Re: [xmca] Artist as creator reminds me of combined motor method

From: ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org
Date: Mon Dec 12 2005 - 10:38:15 PST


On page 242 with the paragraph that starts with "B.E. Zakhava tells of a
remarkable case. . ."

I am also remined of an article written by Basov where he remarks about a
school age girl reacting to a puppet play she is watching. Any time a play
or a presentation or lecture results in unified audience reaction is an
opportunity for people to develop "group consciensness" (?) Interested in
discussing more but I am off to a parenting class.

eric

                                                                                                                                       
                      Ana
                      Marjanovic-Shane To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
                      <ana who-is-at zmajcenter. cc:
                      org> Subject: Re: [xmca] Artist as creator reminds me of combined motor method
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                      AM
                      Please respond
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                      Mind, Culture,
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Eric,
that is a very interesting comparison!
I would love to hear in more detail, what in the "Actor's Creative Work"
article reminded you of the "combined motor method"?
How does it compare?
I sense that there is something in it, but I am not sure what exactly.
Ana

ERIC.RAMBERG@spps.org wrote:

>
>
>From: Mike Cole (mcole@weber.ucsd.edu)
>
>Date: Fri Feb 22 2002 - 09:33:48 PST
> Next message: Mike Cole: "iscrat/aera"
> Previous message: Mike Cole: "discoordinations"
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>
>
>
>Perhaps the finest book written by AR Luria in his long career was called,
>in English, *The nature of human conflicts*. In it, ARL described a method
>he called the comibned motor method, which has interesting relations to
>the method of dual stimulation that surface many years later.
>
>
>In the combined motor method, a person is asked to engage simultaneously
>in several kinds of actions which are to be coordinated. The actions might
>be holding one hand steady, pressing a button with the other hand every
>time
>a word stimulus is presented, and perhaps responding verbally as well.
>
>
>This method sets up a system of interpersonal coordination between what
>has come to be called the "subject" (who is the object of the
>experimenter's
>activity) and the experimenter. It takes a while for the subject to master
>the coordination, which might begin with the prnounciation of a set of
>words or with pure tones that are then substituted for by words.
>
>
>When the system of coordination is stable, the experimenter introduces
>"critical" words that relate to some hypothetical event in the subject'
>s prior experience. Examples include subjects hypnotized and told not
>to reveal the story they had just been told, suspected criminals, and
>college students from wealthy families who wanted entrance to Moscow
>University at a time of proletarian purging of such people.
>
>
>Luria argued that one can know what another is thinking under the
condition
>
>that one sets up such a system of coordination and then is able to
>SELECTIVELY disrupt it by prsenting critical words which are just those
>words that the subject does not want the experimenter to know about.
>
>
>Hence, selective discoordination becomes a window into, precisely, what
>another person is thinking (assume precision in knowledge of the universe
>of possibile bits of knowledge involved and of measurement-- both very
>iffy).
>
>
>One does not need a fancy apparatus to see this mechanism at work. I see
>and have recorded many examples from undergraduates playing computer
>games with kids where they are highly coordinated (a condition very much
>like Czikhzentmihaly's (swp?) FLOW) and then something occurs which
>indicates that one or the other has misunderstood the other in a very
>particular way.
>
>
>The most public example of this I have experienced was a few years ago
>when I showed a class an antiapartheid MTV song called "Sun City." In
>the film, there is a very repetitive refrain, "I ain't gonna play Sun
>City" which referred to a boycott of a white's only spa in South
>Africa. Repeatedly in the film, this refrain was accompanied by a
>marching mix-ethnicity crowd walking up a street and coming over the
>horizon into view in synch with the music.
>
>
>Pretty mezmerizing.
>
>
>Then, at one point, Bruce Springsteen appears in the group of marchers
>and at the sight of him, a class of 200 students burst into laughter
>simultaneously. They had been quiet up to that point and were quiet
>afterward until discussion time. Then they articulated their surprise
>at Springsteen appearing. He was not the only musician they recognized
>in the waves of marchers. But there was something incongruous to them.,
>collectively and individually, about his experience which they could
>then talk about.
>
>
>And, most important, when the laughter occurred, all felt that they knew
>why the others were laughing just at the moment when they laughed.
>
>
>Make of it what you will. I take this to be an example of selective
>discoordination that reveals something about others' thought processes.
>Laughter is not the only such expression, of course. Surprise, chagrin,
>horror, etc. can all be evoked, and maybe even conceptual change.
>
>
>mike
>
>
>
>The discussion of Psychology and the Actor's Creative Work reminded me of
>the previous post from Mike Cole. The combined motor method is an
>extremelye effective teaching tool that can sometimes be coordinated in
>team teaching situations where the subject matter is difficult for high
>school age students to discuss (i.e. sex, home life, peer pressure). We
do
>not call it the combined motor method but essentially that is what it is.
>A worksheet is passed out for students to work on. Anything simple and
>easy to understand will work. One teacher will take the "lecture
position"
>and the other will be in the class seated where the students are. Before
>the lesson is too far on the seated teacher will interrupt the lecture.
>Usually it has to be an interruption that is "over the top" and will get
>the students to be surprised. Once this reaction is received the class
>turns into a give and take discussion that in all my time of practicing
has
>always been well received and beneficial. Some time I will try to record
>this dialogue and provide a more concrete example.
>
>
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>
>
>

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