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Coming Sunday at Convention
It’s Symposium Sunday!A full day of symposia featuring some of the field’s leading researchers.
Topics to be covered include cognitive reserve in aging, humor in the workplace, causes and consequences of political polarization, implicit motives, and much more!
Cognitive Reserve in Aging: Can Leisure Activities Increase Neuroplasticity? (Clinical) 9:00 AM – 10:20 AM Coolidge
Chair: Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, Emory University School of Medicine
Presentations: Sara Lazar, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University Chandramalika Basak, University of Texas at Dallas Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, Emory University Denise C. Park, University of Texas at Dallas
The Serious Business of Humor in the Workplace (Industrial/Organizational) 9:00 AM – 10:20 AM Truman
Chair: Catherine S. Daus, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Chair:Daniel Detwiler, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Presentations: Catherine S. Daus, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Olivia A. O’Neill, George Mason University Michele Williams, Cornell University Daniel Detwiler, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Tags: APS 25th Annual Convention (2013) | No Comments »
Understanding Replication: Confidence Intervals Much Better Than p Values
The cameras are rolling at the APS 25th Annual Convention. Watch Geoff Cumming, La Trobe University, Australia, present his research on “Understanding Replication: Confidence Intervals Much Better Than p Values.”
Discussions of replication have mainly used NHST. However, p values give only extremely vague information about replication, whereas confidence intervals give useful information. Moreover, researchers have a reasonable understanding of confidence intervals and replication, but a poor appreciation of p values and replication. We should use estimation and not NHST.
Tags: 2013 Convention Video Blogs, APS 25th Annual Convention (2013), Data, General, Replication, Statistical Analysis, Video | No Comments »
New Research on Positive Emotions
Barbara Fredrickson discusses her research at the symposium.
A symposium at the 25th APS Annual Convention offered an overview of several exciting new studies on the science of positive emotions, including work by Barbara Fredrickson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Fredrickson is working with Steven Cole of UCLA to analyze the relationship between gene expression and emotion. So far, their research indicates that positive emotions — and in particular positive emotions that result from purpose or meaning as opposed to hedonic pleasure — are associated with healthier gene expression and a healthier immune system.
The symposium also featured a presentation by Sarah B. Algoe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on possible evolutionary functions of gratitude and a presentation…
Tags: APS 25th Annual Convention (2013), Emotions, Health, Positive Psychology, Well-Being | No Comments »
Memory from Molecules to the Mind
The Presidential Symposium gives a psychological and biological tour of memory formation.
The theme of the Presidential Symposium at the 25th APS Annual Convention echoed that of the presidential symposium at the very first annual convention. How fitting, then, that the topic was memory.
This year’s speakers — much like their predecessors — took the audience on a tour of memory formation that began with cells encoding the memories, continued through various brain regions retrieving them, and concluded with the social experiences that sparked them in the first place.
Ted Abel of the University of Pennsylvania explained some of molecular processes involved in creating long-term memories. Some of his lab’s work focuses on a binding protein (called CREB binding protein) that’s been found to play a central role in memory storage. Abel and colleagues have also observed a gene called Nr4a2 that’s…
Tags: APS 25th Annual Convention (2013), Biological/Neuroscience, Brain, Emotions, False Memory, Memory, Video | No Comments »
Exploring Stanley Schachter’s Legacy
Lenny R. Vartanian of the University of New South Wales, Jerry M. Suls of the University of Iowa, and Lori Francis of Pennsylvania State University.
Psychological scientist Stanley Schachter (1922-1997) is credited with conducting innovative research on eating behavior from the perspective of social psychology. And his externality theory of obesity — which posits that non-physiological external cues has a particularly strong influence on eating in people prone to obesity — continues to shape research on eating behavior.
A May 24 symposium at the 25th APS Annual Convention focused on Schachter’s legacy, addressing the influence of distractions and peer behavior on eating behavior; social relationships and eating behavior from the perspective of network analysis; and people’s…
Tags: APS 25th Annual Convention (2013), Eating Habits, Health, Obesity, Personality/Social, Relationships, Social Influences, Well-Being | No Comments »
