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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 2000)
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ODE Classifieds... Worth Looking Into! Brain continued from page 1 Dougal, research assistant and lab co ordinator for BEL. “How people oper ate on an emotional level, signaled by things in their environment. ” Through measurements of event related brain potential, or ERP, re searchers report they have observed that “clinically significant states of depression and anxiety may be as sociated with negative biases in cog nition and judgment.” This is just one study BEL’s team of 15 researchers — made up of post doctorate students, graduate students and visiting professors — are pursu ing at the laboratory. These re searchers are examining everything from language to the brain’s percep tion of time and music. Using a Geodesic Sensor Net, data-collection and data-acquisi tion systems to measure brain activ ity of students and others who vol unteer for laboratory experiments, researchers are combining the tech niques of cognitive psychology and brain studies to gain a better under standing of how the brain works. This “neural net” uses a dense ar ray of sensors that cover a person’s scalp and face to measure electric current flow emitted by the brain, McDougalsaid. “We don’t need to cut open a per son’s head and poke them with elec trodes to gain information on what’s going on,” McDougal said. Though this analysis is only skin deep, researchers said there are oth er ways to get inside the brain. “We observe the neural activity that could be generating the effects we see in the scalp and on the sur face,” said Gwen Frishkoff, a doctoral student and researcher for BEL. E-mail continued from page 1 “It’s so much easier to explain things when there’s a back and forth,” said Michael Kellman, a professor in the chemistry department. “A diffi cult technical or scientific course is very difficult to do over the web. ” That doesn’t mean Kellman does n’t use the Internet at all. He said he maintains a class Web page to keep students updated on announce ments, but makes it clear that they should only e-mail questions about homework or other course materi als if they absolutely can’t make it to his office hours. Senior psychology major Tammie Minnick agreed and said although class notes and announcements posted on the Internet have their perks, only personal interaction al lows professors to be able to tell whether the students are hopelessly lost or following along. “I prefer face-to-face [communi cation], although I do use e-mail,” she said. Minnick said she thinks it’s im portant for students and professors to see each other’s facial expressions and to get an idea about whether both are on the same page. That’s why Minnick’s first choice for getting help is going to her pro fessors’ office hours. Her second op tion is the phone, and if all else fails, she resorts to e-mail. For other students, however, e mail is first choice, especially when they juggle classes, jobs and other obligations that overlap with faculty members’ office hours. “When they need an answer isn’t always when I can be available for them,” said Larry Deck, an instructor in the accounting department. “The value [of e-mail] I think comes from being able to respond at those other times when they have a question.” Deck is known among his students for responding to e-mails almost in stantly, although he said he thinks that might be slightly exaggerated. “I do make it a point to respond Once the “neural net” is in place, the researc1 srs employ a combina tion of stimuli to arouse emotional reactions in the brain. In a study graduate student Richard Desmond is conducting, researchers are determining how people evaluate themselves and others through the use of language. Volunteers donned the net and were seated before a com puter screen and asked to answer “yes” or “no” to words that describe themselves—words common in stu dent jargon, such as “geeky,” “happy,” “outgoing,” “mad” or “sad.” After describing a person they know, volunteers are then asked to see if any of those same words ap ply to themselves. This shows if there is a “difference in the way we evaluate other people as compared to ourselves,” Desmond said. “What we found is that there is not much difference,” he continued. “The reason may be that a lot of peo ple are identifying a close friend with themselves. We’ll have to design a different experiment to test that.” But Desmond said some interest ing ideas have been gleaned through this research. One is the “valence effect,” the difference in the brain’s reaction to words that invoke something posi tive, rather than evoking a negative association, he said. “There is a big difference in brain activity which correlates with ask ing something that is seen as good or bad,” he said. Another interesting find revolved arojund the brain’s different activity when answering “yes” or “no.” Desmond calls this the “endorse ment effect.” “Something different occurs in the brain when you’re planning to say yes,” he said. quickly,” he said. Deck said students often get stuck while reading a chapter in a textbook or trying to understand a particular concept. He said getting an answer relatively quickly, even if it’s not face to-face, often seems to be a lot more valuable than having a student come to his office hours with a week-long collection of questions without re membering what prompted them. To get students’ questions an swered quickly and to help them get back on track, Deck said he checks his e-mail several times a day. That doesn’t necessarily mean e mail and the Internet have in creased his workload, he said. “I don’t think it really has created more work.” he said. “I just have to be more flexible to meet their needs.” Although Deck answers many questions via e-mail, he said that this form of communication doesn’t work for all students. Some prefer to talk in person, where Deck can use the whiteboard in his office to explain a problem with the help of a graph. Joanne Hugi, director of the Com puting Center and an avid e-mail and Internet user, said she doesn’t think the advancing technology has taken away from traditional office hours. “I think the [professors] that have used it for awhile and are comfort able with it would probably tell you that they hear from students that they probably wouldn’t hear from otherwise,” Hugi said. “There’s far more opportunity to get to know a professor electronically than you would ever have in a class of 100. ” However, she said students need to realize they might not get a re sponse at midnight and that there is a limit to how often most professors will check their inbox. Although technology wizards are excited about the new and ever-de veloping tools professors and stu dents have at their fingertips, few seem to be concerned that human in teraction will ever become obsolete. “The really worthwhile stuff is mostly done face-to-face,” Kellman said.
