Blog Posts

Future intentions are difficult to remember. Luckily, we adapt by using external devices such as smartphones and calendars. 

Measuring Chronological AgeAging is something that we all experience, but that we still struggle to understand. We know that aging is natural and allows us to mature, and is ultimately related to natural mortality. Many researchers have sought to devel …

At approximately 150 years of age, psychological science is an infant among elders. For someone like myself, this is precisely what makes psychological science so invigorating. We stand on the shoulders of giants in scientific history, but we are also in unchartered waters.

Infants learn an incredible amount in the first two years of life.  But how can we investigate how and when infants learn about various aspects of the world around them?

Polyvagal TheoryIn the first article in this series (read here if you missed it!), we got an overview of the vagus nerve and its role in stress physiology. In this second article, we will go through the specific stages of the stress response in polyvag …

Everyone loves a good superhero story. Superheroes have been a fixture in American pop culture for decades, but in the past 10-15 years we’ve witnessed a resurgence of superhero mania. Between movies, TV shows, toys, and even national conventions, the …

What’s going on in the brain when someone does change their mind? Understanding neural systems underlying belief maintenance can bring scientists closer to communicating new research in a way that makes people more amenable to updating their beliefs.

 “It’s too expensive to start the school day later.”“Extracurriculars will suffer if we start school later.”“We shouldn’t coddle teens by pushing school start times.”These are just some of the arguments against later school start times for teens. …

Up there with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the ever-popular Learning Styles assessment. Such assessments are meant to measure which “way” we learn information best (e.g. visual, audio, etc.). Results indicate what type of learner you are, but what does empirical research have to say about learning styles?

“It’s hard to explain how amazing and magical this experience is. First of all, there’s the astounding beauty and diversity of the planet itself, scrolling across your view at what appears to be a smooth, stately pace… I’m happy to report that no amo …

A visual illusion favorite: How can a still image move? What if you saw something, but it wasn’t really there? What if a still image suddenly started moving? Or, if a yellow box was actually brown? Kids and their families were fascinated by the display …

The polyvagal theory is a neurobiological theory relating social engagement, physiology, and developmental outcomes. When I was first learning the theory, I struggled to understand some of the theory’s basic terms and could not find a resource that simplified it. Therefore, this three–part series of articles is intended to serve as an introduction to the theory. 

A fundamental aspect of the human experience is undeniably emotion. Love, anger, happiness, fear: these are concepts that we are all intimately familiar with, but their subjective experience can vary widely person to person.

Though ADHD is 2-3 times more prevalent in boys than girls, approximately 6% of girls are diagnosed with ADHD in childhood, which makes it one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in girls.

How would multilingual education benefit English-language learning (ELL) students?

Sampling distributions are one of the most concepts in statistics. This article introduces the basic ideas of a sampling distribution of the sample mean, as well as a few common ways we use the sampling distribution in statistics.

As human beings, we are particularly adept at discerning the emotions of others. Whether it’s our angry boss, saddened family members, or happy friends, we usually succeed at identifying emotional expressions in other people. These judgments let us adj …

Millions of people are diagnosed with cancer each year, and while not all cases of cancer are preventable, between one third and one half of these cases could be prevented by changing some everyday behaviors. Knowing that your behavior can have a real impact on your health is helpful, but what specific things can you do? Here’s some advice backed by scientific evidence that may help prevent certain cancers

Navigating the graduate school application process can be a very overwhelming and stressful experience. Potential applicants are understandably faced with countless questions, such as: “How many schools should I apply to?” “When should I take the GREs? …

Sharing positive news with others is associated with benefits such as feeling more positive and more satisfied with life, greater self-esteem, and decreases in feeling lonely.

Psychology in Action is proud to announce our fifth annual interdisciplinary symposium, Monday, May 23rd, 2016, from 4 to 6pm in UCLA’s CNSI Auditorium. The discussion will focus on factors that influence voters’ beliefs and behavior. Th …