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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Searching for Category-Consistent Features: A Computational Approach to Understanding Visual Category Representation Chen-Ping Yu, Justin T. Maxfield, and Gregory J. Zelinsky Categories provide a fundamental structural framework that guides human cognition. When we encounter a single object, we typically understand that it belongs to a hierarchy of different categories that range from very specific (e.g., a sailboat) to very broad (e.g., mode of transportation). What visual features do people use to determine whether an object fits better into one category than another?
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Social Media ‘Likes’ Impact Teens’ Brains and Behavior
The same brain circuits that are activated by eating chocolate and winning money are activated when teenagers see large numbers of “likes” on their own photos or the photos of peers in a social network
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: The Method of Loci Improves Longer-Term Retention of Self-Affirming Memories and Facilitates Access to Mood-Repairing Memories in Recurrent Depression Aliza Werner-Seidler and Tim Dalgleish Studies have shown that recalling self-affirming memories can improve negative mood. Researchers investigated whether a mnemonic technique called the method of loci, in which memories are visualized as occurring along a familiar path, might offer an effective strategy that patients in remission from depression could use to recall such self-affirming memories.
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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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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: A Unified Model of Depression: Integrating Clinical, Cognitive, Biological, and Evolutionary Perspectives Aaron T. Beck and Keith Bredemeier Over the last several decades, research in many domains has advanced the scientific understanding of different aspects of depression. The authors of this article aim to integrate these findings into a comprehensive theoretical account of the disorder. In this unified model, depression is conceptualized as an adaptation to the perceived loss of a vital resource.
