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From Lab to Learning
Do research findings from a controlled lab setting hold up in a classroom? Psychological science often suggests promising principles that may improve learning. However, many of these findings have not been translated to educational contexts or designed into easy-to-implement teaching interventions. A new grant program from the APS Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science encourages the development of evidence-demonstrated interventions that apply well-established principles to improve the teaching of psychological science.
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Are Impulsivity Problems Memory Problems?
Everyone seems to know at least one person who could be described as impulsive. That person whose brain — and mouth — seem to go a mile a minute, who does things without thinking them through, and who often gives up when they feel the going gets tough. Impulsivity has been associated with a host of problems including diminished cognitive abilities, vigilance, and executive functioning. No study, however, has examined the relationship between impulsivity and prospective memory. Prospective memory refers to a person’s ability to create plans for the future and then remember to execute them at the appropriate time.
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Extraverted Populations Have Lower Savings Rates
Particular personality traits may have a powerful influence on a country’s economic outlook, according to new research. Across three studies, University of Toronto psychological scientist Jacob Hirsh found that populations that tend to have higher levels of extraversion are less likely to save for the future. Hirsh argues that understanding this link between personality and economic behavior will become even more essential as the world’s aging population begins to retire. High levels of debt accompanied by low savings pose national economic risks, including vulnerability to economic downturns and higher levels of unemployment.
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When Trauma Isn’t Traumatic
Longitudinal data collected from university students suggest that exposure to an acute trauma may be linked with an improvement in symptoms of anxiety or depression for some individuals. The research, led by Anthony Mancini of Pace University and co-authors Heather Littleton of East Carolina University and Amie E. Grills of Boston University, investigated human resilience in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting that occurred in 2007. The shooting left 33 people dead (including the shooter) and 25 others injured, making it the most deadly civilian shooting in U.S. history.
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How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings
Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Volume 16, Number 2) Read the Full Test (PDF, HTML) The term telecommuting was first coined in the early 1970s, and since that time the number of people taking advantage of the ability to work remotely has grown dramatically. By 1997, more than 100,000 U.S. federal employees were telecommuting, and by 2014, more than 3.3 million U.S. workers reported their home as their primary place of work. This number is only expected to grow as a result of the increasingly global nature of our economic and employment systems.
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DARPA Seeks Information on Experimental Falsifiability
Psychological scientists have called for an increased focus on replication to strengthen the reproducibility of scientific research. Now, other groups are beginning to follow suit: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), best known for developing emerging technologies for the military, has taken an interest in evaluating research in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. This month, DARPA put out a request for information (RFI) seeking tools and approaches for disconfirming models, theories, and hypotheses.
