Psychology in Action

Category: Cognition and Perception

  • Biological and Environmental Impacts on Emotion Regulation

    Biological and Environmental Impacts on Emotion Regulation

    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.

  • Adele and the Margaret Thatcher Effect

    Adele and the Margaret Thatcher Effect

    Adele’s face is the latest victim of a viral illustration of perceptual illusions. During the past week, an image of Adele’s upside down-face has gone viral on the internet, with instructions that read “turn your phone upside down” or “look at the image upside down.” If you haven’t done the experiment yourself, it looks something…

  • Can I become more inspired?

    Can I become more inspired?

    “Do one thing every day that scares you.” —Eleanor Roosevelt Happy new year! (It still counts as the new year, right?) How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? If you’re like a lot of people, you might be beginning to lose sight of them. Research has found that a little over a third…

  • Highlights of “Building Minds”

    Highlights of “Building Minds”

      For those who missed “Building Minds: Microchips & Molecules”, here is a taste of the action. For all who packed the CNSI auditorium in May for our annual interdisciplinary symposium, here is a quick trip down memory lane. Enjoy! Gimzewski (’15 symposium) UCLA’s James Gimzewski cited Alan Turing in his talk describing his research on…

  • “Building Minds: Microchips & Molecules” Symposium – May 18, 2015

    “Building Minds: Microchips & Molecules” Symposium – May 18, 2015

    Psychology in Action is proud to announce the fourth annual Psychology Interdisciplinary Events symposium, Monday, May 18th, 2015, from 4 to 6pm in UCLA’s CNSI Auditorium. The discussion will focus on various attempts to create artificial minds and what they tell us about our own minds. The event is completely FREE and open to the general…

  • Signal Detection: Decision Making in Uncertainty

    Signal Detection: Decision Making in Uncertainty

    We all experience uncertainty: How did I do on that test? What do they think of me? Where did I leave my keys? Is my phone ringing? In these and other uncertain situations, we have to take the evidence we have and make our best guess about the answer. Sometimes we’re right, and sometimes we’re…

  • Mind the Explanatory Gap

    Mind the Explanatory Gap

    12329159165_a12a8df2ca_b Dualism is dead – it’s been dead for a while now, actually, and is beginning to smell a bit. Somebody ought to take it out. Ask any scientist, philosopher, or academic involved in the study of the mind and you will discover this in no uncertain terms for yourself. The notion that the mind…

  • Outreach Event: Brain Awareness Week 2015!

    Outreach Event: Brain Awareness Week 2015!

    Nicco Reggente leads the discussion on cognitive psychology! Imagine your typical morning. You crave some sugary cereal to get you fueled for the day ahead. You dash out the door to realize you forgot your keys. And – especially for you teenagers – as you’re heading out to school, you realize that you’d rather go…

  • Psychology and the Everyday

    Psychology and the Everyday

    I’d like to start off a bit unusually today. Specifically, I’d like to make a request of you, dear reader. Nothing terribly difficult, but I realize it’s strange to have an article ask you to do something. If you’re on board so far, I’d like to ask you to choose a number between 1 and…

  • What color is the dress, really?

    What color is the dress, really?

    One of the top social media items today regards the color of the above dress. Is it blue and black? Or white and gold? The internet is in a disarray and a great debate has ensued. Even Taylor Swift has chimed in (her vote is blue and black). I see white with a gold fringe.…