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Benchmark Project: Expert Online Survey Announcement
Expert members are invited to participate in an expert crowd-sourcing survey that seeks to establish benchmarks in working memory research. The Benchmark Project is led by Klaus Oberauer (University of Zurich, Switzerland) and Stephan Lewandowsky (University of Bristol) and seeks to identify theory-relevant benchmarks in working-memory research. To date, more than 27,000 articles have been published on short-term and working memory. The plethora of publications not only provides a huge knowledge based, but it also presents an obstacle to principled identification of the core phenomena that are essential for theorizing.
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Q&A: Research on Educational Apps
A new report published in the April issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest provides a set of four evidence-based principles that parents, educators, and app designers can use to evaluate the quality of so-called “educational” apps. The report, “Putting Education in ‘Educational’ Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning,” was published by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University; Jennifer M. Zosh, Penn State University, Brandywine; Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, University of Delaware; James H. Gray, Sesame Workshop; Michael B. Robb, Saint Vincent College; and Jordy Kaufman, Swinburne University of Technology.
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OPRE Grant Announcement: Family Strengthening Scholars
The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services has recently published a discretionary research funding announcement. The full announcement for “Family Strengthening Scholars” is available online at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/view/HHS-2015-ACF-OPRE-PD-0977. OPRE intends to award up to three grants to support dissertation research on healthy marriage/responsible fatherhood policy issues (HMRF).
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Jennifer Richeson Named Guggenheim Fellow
Jennifer Richeson, an APS Fellow and former APS board member, has been selected as a 2015 Guggenheim fellow. Awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the prestigious fellowships are appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise. Richeson is the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, where she is also a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and professor of African American Studies.
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Social Interaction and Extremism
Although many radicalized religious, political, and ideological groups have used extreme tactics — such as vandalism, arson, harassment and intimidation, and cyber attacks — to try to change others’ behavior not all groups seek to effect change in these ways. Many groups work to influence others’ beliefs and behaviors through legal political processes. What, then, causes some people to choose radical action over traditional legal forms of political engagement?
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Video Game Violence Doesn’t Boost Aggression Among Adults with Autism
Many people speculate that individuals with autism spectrum disorder may be more susceptible to emotionally arousing content found in violent video games, but research suggests the opposite.