Psychology Myths
Chapter 1: Myth #1 – Most People Only Use 10% of Their Brain Power
Most people believe that people only use 10% of the brain power because they are hopeful. Even very educated people fall into this trap. If only ten percent is being used, there is plenty of room to become smarter. But this is untrue. Businesses feed off this hope for self-improvement, and therefore, create products that do not actually aid in self-improvement but just act as a “feel good” product for the customer. But these scams and shortcuts are useless. Hard work is the only way of getting ahead in life. Looking at the Terri Schiavo case, 50% of her cerebrum was destroyed in an accident, and after the fact, she remained in a state of vegetation for fifteen years before her inevitable death. If 90% of the brain was not needed, Schiavo should have survived. And in stoke and head trauma patients, no matter which part of the brain is destroyed, patients are always left with “serious deficits in functioning.” Finally, when parents of the brain are unused, they either wither away or are colonized by surrounding areas. Furthermore, people do not use only ten percent of their brain power. This is a myth I already knew to be false, and I found the supporting evidence to be very interesting.
Chapter 2: Myth # 6 – Playing Mozart’s Music to Infants Boost Their Intelligence
In 1993, a study was published showing that college students who listened to 10 minutes of Mozart sonatas performed much better on spatial reasoning tasks then the students who did not listen. Soon after, this study was blown out of proportion, and the Mozart Effect was born. The Mozart Effect is the claim that people became more intelligent upon listening to Mozart’s music. It has even gotten to the point where the New York Jets played Mozart during practice to enhance their performance, and newborns in Georgia received free copies of Mozart CDs to increase intelligence. But research done on the Mozart Effect after the
Most people believe that people only use 10% of the brain power because they are hopeful. Even very educated people fall into this trap. If only ten percent is being used, there is plenty of room to become smarter. But this is untrue. Businesses feed off this hope for self-improvement, and therefore, create products that do not actually aid in self-improvement but just act as a “feel good” product for the customer. But these scams and shortcuts are useless. Hard work is the only way of getting ahead in life. Looking at the Terri Schiavo case, 50% of her cerebrum was destroyed in an accident, and after the fact, she remained in a state of vegetation for fifteen years before her inevitable death. If 90% of the brain was not needed, Schiavo should have survived. And in stoke and head trauma patients, no matter which part of the brain is destroyed, patients are always left with “serious deficits in functioning.” Finally, when parents of the brain are unused, they either wither away or are colonized by surrounding areas. Furthermore, people do not use only ten percent of their brain power. This is a myth I already knew to be false, and I found the supporting evidence to be very interesting.
Chapter 2: Myth # 6 – Playing Mozart’s Music to Infants Boost Their Intelligence
In 1993, a study was published showing that college students who listened to 10 minutes of Mozart sonatas performed much better on spatial reasoning tasks then the students who did not listen. Soon after, this study was blown out of proportion, and the Mozart Effect was born. The Mozart Effect is the claim that people became more intelligent upon listening to Mozart’s music. It has even gotten to the point where the New York Jets played Mozart during practice to enhance their performance, and newborns in Georgia received free copies of Mozart CDs to increase intelligence. But research done on the Mozart Effect after the