Comments on: Trajectories http://mith.umd.edu/eng738T/trajectories/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trajectories English 738T, Spring 2015 Sat, 12 Nov 2016 04:10:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Amanda Giffi http://mith.umd.edu/eng738T/trajectories/#comment-205 Amanda Giffi Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:16:24 +0000 http://mith.umd.edu/eng738T/?p=469#comment-205 I also love the idea of using questions to test for the ability to create or remember the narrative of the self. Of course we can't know if a replicant could do this, but it does seem like creating a narrative of the self (a mythology of the self, if you will) is a uniquely human trait. I suppose artificial life could be programmed to create narratives, or even learn to, and I can't help but think that the replicants would become so much more dangerous with this ability, with fully formed senses of self, a sense of their past and future, they would surely all resist death. I also love the idea of using questions to test for the ability to create or remember the narrative of the self. Of course we can’t know if a replicant could do this, but it does seem like creating a narrative of the self (a mythology of the self, if you will) is a uniquely human trait. I suppose artificial life could be programmed to create narratives, or even learn to, and I can’t help but think that the replicants would become so much more dangerous with this ability, with fully formed senses of self, a sense of their past and future, they would surely all resist death.

]]> By: Amanda Visconti http://mith.umd.edu/eng738T/trajectories/#comment-204 Amanda Visconti Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:06:44 +0000 http://mith.umd.edu/eng738T/?p=469#comment-204 I love this idea of using a series of questions to test for some kind of narrative network backing one's answers. I was talking with some friends about verbal overshadowing the other night--that term might be useful here. (Verbal overshadowing: someone asks you how your trip was, you say it was great, and next time someone asks you how it was your response is based as much on your previous response as it is on remembering back to the actual trip.) I love this idea of using a series of questions to test for some kind of narrative network backing one’s answers. I was talking with some friends about verbal overshadowing the other night–that term might be useful here. (Verbal overshadowing: someone asks you how your trip was, you say it was great, and next time someone asks you how it was your response is based as much on your previous response as it is on remembering back to the actual trip.)

]]> By: Jennifer Ausden http://mith.umd.edu/eng738T/trajectories/#comment-166 Jennifer Ausden Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:23:24 +0000 http://mith.umd.edu/eng738T/?p=469#comment-166 When reading your post, I got to thinking about the process of rote memorization...something we as students have all but mastered (well, more or less), but which still involves a deliberate process. There's kind of a doubling back in the processes of the trajectory, which I'm totally throwing out there as something like [Memorize Situate Recall Project], and through this we're constantly de- and re-constructing our narratives, of self or subject or however else we might define them. In a New York Times article from last year, "To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?pagewanted=all), researchers found that "students who read a passage, then took a test asking them to recall what they had read, retained about 50 percent more of the information a week later than students who used two other methods." I'm wondering if the test-taking activity was so successful because it immediately required further processing of the data; specifically, it prompted the sorting phase, in which students actively negotiated with the information in order to siutate it. Students who had to situate were best equipped to recall -- to go back a few steps on the trajectory line -- and in some ways perhaps also better equipped to forecast? I could definitely think through this some more, too...bet we'll have the chance in coming weeks! When reading your post, I got to thinking about the process of rote memorization…something we as students have all but mastered (well, more or less), but which still involves a deliberate process. There’s kind of a doubling back in the processes of the trajectory, which I’m totally throwing out there as something like [Memorize Situate Recall Project], and through this we’re constantly de- and re-constructing our narratives, of self or subject or however else we might define them.

In a New York Times article from last year, “To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test” (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?pagewanted=all), researchers found that “students who read a passage, then took a test asking them to recall what they had read, retained about 50 percent more of the information a week later than students who used two other methods.” I’m wondering if the test-taking activity was so successful because it immediately required further processing of the data; specifically, it prompted the sorting phase, in which students actively negotiated with the information in order to siutate it. Students who had to situate were best equipped to recall — to go back a few steps on the trajectory line — and in some ways perhaps also better equipped to forecast?

I could definitely think through this some more, too…bet we’ll have the chance in coming weeks!

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