Visual illusions foster open-mindedness
Research Digest – March 2
From sworn witness accounts of alien visitations, to deep-rooted trust in quack medical treatments, the human trait that psychologists call “naive realism” has a lot to answer for. This is people’s instinctive feeling that they perceive the world how it is, encapsulated by the saying “seeing is believing.” The truth, of course, is that our every perception is our brain’s best guess, built not merely with the raw material of what’s out in the world, but just as much with the bricks of expectation, hope and imagination. William Hart and his colleagues at the University of Alabama propose that naive realism not only inspires false confidence in what we see, but also more generally in our beliefs and assumptions. Based on this logic, the researchers tested whether explaining to people about naive realism, and showing them the unconscious, fallible mental work that leads to their unstable perceptions, might have knock-on effects, making them more open-minded and more doubtful of their assumptions about a person’s character.
Alabama native Lacey Spears, convicted of killing son with salt, not mentally ill, expert says
Al.com – March 2
A former Decatur resident who was convicted today of killing her 5-year-old son in a bid for attention does not meet criteria of mental illness, an expert in medical child abuse said. Lacey Spears, 27, was on trial in New York, accused of using salt to poison Garnett-Paul Spears to death. She was convicted of second-degree murder and has not been sentenced. Marc D. Feldman, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama and Distinguished Fellow with the American Psychiatric Association, said he followed the case because he has researched medical child abuse, also called Munchausen syndrome by proxy, for 25 years. He was not directly involved in the Spears case. … “My thought about the verdict is that the jury came to the right decision, and I hope the penalty is toward or at the maximum sentence,” Feldman said. “Medical child abuse and Munchausen by proxy are not mental illnesses. They are forms of maltreatment and need to be assiduously prosecuted. The problem in the field has been that these mothers tend to get slaps on the wrist, rather than serious, or any, jail time because it is assumed that they are victims of a serious mental disorder. This is rarely true.”
Why a woman murdered her son with salt
Washington Post – March 2
In the fall of 2009, a young mother with a very sick child logged onto Twitter and began to vent her anguish. Lacey Spears’s son, whom she called “Garnett the Great” and “my little prince,” was sick again. “Hoping Garnett Does Have To Be Put In The Hospital :(,” she wrote one November day. Then two days later, she wrote: “My Sweet Angel Is In The Hospital For The 23rd Time.” In the five years he lived, Garnett Spears would end up in the hospital many more times than that. The sicknesses were many: severe ear infections, high fevers, seizures, digestive problems. But their cause remained unclear until his final days, when doctors noticed a lethal amount of sodium choking his system. A doctor took Spears aside at the hospital. Those levels, the doctor reportedly said, were “metabolically impossible. … Something isn’t right.” … The seemingly incongruous portraits of Lacey Spears make sense, experts suggest, when filtered through the prism of a rare psychological syndrome called Munchausen by proxy, a disorder in which a caretaker or guardian purposely does harm to a child to attract sympathy and attention. “These mothers tend to be psychopathic,” Marc Feldman of the University of Alabama told CBS New York. “They don’t experience guilt and they lack empathy.”
CBS New York – March 2
Public barred from jury selection in girl’s running death
Montgomery Advertiser – March 2
Potential jurors reported amid secrecy Monday for the capital murder trial of an Alabama woman charged in her granddaughter’s running death, with the judge refusing public access to process that typically is open. Dozens of prospective jurors assembled at the Etowah County Courthouse for questioning by attorneys in the trial of Joyce Hardin Garrard, 59, of Boaz. Jury selection will take days but it’s unclear exactly how long, partly because Circuit Judge Billy Ogletree barred the media from being present as prosecutors and defense lawyers talked to would-be jurors. University of Alabama law professor Joseph Colquitt, a former circuit judge, said judges often allow attorneys to ask some personal questions of jurors in private, but he had never been involved in a case involving an adult defendant where the entire process was closed. “Basically the idea is that the proceedings in criminal cases are open to the public,” said Colquitt.
ABCNews.com – March 2
Chattanooga Times-Free Press – March 2
Gallaway was friend to Tennessee Williams
Crimson White – March 3
Tennessee Williams was born 60 miles west of Tuscaloosa in Columbus, Mississippi. His mother almost married a man in Demopolis, 60 miles south of Tuscaloosa. His good friend from graduate school, Marian Gallaway, was the first director of theatre at The University of Alabama.The Southern Literary Trail and the UA department of theatre and dance are celebrating this history Tuesday night with excerpts from a selection of Tennessee Williams’ plays and a discussion of his relationship with Marian Gallaway, including speakers Kenneth Holditch and Ed Williams. Holditch knew Tennessee Williams from the time they spent together in New Orleans, and spoke at his funeral. Ed Williams was a student of Marian Gallaway, and helped found the UA theatre department.The event, titled “Tennessee Williams: The Alabama Tribute” at Gaineswood and the Marian Gallaway Theatre, started with an event Monday night in Demopolis at the ancestral home of Gaius Whitfield.
Moundville Park restarts Saturday programming
Crimson White – March 3
The University of Alabama’s Moundville Archaeological Park resumed its Saturday in the Park program Feb. 28, with the theme of “Past Time Pastimes.” Saturday in the Park began in 2009 and is held during the park’s peak visitation seasons, which are early spring to early summer and during the fall. The event features a series of demonstrations and presentations related to Native Americans, archaeology, natural history, sustainable gardening and more. Most programs, which run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., have hands-on activities for children. While visitors pay admission to enter the park, there is no additional charge for these programs. “This type of program fulfills two parts of UA’s threefold mission: teaching and service,” said Betsy Irwin, the interim director of Moundville Archaeological Park as well as a staff member at UA Museums.
COLLEGE NEWS: March 1
Tuscaloosa News – March 1
University of Alabama: Library and Information Studies Master of Library Science student Adam Beebe of New Orleans was selected to receive a $3,000 grant from the Art Libraries Society of North America.
UA provides Parenting Assistance Line
WERC-FM (Live Interview on a public affairs program) – March 1
Dr. April Kendrick, director of the Parenting Assistance Line, a part of UA’s Child Development Resources, discusses all that the Parenting Assistance Line offers.
Student focuses on societal aspect of fashion
Crimson White – March 3
For Kelly Martin, a senior majoring in apparel and textile design, fashion is a transformative form of self expression that encourages others to think outside the box when it comes to clothing and personal style. Martin, a 22-year-old Tuscaloosa native, has been described as “running” the University’s clothing, textiles and interior design department. She said one day she hopes to become a fashion stylist or work at the costume department of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. “I’ve been interested in fashion since I was very young,” Martin said. “I remember in elementary school I was constantly playing dress up and making my friends join in.” Martin said neither of her parents were actually interested in fashion, but since both of them are musicians, she was constantly surrounded by music and the arts, which brought her closer to fashion. For two years, Martin wrote and blogged for College Fashionista, a website that promotes fashion and street style inspiration from other college students in universities across the United States.
Henderson named to Dean’s List
Avery Journal (Newland, N.C.) – March 2
Paige Henderson has been named to The University of Alabama’s Dean’s List for the 2014 fall semester. The Dean’s List recognizes students who earn a 3.5 GPA or better on at least 12 or more credit hours of work. Henderson has also been selected to join Pi Sigma Pi Fraternity at The University of Alabama. Pi Sigma Pi is a national co-ed fraternity founded on the tripod of scholarship, leadership and fellowship. Membership is an honor and distinction that recognizes commitment to past, present and future academic excellence. Henderson is also involved in Al’s Pals, a volunteer University of Alabama mentorship program, working with youth in the community of Tuscaloosa, Ala., and also reports and writes for The Crimson White, the student newspaper of the university.
The civil rights history I missed growing up in the South
Al.com – March 3
I learned about Christopher Columbus’s voyages on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. I could recount the tale of the mysterious lost colony at Roanoke. The battles of the American Revolution, the founding of America and the Civil War became second nature. Our class reviewed the World Wars and the Great Depression in detail. I even remember discussing the invention of flight and man’s travel to space. As far as the civil rights era was concerned, I learned that a man named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream of rights for black people, pushed through laws granting equality, and was assassinated. We might have also briefly discussed Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus … I never heard of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma. I was well into college before I ever read King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In fact, I had very little knowledge of America’s struggle for civil rights until I stumbled upon Professor Bryan Fair’s class “Race, Racism and the Law” at the University of Alabama School of Law. Professor Fair and I went round after round on any number of political topics, but he left me realizing race, perspective and history were inextricably intertwined. Sadly, my romanticized history had done a great disservice to one of the most beautiful and painful chapters in our nation’s history.
The Road to Selma: Remembering the stories of true American heroes
Los Angeles Times – March 3
On March 7, 1965, Charles Mauldin was a black teenager standing in the front ranks of civil rights marchers who crossed Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge only to be met by a phalanx of police and deputized members of the Ku Klux Klan who violently pushed them back. Mauldin remembers clambering down from the bridge to reach the river below and escape from the swinging clubs, the deputies charging on horseback, the guns and the clouds of tear gas. Next weekend, Mauldin will return to the bridge in very different circumstances. … The events surrounding what is now called Bloody Sunday have already been brought back to national attention by the Academy Award-nominated film “Selma” and by “Glory,” the Oscar-winning song from the movie written and performed by Common and John Legend. But there is nothing like hearing about history from the men and women who paid a steep price to live through it. I had the privilege of meeting Charles Mauldin on Saturday night in a performing arts center at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa when he spoke with a group of 52 students, faculty and a diverse group of older adults representing my alma mater, the University of Washington, as well as two other schools, Bellevue College and Utah State University. I am part of that group — 52 Strong, as we call ourselves — riding a bus together on a nine-day civil rights pilgrimage through Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas that will climax with the mass gathering in Selma. … as I learned in a discussion circle after Mauldin finished his presentation, history is only one generation away from being forgotten. The several black University of Alabama students I talked with all said their grandparents who lived through the dark days of segregation never talked about it, never shared their stories with their grandchildren. They had buried away the pain and shame they experienced and were not eager to dig it up again.