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Reports on the latest psychology research plus psych gossip and comment. Brought to you by the British Psychological Society.
BPS Research Digest
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- September 2, 2010
- 07:10 AM
- 35 views
The woman whose new memories are erased each night
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Psychologists have documented what they believe to be a clinical first - the case of an amnesic woman whose memory for new material is erased each night that she goes to sleep (movie fans will recognise this as a plot device in the 2004 film 50 First Dates). Referred to as case FL, the woman developed these symptoms after she hit her head in a car accident in 2005, aged 48. Brain scans and neurological exams revealed no signs of brain damage, thus suggesting the woman is exhibiting what's known ........ Read more »
Smith, C., Frascino, J., Kripke, D., McHugh, P., Treisman, G., & Squire, L. (2010) Losing memories overnight: A unique form of human amnesia. Neuropsychologia, 48(10), 2833-2840. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.05.025
- August 31, 2010
- 05:00 AM
- 42 views
How good are we at estimating other people's drunkenness?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Sloshed, trollied, hammered, plastered. We've done a sterling job of inventing words for the inebriated state, but when it comes to judging from their behaviour how much a person has drunk, we could do (a lot) better. That's according to a review of the literature by US psychologist Steve Rubenzer.
We all have our trusted indices for judging other people's drunkenness. Perhaps it's when the eyeballs start floating about as if under the control of a clumsy puppeteer. Or maybe the effusive 'you k........ Read more »
Rubenzer, S. (2010) Judging intoxication. Behavioral Sciences . DOI: 10.1002/bsl.935
- August 27, 2010
- 04:48 AM
- 42 views
Feeling clean makes us harsher moral judges
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
As the dirt and germs are wiped away, we're left feeling not just bodily but also morally cleansed - a kind of metaphorical virtuosity that leads us to judge others more harshly. That's according to Chen-Bo Zhong's team, who invited 58 undergrads to a lab filled with spotless new equipment. Half the students were asked to clean their hands with an antiseptic wipe so as not to soil the shiny surfaces. Afterwards all the students rated the morality of six societal issues including pornography and ........ Read more »
Zhong, C., Strejcek, B., & Sivanathan, N. (2010) A clean self can render harsh moral judgment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(5), 859-862. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.04.003
- August 25, 2010
- 04:40 AM
- 53 views
What clients think CBT will be like and how it really is
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
People expect cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to be more prescriptive than it is, and therapists to be more controlling than they really are. That's according to a series of interviews with 18 clients who undertook 8 sessions (14 hours) of CBT to help with their diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder.
Henny Westra and colleagues selected for interview nine clients whose therapy had ended positively and nine whose therapy had ended poorly. Four of the clients were male. There were four CB........ Read more »
Westra, H., Aviram, A., Barnes, M., & Angus, L. (2010) Therapy was not what I expected: A preliminary qualitative analysis of concordance between client expectations and experience of cognitive-behavioural therapy. Psychotherapy Research, 20(4), 436-446. DOI: 10.1080/10503301003657395
- August 23, 2010
- 04:29 AM
- 42 views
Flynn effect for memory could invalidate neuropsychologists' tests
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
In Western countries, scores on IQ tests have been rising for several decades - the Flynn effect, named after the political scientist James Flynn. Now Sallie Baxendale at the Institute of Neurology has provided evidence that a similar effect has occurred for the standardised memory tests that are used by clinical neuropsychologists, a finding with implications for the diagnosis of memory problems in contemporary patients.
Baxendale focused on the Adult Memory and Information Processing Battery ........ Read more »
Baxendale, S. (2010) The Flynn effect and memory function. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 32(7), 699-703. DOI: 10.1080/13803390903493515
- August 20, 2010
- 04:10 AM
- 60 views
Video protects girls from the negative effects of looking at ultra-thin models
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
'No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted' - that's the concluding catchphrase of a one-minute video called 'evolution' made by Dove a few years ago to show how cosmetics and computer trickery are used to create the unrealistic portrayals of female models on advertising billboards. Now a team of researchers at the University of the West of England, led by Emma Halliwell, have tested whether viewing this short video can buffer young girls against the negative effects of looking at images o........ Read more »
Halliwell E, Easun A, & Harcourt D. (2010) Body dissatisfaction: Can a short media literacy message reduce negative media exposure effects amongst adolescent girls?. British journal of health psychology. PMID: 20687976
- August 18, 2010
- 05:59 AM
- 81 views
Hunting the successful psychopath
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Put aside the dramatic Hollywood portrayals. Suited, married, high achieving, some of them walk among us. No, not vampires or super-heroes but 'successful psychopaths'. Like their criminally violent cousins - the standard psychopaths - these people are ruthless, callous, fearless and arrogant. But thanks to their superior self-control and conscientiousness, rather than landing in prison, they end up as company chief executives, university chancellors and Queen's Council barristers. Well, that's ........ Read more »
Mullins-Sweatt, S., Glover, N., Derefinko, K., Miller, J., & Widiger, T. (2010) The search for the successful psychopath. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(4), 554-558. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2010.05.010
- August 17, 2010
- 05:55 AM
- 80 views
How to apologise
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Whether it's a company like BP apologising for causing environmental catastrophe or a political leader expressing regret for her country's prior misdemeanors, it seems there's barely a day goes by without the media watching hawkishly to find out just how the contrite words will be delivered and what effect they'll have on the aggrieved.
Surprisingly, psychology has, until now, paid little attention to what makes for an effective apology. Past studies have tended to focus instead simply on wheth........ Read more »
Fehr, R., & Gelfand, M. (2010) When apologies work: How matching apology components to victims’ self-construals facilitates forgiveness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 113(1), 37-50. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.04.002
- August 12, 2010
- 01:32 PM
- 54 views
Left hemisphere already specialised for language by two months of age
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
It's widely known that in the majority of people the left hemisphere is dominant for language. But how early does this lateralisation of function emerge? An obvious way to find out is to put babies in a brain scanner and see if their brains show the same left-sided preference for language, compared with other auditory stimuli, as is observed in adults. Of course, from a practical perspective, that's easier said than done.
Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz and her colleagues scanned the brains of ........ Read more »
Dehaene-Lambertz, G., Montavont, A., Jobert, A., Allirol, L., Dubois, J., Hertz-Pannier, L., & Dehaene, S. (2010) Language or music, mother or Mozart? Structural and environmental influences on infants’ language networks. Brain and Language, 114(2), 53-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2009.09.003
- August 11, 2010
- 05:24 AM
- 58 views
Are children from collectivist cultures more likely to say it's okay to lie for the group?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Would you lie for the sake of your team? Perhaps it depends on the culture you come from. Monica Sweet at the University of California and her co-researchers reasoned that children from collectivist cultures, such as China, which emphasise the importance of group ties, might be more inclined to say it's okay to lie for your team than children from individualistic cultures, such as the US, which place more value on self-interest.
Nearly four hundred children aged seven to eleven, approximately h........ Read more »
Sweet, M., Heyman, G., Fu, G., & Lee, K. (2010) Are there limits to collectivism? Culture and children's reasoning about lying to conceal a group transgression. Infant and Child Development. DOI: 10.1002/icd.669
- August 9, 2010
- 04:17 AM
- 50 views
Predicting when a crime is about to take place on CCTV
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Are experienced CCTV operators better than naive participants at judging from an unfolding scene on CCTV whether or not a crime is about to be committed? The short answer is no, they aren't. Presented with 24 real-life 15-second CCTV clips, and asked to predict which half ended just before a crime was about to be committed (examples included violence and vandalism) and which half were innocuous, 12 experienced CCTV operators managed just 55.5 per cent accuracy - no bette........ Read more »
Grant, D., & Williams, D. (2010) The importance of perceiving social contexts when predicting crime and antisocial behaviour in CCTV images. Legal and Criminological Psychology. DOI: 10.1348/135532510X512665
- August 6, 2010
- 05:08 AM
- 65 views
Stubbing out thoughts of smoking leads smokers to end up smoking more
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Try not to think of a white bear and what happens? You end up thinking of a white bear. This idea that suppressing thoughts makes them rebound stronger is well-established in psychology [pdf]. Now James Erskine and his co-workers have shown that the same or a similar process can lead behaviours to rebound too.
Eighty-five smokers (average age 31), none of whom were currently trying to quit, were divided into three groups for three weeks. One group was instructed to spend the middle week avoid........ Read more »
Erskine JA, Georgiou GJ, & Kvavilashvili L. (2010) I Suppress, Therefore I Smoke: Effects of Thought Suppression on Smoking Behavior. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS. PMID: 20660892
- August 4, 2010
- 04:56 AM
- 47 views
Floral arrangement as a cognitive training tool for schizophrenia
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
It's the hallucinations and delusions associated with schizophrenia that typically attract discussion and research. However, patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia also exhibit deficits in memory and perception and, importantly, the severity of these is predictive of quality of life, social functioning and autonomy. How can these cognitive deficits be helped? Researchers have found some success with computer-based training but patient motivation can be problem. Now a team of researchers led ........ Read more »
Mochizuki-Kawai, H., Yamakawa, Y., Mochizuki, S., Anzai, S., & Arai, M. (2010) Structured floral arrangement programme for improving visuospatial working memory in schizophrenia. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 20(4), 624-636. DOI: 10.1080/09602011003715141
- August 2, 2010
- 04:49 AM
- 64 views
That's not a poker face, this is a poker face
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
What does your poker face look like? If it's the traditional, stern, emotionless expression, you may want to consider practising a new one. Erik Schlicht and colleagues report that a friendly, trustworthy face is more likely to influence your opponents, leading them to think that you've got a good hand - that you're not bluffing.
Schlicht's team had 14 relative novices play hundreds of one-shot rounds of a simplified version of Texas Hold'em poker against hundreds of different 'opponents'. Each........ Read more »
Schlicht EJ, Shimojo S, Camerer CF, Battaglia P, & Nakayama K. (2010) Human wagering behavior depends on opponents' faces. PloS one, 5(7). PMID: 20657772
- July 30, 2010
- 05:41 AM
- 64 views
What proportion of chemical leaks provoke mass hysteria?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Mass hysteria and not leaked chemicals was the likely cause of the symptoms experienced by those exposed in 16 per cent of hundreds of chemical leaks recorded in England and Wales between January 2007 and April 2008.
That's according to an analysis by Lisa Page and colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry of 280 chemical leaks recorded by the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards based at Chilton in Oxfordshire.
Otherwise known as 'mass psychogenic illness', mass hysteria........ Read more »
Page, L., Keshishian, C., Leonardi, G., Murray, V., Rubin, G., & Wessely, S. (2010) Frequency and Predictors of Mass Psychogenic Illness. Epidemiology, 1. DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3181e9edc4
- July 28, 2010
- 05:37 AM
- 72 views
Football fouls more likely to be given when play heads left
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
A simple perceptual bias could influence football referees' judgements about whether a foul occurred or not. That's according to Alexander Kranjec and colleagues, who had 12 football players at the University of Pennsylvania look for half a second each at 268 static images of one player tackling another and decide whether a foul had been committed. Unbeknown to the participants, 134 of the pictures were simply mirror opposites of the other 134.
The key finding was that more fouls (66.5 vs. 63.3........ Read more »
Kranjec A, Lehet M, Bromberger B, & Chatterjee A. (2010) A sinister bias for calling fouls in soccer. PloS one, 5(7). PMID: 20628648
- July 26, 2010
- 04:33 AM
- 71 views
What's the link between left-handedness and drinking behaviour?
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Back in the 70's, psychologist Paul Bakan published a short research report in which he noted that among 47 inpatients on an alcoholism ward, 7 were left-handed - more than you'd expect based on the approximate 10-per cent prevalence of left-handedness in the general population. Bakan described his observation as 'incidental' but according to Kevin Denny, the idea of an alcoholism-handedness link has proven sticky, with some commentators suggesting the stress of being left-handed in a right-hand........ Read more »
Denny, K. (2010) Handedness and drinking behaviour. British Journal of Health Psychology. DOI: 10.1348/135910710X515705
- July 23, 2010
- 04:20 AM
- 85 views
The unsung pioneers in the study of prejudice
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
When did the scholarly study of prejudice begin? Most people cite Gordon Allport's seminal work 'The Nature of Prejudice' published in 1954, but according to Russell Webster and colleagues the first scholar to propose a working definition of prejudice was actually the English humanist and literary critic William Hazlitt (pictured), writing way back in 1830.
Inspired in part by his visit to France where he discovered the French were not as 'butterfly, airy, thoughtless, fluttering' as convention........ Read more »
Webster RJ, Saucier DA, & Harris RJ. (2010) Before the measurement of prejudice: Early psychological and sociological papers on prejudice. Journal of the history of the behavioral sciences, 46(3), 300-313. PMID: 20623744
- July 21, 2010
- 05:10 AM
- 104 views
We're happier when busy but our instinct is for idleness
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Forced to wait for fifteen minutes at the airport luggage carousel leaves many of us miserable and irritated. Yet if we'd spent the same waiting time walking to the carousel we'd be far happier. That's according to Christopher Hsee and colleagues, who say we're happier when busy but that unfortunately our instinct is for idleness. Unless we have a reason for being active we choose to do nothing - an evolutionary vestige that ensures we conserve energy.
Consider Hsee's first study. His team offe........ Read more »
Hsee CK, Yang AX, & Wang L. (2010) Idleness aversion and the need for justifiable busyness. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 21(7), 926-30. PMID: 20548057
- July 19, 2010
- 06:56 AM
- 105 views
It's never too late to memorise a 60,000 word poem
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Pounding the treadmill in 1993, John Basinger, aged 58, decided to complement his physical exercise by memorising the 12 books, 10,565 lines and 60,000 words that comprise the Second Edition of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost. Nine years later he achieved his goal, performing the poem from memory over a three-day period, and since then he has recited the poem publicly on numerous occasions. When the psychologist John Seamon of Wesleyan University witnessed one of those performances in Dece........ Read more »
Seamon, J., Punjabi, P., & Busch, E. (2010) Memorising Milton's Paradise Lost: A study of a septuagenarian exceptional memoriser. Memory, 18(5), 498-503. DOI: 10.1080/09658211003781522
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