Featured Content
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Myth: The Lightbulb Moment, Innovation’s Most Misleading Meme
Edward Wasserman explores the origin of the famous “lightbulb moment,” how the popular cliché originated, and what can be learned from it.
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Exploration vs. Exploitation: Adults Are Learning (Once Again) From Children
Why should kids have all the fun? Science and business, too, can resolve the tension between the lure of the crazy new thing and the safe haven of the tried and true.
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Deconstructing Entrepreneurial Discovery
An adaption of a 2022 preprint article published in Technovation, this article explores how alertness might be related to entrepreneurial discovery and whether positivity or negativity are more associated with alertness.
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The Science of Starting Up
A burgeoning assortment of psychological scientists is studying the factors that distinguish successful entrepreneurs from those that falter. Their work is particularly salient amid today’s challenging economic climate.
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Latin American Psychological Science: Will the Global North Make Room?
Seven authors outline factors that influence scientific advancements in Latin America and identify potential avenues for reframing research conducted in the region, especially by Latin American researchers, in the global scientific landscape.
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Sword From the Stone: Developing Leadership Across the Ages
Other than a handful of modern monarchs and heirs to proverbial corporate thrones, most leaders aren’t born, they’re developed. Researchers are just beginning to investigate how individuals of all ages learn to take the reins.
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Up-and-Coming Voices: Entrepreneurship and Leadership in Psychological Science
Previews of relevant research by students and early-career scientists.
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Artificial Intelligence: Your Thoughts and Concerns
APS members weigh in on the biggest opportunities and/or ethical challenges involving AI within the field of psychological science. Will we witness vast and constructive cross-fertilization—or “a dystopian cyberpunk corporation-led hellscape”?
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Smooth Operator: The Editor Who Keeps the APS Journals Machine Flowing
Michele Nathan, the longest-tenured managing editor in the history of APS’s journals, is stepping away from this work in 2023. Two of her many longtime colleagues pay tribute to some of the ways in which her contributions have been so important to the science of psychology.
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A Very Human Answer to One of AI’s Deepest Dilemmas
Imagine that we designed a fully intelligent, autonomous robot that acted on the world to accomplish its goals. How could we make sure that it would want the same things we do? Alison Gopnik explores. Read or listen!
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How Machine Learning Is Transforming Psychological Science
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are providing insights that will soon transcend scientists’ observational capabilities, potentially leading to revolutionary advances in understanding human psychology.
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Religion and the Development of a More Contextually Responsive Discipline: The Case of Indonesian Psychology
Growing interest in studying the transformative aspects of local religions and religiosity is not only important for the development of psychological science in Indonesia but also sociologically meaningful.
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I, Psychologist: Exploring the Ethical Hurdles and Clinical Advantages of AI in Healthcare
Patients are often resistant to the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. But AI-assisted care could usher in a new era of personalized medicine.
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Up-and-Coming Voices: Artificial Intelligence in Psychological Science
Previews of relevant research by students and early-career scientists.
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Research at the Interface of Artificial Intelligence and Psychological Science, 2018–2022
A collection of research on various aspects of AI, published between 2018 and 2022 in the APS journals.
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Psychedelic Research Reborn: Opening the Doors of Creativity and Social Connection
A resurgence of research into psychedelics has renewed interest in their potential impact on creativity and social connectedness.
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Charging up the Creative Battery
Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) can be used to help bolster areas of the brain associated with creative thought. By learning about the neural patterns of creative thought, scientists are exploring how to steer them in new directions.
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If You’d Love to Create Something, Let It Go
Artists are haunted by the specter of creative burnout, but research suggests that the best way to overcome barriers to creativity may be to accept them as part of the process.
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Children, Creativity, and the Real Key to Intelligence
APS President Alison Gopnik writes that the contrast between the reasoning of creative 4-year-olds and predictable artificial intelligence may be a key to understanding how human intelligence works.
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Failure and Flourishing: Three Lessons From Psychological Science
Why not make our setbacks more visible? An excerpt from How Do We Know Ourselves? Curiosities and Marvels of the Human Mind, the newest book by psychological scientist David G. Myers.
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Psychological Science Editorial Connects New Submission Evaluation Criteria to APS Strategic Plan
Changes at the flagship journal align with two strategic goals in APS’s five-year strategic plan.
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Up-and-Coming Voices: The Science of Creativity
Previews of relevant research by students and early-career scientists.
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Special Issue of Clinical Psychological Science Examines the Effects of COVID-19 on Mental Health
Eight articles focus on different aspects of mental health in the context of the global pandemic.
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Methods: Don’t Be Too Creative With Your Measures! Avoiding Questionable Measurement Practices
Researchers provide a guide to implement good measurement practices and strengthen the validity of psychological science research.
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Communicating Psychological Science: Engaging the Youngest of Audiences
It’s much harder to share the science with younger children than adolescents and teenagers, whose brains can handle more detailed and complex ideas. But, although the youngest audiences may not be receptive to research, they can be reached in various other ways.
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Student Notebook: Clinical Psychology Graduate Student Adaptation—Living and Learning
Mariana Furtado explores how unhealthy competition among students can shape their graduate-school experience and affect their mental health.
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Careers Up Close: Amy Belfi on Music Perception and Cognition
Amy Belfi, an assistant professor at Missouri S&T, discusses her research into the impact that audio and music have on the brain—and looking forward to learning more, getting tenure, and playing the upcoming Nintendo Zelda game.
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Psychology in the Arab Region: A Critical Perspective on Challenges and Ways Forward
Five psychologists delve into the realities of doing psychology for many students, scholars, and practitioners in the Arab region and provide recommendations for advancing psychological science in non-WEIRD countries.
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New APS Board Members Look to Strategic Plan, Emerging Researchers to Advance the Science
Three influential psychological scientists known for their work involving behavior change, intergroup relations, and memory have joined the APS Board of Directors for 2022–2023.
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How the Classics Changed Research Ethics
Some of history’s most controversial psychology studies helped drive extensive protections for human research participants. Some say those reforms went too far.
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Love Lets Us Learn: Psychological Science Makes the Case for Policies That Help Children
APS President Alison Gopnik discusses the increasing amount of scientific evidence that our experiences as children shape our adult lives.
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What’s in a Word? Computational Modeling Puts the Science of How We Learn Language to the Test
Language, whether spoken or read, is a tool that is constantly changing and growing, but research demonstrates that it may still be possible to pin down how it functions at its core.
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Experimental Methods Are Not Neutral Tools
Ana Sofia Morais and Ralph Hertwig explain how experimental psychologists have painted too negative a picture of human rationality, and how their pessimism is rooted in a seemingly mundane detail: methodological choices.
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The New Riddle of the Sphinx: Life History and Psychological Science
In her inaugural column as APS President, Alison Gopnik explores how the life-history perspective is suited to the mission of APS.
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Dueling Diagnoses
Concerns about overlapping symptoms, complex disorders lend momentum to diagnostic models that could supplement—or even supplant—the DSM.
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Thriving After Therapy: More Common Than Reported, More in Need of Research
We often hear of the adverse chronic effects and burden of psychopathology. But many patients go on to attain a purposeful and autonomous life.
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P is for Problem, Publish, and Psychology: Multilingual Scholars and the Challenges of Publishing in English
Two Filipina researchers advocate for broader representation in academic psychology and outline considerations for others whose first language is not English.
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Tending the Family Tree: Intervening in Intergenerational Mental Health
Unaddressed mental health concerns can echo through the generations of a family, but the exact path depression, anxiety, and other disorders may take through the branches of a family tree isn’t always straightforward.
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Counting Ability May Emerge From the “Cognitive Technology” of Number Words
Humans’ ability to count may be limited by our knowledge of number words, according to a study of an isolated indigenous group in the Bolivian Amazon.
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Vaccinating Against Bunk: Curbing Viral Misinformation
Online games and nudges aim to curb viral misinformation around vaccines and more.
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Past Imperfect: Exploring the Challenges—and the Promise—of Memory’s Malleability
While many researchers continue to wrestle with the extent to which our memories can be relied on, others are exploring how this malleability can be harnessed to improve well-being.
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Surviving Imposter Phenomenon: One Psychological Scientist’s Story
How powerful are those self-defeating voices? Overcoming them took decades for this psychological scientist.
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Collected Research on War, Conflict, and Authoritarianism
Research on war, conflict, and authoritarianism published in various APS journals between 2008 and 2020.
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Robert B. Cialdini and Jennifer L. Eberhardt on The 7 Principles of Influence
Jennifer L. Eberhardt and Robert B. Cialdini explore the power of influence and the importance of “shipping” psychological science to address real-world challenges.
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How a Nudge Can Make a Habit: The Subversive Nonchalance of Small Changes
Policymakers see promise in “nudges,” norms, habit formation, and other approaches centered around self determination.
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The Emerging Science of Suicide Prevention
Advances in assessment and intervention could help tip the scale toward survival, one life at a time.
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Opioids, Addiction, and the Promise of Psychological Interventions
Can psychological science provide safer approaches to managing chronic pain and overcoming addiction?
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Perspectives Editor Klaus Fiedler to Spotlight Pluralism, Theory, “Best Practice” Examplars
APS Fellow Klaus Fiedler is APS’s first journal editor in chief based at an institution outside North America.
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The Promise and Perils of Behavioral Measurement Technologies
In Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13 teams of researchers explore the potential consequences of behavioral measurement technologies.
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Psychological Science Needs the Entire Globe, Part 3
Psychological science’s long-term viability may depend on solving the “WEIRD” problem.
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Ships at Sea: Exploring the Mysteries of Self and Consciousness
Psychological scientists are exploring the myriad ways consciousness influences the highs and lows of human experience.
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On the Right Side of Being Wrong: the Emerging Culture of Research Transparency
Spurred by the so-called replication crisis, researchers are embracing a new culture of transparency.
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Fully Credited: Making Publishing More Equitable
A new model of “contributorship” addresses the marginalization of early-career researchers in scientific publications.
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The Littlest Linguists: New Research on Language Development
New research on language acquisition, bilingualism, and speech perception.
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Chemistry Between People: A Sum of Their Connections
Have you ever felt a special “spark” with someone—an intense bond with a potential partner, friend, or colleague? If so, you probably thought you experienced “chemistry.” Literary references to interpersonal chemistry appeared as early as 1590
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The Magnitude of Our Mythology
Jennifer L. Eberhardt and Jennifer A. Richeson explore the persistent mythology of racial progress–a prevailing narrative that progress toward racial equality is steadily, linearly, naturally, and automatically getting better across time.
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The Grand Challenges of Psychological Science
An unprecedented confluence of forces has created what many psychological scientists consider an existential threat to the field. APS members share their concerns and hopes.
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Mobility and Opportunity Across the Lifespan
Researchers explore the science of what changes, and what stays the same, as we age. Topics include the lifelong impact of childhood experiences, mitochondria’s powerful role in healthy aging, and the need for a new “map of life” as life expectancies increase.
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Charting a New Map of Life
A conversation between Jennifer L. Eberhardt and Laura L. Carstensen about lengthening life expectancies, recasting the built environment, and rethinking social norms.
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Childhood Residue in the Aging Body
Science explores the formidable link between our earliest life experiences and our health in old age.
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Mighty Mitochondria
The powerhouse of the cell could also hold the secrets to healthy aging.
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A Lifetime of Learning
Age-related changes in healthy adults may reflect shifting priorities more than cognitive decline.
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Gender, Dopamine, and a Closed Gas Station
A “safe” retirement investment put this cognitive psychologist’s lifetime of learning to the test.
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In Their Own Words: Lives Lost in 2021
Excerpts from the research of a few of the remarkable psychological scientists we said goodbye to this year.
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Psychological Science Needs the Entire Globe, Part 2
In doing the research necessary for generalizable psychological science, the field must confront the inconvenient realities of where the science must take place.
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Combating Stereotypes and Bias
The challenges associated with addressing persistent inequality among marginalized communities have never been more apparent. Psychological science explores the roots, the risks, and the roads to meaningful behavioral change.
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The Contact Conundrum: Reducing Conflict Through Intergroup Contact
A conversation between Jennifer L. Eberhardt and Linda R. Tropp on the links between intergroup contact and racial and ethnic relations.
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Rain Before Rainbows: The Science of Transgender Flourishing
A growing body of research supports the fact that, with acceptance and body autonomy, people who are transgender can live just as happily as anyone else.
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One of Us: Combating Stigma Against People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Conversations about the health disparities facing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and disorders, and how to combat them, are long overdue.
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Convicted by Memory, Exonerated by Science
Research exploring factors that contribute to wrongful convictions reveals a path for addressing the serious consequences of wrongful incarceration.
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Psychological Science Needs the Entire Globe, Part 1
A team of researchers around the globe explores the underpinnings and consequences of the legacy of dominance by researchers from “WEIRD” countries.
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Don’t SoTL for Less: Researching, Teaching, and Learning for a Post-Pandemic World
APS Fellow Regan A. R. Gurung delivers the APS‑David Myers Distinguished Lecture on the Science and Craft of Teaching Psychological Science.
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Bringing the World Into Our Science
In her inaugural column as APS President, Jennifer Eberhardt, with colleagues Hazel Rose Markus and MarYam Hamedani, urges collaboration with practitioners.
