Donald Trumps speech style - what may have helped him win and influence the American nation.

If you were asked the unlikely question of "Who is Donald Trump?" One of the possible answers you could give would be, "The President of the United states - and a controversial one at that." But what is most controversial about President Trump is how he addresses large crowds and responds to anything anyone says to him. It's unlike any President that's preceded him. Or any other politician for that matter. 

One of the reasons Donald Trump is so seemingly unique is due to his unorthodox speech style. From an objective stand point he uses very straight forward and simplistic language to get his points across - though not always coherent but it is very straight forward and much easier to absorb what he is saying for anyone who doesn't often keep up with a lot of politics or do not fully understand it.   

Some also say he speaks with brutal open honesty which has helped him win his Presidency while others say he has little composure and low impulse control which can may often attribute to his need to use aggressive language when put on the defensive or just simply disagrees with whoever he is against. What we'll speak about is what aspects of his speech style has helped win over the people of America and ultimately influence the nation to win his Presidency.

His simple outspoken conversational style.

It's no secret that Donald Trump doesn't seem to come across as someone with a sophisticated and large vocabulary when comparing to other politicians and if anything his way of speaking since being in the political arena comes across as even surprisingly simplistic. Coupled with him often just speaking his mind and not seeming to be as measured with his words like other politicians this in itself has made him stand out tremendously because he just doesn't seem to want to fit the mold of how a politician would typically act and behave like and this build a sense of intrigue whilst at the same time being easy listen to due to his seemingly small vocabulary.

He frequently uses quick punchy phrases which really makes anything he says easy to comprehend and remember. Similar to how advertising campaigns use mottos to keep their brands memorable and easy to associate with. For example Kit Kat – “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat” or KFC – “Finger Lickin’ Good”.

Some of Donald Trumps own memorable phrases:

"I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I’ll build them very inexpensively"

"We don’t have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don’t have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating - let’s say China - in a trade deal? I beat China all the time. All the time"

"Rocket man is on a suicide mission."

Incoherence and confusion

Due Trump's speech style being so unorthodox and disruptive, this means that the audience is forced to pay more attention to making sense of his of what he is saying. And because of this that means that the listeners are more likely to be influenced and persuaded. Though this isn't fool proof but effective nonetheless.

The majority of Trump sentences are essentially sentence fragments where two or more unrelated thoughts are thrown into one confusing sentence. Words are arranged in a way that not everyone can grasp, even if you have a good command of the English language. (“There is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but I can always speak for myself, and the Russians, zero”). - quoted from President Trump himself.

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The use of repetition.

Our brains are excellent pattern-seekers and because repetition breeds familiarity we tend become accustomed to what we are regularly exposed to - be it a song we hear on every other radio station or a movie trailer we see on every other television channel or maybe it's a slogan we may often hear such as "Red Bull - it gives you wings." This can be described as the mere exposure effect which is written in more detail here.

George Lakoff, a graduate professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California – Berkeley, explained that the brain is made of a vast amount of interconnected neurons that form circuits similar to a network, and these carry out every single word or thought we have. When these circuits are activated by words or the things we see, they become stronger, and if repeatedly activated, they can become permanent. To be put simply - by repeating something to someone you are training them to think a certain way.

In Trumps case he punctuates his speeches with repetition. It helps to bring his point across without the risk of his messages being forgotten and can also serve as a way to keep his messages memorable. Also it’s also a delaying tactic, giving him time to think of the next thing he needs to say. 

Some of Donald Trumps own repetitive phrases:

“That’s wrong. They were wrong. It’s The New York Times, they’re always wrong. They were wrong.”  

"I went to an Ivy League school. I'm highly educated. I know words. I have the best words, I have the best, but there is no better word than stupid. Right?"

"(on fellow candidates) All of 'em are weak, they're just weak. Some of them are fine people. But they are weak."

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Our sleep cycle and the different stages of sleep.

So what happens to we're asleep? Despite the fact that we spend a good portion of our lives fast asleep (around a third), most of us aren’t really aware of the fact that we experience different stages of sleep and different times of the night. Sleep is a vastly complicated science, and a typical night of sleep consists of just five sleep stages. Though sleep can also be divided into two broader stages, non-rapid eye movement (NREM), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. 

The vast majority of our sleep (around 75 to 80 per cent) is NREM; during NREM sleep, dreams tend to be more abstract and quite vague, whereas during REM sleep dreams are more detailed and emotionally charged. During a nights sleep, every 90 to 110 minutes you cycle through five different stages of sleep, often experiencing anything between three to five dreams each night. 



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Stage One: Within a few minutes of falling asleep your breathing gradually becomes more steady and the heart rate begins to slow down. Your brain produces what are called alpha and theta waves (alpha waves are involved in relaxing you while theta waves are involved in your emotional experience) and your eye movements slow down. This stage of sleep is fairly brief, lasting up to seven minutes. This is where you are in light sleep stage, meaning that you’re somewhat conscious and can be woken easily. 

Stage Two: During this stage your muscle activity decreases further and your awareness of the outside world begins to fade away. As a sleeper you would not likely be conscious enough to notice any outside stimuli. During this stage, which is still also fairly light, the brain produces sudden increases in brain wave frequency known as sleep spindles (sleep spindles are bursts of brain activity visible on an EEG monitor). Shortly after your brain waves begin to slow down.

Stage Three: Deep, slow brain waves known as Delta Waves begin to emerge during this stage (Delta waves are associated with relaxation and healing). This stage transitions you from a light sleep to a deep sleep.

Stage Four: This is a deep sleep that lasts for roughly 30 minutes producing more delta waves. Your body begins to perform restorative functions such as tissue and muscle growth, energy restoration and memory consolidation where your brain files away any new information.

Stage Five: Most dreaming occurs during this stage known as REM. REM sleep is defined by the eye movement, increased respiration rate and an in increase brain activity. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because, while the brain and other systems in your become more active, your muscles become more relaxed to the point of paralysis. Dreaming occurs due to an increase in brain activity, though your voluntary muscles become paralyzed. Voluntary muscles are the muscles you can consciously move such as moving your arms and legs or tensing your abdominals. Involuntary muscles are the muscles you do not have conscious control over such as your heart or your inner gut. Muscle paralysis during this stage of sleep is a function to prevent you acting out your dreams whilst you're sleeping.

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False memories: Do you remember when......?

Often the human memory is seen as something that is similar to a video tape where once something is recorded it cannot be altered, changed or tampered with. Even when someone is 100 percent sure that a situation or an event took place in a particular way they can still be wrong despite their certainty, in reality the human memory is susceptible to change and manipulation regardless of how solid and reliable you think it is. The human memory can be generally be shaped and changed by a variety of factors causing inaccuracies and alterations when recalling events, of course how malleable someone's memory is depends on the individual person.


Ways memory can be altered.

The misinformation effect
As we know the memory is prone to errors and alterations. This susceptibility is enhanced by the misinformation effect which is where misleading information is incorporated ones memory prior to an event taking place. This can be caused by the use of leading questions ('how bright was the red Ferrari?'' as opposed to ''what colour was the Ferrari?'') where when used the person being asked will change their perception of an event to fit the question. 

American cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Lotus, one of the most notable researchers on false memory psychology and misinformation conducted a psychological experiment in 1974 where she had a group of participants watch a video of a car accident and then were questioned after about what they had just seen. When asked ''How fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other? the answers in regards to the rate of speed were generally higher than ''How fast were the cars were going when they bumped into each other?''. The specific wording used in the questions asked affected how the participants perceived the crash thus changing how they recalled events when asked. Also the length of time affects their perception of the situation as when the participants who were asked a week later were asked if there was glass in the scene of the accident, those who heard the word smash in the interview were more likely to say they saw glass in the video even if there was none.  

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Junior Prom Effect
Emotions are known to have an effect on memory by intensifying them and giving them significance, they seem to act as a kind of bookmark so that upon recollection it evokes a strong response attached to it making it difficult to forget. Specifically negative emotions can create very intense and distinctive memories, not only this but they can highly distort your memories relative to neutral memories, according to Professor Charles Brainerd who studied the psychology of negative emotions and their effect on memory '' You may not remember what happened to you, but boy, do you remember it was negative. And that allows you to fill in the blanks with 'memories' that didn't really happen''.

Brainerd and his wife Valerie Reyna conducted research where 120 participants (60 in Brazil, 60 in the United States) were asked to read a list of words that had either positive, neutral and negative connotations and after to recall the words which were listed. When recalling the negative words from the list they previously read  they were more likely to falsely remember words which were not on the list while when it came to remembering the positive words on the list their memory was more accurate. Brainerd prior to the experiment stated. ''Historically the belief has been that negative events are easy to remember, that negative emotion creates very distinct memories. What we found was the opposite, negative information really distorts your memory.

Brainerd called this phenomenon the Junior Prom Effect because many people found this high school experience negative but intense.

Lost in the Mall Technique
Another way memories can be fabricated is through suggestion and storytelling where someone tells you a story or a situation which has supposedly happened in a way you can relate to and incorporate into your memory.

American Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and her psychology student Jacqueline Pickrell conducted an experiment involving 24 participants who were told 4 different stories of when they were 5-6 years old, one of the four stories told was made up. Prior to the experiment the researchers spoke to each of the participants relatives to get three events which really happened when they were 5-6 years old. Then each family member was asked to provide a fourth story that was made up but was plausible, and it had to involve getting lost in the mall and being rescued by an elderly adult, this was to be used as the false memory. In the study nearly 25 percent of the participants recalled the false events and also providing details even though they never happened. In other studies related to this one performed by other researchers the lost in the mall technique has been used to create false memories such as, being hospitalized over night, taking a hot air balloon and being victim of an aggressive animal attack.

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How we learn: The Principles and Mechanics. Chapter two

So in the last chapter I spoke about the general physiological aspects of how we learn and process information, and continuing from that I will be visiting some principles and concepts discovered by psychologists to help anyone reading this to have a more concise understanding of how learning takes place.

Classical conditioning.

If you have a steady interest in psychology you may have heard of the name ''classical conditioning'' floating around, this is where you have a stimuli along side an emotional response though they have no relationship with each other, now if you repeat this process of activating the stimuli along side this emotional response eventually there will be a cause and effect. The stimuli just by itself will elicit this emotional response. Interesting stuff.

An example of this just to simplify, if you hear a song that you are normally indifferent to you would forget about it right? it would have no significance to you. Now if you are in high spirits for whatever reason (you may have had a pay rise, you've won a luxury car etc.) and you hear this song at that very point, the very next time you hear it you will have a positive emotional response, why? because the last time you heard it you was in a good mood anyway so when you did hear it you unconsciously made the association between those good feelings and that song, I'm gathering most of us has been through this at some point or another. 

This form of learning was discovered by a world renowned Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who created an experiment with his dog, a bell and dog food. By ringing the bell the dog basically took no notice, nothing. So Pavlov rang the bell and soon after fed it. Eventually after repeating this all Pavlov did was ring the bell without feeding the dog and it would salivate thus the bell creating a physiological response in the dog proving that the dog made an association between the bell and its food.

Operant conditioning.

Another interesting one where you are ''learning by consequences'' as opposed classical conditioning which is learning by automatic preprogrammed responses. In other words operant conditioning teaches the subject to increase their behaviour by reinforcement or decrease it by punishment, much like when a parent wants you to stop misbehaving and do your homework he/she will send you to your room until you behave and do your homework. Once you have behaved and done your homework you are rewarded with ice cream. Being sent to your room is your punishment the ice cream is your reinforcement thus making you more likely to do as your told.

There are four types of operant conditioning by which behaviour may be altered.

Positive reinforcement: This is typically when you are rewarded for your behaviour, e.g. if you help a neighbour clean his car and he lets you borrow his gaming console, you are more likely to clean his car next time.

Negative reinforcement: Negative reinforcement happens when a behaviour is increased as a result of a negative condition or negative stimuli, e.g. if you don't clean your bedroom you will have to clean the toilet instead. To avoid cleaning the toilet you clean your bedroom thus strengthening that behaviour.

Punishment: Punishment is simply a behaviour decreased as a result of a negative consequence, e.g. by placing your hand on a hot stove you end up burning it/feeling discomfort, as a result of this you learn to not place your hand on a hot stove. very simple.

Extinction: Another simple one where a behaviour is decreased by typically no response. There is no negative or positive consequence, e.g. A mischievous young child screams for attention. There is no response. The child learns not to repeat behaviour.

B.F Skinner was the psychologist who introduced these theories of operant conditioning which was based off Edward Thorndikes law of effect that stated any behaviour which had good consequences will be repeated and any behaviour which had bad consequences will be avoided. Skinner conducted experiments where he would put rats and pigeons in a box with an electric grid where there was a lever to press to receive food. They quickly learned to press the leaver.

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Observational learning

Also known as social learning theory, where typically you learn by watching your surroundings whether it by watching people advertisements, magazines etc etc. The thinking behind this ''what ever has worked for the this person must work for me'', with children they look up to adults and other children for successful behaviour while adults look to their peers and anyone that may have authority or success over their hobbies and interests. Its the good old game of ''monkey see monkey do.'' 

The opposite is true as well if somebody is seen having a negative response due to a performed action the observer learns not to repeat that action to avoid the same treatment, this similarly goes back to Thorndikes law of effect. Learning by observation involves four different processes...

Attention: The observer cannot learn unless he is paying attention to what's going on around them, this process is influenced by how much they have in common with the model, the characteristics, and how much the observer like the model also. Expectations and mood have an influencing factor also.

Retention: The observer must be able to remember and retain the observed action for an extended period of time and during so rehearse the action mentally or physically but this all depends on the observers ability to structure the said action in his/her mind.

Production: The observer must be able to reproduce this act, how well it is performed is dependant on the observers general skill level, experience and ability. You can watch a gymnast do three somersaults in a row, it doesn't mean you can reproduce it without practice.

Motivation: Motivation is generally dependant on the incentive to perform the observed action, it all depends if the action results in a punishment or a reward.

Attention and retention account for acquiring an action and production and motivation control the performance.

A psychologist named Albert Bandura believed behaviours and actions were learned through imitation. He conducted an experiment with a bobo doll where he had a group of nursery children observe an adult male or female behave aggressively towards a bobo doll, prior the experiment the researchers observed the children just to see how aggressive they were on an everyday basis and take notes of their base/regular behaviour. 


During the experiment the adult participants behaved towards this doll differently each time, some would use a hammer, others would throw around the doll, some would shout ''Pow.'', ''Boom.'' and other random words.

Another group of children were exposed to a non-aggressive model and a final group was not exposed to any model at all.

Soon after each child were invited in to an experimental room containing toys including the bobo doll to be observed on how they interact with the toys and the doll.

It was discovered that the children who observed the aggressive models were found to more aggressive than the ones which observed the non-aggressive model and the ones who didn't have a model. Well no surprise there. Also boys were more likely to imitate same sex models while this didn't prove strong for girls, it was also found that boys were more physical aggressive than girls though when it came to verbal aggression there was no not much difference at all.

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How we learn: The Principles and Mechanics. Chapter one.

It’s funny how from a very young age we are told the importance of learning and gaining knowledge so we can eventually leave school and education to be very successful in our lives. We have teachers telling us what we need to learn and take in, we have our exercise books so we can refer back to anything we have been taught and of course we have our parents teaching us what to do and what not do at home and lastly we have our friends showing us the latest trends, gimmicks and what not.

But nobody tells us how to actually learn in the first place.

In my experience I think this is huge and rarely addressed, it is one of the most basic things we are told throughout not only our adolescence but most of our adulthood though we are not actually taught how to do this. Now if this was handled in the first place then a lot more people would have easier mental access to their areas of interest and learning wouldn't be deemed as a chore, it would be more like a process which in itself would be more understandable and even enjoyable due to greater and easier comprehension.

In this post and the next I'm going to shed some light on some of the ways we learn and what we can do to be more aware of the processes of how we go about learning so you can go away and observe yourself and maybe others while understanding how it all happens and comes together.

What happens in our brains when we are learning. 

Without going into too much detail about how the brain works I'm going to tell you a few of the relevant nuts and bolts about the brain which are actually working in respect to learning and what they do when you learn something new and what happens when you practice or don't practice what you have learnt:

Neurons
Neurons are basic cells of the nervous system, they act to send, retrieve and process information to and from the brain at a speed of around 200 mph via electro-chemical nerve signals. There are around 100 billion neurons in the brain, these cells are what holds and stores information in your brain much like a floppy disk (remember those?) there are different types of neurons, I'll cover a few here though there are more. 

Sensory neurons
Sensory neurons receive information from the outside world through our five senses. They run from stimulus receptors to the central nervous system        

Inter-neurons
Inter-neurons receive information from one or more other neurons and intergrates this and transmits information to other neuron. Alot of the brain is made up of inter-neurons.
Motor neurons
Motor neurons send signals to muscles to move the body. This can range from moving limbs to turning eyes to making the heart keep pumping even moving your tongue. most motor neurons are stimulated by inter-neurons, although they can be stimulated also directly by sensory neurons.



Parts of the neuron

Soma
The soma is the main cell body of the neuron that contains the nucleus and much of the other life of the neuron. Dendrites and axons reach out from the soma to connect with other neurons much like a branch.
Dendrite
dendrites stretch out from the soma much like branches from a tree breaking down into smaller branches and twigs (dendrite Greek for the word tree), dendrites receive information, connecting with axons from other neurons.
Axons
There is usually one long axon per neuron that reaches out to connect with other neurons, this can divide into smaller branches normally towards the end of the axon allowing it to connect with multiple other neurons in close proximity. Axons often connect with dendrites though they can also connect with the soma or even other axons. The basic messages transmitted down the axon are electrical/chemical events, are called action potentials.

How do neurons work? 
Neurons work by sending electrical signals through the axon, the neuron sends an electrical impulse of information through its arms. Neurons don't actually ever touch although they are very close to each other, the space between a neurons axon and another neurons dendrite are called a synapse. This is where the information exchange occurs much like sending an email from one email address to another, this process is known as synaptic transmission. Once the synaptic transmission occurs, the data enters through the dendrites, the electrical signal is now successfully transferred from the first neuron to the second one. The signal then moves to the axon and passes through the synapse to the next neurons dendrite and so on...

Now when your learning something new, inside your brain you are creating new connections, a lot of new connections. And the more you learn the more connections you make thus creating a network of neuro-brain cells. But over time these connections weaken and deteriorate if what you have learnt is not practised or reviewed (much like if you haven't lifted heavy weights in a long time you wont be as strong as you were when you was actively lifting them) and by exercising your new learnt skill you will nurture these junctions between these neurons, called a synapses maintaining a healthy memory only through repetition. 

Within the next chapter I will be going through a few principles and ways in how we go about actually learning.

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