Developing Usable Experiences

Automaticity of Social Behavior

January 12th, 2008 9:52 pm —  189 views

gtn_class.jpg

Where to start with this entry? This would have been a normal Saturday if there was such a thing. But there isn’t. Today weaved it’s way through the normalcy of Saturdays like a nimble hockey player with a breakaway.

Tasks related to school were of foremost importance1 and I spent a good part of today working on school stuff. This meant reviewing notes, reading papers2, and thinking about what lies ahead. The classes I’m in are very interesting and without a doubt applicable to what I do 40 hours a week. But that is an oversimplification of course. Things are never that easy to explain or understand.

The title of this post is part of the title of a research paper I had to read for class next week. I’ll be presenting with another classmate and we have to understand the gist of what was being researched. The mind works in funny ways and sometimes the way it works has less to do with conscious control and more to do with conditioning. Research from this paper shows that with the merest of suggestions can activate a response that is automatic in nature. Indirection reference to certain subjects can activate behavior that is consistent and stereotypical.

But I’m getting a little crazy with this. The paper I read was filled with long sentences and long words that forced me to read it slowly and carefully. A good exercise for my brain.

I had a good conversation with my mother tonight. We covered a lot of ground and I valued her mature perspective on things. She is doing alright these days. It may sound strange, but this fact helps me sleep at night. Ma, you’re making your mother proud.

Image: I pulled out my camera during class on Friday and took a few pictures. As I mentioned, we were talking about generalized transition networks and the professor pulled out a number of examples from previous classes. You can see them in the background and stacked on the table. We’ll be doing our own in a few weeks.

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  1. If you knew what this was costing you’d understand. [↩]
  2. Actually just one paper…but it was a doozy and yes, I have TONS more reading to do for next week. [↩]

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