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The PsychOlympics [ The Happy Hour Archive | obereed.net ] (Happy Hour @ charleys 4pm! outside if its nice. Be there, we know where you live) ANNOUNCING THE 1997 C&P PSYCHOLYMPICS A Drop of History The Psycholympics, the crowning acheivement of modern psychological competition have a long and sordid past. The first Psycholympics were held in ancient Greece where a bunch of naked philosophers would compete in a wide range of introspective games. However, it wasn't until 1868, with Donders' invention of the subtractive method that the modern Psycholympics were born. The first Psycholympics had but one event, the choice-reaction time. It has since grown to over a dozen thrilling events. This year the games are being held at Good Time Charleys (outside weather permitting). Dave Meyer will throw out the ceremonial first question at 4pm today. The competition looks fierce. THE CONTESTANTS Paul Estin - The wiley veteran of these games. What he lacks in speed and agility, he makes up for in guile. Look for good things from paul in the freestyle categorization events. Dave Fenscik - It will be tough for Fenscik to repeat his spectacular performance in last year's 20 word Stroop task. He lucked out last year by losing a contact lens right before the competition. Anat Geva - The woman known in Canada as "The Queen of Semantics" suffered a torturous loss in last year's synchronized mental rotation. A loss she blamed on a bad grilled cheese sandwich. Thanks to a new training regemin, we look to see good things from her in this years' games. Paul Hamilton - Its been said that his legendary digit span reminds one of a young George Miller. We'll see, in Hamilton's first public competition. Trey Hedden - Hedden came to these games a shoeless boy from Virginia, and proceeded to stun the crowd with a recordsetting performance as the anchor of the men's 4x40 word Stroop task. Can he repeat? Only time will tell. Dan Horn - The question on everyone's mind is, will Dan be able to maintain his composure in the greco-roman lexical-decision competition. His outburst two years ago forced him to sit out last year's games. Shana Hunter - Rumor has it that the move to ISR has Hunter rattled. How this will affect her choice RT performance remains to be seen. Cerita Jones - The long-time women's dual-task champion has returned for another year, look for a solid performance from Cerita once again. Christy Marsheutz - She's been called the greatest Corsi Blocker in history. As long as she isn't distracted, Marsheutz should bring home the gold. Andrea Miller - Its rare that we see such a combination of quickness and grace. Miller will be participating in both the simple RT and synchronized mental rotation competitions. Andrea Mosmann - A perennial favorite in the visuospatial WM competition. Mosmann chalks up her success to "really vivid dreams." Shane Mueller - This year, Mueller, a talented beach ANOVA'er will also be competing in the Brown-Peterson exhibition event. Will the rigorous cross-training be enough? Shana Pallota - Shana made the team on the strength of her impressive language acquisition skills. The question is, now that the critical period is over, how will she fare? Heather Pond - Coming from the same Bay Area program that begat such greats as Fenscik and Veinott, we expect to see some pretty impressive performances in the underwater Necker cube events. Eric Schumacher - After sitting out last year's games with a sprained frontal lobe, Schumacher claims to be "110%". He's a favorite in the men's dual task performance. Travis Seymour - Rich living, and lack of exercise should keep Seymour out of the medals in this year's signal detection competition. However, as a mascot Travis should help the team out greatly. Winston Sieck - Not since the "Dream Team" of Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett, & Thagard has Michigan had such good chances in the induction events. Pay special attention to Winston's performance in the 20 card Wason task. Greg Stevens - After a typo cost Greg the gold in last year's sprint modelling competition, he's devoted himself to this, his third Psycholympics. Expect to see more cutting and pasting from this young man. Beth Veinott - Her blazing speed on both the mixed-doubles articulatory suppression and freestyle anchor & adjust events makes Beth a double threat. She'll have to be, with the loss of both Andrea Patalano and Jennifer Glass. So stop on by, and watch these incredible participants compete in the Psycholympics. 4pm at Charley's Today! (If I've forgotten anybody, I apologize, I'm working off last year's directory.) Dan |