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I Love Him, I Love Him Not
Scientific American: Over a decade ago, I devised a test for detecting attitudes and biases operating below the level of a person’s awareness. Known as the Implicit Association Test, or IAT, it is presently the most widely used of the measures of implicit attitudes that have been developed by social psychologists over the past 25 years. It has been self-administered online by millions, many of whom have been surprised—sometimes unpleasantly—by evidence of their own unconscious attitudes and stereotypes regarding race, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. Read the whole story: Scientific American
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Is Your Memory Playing Tricks on You?
A new study claims that some of our vivid memories are simply figments of the imagination. Remembering events from our past that we know have never actually happened is actually a relatively common phenomenon, according to psychologists from the University of Hull. As part of the research study, which is the first of its kind and is published this week in the journal Psychological Science, more than 1600 students were asked to recall memories of events that they no longer believed had taken place. The results revealed that one in five had experienced these types of memories, and most of them related to when they were between four and eight years old.
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Study Suggests Intervention for Overcoming Reading-Comprehension Difficulties in Children
Researchers identify a training program that could help children who are able to read text aloud but have difficulties understanding what they’ve read.
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Psychologists develop 2 potent new predictors of suicide risk
Science Centric: Two powerful new tests developed by psychologists at Harvard University show great promise in predicting patients' risk of attempting suicide. The work may help clinicians overcome their reliance on self-reporting by at-risk individuals, information that often proves misleading when suicidal patients wish to hide their intentions. Both new tests are easily administered within minutes on a computer, giving quick insight into how patients are thinking about suicide, as well as their propensity to attempt suicide in the near future. 'Experts have long sought a clear behavioural marker of suicide risk,' says Harvard Professor of Psychology Matthew K.
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To Make One Happy, Make One Busy
In Greek mythology, the gods punished Sisyphus by condemning him to roll a rock up a steep hill for eternity. But he was probably better off than if they'd condemned him to sit and stare into space until the end of time, conclude the authors of a new study on keeping busy. They found that people who have something to do, even something pointless, are happier than people who sit idly. "The general phenomenon I'm interested in is why people are so busy doing what they are doing in modern society," says Christopher K. Hsee, of the University of Chicago. He co-wrote the study with Adelle X. Yang, also of the University of Chicago, and Liangyan Wang, of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
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Why (some) people drown their sorrows
Imagine that you just lost your job. The bad news came without warning—a company downsizing. You’re one more casualty of the recession. So naturally you’re feeling lousy, and what’s more, you need to go home and tell the family. But maybe, before you do, you’ll stop by your favorite watering hole for a martini—or two or three. You’ve got the time, after all. That’s called drowning your sorrows—or, in psychological jargon, self-medication. It’s quite normal, really, to try to regulate intense negative emotions in whatever way possible, and liquor is a quick and effective strategy. But it’s not a healthy strategy—and the fact is, not everyone does it.
