Books: Complicity
OK, I’ll readily admit that I have been horrendously AWOL lately. I’m sorry. Life has been very busy, in good and bad ways. Good: one of my school friends is getting married in a month’s time. Bad: I have no money. Good: I got engaged. Bad: I’m struggling to see where I’m headed. And so forth.
But, in amongst all this, I’ve been reading. And I felt the urge to revisit a book I’ve read before, namely “Complicity” by Iain Banks. I don’t know what compelled me to pick it up again, but needless to say I couldn’t find my copy. Dagnabbit. So I bought it on my Kindle (you know, with the money I don’t have).
Anyway. I’ve mentioned Complicity before (back when I briefly reviewed The Bridge a couple of years ago) but I’ve never reviewed it before. I say “reviewed”: I mean rambled incoherently whilst giving across my sheer love of this book.
OK, it’s not a lovely book. I’ll be blunt: it’s the most vile and vicious book I’ve read. Ever. Those of you who have been exposed to Banks before have most likely read The Wasp Factory, and thought that was pretty heavy. Well, Banks himself said in interview that Complicity is ”[a] bit like The Wasp Factory except without the happy ending and redeeming air of cheerfulness”. So, try and think positive.
Complicity is based mainly in and around Edinburgh (a plus for me, already), following the strange and brutal murders of a series of capitalist, right-wing figures. But it’s not just as simple as all that, is it? No, the murders are ingenious, the murderer has the whole thing thoroughly planned out, and the reader is rapidly pulled into the depths of confusion and despair along with our narrator.
The majority of the plot of Complicity revolves around the life of Cameron Colley, a disillusioned left-wing journalist, who is a bit down on life. He is strangely lovable – I say strangely, because he is a bit sad, lonely, has many casual drug habits, has regular sex with a married woman, etc. One might say he is “a good man with bad habits”. My other half once described himself like this, so maybe that’s another reason I find Cameron strangely lovable.
The sections of plot involving Cameron are written in first person – some people call this the “unreliable narrator”, and yes, he probably is a bit, because he does ramble on. But it gives the reader a real sense of being WITH the action, in the thick of it. We feel his boredom, we sense his excitement, and finally, when he is arrested, falsely accused of the murders of those right-wing figures I mentioned, we sense his desperation, and we slip into the confusion and paranoia that interrogation and sleep deprivation brings.
There are a lot of moral questions in this book: questions about crime and punishment, war (huh, what is it good for), and the darker side of human nature. And of course, where do our loyalties lie? Would YOU be complicit?
The descriptions of the murders themselves are brutal and very uncomfortable to read in a public place. But to make matters worse (and even more effective) these sections of the novel are written in second person – yes, YOU, ”You hear the first faint distant screams just as you take the bike’s key from your pocket. You feel suddenly elated”. Shudder.
Like with all crime thrillers, I can’t divulge too much plot without spoiling the experience for you. But needless to say, this remains one of my favourite books of all time (so far). Even if I have to read some of it through my fingers. Seriously. It’s gruesome.
Oh, and a humorous tit-bit: Cameron is heavily into computer games, particularly a fictitious game called “Despot” which is curiously similar to Civilisation (which my dad used to play). Cameron loses many hours due to playing this game. In fact, he’s often playing the game when he should be writing. And you know what? So was Iain Banks. Happy sigh. Art mirrors life mirrors art.
READ IT.
Symphony of Science
Two posts in one day. I know, I spoil you.
Really, I just wanted to share with you something that I feel is a beautiful homage, well put-together, and strangely enchanting. It is essentially a mash-up of documentary and lecture clips, auto-tuned to produce a flowing melody, on an electronic backing track, but the end result is, frankly, brilliant. Includes some of my true heroes, some more well-known faces of science, and also Bill Nye (the Science Guy) who taught me science via my telly when I was only 6 years old. Squee.
Enjoy.
EDIT: If you enjoy this, you can watch Jill Bolte Taylor’s moving, inspiring TED talk (sampled here) in full here
[Robert Winston]
It’s amazing to consider that I’m holding in my hands
The place where someone once felt, thought, and loved
For centuries, scientists have been battling to understand
What this unappealing object is all about
[Vilayanur Ramachandran]
Here is this mass of jelly
You can hold in the palm of your hands
And it can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space
[Carl Sagan]
The brain has evolved from the inside out
Its structure reflects all the stages through which it has passed
[Jill Bolte Taylor]
Information in the form of energy
Streams in simultaneously
Through all of our sensory systems
And then it explodes into this enormous collage
Of what this present moment looks like
What it feels like
And what it sounds like
And then it explodes into this enormous collage
And in this moment we are perfect
We are whole and we are beautiful
[Robert Winston]
It appears rather gruesome
Wrinkled like a walnut, and with the consistency of mushroom
[Carl Sagan]
What we know is encoded in cells called neurons
And there are something like a hundred trillion neural connections
This intricate and marvelous network of neurons has been called
An enchanted loom
The neurons store sounds too, and snatches of music
Whole orchestras play inside our heads
20 million volumes worth of information
Is inside the heads of every one of us
The brain is a very big place
In a very small space
No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain
We can change ourselves
Think of the possibilities
[Bill Nye]
Think of your brain as a newspaper
Think of all the information it can store
But it doesn’t take up too much room
Because it’s folded
[Oliver Sacks]
We see with the eyes
But we see with the brain as well
And seeing with the brain
Is often called imagination
[Various]
[Robert Winston]
It is the most mysterious part of the human body
And yet it dominates the way we live our adult lives
It is the brain
Unclean Beings
On Saturday, I was gifted with the opportunity to go and see Dr Brooke Magnanti (aka Belle du Jour – yes, that one) at the Wellcome Collection’s Unclean Beings. My wonderful Twitter pal, @DoktorG, generously left his two tickets at the desk for me – he couldn’t make it for the day, and didn’t want the tickets to go to waste. Ben and I couldn’t stay for the whole day, either, but were determined to at least see Dr Magnanti (and cash in on a free lunch).
It still boggles me, by the way, that Twitter can work like this – I have never met @DoktorG in “the real world”, and yet look at the generosity. Thanks, @DoktorG!
Dr Magnanti was there to speak about, yes you guessed it, prostitution. Her talk was entitled “Why is paid sex dirty?”, and was sadly less than an hour long. I say sadly because Dr Magnanti is such a wonderful speaker.
Dr Magnanti, having actually worked AS a hooker, didn’t bring the stuffiness and drama that usually surrounds a discussion about sex work – there was no “shock” factor and patronisation you would get in, say, a Channel 4 documentary. Dr Magnanti gave a brief history of “the oldest profession”, and offered some opinions as to why it is considered so taboo. She also voiced her own opinion about why this label of “dirty” is so unnecessary – it is, after all, a job. In many societies (different countries, different times), prostitutes earn more money, have more power and more protection, than most other women in “respectable” professions. Someone in the audience gave a statistic of something like 8c a week as a factory worker versus $9 a week as a hooker (somewhere in the Far East I think, but honestly, I have a memory like a sieve).
What followed was an excellent Q&A session, where there were some good questions (What about male prostitutes? Why is the stigma attached to women so much stronger?) and some terrible ones (Why did you choose to reveal your identity as Belle du Jour when you did? Do you regret it, or has it made you a stronger person?).
Long and short: if you get the opportunity to see Dr Magnanti speak, take it. She is not to be missed.
Finally, whilst we were at the Wellcome Collection, I took the opportunity to finally have a look at the temporary Dirt exhibition. Excitingly, I was actually featured in this gallery. Don’t believe me? OK, then I had to break the rules and take a surreptitious photo in this gallery (DO NOT DO THIS – IT’S NAUGHTY AND NOT ALLOWED). See number 12 -
Exciting stuff, right? Find out more about this exhibit (the Laid to Rest project) – I think they’re still taking dust donations, so if you want to see your name in a public gallery (eeee) then go ahead!
Busy bee
I’ll say it again: Sorry for the recent dearth of posts. I’m actually in the process of trying to relocate, find a job, finish my dissertation… It’s madness. Here, here’s my busy face:
BUT! I have guest blogged over at SWCraftClub. So it’s not all bad. Take a look: Streatham Knit Wits
FINAL Mental Health Forum
Sorry about the distinct lack of posts lately – things have got a bit, well, mad around here over the last few weeks. And it’s not even the dissertation that’s doing it. Ergh.
But:
Are you free this afternoon? Fancy taking part in the LAST instalment of what has been an increasingly successful series of mental health forums?
The fifth and final in the Wax/Owen mental health forums is today! Come along to the Menier Chocolate Factory from 2-4pm to join in the discussion. Here comes the blurb…
Due to overwhelming demand Ruby Wax and Judith Owen’s show ‘Losing It’ will return to theMenier Chocolate Factory on 17th May until 18th June
SANE is delighted to announce that we will be holding a series of mental health forums as part of the latest run.
Download the Press Release.
Each week there will be an opportunity to listen to leading experts from the fields of psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. Ruby Wax, Judith Owen and Marjorie Wallace founder and chief executive of SANE, will then join the expert for a question and answer session.
The schedule of speakers is as follows:
16th June – Camila Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company
This initiative follows on from the incredible success of Wax and Owen’s piece, ‘Losing It’. Here’s what the celebrities have been saying…
“This show is too important, too funny and thought-provoking, too touching and inspiring to miss. I recommend it wholeheartedly: it’s fabulous.”
Joanna Lumley
“Absolutely marvelous… Judith’s songs are beautiful.”
Ronnie Wood
“It’s ingeniuous and hysterical and blisteringly honest. Ruby Wax and Judith Owen explode the silence on mental illness, go where people have not dared to go before. They tell the tale that most want to pretend they have never experienced. And it’s reaaaaaally funny and you get wise at the same time. And if you are the depressed one, this is up there with Prozac with no known side effects.”
Helena Bonham Carter
Mental Health Forum #4
Are you free this afternoon? Fancy taking part in the next instalment of what has been an increasingly successful series of mental health forums?
The fourth in the Wax/Owen mental health forums is today! Come along to the Menier Chocolate Factory from 2-4pm to join in the discussion. Here comes the blurb…
Due to overwhelming demand Ruby Wax and Judith Owen’s show ‘Losing It’ will return to theMenier Chocolate Factory on 17th May until 18th June
SANE is delighted to announce that we will be holding a series of mental health forums as part of the latest run.
Download the Press Release.
Each week there will be an opportunity to listen to leading experts from the fields of psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. Ruby Wax, Judith Owen and Marjorie Wallace founder and chief executive of SANE, will then join the expert for a question and answer session.
The schedule of speakers is as follows:
9th June – Professor Mark Williams, Clinical Psychologist, Oxford
16th June – Camila Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company
This initiative follows on from the incredible success of Wax and Owen’s piece, ‘Losing It’. Here’s what the celebrities have been saying…
“This show is too important, too funny and thought-provoking, too touching and inspiring to miss. I recommend it wholeheartedly: it’s fabulous.”
Joanna Lumley
“Absolutely marvelous… Judith’s songs are beautiful.”
Ronnie Wood
“It’s ingeniuous and hysterical and blisteringly honest. Ruby Wax and Judith Owen explode the silence on mental illness, go where people have not dared to go before. They tell the tale that most want to pretend they have never experienced. And it’s reaaaaaally funny and you get wise at the same time. And if you are the depressed one, this is up there with Prozac with no known side effects.”
Helena Bonham Carter
Do I know you?
Dissertation hell. OK, I say hell – it’s not that terrible. I could probably have made it a bit easier on myself by starting work in earnest a bit earlier in the year, but what’s done is done and I might as well just have a long hard slog now.
If you’ve read previous blog posts, then you will be aware that I’m writing my dissertation about a rare brain disorder called prosopagnosia – prosopagnosia is an inability to recognise people’s faces. I’ve been designing a battery of tests to test the extent of my patient’s deficits, including some face recognition tests, but also some voice and semantics tests, to see if her recognition problems run further than faces.
Designing the famous faces tests were fairly straight forward – google image search is a wonderful thing, and I am a dab-hand with photoshop (for cutting out the oval of the face – not for warping anything!). The only thing I struggled with there was actually just thinking up the names of enough famous people. I am useless with names.
Image from KatyB Photography
The semantics test was a little harder, although almost done – for that, the same problem applies, in that I’ve had to think up the names of 48 of each politicians, musicians, actors and sports personalities.
Finally, voice recognition. This is proving a real pain in the neck. Firstly, audio manipulation is not my “bag” – if anyone knows of a simple way to cut out a snippet of a sound clip, please let me know.
The second problem with finding suitable sound clips is the content of those clips – if I wanted the participant to identify a clip of Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking, I would want them to identify him by his VOICE, not by what he’s saying – it might well be that they know his films well, and could recognise the quote “I’ll be back”, but not necessarily by his own unique voice. So I have to be careful of the content of the clip – if I have a clip of Gordon Brown talking about the financial crisis, the participant might deduce “politics – Scottish male speaker – must be Brown”. That’s not the skill I’m looking to identify.
But on the bright side, once my tests are designed, the fun begins (ha ha). I can start running tests – I have one case study to test, and then I need preferably 10 age-matched female controls. In case you’re keen to help me with my research, you need to be between 37-47, female, white British and able to meet me in London for testing some time over the next couple of weeks. No time wasters 
Then the write-up begins, then I submit the draft for marking, then the re-write, then (hopefully!!) I graduate and then…? Then, ladies and gentleman, I likely have a nervous breakdown. Ha ha.
I’ll keep you posted.
Further Reading:
Mental Health Forum #3
Just a quick reminder, as I’m busy baking cakes for…:
The third in the Wax/Owen mental health forums is today! Come along to the Menier Chocolate Factory from 2-4pm to join in the discussion. Here comes the blurb…
Due to overwhelming demand Ruby Wax and Judith Owen’s show ‘Losing It’ will return to theMenier Chocolate Factory on 17th May until 18th June
SANE is delighted to announce that we will be holding a series of mental health forums as part of the latest run.
Download the Press Release.
Each week there will be an opportunity to listen to leading experts from the fields of psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. Ruby Wax, Judith Owen and Marjorie Wallace founder and chief executive of SANE, will then join the expert for a question and answer session.
The schedule of speakers is as follows:
2nd June – Professor Shitij Kapur, Institute of Psychiatry
9th June – Professor Mark Williams, Clinical Psychologist, Oxford
16th June – Camila Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company
This initiative follows on from the incredible success of Wax and Owen’s piece, ‘Losing It’. Here’s what the celebrities have been saying…
“This show is too important, too funny and thought-provoking, too touching and inspiring to miss. I recommend it wholeheartedly: it’s fabulous.”
Joanna Lumley
“Absolutely marvelous… Judith’s songs are beautiful.”
Ronnie Wood
“It’s ingeniuous and hysterical and blisteringly honest. Ruby Wax and Judith Owen explode the silence on mental illness, go where people have not dared to go before. They tell the tale that most want to pretend they have never experienced. And it’s reaaaaaally funny and you get wise at the same time. And if you are the depressed one, this is up there with Prozac with no known side effects.”
Helena Bonham Carter
Freedom!
Blatantly a very old photo. But it expresses the right emotion.
I’m free! Had my last exam yesterday, and now all that stands between me and MSc-dom is a lengthy research project. But that’s fine. That’ll be fine.
Sorry about the lack of post yesterday (and you might want to get used to the idea of a post every other day, or so, rather than every single day: things are only set to get busier). But obviously, I was cramming in the morning, and drinking in the evening.
Well, not strictly true. I shared a few drinks with classmates (and my supervisor – he definitely is a social creature) after the exam and then headed back home to… the Streatham knitting group. Arguably, it was a very subdued way to celebrate exams-over, but I don’t care. I love knitting. And the people in that group are super lovely.
But yes. Research now. It’s going to be a shockingly short 10 weeks…
Mental Health Forum
OK, early start because I have an exam in a few hours, so sorry this post is brief.
I just wanted to remind you all that the second in the Wax/Owen mental health forums is today! Come along to the Menier Chocolate Factory from 2-4pm to join in the discussion. Here comes the blurb…
Due to overwhelming demand Ruby Wax and Judith Owen’s show ‘Losing It’ will return to theMenier Chocolate Factory on 17th May until 18th June
SANE is delighted to announce that we will be holding a series of mental health forums as part of the latest run.
Download the Press Release.
Each week there will be an opportunity to listen to leading experts from the fields of psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. Ruby Wax, Judith Owen and Marjorie Wallace founder and chief executive of SANE, will then join the expert for a question and answer session.
The schedule of speakers is as follows:
19th May – Dr Mark Collins, Psychiatrist, Priory, Roehampton
26th May – Professor Lewis Wolpert, leading writer on depression
2nd June – Professor Shitij Kapur, Institute of Psychiatry
9th June – Professor Mark Williams, Clinical Psychologist, Oxford
16th June – Camila Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company
This initiative follows on from the incredible success of Wax and Owen’s piece, ‘Losing It’. Here’s what the celebrities have been saying…
“This show is too important, too funny and thought-provoking, too touching and inspiring to miss. I recommend it wholeheartedly: it’s fabulous.”
Joanna Lumley
“Absolutely marvelous… Judith’s songs are beautiful.”
Ronnie Wood
“It’s ingeniuous and hysterical and blisteringly honest. Ruby Wax and Judith Owen explode the silence on mental illness, go where people have not dared to go before. They tell the tale that most want to pretend they have never experienced. And it’s reaaaaaally funny and you get wise at the same time. And if you are the depressed one, this is up there with Prozac with no known side effects.”
Helena Bonham Carter
Waxing Lyrical
Yesterday saw the first in a series of Mental Health forums at the Menier Chocolate Factory, hosted by Ruby Wax, Judith Owens, and the folks from mental health charity SANE (whom I volunteer for).
We weren’t really sure how the afternoon was going to run – we just turned up with promotional materials and rather a lot of cake. After a “set up” (plastering said promotional materials around the theatre’s foyer), Ruby Wax appeared. She is quite full-on (you can gather that from seeing her on TV), but a genuinely friendly person.
The forum itself was preceded by a 30 minute “mingle” in the foyer, which I personally felt we could’ve done without – especially as we weren’t doing tea & cake until after the forum. The foyer before you go in is a little cosy, but with beautiful wooden beams and curios to keep your eyes occupied, you soon forget about any concerns about personal space.I felt like some audience members were just hanging around until the talk started, and maybe felt at a loose end. We’d said the forum would start at 2pm, but we didn’t actually go through to the theatre until 2:30.
The Menier Chocolate Factory is an adorable little theatre – an unusual building, with big wooden doors, it’s not somewhere I’d imagine going to see a performance. However, the theatre itself is an intimate space, allowing performers (or in this case, speakers) to communicate directly to their audience. My only criticism would lie with audience sight lines – something about the lay out of seats makes it very difficult for certain rows to see the stage.
Wax’s intro seemed a little unprepared, but her enthusiasm more than made up for it. The theme of the talk was depression as an ignored illness – the day’s guest speaker, Dr. Mark Collins (Wax’s own psychopharmacologist, or “drug dealer” as she called him), emphasised the fact that many people still deny depression even exists. He gave us a potted history of depression, what might cause it, how there’s no one cause, no one cure… I didn’t agree with everything he said (some stuff about lateralisation of brain function, but we won’t go there), but he was an excellent speaker.
An audience Q&A session followed, where we heard about some people’s own personal experiences of stigma and discrimination. Some was very difficult to hear, but some was actually pretty wonderful (for instance, the gallery owner who was helping one gentleman (suffering from mental illness) to get his artwork exhibited). Audience members also discussed alternative therapies, and the ongoing budget cuts that are crippling people’s lives.
Finally, we filed back out to the foyer for tea and cake, and a chance for people to talk to the SANE representatives about support options. Unfortunately, we didn’t get out to the tea and cake until about 3:35, and we had to be cleared up and gone by 4pm (as the theatre had to set up for that evening’s performance). Hopefully, now we know what the forums will entail, we can re-jig the setup, and make sure that there is plenty of time for refreshments and opportunities to talk to the folks at SANE.
However, if you do want to know more about mental health support in your area (in the UK), please don’t forget that SANE have a wonderful new website, a helpline, an email support service, and an online Support Forum.
There are FOUR more Mental Health Forums coming up over the next four weeks at the Menier Chocolate Factory. They are every Thursday, 2-4pm, and are entirely free to attend. It gives you an opportunity to find out more about mental illness, discuss issues with others, and talk to the guys at SANE, face-to-face. Find out more here.
I didn’t get a chance to go much further than the theatre itself, but the Menier Chocolate Factory also boasts an art gallery and a cute looking restaurant. Maybe next time..
Ruby Ruby Ruby (Wax)
An invite from the mental health charity SANE, straight to you:
Invitation!
Ruby Wax Mental Health Forums
SANE is delighted to invite anyone affected by mental illness or who would like to know more about mental illness to:
A series of free forums at the Menier Chocolate Factory theatre.
Guest speakers from psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience.
Ruby Wax & Judith Owen share their experiences of mental illness.
Marjorie Wallace, SANE, joins Ruby, Judith and guest speaker for Question and Answer sessions.
* Tea and home-made cakes provided *
SANE Services staff available to talk about how SANE can help and to signpost to other helpful services.
Dates and speakers:
Thursday 19th May: Dr Mark Collins, Psychiatrist, Priory, Roehampton
Thursday 26th May: Professor Lewis Wolpert, leading writer on depression
Thursday 2nd June: Professor Shitij Kapur,Institute ofPsychiatry
Thursday 9th June: Professor Mark Williams, Clinical Psychologist,Oxford
Thursday 16th June: Camilla Batmanghelidh, Kids Company
2pm – 4pm
Menier Chocolate Factory
53 Southwark Street,London,SE1 1RU
Nearest tubes: London Bridge (Northern and Jubilee lines); Southwark (Jubilee line)
Nearest overground: London Bridge Buses: 381
This is a unique occasion and will be relaxed, fun and informative
Violent Video Games
As part of my assessment for my MSc, I have been doing a joint poster project with my friend Rebecca surrounding the topic of violent video games. Are violent video games really causing our kids to be more aggressive? I say “our” kids – I don’t have kids. But I WAS a kid. And I played violent video games. So did my brothers. I wouldn’t consider us to be particularly aggressive. Maybe we were boisterous kids, but that was arguably before the games, and plenty of people have boisterous kids.
Image from GeekWithLaptop.com
Anecdotal evidence, you say? Maybe. But some facts and figures from the US of A -
“According to the FBI in 2009,The arrest rate for juvenile murders has fallen 71.9% between 1995 and 2008. The arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes has declined 49.3%. In this same period, video game sales have more than quadrupled. The FBI statistics show that video game sales have been on the rise, while all juvenile violent crimes have fallen in the same amount of time.”
From debate.org
OK, but that’s just someone saying a thing on a debating website, I hear you cry. I won’t lie: I’ve made no effort to track down that report from the FBI. It could be made up. This is the internet, afterall. EDIT: Oh look, found it.
You might have read some news articles talking about a correlation between violent video gameplay and subsequent aggressive behaviour in children. Bollocks to that, is what I say. Correlation, as any good scientist knows, does not equate to causation. It might be that children that already have an aggressive disposition are more likely to be drawn to play violent games in the first place. They see violent games as a way of directing their aggression, which surely is no bad thing. We don’t see a correlation between calm kids and violent video gamplay, maybe because calm kids don’t get attracted to play violent video games (they’d much rather play bonkers colourful games like Katarmari Forever or Hamster Ball.)
And what about extraneous variables? Studies that show these correlations tend to ignore the children’s family history, or trait violence. Who knows, these kids might come from abusive homes, and violence is all they know. Oh, and we usually only see the short term effects of violent influences – what about a longitudinal study, please? Do these same kids grow up into violent adults? Or is that a rare thing? Are the majority of violent video game players (i.e. MOST WESTERN TEENAGERS) likely to populate the globe with murderers? I think not. They will probably be accountants, or contestants on Britain’s Got Talent, or some other, (arguably) normal lifetime pursuit.
Perhaps some “more research is needed” – I hate to fall back on that old line, but it’s true. Video games are here to stay, so rather than bitch and moan about the possible influence of young children, and their subsequent development into aggressive teens (view not supported by evidence), maybe it’s high time we started looking into the other factors influencing aggression in young people. Maybe there’s deep-rooted issues. Maybe aggressive children need early-intervention programmes. Maybe we need to teach the negativity of violence to young people. What about anger management strategies for children? Don’t scoff – the naughty step works wonders for Supernanny.
Interested in reading more? Go for it -
An overview of previous research
A positive application of the “desensitisation to violence” effect
Deadlines
I hate deadlines. This is the time of year where lots of people I know are stressing about coursework, essay deadlines, dissertations, and final exams.
I am no different. Luckily my dissertation is not due for several months yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m not busy – I have a project deadline next week, and seen exam questions to plan, as well as general revision for my finals. Oh, and did I mention I have to have a game plan for what lies after my MSc? Hmm. I have a few things in mind, but nothing certain yet, so you’ll have to wait on that front.
Don’t panic, folks – we’ve been working hard for this, and there’s no point losing your head. If you’ve been attending lectures and doing at least SOME reading, then it only takes a bit of knucking down now to make it all pay off.
Set yourself a revision timetable if you’re crap at “finding the time” – that way you’ll have no excuse.
Remember to take breaks – there is no point studying solidly and making yourself miserable.
At the same time, remember when to say “no” – you can’t drop everything every time a friend rings you up and invites you for a drink. This is especially true of your friends who are NOT in full time education – they may have forgotten how important these next few months are for you. Remind them that this studiousness is only temporary, and you’ll catch up another time! It’s not the end of the world.
And finally: it’ll be over soon! Your hard work WILL pay off, I swear. You’ll feel good once it’s all over.
If you’re worried about exams, or are suffering with study stress, take a peek at TheSite.org – they offer some simply and practical advice about looking after yourself over the exam season.
Good luck!
BBC News – Money woes ‘linked to rise in depression’
BBC News – Money woes ‘linked to rise in depression’.
Well, here’s a news story that is, in my opinion, well over due. How long have we been mired in the recession now? I know that money worries are a massive stressor for me.
Image from Flickr user vkreees
So what now? Help is not forthcoming from the government. Talk of mental health funding cuts, the welfare reform is exacerbating problems for people already mired in complex mental health issues, and for those of us in England, getting treatment for mental illness COSTS. Yes, we don’t have free prescriptions down here, you know (Scotland got free prescriptions earlier this week, whilst in England, the charge increased). Don’t want meds? OK, well if you don’t want to wait months on an NHS waiting list for a talking treatment, you could go private, but don’t expect that process to alleviate any money worries.
Come on, Cameron. Help us out.
If you want any advice or emotional support relating to mental health issues, please contact the mental health charity, SANE. Friends are hard to come by at the moment, but they are there.
Haven’t we met before..?
At the moment, I am designing various person recognition tests for my dissertation. I’ve almost finished designing a “familiar faces” test (with 20 highly familiar faces, 20 faces of low familiarity, and 20 complete strangers to the participant). And then, it’ll be the harder job of producing a voice recognition test – they’ll have to be famous voices, but not saying something obviously attributable to them (i.e. no Arnie saying “I’ll be back”).
Image from the Sun
This all links in with my research into prosopagnosia and other person recognition deficits.
Fancy testing your own facial recognition skills? This is a pretty neat website.
Sorry to be brief – lots of work to crack on with!
Synaesthesia in Chinese
OK, first of the series of Synaesthesia Conference lectures that I’ll be writing up. Today, I’ll be talking about a four year study conducted by Julia Simner (of University of Edinburgh) and her team. In their study, Simner and her colleagues looked at grapheme-colour synaesthesia, comparing the experiences of English synaesthetes (which are hugely studied) to the experiences of Chinese synaesthetes (who are barely studied at all). 
Where to start? Some general factoids about grapheme-colour synaesthesia. About 1% of the population are estimated to have it. This phenomena is where letters and numbers illicit a colour experience in the synaesthete. These experiences follow non-random rules – the same letters seem to always illicit the same colour experience, like “A” always being green, for example.
As for words, many synaesthetes find that whole words are coloured as a whole, rather than each individual letter being coloured. The way words are coloured seems to vary in three main ways:
- Some synaesthetes simply see each letter coloured individually (as per their own internal consistencies) – for example, “CAT” would be seen as BLUE-GREEN-RED (or whatever)
- Some synaesthetes find words are coloured by their initial letter – e.g. “CAT” would be BLUE, as “C” is blue for them
- Some synaesthetes have their words coloured by their initial vowel – again, “CAT” would be GREEN, as the initial vowel is usually green
There are two main theories as to what influences the colours of different letters and words. One is the semantic influence – this is where the unconscious meaning pinned to words and therefore letters determines what colour the letters will be. For example, we might associate “D” with dogs (A is for apple, B is for bird… I’m sure you were taught the alphabet in a similar fashion). Well, dogs are brown (usually), so maybe this is why some synaesthetes experience D as being brown.
The other theory is the frequency effect – more common letters are more common colours. For example, A is often red or green, whereas X is often something exotic like purple or gold. This isn’t too much of a surprise, either.
Hmm, what next…? Maybe a bit of info about Chinese languages (assume we’re talking about Mandarin throughout, but the rules probably cross over to Cantonese). Bear with me – my knowledge of Chinese is not great.
Chinese languages are ideographic (well, almost. We won’t get into that argument here) - they don’t have alphabets, so no letter units. They consist of word unit characters. There are two phonetic spelling systems (Pinyin and Bopomo), which Chinese children may be taught, in order to help them to speak the language before learning to write the script (which is intensely complicated). Pinyin uses a combination of Westernised spellings (for pronunciation) and a number (that indicates tone – Chinese languages are tonal, which means, depending how you say a word, it can have multiple meanings. Phew.)
Simner and her team wondered if this Pinyin system could function in a similar way to English in terms of its effects on synaesthetes – does the initial “letter” (or sound) or vowel sound effect the overall consistency in colour experience?
Well, yes and no. Their study showed that if native Chinese speakers were given the Pinyin phonetic spelling of a word character, they would experience the colours in a consistent manner similar to English synaesthetes – words beginning with a “y” sound would all be green, etc. etc. However, if they were given just traditional Chinese characters to look at (with no Pinyin) these consistencies did not carry over. Hmm. Back to square one.
Chinese script itself is made up of morphemes called “radicals”. Each character contains a semantic radical (which conveys meaning) and a phonetic radical (which tells you how the word should be pronounced). These radicals can be on either side of the character, and again, location affects meaning (I think you’re beginning to understand why Chinese script is so hard to learn…)
So, does the semantic or phonetic radical colour the character overall? Or do neither of them do this?
Simner and her colleagues found three variables – hue, saturation and brightness of colour experience. It seems that Chinese synaesthetes have a more subtle colour experience than Western synaesthetes – the radical on the left accounts for the hue, the semantic radical accounts for saturation, and the radical on the right for brightness. Weird.
The frequency effect occurs in Chinese, too – common characters (and radicals) are more common colours.
And that… is about all that I can compute. If you want to know more, please head on over to Julia Simner‘s profile page on Edinburgh Uni’s website, and feel free to send her your questions! 
UKSA 2011 Conference: Overview
Yesterday saw the first day of the annual UK Synaesthesia Association‘s conference, this year hosted by UEL. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend today’s half of the conference (and my Sunday didn’t go to plan anyway, but that’s another story). However, I intend to give you a taster of what I experienced yesterday.
As a foreword: I won’t go into the details of the various talks here. I intend to write up the main ideas of my favourite talks over the next few days, so look out for those. This post is more intended to impart a general overview of the atmosphere of the conference.
Well, to start with: synaesthesia. I’ve done a brief overview of this fascinating neurological anomaly before, but just as a refresher:
Synaesthesia is estimated to affect about 2% of the population. It comes in many different forms, all of them mind bloggling. Synaesthetes have a notoriously hard time explaining or describing their experience of the world to others. And yet, despite all this, there is very limited research done into synaesthesia.
Maybe, simply, because it’s not a problem. It’s really, really interesting, but it needs no cure. In fact, I have had many synaesthetes say to me that they can’t imagine living without it.
Synaesthesia is a crossing of the senses. The most commonly known types are grapheme-colour synaesthesia and sound-colour synaesthesia. To explain: grapheme colour synaesthesia is usually where an individual will experience a certain colour whenever they see a certain colour, letter or word. Read more about it here.
The UKSA conference gave the opportunity for people with an interest in synaesthesia (many of them synaesthetes themselves) to discuss research and network. Throughout the day, poster presentations (summarising studies) were on display in a downstairs room at UEL (pictured above), and a series of talks were given throughout the day. The talks I attended ranged from the very “sciencey” to the more phenomenological discussion of synaesthesia in art.
I can’t speak for others, but I think synaesthesia draws me because it is a wonderfully romantic idea – some unique individuals can see music in colour, taste colour, experience sounds as textured. This is beyond metaphor: this is a very real experience. And it’s not trained association: it’s very much automatic, internally consistent and unconsciously processed.
As always, if you reading this and it sounds familiar, please let me know – I’d love to hear about your own experiences.
Synaesthesia as a window into human nature
Yesterday, the University of East London had the pleasure of welcoming Ed Hubbard from Vanderbilt University, USA to give a talk about synaesthesia. It was a free public lecture, lasting about 90 minutes, and we had a pretty great turn out.
The lecture signalled the start of the annual UK Synaesthesia Association conference (this year hosted by UEL) – whilst the conference is still open to the public, they need to be paying public, so this free lecture was a bit more accessible to armchair psychologists.
Here’s the blurb from the talk:
What do David Hockney, Richard Feynman, Nabokov, Messiaen and Stevie Wonder all have in common? They all experience synaesthesia, a “union of the senses”.
For some synaesthetes, listening to a piece of music may also cause them to see specific colours while for others letters or numbers are always tinged a certain colour. Although synaesthesia has been known about for over 100 years, interest in synaesthesia has undergone resurgence in the past decade. This talk will discuss recent research, showing what synaesthetes already know: synaesthesia is real, and synaesthetes are neither telling stories, nor are they “crazy.”
More information about synaesthesia can be found here: www.uel.ac.uk/psychology/research/synaesthesia
I really enjoyed Ed’s talk – he’s a great speaker, and was very obviously passionate about his area of research. He’s also keen to get all you American synaesthetes involved with his research, so please don’t hesitate to get in contact with him: edhubbard [at] gmail [dot] com
More about synaesthesia to follow tomorrow, as I am, at this moment in time, at the conference. Need to rush off now – lectures to attend. Exciting stuff!
Books: Bad Science
You might have come across Ben Goldacre before – via his column in the Guardian, or via his Twitter-based angry ramblings. So you’ll know that this guy suffers no fools.
Doctor, journalist, science cheerleader – Ben Goldacre is perfectly positioned to expose malpractice in the world of science and medicine. And how well he does it.
Bad Science is, at its heart, a light-hearted non-fiction read. It made me laugh a lot (Brain Gym? Really?) but, I have to be honest, it made me a bit depressed. Although it made me feel smug and self-righteous (yes, detox and homeopathy are bunk! And here’s why…), it also made me despair – particularly the new chapter (unpublishable in the first edition, as Goldacre was going through a court case at the time) about Matthius Rath and AIDS in South Africa. You might think Big Pharma is evil. It is, but you ain’t seen nothing yet…
Goldacre doesn’t just make sweeping claims – he supports his views with example after example of evidence. With a comprehensive reference list and suggested further reading at the end of the book, Goldacre has nothing to hide. But it’s hard to feel empowered when he admits that the quacks have won, and things will always be this way – Bad Science is entrenched.
A thoroughly recommended read: very accessible, enlightening, funny, and realistic.
Getting Testy: How to be a psychology research participant
Recently, I’ve been back and forth to Goldsmiths College is New Cross. This all began when I got an email in my uni mailbox, asking for participants in a study looking at the cognitive ability of gamers. The only requirment was that I play >7 hours of computer games a week. Easily fulfilled.
And what was this? A £5 reimbursement for my time? Oh lovely – that’ll buy me lunch!
So the reward for me was threefold:
- provide vital data for a study into the psychology of gaming (and thus flesh out research AND help someone progress with their phD)
- actively see how other people conduct their research, in order to make sure mine is even better (i.e. see what works and what doesn’t, from a participant’s perspective)
- get a fiver!
Obviously, not all of these points will be relevant to everyone. I would hope point 1 is important to us all (yay, science + altruism), and point 3 is fab, as long as you don’t need to pay for travel to and from New Cross (which I don’t). Point 2 is great for anyone doing research now or in the future – for the rest of you, it can just be from the perspective of curiousity.
So what makes a good research participant?
Fellow researchers and students aren’t traditionally a good choice – they have a predisposition to “second guessing” the tests, and are thus preoccupied. Pay attention! You need to provide good and accurate data, and if you’re thoughts are elsewhere, you can’t do that.
Then there are money grabbers – people who are there purely for the reward (or students who need to participate in order to receive credits to pass their course). They will try to get the tests done ASAP, and therefore (again) will provide crappy data.
Next: it’s not a competition. This is especially important in self-report questionnaires – be HONEST, don’t try and show off how fabulous you are as a person (particularly if it’s not true). Data is always anonymised (unless the researcher tells you otherwise), so no one will know it’s you anyway, so just tell the truth.
What can you expect from psychological research? Well, it’s not that exciting, if I’m going to be perfectly honest. Most of it is infront-of-the-computer stuff, looking at shapes and colours, testing reaction times, short term memory, that sort of thing. Then there are the questionnaires – studies that involve self-report (you know the type – on a scale of 1-7, how muchdo you agree/disagree with this statement…)
Yes, it can be tedious, and yes, you ARE just a number in a spreadsheet, but without those numbers, we can’t do the research, and without the research, psychology can’t progress. Do YOU want to be resposibile for halting the progress of SCIENCE? Oh, and did I mention the fiver?
If you want to help out in the world of psychological research, get in touch with your local uni or college’s psychology department to see if they’re looking for participants. If you’re in London, drop me an email – I know of some fun ones!
Brain Awareness Day 2011 Wrap-up
Wow! What a night!
Brain Awareness Day 2011 was a roaring success. I had a bit of a rough night’s sleep on Tuesday evening, sweating over the impending event, thinking about all the things that could go wrong. But you know what? I needn’t have worried. It all ran seamlessly. The organisations all arrived, they set up beautiful stalls, my committee and my volunteer stewards were all WONDERFUL and waaaaay more calm than I was.
We had an audience of over 300. I was thrilled, as was Ash. The last time he ran this event (two years ago) it was to an audience of about 200.
We began with Ash’s lecture – a whistlestop tour of the brain, and the history of brain research. Cognitive neuropsychology is the love of Ash’s life, and his enthusiasm for the stuff came over wonderfully. We started off with the basic FAQ style fun facts (the brain is 77% water, it weighs only 2.5% of our total body weight but uses 20% of our body’s energy while we’re at rest). Next came a potted history of brain research – from a brief mention in a 3000BC papyrus scroll, through to a sudden flurry of activity at the end of the 19th century.
But the most interesting parts of Ash’s lecture came towards the end, when he discussed brain damage, and subsequent neurological research (i.e. his area of interest). The effects of brain damage can completely alter people’s lives – and this introduction lead us wonderfully into the drinks reception and info stalls.
Downstairs, two rooms had been beautifully set up with promotional materials for our various organisations and charities, as well as drinks and nibbles to keep everyone going. We had wonderful charities turn up: SANE, Encephalitis Society, Epilepsy Action, the Epilepsy Society, UKABIF and Headway East London. We also had some promotional material sent through by the Stroke Association and Mind to put on display and some great goodies from the Dana Foundation to give away – which were much loved by all!
This session allowed members of the public to find out more about the charities, and possibly offer their support by way of donations, or even volunteering. I know from my friends at SANE that they had a great number of people sign up to receive more info about volunteering - so a brilliant night for all those involved.
Finally, we had a great panel discussion, lead by Ash, with three of his study participants (and friends). All three have suffered some form of brain damage (with two of them surviving herpes simplex encephalitis, and one surviving a massive brain hemorrhage), which has completely changed their lives. Whereas Ash’s lecture gave us a clean cut text-book definition of prosopagnosia (or face blindness), here we had a chance to hear firsthand the life experiences of people with severe facial recognition problems. They related beautifully how their experiences had changed their lives, but how it had also changed their outlooks – it made them realise not that life is cruel (described as the “why me, why me” mentally by one of our guests), but more made them be grateful that they were alive. That you have “one life – live it”. An important message for everyone.
All in all, a fantastic, enlightening, thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Now, if you don’t mind, I have some sleep to catch up on…
Did you come to Brain Awareness Day at UEL? What did you think? Please share you thoughts, and photos if you have any! We’d love to hear your feedback.
Books: The Red Queen
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
Following on from yesterday’s review of Sexual Nature at the Natural History Museum, I thought I’d give you a “recommended read”. I actually finished this book about a month ago, but am only just now getting around to reviewing it. Don’t expect any ground-breaking reflection – I’m a bit weary at the moment.
Well, the long and short of it is: Matt Ridley is great. I’ve known this since I read his “Nature Via Nurture” last year, at which point my dad recommended this.
Here, Ridley looks at the question of: why sex? Sex uses a lot of energy, is slow, and requires two individuals. And it leads to a lot of dangerous competition. Well, sex has its various advantages, and Ridley looks at these systematically.
But the more entertaining portion of the book looks at various sexual behaviours: from sexy-son theory, to the thousands of genders in the mushroom family, you’re bound to be in for a few surprises.
My main love of Ridley comes from his rare ability to impart brilliant scientific knowledge, whilst still keeping it all fascinating and entertaining (I would NEVER describe Ridley as “dry”). Phrases like “a gigantic experiment called communism in a laboratory called Russia…” are bound to raise a smirk. And you will be bowled over by the blunt illustration of the interconnectedness of all human-beings (as early on as p. 12). Be amused by the Coolidge effect! Finally understand why gentlemen prefer blondes (or not)!
Definitely worth a look in – I enjoyed it very much, and imagine I will be reading it again in the not-too-distant future.
