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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Feature-Binding Errors After Eye Movements and Shifts of Attention Julie D. Golomb, Zara E. L'Heureux, and Nancy Kanwisher In this study, the authors examined distortions in feature binding that might occur after eye movements. Participants were shown four color blocks -- one in a precued spatiotopic (world-centered) location -- that appeared after an eye movement. When participants indicated the color of the block appearing at the cued location using a color wheel, their reports were systematically shifted toward the color of the distractor in the retinotopic (eye-centered) location of the cue.
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Enjoy Life More: Use Facebook Less
Pacific Standard: Feeling down? New research from Austria points to a drug-free, no-cost treatment that may very well help: Stop spending so much time on Facebook. In a recently published study, psychologists Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer of the University of Innsbruck report people “expect to feel better after using Facebook, whereas in fact, they feel worse.” Their evidence suggests it’s not Internet browsing in general, but specifically social media use that brings people down. It also points to a likely reason: The nagging feeling that you’ve been wasting time. Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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Eight (No, Nine!) Problems With Big Data
The New York Times: BIG data is suddenly everywhere. Everyone seems to be collecting it, analyzing it, making money from it and celebrating (or fearing) its powers. Whether we’re talking about analyzing zillions of Google search queries to predict flu outbreaks, or zillions of phone records to detect signs of terrorist activity, or zillions of airline stats to find the best time to buy plane tickets, big data is on the case. By combining the power of modern computing with the plentiful data of the digital era, it promises to solve virtually any problem — crime, public health, the evolution of grammar, the perils of dating — just by crunching the numbers. Or so its champions allege.
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Play It Again And Again, Sam
NPR: A couple of years ago, music psychologist decided to make some alterations to the music of . Berio was one of the most famous classical composers of the 20th century, a man internationally recognized for the dramatic power of his compositions. But Margulis didn't worry much about disrupting Berio's finely crafted music. After loading his most famous piece into a computer editing program, she just randomly started cutting. ... And the power of repeated exposure isn't just limited to music. Research has shown that the mere exposure effect makes stockbrokers feel more warmly toward stocks they've seen before; it also works when looking at art or fashion or random geometric shapes.
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We complain about being ‘too busy’ — but secretly we like it
TODAY: We are SO slammed, SO crazed, SO swamped—just so, SO BUSY. Things we are now too busy for include but are not limited to: Any workout lasting longer than 20 minutes, non-speed-reading, making regular coffee in a regular coffee pot. We update our Facebook friends about our crazy skeds in real time, and routinely start emails with an apology about the delay in reply, using our busy-ness as an excuse. ... Inspired by Schulte’s book, Slate writer Hanna Rosin wrote a piece recently about “busy-bragging,” the irresistible urge to whine about your jam-packed schedule.
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Uncovering a New Angle on Mental Distance
Why does the second hour of a journey seem shorter than the first? According to research from University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) and the Rotman School of Management, the answer lies in how we’re physically oriented in space. In a series of six studies, Sam Maglio, an assistant professor in UTSC’s Department of Management, demonstrated that a person’s orientation -- the direction they are headed -- changed how they thought of an object or event. The research is forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “Feeling close to or distant from something impacts our behavior and judgment,” says Maglio.
