Psychology
clock | December 3, 2007The other day, Kate wrote an interesting post about inter-species relationships, in particular the cases of inter-species adoption and parenting. In her post, she mentioned a paper that immediately drew my attention - Influence of various early human-foal interferences on subsequent human-foal relationship. by Henry S, Richard-Yris MA and Hausberger M. (Dev Psychobiol. 2006 Dec;48(8):712-8.).
In the paper, the newborn foals were either handled by humans (e.g., brought to the teat), or left completely alone with their mother, or just had humans standing by. Then, a few weeks later, they…
aardvarchaeology | November 29, 2007Back in June I posted a translation of a remarkable opinion piece written by two senior psychiatrists, commenting on their examination of a mentally ill man who had just committed his second murder. Today the papers report that Socialstyrelsens Rättsliga råd ("The judicial council of the social directorate") has found the man insufficiently crazy to qualify for forced psychiatric treatment. This is bad news, because it means that he will likely be sentenced to jail, and Swedish jail terms for murder being surprisingly brief, he will probably be out again before long.
As I've written before,…
neurophilosophy | November 28, 2007
It is said that the camera never lies, but according to new research published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, the camera not only lies, but those lies can lead to the creation of false memories.
In the study, which was led by Dario Sacchi of the University of Pagua and designed by veteran memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus, participants viewed photographs of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing or the protest against the Iraq war which took place in Rome in 2003.
Some of the participants were presented with digitally altered photographs, while others were shown…
omnibrain | November 28, 2007According to Jennifer Argo it is possible to get a guy to want to watch a so called 'chick flick', all you need to do is tell him its fictional. According to the press release:
"We looked at fact and fiction stories and found that if people have high empathy - usually women - they will enjoy a story more if it's based on fact," she said. "Conversely, people who are low in empathy, typically males, when you tell them in advance that it's fiction they'll enjoy it more. We think it's because it gives them an excuse to enjoy it. They let down their guards."
Bullshit....
I love all chick flicks…
omnibrain | November 27, 2007Check out this Discussion led by Charlie Rose with guests Eric Kandel, Aaron Beck, Steven Roose & Peter Fonagy:
Here are some interesting home videos of the Freud family as well.
omnibrain | November 27, 2007Whenever I meet someone new and I tell them I'm studying psychology I inevitably get asked the ever annoying question "Are you analyzing me right now?" which of course always leads to the same response from me, "I'm as qualified to analyze or give therapy as an engineering student." Which is not at all.
I'm thinking of changing that response to "English majors are more qualified to do that than any psychology student." After all, the humanities and other social sciences seem to be paying much more attention to the classic analysis of old, namely psychoanalysis than any self-respecting…
clock | November 26, 2007..that is adolescence. And the research on what adolescents find attractive. For a few years. Until they gain the gift of speech and hearing, look up, and find beauty in the mind. Unfortunately, some never do.
sb admin | November 23, 2007This Friday is a holiday (in America, at least) and what's better on a holiday than a rerun? Yay for reruns. So, I've written about the Amygdaloids before, but here's an introduction video in case you didn't see it (or want to enjoy it again). Also, this band of rockin' cognitive scientists has a CD available now.
The Amygdaloids: Live concert at Union Hall
Preview their new CD here (buy it here) alongside descriptions of each brain-based song.
"Past lovers often leave strong and enduring memories. 'A Trace' tells a story about this. Memory researchers in the know will figure out that the…
omnibrain | November 14, 2007David Ng from The World's Fair has decided to start another meme.... Here's the lowdown:
Anyway, this meme asks that you come up with your own scientific eponym. What's that exactly? Well, first read this excellent primer by Samuel Arbesman, which basically provides a step by step description of how to do this effectively. Then have a go at your own blog. If all goes well, I'd like to create a page at the Science Creative Quarterly, that collects (and links to) the good ones.
So onto the Higgins-Levinthal Dictum:
Also known as "the why fat smoking republicans are responsible for 9/11 number…
omnibrain | November 13, 2007Just about every election cycle and Superbowl Marco Iacoboni and his lab do some sort of neuroimaging study to determine what people are actually thinking about the political candidates or their teams. Every time these studies come out you can hear the popular press cheering and smiling while you can hear scientists and bloggers cringing in disgust. The most recent study, instead of being published in a peer review journal, was published in the NYTimes. Head over there to give it a read before you continue on.
People cite many reasons to be doubtful of these studies, some complete nonsense…
neurophilosophy | November 12, 2007Today's Independent contains an extract from Taking the Proverbial, a book about the psychology of proverbs by Geoff Rolls.
The extract includes sections from the book which discuss the proverbs "An elephant never forgets" and "Practice makes perfect". The section about the first includes a nice summary of some animal cognition studies, and the second includes mention of the neuropsychology of motor learning and performing in front of an audience.
This part however, from the section on elephants' memory, sounds familiar:
Whether [elephants] deserve their status as the memory experts of the…
neurophilosophy | November 5, 2007
Washington Treasury Secret Service Bureau chief M. R. Allen acts as a subject in a demonstration of the polygraph test, at the U.S. Secret Service Men's Convention in 1941. (Image: Bettmann/ Corbis)
This week, the NPR Morning edition featured a three-part series on lie detection, which included a story about Daniel Langleben, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvannia who uses functional magnetic resonance to try and determine how brain activity differs when one is lying or telling the truth.
I attended a presentation by Langleben at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging…
neurophilosophy | November 5, 2007
Vaughan is recruiting participants for a study of the neuropsychology of hypnosis which he is involved in.
In the first stage of the research, participants will be asked to answer a series of short questionnaires and complete a short test, to determine the extent of their suggestibility (their willingness to believe and act upon the suggestions of others), which is closely related to one's 'hynotisablity'.
The study will be carried out at the Institute of Psychiatry in South London, and the first stage will take place on three consecutive Saturdays, beginning next weekend, on the 10th…
neurophilosophy | November 1, 2007
The ability to attend to multiple moving objects simultaneously is fundamental to many of the tasks we perform regularly, such as driving, or taking part in team sports.
Numerous studies in which participants are asked to track dots moving around on a screen have led researchers to the conclusion that 4 is the maximum number of objects that can be tracked. It is therefore widely believed that the "magical number" 4 is the fixed upper limit of visual attention.
This has, therefore, led to the assumption that the visual system has a "fixed architecture" which places a limit on the number of…
clock | October 30, 2007Rockridge Institute published a set of articles (and a video ad) that I found quite interesting about the way to frame health care. See for yourself:
Introduction to Rockridge's Health Care Campaign:
Framing for Rockridge is about the honest expression of the progressive moral view based upon empathy and responsibility for oneself and others. It is about recognizing government's role to protect and empower citizens. In other words, we want to communicate our moral view as directly as possible. We want to make sure the moral view is not lost in the fog of complex policy proposals.
The Logic…
sb admin | October 26, 2007
Dave Kellet jokes about a visual illusion the visual pop-out phenomenon, in his webcomic Sheldon. Click the cropped image to see the full comic strip. Thanks Dave!
[Thanks, T.N. for the correction. Two blog posts about it here and here.]
sb admin | October 24, 2007 Omni Brain met its fundraising goal of $1000 for music education programs through DonorsChoose. Thank you to everyone who's donated. You rock! Now 30 kids will too.
But it'd be okay, you know, permissible (haha) to exceed our goal if you'd still like to help a Lisa Simpson. A few of the programs Omni Brain earmarked are still seeking fulfillment. Here, an Indianapolis music teacher describes his/her wish to teach kids science and music together:
I want to set up a program for fourth through sixth grade having students work on the scientific method of experimenting with sound. The resources I…