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Opioids and Driving: A Prescription for Crashes
Among those who used prescription pain relievers regularly, 14.4% reported driving after taking opioids.
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How to Meet Autistic People Halfway
One of the most widely held beliefs about autistic people — that they are not interested in other people — is almost certainly wrong. Our understanding of autism has changed quite a bit over the past century, but this particular belief has been remarkably persistent.
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National Academies Release New Consensus Report on How People Learn
The National Academy of Sciences Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences and Board on Science Education have released a consensus report on new advances in the science of learning.
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Yes, Violent Video Games Trigger Aggression, but Debate Lingers
Intuitively, it makes sense Splatterhouse and Postal 2 would serve as virtual training sessions for teens, encouraging them to act out in ways that mimic game-related violence. But many studies have failed to find a clear connection between violent game play and belligerent behavior, and the controversy over whether the shoot-‘em-up world transfers to real life has persisted for years. A new study published on October 1 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tries to resolve the controversy by weighing the findings of two dozen studies on the topic. The meta-analysis does tie violent video games to a small increase in physical aggression among adolescents and preteens.
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Big Data Gives the “Big 5” Personality Traits a Makeover
From the ancient Greeks to Shakespeare to Hollywood, humans have attempted to understand their fellow man through labeling and categorization. There was Hippocrates’s blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile; the classic dramatic archetypes of hero, ingenue, jester and wise man; and, of course, Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda from the famous HBO series More rigorously, psychologists have worked to develop empirical tests that assess core aspects of personality. The “Big Five” traits (extroversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness) emerged in the 1940s through studies of the English language for descriptive terms.
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Harvard Psychology Professor Discusses How Trauma Affects Memory
NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with clinical psychologist Richard McNally about memory retention following traumatic events in light of the sexual assault accusations brought against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
