The Halo effect experiment by Solomon Asch

This experiment is a classic study in the psychology of interpersonal perception, these series of experiments were titled Forming Impressions of Personality by Solomon Asch, the principle of this research is that perceptions of a person are by the traits they posses, these perceptions are the most important factor that help our mind establish an impression on that person. The halo effect experiments conducted by Solomon Asch were many, he did various experiments but generally following the same outline, the only changing variable were the order of the words dictated to the series of participants, serie A and serie B, he used many words who were the same but they were put in the inverse order between serie a and b, in such as participants from serie A got the serie A description and serie B the B description, these descriptions were full of words who were the same in each set but put backwards, being the independent variable, then the experimentors procceded to ask the participants from series A and B for a sketch from the details provided, the sketch the participants drew is the dependent variable, since it is the one that is measured according to what the participant drew relating it to the words provided by the experimenter, the sketches showed what the experimentors were expecting to see, although the descriptions contained NO physical characteritics like "tall" only descrptions such as "intelligent", the participants responded with a positive sketch of the described person to the description with positive attributes at the beginning, and on the otherhand they responded with a negative sketch such as an ugly person to the description that contained bad attributes at the beginning, this showing how simple words that represent no physical description can make up an image about a person, and how the association of the human mind is so strong, vinculating people who are considered attractive with positive characteristics and vice versa, people not considered attractive with negative characteristics. The person described by the participants in serie A were always related to someone they knew, with a profession they had in their mind containing those characteristics, such as being "intelligent", related to a teacher, a scientist, etc. There were many parts to this experiment, alternating the words so the outcome was more precise, I would like to recreate the one where it gave the traits of "A. intelligent—skillful—industrious—determined— practical—cautious—evasive B. evasive—cautious—practical—determined—industrious—skillful—intelligent" 

Cultural Differences

The childhood amnesia between cultures such as Korean, New Zealander and American person differences in the age, such as Koreans at 4 years old, New Zealanders at 2.5, and Americans generally at 3.5 years old, researchers have found that in average age of first memories, it varies between the ages of two years between different cultures. This is due to the culture the child is raised in and the customs their parents have, since if the parents discuss it or don’t discuss the events in the child’s life the better or the worse the child will remember these events, and the societies vary in the way they talk about their children, making it easier or harder for the child to remember the events of his or her childhood. The more the independent the customs and the country the harder it will be for it to remember earlier childhood events and the more countries that focus on individual personal history have earlier childhood memories.

Sex Difference in Memory: Women better than Men at Remembering Everyday Events

The studies done by these people showed that there is a difference in the episodic memory between the two sexes, and these studies favored women. The studies showed that women excel in verbal episodic memory tasks, like remembering objects, pictures and words, and on the other hand men outperform the opposite sex when remembering things with symbolic meaning, non-linguistic information, and known as visuospatial processing.

Placebo

The Placebo effect is a measurable, observable or felt improvement in health or behavior not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment that has been administered, in other words its an inert substance that produces the same or a similar effect as an actual medicine. H.K. evaluated 15 clinics and here he found that 35% of the 1082 treated patients were actually relieved and cured by a placebo, showing the inmense power of placebos. The problems this had were found by Kienle and Kiene and they found that in a reanalysis "no evidence of any placebo effect in any of the studies cited by him." The effect of placebos according to what I have read is really strong, and I believe that just because you want to get better and feel that something will make you feel better it will make you feel better and many of your illnesses are in your head and the fake idea that it is going to cure you makes your mind think that and therefore you get better, and placebos should be legalized since they would help really expensive medicine get cheaper and there will be less need of it since many of the diseases can be cured with a simple placebo but doctors give you very expensive medicines so they can get more money and they would have the same effect as a placebo, this is really sad and it probably wont be legalized since the bussiness is so big and it would not help the farmaceutical business and the corruption is so big and they have a huge influence on them.

The Halo Effect by Solomon Asch

Alzheimer disease

In this studies of Alzheimer’s we learned many things, starting that this disease is fatal, once it begins it does not stop, it keeps on growing and does not go back, there is only the chance of Alzheimer slowing down in its growth with certain pills but there is no way it stops . We also saw that there is no exact thought on how this begins and what causes Alzheimer although there are speculations relating it to a part of the brain. We also learned that this disease usually hits you when you are 60 and every 5 years that pass you develop higher chances of getting Alzheimer, it is really improbable that you get it at 40 and 50 although it is possible. There are symptoms when you might get it but these are really hard to distinguish from natural aging, since they are really alike, like forgetting small things like where something is or having trouble articulating words. We also learned that there is no specific time limit in how long the stages in Alzheimer last since there are people who get less severe Alzheimer and people who get really severe one. The fatality on Alzheimer is that your body forgets how to do things such as breathing and the victim suffocates to death. We also learn that this is a really sad disease to watch somebody grow into since it just gets worse and worse, making the victim less independent, forgetting even their own family, but this disease has more effect on the family since they are the ones who watch the victim forget their identity, even people really close to them such as their children and wife. Studying this disease makes me conclude that I would prefer to die rather than bring such pain into my family and losing my identity.

Analysis 3 experiments

New Understanding Of How We Remember Traumatic Events
1. Conducted by: Neuroscientists at The University of Queensland
How it was conducted and results: They studied the amygdala under a cellular mechanism looking at the formation of emotional memories. They concluded that noradrenaline affects the amygdala by controlling chemical and electrical pathways in the brain responsible for memory formation.
Research applied to real-life: This research explains how you remember things for a very long time by the emotional impact it shows you. This results may also help other scientists discover better treatments for traumatic events.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081028103111.htm

Some Short-Term Memories Die Suddenly, No Fading 2. Conducted by: Weiwei Zhang, Steve Luck and Brain
How it was conducted and results: They developed a pair of tests that measured wether the memory still existed and the accuracy of the short term memory, these tests were giving to 12 adults.
In the first test, three squares of different colors flashed for a tenth of a second on a computer screen. After an interval of one, four or 10 seconds a wheel showing the entire spectrum of colors appeared on the screen. The three squares also reappeared, only now they were colorless and one of them was highlighted. They were asked to recall the color of the highlighted square and click on the area of the wheel that most closely matched it. Each subject repeated this test 150 times for each of the three memory retention intervals.
When subjects retained a memory of the color, they clicked very close to it on the wheel — the distance between the click and the actual color indicating the accuracy of the memory. When color had disappeared from memory, however, subjects clicked at random on the wheel.The second test was similar to the first, but used shapes instead of colors. Published in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science, the study found that subjects “either had the memory or didn’t have the memory,” Luck said, “and the probability of having it decreased between four and ten seconds. The memories did not gradually fade away.” The finding provides insight into the underlying mechanisms behind memory formation and retention.
Research applied to real-life: The findings are being incorporated into a study of people with schizophrenia.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090429091806.htm

The Memories You Want To Forget Are The Hardest Ones To Lose


3. Conducted by: Keith Payne & Elizabeth Corrigan
How it was conducted and results: The UNC recorded the reaction of 218 participants to photographs, here they understood the ways that emotion constrains mental control and to the question of whether intentional forgetting can be helpful in coping with painful or traumatic experiences.
Research applied to real-life: This applies that your emotions place limits on the ability to control the contents of the mind, meaning that perhaps you feel mad, so then you are less likely to remember something or control yourself.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070815105026.htm