It’s a kind of back to basics approach for motorists. In these experimental stretches of road, gone are road markings, curbs, traffic islands, barriers and even traffic lights. Instead we encourage drivers, pedestrians and cyclists to interact and be more aware of each other.
The idea is so attractive, I hope it works – evidence is encouraging from the UK village where it has been trialled.
This study tested what effect computer use by students had on reading and writing skills. Surprisingly student’s use of a computer during the school year improved their scores in the final test. That was despite it not involving a computer.
A more entertaining finding was buried in the middle. The researchers found that the use of Powerpoint to create presentations actually lowered the student’s marks in the final test. So Powerpoint is as bad for presenter as it is for the audience – something I had always suspected.
> From Science Daily
A US company is selling this bear in a straight-jacket ahead of Valentine’s Day. Naturally some priggish Americans have claimed it stigmatises mental illness. Fortunately executives at The Vermont Teddy Bear Co. have taken, and I quote, “the difficult decision,” to continue selling the bear despite the outraged complaints. A triumph of capitalism over political correctness, I’m sure you’ll agree.
> From BBC News
How many times do you read an article in the newspaper on a fascinating subject and then never hear about it again? I don’t want my blog to be a home for such fickle reporting, and so I bring you follow-up Friday!
There’s an ongoing debate about the factors affecting sexuality. Gene research brings more evidence for the strength of biological factors in homosexuality.
> From The University of Illinois
OK, the papers do occasionally follow-up their own interesting stories. A new columnist in the Guardian invited readers to meet him in a restaurant. Incredibly 20 of them showed up.
> The original column, the follow-up
The plan was good, it was the execution that let him down. A Toronto researcher came up with the idea of spreading positive health messages by creating new proverbs. Unfortunately the ones he came up with are mostly a bit dodgy.
One was: “A tri-colour meal is a good deal.” Call me a cynic but I just can’t see it catching on. I’m sticking with Seneca’s dictum: “To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.” But I’m not claiming the kids will be chanting it by next week.
> From Science Daily
Albert Ellis trained as a psychotherapist in the 50s but soon decided Freudian therapy was just too slow and passive. He developed his own methods, now called Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, designed to get results more quickly. This laid the foundations for what has become known as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy – a very successful modern form of treatment.
Here he explains his forthright philosophy of life and why he doesn’t care what other people think – unless they’re patients of course!
> From Psychology Today
Here’s another study showing that there is a particular type of visuo-spatial ability at which, on average, men are better than women.
The actual task carried out in this research was a mental rotation. Here’s an example. You have to work out which one of the three figures on the right is a rotated version of the figure on the left.
What has this got to do with parking your car? Probably something, possibly nothing. This is just the exploitation of an extrememly tenuous link to sell a story.
> From BBC News
The mind is attracted to thinking in terms of dichotomies – we like to believe there’s two sides to every story. And that’s just how our minds like to process the world. Our lives are littered with them: people are good or bad, politicians are left or right-wing, we are either happy or sad.
Popular thought about people with personality disorders is no different. These people are different from us, members of another category, not within our reach. What psychological research repeatedly tells us is that this is not true. No matter what personality traits you choose to measure, you will find we are not all that different.
Research from the University of Surrey compared senior business managers with current and former patients of Broadmoor hospital – a high security mental hospital. They found on measures of histrionic, narcissistic and compulsive personality, the business managers scored higher than the patients. Where the patients scored higher was on antisocial, borderline and paranoid personality dimensions.
> Read a summary of the paper
Today I’m writing a personal note, because what is psychology if not rooted in the personal? I go in for my final psychology exam of this semester tomorrow. So today I’m sat at home revising for Occupational and Organisational Psychology. [For Europeans that means Work Psychology and for Americans that mean Industrial/Organisational psychology. For everyone else it just means the psychology of business.]
Here are my five commandments for revision. Ignore them at your peril:
1. Keep your revision active. Never be tempted to sit just reading notes. Always be performing some operation on the information.
2. Short bursts are best. Take regular breaks. This keeps you fresh(er) and (slightly) more interested.
3. Always always always keep an overview of the subject you are studying in mind. If you’re writing an essay in the exam then you need to be able to to see the big picture.
4. On the day, try to relax. Use any method that works for you. Stress seriously hampers your ability to remember things. Confidence with a subject reduces stress. In the days leading up to the exam focus on what you do know about a subject – not what you don’t.
5. Sleep well. The rest is anecdotal but I know this one is backed up by evidence. You will learn better if you sleep well after your learning session.
As an aside, there is evidence that exams are sexist. The process resembles a hunt, for which men are better prepared by evolution. Exams tend to reward focussed attention on one subject for a long period, followed by a short burst of adrenaline at the end. Women’s tendency to prefer collaboration is better served by coursework.
Perhaps one day in an enlightened future – especially if more evidence is found for this theory – we will completely eliminate exams. Until then my commandments are our best hope for success!
Some interesting developments are on the horizon in psychopharmacology – the study of drugs that affect our psychological state. Caffeine, alcohol and nicotine are the culturally (fairly) accepted methods of changing mood and performance. Perhaps soon these will be old hat.
Modafinil is a drug that was originally developed for the treatment of narcoleptics. It has subsequently been tested on helicopter pilots and been found to significantly improve alertness in fatigued pilots.
“Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge, who tested modafinil in a series of experiments on volunteers found that they showed greater concentration, faster learning and increased mental agility. “It may be the first real smart drug,” she says. “A lot of people will probably take modafinil. I suspect they do already.”
Word is spreading about this and other drugs. Illegal ritalin use to aid concentration is on the rise. Research is breaking through into the uses of ecstacy and psylocibin on depression. How long before the next wave of psychoactive chemicals breaks through onto the mainstream?
Personally I prefer to use natural methods of performance enhancement. Nevertheless, I reserve the right to change my mind when I am no longer young, fit and healthy.
> From The Independent
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