-
Awesome Experiences Make Us Nicer
Discovery News: Awesome Experiences Make Us Nicer: Ever feel changed after watching an amazing sunset, or reaching the summit of a mountain or seeing the Northern Lights? There's a reason for that, say psychologists. New research published in the journal Psychological Science shows that awe-inspiring moments can literally make time seem to stand still, or at least slow down. That feeling improves our mental health since many people often feel time-deprived in this modernized world. Read the whole story: Discovery News
-
Let the Games Begin! Will Olympians Choke Under Pressure?
Paying too much attention can hurt athletic performance — researchers are finding ways to prevent athletes from ‘choking’ when it matters.
-
New Research on Memory From Psychological Science
Read about new research published in Psychological Science that examines how we represent and search for things in memory. Saved by a Log: How Do Humans Perform Hybrid Visual and Memory Search? Jeremy M. Wolfe Current theories of how humans perform concurrent visual and memory-based searches are based on very small set sizes and indicate a linear relationship between memory and visual set size and search time. However, if this linear relationship were applied to larger visual and memory set sizes, it would lead to prohibitively long search times. In several experiments, participants memorized 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 100 items and searched for them in displays containing 1-16 items.
-
George A. Miller: Remembering a Pioneer
The human mind works a lot like a computer: It collects, saves, modifies, and retrieves information. George A. Miller, one of the founders of cognitive psychology, was a pioneer who recognized that the human mind can be understood using an information-processing model. His insights helped move psychological research beyond behaviorist methods that dominated the field through the 1950s. In 1991, he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his significant contributions to our understanding of the human mind. Miller, who passed away on July 22, 2012, was also a leader in the study of short-term memory and linguistics.
-
Fans Fooled by the “Hot-Hand Fallacy”
Which countries and athletes will rise to the top? To make predictions, many people will look for athletes who are on a “hot streak,” such as US Women’s National Team forward Alex Morgan who scored 2 goals yesterday, resulting in a 2-to-4 win over France. Sports provide numerous opportunities to collect statistics, but biases such as the “hot-hand fallacy” can skew a spectator's decision making when it comes to predicting sports outcomes. Peter Ayton, a researcher from City University London, UK, investigates how people make judgments and decisions under conditions of risk, uncertainty, and ambiguity. One way he studies decision making is through sports.
-
Journal Alert: Current Directions 21:4 Now Available Online
Current Directions in Psychological Science Volume 21, Number 4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prospective Memory in Workplace and Everyday Situations R. Key Dismukes Forgetting to perform intended actions -- also known as failure of prospective memory(PM) -- can have serious consequences, especially at work. Dismukes says that workplace PM failures are likely to occur when a critical set of steps is interrupted, when highly practiced habitual tasks are disrupted, when one step in a procedure is replaced with a different step, or when people are asked to multi-task. Dismukes provides tips for avoiding PM failures, such as creating reminder cues for upcoming tasks.