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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Touch or Watch to Learn? Toddlers' Object Retrieval Using Contingent and Noncontingent Video Koeun Choi and Heather L. Kirkorian Although young children are typically adept at learning information in person, they often have more difficulty when the same information is presented through video demonstrations. Two-year-olds watched a hiding event in a video that afforded no contingency (the video advanced automatically), general contingency (children could touch the screen anywhere to advance the video), or specific contingency (children had to touch a specific location on the screen to advance the video).
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Turbulent Teen Years Linked to Adult Unemployment
Negative emotional experiences during our teen years may take a toll on our ability to land a job as adults, according to a new study. Psychological scientists Mark Egan, Michael Daly, and Liam Delaney of the University of Stirling examined employment patterns for over 7,000 Americans born between 1980 and 1984. Their analysis revealed that early life emotional distress – feeling anxious or depressed as a teen – was a major risk factor for unemployment in adulthood. Highly distressed adolescents were 32% more likely to be unemployed as adults and experienced 11 weeks (28%) more unemployment compared to their non-distressed peers.
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It turns out money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it the right way
Quartz: We’ve all heard the maxim that money can’t buy happiness. But remember how happy you were at dinner with friends last week, or watching Star Wars in the cinema, or buying all four of the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novels? None of that would have been possible without good old money. Now researchers from the University of Cambridge have confirmed what many may have secretly expected: that there is indeed a link between spending money and happiness. Their study, published in Psychological Science last week, found that life satisfaction increases with spending—but only if people use money in line with their personality type. Read the whole story: Quartz
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This unusual test reveals how smart you are
The Washington Post: Last summer, a couple of researchers ran a funny experiment about honesty. They went to an Israeli shopping mall and recruited people, one-by-one, into a private booth. Alone inside the booth, each subject rolled a six-sided die. Then they stepped out and reported the number that came up. There was an incentive to lie. The higher the number, the more money people received. If they rolled a one, they got a bonus of about $2.50. If they rolled a two, they got a bonus of $5, and so on. If they rolled a six, the bonus was about $15. (Everyone also received $5 just for participating.) Before I reveal the results, think about what you would do in that situation.
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There are two types of problem-solvers: ‘insightfuls’ and ‘analysts’
Wired: Consider these three words: pine, crab, sauce. Name a single word that will combine with each of them to make a compound word or familiar phrase. Take a moment to think about this, and then continue reading. The solution is apple (pineapple, crabapple, apple sauce). The interesting thing about this type of puzzle is that, like many real-world problems, it can be solved in more than one way. For instance, you can solve it by trying out various possibilities. What goes with pine? Tree goes with pine. Tree also goes with crab, but it doesn't go with sauce. How about cone? And so forth. Cognitive psychologists call this kind of linear thought "analysis". Read the whole story: Wired
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Seeing the Benefits of Failure Shapes Kids’ Beliefs About Intelligence
Parents’ beliefs about whether failure is a good or a bad thing guide how their children think about their own intelligence, according to new research from Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The research indicates that it’s parents’ responses to failure, and not their beliefs about intelligence, that are ultimately absorbed by their kids. “Mindsets—children’s belief about whether their intelligence is just fixed or can grow—can have a large impact on their achievement and motivation,” explains psychological scientist Kyla Haimovitz of Stanford University, first author on the study.
