Lauren Slater

Use it or Lose it

Submitted by Chris Webster on Sun, 2008/10/26 - 05:42

Every time you practice a task, you further burn into your brain the webwork of neurons responsible for carrying out that task; the more you rehearse a memory, telling it to yourself over and over, the stronger and smoother that electrochemical conversation between those particular synapses in your skull.

We Without Our Gods

Submitted by Chris Webster on Wed, 2008/09/10 - 05:25

Lauren Slater

Opening Skinner's Box

[Bruce Alexander] was interested to find that there have been many times in human history when addiction was practically nil: the Canadian Indians, for instance, prior to assimilation, had a negligible addiction rate, as did our very own British brothers before the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution, when people farmed and lived off the land and watched the moon, that medicinal disk in the sky.

The Werther Effect

Submitted by Chris Webster on Sun, 2008/07/27 - 05:15

Lauren Slater

Opening Skinner's Box

Data from the FBI and state law enforcement agencies clearly show that after any well-publicized suicide, the number of fatalities from plane and car crashes rise.

Social Cuing

Submitted by Chris Webster on Sat, 2008/06/07 - 04:46

Lauren Slater

Opening Skinner's Box

Across the street from me is a beautiful church with emerald moss tamped between the stones. Sometimes I go to this church, for the singing. After Sunday sermons, a collection basket gets passed around.

Stanley Milgram and Obedience to Authority

Submitted by Chris Webster on Tue, 2008/05/27 - 04:22

Lauren Slater

Opening Skinner's Box

Possibly you are late. You are running down a small side street in New Haven, Connecticut. It is June 1961, and ahead of you loom the spires of the Yale Episcopalian Church.