How can you study object permanence – or a related idea called “expectancy violation” – in animals? Let’s take a look in this 150 episode of The Psych Files.

• Female but not male dogs respond to a size constancy violation, Corsin A. Müller, Christina Mayer, Sebastian Dörrenberg, Ludwig Huber, and Friederike Range.
• Great (Dane) minds don’t think alike

You’ve probably heard about the authoritarian parenting style advocated by Amy Chua in her Tiger Mom book. Lots of Americans think she has good point that the problems with American kids is that they are being raised with too much leeway, and that we’re not being tough enough on them. The reason, they say, that our Math scores are too low is that we’re not strict enough and we don’t have high expectations for our children. Are they right? Or are there other ways that our children are being successful that we don’t take into account? If you’re feeling discouraged about parenting let me raise your spirits.

What is our major goal as parents?
Still another woman glibly said, “To produce children who are, among other things, brilliant, polite, charming, neat and well-adjusted, of course.”
Dr. Ginott looked solemn. It was obvious that this last comment had not amused him. He leaned forward and said, “This is how I see it. It seems to me that our large goal is to find the ways to help our children become humane and strong.
“For what does it profit us if we have a neat, polite, charming youngster who could watch people suffer and not be moved to action?
“What have we accomplished if we have reared a child who is brilliant – at the top of his class – but who uses his intellect to manipulate others?
“And do we really want children so well-adjusted that they adjust to an unjust situation? Too many Germans adjusted only too well to the orders of the Nazis to exterminate millions of their fellow men.
“Understand me: I’m not opposed to a child being polite or neat or learned. The crucial question for me is What methods have been used to accomplish these ends? If the methods used are insults, attacks, and threats, then we can be very sure that we have also taught this child to insult, attack, to threaten, and to comply when threatened.
“If, on the other hand, we use methods that are humane, then we’ve taught something much more important than a series of isolated virtues. We’ve shown the child how to be a person – a mensch, a human being who can conduct his life with strength and dignity.”
pages 14-15 of Liberated Children, Liberated Parents

We want to put an end to talk that wounds the spirit, we want to create an emotional climate that encourages children to cooperate because they care about themselves, and because they care about us.

If you’re struggling with statistics – as I did both as an undergrad and a grad student – I recommend this book. It’s on my bookshelf and it has been for years. It’s a very readable explanation of various statistical procedures. A great book to have on hand if your main textbook just isn’t explaining things well enough.

Statistics for the Terrified (5th Edition) List Price: $59.40 Price: $36.89 Read Reviews

Resources for this Episode

• Kushnir, T., Xu, F. & Wellman, H. M. (2010). Young children use statistical sampling to infer the preferences of others. Psychological Science, 21,1134-1140.
• You can learn more about the research discussed in this episode at the Early Childhood Cognition Laboratory

Brain Games Research

• A nice review of the brain training research can be found in this excellent book, "The Invisible Gorilla"


The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us List Price: $14.00 Price: $6.90 Read Reviews

• Brain training for babies actually works (short term, at least)

  Brain training for babies actually works (short term, at least). Products designed to give babies and young children an educational headstart are hugely popular but they're mostly backed up by weak science. In some cases, for …

  Publish Date: 09/12/2011 4:29

  http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2011/09/brain-training-for-babies-actually.html

• Owen, A.M., Hampshire, A., Grahn, J.A., Stenton, R., Dajani, S. Burns, A. S., Howard and Ballard, C.G (2010). Putting brain training to the test, Nature, 465, 775-779.
• Colcombe, S. and Kramer, A.F. (2003). Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults. Psychological Science, 14(2), 125-130.
• Papp, K.V., Walsh, S.J. and Snyder, P.J. (2009). Immediate and delayed effects of cognitive interventions in healthy elderly: A review of current literature and future directions. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 5, 50-60.
• Willis, S.L., Tennstedt, S.L., Marsiske, M. Ball, K., Elias, F., Koepke, K.M., Morris, J.N., Rebok, G.W., Unverzagt, F.W., Stoddard, A.M., and Wright, W. (2006). Long-term effects of cognitive training on everyday functional outcomes in older adults. Journal of the American Medical Association, 296 (23).
• Smith, G.E., Housen, P., Yaffe, K., Ruff, R., Kennison, R.F., Mahncke, H.W. and Zelinski, E.M. (2009). A cognitive training program based on principles of brain plasticity: Results from the improvement in memory with Plasticity-based adaptive cognitive training (IMPACT) Study. The American Geriatrics Society.
• For a different perspective, read this article by CogMed a company that makes brain training tools. You’ll see how they critique the Owen, et. al study (above). Putting “brain training” to the test – and about time. They recommend that you read the research that they have conducted. If you do so, do you think their research is more convincing that those cited above?

Theory of Mind

• Zunshine, L. (2008). Theory of Mind and Fictions of Embodied Transparency. Narrative, 16 (1). The Ohio State University.
• Zunshine, L. Why We Read Fiction
• Alexandra Horowitz, author of Inside of a Dog, also has an interesting site called Candid Cognition: In The Mind of a Dog
• From the New York Times books section: Next Big Thing in English: Knowing They Know That You Know

Resources on Death and Dying

• Wright, K. (2003). Relationships with death: The terminally ill talk about dying. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy; Oct 2003; 29, 4.
• You can find books by Elisabeth Kubler Ross on Amazon
• The Kubler Ross Foundation
• The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After Loss
• More information on the Kubler Ross grief cycle can be found on this site.
• Here is the text of an interview with Elisabeth Kubler Ross
• This study employed a research approach called ethnography: “…a methodological strategy…which… does not prescribe any particular method (e.g. observation, interview, questionnaire), but instead prescribes the nature of the study (i.e. to describe people through writing). Ethnographic studies are usually holistic, founded on the idea that humans are best understood in the fullest possible context, including: the place where they live, the improvements they’ve made to that place, how they are making a living and providing food, housing, energy and water for themselves, what their marriage customs are, what language(s) they speak and so on.” – Wikipedia
• Interesting video on YouTube of a little girl who expresses the stages of grief over the death of a pet fish.
]]> http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/10/episode-108-kubler-ross-five-stages-of-grief-more-harm-than-good/feed/ 11 Death and Dying Almost everyone has heard of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, her book On Death and Dying, and her five stages of grief. But are these stages accurate? Could the five stages of grief actually be doing more harm than good? Almost everyone has heard of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, her book On Death and Dying, and her five stages of grief. But are these stages accurate? Could the five stages of grief actually be doing more harm than good? Michael Britt no 30:02 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/08/episode-103-raising-children-interview-with-author-jamie-raser/ http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/08/episode-103-raising-children-interview-with-author-jamie-raser/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:11:09 +0000 Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=968 Having trouble raising your children? Join the crowd. There are lots of parenting books, but here’s one you should know about: "Raising Children You Can Live With" by Jamie Raser. He has an approach to parenting that is not about "picking your battles", but about staying out of battles altogether and talking with your child in a way that doesn’t lead to shouting, screaming and anger. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Listen to Jamie Raser talk about his ideas in this episode of The Psych Files.


Parenting is not a series of "techniques" or "manipulations" designed to gain control over another human being. When parents are in control of themselves and [the way they interact with their children], children will learn to control themselves. – Jamie Raser, Raising Children You Can Live With

Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select–doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years. John Watson, Behaviorism (1930). Thanks to the Wisconsin Association for Behavior Analysis for the complete quote (see the final sentence – italics mine).

Resources on Parenting

• You can contact Jamie using his email address: jraser AT dpisd DOT org.
• Research showing that spanking children does not work:
• Gershoff, I. (2002). Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 539-579.
• Kazdin, A. E., & Benjet, C. (2003). Spanking children: Evidence and Issues. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 99-103.

Although physical punishment may produce immediate compliance – children typically stop the behavior spanking is meant to end – there are a number of serious long-term side effects. For example, spanking is associated with lower quality parent-child relationships, poorer mental health for both child and parent, higher levels of delinquency, and more antisocial behavior. In addition, children who experience higher levels of spanking are less able to develop their own inner sense of right and wrong…Spanking also teaches children that violence is an acceptable solution to prolems by serving as a model of violent, aggressive behavior. – Robert Feldman, Development Across the Life Span

]]> http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/08/episode-103-raising-children-interview-with-author-jamie-raser/feed/ 6 Interview,Parenting/Childcare Having trouble raising your children? Join the crowd. There are lots of parenting books, but here’s one you should know about: "Raising Children You Can Live With" by Jamie Raser. He has an approach to parenting that is not about "picking your battle... Having trouble raising your children? Join the crowd. There are lots of parenting books, but here’s one you should know about: "Raising Children You Can Live With" by Jamie Raser. He has an approach to parenting that is not about "picking your battles", but about staying out of battles altogether and talking with your child in a way that doesn’t lead to shouting, screaming and anger. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Michael Britt no http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/05/episode-94-how-do-you-learn-to-act-like-a-manwoman-gender-identity-and-gender-scripts/ http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/05/episode-94-how-do-you-learn-to-act-like-a-manwoman-gender-identity-and-gender-scripts/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 01:38:16 +0000 Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=715 How do we learn to act in what are called "gender appropriate" ways? How did you learn to act like a girl and then a woman? Or like a boy and then like a man? Did you experience either penis envy or womb envy? Did this happen as a result of what Freud would call an oedipal complex or perhaps does our tendency to behave in stereotypical masculine and feminine ways come about more simply as a result of watching other males and females in your family, among your friends and on TV? In this episode of The Psych Files we look at the interesting and complex issue of gender identity.

Fascinating video on testosterone, finger length, and gender:


]]> http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2009/05/episode-94-how-do-you-learn-to-act-like-a-manwoman-gender-identity-and-gender-scripts/feed/ 12 Act,envy,finger length,gender scripts,Man,oedipal complex,penis envy,result,Scripts,womb envy How do we learn to act in what are called "gender appropriate" ways? How did you learn to act like a girl and then a woman? Or like a boy and then like a man? Did you experience either penis envy or womb envy? How do we learn to act in what are called "gender appropriate" ways? How did you learn to act like a girl and then a woman? Or like a boy and then like a man? Did you experience either penis envy or womb envy? Or did you learn to act like you do by watching males and females on TV? In this episode of The Psych Files we look at the interesting and complex issue of gender identity. Michael Britt no