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The Perils of Trying to Unlearn
There are tons of studies about how to improve learning, but what happens when we want to unlearn is less clear. Research on learning by association goes back to Pavlov’s famous experiments in which he taught a dog to expect food at the sound of a bell, but scientists have found that getting a dog — or human — to forget an association once they’ve learned it is really hard. A new paper published in Perspectives on Psychological Science describes how scientists have attempted to change associations.
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Cultural Ties
When a child learns to tie her shoes —perhaps using the “bunny ears” method or the “squirrel and the tree” — her parents probably don’t think of the lesson as a moment of cultural reinforcement. But in the midst of a debate over culture and cognition, a group of five psychological scientists at Northwestern University’s MOSAIC lab noticed their shoe-tying methods were as diverse as the countries they represented. The lesson: Culture permeates nearly everything we do, even mundane routines that we think are neutral. For more on culture and science, read the April 2012 Presidential Column Everything is Cultural by APS President Douglas L. Medin.
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HPA Activation Leads to Sex Differences in Spatial Attention
In case you missed it, the cameras were rolling at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Watch Melissa VanderKaay Tomasulo from St. Michael's College present her poster session research. Stressors in your life, such as navigating traffic or doing a public presentation, activate two main biological stress systems: The HPA axis (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis) and the SAM axis (sympatho-adrenomedullary axis). Stress research in humans has generally focused on verbal learning and memory. But Melissa M. VanderKaay Tomasulo of Saint Michael's College, along withAnthony E.
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How to Beat Bad News
There’s a lot of bad news out there, and sometimes it’s hard not to assume that the next flu pandemic, terrorist attack, or natural disaster is just around the corner. If remembering frightening, high-profile events makes you feel bad, APS Fellow David Barlow suggests that you confront your negative feelings head on. Ten years after the September 11 attacks, Barlow said that ramped-up airport security and color-coded threat assessments from the Department of Homeland Security serve as constant reminders that something terrible could happen at any moment. The consequence, he says, has been an increase in anxiety among Americans.
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Q & A With Psychological Scientist Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College. His research investigates the decision-making processes that underlie our choices and examines how our choices make us feel. We invited our Facebook and Twitter followers to ask Schwartz questions about his research - here is what he had to say: Do you have any suggestions for a better college application process that would not only be helpful in stopping the extreme competitiveness in our society but also better match students to the college that best suites them? Yes I do.
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Crisscrossing Senses
Ever wonder what the number 5 tastes like? What color is G sharp? Or what type of personality does January have? If you were a synesthete, you might be able to answer these questions. Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. More recently, scientists have speculated that babies are born synaesthetes and slowly lose those sensory connections as neurons are pruned as their brains develop. A recent article from Psychological Science Synaesthetic Associations Decrease During Infancy, provides some evidence for this theory.
