-
Studying for the Test by Taking It
The New York Times: PROTESTS are flaring up in pockets of the country against the proliferation of standardized tests. For many parents and teachers, school has become little more than a series of workout sessions for the assessment du jour. And that is exactly backward, research shows. Tests should work for the student, not the other way around. In an experiment published late last year, two University of Texas psychologists threw out the final exam for the 900 students in their intro psych course and replaced it with a series of short quizzes that students took on their laptops at the beginning of each class. “They didn’t like it, at least at first,” said one of the professors, James W.
-
How to Train Your Voice to Be More Charismatic
The Wall Street Journal: Scientists are tuning in on the power of the spoken word, seeking the secrets of charisma. By analyzing the harmonics of pitch, frequency and timbre, researchers at University of California, Los Angeles are discovering how charismatic public speakers use their voices to dominate, rouse and influence a large audience. They are finding that successful politicians in various countries, including Italy, France and Brazil, all share key vocal qualities that strongly affect how people respond to them, independent of the meaning of the words they say or the ideas they express.
-
What Happens When You Make Someone Feel Wealthy
New York Magazine: Since society's winners tend to get to make the rules, the way winners react to being winners is really important. What's the psychological effect of feeling like you've crawled to the top of the heap (or have been ensconced there comfortably for a while)? A key to answering this question is understanding that people can't always gauge their position in society correctly — sometimes, the best they can do is take a quick glance at their neighbors and base their opinion on that.
-
The High Costs of Status Seeking
It’s well known that income inequality leads to all sorts of social problems. The bigger the gap between the affluent and the poor, the higher the rates of homicide, teenage pregnancy and infant mortality, to name just a few of the negative outcomes. Unequal societies are also more polarized politically, and their economies are not as robust. Despite all this evidence of untoward consequences, it’s not really known why this is the case. What is the psychosocial link between income gaps and societal dysfunction?
-
The Science of Hate in College Football
The Wall Street Journal: In college football, where fans of opposing teams can’t agree on much of anything, they do share one opinion: There is no such thing as a boring rivalry. Rivalry games make or break seasons even when the matchups appear lopsided. This season’s rivalry weekend, for instance, has a number of them: Florida State, Ohio State and Oregon are all in the College Football Playoff race, while rivals Florida, Michigan and Oregon State are all having excruciating seasons. But if any of them pull off an upset Saturday, it would make their year—and ruin their rival’s. The feelings of rivalry are incredibly powerful.
-
Saving Old Information Can Boost Memory for New Information
The simple act of saving something, such as a computer file, may improve our memory for the information we encounter next.
