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Graduate Program Interviews: Cognitive Psychology
So you applied to PhD programs in Psychology in the fall, with some kind of interest or focus in cognitive psychology – memory, attention, perception, thinking, learning, cognitive neuroscience, computational modeling of cognition, etc. Now interviews are coming up. Want to get the inside scoop on the interviewing/decision process? What questions to ask, what to…
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Former Israeli Prime Minister’s Significant Brain Activity – How Do We Know?
Israeli scientists and UCLA’s Dr. Martin Monti recently found that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon demonstrates significant brain activity. Seven years ago Sharon suffered two strokes. The second stroke caused him to lose most of his consciousness. Sharon is in a minimally conscious state, a little more aware than a coma or a persistent vegetative…
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Psychology Classics: Claude Steele’s Stereotype Threat Paradigm
In the late 1980s, a university committee at the University of Michigan called for psychology professor Dr. Claude Steele to tackle the problem of academic achievement among minority students at the university. His subsequent research resulted in the discovery and identification of one of the most far-reaching and influential phenomena in social psychology
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A Nation Divided: Partisanship and Morality
It seems that the divide between conservatives and liberals grows sharper every day, especially during election season. But what is the source of this bitter partisanship? Research by Jonathan Haidt and Jesse Graham may begin to provide an answer. Their research suggests that people of different political affiliations are not merely divided over the specific…
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Organizing Research with Mendeley and Dropbox
Students and researchers of all stripes need to organize their research, and there are a number of different tools out there to help them. As I was about to attend graduate school, I wanted to iron out a system before things spiraled out of control and into disarray. I think I’ve managed to do that…
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Science Versus Religion – Mortal enemies or hopeful friends?
The feud between religion and science can be compared to the Montague and Capulet relationship – hateful at times, dismissive often, and bridged rarely, often with tragic results for those who try. A recent article in the journal Science (see Can Science and Religion Get Along?) discussed a controversial panel that aimed to bring together…
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Alcohol blackouts: What to remember to remember?
Do you remember what you did last night? Have you ever not remembered what you did after drinking? Drinking alcohol over a long time period can affect the brain and cause lasting damage including, but not limited to, slips in memory. These memory slips can be due to lack of blood flow to brain areas…
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Teens and drugs: Drug use statistics and a different approach to prevention
Here are some drug use statistics: Over 80% of teens engage in some form of deviant behavior (1). Over 50% of high-school seniors admit to having used drugs (2). Only 10%-15% of the population develop drug addiction problems related to their drug use (1). The question is: If the majority of teens experiment with drug…
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Even when you know it’s fake: The strength of the placebo effect
Almost everyone has heard about the placebo effect – the finding that treatment that have no particularly relevant effect (like a sugar or vitamin pill, or a behavioral equivalent) can make patients feel better. The placebo effect is actually the reason that all FDA approved drugs have to go through a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial…