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Your Brain ‘Sees’ Things Even When You Don’t
The brain processes visual input to the level of understanding its meaning even if we never consciously perceive that input, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The research, led by Jay Sanguinetti of the University of Arizona, challenges currently accepted models about how the brain processes visual information. Sanguinetti, a doctoral candidate in the UA’s department of psychology in the College of Science, showed study participants a series of black silhouettes, some of which contained recognizable, real-world objects hidden in the white spaces on the outsides.
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Psychological Science Sets New Standards for Research Reporting
The leading journal in psychological science is introducing innovative new guidelines for authors, part of an effort to strengthen the reporting and analysis of findings in psychological research. The new author guidelines for the journal Psychological Science are among several related initiatives that researchers, led by the Association for Psychological Science, are undertaking to promote the replicability of scientific studies and the use of sound research practices across all areas of the field.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Shaping Attention With Reward: Effects of Reward on Space- and Object-Based Selection Sarah Shomstein and Jacoba Johnson The effect of rewards on conscious choice has been extensively researched, but the effect of reward on automatic processes is still not well understood. To investigate the effect of reward on automatic processes, the researchers investigated whether rewards would affect performance on a space- and object-based selective-attention task. The presence of a reward (money or points) altered participants' responses during the task.
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Living Through War Leads to In-Group Solidarity
War experiences have a long-term effect on human psychology, shifting people’s motivations toward greater equality for members of their own group, according to research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. According to study co-author Joseph Henrich of the University of British Columbia, “these effects have the potential to explain both why conflict sometimes leads to cycles of war and sometimes stimulates nation-building in its wake.” “Our research shows that exposure to war affects human psychology in specific ways,” says psychological scientist and economist Michal Bauer of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.
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“Please Feed Me”: The Power of Putting a Human Face on Social Causes
Companies often put a personal face on products to connect with consumers. The same idea may also work for social causes, like recycling and energy conservation, according to a series of studies.
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Touch May Alleviate Existential Fears for People With Low Self-Esteem
As human beings, we all know that we are going to die some day. Most of us deal with this knowledge by trying to live meaningful lives, but people with low self-esteem tend not to see their lives as particularly meaningful. Now, research suggests that touch may help people with low self-esteem in confronting their own mortality. “Even fleeting and seemingly trivial instances of interpersonal touch may help people to deal more effectively with existential concern,” explains psychological scientist and lead researcher Sander Koole of VU University Amsterdam.