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Elizabeth Loftus: How Can Our Memories Be Manipulated?
Years of research have taught Elizabeth Loftus just how unreliable our memories are. From tweaking a real memory to planting a completely fabricated one, tampering with our minds is surprisingly easy.
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Biology Beats Calories in Matters of Weight
Calorie intake and energy expenditure do not explain body weight to the extent that scientists once thought.
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Want to raise an empowered girl? Then let her be funny.
Laurie Menser was a 7- or 8-year-old in Rockville, Md., when she wandered over to a neighbor’s house one day, slipped a glass eye in her mouth and got the attention of the grown-ups in the room. Then she smacked the back of her head and stuck out her tongue — waiting for laughs. “They were appalled,” she remembers. “They were like, ‘You need to go home right now and tell your dad what you did.’ ” The neighbors didn’t know that it was Menser’s father who’d picked up the fake eye at a yard sale and taught his daughter the gag.
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Why We Miss Objects That Are Right in Front of Us
Easy right? But do you see the other toothbrush in the image as well? Most people will quickly spot the toothbrush on the front of the counter, but take longer — or even fail to find — the much bigger one behind it. The oversight has to do with scale. People have a tendency to miss objects when their size is inconsistent with their surroundings, according to a recent study in Current Biology. This is just the latest in a robust body of research that reveals how expectations dramatically affect our ability to notice what’s around us. Though the image above was provided by the authors of the study to illuminate their point, the study was set up slightly differently.
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Update on AMPPS: APS’s Newest Journal to Feature a Range of Empirical Articles and Topical Issues in Research Methods
The new APS journal devoted to research methods and practices is receiving a steady flow of submissions and has already accepted a number of papers for publication.
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Why Introverts Shy Away From Leadership
Introverted people don’t expect to enjoy being in charge — but research suggests these predictions are often wrong.
