This myth is very popular. It is not surprised that I used to believe in the myth about left and right brains. It seems to me that almost all my friends, relatives, acquaintances believe in the idea that people who have more developed right hemisphere are more talented, creative and even genius.
I do not remember when I learned this myth the first time, but I know that even some of my school teachers hold this myth. I used to believe that left-handers are very special or that to be left-hander is better than to be a right-hander.
One time I even have heard how my older acquaintance told that most of the people have only one active hemisphere. Furthermore, he claimed that only some of people have both right and left active hemisphere and those people are a genius.
After I read the lecture and the article of Willingham (2006) I have learned that, although, left hemisphere is responsible for one processes (for example, language) and right hemisphere is responsible for other functions (for example, synthesis) it does not mean that left-hemisphere is active when we perform one type of tasks and right one is active when we perform other types of tasks.
I have learned due to information from the lecture and the article that there are no left- or right-brains tasks. Both hemispheres are active when we perform different tasks. Two hemispheres complement each other.
Now I understand that I and many other people are wrong regarding the topic of left- and right-brain differences. However, I still believe that in some people functions of left-brain are more developed than functions of right-brain and vice versa. But I realize that more developed functions of one of the brain do not mean that other brain is not involved in performing a particular task.
I learned the idea that first three years is critical for the development of a person from the book “Kindergarten is Too Late” of Masaru Ibuka (1977). Also, I used to believe in this idea because there are many classes, clubs for the early development of children in our modern time.
The one more reason why I thought that parents must develop their children`s abilities from the first months of children`s life is my mother who told me that she began to read me books when I was a newborn. I always believed that these “early’ readings influenced my passion to books and development of my cognitive interest and abilities in the following stages of my life.
I was wrong thinking that early exposure of a child to different information can positively influence the development of a child and make this child genius in his/her adult life. I understood that many people are and I was wrong when I read the lecture about the human development and several articles about baby media and its influence on the cognitive development of infants.
Information from the lecture surprised me because I have never know that early, premature sensory stimulation could lead to negative consequences of a child`s development. It was interestingly to learn that children younger than 2 years do not have any cognitive benefits from watching educational baby media movies or programs because children are not able to perceive information from media sources in that way as adult people or older children can do it (Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson, 2008; DeLoache, Chiong, Sherman, Islam, Vanderborght, Troseth, & O’Doherty, 2010).
Now I understand that it is useless to expose children younger than three years to different modern toys which have educational functions such as “singing of alphabet”, “counting to ten” or “pronouncing of different words”. Also, it seems that children do not become smarter because of watching educational cartoons, etc.
However, I believe that myth about first three years has some benefits as well as some harmful effects. Harmful effects are that parents can think that more stimulation leads to more positive developmental outcomes. Focusing on exposing their children to sensory stimulation parents can forget about other needs of a child. For example, more times of a child`s watching cartoons can result in less time for child-parents interactions.
Benefits of the myth of first three years are that parents trying to make their infants and toddlers smarter will be more likely to spend more time with their kids, to communicate and interact more time with babies, provide more affection in relationships with children, etc.
So I think that it is necessary not to reject the myth of three years but distinguish what actions of parents toward their infants can be useless or even harmful for children`s development and what actions can be beneficial for the development of infants and toddlers in the first three years.
Although, stimulation provided by media sources can be harmful to young child, stimulations provided by interactions between parents and children can be useful for the development of a child. For example, the study of DeLoach and colleagues demonstrated that infants and toddlers are not able to learn new words by watching special educational media program but they can learn new words when their parents teach them (DeLoache, Chiong, Sherman, Islam, Vanderborght, Troseth, & O’Doherty, 2010).
Also, we must remember that although sensory overstimulation can lead to adverse consequences, sensory deprivation of a child also can result in developmental delays and other problems.
I have never used the term “photographic memory” to describe own memory`s process, however, I often heard as other people describe their memory as ‘photographic”. I used to hear this combination of words but I have never asked myself or other people what they mean by telling ‘photographic memory” or why they think that their memory is “photographic”.
After I read the lecture about the myths of photographic memory I began to better understand this phenomenon and I learned the new term – “eidetic memory”. I was surprised learning that some people have the ability to recall not only visual information but also different types of sensory information (kinesthetic, audial, etc.).
Furthermore, it was interesting to learn that eidetic memory is an exceptional ability and that a few people have this ability. I learned that eidetic memory significantly differs from trained memory and from some memory disorders such as hyperthymesia and other.
However, I still do not understand what physiological reasons causes this ability in some people and why this ability is so rare one. I also did not find results of researches of eidetic memory, etc.
I do not remember when I began to believe that music of Mozart or other classical music can influence the intelligence if people. I think that I used to believe not only that classical music has a significant impact on intelligence but rather that classical and other music can have a significant impact on human’s health, body, emotional states, etc.
I suppose that I always believed in the power of music because I like to listen to music of various genres. So it was not hard for me to begin trusting in the popular myth about the effect of Mozart`s music.
I heard many times about experiments with plants or with animals. In those experiments scientists exposed plants or animals (cows) to listening to classical music and, as the result of these exposures, flowers began to grow better and faster, cows gave more milk, etc.
So I concluded that if classical music has such positive impact on animals and plants, it, probably, also influences human`s body and human`s brains. So these irrational conclusions are one more reason why I believed in the myth.
In the lecture and the article of Willingham (2006), I found scientific evidence which proves that effect of Mozart is overestimated by society. So now I know that even if classical music can influence brain development of infants or intelligence of adult people there are no scientific evidence of this influence.
Because I read the lecture I began to understand that people, who tell me about a “magical” effect of music on their mental abilities, just experience “placebo effect”. They want to believe that classical music improves their mental abilities and their mental performance improves because of their expectations.
Also, I began to feel more comfortable because I have never felt Mozart`s effect on my own experience. I mean that I knew about the effect and I tried several times “to improve” my mental capacities by listening to classical music, but it did not really work for me. And I felt some cognitive dissonance because it did not work.
I heard and witnessed several situations when people claimed that they were hypnotized by fraudsters. One such situation happened with my sister when she was 10- years-old. The strange woman on a street hypnotized my sister and convinced her to take money and jewelry from our house and give to her (the woman).
I continued to believe that hypnotic state is a very special state of conscience even after I visited one training class of hypnosis. In that class, I had the opportunity to see what exactly the hypnosis is and even to experience this “special” state. For me, being hypnotized was like being deeply relaxed. However, after that short hypnosis session, I continued to believe that there are other types of hypnosis where the hypnotized individuals experience the loss of memory, the loss of self-control and other.
I believed that a person in a hypnotic state does not understand what she/he is doing, does not control her/his behavior and cannot recall what she did under hypnosis, etc. I learn most of these myths from TV-movies.
For example, I clearly remember one episode from popular TV-show “Beverly-Hills” where the main female character had been hypnotized. Being hypnotized this character told about her secrets, voiced strange sounds, etc. in front of public and then she could not remember what she did under hypnosis.
After I read the information about hypnosis in the lecture I have understood that I significantly overestimated hypnosis as a state of consciousness and the power of hypnotist. I understood that my beliefs about hypnosis were wrong after I compared what I read in the lectures with my own experience of hypnosis.
I realized that I personally saw many pieces of evidence that hypnosis is just a process of suggestion and self-suggestion. I believe that a hypnotist needs to have special skills, abilities (for example, the ability to establish the rapport) and knowledge to influence other individuals.
If recall my sister case, I can see that my sister understood what she has done. She was sad and depressed about her actions but she did not reject that she was aware of what she was doing. My sister took money from our house because she believed to this woman who told that our mother was in the hospital. So my sister was not a “robot” in that situation rather she was the one who believed in what another person said.
I heard many times from my mother and other people that they saw prophetic dreams. Also, I saw many times how my friends or my acquaintances tried to understand a hidden deep meaning of their dream. I also used online dream dictionaries to interpret my dreams several times. I cannot say that I was deeply convinced that dreams could foretell future or give answers on important questions; however, the topic of night dreams always was interesting and strange for me.
I think that lecture did not change my previous ideas about dreams and interpretations of dreams. However, I must admit that I read Freud work’s on an interpretation of dreams and I found it hard to apply Freud`s “recommendation” on an interpretation of dreams to practice. So I cannot agree with Freud`s idea that dreams` symbols have hidden symbolic meaning.
On the other hand, I do not agree with the idea of J. Allan Hobson that our dreams evoke in our mind as random images when we sleep. Also, once I read that when people sleep their mind is like a piano and their dreams are like piano keys pressed in random order. I think that it is an oversimplification of phenomenon such as dreams. Maybe, it is hard for science to explain humans` dreams, I believe, we cannot reject that dreams have some meaning and they also can play a therapeutic role in our life.
At the same time, I think that people`s belief that dreams always have a symbolic meaning or that dreams can tell us about the future is a belief which can negatively influence our life. This belief, this myth can cause unsubstantiated fears, anxiety, adverse emotions and misgivings.
References
DeLoache, J. S., Chiong, C., Sherman, K., Islam, N., Vanderborght, M., Troseth, G. L., & O’Doherty, K. (2010). Do babies learn from baby media?. Psychological Science. 21 (11), 1570-1574
Kirkorian, H. L., Wartella, E. A., & Anderson, D. R. (2008). Media and young children's learning. The Future of Children, 18(1), 39-61.
Willingham, D. T. (2006). " Brain-Based" Learning: More Fiction than Fact. American Educator, 30(3), 27.
Ibuka, M. (1977). Kindergarten ls Too Late.
