Memories of a Cachique

Think of the last blog site you have encountered working on a late night.

Then, quickly, think of who the blogger of that site is.

If on that late night, you happened to be on the blog site, Mixing Memory, you would not get a straight answer to who the blog master is. And it wouldn't be because your eyes were playing tricks on you. It would really be because "he" isn't "named," so to speak. The assumed gender is "he," because the anonymous person calls "himself" "Chris." (Which can also be short for "Christina.")

Indeed, the anonymous nature of this blogger can raise credibility concerns, especially since this blog talks about issues concerning cognitive science, a field that one might feel uncomfortable hearing about from just anyone. After all, "Chris" is not someone that is easy to research. In the blog, no last name is provided, nor is there any sign of academic credentials. There is only a suggestive reference to what "Chris'" field of expertise may be, as well as a not-so-subtle hint that the blogger may not be as anonymous as "he" seems. This is all provided with the title of the April 23, 2007 blog entry, "The Name-Letter Effect, Or Why Chris is a Cognitive Psychologist." Yet, even so, this still is not easy to verify.

However, in the blog entries, "Chris" does link to credible scientific journals that deal with cognitive science and psychology, such as the Psychological Review and Behavioral & Brain Sciences. "He" also lists "his" references in each blog entry. Many of them come from these very journals mentioned. In addition, in the November 4, 2007 post, "Animal Rights and Animal Research," the blogger gives mention to (and links to) a study of cognitive differences between animals and humans called "Darwin's mistake: Explaining the discontinuity between human and nonhuman minds." It is a paper where "Chris" is said to be cited four times ("Rights"). So does the information provided on the blog seem to lean towards "Chris'" reliability? Sure seems that way.

Now, while this type of anonymous "naming" is common for many bloggers, it can be seen as an unique statement to cognitive science: one name can simultaneously stand for a multitude of achievements and a melting pot of fields.

In general, cognitive science is a mixture of disciplines: neurology, philosophy, psychology, and physiology, to name only a few. Up to this point, as a collective subject, it has been of much debate among scientists because of its complex nature. It is a discipline with many facets, which "Mixing Memory" clearly shows with entries that each deal with a few different aspects of cognitive science each week.

Other cognitive science blogs include The Neurocritic, which also is headed up by an anonymous blogger. This anonymous entity, quite appropriately, is the self-proclaimed "neurocritic" that the site is named for. The blog deals with miscellaneous entries that range in topics within cognitive science—from the determination of a definite collective attention span, to the neurological causes of optimism and depression.

As with The Neurocritic, the average person at first may be a bit intimidated with some of the posts that are presented in Mixing Memory, since they have sprinklings of scientific data interspersed with analytical text.

What makes Mixing Memory quite interesting, however, is not only its comprehensive nature in regards to the most recent (and even a bit older) studies in cognitive science.

It is also because it tries to bring this field—and the phenomena which the cognitive studies are related to—down to the level of the common man.

One of the ways in which Mixing Memory does this is by giving the blogs eye-catching names such as "Women in Math, Science, and Engineering: Is It About the Numbers (And Not the Ones You Might Think)?" and "Make 'Em Bloody!"

Interestingly enough, this is similar to what The Neurocritic does with many of his own blogs to make them approachable. A good example of this is his November 11, 2007 post, “This Is Your Brain on Bad fMRI Studies,” which bitingly critiques a neurological research study’s results (published in The New York Times) on the brain activity of swing voters while they were responding to the leading presidential candidates. Here, “The Neurocritic” puts a spin on the well-know anti-drug slogan, “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” for his title to appeal to a wide demographic.

However, Mixing Memory, as a whole, achieves something more than what its sister blog can do. In most of the blog entries, "Chris" makes an effort to connect aspects of the field to what everyone might consider mundane activities or events, such as “rainy day” emotional swings. He even links cognitive science with elements of pop culture and recreational activities, and seemingly mindless ones at that: engaging in optical illusion exercises and the differences in sexes in the way each play video games, for instance.

Aside from a few entries that deal with the roles of cognitive science in the average person’s world, conversely, The Neurocritic seems a bit more scientifically didactic in nature. The entries are less concerned with the relationships between cognitive science and the everyday, and more concerned with neurobiological clinical findings, especially in terms of the causes of certain emotions and psychological conditions, such as depression and bipolar disorder. This is beneficial by all means, since this is an effort to report on matters of importance to a larger sphere. However, it is not necessarily something that an office worker, or even a regular humanities college student, would instantly click on and read with ease, because of the complex nature of the subject matter and its presentation.

In addition to connecting cognitive science to common activities and interests, "Chris" explains much of this science in connection to these sorts of events in straightforward terms.

An example to illustrate the aforementioned blog entry characteristics is the October 17, 2007 post, "Cool Visual Illusions: The Flying Bluebottle Illusion."

As one can see, "Chris" doesn't fail to catch reader attention with this entry's title.

In the body of this particular post, "Chris" explains the "bluebottle vision"—which deals with the effect of moving backgrounds on the way we perceive moving objects. He provides a link to (UC San Diego psychology professor) Stuart Anstis’ visual illusion site in order for the reader to watch the illusions take place. There are three video illusions in all. The first shows two flies in diagonal relation to each other that are tracing identical orbits. The second shows the same flies moving around in the same orbits. However, the background is moving in such a way, circling clockwise, that the right fly’s orbit seems to be at least two times larger than the left fly’s. In the third video, same flies, same orbit, different background movement. This time, though, it is moving counterclockwise. As a result, the left fly’s orbit is longer, wider, while the right fly’s is much shorter and smaller.

Besides linking to colorful videos of the illusions, “Chris” intersperses scientific information into his text by using citations from Stuart Anstis' scientific studies on the phenomena to explain the reasons behind it. “He” specifically cites information about a relatable "real-life" occurrence that is similar to what appears to occur in this illusion: "Johansson (1950) pointed out that when a friend waves to you from a train, his or her hand traces out a horizontally extended sine wave relative to the earth. However, that is not what you see. The visual system decomposes the movement into the linear motion of the train plus an up-and-down movement of the hand" (qtd. in "Bluebottle").

"He" also gives his own explanation of and application of that data to the "bluebottle vision:" "In [the aforementioned] case, and likely in the bluebottle illusion, your visual system is trying to separate the different sources of motion so that it can represent each with the effects of the other excluded" ("Bluebottle").

Furthermore, in this post, the scientific and technical jargon is defined in much simpler terms, by “Chris” or whatever sites connected to the subject at hand that he links to. For instance, to explain the "horizontal component" of the left bluebottle fly's orbit, in relation to the moving background in Stuart Anstis' video illusion in the third video, "Chris" uses clock positions: "the background's at 3 and 9 o'clock at the same time as the left fly" ("Bluebottle"). This is provided since Anstis' site gives no explanation as to what is meant by a "horizontal component."

All of this is done so that the information is more approachable for those who are not necessarily familiar with the field.

Some may call this "dumbing down" the actual discipline. But in an era such as this, where the average internet user depends on information to be spoon fed in concise, easy-to-understand passages, this is refreshing.

It is enough to satisfy many who wish to learn more about the roles of cognitive science in the way we as mankind work, play, and function. Especially with those who may not know the significance of convoluted cognitive science studies, such as those by the renowned neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio. In his studies of the brain, he brings the complex relationship between emotion and reason to light: those with damage to the brain's emotional centers have quite a difficult time making rational choices. This is mostly due to the fact that these individuals don't have emotions to make sure they make choices that aren't harmful, such as alarm or doubt ("Emotion"). And yes, this indeed is something that Mixing Memory confronts and validates for the regular man. It does this by applying this research to the way that we as individuals decide who to vote for. For example, a nonpartisan might take into account confusion, unhappiness, and even optimism to evaluate political stances and to determine whether he or she will vote Republican, Democratic, or Independent.

With all this, one can say that this site is one of the first stepping stones to a greater sense of the mysteries of the everyday and its many dimensions.

Works Cited

"Cool Visual Illusions: The Bluebottle Fly Effect." Mixing Memory. 2007. ScienceBlogs: Seed Media Group. 17 Oct. 2007. 12 Nov. 2007. .

"Emotion in Political Judgment." Mixing Memory. 2006. ScienceBlogs: Seed Media Group. 10 Jul. 2006. 12 Nov. 2007. .

"Animal Rights and Animal Research." Mixing Memory. 2007. ScienceBlogs: Seed Media Group. 4 Nov. 2007. 12 Nov. 2007. .