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“Seeing” Faces Through Touch
Our sense of touch can contribute to our ability to perceive faces, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “In daily life, we usually recognize faces through sight and almost never explore them through touch,” says lead researcher Kazumichi Matsumiya of Tohoku University in Japan.
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Fear of Holes May Stem From Evolutionary Survival Response
For those with trypophobia, the sight of clusters of holes in various formations can cause intensely unpleasant visceral reactions.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: The Relative Trustworthiness of Inferential Tests of the Indirect Effect in Statistical Mediation Analysis: Does Method Really Matter? Andrew F. Hayes and Michael Scharkow Mediation analysis is commonly used to examine the indirect effect of one variable (X) on a second variable (Y) through a mediator variable (M). Although many researchers conduct mediation analysis, not all do so in the same way. The authors examined the delta method, percentile and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (CIs), the distribution-of-the-product approach, the Monte Carlo CI, and the test of joint significance.
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Your Spouse’s Voice Is Easier to Hear – And Easier to Ignore
With so many other competing voices, having a conversation on a bustling subway or at a crowded cocktail party takes a great deal of concentration. New research suggests that the familiar voice of a spouse stands out against other voices, helping to sharpen auditory perception and making it easier to focus on one voice at a time. “Familiar voices appear to influence the way an auditory 'scene' is perceptually organized,” explains lead researcher Ingrid Johnsrude of Queen’s University, Canada. Johnsrude and her colleagues asked married couples, ages 44-79, to record themselves reading scripted instructions out loud.
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Forensic Experts May Be Biased By the Side That Retains Them
Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists are ethically bound to be impartial when performing evaluations or providing expert opinions in court. But new research suggests that courtroom experts’ evaluations may be influenced by whether their paycheck comes from the defense or the prosecution. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings reveal that experts who believed they were working for prosecutors tended to rate sexually violent offenders as being at greater risk of re-offending than did experts who thought they were working for the defense.
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Divorce Elevates Risk for Depression, But Only for Some People
A data analysis uncovers some new clues as to why depressive episodes follow divorce for some people, but not others.
