solid logical link that connects food to higher weight, apparently, this logic isn’t as sound as originally believed to be. Factors such as genetics and amount of physical activity can influence one’s build or body frame, but then, one’s ability to experience flavor may also spell the difference between a beer-belly and a well-defined abdominal area.

This is what some people get from all-hotdog diets.

Life is unfair.

Sitton, S.C., & Sullivan, A.F. (2007). Sensory acuity and binge eating. American Journal of Psychological Research, 3(1), 29-33.

Images from:

http://www.eatsleepgeek.com/

http://www.popularwealth.com/

http://jenruhman.blogspot.com/

http://groundframe.com/

HUG!

I went to an all-boys school for 12 years of my, so far, short 21-year old life. Going to college culture-shocked me in so many ways, not the least of which was having girls as close everyday, non-romantic friends. Saying hi through non-verbal ways used to mean fist bumps, high fives, a punch in the shoulder, and sometimes even a short hug. Now it means tighter hugs, heads on my shoulder and so many more variations of hand touches. But even after four years in college, I can honestly say that I've still never fully felt comfortable with the beso.

I guess there can be sex differences when it comes to how males and females communicate through touch, and when and how they use them. Touch is after all a rich medium for social communication and therefore, that can express anything from status differences, messages such as gratitude and sympathy, as well as emotions. Given its role in our social lives, it's therefore likely that it IS indeed gendered.

In a study conducted by Hertenstein and Keltner (2010), they analyzed 212 undergraduate students. The experiment's unit of analysis was dyadic (which I found really interesting), an emotion encoder-emotion decoder dyad. The procedure consisted of the encoder carrying out a randomized emotion (among these - Disgust, Fear, Envy, Embarrassment, Sadness, Pride, Love, Gratitude, Happiness, Anger, Sympathy) through touch on a part of the bare arm of the decoder (who was across a black curtain), whose task it is to guess the emotion and the sex of the encoder. It was found that anger was more readily communicated through the curtain if a male comprised any of the members of the dyad, sympathy was more readily communicated if there's a female, and the dyad with both females were the only ones able to communicate happiness. The other emotions were statistically significant. 

The author hypothesized the reason for this using evolutionary psychology and engendered social roles- males being the protectorate and territorial, and females being the more care-taking and emotional.

So does this mean that guys are more socially inept at encoding and decoding emotion? It must really suck to be us if that's the case- to mostly perceive and relate non-verbal touch with an emotion as negative as anger for most of the time. But I guess that's the reason there are [verbal and] other non-verbal cues to read from, it would be interesting to find an integrated and comprehensive study of communication and emotion perception using non-verbal cues. The best way I guess for us guys (and girls)  to master the art of proper and accurate encoding and decoding is to interact with people, go out and experience life. :)

Hertenstein, M. & Keltner, D. (2010).Gender and the Communication of Emotion Via Touch. Sex Roles, 64(1-2), 70–80.


Photo sources: 
http://www.spanishdict.com
http://notworkappropriate.blogspot.com

Just One Touch, Now Baby I Believe

How do you know if someone likes you? Not just like you, but like you like you? On the other hand, how can you at least drop a hint that you like someone or find him/her attractive? I have a friend—who is not me—who once shared a method she likes to call “the sabay touch”. Ooooh. Basically it’s when you make a gesture and simultaneously touch an area between the object of your affection’s shoulder to hand. So when he makes a joke, by all means laugh in utmost appreciation (not like a maniac, of course) and place your hand on his shoulder, as if labelling him to be one funny guy. If he is conveying his thoughts, nod intently as you reach out for his hand, assuring that your attention is with him.

Such a method seems more plausible for females applying it on the opposite sex rather than the other way around. I don’t know, but it’s unlikely to see a buff dude reaching out for lady shoulders. Worst case scenario is female taking the touching behaviour of the male as inappropriate, which can lead to suspicion of sexual motivation.

Yes, like so.

Apparently, some scientific evidence shows support for my playful pal’s ploy. A study by Guegen (2010) explored how a woman’s touch can affect men’s behaviour, specifically in the courtship context. 64 single men aged 18-25 were selected randomly in an area of a bar. A female confederate would move to a participant’s table when he would sit on a chair in that area. The confederate would then show difficulty in doing a task with her keys, after which she would stand ask the participant for help.

When the participant completes the task, she would get the keys back, smile openly, and thank him. According to a random distribution, the confederate—while in the middle of thanking—was instructed to slightly touch the forearm of the male participant for one to two seconds. Finally, she would return to her table and look at the street. If the male approached her to initiate a conversation, she would say that she has to leave due to an appointment.

Through a chronometer, an observer was instructed to note if the participant did approach the confederate and have a conversation with her. If no verbal contact took place, the observer would note how many times the participant glanced at the female and for how long. This was accomplished through a metronome with a light vibrator that was set on 60 beats per minute. Apparently, this study had a few wicked gadgets involved.

Now how 'bout some skin food?

Anyway, results showed that a slight tactile contact was associated with a decrease in the male participants’ latency to approach the female confederate. In addition, touch is also associated with an increased number of glances at the confederate, as well as the duration of each glance. In summary of the study, touch seems to contribute to the positive evaluation of and interest with the toucher, and that the concept of touch in the courtship setting  can be a good non-verbal communication factor in regulating male-female relationships.

So let me get back to my friend—who truly is not me—for more tricks up her sleeve. We got mouth for whispering sweet nothings, reciting literature, and singing silly love songs, but you can count on skin once in a while too. Show some, use some. It is the biggest organ, after all.

Source: Gueguen, N. (2010). The effect of a woman’s incidental tactile contact on men’s later behaviour. Social Behavior and Personality, 38(2), 257-266.

Tickle me, please? The science behind why tickling yourself just does not work!

One effective technique to cheer up a worn-out and possibly crabby child or adult is by making a few light strokes on the sole of the foot, the armpits, or other areas of the body that will eventually lead that person to a simpering fit of giggles. It is a fact that some people are more ticklish than others, vary among different places in the body, and depend on the situation at hand. In line with this fact, have you ever tried to tickle yourself just to see if it works the same way as others tickle you? If yes, then do you know why tickling yourself just does not work at all? This question has indeed baffled our minds because we know, that the sensation we produce can never win over or even come close to other people tickling us.

The part of the brain that is responsible for us to perceiving tickle is the S1 or the somatosensory cortex of the brain. A study by Blakemore, Wolpert and Frith (1998) used an fMRI to study the brain activity when stimulus was either internally produced or externally. Their study revealed that more activity was found in the somatosensory cortex when the stimulus was externally produced. In addition, they also found out activity in the cerebellum is the perpetrator behind this difference in stimulus source. The function of the cerebellum is to coordinate movement and to receive both sensory input from the body and motor input from higher cortical areas that command movement. Moreover, when a tactile stimulus is generated, less activity in the cerebellum occurs. Integrating the role of the somatosensory cortex, when the person himself generates tactile stimulus, the cerebellum suppresses the effects of stimulation, and the end result is diminished activity in the somatosensory cortex and with it, diminished perception of the tickle. This cancellation of the sensory consequences of a motor command is a phenomenon known as reafference.

It is evident that not only these brain mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of reafference are responsible. Other factors that need to be considered are the predictability of the stimulus, sexual influences, and the difference from person-to-person subjective experiences. Blindfolded individuals or individuals who have their eyes are closed provide the greatest tickle sensation. Lastly, it was also discovered that the sensation could be greater if tickled by someone of the opposite sex. So if you want to burst into laughter after a crazy day in school or work, do not make attempts to tickle yourself because that just wouldn’t work. If there’s nobody to unexpectedly tickle you, then you might just have to find other ways like a video of a stand-up comedy show or the simplest joys of hearing a kid burst into laughter like this video below. Indeed, this baby tickled you in more ways than one.

Blakemore, S., Wolpert, D., & Frith, C. (1998). Central cancellation of self-produced tickle sensation.Nature Neuroscience, 1(7), 635-640. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Let's Take it to the Next Level

                First dates are always a little awkward; it’s like testing the waters – a make-or-break situation where it can be a stepping stone to something wonderful, or a horrible and rejecting slap in the face. Phineas Mollod and Jason Tesauro, who call themselves “The Modern Gentlemen”,  say that you’ve got to “…pepper your date with Oxytocin-inducing moments throughout to ensure a fairytale-worthy goodnight kiss later..”. Oxytocin is induced during hugging and intimate touch (which seems rather hard to do across the dinner table, but anyway…), as well as when things get a little more… intense. Of course first kisses are a different story – apparently, they’re supposed to be foot-popping (according to Princess Diaries), butterflies in the stomach, movie ending-worthy, blah blah – you get it. Bottom line is that moment when your lips touch you’re supposed to feel all tingly and nice. I don’t know if the same can be said for my all-time favorite author Sylvia Plath and her husband, Ted Hughes. She recalls that at a literary party back in 1956:

"He kissed me bang smash on the mouth and ripped my hair band off, and when he kissed my neck I bit him long and hard on the cheek, and when we came out of the room, blood was running down his face..."

             Of course we know how this love story ended – divorce and her head stuffed in an oven. 

             Physical contact or touch can mean different things, from “I think I’m in love with you” to “Get out of my way, jerk” or even “Voulez vous coucher avec moi, ces soir” if you’re feeling lucky. When it comes to first dates or any effort that will hopefully result in romance, there seems to be an unspoken rule about how physical intimacy progresses as the relationship itself progresses. Of course there has been research (Andersen, 1985; Guerrero & Andersen, 1991; Mehrabian, 1969; in Guerrero & Andersen, 1994) showing that actively engaging in touch increases closeness and attraction and that adapting these nonverbal behaviors to the partner’s preferred style further enhances intimacy and liking. Usually, this touch behavior becomes more similar as the relationship blooms. This is based on how attitude similarity is important for any relationship, especially one that you want to last. On the other end of the spectrum, we have touch avoidance, which is exactly the opposite.

The highest level in any relationship.

            Touch initiation is a little more inconsistent – some studies say that men are the initiators because it indicates dominance (I don’t know if women nowadays agree) and men feel it’s their responsibility; other studies don’t show any sex differences, or that women are the initiators. Guerrero and Andersen (1994) suggest that social control may be predominant in early relationships while intimacy may be most influential in established relationships. Men are found to initiate touch in the early stages, but the job goes to women afterwards because of the need to express intimacy as the relationship progresses. 

            Based on all these, Guerrero and Andersen (1994) hypothesized that the amount of touch is correlated between male and female romantic partners, which is also correlated more highly in marriages than in casual/serious relationships. They also hypothesized that women report more touch avoidance than men, and as mentioned, that men are the touch initiators in casual dating relationships and women in serious/married relationships.

            The methods involved unobtrusive observation of the touch behavior of couples waiting in line for the movies or the zoo. This lasted for two minutes, after which the couples were approached separately in order to administer the questionnaire. Results show that touch behavior is indeed correlational between romantic partners, correlating most highly for married couples and lowest for casually dating partners. On the other hand, touch avoidance was found to be higher for women. Males initiated touch most in casual dating relationships, and least in married relationships; women initiated touch most when married, and least in casual relationships. It’s important to note that there’s actually a progression, meaning that matching touch behavior between partners increases as a function of the relationship stage. 

But, in addition to these, the researchers found that although matching does increase on the way to marriage, touch display most likely decreases as well. Highest touch frequency is found in serious relationships to “escalate intimacy and display bondedness”. No sex differences were seen in touch initiation for serious relationships.

Although the study does seem rather intriguing, it has a few loopholes that may have compromised the results. Sampling wasn’t very well planned; even if the observers did undergo training, what might seem to be touch behavior may be entirely something else (e.g. touch that isn’t at all sprinkled with romance). There’s also a thin line between touch reciprocity and initiation, and touch itself is very contextual. And what makes a relationship a serious one? Is it the length or something else? Operational definitions would have been a good addition to the study.

           But then again, is the study only telling us something we already know? Or is this hindsight bias, maybe? It’s true what they say, though: getting married takes away all the fun. 

But I guess some people have all the fun.

They just don't care.

 References:

Guerrero, L. & Andersen, P. (1994). Patterns of Matching and Initiation: Touch Behavior and Touch Avoidance Acroos Romantic Relationship Stages. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 18(2), 137-151.

http://www.match.com/magazine/article0.aspx?articleid=12220

 

You're Just Too Good To Be True, Can't Keep My Hands Off Of You

Recent discussions in one of my psychology classes discussed the issues surrounding the public display of affection (PDA), particularly that of same-sex couples. Needless to say, most reactions toward it were that of uneasiness, discomfort, and, to a more extreme level, disgust. But regardless of the sex of the people involved in the incident of PDA, the action itself is generally viewed in a negative light. Though being cuddly and loving in a public area may receive reactions of the couple being sweet, couples who grope around and are more torrid with each other get reactions that are typically along the “get-a-room” variety. This literally touchy topic receives a lot of flak, being in the public sphere and all, but there may be an underlying reason to their public displays of affectionate behavior.

Acceptable vs. Unacceptable

A 2007 study published in the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology presents support for the idea that there are two major classes of the sense of touch. These are namely discriminative touch, which deals with interpreting tactile information to be able to recognize objects and to feel sensations, and emotional touch, which involves the affective component of pleasantness or pleasure derived from the sense of touch. They relate findings of physiological evidence that show there are different types of mechanoreceptors that respond differently to certain stimuli, which are then transmitted to different nerve fibers of varying properties.

There have been more studies documenting the functions of the mechanoreceptors used for (discriminative) touch, pain, temperature, and itch. Most of these low-threshold mechanoreceptors are located in glabrous (hairless) skin areas, such as the palm and the sole of the foot, and travel along heavily-myelinated nerve fibers, called A-fibers (alpha/beta/delta), that are coated with a thick layer of fat that facilitates impulse conduction. There are 4 types of these mechanoreceptors, each of which are responsible for the perception of certain sensations on the skin.

Not as much attention has been devoted to the study of the affective component of touch, which was found to have its own separate pathway for conducting tactile sensations. The specialized CT system, which is found only in areas of the skin with hair, respond best to slowly moving, low-force, mechanical stimuli. Signals travel along unmyelinated C-tactile afferent (CT-afferent) fibers that provide or support emotional, hormonal, and behavioral responses to skin-to-skin contact with con-specifics. In addition, these fibers project into areas of the brain that are associated with the affective aspects of feeling from the body, such as well-being and rewards. In combining the input from both A-fibers and CT-fibers received from the hair-covered areas of skin, a fuller sensation of pleasantness derived from touch may be experienced.

Reading this article explains, in a rather nerdy manner, why some people publicly have their hands all over their significant other in places no one else will find. Despite this strong evidence for the body having a system that for touch serving an emotional need, like most behaviors, the acceptability of PDA is usually determined by the context it is done in. Perhaps getting inspiration from the saying that actions speak louder than words, gently caressing your significant other’s body, public or otherwise, can say so much more to the CT system than any cheesy line can ever manage.

McGlone, F., Vallbo, A.B., Olausson, H., Loken, L., Wessberg, J. (2007). Discriminative touch and emotional touch. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(3), 173-183.

Images from:

http://www.sporati.com

http://www.cartoonstock.com

Sometimes When We Touch...

When I was a kid, my parents would tell me that whenever someone asks what I want to be when I grow up, I should answer that I want to become a doctor. I remember that I enjoyed playing doctor with my cousins, trying to heal our stuffed toy patients with our toy stethoscope and band aids. I also liked spending time in the clinic of my tita, watching very closely as she does her work. In grade school, I remember that my favorite subject was science and I was really good at it. I eventually realized that becoming a doctor someday was really not a farfetched idea so started doing things that will lead me to the path of medical school. I worked hard to excel in school so that I will be able to get into a good college that will prepare me for my life-long dream. Now that I have submitted applications, went through interviews and received an acceptance letter from a school, I finally feel that my dream is really within my reach. I want to be more informed and learn about different things that can make me become a more effective doctor.

The article written Leder and Krucoff in 2008 explores the idea of how touch can heal the illness of patients. Illness in their definition pertains to the experiences of patients brought about by the diseases that they have. Health does not only refer to the good condition of the body but also to the well-being of the self, psychologically and spiritually. Aspects such as social relationships and emotional expression are thought to be disrupted by illness. Therefore, healing should not only be in terms of curing the disease alone. It should also take into consideration the integration of the other aspects of the life of the person in the healing process. In the article, they described touch as contact of a body with another. Impact or force is needed for it to be sensed unlike other sense modalities. It can be used as means to express one’s emotion and it is a sign of intimacy. It is also reciprocal; when you touch another person, he or she touches you back.

The authors criticize how medical practitioners have resorted to using an objective touch, treating patients as things to avoid inappropriate intimacy. Doctors and nurses also sometimes use technological touch, using technological advances in medicine as substitutes for meaningful interactions with their patients. It is prescribed that a healing touch will be used for patients since it can help in building a connection between the self and others. Touch can also act as a cure for the psychological and spiritual sufferings that a patient may feel. It also serves as an expression of compassion for the patient, making him or her feel that he or she is still a human being who deserves to be treated right. This healing touch may be expressed in simple diagnostic actions such as taking the pulse. Evidence of the benefits of touch may be observed in the improvement of a baby’s state when he or she is constantly in contact with a caregiver. Massages can also help in the improvement of some patients’ arthritis.

For touch to be instrumental in healing, it will be helpful for patients to have a hopeful disposition about their state. They should actively participate in their treatments and be receptive of other people’s touch. They should remain calm and relaxed during interactions with medical practitioners.

After reading the article, I understand further how I can become a better doctor by being a compassionate one. I vow to remember my patients’ names so they would not feel insignificant. I will also take time to talk to them about their symptoms to get a better understanding of what they are going through. I will also see to it that I make my patients feel that they can approach me if they have questions. Doing these simple things may aid me in becoming a more effective healer, touching the lives of others in the process.

Leder, D. & Krucoff, M. (2008). The touch that heals: The uses and meaning of touch in the clinical encounter. The Journal of Alternate and Contemporary Medicine, 14, 321-327.

Photos from: www.cartoonstock.com

                   solomonsseal.files.wordpress.com

They're Playing Our Song

                We all have one. Be it one that brings back memories of a time that has long gone by, of a love that was supposed to last forever – or on a happier note, one that fills in the words until you can find the right words to say. A perfect background music for that car ride home – windows rolled down and speakers blaring. We all have an idea of the perfect song for that perfect moment.

                Nostalgia is an “emo” person’s best friend – it’s what keeps them coming back for more. It’s the poison that’s slowly killing them (so they say). It’s the high that makes people keep living in the past. It’s also very widespread – triggered by almost anything, from love letters to movies to songs. According to various researches (Batcho, 2007; Sedikides, Wildschut & Baden 2004; in Barrett et al., 2010), nostalgia has been labeled as bittersweet, involving a mixture of sadness and wistful joy. Being in a bad mood while listening to music also triggers nostalgia.

                Before going any further, it might be a good idea to introduce context-level constructs and person-level constructs. The former involves a person’s relationship with a particular song – how familiar they are with it or the degree to which it’s associated with personal memory. For example, I know the lyrics to Big Girls don’t Cry by Fergie and I know it was playing during one memorable car ride along Filinvest. When I listen to that song now, I can proudly say that I feel nauseous and not nostalgic. And no, I’m not bitter nor defensive. On the other hand, person-level constructs are more about how prone a person is to experience nostalgia and how people are different in certain personality traits.

                The current experiment by Barrett et al. (2010) focused on the interaction between context-level and person-level constructs. They presented participants with 30 clips of Pop, hip-hop and R&B songs from the Apple iTunes music store (too bad they didn’t specify the titles), making sure that these were released when the participants were between 7 and 19 years of age. Mood and nostalgia proneness were assessed using two scales, while nostalgia, arousal and familiarity were also taken into account.

                After around 3 pages of regression analysis, they found that participants report feeling more nostalgic if the song is more autobiographically salient, familiar, arousing and if it evoked more positive and negative emotions. Contrary to popular belief, positive emotions greatly influenced the feeling of nostalgia, with love being the most popular of those emotions. Sadness came in a close second. Nostalgia proneness and negative moods were important predictors of nostalgia (no surprises there).

                I suppose living in the past isn’t as bad as it seems. So next time you’re up for a long drive to nowhere in particular, go on rewind and bring back the days (and love) long gone by. 

Just because she's performing right now in Araneta. And here I am. But that's not my song.

 This is:

What's yours?

Reference: Barrett et al. (2010). Music-evoked Nostalgia: Affect, Memory and Personality. Emotion, 10(3), 390-403.

"Blind as a Bat?" NAT!

Because of the several med school interviews I was anticipating, I was trying to reflect more on all sorts of random things. True enough, one hypothetical question that was asked concerned becoming paralyzed from the neck down and my corresponding reaction to that predicament. Being the physically active person I am, I would obviously be devastated if I were to lose my ability to move around from place to place using my own two feet and to play around and tinker with things using my hands and fingers. After this, I thought about which of the five senses I would be most unable to live without. The popular choice of the most difficult sense to live without is the sense of sight. It must definitely be really hard to imagine living in constant darkness, unable to see the richness of the world. Apart from that, vision is often needed to perform basic tasks with a certain amount of precision. I may need glasses and contact lenses to help correct my slightly impaired vision, but it is a compromise I am willing to make in order to enjoy all the visual pleasures out there.

Most people know of bats that are practically blind, being able to compensate for their poor vision by using a technique called echolocation (Stroffregen & Pittenger, 1995). Similarly, dolphins usually rely on their built in sonar systems to navigate the underwater terrain. These examples present two contrasting examples are demonstrations of the application of the ability to use echoes to analyze the features of a certain scene. Bats rely heavily on this ability to navigate while flying, and dolphins may use this to supplement the visual stimuli they receive or resort to when there is a lack of visual information.

Robin: "Batman, better leave the driving to me next time."

With this being the case, being without sight isn’t all that bad, after all. In a recently published 2011 study, researchers found evidence for sighted people being able to quickly learn how to interpret auditory information contained in echoes to allow for size and position discrimination in a given scene. They performed two separate experiments, each of which was used to assess the level of the echolocation ability of the participants. One result was that the size discrimination threshold was relatively constant with increasing distances. This is because the size of the angle, rather than distance, is what mainly determines the ability for size discrimination. The other experiment used a novel vernier stimulus presented to the participants to measure the spatial resolution of their echolocation ability. It was shown that training can produce improvements in the proficiency of sighted people in the use of echolocation. These improvements ranged from gaining a crude ability to echolocate, to nearly approximating the skill level of a blind individual in using echolocation.

Going back to my reflection on what sense I cannot live without the most, perhaps I would still stick with the sense of sight (however, I have also read about a compelling argument that the sense of hearing is a more indispensable sense modality). Although I am hoping that I won’t have to rely on it full-time out of necessity, learning how to use echolocation to navigate through a scene and to be able to discriminate between the objects present in it is a skill that I would definitely want to learn. Aside from the practical applications, I think it can actually be quite fun too to be able to do things in the dark. ;)

Paper beats rock!

Teng, S., & Whitney, D. (2011). The acuity of echolocation: Spatial resolution in sighted persons compared to the performance of an expert who is blind.  Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 105(1), 20-32.

Stroffregen, T.A., & Pittenger, J.B. (1995). Human echolocation as a basic form of perception and action. Ecological Psychology, 7(3), 181-216.

Images from:

http://www.flickr.com (Allard62)

http://www.fanpop.com

All That Jazz

Traditional Irish music and modern pop-rock band ‘The Corrs’—sadly, sadly not performing anymore—have touched the hearts of listeners from all over the world. In one of their live acoustic sessions, the pianist makes a mistake in the last note, hence producing tension that was left unresolved. The guitarist jokes about it by uttering, “Jazz.”

They say that this kind of music is the hardest to appreciate. I wouldn’t be surprised, since it’s also one of the most difficult to learn. Progressions are not easily detected, and the randomness of sounds is usually taken by many musicians as an excuse to make mistakes. Different genres have had their share of the research limelight. There is the Mozart Effect for classical, and associated aggression and violence for Hip Hop. What about jazz and people’s perceptions of it?

No, not this Jazz.

Gridley (2009) studied the interaction between music and emotions, particularly anger. The Spielberger Trait Anger Test was administered to 287 undergraduates of the Cleveland State University. After that, a jazz saxophone improvisation was played to them, and after listening, they were asked asked to rate its emotion. Results showed that students who rated the recording as angry had a significantly higher trait anger score than those who rated it as friendly. The correlation between listener perceptions of anger in the sax solo and listener scores on the trait anger inventory was small, but significant.

These findings suggest that it is the personality that heavily influences our emotions, which further influences our perceptions on music. In other words, a sanguine personality is likely to rate the recording as less sad than the melancholic ones. Other components of personality could be considered too. In the Big Five for example, those higher in agreeableness are expected to have the least angry ratings. Either way, the influence of jazz per se remains varied; its emotional content ambiguous due to individual differences.

Or are you not a fan? 

Jazz interests me nonetheless because it's unpredictable. I'm not exactly an enthusiast, but I believe that over time, it could make us perceive things that no other genre can. But for now, we just conclude that it isn’t dependable in expressing emotions. Maybe that’s why it isn’t as mainstream as the rest. The serenading suitor would probably stick to ballads or movie themes to woo his loved one, especially if he don’t wanna wake up alone anymore. Still believing you'd walk through my door. All I need to know is... (you do know the lyrics to this, right?)

Source: Gridley, M. (2009). Trait anger and music perception. Creativity Research Journal, 21(1), 134-137. 

Ghetto-blastin'

 There have always been speculations saying how radios would be phased out sooner than expected; and that, my friends, might actually be the awful truth. But when talking about the “now,” we know how radios have become a big chunk of our everyday lives and we just don’t know it. There are times when we just have to ghetto-blast our favorite FM radio stations to keep us entertained or possibly keep us awake while driving. These forms of entertainment in radios do not only come from the conversations of radio DJs or our favorite songs that randomly play in a continuum of poorly selected song collection. In fact, entertainment might also come from the witty or annoying commercials squeezed in between tracks. And this is what marketing strategists spend billions on – to influence your recall, recognition, and perception of products endorsed during this radio time, which we actually find most invaluable.  

Past researches have shown that product-related imagery processing may facilitate learning of product-related information contained in advertisement. Thus, marketing researchers spend an ample amount of time in discovering the elements within the commercial that might actually affect your perception of the product. A research by Miller and Marks (1992) talks exactly about that. Their research discusses how sound effects provided within the commercial can significantly influence your mental imagery and in effect, influence your feelings and attitudes, and long-term memory storage toward the product. Their research compares the changes in the listener’s recall, recognition and feelings on radio commercials with or without sound effects. Their hypothesis shows that sound effects on radio commercials can elicit greater imagery processing, stronger emotional reactions, stronger attitude (more favorable or unfavorable), and greater learning in brand information. The participants in the experiment were exposed to two conditions – one condition consisted of a radio commercial with a verbal message alone (lower imagery stimulus) while the other condition included a sound effect followed by an identical verbal image (higher imagery stimulus).

Results have shown that sound effects have indeed provided greater mental imagery of the product.  When mental imagery processing was associated with stronger positive emotions, more favorable attitudes about the commercial resulted. In addition, increased imagery activity resulted in greater learning of brand information and seems to be encoded with more elaborate sensory memory structures in the long-term memory. However, it was also revealed that emotional reactions do not necessarily mean they elicit positive emotional feelings. In the commercial provided in the experiment about car tires, a screeching sound served as the sound effect. A number of participants actually found this screeching sound related to car crash or painful memories of their past – an unintended consequence. Advertisers then must use caution in the ways in which they employ sound effects in commercials.

While searching for the best possible radio commercial in YouTube that can be related to this research, I came across this Lipton Tea radio commercial in the United States. Its sound effects at the end have clearly caught my attention – considering that I have a short attention span that I jump from one radio commercial in YouTube to another without even finishing the whole track. And exactly as I type this in, I still keep on humming the tune in my head and I imagine myself drinking my iced tea as I endure the scorching heat and brutal sunburn at the beach. Moreover, I can anticipate that every time I would see a Lipton tea bag, I would eventually burst into song by humming the tune at the end. No wonder sounds have a great impact in our perception of things. Thus, if you think that marketing strategists spend useless time trying to come up with witty sounds to accompany a commercial because we find them invaluable, then saddle up hombre, sounds are more powerful than you give it credit for.

References

Miller, D. W., & Marks, L. J. (1992). Mental Imagery and Sound Effects in Radio Commercials. Journal of Advertising, 21(4), 83-93. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.