The Psych Files Podcast

Episode 130 (video): Why Are We So Fascinated by Famous People?

Michael — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:42:59 +0000

If you’ve ever met a famous person you know how exciting that feels. But why? What is it about fame that draws so many people to it? In this episode I examine fame from two very perspectives: the Basking in Reflected Glory theory and Terror Management Theory. Along the way we’ll see what this all has to do with the rock band Queen, baseball and Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.

Thanks again to Beth Benoit of Granite State College and to Melissa Kennedy of Holy Names Academy for pointing me in the direction of the following sources:

Resources on the Psychology of Fame

Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R. J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) field studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 366–375.

Greenberg, Jeff, Kosloff, Spee, Solomon, Sheldon, Cohen, Florette and Landau, Mark(2008). Toward Understanding the Fame Game: The Effect of Mortality Salience on the Appeal of Fame’,Self and Identity

You can learn more about Terror Management Theory here.

Here is more information about The Musical Brain conference coming up in October of 2010.

Episode 129 (video): Science Shows Superstitions Actually Work! Sort of

Michael — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:17:40 +0000

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?

Michael — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:54:17 +0000

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.

Brain Games Research

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

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?

Episode 127 (video): Phrenology: Maybe They Were On To Something

Michael — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:35:31 +0000

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?

Michael — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:07:12 +0000

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?

Michael — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 01:58:06 +0000

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. Learn why you loved asparagus as a kid (really you did, really).

Geraerts, E., Berstien, D.M., Merckelbach, H., Linders, D., Raymaekers, L. & Loftus, E.F. (2008). Lasting false beliefs and their behavioral consequences. Psychological Science, 19, 749-753.

Lanye, C., MOrris, E.K., Bernstein, D.M., Wakefield, B.M. and Loftus, E.F. (2008). Asparagus, a love story: Healtheir eating coulbd be just a false memory away. Experimental Psychology, 55, 291-300.

Loftus, E.L. (1997). Creating false memories. Scientific American.

Loftus, E.L. and Ketcham, K. (1994). The Myth of Repressed Memory. St. Martin’s Press.

Stadler, M.A., Hoediger, H.L. and McDermott, K.B. (1999). Norms for word lists that create false memories. Memory & Cognition, 27(3), 494-500.

Episode 124: Flashbulb Memories – Are They As Accurate As We Think?

Michael — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:39:44 +0000

Would you be surprised if I told you that your memories of the attacks on September 11, 2001 are inaccurate? How much of what you remember of that day or of other Flashbulb Memories actually happened? Where were you, for example, when the Challenger disaster occurred? Or when Princess Diana died? Join me as I explore the research that reveals how inaccurate our memories are (no matter how confident we feel). And by the way, was President Bush involved in a conspiracy over the events of September 11? Let’s find out.

False Memories

Greenberg, D.L. (2004). President Bush’s False ‘Flashbulb’ Memory of 9/11/01. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 363-370.

Lee, P.J. and Brown N.R. (2003). Delay related changes in personal memories for September 11, 2001. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 1007-1015.

Talarico, J.M. and Rubin, D.C. (2003). Confidence, not consistency, characterizes flashbulb memories. Psychological Science, 14(5), 455-461.

Weaver, C.A. and Krug, K.S. (2004). Consolidation-lik effects inflashbulb memories: Evidence from September 11, 2001. The American Journal of Psychology, 117.

Episode 123 (video): What Does Your Dog Know About You?

Michael — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:21:24 +0000

What do your dog and Shakespeare have in common? Well, they both use a Theory of Mind. Join me for this video episode in which I look at this fascinating idea of theory of mind and the unique and fun research that has been done around it. And yes, you might pick up an idea of how to test your dog to see if your dog can actually read your mind.

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 Horowitze, 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

Episode 122: DSM-V and On Being Sane – Are Psychiatric Labels Really Harmful?

Michael — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:28:31 +0000

What does the movie Shrek have to do with labeling, the DSM-V and the self-fulfilling prophecy? In this episode I take a close look at the well-known Rosenhan study. This was the study in which "pseudopatients" pretend to hear voices and on the basis of this they get admitted to psychiatric centers. Then they were told to act "normally". It took an average of 19 days for these "pseudopatients" to be discharged from the hospital and even then they were diagnosed as "schizophrenia in remission".

Does this study show that psychiatric diagnoses are not only useless but also possibly harmful? Or do we find what we found back in episode 47 on Little Albert, and what we found in episode 36 on Kitty Genovese – what we thought we knew is largely wrong.

“[The Rosenhan study is]…a prime example of extremely compelling writing in conjunction with remarkably sloppy reasoning.” – Scott Lilienfeld

…a careful examination of this study’s methods, results, and conclusions leads me to a diagnosis of “logic, in remission.” – Robert Spitzer

Resources on the Rosenhan Study

Rosenhan, D. (1973). On Being Sane in Insane Places. Science, 179, (70), 250-258.

Diagnoses and the Behaviors They Denote: A Critical Evaluation of the Labeling Theory of Mental Illness John Ruscio, Department of Psychology, Elizabethtown College.

Spitzer, L. (1975). On Pseudoscience in Science, Logic in Remission, and Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Critique of Rosenhan’s “On Being Sane
in Insane Places”. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 84 (5) 442-452.

Weiner, B. (1975). “On Being Sane in Insane Places”: A Process (Attributional)
Analysis and Critique Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1975, 84(5), 433-441

On Being Sane in Insane Places summarized in Wikipedia

DSM-V Resources

DSM Revision Activities from the American Psychiatric Association

Episode 121: Top 10 Psychology Apps for the iPad, iPhone, & iPod

Michael — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:05:09 +0000

In this video episode I show you 10 of what I consider to be the best psychology apps in the app store. There are a lot of apps out there and many are not so good, but in this episode I pick out what I consider to be credible therapy apps, excellent mobile mind mapping tools, relaxation apps, games based on Gestalt principles of psychology, and some of the best 3 dimensional ways to look at the brain.

Psychology Apps

Graphic Organizer: Popplet

Graphic Organizer: SimpleMind

Anxiety: iCounselor for Anxiety

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: iCounselor for OCD

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: CBT Referee

Relaxation: Koi Pond

Relaxation: White Noise

Relaxation: Relax Waterfall

Gestalt Principles Game: Shift

3 Dimensional Brain: 3DBrain

Learn the parts of the brain: BrainTutor

Goal Setting Tool: TraxItAll

Optical Illusions: Eye Tricks!

Color Vision and other Eye Tests: EyeXam

Mnemonics for memorizing the parts of the brain (my app): BrainNmonX