By Tori Rodriguez

You probably already know how important it is for kids to indulge their creative side, but even when they’re up for being imaginative, many projects are mostly a lesson in following instructions. That’s certainly valuable, but true creativity also involves figuring things out for themselves. Neal Bascomb learned this lesson while writing his book, The New Cool. The author followed a team of 31 high school seniors in Goleta, California who, in the span of just six weeks working alongside mentors, built a robot for an international competition. “This project-based, interactive experience inspires kids like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Bascomb says. Read on for tips on how to inspire your own children.

1. Practice what you preach.

“Mentor and coach alongside your children,” advises Bascomb. “It’s incredibly inspiring for kids to work with their parents, instead of simply taking directions from them.” This way, they’ll see that you’re truly invested in their success and will view you as an ally. And hey, maybe you’ll learn something new, too! So next time they need your help with a project, instead of telling them how to do it, jump in and try to figure it out together.

2. Encourage hands-on activities.

Bascomb stresses the importance of “getting in there and working with your hands,” explaining that there is something almost primal about our desire to build and create. Put away the computers and smartphones, get some tools––even just a hammer, nails and wood––and build something together. “You might light a fire inside your kid that you didn’t know existed.” You’ll also help your child connect to and appreciate the way of life that previous generations experienced, before video games and the Internet.

3. Expect more from your kids.

It can be tempting to over-assist in an effort to help your child succeed, but hand-holding can backfire and send the message that she can’t do it on her own. Instead, says Bascomb, “give your kids responsibility, and expect more from them. It’s amazing what kids are able to do if you push them to take a leadership role, formulate their own ideas and execute them. Give them the tools they need, and let them run.”

4. Provide the raw materials.

Lynn Louise Wonders, LPC, RPT-S, RYT, psychotherapist and director of services at Marietta Counseling for Children & Adults (MCCA) in Marietta, Georgia, notes the importance of stocking your child’s environment with materials conducive to creativity. “Keep things like clay, confetti, googly eyes and popsicle sticks on hand and readily available,” she advises. Libby Chalk, LMFT, a therapist on staff at MCCA, adds, “Instead of turning on the TV for young children, purchase toys that encourage imaginative play, like a dollhouse, train table and farm set. Not only does this encourage creativity and abstract thinking, but it also provides opportunities to take on new roles and experiment with teamwork and relationships.”

5. Help them “peer up.”

While parental involvement is paramount, it’s also crucial that kids have opportunities to learn with others on their level. “Find projects and outlets where your children can learn together with other kids,” Bascomb says. “Peer-to-peer learning is an incredibly motivational, exciting way to learn, and one that reinforces knowledge like no test or studying ever could.” Seek extracurricular activities and camps in which kids work together in teams to create something, like a science project or music video, or have your kids and their friends brainstorm creative projects they can do at home.

6. Applaud efforts over outcomes.

While it’s tempting to pile on the praise for a job well done, it’s more important to encourage kids throughout the process in order to recognize and engage their intrinsic creativity and ability. “When a child realizes for himself that he has the ability, potential and know-how to figure it out, his motivation becomes a much deeper pool to draw from than when he relies on external sources to boost him,” says Wonders.

7. Expand your child’s comfort zone.

Learning about different cultures and ways of life can expand your child’s mind by opening his eyes to alternate ways of doing things. “Take your children to unfamiliar places to observe a different culture, even if it’s to another side of your own city,” Wonders suggests. Or regularly sample other cultures’ cuisines with your children, and “do some research together on that culture. Help your children see their own world from a different point of view.”

8. Recognize that one size does not fit all.

“Different brains process information in different ways,” explains Wonders, so don’t insist that your child create or study in a certain way if there are other viable options that may work better for her. “Brush up on different learning styles and help your child to understand the way her brain processes information most effectively.” Take this quiz to discover your child’s learning style then “join creative forces to find new ways to study for a test or complete a project.” You’ll be acknowledging and validating your child’s uniqueness while empowering her to figure out the things that work best for her.

9. Help them see the big picture.

Chalk suggests having older children or adolescents imagine the kind of person they want to be in five years, and even write a letter to their future self, contemplating such questions as “What do they want to be known for? What do they want their friends to like them for? What kind of activities do they want to be involved in or teams do they want to be on? What will they spend their time doing during the week and on weekends? Will they have a job? This can be a great platform to start talking about how to reach the goals they are setting and what steps they can be taking today,” explains Chalk.

10. Encourage kids to set their own bar.

Popular culture and cliques at many schools tend to promote a very narrow definition of what’s considered “cool,” but your kids don’t have to buy into it. Bascomb says, “Tell your kids that cool is what they make it, no matter their interests––whether it’s football, the cello, theater, dance, writing or chess. Tell them that if they work hard, are passionate about what they’re doing, and commit fully to it, then that activity is cool. Forget what anybody else says.”

One curious thing has become apparent to me, and it is an idea I have explored many times in the past, and that is that most people are blind to the world outside of their personal experience. Furthermore, it takes a long time to develop an understanding of some particular aspect of life, and if one hasn’t been exposed to it early in life, it becomes almost impossible to develop it later. everyone is functionally blind and it is impossible for them to learn to see clearly. The standard examples are:  if a child isn’t exposed to language it becomes very difficult for them to become skilled later in life. The same is no doubt true for music, and if a kid isn’t really skilled by age twelve he will never be exceptional. It just takes a decent natural ability with the proverbial 10,000 hours of practice cultivated into the brain by that early age to get really good at something. The power of this idea is that all skills are like that, and since we all develop skills as we mature we simultaneously lose the ability to have other skills, because we all have only so much attention. We might have quite a variety of unique skills, but they are at the expense of quite a few other ones.

It isn’t just native intelligence that permits one to become successful; it is the  the absorption of talents of those people we are exposed to in our youth. It is because of this early exposure and training that some people become generals in the army and others become sergeants. The generals are not natively all that much more able; the difference is in the roles they learn to fill. They learn early and practice early the skills they will need later in life, and if they don’t develop them early they never will, because they can’t. I wander on this issue because I am thinking about things that I don’t want to talk about anymore. It is part of my new world view of commercializing ideas rather than just spewing ideas out onto the world where they evaporate.

Sorry, folks, but I am no longer giving free lunches.

Today I am going to write about focusing. In modern society, we all drain our attention span to texting, gaming, drama, and maybe conventional reading, Angry Birds and so on. Because of that, we quickly become bored if we do not see any of those everyday tools in our heads. In other words, we lose our focus and impair our minds to expose ourselves to the huge conventional world of highlights and technology.

Focus comes in a couple of definitions. The focus we all now about is how we take all of our attention and use it on a certain task. That focus is something we all do everyday. As of now I’m focused on blogging, shooting all of my ideas that I have to talk about this topic. Then there is the focus that is synonymous to your potential career or your true goals (e.g. “your focus in life”). Those types of focuses are simply just a matter of making life decisions and figuring out what suits you best. Believe it or not, these focuses are shaped by your life decisions as an act of experience and bad mistakes.

I am a guy who likes to adapt to new ideas and learn from old mistakes. I have been in those times where I’ve played many hours of video games, grew bored, did something else as a form of taking a break, and then came back. It was at some point through those no-life situations where I though, is this really something I want to do? I feel the pleasure and excitement from getting trophies and earning bonuses, but it doesn’t feel the same as getting trophies from chess tournaments or earning achievements from academic busters. In other words, my focus on gaming is different from my focus on life. What I’m trying to say is that focusing on things you do in life is much more comforting and exciting, and it leads to a great sense of accomplishment at the end.

But not all things in life are easy. There will be obstacles and personal family problems that you’ll encounter in those times. Those will be the times you get to make decisions in life, and hopefully you’ll realize that it is really all up to you to control who you really are. Forget the things your parents say to make you feel better. Rather, say what you really want to say because you won’t regret it. Now that doesn’t mean you should say that smoking is great. There will be consequences that you probably won’t even know until you try it, but there are personal life stories that others already did that match your problems. Know in life that there will be advantages and disadvantages in the things we do, but what’s more important is how one side weighs over another. I am the type of person that makes decisions based on the intensity of the cons compared to the pros. This is because it bothers me to see more problems that come and go rather than the good parts of life. I feel happy on what I do, but the problems could change that feeling anytime, and if I am bound to lose persistence and hard work (like losing a family member or wasting a month of work where I could save money), then it’ll strike you hard. And if you’re not strong enough to handle those problems, it will haunt you. So rather than getting all of the good things out of what we do, it’s best to keep our problems to a small amount and live our lives knowing we are not as painful as it can be.

To cap it off, focus on the long-term goals in life. Short-terms are just there to come by and finish (like buying a car or reading a book). Long term goals (getting a degree, working right, having a family) requires dedication and of course, effort. Life decisions are pretty hard to deal with. What I can say is to be wary of your actions and really think about what you’re doing. If you know one way is leading to a highway of hell compared to another way, then is it really worth it? Understand the costs, spend them well, and then invest on learning from them.

One is that I haven’t started volunteering yet. The time process is driving me crazy with the week long medical appointments and the security check-ins. I understand they need to check me off the security measures to make sure I’m “healthy” enough to take this job. I’m just not patient for long time delays and unbelievable weekly waits. Seriously…

Second is that I need a drive to make me productive. Without some motivation or an inspiration to keep me forward, I’ll stick around in my home watching some anime or shows like ER or Grey’s Anatomy. It feels like getting a huge caffeine boost: great at first but boring and insufficient later on. Luckily, boredom becomes my inspiration; just not an effective way of getting productivity out of myself. So to counter it, I will use a journal to write down techniques and plans to keep me focused. These will not be some genuine techniques that people understand and go with; they are rather helpful and hopefully some useful techniques that I can share and pass a word of mouth around while I move my ass around this world.

So now that I took my anger out of that last paragraph, I guess I’ll share a thing or two about me. Being part of the “Starting Up” category, I know this will fit quite well. One thing is that I normally delete words as I type. Whenever I do this, I learn from my mistakes and I improve my writing. Because this is a small blog, I think of this as communicating with you guys. And if I can improve my writing from these weekly blogs, so can my communication skills. It’s a decent win-win situation; you get to learn more about yourself while I learn more about myself.

Another thing is that I dislike wasting ample time. I need to spend my time wisely. I just cannot watch movies or shows without knowing that I need to do better in school. I go to an Ivy League school with a dad that’s pushing me to very large limits. I am taking care of my little brother with a hardworking mom and step dad. And here I am just wandering around and being the old me. I just cannot be that old me–I need to change myself to the unexpected.

But you know what? I think that is my problem. I just cannot stop worrying about all of these things. I think I need to accept the fact that life is not easy and whatever I do will become simply memories. I just have to let go and start focusing on the present. This won’t be easy, but it’s definitely worth a huge shot. There’s no time for me to spare if I want to be successful, and it sure as hell not gonna improve if I act like my old self. So adios to the old “me,” and cheers to the “me” that I am definitely going to see from now on. To quote Gaspard Ulliel from a Chanel de Bleu commercial, “I’m not going to be the person I’m expected to be anymore.” It’s not that I’m striving for a life to take for granted; it’s that I am going to change myself to live a life I truly want through working right and life practices…or not.

Guess I have to share more about myself to fully understand what I’m going through.

Until then, take care!

- Mideco

The ocean scene board was one I pulled out toward the end of the year when the theme was often the ocean, ocean animals, and children start talking about going to the beach.  Or if you are in my neck of the woods it’s called going “down the shore.”

Here are a few language games that included the ocean board:

Fishing/Making an Ocean Scene: Show the children each magnet picture and have them name it all together.  Then put the pictures face down on a table on the floor.  Tell the children they will take turns fishing for each animal.  When they catch one, have them practice saying, “I caught a _____.”   Then have everyone clap out the syllables and count the number of claps.   After everyone claps, you can have the child tell you or a friend where to put the magnet using a full sentence.  Or you can let the child place it somewhere and tell you where he placed it.  I like to have the child tell a friend, this way the friend practices listening to and following directions and the child practices giving the right amount of information.

After the scene has been made, often it is fun to turn it into a story if your group needs to practice narrative skills.  Or if the group needed to practice listening to directions more, I had them help me clean up by listening for which 2-3 pictures to remove from the board.

Silly Scene: Spend a few minutes before the session putting all the magnet pictures on the board in silly ways.  When the children arrive, keep the board closed.  Tell them when you open it up, they will need to find things that are silly.  Have the children take turns using full sentences to tell you what is silly about the picture.  For example, “There is a turtle in the raft.”  ”The shark is eating the plants.”  ”The jellyfish is inside the treasure chest.”  As each child found something silly, I took that piece off of the board so others wouldn’t repeat saying it.  Once all the pieces were off the board, I told the children it was their turn to make a silly ocean scene.  You can have them take turns putting magnet pieces on the board and telling you what is silly and why.

The academics’ report in the April 2011 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin shows that research test participants who were more distant from a problem were able to develop more innovative and groundbreaking approaches than participants who were closer to the scenario. They were also able to solve problems more quickly.

Their research is based on construal level theory, which posits that a sense of distance — whether in time, space or social connection — leads to more abstract thinking. When our thoughts move from the concrete to the abstract, we are able to look at issues in new ways. This fresh perspective can lead to new and creative insights.

Proof positive
Polman and Emich conducted several experiments to test their theory. In one test, participants were instructed to draw an alien that would be used for a science fiction story. Some participants thought their drawing was for their own use. Others were told their drawing would be used for someone else’s story.

© Newlight | Dreamstime.com

For many of us, a reference point for our image of a space visitor is the movies, where it’s common to see aliens who resemble humans. For example, these extra-terrestrials will usually have two arms, two legs and two eyes. Remember E.T.?

In the study, when the participants thought their drawing of an alien was for someone else’s use, they limited their use of human details and became freer and more innovative in their artwork.

In another example, the professors asked participants to imagine they were locked in a tower with no means to escape other than a rope. The rope, however, only stretched halfway to the ground.

Participants who imagined they were helping someone else escape did better than those who imagined themselves as the prisoner. Those working on behalf of someone else were more likely to suggest an effective solution — that the rope be split in half lengthwise with the ends tied together so the prisoner could safely reach the ground.

In a third study, students were asked to chose a gift for themselves, someone close to them or someone far removed. The most creative gift ideas were for those people most distant from the giver.

What this research means for you
The research suggests that the buddy system might benefit you at work when you’re challenged to find a creative solution. Ask your colleagues for help and in return, help them with a problem when they are stumped.

If that’s not possible or if you’re working on your own, try imagining that you’re solving the problem for someone else. Stepping into someone else’s shoes can lend you the needed psychological distance to find a more innovative solution.

Have you found a creative solution to a problem by imagining you are solving it for someone else?

I ordered “two”, (read that “2″, as in “1…2″ , “un…deux”, “uno…dos”, “raz…dwa…”), deposit slip books from my banking institution. I specifically asked if I can order “two” books. “Oh, yes! We can take care of that for you! Thank you for your business!”

So, to proffer an old timer’s phrase, “Riddle-me-this…” : why in the hell do I have “eight” books, (read that as “8″, as in “8″, “huit”, “ocho”, “osiem”) in a delivery package at my doorstep? (…and an exorbitant charge added to my account!) That’s more than four years of deposit slips! Why on earth would I order four-plus years of deposit slips?

I know and accept that “mistakes happen.” Well, it seems to me that “mistakes” are “the rule” these days. Why is it that I’m absolutely delighted when an order actually goes through easily and correctly? There’s something wrong with that picture.

I think it’s a sign of the times. The new way of doing business is for workers to just think within their narrow little compartmentalized “boxes” of duties. That’s how people are trained these days, as “little cogs” in the gears. If an event comes up that doesn’t fit in the “little box”, just do whatever you want, the quickest way to remove it from your “to do” duty list. Somebody else down the line will fix it, or the consumer will just have to suck it up. Tough noogies. (And, to note, sometimes if the “little cog” fails, the whole gear jams up…..ya know, the “..For want of a nail…” thing…)

Or, it’s the “don’t know” what to do: “That does not compute, Will Robinson” therefore, just make something up and do that despite it’s possible deleterious effects….

Another sign of the times: The “new rule” is: set something up, don’t bother checking and running trials to make sure things work as planned. Nope. Set it up, put it out there, and if there are “bugs”, maybe we’ll fix ‘em then. (I read where Steve Jobs got hotter-than-a-match when the new i-phone came out and wasn’t working properly. He wanted to know why-the-hell not. I’m with ya, Steve. It’s how the younger generations of people think and interact in the world today. Don’t know how that happened, but it’s happening all over the place. I think it has something to do with the T-H-I-N-K thing, and not a whole lot of abstract thinking about the ultimate goals of offering goods and services, and an obliviousness as to how the systemic global parts work together or about consequences and effects of one’s actions on others down the road…the “little boxes”- “just a cog” thing…But, that’s okay, Steve, because a while back I had an issue with Apple’s sales staff lying to me about an item in stock, which, of course, ended up being delayed because the item was in Japan. When I folllowed up with Apple, I was told “Of course, the sales people lie to make a sale!” Guess that’s acceptable behavior, too, eh? So, I have to say, I relished reading about Steve’s I’m-not-happy-with-your-performance-people moment. Know the feeling, buddy.)

I think it also has to do with the effect of swift-paced technology and social media: how people socially interact these days via technology. People become objectified and personhood gets diminished. (People are not “things”… they are not “units”… they are social creatures…)

And, maybe a lot of people/consumers do just “suck it up” as it’s frustrating, a pain-in-the-ass and time-consuming to try to fix someone else’s error, particularly when one is dealing with a big corporate “system”. (When was the last time you called a customer service number and didn’t get put on hold forever, didn’t get transferred to umpteen different people, explaining your situation over and over and over again to each person with whom you speak, didn’t get told a variety of differing things? No wonder the cost of goods and services rise…all those transferred-to people have to spend time transferring your call to get paid…)

To make my day even more enjoyable as I attempt to rectify this particular comedy-of-errors, I call my bank to speak to the manager. The “manager-who-is-here-today” is busy and will call back in about a half-hour. (The “manager-who-is-here-today” explains a lot. Different managers/ever-changing-workers at the same branch on different days bodes well for continuity of services in a certain location, don’t-cha-think? Just keep moving people around. After all, each branch in each community is “the same”. — Really? — Maybe “operations” are “the same”, but the people doing those operations and the community they serve are different. Ya can’t build cohesiveness in social groups and settings without anchoring continuity…such things need to develop and grow…and if human factors are not taken into consideration, chances are, things will indeed get screwy….)

As I explained my dilemma to the person on the phone who was taking my message for the manager, she counters that they can “probably do something to fix” the error, but I would have to come in “in -person”. (Oh, so now I have to schlep to the bank, stand in line, spending more of my daily 24-hr allotment due to another’s error? More time and energy devoted to the snafu when I could be doing something else…like writing my blog! )

And why is it that I have to come in “in person”, pray tell? : “For (my) safety”, I’m told. After all, the bank doesn’t really know who they are talking to on the other end of the telephone wire. (Really? Let’s think here: what are the chances that somebody on the other end of the line who has the account number, can point out the date and amount of the charges for freakin’ deposit slips isn’t the account holder? I don’t gamble, but I’d gamble on that one. — “My safety” … bullsh*t. — Just another example of one of the “little box” remedies. Just another way to maybe make the problem go away — make it more difficult for consumers so perhaps they will just “suck it up” and go away. — Yes, I’m jaded — ….Had I been told I would need to come in and return the excess deposit books, I could understand that. But, puh-leez, don’t try to sell me it’s a “safety issue” over deposit slips…Not everything is a “safety issue”…Some things are common sense… )

So, it’s been almost three hours as I await for my “will return call in a half-hour”…. time to gather my box of four-plus years of unordered deposit slips and stand in line and see what happens. (Dollars to doughnuts, I get there and no one who has the authority to fix this problem will be available today… and someone will probably try to sell me one of their other “banking products” instead while I am there…. I’m thinking maybe I’ll just start taking my chances with a cash-stuffed mattress …)

Welcome to the business-and-customer-service-world-of-corporate-America in 2011…. Stay-tuned…I’m certain there’s more to come…

• by Joan E. Strassmann, Robert E. Page Jr., Gene E. Robinson & Thomas D. Seeley²
• by Edward Allen Herre & William T. Wcislo ³
• by Krakauer DC, Flack JC.⁴
• by Michael Doebeli⁵
• by Nonacs P.⁶
• by van Veelen M, García J, Sabelis MW, Egas M.⁷.
• And this article by Markus Waibel, Dario Floreano⁸

can also be considered as related to this discussion.

I won’t give the fauceir stance on this subject here which deserves to Mato who will hopefully do this in the near future. My point is about the way discussions are held in evolutionary biology. Some insight provides this science article by Elizabeth Pennisi. Evolutionary biologist Stuart West who organized a roar of more than 130 scientists⁹ is quoted:

“[Our] letter is written in the hope that it will keep nonspecialists from wasting time on it.”

this can be simply rephrased:

“As in this case we were unable to prevent this article from publication we want to exert control on what is published now with all the power of a big crowd.”

Isn’t it shameful for a scientist to appeal to a fallacy like this?

“As most of the people thing the other way this cannot be true and should not be considered more seriously.”

Isn’t it the privilege of scientist to be true even if opposed by the majority? Didn’t famous scientists even lost their lives in their struggle for scientific advancement, Giordano Bruno for instance.

I like the allegory put forward by Steve Jones.

Not long ago, I was stung by a metaphor. A gang of paper-wasps guarding their shared nest, irritated at my exposition of their habits to a bunch of students, went on the attack. The effects were unpleasant — a hot, sweaty, choking feeling and an overwhelming desire to take a cool shower (which did not help).

An extraordinary scientist is not meant to be a mere social insect. He (please excuse sexists wording) used to develop outstanding ideas because he has an outstanding character, and an outstanding character can be maintained only by individualists. Well and these kind of people have to suffer the aggression of those who instinctively—as this is rooted in irrational behavior and only superficially rational activity—feel obliged to defend the hive. For decades Fauceir Theory challenges conventional evolutionary believes and has therefore bluntly dismissed. Mato should be please to learn that others share the fate.

It’s time for a change, now.

@John Dinkelspiel
I watched Susan Blackmore’s talk on memes, and in fact, she is extending the concept of memes towards Fauceir Theory by introducing more types of fauceirs namely the ‘teme’, technological meme, but you cannot name them all. Fauceirs are innumerable. Even replicating fauceirs are abundant and they show a tremendous variation in mechanisms of replication. You cannot even name all the mechanisms but you can classify them by precision and resource consumption. Mato explained these parameters in his first Fauceir lecture, available at YouTube.

@John
Surprisingly enough, I find myself defending Meme Theory. Though I agree with you that the meme concept is vague at best, and though I disagree with Susan Blackmore that it can be improved simply by copying and varying, still I feel there is a fundamental predication made in Susan’s talk that comes true. We shy away from admitting it. I outlined it more precisely in my blog entry.

Grown up in the countryside, I know how people who live in big cities for generations loose elementary instincts to survive in the wilderness. (The movie Crocodile Dundee is no exaggeration.)

You may want to counter that this can be learned again based on the Madagascar 2 slogan “If you make it in New Your you can make it everywhere”, but I vehemently disagree. These instincts are lost and gone for ever. I wonder what experienced rangers in Arizona would say about it.

@JRD
There is nothing scary about that. As a matter of fact, fauceirs, manipulate fauceirs since time immemorial. Fauceir-fauceir-interactions is the prerequisite of evolution.

@Jim Brennan
I guess you compare parasitic memes with fast food. Well, all fauceirs, including memes, can evolve into parasitic behavior. Each host fauceirs has to defend numerous such attacks.

@Graham Macdonald
Well, genes are an abstract concept too. If you took a stretch of DNA into a test tube, it would not work as a gene. A gene needs its context, the environment where it can take action. The same holds true for a meme. If you wrote some source code on a paper, it would not work either. Fauceirs are abstract entities and they have always to be studies apart from its physical representation in the context in which they have evolved.

You may counter that a gene can be represented only by a certain DNA sequence while a piece of software can be transmitted by various forms. That’s not true. The same gene is not always the same stretch of DNA. It may include synonymous variations. Moreover, as some organisms or organelles use a slightly different genetic code, the same gene can be coded differently at an other place.

This work by Paul Netman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Fauceir theory is developed and © by Mato Nagel and available at www.fauceir.org.

Thank you for this crash course in meme theory and its historical background. I couldn’t afford neither time nor money to read Dawkin’s books, and I don’t think it is necessary any more as so many repercussions are available for free in the meantime.

Please allow to summarize this article as follows:
Definition: Meme is a specific psychological fauceir that exhibits replicator properties.

The invention of memes in times of bursting information technology was consequential. The similarities between memes and genes are striking. Both posses unique replicator properties, but replication needs a complex machinery to take place. In case of genes, this is accomplished by a host of proteins; in case of memes, storage and communication devices are needed. And namely these devices developed rapidly in the second half of the last century, so memes became abundant and obvious.

As with gene theory of evolution, the meme theory’s problem remains that all the plausible explanations of evolution require that complex replicator machinery at work. Fauceir Theory easily can solve this problem by extending the study of evolution to fauceirs that do not provide replicator properties.

Fauceir Theory is around for about the same time as meme theory, and it explains evolution in even more general and abstract terms. As with meme theory, people seem not to be terribly keen on it. Fauceir Theory seems not to be an infectious meme actually but this is not surprising or even disappointing. On the contrary, it can be predicted by fauceir rules that an advanced fauceir, an advanced meme in this case, needs time to gain acceptance.

This work by Paul Netman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Fauceir theory is developed and © by Mato Nagel and available at www.fauceir.org.

But, why Russian? I guess the answer to this question is that this book was written by Anthony Burgess in 1962. It was the period of cold war, and Russia was the enemy. An here it occurs to me that it was an intended effect a means to subconsciously infuse hatred against Russian people who speak the same tongue. In fauceir terms it is the imprecision ingrained in every information process here employed intentionally in terms of propaganda to manipulate people. Nowadays an author would probably rather use Arabian.

All this was clear to me right from the beginning. There was something else that made me nervous that subconsciously infused something in my mind that made me depressed and silent. Now I know what it was. By contrast to native English speakers these words were not alien to me. They have a meaning that aroused feelings and these feelings were in stark contrast with what happened in the plot.

To give an example that can be apprehended by English speakers, imagine members of a gang addressing each other by words like ‘my friend’ or ‘my dear one’. Sounds strange doesn’t it. An English speaking gang would use words like pal, crony, buddy, and so on,  and in Russian, of course, such words exist, too. Droog, however, the word frequently used by gang members in that Burgess’ book,  when used among criminals has a rare sarcastic taste.

An other example, devotchka in Russian is an innocent girl and the word is synonymous with virgin. Russian criminals wouldn’t use that word to address a normal female person, if they were not sex criminals. Even among ordinary criminals this word is reserved for someone they harbor sincere feelings for. An ordinary woman is called by Russian criminals whore or bitch like supposingly everywhere in the world.

Having said that, I hope everyone can understand how I took in this book. It was detestable. It was as if these criminals not only showed an extraordinary degree of brutality, but also trampled the least bit of their own feelings, as if they were not humans at all but robots programmed only to destroy.  It was unbearable. But it was unreal, too,  as every robot has its programmer. Robots don’t brutally destroy everything on their own account. They must have a programmer.

Finally, I got over it because I understood that everything was my mere misconception, imprecision in fauceir terms so to speak.

This work by Paul Netman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Fauceir theory is developed and © by Mato Nagel and available at www.fauceir.org.

Musée d’Orsay, Paris; photo by Mark Bridge

What I like about investigating something so exact like room height is how easy it is to conduct an experiment. You just place people in two rooms that are identical in all features except the one you’re interested in, and record people’s feelings, thoughts and behavior. That’s exactly what Meyers-Levy and Zhu (2007) did in their three experiments when investigated the effects of high (10 ft; 3 m) and low (8 ft; 2,4 m) ceiling height on individuals’ notions of freedom versus confinement and how such effects further influenced information processing.

Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York; photo by Drumaboy

Subjects in the high ceiling room were more likely to report feeling a sense of freedom  and completed freedom-related anagrams more quickly and confinement-related anagrams more slowly than those in the low ceiling rooms. This means that high ceilings can prime the concept of freedom and low ceilings can prime the concept of confinement.

Alexandria Library, Egypt; photo by macloo

Authors further hypothesised that priming of notions of freedom and confinement would influence subjects’ thinking processes in a way that they would predominately use either relational or item-specific processing. This is because relational elaboration entails elaborating freely or uninhibitedly on multiple pieces of data so as to discern commonalities that they share. On the other hand, item-specific elaboration involves confining or restricting one’s focus to each item by itself and concentrating on its precise attributes.

Royal Masonic Girls’ School, London, U.K.; photo by stevecadman

As expected, the salient high ceiling height prompted subjects to analyze information in more abstract and integrated ways (relational processing) then low ceiling heigth which was evident in three tasks – item categorization, product evaluation and recall task.

Participants in the high ceiling condition used relational processing in the item categorisation task, producing a larger number of dimensions, greater abstraction in those dimensions that they identified, and a smaller average number of subgroups per dimension, than participants in low ceiling room.

The Nave, Canterbury Cathedral, U.K.; photo by stevecadman

When asked to evaluate the appearance of two products – coffee table and a wine rack, participants in the high ceiling room were more likely to pay attention to product’s overall appearance, and participants in the low ceiling room were more likely to notice the details.

Seattle Public Library, U.S.; photo by David Zeibin

In the recall task, subjects in high ceiling rooms were more successful at the free recall task (relational processing) and subjects in the low ceiling rooms were more successful at the cued recall task (item-specific processing).

Differences in processing strategies only emerged when due to salient ceiling hung lanterns, people were likely to attend to ceiling height.

The Blizard Building, laboratory, at the Royal London Hospital, U.K.; photo by stevecadman

Meyers-Levy and  Zhu concluded that ceiling height affected subjects’ subconscious perception of the environment and therefore, the information processing method they used. These findings are widely applicable.

For example, authors  suggest that art galleries featuring hard-to-interpret abstract art should install a high ceiling in order to prompt relational processing. Yet, those that feature more concrete, detail-filled representational art might benefit from low ceilings that prompt item specific processing.

The Blizard Building at the Royal London Hospital; photo by stevecadman

Similarly, rationally processing consumers in a high ceiling room may better make sense of quizzical ads, while ads that are ment to be understood literally, get more attention in a low ceiling room. These findings should also be taken into consideration when designing workspace, lecture halls, scientific institutes and study rooms. Designer should answer the question whether users would benefit more from being primed for relational or abstract thinking.

Reference

Meyers-Levy, J. and  Zhu, R.J. (2007) The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing That People Use. Journal of Consumer Research, 34,2, 174-186. (link)