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The Psych Files:
…hoping to get you as excited about psychology as I am.
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Episode 129 (video): Science Shows Superstitions Actually Work! Sort of
Okay, admit it – you have some kind of lucky charm on you, in your car or in your house. And if you participate in any sport or performance activity you have some sort of ritual that you believe will help make you more successful. Well guess what – there is research to show that such charms and rituals really do help you perform better. Find out how in this episode of The Psych Files.
Resources on Superstitions
- Here is Lysann Damisch‘s website where you can download the article discussed in this episode.
- Damisch, L., Stoberock, B., & Mussweiler, T. (2010). Keep your fingers crossed! How superstition improves performance. Psychological Science, 21, 7, 1014-1020.
- "Fingers Crossed" summarized on Science Daily
- "Fingers Crossed" summarized by U.S. News
- Buhrmann, H.G., & Zaugg, M.K. (1981). Superstitions among basketball players: An investigation of various forms of superstitious beliefs and behavior among competitive basketballers at the junior high
school to university level. Journal of Sport Behavior, 4, 163–174. - Darke, P.R., & Freedman, J.L. (1997). Lucky events and beliefs in
luck: Paradoxical effects on confidence and risk-taking. Person-
ality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 378–388. - Day, L., & Maltby, J. (2003). Belief in good luck and psychological well-being: The mediating role of optimism and irrational beliefs.
The Journal of Psychology, 137, 99–110. - Day, L., & Maltby, J. (2005). “With good luck”: Belief in good luck
and cognitive planning. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 1217–1226. - Gilovich, T. (1991). How we know what isn’t so: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life. New York: Free Press.
- Keinan, G. (1994). Effects of stress and tolerance of ambiguity on magical thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 48–55.
- Lobmeyer, D., & Wasserman, E.A. (1986). Preliminaries to free throw shooting: Superstitious behaviour? Journal of Sport Behavior, 9, 70–78.
- Shah, J. (2003). Automatic for the people: How representations of significant others implicitly affect goal pursuit. Journal of Per- sonality and Social Psychology, 84, 661–681.
- Whitson, J.A., & Galinsky, A.D. (2008). Lacking control increases illusory pattern perception. Science, 322, 115–117.
Episode 128: Do Brain Training Games Work?
You’ve probably heard about these Brain Training games. Do they really help you to keep your mind sharp? Will they prevent cognitive decline or slow the effects of alzheimer’s disease? In this episode I review some recent studies on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of these popular games.
Episode 127 (video): Phrenology: Maybe They Were On To Something
Everyone can picture one of those phrenology heads with personality traits drawn into different sections of the cranium. Was there anything to that? Well, not exactly. However, with the use of MRI scans researchers today may have located where certain personality traits lie in your brain. Travel with me into a 3D brain and let’s find out where your personality may lie.
- Openness – dorsolateral PFC, anterior PFC, anterior parietal cortex (research was inconclusive on this personality factor)
- Conscientiousness – Lateral Profrontal Cortex
- Extraversion – Orbitofrontal Cortex, Nucleus Accumbens, Amygdala
- Agreeableness – superior temporal sulcus, posterior cingulate cortex
- Neuroticism – Medial prefrontal cortex, Amygdala, Hippocampus
Resources
- DeYoung, C. G., Hirsh, J. B., Shane, M. S., Papademetris, X., Rajeevan, N., & Gray, J. R. (2010). Testing predictions from personality neuroscience: Brain structure and the Big Five. Psychological Science, 21, 820–828.
- DeYoung, C.G., & Gray, J.R. (2009). Personality neuroscience: Explaining individual differences in affect, behavior, and cognition. In P.J. Corr & G. Matthews (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of personality psychology (pp. 323–346). New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Here’s the website of the lead researcher, Colin DeYoung
- Check out the wonderful 3D brain program called Brain Tutor by Brain Voyager
- Here’s the concept map on Personality Neuroscience I used during this episode.
- A summary and brief interview with Dr. Deyoung can be found in this article, Shape of Brain Tied to Personality, Says Scientist.
Episode 126 (video): SuperNormal Stimuli: Is This Why We’re Overweight?
There are many reasons why it is difficult to lose weight, but have you considered how supernormal stimuli might be one of them? In this episode I discuss some of the ideas in the books Waistland and Supernormal Stimuli by Dierdre Barrett. Is it possible that the old saying Everything in Moderation might just be wrong? And will Small Changes really help you to get in shape or are radical changes really the way to go?
Episode 125: False Memories – How Can Your Memory Be So Bad?
For some reason we believe that our memories are accurate. They are far from it. What we remember is a hodge-podge, a patchwork of images, stories, and bits and pieces from our past. In this episode I describe some of the very interesting research showing how our memories can be manipulated in surprising ways.
