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Why Are Kids Who Get Less Candy Happier On Halloween?
NPR: What makes trick-or-treaters happy is candy. And more candy is better, right? Well, it turns out that might not actually be the case. A few years ago researchers did on Halloween night where some trick-or-treaters were given a candy bar, and others were given the candy bar and a piece of bubble gum. Now, in any rational universe, you would imagine that the kids who got the candy bar and the bubble gum would be happier than the kids who got just the candy bar. George Wolford, a psychologist at Dartmouth College, and his fellow researchers, Amy Doe and Alexander Rupert, found something quite different.
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Nalini Ambady, Psychologist of Intuition, Is Dead at 54
The New York Times: Nalini Ambady, a social psychologist whose research on the surprising accuracy of first impressions was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in “Blink,” his best-selling nonfiction book of 2005, died on Oct. 28 in Boston. She was 54. Her death, from leukemia, was announced by Stanford University, where she had taught since 2011. In “Blink,” subtitled “The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” Mr. Gladwell explored the psychology of intuition, snap judgments and gut reactions. The book prominently features Professor Ambady’s work, which centered on the cognitive processes underpinning intuition.
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“Ce l’ho sulla punta della lingua”: è un primo segnale di demenza in arrivo? (“Tip-of-the-Tongue” moments a sign of aging?)
La Stampa: A tutti sarà capitato almeno una volta di avere “sulla punta della lingua” quel termine, quel nome… quella cosa insomma che, proprio adesso, non ci sovviene. Ma, a parte il disagio che questi episodi possono provocare, potrebbero essere un primo segnale che stiamo perdendo la memoria? Che possiamo essere vittime della temuta demenza? A cercare di comprendere se queste défaillance nella memoria sono normali o il segnale di qualcosa di patologico sottostante o in fase di insorgenza è uno studio condotto dai ricercatori dell’Università della Virginia pubblicato sulla rivista Psychological Science, una rivista della Association for Psychological Science (APS).
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Perspectives on Psychological Science
Perspectives on Psychological Science: Volume 8, Number 6 Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, publishes an eclectic mix of provocative reports and articles, including broad integrative reviews, overviews of research programs, meta-analyses, theoretical statements, and book reviews. This new issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science includes a special section celebrating 25 years of APS. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Regulatory Flexibility: An Individual Differences Perspective on Coping and Emotion Regulation George A. Bonanno and Charles L.
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Optical Illusion Can Improve Your Golf Game
Inside Science: In studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., cognitive psychologist Jessica Witt found that simply making a hole appear larger on the green can improve a golfer's putting accuracy by as much as ten percent. “When the hole looked bigger participants were also more successful at putting. So, making the golf hole look bigger, even though it hadn’t changed size, it just looked bigger, led to more golf putting success,” said Witt, now at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Read the whole story: Inside Science
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Alcoholism Research Agency Names New Director
Science: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced yesterday that it has tapped neurobiologist George Koob of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, to direct the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), starting January 2014. The move signals the end of a long period of limbo for the agency, which has operated under an acting director for several years while NIH deliberated on whether to merge the agency with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
