Challenging Our Minds Weblog

This is an extension of the Body Language exercise. For this task one must carefully study an outline cartoon figure to determine if it is doing one of several types of walking or running. For Level 1, one matches the cartoon movement (side view of the figure) to a written one or two word description of the action. For Level 2, the task is the same but the figure is presented face on rather than side view. For Level 3, you are presented with one face on view and three side views. You have to determine which side view character is doing the same thing as the face on view. Good attention to detail, including arms, hands and legs actions makes this task easier to complete.

Task 2 - Body Language - This one can be difficult. You must study every little movement of the manikin, including head position, leg and feet movement and how it’s moving its arms and hands to pick up clues about what it is supposed to be feeling. If you do not know all of the emotion words then you should look them up in the dictionary or discuss them with your teacher or parents. Do not just keep guessing until you find out how to match the words to the movements. The object here is to learn about the emotions and how body position and movement show our emotions. If you figure out how to get the correct answers but never learn what the words mean then you really are not learning what the task is all about.

Task 1 - Recognizing Emotions - The first few times through this task are the most difficult. Once you get a ‘feeling’ for the faces and/or learn what the emotion words mean then the task will become easier. For example, what if you do not know what Smug means. Ask someone to explain it to you! Once you hear what it means you will probably be able to remember times when you saw someone being Smug. Afterwards you will probably not have any problems getting it correct.