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Mind Changer and Game Changer
APS Past-President Elizabeth Loftus, University of California, Irving, is the highest-ranking female in the list of top 100 psychologists. She's gained world-wide renown for her experiments showing that memory, far from being an accurate record, is influenced by subsequent exposure to information and events and is re-constituted according to the biases these create. In the BBC series Mind Changers, Claudia Hammond discusses the impact of Loftus’ research and how it has revolutionized eyewitness testimony procedures and legal systems. Hammond speaks with other APS Fellows Barbara Tversky, Gordon Bower, Lee Ross, and Brian Wandell, as they reflect on the influence of her work.
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Now, seek the obscure to solve your problems
Yahoo India: A US researcher has come up a new technique that allows people to solve their problems systematically by using innovative ideas. According to Tony McCaffrey, a psychology PhD from the University of Massachusetts, there is a classic obstruction to innovation called 'functional fixedness'. "which is the tendency to fixate on the common use of an object or its parts. It hinders people from solving problems," McCaffrey said. McCaffrey has developed a systematic way of overcoming that obstacle: the "generic parts technique" (GPT). Read the whole story: Yahoo India
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Identification de suspects : comment améliorer l’efficacité de la traditionnelle line-up?
Express: Avec l’avènement des tests ADN, on s’est rendu compte que les séances d’identification de suspects potentiels de délit par des témoins d’une scène de délit aboutissaient fréquemment à des mises en accusation de personnes innocentes. Les témoins se sentent en effet obligés de désigner quelqu’un, lors des "line-up" (lorsque une dizaine de suspects leur sont présentés en ligne pour être reconnus), même lorsqu’ils ne sont pas tout à fait sûrs. Read the whole story: Express
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13 Fool-Proof Ways to Get Happier
Yahoo Finance: The pursuit of happiness may feel futile at times, especially as we've watched our 401(k)s and house values tank. How can we truly feel happy when life gets tough? U.S. News posed this question to leading happiness researchers to find out what strategies we can employ to stay upbeat. While it's true that some lucky folks are born with sunny dispositions, others, according to a growing body of research, can learn to be happy. How?
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Food on the brain: Study finds that hungry people see food-related words more clearly
The Daily Mail: Dieticians often warn of the dangers of over-indulging on calorific snacks and buying too much if we risk going food shopping while hungry. And it appears they may have a valid point after new research has discovered that how hungry we are directly effects how we view everyday situations. The study, published in Psychological Science, found that hungry people see food-related words more clearly than people who’ve just eaten. Read the whole story: The Daily Mail
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Virtuous Behaviors Sanction Later Sins
Scientific American: Anyone who has ever devoured a triple-chocolate brownie after an intense workout knows how tempting it can be to indulge after behaving virtuously. A new study suggests, however, that we often apply this thought process to inappropriate scenarios, giving ourselves license to act in unhealthy or antisocial ways. Researchers in Taiwan gave a sugar pill to 74 smokers, misleading half of them to think it was a vitamin C supplement. All the participants then took an unrelated survey and were told they could smoke if they desired. Read the whole story: Scientific American
