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The Strain of Isolation: Cortisol Reactivity to Rejection and Affiliation After Stress
I'm Allison E. Gaffey from the University of Notre Dame and I presented my research at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Participants engaged in a computer social rejection task (Cyberball), a speech stressor, or a control task. Social rejection resulted in cortisol reactivity comparable to the standard speech stressor. A trend suggested those who were more likely to affiliate after stress had lower post-stress cortisol. Poster Session XII - Board: XII- 007 Sunday, May 29, 2011, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Columbia Hall Allison E. Gaffey University of Notre Dame Michelle M. Wirth University of Notre Dame
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Consciousness: From Neural Systems to Phenomenological Experience
Consciousness has moved to psychological science's center stage. Advances in theory and research have transformed the field, converting what previously had been mysteries into solvable scientific problems. In this theme program, international leaders in the field displayed the progress that has been made in solving one of science's great puzzles: how neural systems and psychological processes give rise to individual's unified, subjective phenomenological experience. The speakers included: Richard J.
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Inside the Psychologist’s Studio: Mahzarin Banaji
Like its quasi-namesake (that would be Inside the Actor's Studio), the Inside the Psychologist's Studio series traditionally has focused on more senior luminaries who look back at their accomplishments. In a departure from that format, we bring you a fascinating, wide-ranging forward-looking, intergenerational conversation that promises to leave you even more confident about the future of psychological science. Rebecca Saxe is a scientist at MIT, where she got her PhD in 2003. Already, she has made exciting contributions to our understanding of how infants become social beings, what goes wrong in brain development to produce autism, and how we make moral decisions.
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Using Your Brain to Get Smarter
We may inherit a good deal of our intelligence, but that doesn't mean a person can't get any smarter. That is the upshot of the ongoing cognitive research presented by John Jonides of the University of Michigan during the William James Fellow Award Address this morning at the APS 23rd Annual Convention. "Fluid intelligence is often thought to be highly heritable, and some people draw the conclusion that it is immutable, and I hope to disabuse you of that idea today," Jonides said.
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Do We Dare to Change America’s Diet?
In his Bring the Family Address at the APS 23rd Annual Convention, Kelly D. Brownell of Yale University charged convention-goers to ask themselves whether we have the courage necessary to change America’s diet. Brownell, a psychological scientist and Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale, argued that this courage is essential because of the many obstacles – including powerful economic forces – that stand in the way of promoting health in the United States. Over the last 25 years, the rate of obesity has risen dramatically in the United States.
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Feel Great, Meditate
We all know that levitating off the ground when you meditate is just a myth, but there is lots of scientific research to back-up the idea that meditation can improve our lives. At the APS 23rd Annual Convention, Katherine MacLean of the University of California, Davis, Bethany Kok of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Catherine Ortner of Thompson Rivers University in Canada, and Matthew Hunsinger from Mary Baldwin College led a symposia on the affective, cognitive, and social benefits of meditation.
