Unit 09

1. First, read Kendra Cherry’s (no date) article, “What Is Perception?”
2. Then, choose one of the following nine questions and complete its associated activities:
   1. What Is Skeumorphism and How Does It Work?
      • Read The Cultural Tutor’s (2023) Twitter thread.
      • Read Hannes’s (2022) article, “Why We Keep Referencing the Past to Feel Good About the Future, or: A Brief History of Skeuomorphism.”
      • Skim read (meaning you don’t have to read this article as closely as you do all the other articles in this class) Park et al.’s (2014) article, “The Study Concerning the Concreteness and Abstractness of Icon Design.”
      • Read the abstract and look at the figures in Urbano et al.’s (2020) article, “From Skeuomorphism to Flat Design: Age-Related Differences in Performance and Aesthetic Perceptions.”
   2. What Is Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) and What Role Has The Internet Played in Popularizing It?
      • Read Danko’s (2021) article, “22 Fascinating Facts about ASMR.”
      • Read Reddy’s (2022) article, “ASMR or Not? Unpacking the Science Behind a Sensory Phenomenon.”
      • For the most recent scientific research on ASM, read the abstracts of the following three scientific articles (contained in the same PDF):
        • Lohaus et al.’s (2023) article, “The Effects of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) Videos Versus Walking Tour Videos on ASMR Experience, Positive Affect and State Relaxation”
        • Villena-Gonzalez et al.’s (2023) article, “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response Is Associated with a Larger Heartbeat-Evoked Potential Amplitude without Differences in Interoceptive Awareness”
        • Sakurai et al.’s (2023) article, “Brain Function Effects of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) Video Viewing”
   3. Can Psychology Inform Good Web Design?
      • Read Shuan Thing’s (2014) article, “Five Psychology Studies That Tell Us How People Perceive Visual Information.”
      • Read Jimmy Day and Cherilyn Winkler’s (2013) article, “A Visual History of Internet Explorer.” [Note the changes in the web browser, Internet Explorer’s, design layout.]
      • View the NinjaEssays’ (2013) infographic, “What Popular Websites Used to Look Like.”
      • Watch Psychologist Don Norman in this (2016) Vox video, “It’s Not You. Bad Doors Are Everywhere.”
      • Look through Andrew Wilson’s (2021) tweet that shows three examples of “Norman Doors.“
   4. What Are CAPTCHAs and How Do They Work?
      • Look through all four of these screenshots of image CAPTCHAs: (a) Chihuahua dogs’ faces versus blueberry muffins, (b) Labradoodle dogs’ bodies versus crispy fried chicken pieces, (c) curled-up sleeping puppies versus bagels, and (d) sloths’ faces versus chocolate croissants.
      • Watch CNet’s (2015) YouTube video, “What is the Turing Test?”
      • Read ScienceABC’s (no date) article, “How Do CAPTCHAs Work?”
      • Read Bruce’s (2011) article, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About CAPTCHAs but Were Afraid to Ask.”
      • Read Wilson’s (2017) article, “The Surprising Secrets Behind Those CAPTCHA Images.”
      • Read Prusty’s (2014) article, “How does Google’s No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA work?”
   5. What Is Virtual Reality and How Does It Work?
      • Read Jonathan Strickland’s (no date) article, “How Virtual Reality Works.”
      • Read Tom Vanderbilt’s (2016) article, “These Tricks Make Virtual Reality Feel Real.”
      • Read Virginia Heffernan’s (2014) article, “Virtual Reality Fails Its Way to Success.”
      • Watch Chris Kluwe’s (2016) TED talk, “The Birth of Virtual Reality as an Art Form.” (A transcript is available in 21 languages here.)
   6. Are There Any Benefits to E-Reading?
      • Read Rachel Edidin’s (2014) article, “People Who Use E-Readers Dive Far Deeper Into Books.”
      • Read Devapriya Roy’s (2014) article, “Five Things That Made Me Two-Time Paper Books with My E-Reader.”
      • Read Irene Picton’s (2014) article, “The Impact of eBooks on the Reading Motivation and Reading Skills of Children and Young People.”
      • Read Joseph Stromberg’s (2014) article, “7 Things the Most-Highlighted Kindle Passages Tell Us about American Readers.”
   7. Are There Any Benefits to Taking Photos of our Experience?
      • Read Andy Luttrell’s (2016) article, “Taking Pictures Increases Enjoyment and Enhances Experiences,” which discusses a research article by Diehl, Zauberman, and Barasch.
      • Read Purtill’s (2016) article, “Research Finds That Taking a Photo and Enjoying the Moment Aren’t Two Separate Things,” which also discusses the research article by Diehl, Zauberman, and Barasch.
      • Watch one of the researchers, Gal Zauberman, Professor of Marketing at Yale University, describe why the research team conducted the research they conducted in the video “Does Taking Photos Make Experiences More Enjoyable?”
      • Skim-read the actual research article by Diehl, Zauberman, and Barasch, which is titled “How Taking Photos Increases Enjoyment of Experiences.”
   8. Why Is #TheDress Perceived as White/Gold by Some People and Blue/Black by Other People?
      • View #TheDress. What colors do you perceive it to be? White and Gold OR Blue and Black?
      • From Wikipedia, read about the origin of #TheDress and responses to #TheDress.
      • View and analyze the Lotto-Barnhart (modified) Illusion.
      • Read Tony Barnhart’s (2015) blog post, “#TheDress Seen in a New Light.”
      • View and analyze the Adelson Checkerboard Illusion.
      • Read Science Daily’s (2015) post “Is ‘The Dress’ White and Gold or Blue and Black? Visual Perception Expert Weighs In.”
   9. Can We Identify Photos on the Internet that Have Been Photoshopped?
      • Read Science Daily’s (2017) article, “Fake News: Study Tests People’s Ability to Detect
        Manipulated Images of Real-World Scenes,” which discusses a research article by Nightingale, Wade, and Watson.
      • Read Live Science’s (2017) article, “Duped by Photoshop: People Are Bad at Spotting Fake Photos,” which also discusses the research article by Nightingale, Wade, and Watson.
      • Watch the L.A. Times (2017) video, “As Doctored Photos Flood the Internet, Human Vision Struggles to Keep Up,” which again discusses the research article by Nightingale, Wade, and Watson.
      • Skim-read the actual research article by Nightingale, Wade, and Watson, which is titled “Can People Identify Original and Manipulated Photos of Real-World Scenes?”
3. Go to the Unit 9: Assignment #1 and #4 Discussion Board and make a new post of at least 200 words in which you do the following:
   1. Identify which of the nine questions you chose to learn the answer to.
   2. Tell us why you chose that question (e.g., do you have any personal experience with it?).
   3. Answer the question you chose by referring to ALL the articles/abstracts/tweets you read or videos you watched to answer the question (be sure to refer to the articles or videos with the authors’ or speakers’ names).

Unit 9: Assignment #2 (due before 11:59 pm Central on TUE MAR 19):

1. To answer the question of whether the Internet is shortening our attention, first do the following:
   1. Read Thorin Klosowski’s (2012) article, “Is the Internet Really Making Me Stupid, Psychotic, and Constantly Distracted?”
   2. Read Vishaka Muhunthan’s (2013) article, “Well It’s Too Late Now: What the Internet Has Done to Our Minds.”
   3. Read Tom Stafford’s (2012) article, “Does the Internet Rewire Your Brain?”
   4. Read Fergus Kane’s (2017) article, “After Reading This, Your Brain Will Never Be the Same.”
   5. Read Daniel Willingham’s (2015) article, “Smartphones Don’t Make Us Dumb.”
   6. Conduct, on yourself or a friend, Brooks’ Multi-Tasking (1968) Experiment.
   7. Watch Safely Home’s brief (2017) YouTube video, “No Call or Text Is Worth Your Life. #ItCanWait.”
   8. Read Herwick’s (2021) article, “Computers Gave Us The Word Multitasking, But Can We Actually Do It?“
   9. Read the abstract of Bendner et al.’s (2017) article, “Dynamic, Continuous Multitasking Training Leads to Task-Specific Improvements but Does Not Transfer across Action Selection Tasks.”
   10. Read Science Daily’s (2011) article, “Brief Diversions Vastly Improve Focus,” which reports the empirically proven benefits of taking brief breaks on attention (in general).
   11. Read these abstracts, each of which reports the empirically proven benefits of employees taking brief Internet-related breaks on their workplace attention and productivity.
2. Next, watch Professor Gernsbacher’s lecture video “How Is the Internet Affecting Our Attention” [a captioned version is here, and a transcript is available here].
   • For a very recent meta-analysis (remember that a meta-analysis is the strongest level of empirical proof) demonstrating that neither children’s nor adults’ attentional capacities have worsened after the onset of the Internet, see Andrzejewski et al.’s (2024) abstract reporting the results of 287 studies with over 21,000 research participants from 32 different countries.
   • That is not to say that people might not think that their attentional capacities have changed. College students report being more distracted. However, high-quality empirical studies using standardized tests fail to show any worsening of attentional capacities post-onset of the Internet (see also this graph from Wongupparaj et al., 2017, also showing no decrease in attentional capacity in a meta-analysis of nearly 140,000 research participants).
   • As UW-Madison Professor Shawn Green, an expert on attention, cautions: It’s important to not conclude from studies, like this one, that just because people are now able to switch between tasks on their computers when their computers didn’t allow task switching before, that doesn’t mean that people are now less able to sustain attention if they want or need to. Making that false assumption is similar to saying that “children used to walk to school even if they lived as far as 2 miles away, but now children only walk to school if they live less than 0.25 miles away; therefore, kids today can’t walk as far.”
3. Go to the Unit 9: Assignment #2 Discussion Board and create a new post of at least 200 words in which you discuss one of the 12 points made in Professor Gernsbacher’s video (and expanded upon in the articles you read, video you watched, or the Brooks’ Multi-Tasking Experiment you conducted on yourself or a friend).
   1. You must choose a point that no one else in your section has yet discussed.
      • If you’re absolutely sure that other students have already selected each and every one of the 12 points that Professor Gernsbacher made in her lecture, then you may select a point that one — but only one — other student in your section has already selected.
      • However, if other students have not already selected each and every one of the 12 points that Professor Gernsbacher presented in her lecture, then you must select a point that no other student has already selected.
   2. You must refer to the articles you read, the video you watched, or the Brooks’ Multi-Tasking Experiment that you conducted that are most relevant to the point you choose. Be sure to refer to the articles, video, or experiment with the authors’ names.

Unit 9: Assignment #3 (due before 11:59 pm Central on WED MAR 20):

1. Have you heard the (false) claim that “human beings now have an attention span shorter than a goldfish” and it’s all the Internet’s fault?
   1. To become familiar with this (false) claim, read through this set of extracts from news sites that reported the claim. (Note that the set of news sites includes the TV broadcast, NBC Nightly News; therefore, it wasn’t only Internet-based sites that reported the claim.)
   2. Now is also a great time to become familiar with the expression NB, if you’re not already familiar with the expression.
2. Take a look at the page of the “2015 study by Microsoft” that was responsible for (falsely) promoting the claim.
3. Lastly, read more recent reports from the Wall Street Journal and BBC that have debunked the (false) claim.
4. Go to the Unit 9: Assignment #3 Discussion Board and make a new post of at least 200 words in which you tell us
   1. whether you had previously heard the (false) claim;
   2. which news site that reported the (false) claim surprised you the most;
   3. which news site that reported the (false) claim surprised you the least;
   4. why do you think this (false) claim was reported so widely; that is, what is it about the (false) claim that made it so popular; and
   5. if you heard this (false) claim in the future, would you believe it? Why or why not?

Unit 9: Assignment #4 (due before 11:59 pm Central on FRI MAR 22):

1. Read all the posts written by the other members of your section in the Unit 9: Assignment #1 and #4 Discussion Board.
2. Review from the Course Syllabus the “Best Way to Respond to Another Student’s Discussion Board Post” (p. 6). Remember that your responses should always include at least two of the four recommended components.
3. Then, write TWO response posts:
   1. one response post should be to a student who read about (and discussed) the same question as you, and
   2. the other response post should be to a student who read about (and discussed) a different question than you.
   3. Each of your two response posts should be at least 200 words.
   4. If no other student read about (and discussed) the same question as you, then you may respond to two students, each of whom read about (and discussed) a different question than you.
   5. If two other students in your section have not yet posted on the Unit 9: Assignment #1 Discussion Board, you will need to wait until they do OR until the due date for Unit 9: Assignment #1 has passed.
   6. You will not be held responsible for responding to two other students’ posts if the Unit 9: Assignment #1 due date has passed, and two other students have not yet posted on Unit 9: Assignment #1 Discussion Board.

Unit 9: Assignment #5 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN MAR 24):

1. Meet online with your NEW Chat Group (which you formed during Unit 8) for a one-hour text-based Group Chat at a time/date that your Chat Group previously arranged.
2. Prior to your one-hour Group Chat, each member of your Chat Group must first read Kozyreva et al.’s (2023) article, “On the Benefits of Critical Ignoring” and then choose (and do) ONE of the following three tasks:
   1. Read Simons and Chabris’ (2015) article, “A Simple Solution for Distracted Driving.”
      • Then, install (or turn on) and use for at least one day a smartphone setting (such as Pixel’s Driving Mode feature or iPhone’s Do Not Disturb feature) or a smartphone app that silences incoming text messages and alerts while you’re driving and auto-sends a reply telling the sender you’re driving and will reply later.
   2. Read Schewe and Ward-Reichard’s (2012) article, “Time Management Tricks and Techniques,” in particular, the section on the Pomodoro Technique.
      • Then, install and use for at least one day a work-break or Pomodoro timer, such as TimeOut, Power Focus, or Pomodoro Timer.
   3. Read Austin’s (2017) article, “How To Block Social Sites for Your Own Damn Good.”
      • Then, install and use for at least one day a website or app blocker, either for your smartphone (e.g., FocusTime for iOS; App Block for Android) or for your web browser (e.g., WasteNoTime for Chrome or Safari; StayFocsd or StrictWorkflow for Chrome) or for your laptop (e.g., Isolator for the Mac; Le Dimmer for Windows; Freedom for both Mac and Windows).
      • IMPORTANT NOTE: You do not need to use the specific apps/plugins listed as examples above. But you do need to download, install, and use for at least one day (1) a block-texts-while-driving app OR (2) a work-break-timer (Pomodoro-type) app/plugin OR (3) a block-distracting-websites-while-working app/plugin.
      • Google around for other apps/plugins if you don’t want to use any of the examples above (or if you’re looking for one for your particular smartphone, laptop, or browser). You may use all three types of applications, but you must use at least ONE and for at least one day. If you’re already using one of these apps/plugins, good for you! But you must download and use another one, for at least one day.
      • Also, for fun, take a look at “The Isolator, A Bizarre Helmet Invented in 1925 Used to Help Increase Focus and Concentration.” The existence of “The Isolator,” suggests that way back in the 1920s, even before the advent of TV (much less the Internet), people were trying to come up with devices to help them focus their attention.
3. Begin your one-hour Group Chat by doing the following:
   
   1. First: Each Chat Group member needs to introduce themselves to each other. During your introduction, tell the other members of your Chat Group what you are working on for your Term Project, including which presentation medium you are using, and how much progress you have made so far on your Term Project.
   2. Second: Each Chat Group member needs to indicate ONE of the nine “How Are You Feeling at the START of Today’s Group Chat?” images. More than one Chat Group member can indicate the same image if that’s how they are feeling, and please refer to each image by its number.
4. During your one-hour Group Chat do the following:
   1. First: From the Kozyreva et al. (2023) article, “On the Benefits of Critical Ignoring,” list the three approaches the authors recommend for “critical ignoring.” As a group, come up with one example of how you can implement each of the three approaches.
      
   2. Second: As a group, discuss how the Internet (and various apps/plugins) can be used to help direct focus, to block out distractions (aka: critical ignoring), and to schedule attentional breaks.
   3. Third: Member by member, discuss your specific experience with the apps/plugins that each of you tried for one day.
      • Which ones would your Chat Group recommend to a friend, roommate, or sibling?
      • Which ones might you continue using beyond the one-day trial period you made for this assignment?
      • If you designed a better app/plugin for directing focus, blocking out distractions (including text messages while driving), or scheduling attentional breaks, what would it look like?
5. At the end of your one-hour Group Chat,
   1. First, nominate one member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Chat) to make a post on the Unit 9: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that summarizes your Group Chat in at least 200 words.
   2. Second, nominate another member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Group Chat using the browser Chrome on their laptop, rather than on their mobile device) to save the Chat transcript, in PDF, as described in the Course How To (under the topic, “How To Save and Attach a Chat Transcript”), and attach the Chat transcript, in PDF, to a Unit 9: Assignment #5 Discussion Board post.
   3. Third, nominate a third member of your Chat Group (who also participated in the Chat) to make another post on the Unit 9: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that states the name of the assignment (Unit 9: Assignment #5), the full name of your Chat Group, the first and last name of each Chat Group member who participated in the Group Chat, the day and date of your Group Chat (e.g., SUN SEP 3), and the start and stop time of your Group Chat.
   4. If only two persons participated in the Chat, then one of those two persons needs to do two of the above three tasks.
   5. Before ending the Chat, do the following:
      • Each Chat Group member needs to indicate ONE of the nine “How Are You Feeling at the END of Today’s Group Chat?” images. More than one Chat Group member can indicate the same image if that’s how they are feeling, and please refer to each image by its number.
      • NOTE: The “How Are You Feeling at the END of Today’s Group Chat” grid of images differs from the “How Are You Feeling at the START of Today’s Group Chat” grid of images.
      • As, a group, the Chat Group needs to arrange the date and time for the Group Chat you will need to hold during the next Unit (Unit 10: Assignment #5).

Unit 9: Assignment #6 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN MAR 24):

1. Complete the Unit 9 Course Review Sheet (which is a fillable PDF; refer to previous Units’ instructions for how to download onto your own device, save on your own device, rename on your own device, and then fill in on your own device — by typing, not copying — a fillable PDF).
   1. Rename the unfilled PDF to be YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit09_CourseReview.pdf; then fill it in by typing, not copying.
   2. Remember that each Course Review Sheet in this course will be cumulative, so be sure to fill in by typing ALL pages.
2. Make progress on your Term Project.
   1. If you’ve chosen the Whole Course option, overview/journal the current unit (Unit 9).
      • Take a partial screenshot of your overview/journal of Unit 9 in your presentation medium (i.e., in your blog, Tumblr, Pinterest board, website, video, podcast, Prezi, Slideshare, PPT, Keynote, or Google slide deck). Make sure your partial screenshot shows the Unit number of the Unit being overviewed/journaled.
   2. If you’ve chosen the Deep Dive option, it’s time, if you haven’t already done so, to draft a complete outline of your entire Term Project.
      • Take a partial screenshot of the draft of your outline.
   3. Compose at least 200 words describing
      • which project you’ve chosen (if you’ve chosen the Whole Course option of assembling a detailed overview of the course for an audience other than college students, be sure to identify your intended audience; if you’ve chosen the Deep Dive option, be sure to tell us which topic/question you’ve chosen)
      • which presentation medium you’ve chosen,
      • and the work you completed on your Term Project during this unit. Remember that you should be allocating about two hours per Unit to your Term Project.
   4. Save your at-least-200 words as a PDF that includes your partial screenshot and that is named YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit09_TermProject.pdf. The text in your partial screenshot does not count toward the at-least-200 words you are required to compose.
3. Go to Unit 9: Assignment #6 (which is an Assignment link, not a Discussion Board) and
   1. use the “File Upload” tool to attach/upload your completed Unit 9 Course Review Sheet (click “Choose File” to attach/upload your filled-in PDF);
   2. click on “+ Add Another File” to attach/upload your 200-word composition about your Term Project (saved in PDF; remember to include your screenshot in your PDF); and
   3. immediately after submitting your assignment, check to make sure that your filled-in PDF is really filled-in (isn’t empty) and that your PDF about your Term Project is also attached and complete.

Congratulations, you have finished Unit 9! Onward to Unit 10!