Photographers of the Old West :: Research History Photography Papers

Photographers of the Old West In a society that is focused on visual stimuli, it isn't uncommon to see a person taking a picture with a camera or making a "movie" with their camcorder. But, in the 1840s and 1850s, life just wasn't like that. If someone said they could make a picture of a mining town or of the route to the West without a pencil or paint people would have laughed at them. Laughing would have been appropriate because photography didn't come into being until 1839. James Horan reveals in his book, Mathew Brady: Historian with a Camera, that it wasn't even called photography then, it was called the "new art" (5). There were very few people who knew what it was to take a picture, or make a picture with light. The only pictures that were around at that time were those that were drawn, painted, or printed from lithographs or etchings. Newspapers didn't have real live pictures that showed the actual things that were written about. The population of America as it was in 1800 didn't know what the "West" look ed like. According to Eugene Ostroff, sketches and paintings were the only illustrations of the West before photography (9). Ostroff tells us that these weren't usually accepted if the painter had taken artistic license (9). All Americans knew were the stories of the people who returned because it was too difficult to live there or the letters from friends and family telling the horrors they saw. So, with the invention of photography, especially the ability to "fix" the image onto the paper or metal plate had a major effect on the expansion to the West because the pictures that were taken showed how the West really was beautiful. Unfortunately, it was a while before the public was able to see the pictures that were taken by the photographers of the West because 1839 was only the very beginning of photography as a profession and a hobby. The first type of using light to make a picture was the daguerreotype. Both Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and Nicephore Niepce, who passed away before the public was introduced to the daguerreotype, founded this type of picture taking. However, before this Louis Daguerre made a "theater without actors." Beaumont Newhall explains that this was an illusion made by extraordinary lighting effects that made the 45 Â ½ foot by 71 Â ½ foot pictures appear to change as one looked at them (2).

Heuristics and Biased Essay

Daniel Kahneman along side of Amos Tversky revolutionized research on human judgment. They conceptualized the idea of the â€Å"heuristics and biases† program – that judgment under uncertainty Often rests on a limited number of simplifying heuristics rather than extensive algorithmic processing. Gigerenzer criticized Kehneman and Tverskys research stating that humans are capable of processing more complex algorithms than what Kehneman and Tversky were giving homage to. Thus a debate of what the cognitive capacity is and the deviations between normative models and actual human reasoning has been called into question by casting doubt on the appropriateness of the normative models used to evaluate performance, a form of the â€Å"reject-the-norm† strategy. It has been noted the Panglossians, exclusively used the reject the-norm-application strategy to eliminate gaps between descriptive models of performance and normative models. When this type of critique is employed, the normative model that is suggested as a substitute for the one traditionally used in the heuristics and biases literature is one that coincides perfectly with the descriptive model of the subjects’ performance, thus preserving a view of human reasoning and rationale as ideal. Gigerenzer urged that the cognitively capacity is in fact more than this. Gigerenzer urged that there is sufficient evidence for the existence of two types of processing in Human reasoning, decision making, and social cognition. One type fast, automatic, effortless, and non-conscious, the other slow, controlled, effortful, and conscious, which may deliver different and sometimes conflicting results. More recently, some cognitive psychologists have proposed ambitious theories of cognitive architecture, according to which humans possess two distinct reasoning systems, almost two Minds, known as System 1 and System 2. A composite characterization of the two systems runs as follows. System 1thinking, one relies heavily on a number of heuristics (cognitive maneuvers), key situational characteristics, readily associated ideas, and vivid memories to arrive quickly and confidently at a judgment. System 1: thinking is particularly helpful in familiar situations when time is short and immediate action is required. System 2 is more recent, and its processes are slow, controlled, effortful, conscious, serial, shaped by culture and formal tuition, demanding of working Memory and related to general intelligence. It is reasoning based on what we have learned through careful analysis, evaluation, explanation, and elf-correction. This is the system which values intellectual honesty, analytically anticipating what happens next, maturity of judgment, fair-mindedness, elimination of biases, and truth-seeking In addition, it is often claimed that the two systems employ different procedures and serve different goals, with System 1 being highly contextualized, associative, heuristic, and directed to goals that serve the reproductive interests of our genes, and System 2 being decontextualized, rule-governed, analytic, and serving our goals as individuals. This is a very strong hypothesis, and theorists are already recognizing that it requires substantial qualification and complication. Gigerenzer is not denying that normatives appropriate for simple case judgments exist, but rather expostulates that the existence and the nature of such normative have been imperiously assumed by the heuristics and biases literature. Gigerenzer argues that some of the biases identified by Kahneman and Tversky are unstable, in the sense that for example in some cases their magnitude can be considerably reduced by asking questions in terms of frequencies rather than in terms of probabilities. Second, on a methodological level, Gigerenzer argues that, because Kahneman and Tversky’s heuristics are formulated by means of vague, theoretical terms like representativeness, the appeal to these heuristics as generators of biases has limited explanatory power; Gigerenzer advocates instead an increasing emphasis on investigating the cognitive processes that underlie judgment under uncertainty. Third, on a normative level, Gigerenzer argues that it may be inappropriate to characterize some of the biases identified by Kahneman and Tversky as â€Å"errors† or â€Å"fallacies†. Gigerenzer’s reason for objecting to the use of the term â€Å"bias† Gigerenzer argues that Kahneman and Tversky may be comparing the performance of the participants in their experiments with incorrect normatives. Many critics have insisted that in fact it is Kahneman & Tversky, not their subjects, who have failed to grasp the logic of the problem. Or that if a â€Å"fallacy† is involved; it is probably more attributable to the researchers than to the subjects. When ordinary people reject the answers given by normative theories, they may do so out of ignorance and lack of expertise, or they may be signaling the fact that the normative theory is inadequate.

Cell Phone Use A Social Addiction - 939 Words

Today’s society is a generation that is being raised on conveniences, and with this generation, cell phone use has exploded. Millions of people are obsessed with their cell phones and literally will not leave their house without it. People center everything they do around their cell phone. People are checking their text messages and social media day and night. They face time, tweet, Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat. Teens on their smartphones. Photo Credit Highwaystarz-Photography/iStock/Getty Images No matter where a person is, at work, the doctor’s office, a child’s school play, and even at the dinner table, people are checking their phones. Many people are now using their phones as a work tool. They check their emails, do their banking business, and pay their bills on their cell phones. Cell phones have become a social addiction and in doing so have brought about health issues such as sleep deprivation and anxiety. Even though cell phones are a modern convenience with many good qualities, and have changed our lives in some good ways, they have also changed out lives in some bad ways. Cell phones have had more of a negative impact than a positive impact in our lives. There are many examples of how cell phones have changed our lives in some negative ways. We will now take a look at some of the ways that cell phones have had a negative impact in our lives. Perhaps the most alarming example is people are using their cell phones in the car while driving.Show More RelatedCell Phone Use Impaired Safety And Performance1060 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Early adolescents are using cell phones with increasing frequency. Cell phones are known to distract motor vehicle drivers to the point that their safety is jeopardized, but it is unclear if cell phones might also distract child pedestrians.This study was designed to examine the influence of talking on a cell phone for pediatric pedestrian injury risk. 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