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The Hidden Risks of Opting for the Familiar
When people are under pressure, they often try to surround themselves with things that are familiar. A study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this is true even when the familiar choice is the worst choice and amplifies the pressure. The research was inspired by an iPhone app that displays nearby taxis on a map and also lets you rate them. Ab Litt, a graduate student in marketing at Stanford University, wondered if people who saw a cab they'd rated highly before would choose that cab even if another one was closer—and whether that choice would change if they were in a hurry.
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Which to Use? ‘Was Doing’ or ‘Did’
Verb tense is more important than you may think, especially in how you form or perceive intention in a narrative. In recent research studied in Psychological Science, William Hart of the University of Alabama states that “when you describe somebody’s actions in terms of what they’re ‘doing,’ that action is way more vivid in [a reader's] mind.” Subsequently, when action is imagined vividly, greater intention is associated with it. Hart and Dolores Albarracín of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sought to apply these findings to a situation where this mental bias could have a grave impact – a court case.
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Now Accepting Nominations for the 2011 Oswald-Külpe-Prize for the Experimental Study of Higher Mental Processes
Honoring the great tradition of the Würzburg School of Psychology and its founder Oswald Külpe, the University of Würzburg invites nominations for its Oswald-Külpe-Prize, which is conferred biennially in a special ceremony. The purpose of the award is to recognize exceptional scientific contributions to the experimental study of higher mental processes. It will be presented in Würzburg on November 18, 2011. The Külpe-Award includes a cash prize of € 4.000,- and the recipient’s expenses for travelling and accommodation. Previous recipients were Profs. Asher Koriat, University of Haifa (Israel), Richard E.
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Announcing a new interdisciplinary PhD program run out of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics (VIPBG) at Virginia Commonwealth University
October 4–5, 2011 Saint Peter, MN, USA http://www.vipbg.vcu.edu/
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9th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology
September 26–28, 2011 Eindhoven,The Netherlands www.envpsych2011.eu
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43rd European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting
September 9–12, 2011 Seville, Spain www.ebbs-seville2011.com
