CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Education, a right, a privilege and a symbol of freedom for everyone. A recent study of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) shows that, out of 100 Grade One pupils, only 66 graduates. Out of these 66 graduates only 58 can enroll in first-year high school and only 43 graduates. Of these 43 lucky students who finished high school, only 23 are capable of enrolling in college and out of these 23, only 14 gets his degree. Imagine 14 out 100 students, a very small number, for a densely populated country. Many solutions have already been planned even if not all have been implemented, such examples include: improving the facilities, adding more building, training teachers, revising the curriculum, adding more efficient teachers, and many more platforms that are offered by the government, but what if these solutions are not the right solutions, what if the problem is not with the school, nor the teachers but in the student himself.
Elias (2005) said that most kids do not focus as much compared to kids before based on the observations of school psychologists and teachers. Walsh (as cited by Elias, 2005) who conducts about 150 workshops a year, entailing about media for parents and teachers stated that, "It's become harder over the last 10 years to keep kids' attention. The expectation is to be constantly entertained and, if they're not entertained, they quickly lose interest.”
Walsh (as cited by Elias, 2005) added that studies being conducted among college students and adults imply that the brain is not as much efficient as it is when it focuses on many tasks. He also added that there are no any existing studies on how kids manage to multi-task such as using instant messaging while listening to your iPod and at the same time doing your assignment. We need to pay attention in this certain field of behavioral sciences for it is somehow increasingly bothering.
Another psychologist, Mandan (as cited by Elias, 2005) affirmed that children are more focused onto the distractions that surround them. They tend to respond to every single movement or action that is around them, like whispers of other classmates, the sound of falling pens, the rhythm of some nice beat on the streets, we see that students are most likely to “bounce from task to task” Mandan added. He also said that teachers report that kids have difficulty in being organized.
Goldstein (as cited by Elias, 2005) a neuropsychologist at University of Utah is somehow different with the statements of Walsh and Elias, Goldstein says that the scores of the students of the “intelligent tests” that he has conducted has been constantly rising, the said test measured the ability of a child to, “shift and divide attention” and also “problem-solving and comprehension-skills”. Having a high score on the intelligent test doesn’t directly mean that the child has great memory retention or if the child is having a great memory span.
Students nowadays are greatly affected and overwhelmed with the use of computers, but recent reports have shown that these computers does not only bring entertainment but also bring changes into the structures of our brains. These sudden changes in our brains might not be seen directly, but it is indeed felt in our society, in school, and in the increasing number of students who loss interest in school.
As what we can see, we are surrounded by technology, objects that are new to us, things that we want, tablets, androids, apples, blackberries, and all sorts of Medias. We might not notice it, but this technology does not only give us its treats but it is also giving us its shortcomings. For Carr(2008) the worldwide web is turning into a common source of information for everyone and he also added that having instant access to these great pools of information has been highly praised by almost anyone in the world.
Carr(2010) asked, "What kind of brains is the Web giving us?" This question might sound stupid to most of us, but he added that the question will surely be the main topic of scientific studies in the coming years. News about these diverse effects on the web are already around us and we might not notice it, but it's been giving us bad results. Carr(2010) added that more researches conducted by psychologist, neurobiologists, and as well as educators arrive at a same conclusion: "When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. Even as the Internet grants us easy access to vast amounts of information, it is turning us into shallower thinkers, literally changing the structure of our brain."
Thompson (as cited by Carr, 2008) said that this “Net” is a great privilege. But the privilege has its price – Carr (2008), McLuhan (as cited by Carr, 2008) stressed out that, “Media are not just passive channels of information, they supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” He also added a metaphor, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”
Watching teleserye, listening to rap lyrics trying to catch every word of it or doing something that challenges you like learning some new dance moves, those are situations where we actually and accidentally give our attention or rather where we concentrate.
Scientifically speaking, CNN Health (2008) says that concentration takes place when the human brain's "prefrontal cortex", that has the function to manipulate "high-level cognitive tasks", is then flooded with a seemingly exact amount of "neurotransmitters, hormones and other body chemicals, particularly dopamine." It also stated that this dopamine is usually released when eating delightful treats, having sexual intercourse or simply facing something new and exciting.
Furthermore, Greenfield (2009) stated that we humans are greatly reactive to change and can easily adapt to new things compared to other beings because of the prefrontal cortex. She also added that when this prefrontal cortex is harmed, it does not mean that you become impaired, it only shows symptoms of changes in behavior, these include: being more inattentive or careless and also “loss of sense of sense of sequence and consequence”. Greenfield (2009) sited some common situations that proved his idea:
“We know this from studies of gamblers. We know it from obese people: the fatter you are, the lower the activity of your prefrontal cortex. We know it from small children in whom the area is not developed and from schizophrenics, whose prefrontal cortex is damaged. (para 6)
What do all these people have in common? Well, a gambler is aware of the consequences of gambling but does it, regardless, for the thrill. People know that if you eat too much you get fat but an obese person will keep eating. Small children have no understanding of consequences. The schizophrenic inhabits a world of dazzling colours but it is all about them: they live entirely in the moment.” (para 7)
Different authors, one message, we are now currently experiencing the adverse effects of technology. These seemingly invisible yet alarming problems have only been addressed today but earlier studies have already shown how the human mind works and how do things around us affect its performance. When we use the computer it seems that we are kind of repeating everything that we did every single moment. We turn it on, surf the net, look for new things, then we get bored, and we finally turn the computer off and after a few moments, we turn it on again.
Russell (1959) stated on his very old book that both physiological and clinical observations have shown that our reflexes that are vital to a specific stimulus becomes “less effective on frequent repetition”. An example of this “repetition” is our habit of using computers. He also added that these might cause a “loss of response”. This so called “loss of response” is referred to our brain activities, such as processing data into information.
Ebbinghaus (as cited in Klatzky, 1975) had an experiment that lead him to a discovery that if there existed a list and we call it “short”-say, seven words or less on it, the respondent would easily learn it in almost a snap, but if we say eight or more, the “learning time” reduced significantly.
Middendorf (1996) and Kalish (1996) stated that many scientific researches had already been done regarding the method or the type of processing that our brains have. In these researches as stated by Millendorf(1996) and Kalish(1996), it is concluded that our brain does not record all sorts of idea chronologically, but instead it divides it into "chunks" or a more formal term called, "categories". These "chunks" can form new "categories" or sort unprocessed information into existing categories. Furthermore, "categories” establish how a impression is obtained, how we take it out from your memory, and how it is set to work in “abstracting or generating inferences." These are just mere explanations that prove to us that traditional lecture in school doesn't match the "current cognitive science research"- Middendorf (1996) and Kalish (1996) concluded.
These researches of the late 50’s, 70’s and 90’s show the unique mechanisms of our brains. This further leads us to a more specific functionality of our brain, which is retention. Retention, as described by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “an ability to retain things in mind; specifically: a preservation of the aftereffects of experience and learning that makes recall or recognition possible”, or memory.
This study is mostly based on the ability to recall what has been learned from class lectures which is most likely a study on retention in short-term memory, sometimes called primary memory, intermediate memory or working memory. Short-term memory (STM) as described by Exner (cited by James, 1980 cited by cited by Terry, 2000),
“This primary memory image is…an extremely lively one, but is subjectively quite distinct from every sort of after-image or hallucination…It vanishes, if not caught by attention, in the course of a few seconds. Even when the original impression is attended to, the liveliness of its image fades fast.” (page 237)
Klatzky(1975) says that most of the information that are gathered from this short-term memory have been mostly limited to the utilization of “verbal materials “, which includes letters, words, and so on. He also added that most of these “verbal materials” that are stored in our short-term memory can only last for half a minute if not rehearsed. Half a minute might seem so short, but had this number changed within 36-year gap with the book and this current issue of losing one’s memory easily?
Indirectly yes, is the answer of Carr (2010) on their article entitled “The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains “, where the title itself rewires our brains. He also mentioned that, “Google seemed to be making people smarter”, due to tons of brain activities that users can find when using it. In his experiment, Small (as cited by Carr, 2010) cautiously pointed out that “more brain activity is not necessarily better brain activity.” Carr(2010) added that Small’s research was not about having enhanced “brain activity” it was more on “how quickly and extensively Internet use reroutes people’s neural pathways” or simply how the internet rewires our brains. The internet is not just making our lives better, it’s not just making us closer to everyone, it’s not just about having, as Small(as cited by Carr, 2010) added, “it is rapidly and profoundly altering our brains.”
Seeing all these proofs of the existence of the dilemma that computers have adverse effects not just on how we live, not just on how we think, but most especially how our brain processes and works. Based on these theories and ideas, there is indeed a need to study how it affects our brain especially to those people who use computers frequently such as Computer Science students wherein their soon profession and even in their current college life they are already exposed to extreme usage of computers.
0 comments:
Post a Comment