Sunday, June 22, 2008

The sense of self

More things that have been on my mind lately, in addition to preparations for my trip to CA for ALA and a vacation afterwards, are the various amazing stories I've been hearing on Radio Lab.

Radio Lab is my new obsession, an NPR radio show produced by WNYC. It's been recommended by several friends, and is also one of the favorites of This American Life host Ira Glass. And as This American Life is also one of my favorites, I thought I'd check it out.

I've been downloading many of the old podcasts, and one in particular that I found fascinating was the episode "Who Am I?" with discussions about the concept of self. It included a story about how a scientist experimented giving chimps a mirror to see if the chimps would eventually recognize themselves. At first, the chimps thought that their reflection was another chimp, and treated it as such, but after a few minutes, it started to seem that they recognized that it was a reflection of themselves--for example, they would test the reflection with motion, and appeared to be "checking themselves out," etc. But to prove this, the researchers used anesthesia on the chimps, and while they were asleep, painted a red mark on their foreheads. When the chimps woke up and looked at the mirror, seeing their reflection with a red mark on the forehead, they would touch their own foreheads to see what the red mark was, a sure sign that the knew that the reflection was themselves.

I was curious as to when babies are able to recognize themselves in a mirror, and found that it's generally at nine months of age. While doing a little additional research, I also found an article that stated, "Self-recognition has traditionally been considered a sign of superior intelligence, since so far only species such as chimpanzees, dolphins, orangutans and humans have managed to achieve it." To take this a step further, the article is about a robot at Yale that is also able to recognize itself in a mirror.

And here's another article about monkeys who don't seem to know that the monkey in the mirror is a reflection, but also treat the reflection differently than they would treat another monkey.

Anyway, there's so many more incredible stories in that episode and others. The shows on laughter and deception are also fascinating.

And what does this all have to do with children's books? Nothing, I guess. It was just on my mind!

***

For those of you who were curious, last week's Focus meeting went fairly well, I think. And also, I'm still leaning towards a Mac. I'm tempted by the black, but am still drawn to the white. Hmmm...

I may not be able to post for the next few Mondays because of the aforementioned ALA and vacation, but will do my best!

5 comments:

Beth Fehlbaum, Author said...

Radio Lab and This American Life absolutely ROCK! I love it when I find fellow fans!

Beth Fehlbaum, author
Courage in Patience, a story of hope for those who have endured abuse
http://courageinpatience.blogspot.com
http://www.kunati.com/courage-in-patience
Chapter 1 is online!
beth@bethfehlbaum.com

Anonymous said...

I have the white MacBook and LOVE it. It's so clean and fun. I haven't had the dirt spots that some talk about and I'm on it quite a bit, have even flow with it - using my stylish pink sleeve. :)

Also, my baby is nine months. I'l have to hold her up to a mirror again. lol. KG

Anonymous said...

That should read flown with it. Sorry!

Anonymous said...

I've listened to almost all the radio lab shows. I've gotten some good ideas for my graphic novel series idea, which I may or may not talk about later.

Go for black--it's sexier.

meghan

Anonymous said...

I got a mac a few months ago, and I've been really happy with it.

Love all that cognitive development stuff. I'll have to check out radio lab. I remember being fascinated by development of language both in my students and my own kids. Interesting that the ability to tell a joke and tell a lie develop at about the same time.

Hope you enjoy your trip to ALA
Rosanne