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There are ways to combat racism that don’t rely on implicit bias
It would be nice if, to address racism and sexism, we could simply call on people to change their subconscious prejudicial impulses. Unfortunately, despite the hype around “implicit bias” as a psychological tool for improving workplace diversity, it doesn’t work that way. As Quartz has previously reported, there are numerous methodological flaws with the most commonly used implicit-bias test, and relying on current techniques meant to address implicit bias doesn’t product strong long-term results.
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A Tiny Reef Fish Can Recognize Itself in a Mirror
It’s something most of us do every morning without a second thought. We wake up, stumble to the bathroom and glance at ourselves in the mirror as we wipe the sleep from our eyes. It may not seem like much, but the simple act of looking at that mirror—and understanding that the eye-rubbing person staring back is really one’s own reflection—demonstrates a remarkably sophisticated level of understanding. Only a handful of the world’s other brainiest species have proved capable of this: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, magpies and at least one Asian elephant.
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Travel Awards to Attend Sackler Colloquium
We invite applications for travel awards to young scientists to attend this year's Sackler Colloquium, “The Brain Produces Mind by Modeling," to be held May 1-3 at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences in Irvine, CA on May 1-3, 2019. The organizers are Rich Shiffrin, Sophie Deneve, Josh Tenenbaum, Danielle Bassett, and NIko Kriegeskorte. Please see the website http://www.cvent.com/d/76qkwt for detailed information, an agenda, and registration instructions. We will be offering up to 40 travel awards. These are intended for young students, undergraduates, graduate students, or postdoctoral researchers prior to their first faculty position.
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HHS Requests Comments on Pain Management Task Force Draft Report
The Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force has released a new draft report detailing their findings and suggestions. Psychological scientists and others are invited to provide their feedback on this draft report by April 1, 2019.
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NIAAA Notes Interest in Behavioral Treatments for Alcohol Use Disorder
Clinical psychological scientists and others should know about a new notice from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to the research community emphasizing NIAAA’s continuing interest in supporting research on behavioral treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD). “NIAAA invites applications for research that develop novel behavioral therapies, adapt existing treatments to new formats or populations, and enhance the broader dissemination of effective behavioral treatments for those with an AUD or significant drinking problems.
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Killer Whales and Chimpanzees Have Similar Personalities
Anybody who has taken an undergraduate psychology course or filled out one of those online tests is probably familiar with the “big five” personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. For example, if you identify with the statement “I talk to a lot of different people at parties,” you might score high on extraversion. An individual's personality is thought to be fairly stable by adulthood, and the idea that it can be measured by just a handful of factors goes back at least a century.
