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Work Engagement: Ironing Out the Details
Disaffected workers are so common in television and movies that they’ve become something of an archetype. Almost every show about working life includes at least one member of the team who would, quite frankly, rather be doing something else. The fact that audiences empathize — or identify — with these characters so much seems to suggest that disengagement is widespread. This problem hasn’t been lost on the business community — or on psychologists. The field of engagement study is still relatively new, but over the past decade, research on the topic has increased exponentially. In 2011, APS Fellow Arnold A. Bakker, Simon L. Albrecht, and Michael P.
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Money and Morality: Lack of Resources May Lead to Harsher Moral Judgments
Material resources, specifically income, have a sustaining impact on our lives. They dictate fundamental aspects of life, like where we live, and more peripheral aspects, such as whether we can go to the office happy hour. But research reveals that material resources can also influence how we judge other people. The findings, published in Psychological Science, suggest that individuals with lower incomes are more likely to issue harsher judgments of harmful behavior, like lying or physically attacking someone. Global factors, like the economy, as well as individual factors, such as mood, influence this effect.
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APS Announces Second Replication Project: Proposals Due April 10, 2014
APS is pleased to announce a new Registered Replication Report project is under way. The replication editors at Perspectives on Psychological Science will be reviewing applications to participate in this project through April 10th. Applicants should note that this study requires that subjects be native English speakers. Links to the study protocol and application to participate, as well as to the full project site on Open Science Framework, can be found here. Significant financial support is available. Researchers can seek funding for expenses related to conducting the replication, such as subject testing fees, materials, and other costs.
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Got a Dollar? You May Be Happier if You Spend it on Someone Else
A boost to income can increase happiness to a certain degree, but research suggests how you spend your money may be equally important as the amount you have.
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Feats of Memory at the 2014 APS Annual Convention
It’s not a supernatural power: Memorizing a deck of cards in less than a minute and a 300-word list in just a quarter of an hour are achievable feats for top memory athletes. At the 2014 APS Annual Convention, May 22–25 in San Francisco, attendees will have the chance to see one such memory athlete in action. Nelson Dellis, the 2012 US Memory Champion, will speak with APS Past President Henry L. Roediger, III, as part of Roediger’s Bring the Family Address, “Make It Stick: How Memory Athletes Perform and How Their Techniques Can Help You.” Roediger, a leader in cognitive psychology, has spent his career studying memory retrieval and its implications for memory and learning.
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Spatial Imagery Improves With Sight
Imagine a square box about the size of a soccer ball. Now imagine turning it over with your hands. It’s a task that’s easy for most people to do -- indeed, we use spatial imagery all the time to handle objects, plan movements, and navigate through various environments. Different sensory modalities, including vision, audition, and touch, provide information about our environment. So how can we figure out the relative importance of each modality in contributing to spatial imagery?
