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Early Spatial Reasoning Predicts Later Creativity and Innovation, Especially in STEM Fields
Exceptional spatial ability at age 13 predicts creative and scholarly achievements over 30 years later, according to results from a new longitudinal study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study, conducted by psychology researcher David Lubinski and colleagues at Vanderbilt University, provides evidence that early spatial ability -- the skill required to mentally manipulate 2D and 3D objects -- predicts the development of new knowledge, and especially innovation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains, above and beyond more traditional measures of mathematical and verbal ability.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science and Psychological Science. Blair E. Wisco, Denise M. Sloan, and Brian P. Marx Do cognitive emotion-regulation strategies influence the effectiveness of interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Participants with PTSD were assigned to receive a 5-week written exposure therapy (WET) or to a waitlist condition. Before and after the intervention, both groups of participants were assessed for Axis 1 disorders, severity of PTSD symptoms, and use of cognitive emotion-regulation strategies (self-blame, rumination, positive reappraisal, and putting into perspective).
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Buying Behavior Can Be Swayed by Cultural Mindset
There are some combinations that just go well together: Milk and cookies, eggs and bacon, pancakes and maple syrup. But new research reveals that people with individualistic mindsets differ from their collectivist counterparts in ascribing value to those perfect combinations. The collection of new studies, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, demonstrate that people with collectivist mindsets tend to value the relationships between items more than the particular items themselves.
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Intelligence Agents May Be Prone to Irrational Decision Making
Research suggests that intelligence agents may be more prone to irrational inconsistencies in decision making compared to college students and post-college adults.
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Placebo Effect Largely Ignored in Psychological Intervention Studies
Many brain-training companies tout the scientific backing of their products -- the laboratory studies that reveal how their programs improve your brainpower. But according to a new report, most intervention studies like these have a critical flaw: They do not adequately account for the placebo effect. The new analysis appears in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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How the Brain Creates the ‘Buzz’ That Helps Ideas Spread
How do ideas spread? Are we able to predict what messages will go viral on social media? New research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, takes a significant step towards answering these questions, identifying for the first time a brain region associated with the successful spread of ideas, or viral “buzz.” "Our study suggests that people are regularly attuned to how the things they're seeing will be useful and interesting, not just to themselves but to other people," says the study's senior author Matthew Lieberman, a UCLA professor of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences.