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Wrongful Convictions Can Be Reduced Through Science, But Tradeoffs Exist
WASHINGTON – Many of the wrongful convictions identified in a report this week hinged on a misidentified culprit -- and a new report in a top journal on psychological science reveals the paradox of reforms in eyewitness identification procedure. In our efforts to make sure that good guys don’t get locked up, we could let more bad guys go. In the May issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, leading scholars in psychology and the law explore and debate various aspects of eyewitness identification procedures, providing a scientific foundation for this important social issue.
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Advertising: Why we think sexy men are men and sexy women are objects
Toronto Star: Society has grown accustomed to depictions of scantily clad women being used to sell everything from hamburgers to SUVs, now a study has found that at a basic cognitive level, both men and women see images of sexy women’s bodies as objects, while sexy-looking men are viewed as people.
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Learn something new – your brain will thank you
CNN: The idea that learning a new skill - say juggling, cooking, or playing guitar - can be like an addiction is no joke. I should know. As a college professor/scientist, who has written about the dynamics of narcotics and self-control, I have spent the last 3 1/2 years all but addicted to learning to play guitar. Despite lacking anything that might remotely resemble musical talent, I find no day is complete without at least a little bit of time on the guitar. Even listening to music can be a little like a drug. A brain imaging study that came out last year proved what many scientists long suspected: Listening to music can lead the brain to release the neurotransmitter dopamine.
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Super Women: 5 Amazing Facts About Motherhood
LiveScience: Babies may change mom's brain Pregnancy may cause permanent brain changes in women, according to research published in 2011 in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. Most of the research on pregnancy brain has been done in rodents, which develop new smell-related brain cells during pregnancy. Humans aren't rats, of course, but at least one brain imaging study has found that new moms have more gray matter four months after birth. Some scientists suspect that the hormones that flood the brain during pregnancy could lead to permanent alterations, just as teenage hormones contribute to adolescent brain development. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?
The New York Times: One day last summer, Anne and her husband, Miguel, took their 9-year-old son, Michael, to a Florida elementary school for the first day of what the family chose to call “summer camp.” For years, Anne and Miguel have struggled to understand their eldest son, an elegant boy with high-planed cheeks, wide eyes and curly light brown hair, whose periodic rages alternate with moments of chilly detachment. Michael’s eight-week program was, in reality, a highly structured psychological study — less summer camp than camp of last resort. Michael’s problems started, according to his mother, around age 3, shortly after his brother Allan was born.
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Daydreamers Could Be the Smart Kids, Says USC Study
LA Weekly: Daydreamers used to get in trouble. They were the underachievers. They were the kids who ended up hanging out under the bleachers and smoking stuff that smelled funny. Right? Wrong. New research co-authored by USC assistant professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang suggests that daydreamers ...are the smart ones. A USC paper titled "Rest Is Not Idleness," published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, argues that mental wandering is crucial to healthy brain development. In fact, disciplining daydreamers in classrooms could be a bad thing. USC: ...
