Conspiracy corner 2 - mythbusting

By Arman Manternach ‘23

The conspiracy corner is back - and this time, we’re busting four commonly believed myths. Read on to learn the truth about sleep, the human brain, and more.

Myth 1: Reading in dim light damages your eyesight

Despite what you may have been told as a child, reading in dim light is not harmful to your eyesight. Reading in dim light strains your eyes but does not damage them. They just have to work a bit harder to accomplish a task that would be easier in a well-lit environment. Photoreceptors in our eyes called cones give us color vision and help with central vision tasks like reading, and they require bright light to be activated.

Rods are the other main kind of photoreceptor in the eye. They require much less light for activation than cones but cannot perceive color and are not as good at perceiving detail, like the letters on a page, for example. This is why on a moonlit walk, for example, you can see the path and trees around you just fine, but everything appears to be a shade of black or gray.

“When light is dim, you’re using the rods more and they’re not quite as sensitive as the cones,” says Toronto optometrist Naeem Abdullah. “It just causes you to work harder to do something that is quite simple.”

Myth 2: Listening to classical music boosts intelligence

The idea that listening to classical music can boost an individual’s intelligence is known as the Mozart effect, and it is an urban legend. The notion first gained traction after a small and statistically insignificant study in 1993 found that college students performed marginally better on a spatial reasoning task after listening to a Mozart sonata. Over time, even while dozens of more credible studies disproved the Mozart effect, popular culture stretched its meaning to pertain to general intelligence, not just spatial reasoning, and to include babies and small children, even though the effect had never been studied in these age groups.

The idea that regularly playing classical music for a baby would result in a smarter child was a popular one. The craze went as far as several states actually passing legislation that required childcare centers to play classical music and provided new mothers with a classical music CD in the hospital. The existence of the Mozart effect in infants and small children has since been disproved.

Interestingly enough, music can help you study. Listening to music while studying reduces stress and can help most people retain focus on a task for a longer time. But researchers have found that many kinds of music, not just classical music, can have this effect. So sure, if you need to boost the effectiveness of those study sessions, you could listen to Mozart. Or you could listen to some heavy metal. We here at the conspiracy corner happen to have a great Sabaton playlist.

Myth 3: People have a specific “learning style”

You have probably heard someone say, “oh, I’m a visual learner” before. Not only is there no evidence for learning styles (visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, etc.), research suggests that students who believe they have a particular learning style may be more unwilling to navigate material that is not presented in the way they would like.

“Students may have preferences about how to learn, but no evidence suggests that catering to those preferences will lead to better learning,” explain psychologists Cedar Riener and Daniel Willingham.

There is evidence to suggest that multimedia teaching results in the best learning across the board and that teaching and classroom activities designed to accommodate different learning styles are generally less effective.

Research at the University of Michigan led by psychologist Shaylene Nancekivell found that educators who work with young children are the most likely to subscribe to the idea of different learning styles. “Time is being spent teaching young children maladaptive strategies for learning,” Nancekivell explains. Learning styles, the team’s findings suggest, are not a productive way to make children feel special or unique. In reality, most of us process information very similarly.

Myth 4: You can train your body to need less sleep

Regular sleep deprivation over long periods of time will not lower the amount of sleep you need to function. You may become used to the negative effects of sleep deprivation, but your body does not need any less sleep.

“Some people think they are adapting to being awake more, but are actually performing at a lower level. They don’t realize it because the functional decline happens so gradually,” explains Cynthia LaJambe, a sleep expert at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute. “Training the body to sleep less is not a viable option [to combat sleep deprivation].”

In very limited cases, some people can function normally on less than 6.5 hours of sleep. Research suggests that these people have a rare genetic mutation, which means this is not something the average person can train themself for.

On a related note, research suggests that teens (13-19) need 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep on average for peak brain function. Ha.

Bonus: Bats are blind

They aren’t.