-
The Psychology of Exile
The Huffington Post: When I was in middle school, one of the assigned readings was a story called "The Man Without a Country." It was written by Edward Everett Hale in 1863, and told the story of a young American army lieutenant, Philip Nolan, who is tried for treason along with Aaron Burr. During the trial, he angrily denounces his country, declaring his wish to never hear mention of the United States again, and the shocked judge complies: He sentences Nolan to spend the rest of his life in exile, aboard U.S. warships, where he will hear no word of life in America. ... The findings were clear. Those facing a life of loneliness were more apt to believe in supernatural agents of all kinds.
-
How brain lets us hear our inner voice
Deccan Chronicle: A new study has looked at a possible brain mechanism that could explain how we hear the inner voice in the absence of actual sound. In two experiments, researcher Mark Scott of the University of British Columbia found evidence that a brain signal called corollary discharge - a signal that helps us distinguish the sensory experiences we produce ourselves from those produced by external stimuli - plays an important role in our experiences of internal speech. Corollary discharge is a kind of predictive signal generated by the brain that helps to explain, for example, why other people can tickle us but we can't tickle ourselves.
-
Study Finds Spatial Skill Is Early Sign of Creativity
The New York Times: A gift for spatial reasoning — the kind that may inspire an imaginative child to dismantle a clock or the family refrigerator — may be a greater predictor of future creativity or innovation than math or verbal skills, particularly in math, science and related fields, according to a study published Monday in the journal Psychological Science. ... The researchers, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said their findings make a strong case for rewriting standardized tests like the SAT and ACT to focus more on spatial ability, to help identify children who excel in this area and foster their talents.
-
Of polar bears and consciousness: A tribute to Daniel Wegner
Scientific American: Last Friday, July 5, the psychology community lost one of its greatest minds, Daniel Wegner. It’s hard to overstate his influence on psychology as a whole — and on individual students and researchers (myself included) along the way. Just last week, I came across a new study that bears his clear imprint: the effect of suppressing your craving for cigarettes on the value you place on smoking. The more you suppress, the higher the value you assign to smoking. Wegner would have approved. About a year and a half ago, I wrote a piece about the origins of Wegner’s famed white bear — the one you can’t stop thinking about no matter how hard you try.
-
Human Emotions Explained In 60 Short Interviews
NPR: In some sense we're all experts in emotion. We experience emotion every day, all the time. We constantly observe the emotional responses of others, and we often make decisions based on anticipated emotions: we pursue something because we think it will make us happy, or avoid something because we worry it will anger someone else. Despite living intimately with emotion, there's a lot we don't know. Sometimes we're baffled by our own emotional responses, or those of others. Sometimes we wish we could change our emotions, but don't know how. ...
-
Distracted at Dinner? That’s Why Your Cooking Tastes Bland
Research suggests that in addition to making us eat more, distractions during meals may also make our food taste different.
