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Bad Habit? You Can Forget About It
Discovery News: Want to stop biting your nails? Forget that you learned how. New research published in Psychological Science shows that purposefully wiping your memory of learning a new habit can help undo it. Participants who got in the habit of responding to certain words by striking a key with their right or left hand were able to forget those associations when told that the computer had crashed and instructed to forget what they’d learned. Half the participants weren’t told of the crash, and didn’t forget. Read the whole story: Discovery News
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The troubling flaws in how we select experts
The Washington Post: Organizations are constantly scouring the earth for the talent or perfect expert that will provide the fresh edge and perspective needed to overcome the challenging obstacles that stand in their way to the top. In their pursuit of excellence however, you may be shocked to learn the criteria they use to define credibility and expertise may be severely flawed. Many of us can think to a time we made a recommendation to a boss, superior or heck, even a family member only to be completely brushed off. I know I’ve been in this boat before. It’s frustrating, but the problem goes beyond simple indifference. Almost 25 percent of workers are ignored at work.
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Science Still Doesn’t Understand Video Games
Pacific Standard: Last spring, Gunwoo Yoon, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recruited 194 undergraduates and tasked them with blasting their way through a Space Invaders-style video game. After five minutes of play, he gave each student a cup filled with chocolate or chili sauce. Give it a taste, he said, and spoon some onto a plastic dish for the next participant. That person will have to clear the plate. Yoon told everyone the game and food components of the experiment were unrelated, but this was a lie.
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Kooky Kickstarters — Why They Succeed
NPR: Kickstarters give people a sense of belonging "The Internet is this incredibly cluttered space," says Deborah Small, "and advertisers are spending tons of money to capture the attention of consumers." Like Ethan, Deborah is a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research areas focus on marketing and psychology. Then along comes this random guy "with a silly campaign," Deborah says. "We know that unusual things grab attention — and humor is part of that." Deborah also attributes the odder crowdfunded successes to a sense of wanting to belong. "It's like how people wear certain clothes to fit in with certain groups," she says.
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Can a Jury Believe What It Sees?
The New York Times: LAST week the F.B.I., the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies instituted a policy of recording interrogations of criminal suspects held in custody. Only a minority of states and local governments have a similar requirement, but the new rule, which applies to nearly every federal interrogation, will most likely spur more jurisdictions to follow suit. It’s not far-fetched to think that such recordings may soon become standard police practice nationwide. Supporters of the practice present recordings as a solution for a host of problems, from police misconduct to false confessions.
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The Trouble With Brain Science
The New York Times: ARE we ever going to figure out how the brain works? After decades of research, diseases like schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s still resist treatment. Despite countless investigations into serotonin and other neurotransmitters, there is still no method to cure clinical depression. And for all the excitement about brain-imaging techniques, the limitations of fMRI studies are, as evidenced by popular books like “Brainwashed” and “Neuromania,” by now well known. In spite of the many remarkable advances in neuroscience, you might get the sinking feeling that we are not always going about brain science in the best possible way. Read the whole story: The New York Times
