What interests me most in reasoning is how humans are the only species who have deep, complex reasoning and thought processes — on the entire planet. To say we just all became what we are through a number of trial and errors from a big bang, — often, to me, insults our human-linear capacity and understanding of life.
On behalf of reasoning, I wanted to illustrate (and research) how humans are able to rationalize news — particularly bad news and how we represent and “deal” or cope with this information in our heads. While the number of articles I read over and over again seemed to show why humans like negative news and why humans tend to remember negative news more than positive, etc., are reasons that seemingly can be explained by physiologically and psychologically means. Psychologically, this is because the brain handles positive and negative news in different hemispheres of the brain. And, negative emotions generally involve more thinking (Tugend, 2012).
However, the coping mechanisms were absent. I did not research for hours. It was under 5 minutes. But in 5 minutes you learn a lot about a specific topic and what is mainly out there. So, I decided to go further into the neuroscience of human reasoning and what parts of the brain are involved.
Researchers at the University of California Berkeley found that the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain are involved with higher-order cognition. The brain and the processes that drive reasoning include the rostrolateral prefrontal cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the inferior parietal lobule, with the rostrolateral region more actively engaged in second-order relational reasoning (Tugend, 2012).
Our reasoning and cognition does not end there. It seems we give someone with critical comments more of an intelligence rank. Perhaps for some of us we associate it with our parents being critical yet wanting us to be pushed to work hard and be the best we can be?
Negativity in general seems to hold more weight and substance and has a larger affect on us than something that is directly the opposite. For example, hearing negative comments as a child builds more resilience to them when they are older (depending on how a child copes with such negativity, of course!), instead of children who are praised constantly and do not understand how to deal with a critical statement once they are older. Negativity tends to hold more weight in the child who did not hear critical remarks from their parents that often. (I think this research is fair in terms of the study, but isn’t a general principle to live by).
So, with the news, it may be that negativity of events hold more substance because there are more emotions involved that need higher-level processes of the brain. For example, negativity seems un-natural (stress, etc.) as to why science is finally starting to realize that stress ruins your mind and your body. It’s the same way you would digest an apple and a candy bar. An apple, organic food-matter, is easier to digest and humans gain energy from eating it. A candy bar, which is probably full of chemicals, unwanted sugars and maltodextrin, makes the body work harder to digest, and you actually loose energy after the “spike” that happens when you sugary foods. (Now, where is the complex reasoning in this?!)
I am starting to see the “macro” (big) and “micro” scale in everything, and how it is all connected.
It was a pleasure being in this class! I learned so much.
Good luck!
Works Cited
- Pederson, T. 2015. Mapping Brain Networks Behind Complex Reasoning. Retrieved from: http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/01/06/mapping-brain-networks-behind-complex-reasoning/79514.html
- Tugend, A. 2012. Praise Is Fleeting, but Brickbats We Recall. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/your-money/why-people-remember-negative-events-more-than-positive-ones.html?_r=0