The Influence of Liturgy on Human Memory: From the Perspective of Neuroscience

Generally, there has been a lack of understanding about liturgy and ritual among reformed tradition. The Reformed and Presbyterian church has had a tendency to look down on the formative power of Christian liturgy while emphasizing cognitive knowledge and catechism education. However, liturgy is not just the repetition of a meaningless act. Liturgy has a formative power in the process of faith formation through its practice and repetition. This article studies how liturgy impacts human memory and faith formation based on several brain studies. First, while examining split-brain studies, it is argued that there is the possibility of ritual knowledge while participating in Christian worship. Second, through the discoveries made in mirror neuron studies, the way human learning is a result of not only interacting with objects, but also the observation of objects, is examined. Third, based on Eric Kandel’s habituation and sensitization experiment, it is claimed that even though liturgical worship can suffer the pitfalls of habituation, a well-balanced liturgical worship can aid sensitization. Lastly, while examining various sorts of memory, various ordo and elements of Christian worship are revealed; in combination these can create a Gestalt perception, and greatly impact human memory and the formation of Christian faith.

Epistemic affordances in gestalt perception as well as in emotional facial expressions and gestures

Summary Methodological problems often arise when a special case is confused with the general principle. So you will find affordances only for ‚artifacts’ if you restrict the analysis to ‚artifacts’. The general principle, however, is an ‚invitation character’, which triggers an action. Consequently, an action-theoretical approach known as ‚pragmatic turn’ in cognitive science is recommended. According to this approach, the human being is not a passive-receptive being but actively produces those action effects that open up the world to us (through ‚active inferences’). This ‚ideomotor approach’ focuses on the so-called ‚epistemic actions’, which guide our perception as conscious and unconscious cognitions. Due to ‚embodied cognition’ the own body is assigned an indispensable role. The action theoretical approach of ‚enactive cognition’ enables that every form can be consistently processualized. Thus, each ‚Gestalt’ is understood as the process result of interlocking cognitions of ‚forward modelling’ (which produces anticipations and enables prognoses) and ‚inverse modelling’ (which makes hypotheses about genesis and causality). As can be shown, these cognitions are fed by previous experiences of real interaction, which later changes into a mental trial treatment, which is highly automated and can therefore take place unconsciously. It is now central that every object may have such affordances that call for instrumental or epistemic action. In the simplest case, it is the body and the facial expressions of our counterpart that can be understood as a question and provoke an answer/reaction. Thus, emotion is not only to be understood as expression/output according to the scheme ‚input-processing-output’, but acts itself as a provocative act/input. Consequently, artifacts are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for affordances. Rather, they exist in all areas of cognition—from Enactive Cognition to Social Cognition.

Teori Gestalt (Meningkatkan Pembelajaran Melalui Proses Pemahaman)

Abstrak: Teori Gestalt memandang bahwa pembelajaran tidak hanya tentang rangsangan dan respon tetapi lebih pada pemahaman tentang suatu masalah yang mampu menarik kesimpulan baru yang berwawasan. Pencetus teori Gestalt termasuk Max Wetheimer, Wolfgang Kohler dan Kurt Kofka. Dalam teori Gestalt terdapat beberapa hukum yaitu hukum kedekatan, hukum ketertutupan dan hukum kesamaan. Diantara prinsip pembelajaran Gestalt adalah pembelajaran melalui wawasan (pemahaman), pembelajaran merupakan reorganisasi dari pengalaman, pembelajaran akan lebih berhasil bila sesuai dengan minat siswa. Sedangkan prinsip persepsi Gestalt termasuk prinsip kontinuitas dan hubungan figur-ground. Kekuatan teori Gestalt adalah anak mampu membangun suatu masalah menjadi pengetahuan atau pemahaman baru, namun teori Gestalt ini juga memiliki kelemahan, yakni teori Gestalt tidak bisa diterapkan pada maeri-materi tertentu.Kata Kunci: Teori Pembelajaran, Gestalt, Pemahaman. Abstract: Gestalt theory views that learning is not only about stimuli and responses but rather about understanding a problem faced which is able to draw new insightful conclusions. Gestalt characters include Max Wetheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Kofka. In Gestalt theory, there are several laws, namely the law of closeness, the law of closure and the law of equality. Among the principles of Gestalt learning is that learning through insight (understanding), learning is a reorganization of experiences, learning will be more successful when it comes to interests. Meanwhile, the principles of Gestalt perception include the principle of continuity and Figure-ground relationship. The strength of Gestalt theory is that children are able to reconstruct a problem into new knowledge or understanding, however in the Gestalt theory has also the weaknesses that the gestalt theory cannot be applied to certain materials.Keywords:Learning Theory, Gestalt, Comprehension

Effects of Temporal Expectations on the Perception of Motion Gestalts

Gestalt psychology has traditionally ignored the role of attention in perception, leading to the view that autonomous processes create perceptual configurations that are then attended. More recent research, however, has shown that spatial attention influences a form of Gestalt perception: the coherence of random-dot kinematograms (RDKs). Using ERPs, we investigated whether temporal expectations exert analogous attentional effects on the perception of coherence level in RDKs. Participants were presented fixed-length sequences of RDKs and reported the coherence level of a target RDK. The target was indicated immediately after its appearance by a postcue. Target expectancy increased as the sequence progressed until target presentation; afterward, remaining RDKs were perceived without target expectancy. Expectancy influenced the amplitudes of ERP components P1 and N2. Crucially, expectancy interacted with coherence level at N2, but not at P1. Specifically, P1 amplitudes decreased linearly as a function of RDK coherence irrespective of expectancy, whereas N2 exhibited a quadratic dependence on coherence: larger amplitudes for RDKs with intermediate coherence levels, and only when they were expected. These results suggest that expectancy at early processing stages is an unspecific, general readiness for perception. At later stages, expectancy becomes stimulus specific and nonlinearly related to Gestalt coherence.

Melt into the group Electrophysiological Evidence of Gestalt Perception of Human Dyad

It has been showed recently that the human brain has dedicated networks for perception of human bodies in synchronous motion or in situation of interaction. However, below motion and interaction, how does the brain process a simple plurality of humans in close positioning? We used EEG frequency tagging technique to investigate integration of human dyad elements in a global percept. We presented to participants images of two silhouettes, a man and a woman flickering at different frequencies (5.88 vs. 7.14 Hz). Clear response at these stimulation frequencies reflected response to dyad parts, both when the dyad was presented upright and inverted. However, an emerging intermodulation component (7.14 + 5.88 = 13.02 Hz), a nonlinear response regarded as an objective signature of holistic representation, was significantly enhanced in upright relatively to inverted position. Inversion effect was significant only for the intermodulation component as opposed to stimulation frequencies revealing that dyad configuration perception overrides structural properties of dyad elements. Inversion effect was not significant for a pair of non-human objects. Our results show that merely facing two humans in close positioning leads to perceptually bind them and suggest that the perception of individuals is of different nature when they form a plurality.

THE FEATURES OF PERCEPTUAL PROCESSES DURING QUALITATIVE BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS

Aim. The paper aims to identify the features of perceptual processes during qualitative biomechanical analysis. Materials and methods. The following methods were used: the study of literature on the psychology of perception and sports biomechanics; methods of experimental psychology; high-speed video recording; authors’ methods for assessing the perception of sports technique and eidos; mathematical and statistical analysis. Results. The study consisted of 3 sequential stages. The first stage of the study showed that experts' assessments did not correlate well; each expert had his individual opinion. The second stage made it possible to identify two main types of movement perception: 1) the first type is based on an analytical approach, when experts sought to decompose the movement into a set of angles to obtain as much numerical information as possible; 2) the second type is based on gestalt-perception, when experts concentrated on a holistic movement image, i. e. without dividing the movement into details. The gestalt type was more effective, accurate and quick. The third stage revealed a different level of movement perception and its correlation with special memory. The clearer and more accurate the mo­vement was, the longer it stored in the memory of experts. Conclusion. Gestalt-perception, eidolon technique and special memory form a triad of perceptual processes during evaluation of sports movements. The effectiveness of qualitative biomechanical analysis depends on maturity of each triad component.