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[Dr Sketch]

Ok, I didn't want to clutter this picture up anymore, but there are some things that were said that are troublesome to say the least.  For those who haven't been Asshats for a long time, here is the picture/comments that I'm talking about:
http://www.opacity.us/image1760.htm
Now that that's taken care of, lets talk.  I just finished reading some studies on human memory, and how tricky it can be.  It showed that people could be influenced to remember things that never happened, as well as to forget things that did happen, both intentionally and unintentionally.  It was done on "normal" people, but I would imagine that the results would be the same if done on mentally handicapped as well.  When I get home I'll look up the studies again, and share them with you.
Ok, 3....2....1.... DISCUSS!!!!

[Dr Sketch]

Ok, here's a couple of the studies I was talking about:

Elizabeth Loftus and Jacquie Pickrell from the University of Washington in Seattle: 120 subjects were shown pictures of visitors to Disneyland meeting Bugs Bunny.  Over one third of the subjects interviewed said that they knew that they had indeed met Bugs Bunny when THEY went to Disneyland.  The only problem is that Bugs is a Warner Bros. character, not a Disney character, and as such never appeared in any Disney parks.

Another study showed that people remembered drinking a certain type of soda out of a glass bottle in their childhood, even though the glass bottle had only been in production for ten years!  Before that time it only came from fountains.

Of course, memory is incredibly faulty anyway!  In a study at Kent State University, a stranger would stop a student and ask for directions.  Part way through, two men carrying a door would walk between them, momentarily obscuring their view.  They would finish their conversation, and then were asked if they noticed any change happen.  Over half the students failed to notice that the person they started talking to wasn't the same as the person they finished talking to!  They were switched when the door passed by.  They failed to notice that the build, hair style and color, clothings style, and even voice was different!

As Lynne has mentioned, you can focus so much on one thing that you see it even if it isn't there.  The reverse is true also: in one study subjects were asked to watch a clip from a basketball game.  They were further asked to count the number of times the ball was passed by one team.  At the end, they were asked how many passes there were, and if they noticed anything odd in the video.  Around half failed to notice a woman in a gorilla suit walk slowly across the scene, even though she passed between players!  When shown the video again, many even refused to believe it was the same tape, thinking it had been switched as a joke...

Memory is fragile, and even among large numbers of collaborating witnesses a "true" picture can't always be obtained.  Nobody sees everything that happens in a scene, and often we miss the gorillas... Now, if she hadn't been wearing anything, I bet I would have noticed!  

[javamama]

:shock:  Ok. Damn I don't know where to start. I read through all the comments twice and also read Dr.Sketches studies. I can plainly see both views of this. I was a patient of a state hospital, (one that incidently was closed down, and right on the outskirts of Philly, bout a mile from the Byberry) Since that time, I moved from the state and pretty much moved on with my life, until recently when a flood of memories from  this place started overtaking me, it's influenced me to write a book about it. Anyway my point going back to the topic, I can definitly see this from both sides of the arguement.
In the state hosp things were A LOT different than in private run psych wards. A lot of the staff were there for the paycheck and free state benefits (it was obvious). There were staff there that were great, and you knew cared about what became of the kids there, then, there were the not so nice ones.
In a place like that it is easy to feel like you are in the pit of oblivian, face it, once you get yourself in a place like that the system has pretty much given up on you, or so it was in my case.  (sorry if my spelling and stuff is off, this is kinf of hard for me to put down)
There were plenty of times the staff made the place a nightmare some were very sneaky and devient...but than again, us patients didn't always make their job easy, we plotted against them, smuggled in weapons drugs, and other contraband, and we didn't exactly have friendly attitudes. It gets to a point to where you become the envronment.
 We always knew when State was going to be making visits, staff suddenly got a lot more patient, we were tossed in seclusion less, they weren't so quick to give us an extra dose of thorozine or adavan, and suddenly we had group therapy and the Dr showed up on the unit for more than behavior modification. (we loved when state came we kept staff on their toes  :lol: )
There was too the good staff, ones you could vent to, ones that encouraged good behavior, ones that gave you respect (and those staff were given respect)
So i'm nt even sure if I even stuck with the topic, if not i'm sorry guess I needed to say what I said. With art, there is no right answer. different people can look at any picture and see different things, I think it depends on where they are. An individual person can look at something see it as despair one day, and the next time they see it, it says hope.
Ok, i'm done. Thanks for letting me share, hope I didn't put anyone to sleep.

[Lynne]

java mama -

Well said!  

[javamama]

Thank you Lynne, I could have gone on for days I think. But Will spare everyone.  :wink: