Observer > 2001 > March
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Volume 14, Issue3March 2001

Presidential Column

Robert Bjork
Robert A. Bjork
University of California, Los Angeles
APS President 2000 - 2001
All columns

In this Issue:
How to Succeed in College: Learn How to Learn

About the Observer

Published 6 times per year by the Association for Psychological Science, the Observer educates and informs on matters affecting the research, academic, and applied disciplines of psychology; promotes the scientific values of APS members; reports on issues of international interest to the psychological science community; and provides a vehicle for the dissemination on information about APS.

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Up Front

  • University of Kentucky

    Overview The University of Kentucky was founded in 1865 as the Agricultural and Mechanical College and was renamed the University of Kentucky in 1916. The university has 1,813 full time faculty members, 16,847 undergraduates, and 4,822 graduate students. UK is a Carnegie Class I research university, one of only 59 public universities so ranked. UK is also ranked 32nd among public research universities in terms of research and development expenditures according to the most recent National Science Foundation survey. UK received $155.2 million in research contracts, grants and gifts from sources outside the university in fiscal 2000, a 17.4 percent increase over the previous year. The Department of Psychology has 30 full-time faculty members and about 70 doctoral students. There are also at least 20 joint and adjunct appointments of faculty from related disciplines. In 1997, the state of Kentucky established a $16 million Research Challenge Trust Fund to be awarded on a competitive basis to the target of opportunity programs. Psychology was one of only 11 programs to be awarded RCTF money, with the funds dedicated to the study of the psychology of substance use and prevention.

  • How to Succeed in College: Learn How to Learn

    Assume that you have a younger sibling who is going to be a college freshman next Fall. Assume further that this particular sibling actually believes that you may have learned something - that is, that you may be a source of good advice on how to succeed in college. Drawing on concepts and phenomena covered in this course, list six different recommendations you would make to your sibling (with respect to notetaking, study techniques, exam performance, and so forth). A few years ago, I asked this question on a final exam in my graduate course on human learning and memory. I recently came across photocopies of the answers students gave. At first, I was puzzled as to why I had made those photocopies. But as I looked through them, I remembered that I had made those copies because I was impressed with how well a number of students had answered that particular question. Many of the answers were not only good answers, but were also characterized by a certain enthusiasm - triggered, perhaps, by the challenge of trying to tell something useful to an actual or imagined younger sibling.

APS Spotlight

  • Animal Research in the College Classroom

    Animal research has made contributions to virtually every area of psychology. Although ethical issues regarding the use of animals can arise in any psychology course, this is particularly likely to occur in courses dealing with the brain and behavior. Thus, it is important for instructors of such courses to include the issue of animal research as part of their curriculum. Following is a brief description of one approach used in a sophomore-level psychobiology course, presented in the hope that it will help others to address this issue in their classes. HOW ANIMAL RESEARCH BENEFITS HUMANS The first step in addressing the use of animals is to point out how animal research benefits humans. This begins early in the course with a lecture on the history of neuroscience. Modern neuroscience had its beginnings in the late 19th century when physician-researchers began to study the brain.

Practice

  • University of Kentucky

    Overview The University of Kentucky was founded in 1865 as the Agricultural and Mechanical College and was renamed the University of Kentucky in 1916. The university has 1,813 full time faculty members, 16,847 undergraduates, and 4,822 graduate students. UK is a Carnegie Class I research university, one of only 59 public universities so ranked. UK is also ranked 32nd among public research universities in terms of research and development expenditures according to the most recent National Science Foundation survey. UK received $155.2 million in research contracts, grants and gifts from sources outside the university in fiscal 2000, a 17.4 percent increase over the previous year. The Department of Psychology has 30 full-time faculty members and about 70 doctoral students. There are also at least 20 joint and adjunct appointments of faculty from related disciplines.

More From This Issue

  • IRBs and the Review of Psychological Research

    Relevant Internet Sites Federal Office for Human Research Protections Department of Health and Human Services http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/ Federal Regulations http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/ humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.htm FAQ's on the Requirement for Education on the Protection of Human Subjects in Research http://grants.nih.gov/grants/ policy/hs_educ_faq.htm National Bioethics Advisory Commission http://bioethics.gov/cgi-bin/bioeth_counter.pl IRB ... Mention these three little letters at any gathering of researchers, then stand back - you're in for an intense discussion about a complex, convoluted, and confusing system that often doesn't seem very systematic.

  • DIVERSITAS: What Is Psychology’s Role?

    BIODIVERSITY: The variability among living organisms on several levels, including genetic variability within and among species, the variety of species within a region, and the distribution of species within ecosystems.DIVERSITAS: An international program of scientific research established to promote and catalyze knowledge about biodiversity. PSYCHOLOGY: A discipline that can contribute to the understanding of the human dimension of biodiversity, including the ways in which human behavior affects the natural environment in both destructive and constructive ways.