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Student Events at Convention
Here is a quick day-by-day rundown of student-related events that you don’t want to miss at the 25th APS Annual Convention, May 23-36 in Washington, DC. Make sure to follow APS on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #aps2013dc. Thursday, May 23 9:00 PM - 12:00 AM APSSC Convention Kickoff and Student Social at Uptown Tap House Want to meet other students? This event gives the APS Student Caucus an opportunity to welcome student affiliates and provide information about all of the great student events at the convention. Students will be able to relax in a casual environment and meet other students who share the same interests.
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“Consult your physician immediately if . . .”
It’s difficult to turn on the TV today without seeing an advertisement for one drug or another. That’s not surprising, since drug makers spend billions of dollars each year to promote their treatments for depression, low testosterone, osteoporosis, incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and more. The ad spots are aimed not at physicians but at patients themselves. These ads are required to list the most serious side effects for the prescription drugs they promote, and some are indeed serious—nausea and bleeding and blindness and suicidal thoughts, even death. The warnings are so dire that they must scare some consumers away, yet drug marketers continue to flood the airways.
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Weighing the Risks
No one can know everything; in our daily lives, we make do with the best information we can get. Psychological scientists are working to understand how people choose to learn facts about the world when the options available to them are limited. In a 2012 study published in the Journal of Cognitive Psychology, a team of researchers led by Toshihiro Wakebe of the University of Tokyo investigated the role of risk aversion in information-gathering behavior.
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A New Way to Curb Drinking? Planting False (Bad) Memories of a Bender
TIME: Researchers are exploring the possibility that convincing drinkers they had a bad experience with liquor — even if they didn’t — could lead them to drink less. As surprising as it sounds, dozens of studies now show that it is relatively easy to create false childhood memories. By using suggestive techniques such as presenting apparently personal information or having family members claim that false memories are true, up to 40% of people can be convinced that they experienced events that did not occur. ... But if traumatic experiences could be falsely planted, then researchers began wondering if they could seed false memories to trigger helpful, rather than harmful responses.
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Ground down
The Economist: FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE’S widely cited maxim—“that which does not kill him makes him stronger”—is often taken as truth. Yet as sensible as it might seem, the saying has rarely been tested. Psychologists have little idea whether unpleasant experiences really do increase resilience. A study just published in Psychological Science suggests they do exactly the opposite. In 1995 David Almeida, a psychologist at Pennsylvania State University, began an experiment involving 1,483 people. He asked them to take two tests.
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Teens’ Brains Are More Sensitive to Rewarding Feedback From Peers
Teenagers are risk-takers -- they’re more likely than children or adults to experiment with illicit substances, have unprotected sex, and drive recklessly. But research shows that teenagers have the knowledge and ability to make competent decisions about risk, just like adults. So what explains their risky behavior? In a new report, psychological scientists Laurence Steinberg and Jason Chein of Temple University and Dustin Albert of Duke University argue that some teens’ risky behavior reflects the unique effect of peer influence on the still-developing teenage brain.
