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Shortstop Psychology: The Mystery of the Yips
Henry Skrimshander is a shortstop and the star of Chad Harbach’s lyrical novel The Art of Fielding. Henry plays for the fictional Westish College, and his flawless defensive play is attracting the attention of major league scouts. But just as he is about to break the NCAA record for error-free games, he forgets how to throw. Just like that, and for no apparent reason, even the simplest routine toss to the first baseman becomes impossible. Henry has a case of the “yips”—a well documented syndrome that has ended real-life major league careers. This perplexing condition is also known as the “Steve Sax Syndrome,” after the Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star second baseman who suffered a similar fate.
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For Black Professional Men, It’s Who You Are, Not Who You Know
President Obama last week announced a new public-private initiative aimed at giving young minority men better opportunities — as long as they “work hard” and “take responsibility.” Indeed, those qualities tend to be more critical to the success of African American men than they are for other groups, who appear better able to leverage social and professional contacts to get ahead. Studies have shown that social capital — defined as one’s professional network — is a big factor in career advancement. But those studies focused largely on Caucasians. As a recent study shows, networking seems to be less of a factor in Black men's career accomplishments than are education and motivation.
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The Nature of Culture
Douglas Medin has explored scientific reasoning in children and adults across cultures, as well as across urban versus rural populations. His research also has focused on what is known as commons behavior. This line of inquiry asks why certain populations do or don’t destroy a shared environment to fulfill selfish needs. His research teams have studied indigenous Mayan populations and found that they share natural resources without draining them, largely because they develop a rich, spiritual understanding of forest ecology. Medin’s work has helped move psychological science beyond laboratory models to a broader focus on how our cultural background influences our view of the world.
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Feats of Memory at the 2014 APS Annual Convention
It’s not a supernatural power: Memorizing a deck of cards in less than a minute and a 300-word list in just a quarter of an hour are achievable feats for top memory athletes. At the 2014 APS Annual Convention, May 22–25 in San Francisco, attendees will have the chance to see one such memory athlete in action. Nelson Dellis, the 2012 US Memory Champion, will speak with APS Past President Henry L. Roediger, III, as part of Roediger’s Bring the Family Address, “Make It Stick: How Memory Athletes Perform and How Their Techniques Can Help You.” Roediger, a leader in cognitive psychology, has spent his career studying memory retrieval and its implications for memory and learning.
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Brain Trauma Extends to the Soccer Field
The New York Times: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head, has been found posthumously in a 29-year-old former soccer player, the strongest indication yet that the condition is not limited to athletes who played sports known for violent collisions, like football and boxing. Researchers at Boston University and the VA Boston Healthcare System, who have diagnosed scores of cases of C.T.E., said the player, Patrick Grange of Albuquerque, was the first named soccer player found to have C.T.E. On a four-point scale of severity, his disease was considered Stage 2. Soccer is a physical game but rarely a violent one.
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Food Tastes Bland While Multitasking
Scientific American Mind: Eating while distracted is well known to cause overindulgence, as confirmed by a recent review of 24 studies published in April 2013 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The exact mechanism behind such mindless bingeing, however, has been unclear. A recent study in Psychological Science suggests that mentally taxing tasks dampen our perception of taste, causing us to eat more. In four experiments, participants attempted to memorize either a seven-digit number (a heavy load on the brain) or one digit (a light cognitive load) while tasting salty, sweet and sour substances and rating each food's taste intensity. Read the whole story: Scientific American Mind
