Art, Music, Emotions, Love and Human Evolution

University of California TV presents a talk by the three world-renowned researchers

1. Antonio Damasio: University of Southern California and Author of several popular books inluding

The Feeling of what Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness‎

2. Helen Fisher Rutger University and author of book

Why we love: the nature and chemistry of romantic love

3. Isabelle Peretz University of Montreal

The Handbook of Cognitive Neuropsychology: What Deficits Reveal about the ...‎ - Page 519 Music Perception and Recognition Isabella Peretz All human societies have music. As far as we know, they have always had. Unlike other widespread human.

These scientists share their insights and research work into the neural basis of art, creativity, emotions and music and the powerful roles they play in human evolution.

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Psychologically Speaking What Does "Free Will" Really Mean

Dr. John Bargh is a Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His work is in the area of "Automaticity" where he investigate about our Automatic Behavior. His Laboratory at Yale:

The ACME (Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation, and Emotion) Lab at Yale focuses on nonconscious or automatic influences on psychological and behavioral processes. In one way or another, all of our studies address the issue of free will, and how much of it do we as individuals really have. We are interested in the extent to which all social psychological phenomena -- attitudes and evaluations, emotions, impressions, motivations, social behavior -- occur nonconsciously and automatically. Currently, our research is actively exploring how social goals such as to cooperate, achieve, become friends, and so on, are triggered and operate without the person's awareness. We also are looking at the potential sources of these nonconscious motivations in real life settings, for example, the significant others in our lives can be one major source. A related question is how these various sources of nonconscious influence interact with each other, and how much of our 'real life' experience is governed by them. We are also starting to look at emotional experience as a potential internal trigger of goals and future intentions. That all of these effects occur without the person's intention and awareness, yet have such strong effects on the person's decisions and behavior, has considerable implications for the nature and purpose of consciousness. By discovering those domains of social life in which conscious, deliberate processes are not necessary, we can shed more light on what consciousness is needed for -- that is, what its true purpose is. Source

He gave a talk discussing the issue of "Free Will" during a symposium at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Convention in Tampa, FL.



Our Behavior are not as free as we would like them to be.

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How We Decide

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Stephen Colbert talks with Jonah Lehrer, the author of the book "How We Decide". The talk focuses on the issues of rational and emotional decision making. Especially how the two mode of thinking support each other. It is another way of saying that humans are not rational creatures but are rationalizing creatures who use rational decision making as a tool.

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Emotion, Arousal, Attention and Flow

Chaining Emotional States to Improve Human Computer Interaction

An overview of how designing for emotion relates to UX and flow, how the appearance and interaction of products communicate a personality to the user, and how emotions can be "chained" to enhance persuasion and influence behaviour.

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This slide show lays down the ground work for designing user interfaces that provide an emotional user experience. It has been known for a while that learning process requires learner to be in an aroused state but very little attention has been paid on how to design digital user interfaces that are emotionally arousing and gratifying. The role of flow as suggested by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in learning process need more consideration. There is a complete article in Psychology Today describing "Flow" experience.

At this point there are very few guidelines on how to design virtual learning spaces those provide a learning experience that is emotionally gratifying and creates optimal learning conditions by creating a state of flow within the learner.

Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better

In this fast-paced talk (clocking in far shorter than his typical three-day seminars), iconic motivational speaker Tony Robbins explains how to unlock your true potential, and asks the audience (including former Vice President Al Gore) for a bit of high-level interaction. The spontaneous on-stage interaction between Gore and Robbins creates an unforgettable TED moment, and also demonstrates the power of Robbins' direct -- even confrontational -- approach.