In most adults, learning and thinking plateau and then begin to decline after age 30 or 40. People start to perform worse in tests of cognitive abilities such as processing speed, the rate at which someone does a mental task. The slide becomes steeper after 60 years of age. These changes are often ascribed to normal …
From frequent smartphone notifications to repetitious TV news programs, we often experience repeated exposure to various news headlines as we go about our daily lives. When the news provides stories of wrongdoing, that repeated exposure may influence our own sense of morality, making those narratives seem more true and less unethical, according to new research …
Repeated Exposure to News Headlines Makes Behavior Seem Less Unethical Read More »
Many of us set goals, but sometimes we fail to achieve them. There is a way, though, to increase our chances of hitting our goals: Set reminders. “It’s quite hard to achieve our goals,” said Sam Gilbert, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University College London. “There are many, many reasons why we get led astray, …
Trouble Achieving Goals? Why Your Brain Needs Reminders. Read More »
Tens of millions of students are filing back into classrooms, bringing with them a long list of hopes and concerns related to the academic year ahead. Besides the inevitable adjusting to new social and learning routines, students, as well as their families, teachers, and school administrators this year will be faced with challenges related to …
For Whom the School Bells Toll: New Psychological Research for the New Academic Year Read More »
If you’ve ever had trouble finding your keys or remembering what you had for breakfast, you know that short-term memory is far from perfect. For people who’ve had a traumatic brain injury (TBI), though, recalling recent events or conversations can be a major struggle. “We have patients whose family cannot leave them alone at home …
When a Brain Injury Impairs Memory, a Pulse of Electricity May Help Read More »
Screen time has been a hot-button topic for parents for decades and particularly over the past few years. The rise of personal devices like tablets, phones and smart watches, along with the use of screens in schools, has made screen time common for kids. Data also shows that screen time skyrocketed during the pandemic as parents struggled …
Psychology PhDs have skills broadly relevant for teaching, industry, and government. They are integral to producing basic research and evidence-based solutions for policy and industry. Only about half of psychology PhDs are hired in academia, but psychology graduate training in the United States has largely retained the classic graduate training model of a direct path …
Wendy Wood: It’s Time We Trained Students for Diverse Careers in Psychological Science Read More »
Controversial research can put people on the defensive and may even lead to calls to censor findings that conflict with a particular ideological perspective. However, a pair of studies published in Psychological Science, by authors Cory J. Clark (University of Pennsylvania), Maja Graso (University of Groningen), Ilana Redstone (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Philip E. …
Public May Overestimate Pushback Against Controversial Research Findings Read More »
You’ve probably heard the rather alarming statistic that half of all first marriages end in divorce. In fact, the shift in American attitudes toward marriage over the last decade is palpable. Census data reveals that the rates of marriage and divorce have both declined between 2009 and 2019. This signals two important things to us: Fewer people …
A Psychologist Offers Advice on Redefining Life After Divorce Read More »
Podcast: At the height of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, the Association for Psychological Science joined countless other organizations around the world in turning to podcasts to share findings and conversations. The result is Under the Cortex, now celebrating 100 episodes in which psychological scientists help us understand some of their most interesting and impactful …
Best Of: The Myers-Briggs Test, the Grieving Brain, Common Myths, More Read More »