unfiltered perception

Richard Wiseman lanserer i disse dager sin nye bok, 59 Seconds. Dette er en anti-selvhjelps-selvhjelpsbok, som har som mål å vise enkle knep man kan bruke for å gjøre viktige endringer i livet sitt, men basert på forskning heller enn myter og feel-good prat.

Richard Wiseman’s latest book exposes self-help myths, and presents fast-acting and scientifically proven techniques that help you achieve your aims and ambitions in less than a minute.

På bokens offisielle nettsted presenterer han i tiden fremover noen tips og utdrag fra boken. Nylig skrev han om hvordan teknikken med å visualisere et mål man ønsker å oppnå, faktisk viser seg å være kontra-produktivt i praksis:

In a study by Lien Pham and Shelley Taylor at the University of California, one group of students were asked to spend a few moments each day visualizing themselves getting a high grade in an important midterm exam. Another group were asked to imagine the process of revision by visualizing when, where and how they intended to study. The study also involved a control group of students, who went about their business as usual. The experimenters asked all of the students to make a note of the number of hours they studied each day, and monitored their final grades.