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Cutting-edge reports on the latest psychology research
Christian Jarrett
609 posts
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- May 24, 2012
- 06:40 AM
- 14 views
ADHD Summer Camp
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
For harassed doctors and stressed-out parents, it can be tempting to treat a challenging child with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) with pills and leave it at that. After all, early results from the one of the largest trials of its kind in the United States - the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) - showed that behavioural outcomes were better for children given the psychostimulant Ritalin, than for those given psychological treatment. However, follow-up dat........ Read more »
Gerber, W., Gerber-von Müller, G., Andrasik, F., Niederberger, U., Siniatchkin, M., Kowalski, J., Petermann, U., & Petermann, F. (2012) The impact of a multimodal Summer Camp Training on neuropsychological functioning in children and adolescents with ADHD: An exploratory study. Child Neuropsychology, 18(3), 242-255. DOI: 10.1080/09297049.2011.599115
- May 23, 2012
- 04:51 AM
- 39 views
Neuroscience still haunted by Phineas Gage
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
From Van Horn et al 2012
Seven years after his death, Phineas Gage's body was dug out of the ground and his skull passed to a doctor, John Harlow, who'd treated him in life. Although Gage's brain had long-since decayed, his skull remained intact and was of particular medical interest because in 1848, in an explosives accident, Gage had survived a three and a half foot long iron rod shooting straight into his face, through his brain, and out the top of his head. Although he died in 1860, Gage ........ Read more »
Van Horn, J., Irimia, A., Torgerson, C., Chambers, M., Kikinis, R., & Toga, A. (2012) Mapping Connectivity Damage in the Case of Phineas Gage. PLoS ONE, 7(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037454
- May 21, 2012
- 01:54 PM
- 65 views
Total recall: The man who can remember every day of his life in detail
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
For most of us, it's tricky enough to remember what we were doing this time last week, let alone on some random day years ago. But for a blind 20-year-old man referred to by researchers as HK, every day of his life since the age of about eleven is recorded in his memory in detail. HK has a rare condition known as hypermnesia, like the opposite of amnesia, and his is only the second case ever documented in the scientific literature (the first, a woman known as AJ, was reported in 2006; pdf).
Bra........ Read more »
Ally, B., Hussey, E., & Donahue, M. (2012) A case of hyperthymesia: rethinking the role of the amygdala in autobiographical memory. Neurocase, 1-16. DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2011.654225
- May 17, 2012
- 05:31 AM
- 10 views
Smile your way to a vegetable-loving child
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Maybe you've tried giving them names - Sally Sprout or Brian the Broccoli. Or perhaps you've made noises of gastronomic delight, "hmm, yummy!" Yet still your young child refuses to eat their greens. Maybe it's because of that slight, but all too visible, sneer on your face. After all, you're not wild about veggies either. Well, it's time for you to become a better actor. A new study suggests that young children are particularly sensitive to the emotional expressions of other eaters, and that t........ Read more »
Barthomeuf, L., Droit-Volet, S., & Rousset, S. (2012) How emotions expressed by adults’ faces affect the desire to eat liked and disliked foods in children compared to adults. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 30(2), 253-266. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-835X.2011.02033.x
- May 16, 2012
- 04:02 AM
- 8 views
When are two heads better than one?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The Challenger disaster, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the botched invasion of Iraq ... all these historical calamities have in common that they've been blamed on dud group decision making. Bang heads together, it seems, and you dull people's minds. And yet there's the almost-magic "Wisdom of Crowds" effect - average people's verdicts together and you'll arrive at a more accurate answer than any one person would have achieved on their own. How to solve this paradox? A new series of intriguing studie........ Read more »
Koriat, A. (2012) When Are Two Heads Better than One and Why?. Science, 336(6079), 360-362. DOI: 10.1126/science.1216549
- May 14, 2012
- 07:33 AM
- 105 views
Skilled liars make great lie detectors
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Frank Abagnale Jr, the confidence trickster whose escapades inspired the hit film "Catch Me If You Can", later became a security consultant for the FBI. There's intuitive logic to the agency's recruitment strategy - if you want to catch con artists, who better to spot them than a master con artist. But does this logic apply at a more basic level? Do skilled liars really make skilled lie detectors?
Surprisingly, psychologists haven't investigated this idea before. Dozens of studies have shown ........ Read more »
Wright, G., Berry, C., & Bird, G. (2012) “You can't kid a kidder”: association between production and detection of deception in an interactive deception task. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00087
- May 14, 2012
- 05:33 AM
- 88 views
Be careful when comforting struggling students
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Previous research tells us that students who see intelligence and ability as fixed will tend to give up when confronted by a difficult problem, whereas those who see intelligence as growable will persevere. But how do teachers' beliefs about ability affect the way they perceive and respond to their students' performance?
A new investigation led by Aneeta Rattan, together with Carol Dweck, the doyenne of this area, and Catherine Good, began by asking 41 undergrads about their beliefs........ Read more »
Rattan, A., Good, C., & Dweck, C. (2012) “It's ok — Not everyone can be good at math”: Instructors with an entity theory comfort (and demotivate) students. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(3), 731-737. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.12.012
- May 10, 2012
- 04:59 AM
- 69 views
Feeling chilly? Indulge in some nostalgia
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Over recent years a body of research has accumulated showing the psychological benefits of nostalgia. For example, reminiscing about the past can combat loneliness and off-set the discomfort of thinking about death. Now a team led by Xinyue Zhou has shown that nostalgia brings physical comforts too, making us feel warmer and increasing our tolerance to cold.
The researchers began their investigation by having 19 people keep a diary of their nostalgia activities for 30 consecutive days. It tur........ Read more »
Zhou, X., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Chen, X., & Vingerhoets, A. (2012) Heartwarming Memories: Nostalgia Maintains Physiological Comfort. Emotion. DOI: 10.1037/a0027236
- May 8, 2012
- 04:42 AM
- 47 views
Young male drivers are more vulnerable than older men to sleepiness
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
One might imagine the vigour of youth would allow young men to shrug off the effects of a lack of sleep. In fact, a new study on driving performance documents that young men are particularly vulnerable to the effects of sleepiness, far more than older men.
Ashleigh Filtness and his colleagues recruited 20 healthy young men (average age 23) and 20 healthy older men (average age 67) to complete two early afternoon driving challenges in a full-size simulator. One of the monotonous two-hour drive........ Read more »
Filtness, A., Reyner, L., & Horne, J. (2012) Driver sleepiness—Comparisons between young and older men during a monotonous afternoon simulated drive. Biological Psychology, 89(3), 580-583. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.01.002
- May 3, 2012
- 03:32 PM
- 70 views
Strong reassurances about vaccines can backfire
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Unwarranted public anxiety about vaccinations can have deadly consequences. Unfortunately, the challenge of communicating health risks is full of psychological complexity. A new German study brings this home, showing how messages that deny vaccination health risks in unequivocal terms can backfire, actually increasing concern among parents.
Cornelia Betsch and Katharina Sachse recruited 115 participants online (mean age 34; 34 per cent were male; 43 per cent had one or more children). The par........ Read more »
Betsch, C., & Sachse, K. (2012) Debunking Vaccination Myths: Strong Risk Negations Can Increase Perceived Vaccination Risks. Health Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/a0027387
- May 2, 2012
- 04:24 AM
- 41 views
Who are you protecting when you praise a dud performance?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Most of us have done it - told someone their performance was great when it was in fact woeful. But whose ego were we protecting? Theirs or our own? A new study has teased these possibilities apart by inviting 263 undergrad participants to read and provide feedback on an essay by another student on media violence and aggression.
Some participants were told they'd be providing the feedback face-to-face, others were told their feedback would be provided anonymously, and a third group were told t........ Read more »
Jeffries, C., & Hornsey, M. (2012) Withholding negative feedback: Is it about protecting the self or protecting others?. British Journal of Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8309.2012.02098.x
- April 30, 2012
- 06:28 AM
- 79 views
People prefer the middle option
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
When objects are arranged in an array from left to right, the central item jumps up and down and calls out to you "Pick me, pick me!" Well, not literally, but in a new study psychologists have provided further evidence for what's called the "Centre Stage effect" - our preferential bias towards items located in the middle.
Paul Rodway and his colleagues showed 100 participants (65 women) a questionnaire consisting of 17 questions, wherein each question featured five different pictures of the s........ Read more »
Rodway, P., Schepman, A., & Lambert, J. (2012) Preferring the One in the Middle: Further Evidence for the Centre-stage Effect. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26(2), 215-222. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1812
- April 26, 2012
- 03:58 AM
- 81 views
Secrets leave us physically encumbered
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
We talk metaphorically of secrets as great weights that must be carried through life like a heavy burden. Consistent with the ever-growing literature on embodied cognition, a new study shows how secrets affect perception and action, as if their keepers are encumbered, literally.
A first study used participants recruited online via Amazon's Mechanical Turk website. Those asked to write a recollection about a big secret rated a hill, depicted head-on, as being steeper than participants who wrot........ Read more »
Slepian, M., Masicampo, E., Toosi, N., & Ambady, N. (2012) The Physical Burdens of Secrecy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. DOI: 10.1037/a0027598
- April 25, 2012
- 04:38 AM
- 50 views
Psychologists create non-believed memories in the laboratory
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Most of the time our autobiographical memories and beliefs match up - we remember last week's journey to a conference and believe that journey really took place. Other times, we believe an event happened - we know we travelled to that conference - but our memory for the event eludes us, perhaps because the trip was so boring or because we drank too much wine.
Recently, psychologists have begun to examine the rarer reverse scenario, in which we have what feels like a memory for an event, but we ........ Read more »
Clark, A., Nash, R., Fincham, G., & Mazzoni, G. (2012) Creating Non-Believed Memories for Recent Autobiographical Events. PLoS ONE, 7(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032998
- April 23, 2012
- 03:08 PM
- 46 views
Do psychology findings replicate outside the lab?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Most psychology research takes place under laboratory conditions allowing tight control over the exact interventions and procedures participants are exposed to. That makes for neater science but leaves the discipline vulnerable to claims that the results aren't relevant to real life where things are far messier. Now Gregory Mitchell at the University of Virginia has tested this very issue by poring over the literature looking for previously published meta-analyses that compared findings in the l........ Read more »
Mitchell, G. (2012) Revisiting Truth or Triviality: The External Validity of Research in the Psychological Laboratory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(2), 109-117. DOI: 10.1177/1745691611432343
- April 18, 2012
- 04:00 AM
- 48 views
Toddlers don't take the risk of entrapment seriously
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Infants can't tell us what they can and can't perceive in the world so psychologists make assumptions about this based on their behaviour. A new study by John Franchak and Karen Adolph at New York University exposes the limits of this approach, demonstrating that how babies choose to behave isn't based only on their perceptual abilities but also on their assessment of risk.
Thirty-two 17-month-old infants were allocated to one of two conditions - they either had to judge whethe........ Read more »
Franchak, J., & Adolph, K. (2012) What Infants Know and What They Do: Perceiving Possibilities for Walking Through Openings. Developmental Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/a0027530
- April 16, 2012
- 11:22 AM
- 97 views
People assume it's hillier up north
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Give people a choice of two cross-country routes to the same destination, one more northerly, the other more southerly, but both covering similar terrain, and they'll tend to favour the southerly route, and to anticipate it being quicker and easier going. According to a new study, this is true for people who've been tested from regions such as Southern New England in the USA, where the north is more mountainous, but it's true too for people who live in regions such as Sofia in Bulgar........ Read more »
Tad T. Brunyé, Stephanie A. Gagnon, David Waller, & et al. (2012) Up north and down south: Implicit associations between topography and cardinal direction. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. info:/10.1080/17470218.2012.663393
- April 12, 2012
- 04:00 AM
- 59 views
Dead plants encourage belief in global warming
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
In 2006, the Conservative party in the UK unveiled its new logo - a scribbled sketch of a healthy-looking oak tree. The image was intended in part to communicate the party's renewed dedication to environmental causes. A new study by French psychologist Nicolas Guéguen suggests that if the Conservatives want to help change people's attitudes towards the environment, they should consider adapting their logo to one of a dying tree. Why? Guéguen has shown that the presence of dead plants strengt........ Read more »
Guéguen, N. (2012) Dead indoor plants strengthen belief in global warming. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32(2), 173-177. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2011.12.002
- April 10, 2012
- 04:00 AM
- 57 views
Would you cheat for charity?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Financial dishonesty was one of the contributing factors that caused the recent global economic crisis. Against this backdrop, a new study led by Alan Lewis at the University of Bath has provided an elegant lab demonstration of the way that for most people, right and wrong aren't clear cut. Instead, the research shows people look for ways to justify their financial cheating, probably to maintain their perception of themselves as essentially good. Oh, and the research also suggested that econom........ Read more »
Lewis, A., Bardis, A., Flint, C., Mason, C., Smith, N., Tickle, C., & Zinser, J. (2012) Drawing the line somewhere: An experimental study of moral compromise. Journal of Economic Psychology, 33(4), 718-725. DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2012.01.005
- April 4, 2012
- 04:00 AM
- 51 views
Children with autism are less susceptible to the rubber hand illusion
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The ability to tell where our bodies end and the rest of the world begins comes so naturally we tend not to give it much thought. In fact the brain mechanisms underlying bodily-identity are a vital part of basic social functioning. Given that social difficulties are a central part of autism, a team of US researchers led by Carissa Cascio wondered whether autism might be associated with differences in these basic mechanisms underlying body ownership.
To find out, they performed the f........ Read more »
Cascio, C., Foss-Feig, J., Burnette, C., Heacock, J., & Cosby, A. (2012) The rubber hand illusion in children with autism spectrum disorders: delayed influence of combined tactile and visual input on proprioception. Autism. DOI: 10.1177/1362361311430404
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