Passage
How can you tell if someone is angry or happy? How do you know when you feel that way yourself? If you suffer from alexithymia, you can’t. The disorder, first identified in the 1970s, describes people who are unable to articulate their own feelings and can’t understand the feelings of others. They tend to have literal-minded dreams, and have trouble reading others’ facial expressions and nonverbal cues. They often run into difficulties at work and in their personal lives because of this emotional awareness deficit. They are, for all intents and purposes, emotionally blind.
Alexithymia is rare. For most of us, the ability to read other people’s emotional signals and expressions develops gradually and with varying degrees of skill over a lifetime.
But while studying research by Clifford Nass, a Stanford University psychologist and expert on multitasking, I was reminded of alexithymia. Nass found that spending a lot of time in mediated environments undermines our ability to read others’ emotions. When Nass showed avid Internet users pictures of human faces or told them stories about people, they had trouble identifying the emotions being expressed. “Human interaction is a learned skill,” Nass concluded, “and they don’t get to practice it enough.”If emotions use our bodies as their theatre, as the Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio puts it, what happens when that theatre becomes virtual?
As more of our emotional experiences occur online, we expand the quantity of our connections, more easily finding like-minded people with whom to share our feelings at the same time, we lose the physical cues that define face-to-face interaction and so risk undermining a crucial skill: how to read each other’s intentions and understand others’ feelings. If the vitriolic discussions about climate change on my favorite weather blogs are any guide, this leads many of us to assume the worst about each other’s motives.
Although we all recognize rationally that there is another human being on the other side of the screen, it’s becoming clear that our use of certain technology elevates some emotional responses over others. A recent study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication explored whether incivility online influenced people’s perceptions of an article, in this instance a neutral explanation of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology. The results were startling. Rude comments didn’t merely polarize readers; they changed their perception of the article. The researchers noted how “social reprimands such as nonverbal communication and isolation can curb incivility in face-to-face discussion,” but that, by contrast, “the Internet may foster uncivil discussion because of its lack of offline, in-person consequences.” As a result, they argued, this form of online incivility, which they called“the nasty effect,” may impede the “democratic goal” of public deliberation online.
Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 59
Try yourself:Which of the following best sums up the findings of the research done by Clifford Nass?
Explanation
The research by Nass is mentioned in paragraph 3, and the conclusion of the research is mentioned explicitly: Nass found that spending a lot of time in mediated environments undermines our ability to read others’emotions.
Option 1 is incorrect. Refer paragraph 3, the author states that Clifford Nass is an expert on multitasking but does not establish a relation between multitasking & the inability to read others’ emotions. Eliminate option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. Again, in paragraph 3, the author states that he/she was reminded of alexithymia while studying research by Clifford Nass. But, the study itself did not contain any reference to alexithymia. Eliminate option 2. Option 3 is incorrect. Similar to option 2, the study by Clifford Nass did not mention alexithymics or alexithymia. Eliminate option 3.
Option 4 is correct. The passage states that “Nass found that spending a lot of time in mediated environments undermines our ability to read others’ emotions. [...] ‘Human interaction is a learned skill,’ Nass concluded, ‘and they don’t get to practice it enough.’” Thus, it can be safely inferred that increased use of digital media (i.e. mediated environment) leads to decreased face-to-face communication and hampers our ability to read other people’s emotions (i.e. facial expressions or other non-verbal communication).
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 59
Try yourself:The author discusses the results of the study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication to demonstrate that...
Explanation
Option 1 is incorrect. This option states that incivility spreads rapidly in online discourses. The passage, in the last paragraph, states that“Rude comments didn’t merely polarize readers; they changed their perception of the article.” The passage nowhere mentions the rapid spread of incivility in online discourses. Eliminate option 1.
Option 2 is correct. The last paragraph states that “... it’s becoming clear that our use of certain technology elevates some emotional responses over others. A recent study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication explored whether incivility online (in the form of reader comments) influenced people’s perceptions of an article ...” It is clear that the purpose of discussing the study is to back the claim/conclusion made in the preceding sentence. Retain option 2.
Option 3 is incorrect. This option is a premise of the study under discussion and not the writer’s purpose of referring to it in the essay. Eliminate option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect. This option is the conclusion of the study but does not highlight the purpose of the author to mention this recent study. Eliminate option 4.
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Question for 100 RCs for Practice Questions- 59
Try yourself:All of the following statements are true according to the passage EXCEPT:
Explanation
Option 1 is incorrect. Entire paragraph 3 is dedicated to explain the thought expressed in this option. Specifically, the author states,“‘Human interaction is a learned skill,’ Nass concluded, ‘and they don’t get to practice it enough.’ If emotions use our bodies as their theatre, as the Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio puts it, what happens when that theatre becomes virtual?”. Thus, this statement is true according to the passage and is NOT an exception. Eliminate option 1.
Option 2 is incorrect. Refer paragraph 1, it states that “The disorder, first identified in the 1970s, describes people who are unable to articulate their own feelings and can’t understand the feelings of others.” Thus, we can eliminate option 2.
Option 3 is correct. In paragraph 3, the author states that he/she was reminded of alexithymia while studying the research done by Clifford Nass. But, the passage does not establish any association between prolonged internet use and alexithymia. Retain option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect. Refer paragraph 1, it states that “They often run into difficulties at work and in their personal lives because of this emotional awareness deficit. They are, for all intents and purposes, emotionally blind.” Thus, it can be inferred that alexithymics may have poor marital life since they often run into difficulties in personal life. Eliminate option 4.
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