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Hacking Memory to Follow Through with Intentions
Linking tasks that we intend to complete to distinctive cues that we’ll encounter at the right place and the right time may help us remember to follow through.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: From Creatures of Habit to Goal-Directed Learners: Tracking the Developmental Emergence of Model-Based Reinforcement Learning Johannes H. Decker, A. Ross Otto, Nathaniel D. Daw, Catherine A. Hartley In making decisions, people may engage in deliberate processing that draws on existing cognitive models or more automatic processing that relies on reward-based feedback. Adults can toggle between these slow and fast strategies, but the developmental trajectory of such decision making is unknown.
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Rise in Reporting p-Values as “Marginally Significant”
A researcher collects data, runs a statistical test, and finds that the p value is approximately .07. What happens next? According to a study conducted by Laura Pritschet (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Derek Powell (University of California, Los Angeles), and Zachary Horne (also at the University of Illinois), that researcher may be likely to report that result as “marginally significant” -- not quite significant, but getting there. While it may be common, Pritschet and colleagues argue that this practice is “rooted in serious statistical misconceptions” and is likely to lead to false-positive errors (and sometimes false negatives, too).
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Fear of Death Prompts Leaders to Look Towards the Future
Research suggests that reminding leaders of their own mortality may be one way to encourage them to make better, or at least less selfish, decisions.
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Religion Past and Present
0:13 - How Religions Became Moral and Spiritual - Pascal R. Boyer, Washington University in St. Louis 15:17 - I'm Learning (,) God: Spirituality and Religion in African American Life - Jacqueline S. Mattis, University of Michigan 47:28 - Believers and Atheists: An Evolutionary Understanding of Individual Difference in Religiosity, Their Stability and Change - Vassilis Saroglou, Université catholique de Louvain 1:20:01 - Ritual, Community and Conflict - Harvey Whitehouse, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford 1:41:56 - Discussion
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Repeat Drunk Drivers and the Neurobiology of Risk
"I recognize the seriousness of this mistake. I've learned from this mistake and will continue learning from this mistake for the rest of my life," said 22-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps during his first drunk driving sentencing hearing in 2004. Phelps was convicted of drunk driving again in 2014 after police witnessed him crossing the double yellow line while driving 84 miles per hour in a 45-mph zone. According to police records, Phelps’s blood alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit at the time of his second DUI arrest.
