Blogs

It is a known fact that infants learn language with remarkable speed, but how they do it remains a mystery. Recent research proves that these infants and younger children's brains are better equipped to learning new languages than adults are. I plan to investigate the observations and evidence related to this assertion, by connecting the arguments to the new neurobiological frameworks such as the I-function and central pattern generation (CPG). I would like to use these two frameworks to explain the phenomena of children being better language learners than adults.

My first exposure to psycho-cybernetics was as a seventh grader on the Milan Middle School cross-country team. The sixth and seventh grade girls traveled with the high school team to compete in our first overnight meet. Before bed at the hotel that night, Lindsey, the team captain, called the middle school room. "Don't forget to do your psycho-cybernetics!" she chastised.

"Coach Hasselbring," we asked, "what is cyber-psychonetics?"

Have you ever experienced hearing a voice in your head showing you right from wrong, your conscience, the real life Jiminy Cricket? Or have you had the slightly humiliating experience in a noisy crowd where you go ‘Yes!’ assuming someone has called out to you? These are a few examples that can be paralleled to the experience of auditory hallucinations heard by schizophrenic patients although the actual phenomenon is a much more complex one. The occurrence of auditory hallucinations, or false perceptions of voices, has fascinated many who have chosen to study it, and has

Lessons Learned from Haitian Voodoo: Zombification and the Altered Consciousness Experience

 

In class we discussed how language is most easily learned during the early stages of one’s life. We resolved that this is because the I-function is not utilized. In fact, utilizing the I-function to concentrate on speaking a foreign language actually hinders oneself from becoming fluent. We established that the most effective way to learn a new language is to abandon the I-function and immerse oneself into a situation where only that specific language is spoken. This paradox has been of interest to many, and it has provoked several questions. Is learning a language mutually exclusive to the I-function? Is language itself independent of the I-funtion?

To the contemporary American or Chinese person, it is nothing new to suggest that “Westerners” and “Easterners” act differently. As we have discussed in class, different behavior suggests different ways of thinking, and ultimately different organization of the brain itself.  One would then expect to see observable differences in “Eastern” and “Western” behavior, and some underlying neurological cause for such observations.

But what do the terms East and West really mean? Are these terms derived from a common region, culture, or language? The definition, to be sure, is a combination of many factors, which historically are ultimately selected to the definers’ (Westerners) advantage. For the purposes of this paper I will refer to East Asia as China, Korea, and Japan, and the West as America and Western Europe. The terms East and West are socially, politically, and economically weighted and the biases associated with them are so deeply rooted that even so called sinifiles may find themselves advocating the very stereotypes placed on the East by the West. For example, someone might argue how a mystic conformist society is far superior to an individualistic reason based society, without questioning how mystic or conformist Eastern culture truly is.