Optical illusions with article references

Sites with optical illusions typically contain pictures with or without movement. This site from Michael Bach also contains explanation and titles of articles for further reading and references.

musical therapy & time

This article describes how time is dual, both cyclic and sequential. The musical therapist then describes her impressions of what happens in musical therapy. She uses the terms 'flow', 'time dissolution', 'creative receptive experience'. There is some vagueness and contradiction in her self-report, but nevertheless, it made me think back at music lessons and I recognised what she described. Should this article be rewritten to fit the needs of less global researchers? Maybe. I would not know exactly how to make the details less contradictory or factual.

global learner & details

I know a student that experiences constant friction between 'detail' and 'creative thinking' in learning. At one of the best schools in this region (somewhere in the Netherlands), the method "first the building blocks, then the play" is preferred. This means there is much attention for details, precise skills and knowledge. Felder and Soloman give advice for this difficulty. When you are a global learner, it is important to have an overview of what you learn, before you start learning details.
Felder and Soloman listed some important differences in learning styles between students and give concise advice.
Further reading about education, current discussions, at Serendip.

fluids in space and theorizing

That there are limits to visualisation is clear when we look at how research handles a problem like fluidity of a substance in space. There is a difference between thought and practice. This means that we have to experience whether what we think is true is indeed true. But we need to pre-think as well. If we don't pre-think, we might make mistakes like not taking the right material to do experiments in space. Thus the importance of theorizing. It gives direction to the experiment and is our best shot at doing the right thing.

true and false in teaching

It is paradoxical that a teacher who uses lies in his lesson might actually teach best thinking about true and false. Read an inspiring essay of Pjammer about his teacher and his style of teaching critical thinking by experience. I actually use this method with my two year old. I say some statement that cannot be true and then say: "That cannot be true, can it?". I then enjoy the pensive expression on the little face.

mindspecs

I wrote a book this summer. I started writing in 3 languages and ended with two manuscripts, one Dutch and one English. The subject of my book is knitted into the posts on my blog. I'm choosing to be openly mysterious about it until I have a "yes" from a publisher. Another reason for mystery is that I think there should be more little cognitive challenges in live in general. More puzzles to make you think faster. My book however is written to clarify. It is my intention that after reading my book, suddenly you read my blog and experience the world around you and your relationships sharper and clearer, as if you were wearing some new kind of mindspecs.

think faster, get better

On this blog
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2006/12/depressed_think_faster_thought.php#c291234
I found an article that states that thinking faster is good against depression.

Now knowing smart children that have problems with adjustment to school because they think faster than school wants, is not this article saying: "we found a relationship between thinkingspeed and depression. People who think slower than they are programmed to do get depressed. The cure is to let them think at their own pace, that is thinking fast."

I don't know. I just know that if I don't blog or do some kind of cognitive challenge everyday, I am not a pleasant person and the laundry seems like a very heavy chore.

The reactions on the post are worth reading too. Especially the one of the man who has different kinds of music for different kinds of activities.