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Sports Science in the News
Three days, 3 more psychological science highlights: Counting down to the Olympic Opening Ceremony with research insights on sports and performance. #3. With three days left until the 2012 Olympics begin, the science behind the many complexities of sports and competition have been all over the news. Some recent psychological science highlights that have been making headlines.
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Today’s Spotlight: Robert A. Bjork
Watch APS Past President Robert A. Bjork explain his theory on long-term memory in this series of interviews. Bjork is a Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His lab, the Bjork Learning and Forgetting Lab, investigates human learning, memory, and the implications of such research on instruction. Bjork was Co-editor of Psychological Science in the Public Interest. GoCognitive is an educational website supported by the APS Teaching Fund that provides free access to tools on cognitive psychology and neuroscience. GoCognitive has an archive of video interviews of leading researchers in the field, in addition to interactive demonstrations.
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BATMAN Gear for the Real World
The United States Air Force is taking a page from an iconic comic. As an intern in the Human Performance Wing at Wright Paterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, psychological scientist Andre Garcia, from George Mason University, worked on the BATMAN team. Though Garcia tends to think of team BATMAN (which stands for Battlefield Air Targeting Man-Aided kNowledge) as being more like Alfred, Batman’s loyal butler who was always there to help the caped crusader with all of his high-tech gizmos.
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Save the Nerves for the Night Before
Four days left, 4 more psychological science highlights: Counting down to the Olympic Opening Ceremony, with research insights on sports and performance. #4. In Olympic competition, the margin between winning the gold and sitting in the stands often comes down to fractions of a second. Olympic athletes will be doing everything they can to gain even the slightest competitive edge. Researchers have found that feeling tense the night before a game could actually be part of gaining that edge. Recent research conducted at Northwestern University investigated whether feelings of tension play a part in swimming performance.
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Silly Sports Rituals? Think Again
Five days left, 5 psychological science highlights: Counting down to the Olympic Opening Ceremony, with research insights on sports and performance. #5. Have you seen Michelle Jenneke’s prerace routine? How about Stephanie Rice before she swims? When a event begins, there is no telling how it will end. How can players cope with the unpredictability Olympic competition? The rituals that athletes count on to win a tip off or sink a game-winning shot — like the college basketball shorts Michael Jordan used to wear under his NBA uniform — might be more than just mere superstitions. Gregg Steinberg, Austin Peay State University, studies human performance in sports.
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APS Members Honored at ICP
Five APS members will be honored for their contributions to psychological science on July 26, 2012, at the 30th International Congress of Psychology (ICP) in Cape Town, South Africa — the first flagship meeting of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS ) to be held in Africa. Sathasivan "Saths" Cooper will accept the IUPsyS Achievement Against the Odds Award for his significant contributions to psychological science in the host country, South Africa, where he was jailed for nine years for his opposition to apartheid. Cooper is one leader credited with restoring the integrity of South African psychology, which was damaged by its ties to apartheid.
