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Cutting-edge reports on the latest psychology research
Christian Jarrett
754 posts
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- August 21, 2009
- 04:33 AM
- 888 views
Teenage boy exhibits inverted face-inversion effect ...
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
There's a war going on in the face processing literature, fought not with bullets but with case studies and journal publications. The bone of contention is whether there's something unique about our face processing ability, or if face processing is just like any other form of expertise.Supporting the expertise account are brain imaging findings showing, for example, that the so-called fusiform face processing region of the brain (seen by some as a dedicated face processing module) is also activa........ Read more »
Schmalzl L, Palermo R, Harris IM, & Coltheart M. (2009) Face inversion superiority in a case of prosopagnosia following congenital brain abnormalities: what can it tell us about the specificity and origin of face-processing mechanisms?. Cognitive neuropsychology, 26(3), 286-306. PMID: 19657795
- August 19, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 834 views
How to turn a liberal into a conservative
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
For people who feel psychologically all at sea, the conservative values of authority, order and tradition provide a comforting anchor. That's according to psychologists who further argue that a psychological threat, for example in the form of injustice or reminders of mortality, can even turn a liberal-minded person temporarily into a conservative - a response they call "defensive conservatism".Across three studies, Paul Nail and colleagues tested the conservatism and liberalism of students befo........ Read more »
Nail, P., McGregor, I., Drinkwater, A., Steele, G., & Thompson, A. (2009) Threat causes liberals to think like conservatives. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 901-907. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.04.013
- August 17, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 772 views
Facial emotional expressions are not universal
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
From the Bushmen of the Kalahari to the Kalaallit of Greenland, you'll find that people everywhere frown in frustration and smile in delight. Or will you? The universality of human emotions and their expression in the face has become widely accepted in psychology. At the vanguard of this perspective is pioneering psychologist Paul Ekman, the co-creator of the facial action coding system (FACS) - a way of categorising and interpreting facial expressions according to which muscles are tensed. But ........ Read more »
Jack, R., Blais, C., Scheepers, C., Schyns, P., & Caldara, R. (2009) Cultural Confusions Show that Facial Expressions Are Not Universal. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.051
- August 14, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 756 views
Intervention helps reduce homophobia
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
A problem with interventions that use role-playing to beat prejudice is that bigots usually aren't motivated to take the perspective of the groups that they discriminate against. In a new study, Gordon Hodson and colleagues have tested the effectiveness of an unusual alien-themed intervention for reducing homophobia that involves participants taking the perspective of a homosexual person, without really realising that that is what they're doing.Hodson's team tested the homophobic tendencies of 1........ Read more »
Hodson, G., Choma, B., & Costello, K. (2009) Experiencing Alien-Nation: Effects of a simulation intervention on attitudes toward homosexuals☆. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 974-978. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.02.010
- August 13, 2009
- 03:14 AM
- 807 views
Logic and language are not the same thing
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
It's difficult for us to imagine what our mental lives would be like without language. Some theorists have even gone so far as to argue that language and logical thought are one and the same thing. A new brain imaging study challenges this notion by showing that logical inferences based on simple "not", "or", "if", "then" terms activate a separate, though overlapping, network of brain regions compared with logical inferences based on grammatical judgements.Martin Monti and colleagues scanned the........ Read more »
Monti MM, Parsons LM, & Osherson DN. (2009) The boundaries of language and thought in deductive inference. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 19617569
- August 11, 2009
- 04:32 AM
- 634 views
The surprising links between anger and time perception
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The way we think about abstract concepts like time is grounded in physical metaphors. For example, we talk about re-arranged events being moved from one day to another, as if through space. Similarly, there is a metaphorical, embodied aspect to our emotions - fear is associated with physical withdrawal, for example, whilst anger is associated with approach and confrontation. An intriguing new study shows that this shared way of thinking about time and emotion can lead to some surprising effects......... Read more »
Hauser, D., Carter, M., & Meier, B. (2009) Mellow Monday and furious Friday: The approach-related link between anger and time representation. Cognition , 23(6), 1166-1180. DOI: 10.1080/02699930802358424
- August 10, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 869 views
Listener's facial expression alters speaker's language
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Audiences differ. Talk to one person and your words are welcomed by a smile and nod of acknowledgment. Speak to another, less winsome listener and your words are confronted by a frown and folded arms. According to Camiel Beukeboom, these different responses systematically alter your use of language. Speak to a positive listener and you'll likely use more abstractions and subjective impressions, whilst if you talk to a negative listener you'll probably find yourself sheltering in the security of ........ Read more »
Beukeboom, C. (2009) When words feel right: How affective expressions of listeners change a speaker's language use. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39(5), 747-756. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.572
- August 7, 2009
- 04:45 AM
- 942 views
Kids with invisible friends have superior narrative skills
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The company of an imaginary friend used to be interpreted as a sign of a child's deficient character. Writing in a 1934, for example, M. Svendsen said of those children in his sample with an imaginary friend that "personality difficulties were present in most", with "timidity being most common".Times have changed. It depends on the precise definition of "imaginary friend", but by some modern estimates, nearly half of all young children have an imaginary companion at some point. Moreover, childre........ Read more »
Trionfi G, & Reese E. (2009) A good story: children with imaginary companions create richer narratives. Child development, 80(4), 1301-13. PMID: 19630910
- August 5, 2009
- 04:55 AM
- 898 views
Gentlemen take caution: interacting with a lady could impair your cognitive faculties
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
It's a scenario that's repeated up and down the land. The man knows he is supposed to be focused on discussing last month's sales projections, or some other task, but instead finds himself preoccupied by his female colleague. Now Johan Karremans and colleagues have shown that men are left cognitively impaired by such situations, an effect that seems to be related to the diversion of cognitive resources towards the task of creating the best possible impression.Forty male heterosexual undergrads p........ Read more »
Karremans, J., Verwijmeren, T., Pronk, T., & Reitsma, M. (2009) Interacting with women can impair men’s cognitive functioning. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 1041-1044. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.05.004
- August 3, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 871 views
Inside the brain of a woman with conversion paralysis
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
A new brain imaging study shows the difference, in terms of brain activity, between a person feigning having a paralysed arm and a patient with conversion paralysis - that is, paralysis with no clinically identifiable neurological cause.Conversion paralysis is one manifestation of conversion disorder, previously known as hysteria, which was made famous by the nineteenth century French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (pictured) and later, by his students Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud. The label ........ Read more »
Cojan, Y., Waber, L., Carruzzo, A., & Vuilleumier, P. (2009) Motor inhibition in hysterical conversion paralysis. NeuroImage, 47(3), 1026-1037. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.05.023
- July 31, 2009
- 12:00 AM
- 678 views
Maybe having kids is a good idea after all
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Who'd ever have thought it could be so difficult to measure happiness? Most large-scale studies rely on so-called "global measures". People are asked to rate how satisfied they are with their life, or something similar. The problems here are obvious: people's answers are likely to be swayed by their current mood, and we probably all interpret labels like "satisfied" in our own way. So along came Nobel prize-winning uber psychologist Daniel Kahneman, with his "day reconstruction method" (DRM). Pa........ Read more »
White, M., & Dolan, P. (2009) Accounting for the Richness of Daily Activities. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02392.x
- July 29, 2009
- 03:58 AM
- 1,059 views
The surprising benefits of time pressure at work
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The modern office job has made struggling jugglers of us all. Emailing, phoning, writing, accounting, project-swapping, browsing, not to mention snacking, and day-dreaming, all at once.It helps to have the self-discipline to focus on one task at a time, but even that isn't always enough because thoughts about a previous task can linger and spoil our performance on our current task.Now Sophie Leroy has made a counter-intuitive finding that could have implications for reducing interference between........ Read more »
Leroy, S. (2009) Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109(2), 168-181. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.04.002
- July 27, 2009
- 01:39 PM
- 869 views
Calendar calculating savants with autism - how do they do it?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Savants with autism are people who exhibit an exceptional ability whilst also having social and cognitive impairments. One such ability is calendar calculating - being able to say, with astounding accuracy and alacrity, what day of the week a given date falls on. Just how some savants with autism are able to achieve this feat has baffled researchers. It's been suggested that they use complex algorithms, but this seems implausible given that the same individuals often struggle with maths.To help ........ Read more »
Dubischar-Krivec, A., Neumann, N., Poustka, F., Braun, C., Birbaumer, N., & Bölte, S. (2008) Calendar calculating in savants with autism and healthy calendar calculators. Psychological Medicine, 39(08), 1355. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291708004601
- July 25, 2009
- 10:40 AM
- 951 views
How romantic jealousy hijacks the mind
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
"Jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of [its] objects than love" George Eliot (1860)The mind is altered by fear that our beloved is about to be lured away. Attention and memory systems are hijacked, turned to focus on attractive rivals. That's according to Jon Maner and colleagues who say theirs is one of the first studies to look at how romantic jealousy alters low-level cognitive functioning.Maner's team conducted four studies with hundreds of heterosexual student participants. All began a........ Read more »
Jon Maner, Saul Miller, Aaron Rouby, & Matthew Gailliot. (2009) Intrasexual vigilance: The implicit cognition of romantic rivalry. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74-87. DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19586241
- July 23, 2009
- 03:56 AM
- 970 views
The influence of genes on exceptional mental ability
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
We know a great deal about the relative genetic and environmental influences on average intelligence and on learning disabilities, but far less about the role of genes in exceptional cognitive ability – in lay terms, what we might call genius or innate talent.A new "mega-analysis" of 11,000 twin pairs, aged between 6 and 71, has helped to plug that gap. The results suggest that genes exert a significant influence on exceptional cognitive ability, similar in magnitude to their influence on the ........ Read more »
Haworth, C., Wright, M., Martin, N., Martin, N., Boomsma, D., Bartels, M., Posthuma, D., Davis, O., Brant, A., Corley, R.... (2009) A Twin Study of the Genetics of High Cognitive Ability Selected from 11,000 Twin Pairs in Six Studies from Four Countries. Behavior Genetics, 39(4), 359-370. DOI: 10.1007/s10519-009-9262-3
- July 21, 2009
- 05:06 AM
- 778 views
Realistic view of their popularity protects children against effects of social rejection
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Human immodesty knows no bounds. Most people think they're better looking than average, more intelligent, better at driving and less likely to get ill. Psychologists seeking to explain this common delusion have suggested it serves a protective role: a shield against the depressing realities of fate, fallibility and social spite. However, a surprising new study by Sander Thomaes and colleagues directly contradicts this account. Their investigation with older children suggests that a realistic sel........ Read more »
Thomaes, S., Reijntjes, A., Orobio de Castro, B., & Bushman, B. (2009) Reality Bites-or Does It? Realistic Self-Views Buffer Negative Mood Following Social Threat. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02395.x
- July 19, 2009
- 01:05 PM
- 847 views
Speaking without Broca's area
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Psychology is moving away from a view of the brain that ties functions to specific brain areas. Instead, researchers recognise that the brain is made up of dynamic, flexible networks, in which diverse regions are recruited according to task demands. Complementing this account is a growing recognition of the brain's ability to adapt to damage, even in adulthood - a characteristic known as plasticity. These views are captured in a new clinical case study that documents the recovery of language per........ Read more »
Plaza, M., Gatignol, P., Leroy, M., & Duffau, H. (2009) Speaking without Broca's area after tumor resection. Neurocase, 15(4), 294-310. DOI: 10.1080/13554790902729473
- July 16, 2009
- 06:42 AM
- 1,001 views
First ever photo of Phineas Gage is discovered
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
A pair of photograph collectors in Maryland, USA, have uncovered what they believe to be the first and only ever photographic record of Phineas Gage - the railway worker who survived an iron tamping rod passing straight through the front of his brain, following an explosives accident in 1848.The story of Gage and the effects of his injury on his behaviour and personality have become one of the most famous case studies in the history of psychology, inspiring plays, books and songs.Jack and Beverl........ Read more »
JACK WILGUS, & BEVERLY WILGUS. (2009) Face to Face with Phineas Gage. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. DOI: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content
- July 16, 2009
- 03:30 AM
- 889 views
Resting brain activity may be involved in motor learning
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Most brain imaging experiments tend to follow a similar pattern - instruct the participant to perform some task, or show them a picture, or play them a sound, and then see which areas of their brain light up. This approach has propagated a misconception that the brain has to be prodded into action. But the reality is that the brain constantly beavers away and guzzles just as much energy when we're resting doing nothing, as when we're engaged in an externally focused task. In fact, there's a defa........ Read more »
Albert, N., Robertson, E., & Miall, R. (2009) The Resting Human Brain and Motor Learning. Current Biology, 19(12), 1023-1027. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.04.028
- July 14, 2009
- 11:00 PM
- 900 views
Can we deliberately forget specific parts of what we've read?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The majority of research on memory is focused, as you might expect, on the remembering side of things - how much, how accurate and so on. There is, however, a parallel, but less known, line of investigation into our ability to deliberately forget. This is no mere academic curiosity. The ability to forget selectively that to which we've been exposed would be, if we had it, an extremely useful ability - a kind of refuse collection service for the mind.In one of the first studies of its kind, Peter........ Read more »
Delaney, P., Nghiem, K., & Waldum, E. (2009) The selective directed forgetting effect: Can people forget only part of a text?. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(8), 1542-1550. DOI: 10.1080/17470210902770049
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