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Focusing on the Past or Future Shapes Spatial Perception of Time
We often think about the future as being in front of us and the past as being at our back – as we walk, places we pass are behind us, and places we have yet to reach lie ahead. But not every culture views time the same way. For instance, although the Arabic dialect spoken in Morocco refers to time in the same way that English does, previous research suggests that Moroccans have a tendency to see the past as being in front of them and the future as being behind them.
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Ebola Scare Could Heighten Fears About Other Illnesses, Research Suggests
Americans are now fretting over an illness that they have almost no chance of contracting. Schools have closed, businesses have temporarily shut down, and people who have traveled to West Africa are being shunned — all due to three confirmed cases, and one fatality, of Ebola in Dallas. As APS Fellow Paul Slovic tells Time, the chilling lethality of the Ebola virus leads people to worry about contracting the disease despite the miniscule probability they will do so. What’s more, research suggests that the public panic over Ebola may prompt people to start worrying about their health in general. During the 2009 swine flu pandemic, psychological scientists Spike W. S.
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Comorbidity Among Mental Disorders: A New Approach
Mental disorders have traditionally been viewed as distinct categorical entities, but about 50% of people who meet the criteria for one disorder also meet the criteria for a second disorder. The large number of people with comorbid disorders suggests there may be a simpler underlying structure to psychopathology than the one implied by the current classification system. APS Fellow Avshalom Caspi (Duke University, Kings College London) and colleagues examined the structure of psychopathology using data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study — a prospective longitudinal study of health and behavior.
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Psychological Scientists Awarded Nobel for Discovering Brain’s “GPS”
Three European psychological scientists will share the for their work discovering the brain’s “GPS system.” John O’Keefe (University College London) and husband-and-wife team May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) are being awarded the prize in recognition of their basic research on memory and cognition that has contributed to our understanding of how the brain situates us in our physical environment and guides us from one place to another.
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Park Speaks on Cultural Neuroscience at NIH Seminar Series
Research in the emerging field of cultural neuroscience aims to illuminate how cultural values shape the neurobiology of behavior and neurological processes. APS Fellow Denise C. Park spoke about her research in this arena at a recent seminar series hosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Washington, D.C. The seminar series, “Addressing Health Disparities through Neuroscience,” aims to increase awareness of the impact of neuroscience research in addressing health disparities. It’s well understood that environmental factors can tap into the neuroplasticity of the human brain and lead to subtle shaping of neural structure and function.
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‘The New Statistics’ Video Tutorial Is Now Online
Leading scholars in psychology and other disciplines are advocating the use of the “new statistics” — effect sizes, confidence intervals, and meta-analysis — to help scientists enhance the way they conduct, analyze, and report their research. APS’s flagship journal, Psychological Science, has been inviting authors to use the new statistics as part of a comprehensive effort to enhance behavioral research. In a new online tutorial workshop, APS Fellow Geoff Cumming, an emeritus professor at La Trobe University in Australia and a leader in the new statistics movement, explains why these changes are necessary and suggests ways psychological scientists can implement them.
