As each new year dawns, hundreds of people gear up to unlock new habits. Whether it is improved fitness or relationships, these resolutions all have one thing in common - the end goal is increased happiness - and 2025 has proven to be no exception. But is there more to happiness than a new gym routine or updated social calendar? Renowned psychologist and Macmillan author, June Gruber, breaks it down for us with these helpful tips in a light, brief interview. https://www.kunc.org/in-the-noco/2025-01-09/find-your-happiness-in-2025-with-these-tips-from-a-professor-of-psychology-and-neuroscience   ... View more

I’m a fan of infusing research methods throughout the Intro Psych course. We introduce psychology’s most common research methods early in the course, but we should revisit them every now and again in the context of psychology’s content to help make them stick. Think spacing effect.   First, a note on getting journal articles. For college and university faculty, accessing journal articles through their library’s databases is usually a pretty easy process. If your library doesn’t have it, you can request it through interlibrary loan (ILL). For high school teachers, getting research articles can be challenging. Some journals will make some articles freely available. Some authors make their articles freely available to download via ResearchGate. You will need a ResearchGate account, but it is free to join. Other authors—or the same authors, but different journal articles—will give you the option to contact them via ResearchGate for a copy of their article. If the author isn’t on ResearchGate, email them directly to ask for a copy of their article. Provide a full citation. Researchers may publish several articles on the same topic in the same year. Wherever you find an abstract, you can often find the email address of the lead author. If you can’t find the email address, you can usually find their affiliation. An Internet search of their name and affiliation will usually yield a page at their institution that includes an email address. Do not ever feel shy about contacting researchers to request a pdf of an article or to ask questions about their research. The vast majority of researchers, frankly, are thrilled to learn that someone is interested in their research. I’m not kidding. Interlibrary loan (ILL) may be another option for you. Ask your public library librarians if they do ILL for journal articles. Also, don’t be afraid to ask your friends who are college or university faculty. Just be sure to rotate your requests through your network. You don’t want to wear out your welcome with one person with a single request for a dozen articles! Finally, be aware that some of the classic case studies discussed in Intro Psych textbooks are not good examples, such as Phineas Gage. “Recent historical work, however, suggests that much of the canonical Gage story is hogwash, a mélange of scientific prejudice, artistic license, and outright fabrication,” writes one of my favorite science writers, Sam Kean (Kean, 2014). (If you have not yet read Kean’s book The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, I highly recommend it. Kean dives into each major area of the brain, discussing both its history and current research.) Below are some case study examples, organized by pillar (Gurung et al., 2016). As with all research articles, you don’t have to understand every word to get the point. That’s probably a message worth communicating to our students. Researchers write journal articles for other researchers who are doing research in their same area. They are not writing for a general audience. Even researchers who work in other areas of the field may not grasp every word. And that’s okay! If you can get enough of the big picture to share the research with students—even if it’s in broad strokes—you are good to go. Here's an example of where I needed help with the big picture. I wrote a blog post recently on how the mapping of the motor cortex that we’ve taught for decades is wrong (Frantz, 2024). It was based on fMRI findings researchers published in the journal Nature (Gordon et al., 2023); the article is freely available. The lead author, Evan M. Gordon, is a radiologist at the Washington University School of Medicine. I am absolutely certain radiologists would understand just about every word in that article. I, however, am not a radiologist. I’m not even a biopsychologist; my background is in social psychology. With a rudimentary understanding of biology, however, I could grasp most of the article, but there were places where I struggled enough that I could not quite see the big picture. So, I did the only reasonable thing. I emailed Gordon. He replied very quickly—and graciously. It took an exchange of just a few emails for me to get it. The result was that blog post.   Biological Stevens, J. A., Cole, W. G., & Vishton, P. M. (2012). Using touch or imagined touch to compensate for loss of proprioception: A case study. Neurocase, 18(1), 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/13554794.2011.556124. [Download full text via ResearchGate.] Feinstein, J. S., Adolphs, R., Damasio, A., & Tranel, D. (2011). The human amygdala and the induction and experience of fear. Current Biology, 21(1), 34–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2010.11.042. [Full text available.] Tuckute, G., Paunov, A., Kean, H., Small, H., Mineroff, Z., Blank, I., & Fedorenko, E. (2022). Frontal language areas do not emerge in the absence of temporal language areas: A case study of an individual born without a left temporal lobe. Neuropsychologia, 169, 108184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108184. [Download full text via ResearchGate.]   Cognitive Linden, M. V. (1996). Semantic memory and amnesia: A case study. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13(3), 391–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/026432996381953. [Download full text via ResearchGate.] Gould, C., Froese, T., Barrett, A. B., Ward, J., & Seth, A. K. (2014). An extended case study on the phenomenology of sequence-space synesthesia. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00433 [Download full text.]     Developmental Kocabaş-Gedik, P., & Ortaçtepe Hart, D. (2021). “It’s not like that at all”: A poststructuralist case study on language teacher identity and emotional labor. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 20(2), 103–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2020.1726756 [Request full text from the authors via ResearchGate.] Nelis, P., Pedaste, M., & Šuman, C. (2023). Applicability of the model of inclusive education in early childhood education: A case study. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1120735. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1120735 [Download full text.]     Social & Personality Herrick, S. S. C., Rocchi, M. A., & Couture, A. L. (2020). A case study exploring the experiences of a transgender athlete in synchronized skating, a subdiscipline of figure skating. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 44(5), 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723520919816. [Request full text from the authors via ResearchGate.]   Ferguson, D., & Martin-Dunlop, C. (2021). Uncovering stories of resilience among successful African American women in STEM. Cultural Studies of Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-020-10006-8. [Request full text from the authors via ResearchGate.] Leporelli, E., & Santi, G. (2019). From psychology of sustainability to sustainability of urban spaces: Promoting a primary prevention approach for well-being in the healthy city designing. A waterfront case study in Livorno. Sustainability, 11(3), 760. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030760. [Download full text via ResearchGate.] Hu, X., Sidhu, G. K., & Lu, X. (2022). Exploring positive psychology factors in the quality of English as a foreign language classroom life: A case study. Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal, 7(22), 17–22. https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7i22.4153. [Download full text via ResearchGate.]   Mental & Physical Health Black, Z. A., & McCarthy, P. (2020). A case study of a trainee sport psychologist adopting a person-centred approach with a professional basketball player. Sport & Exercise Psychology Review, 16(2), 74–83. https://doi.org/10.53841/bpssepr.2020.16.2.74. [Author’s accepted manuscript.] Borg, M. B. (2002). The Avalon Gardens Men’s Association: A Community health psychology case study. Journal of Health Psychology, 7(3), 345–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105302007003226. [Request full text from the author via ResearchGate.] Blackwell, S. E., & Holmes, E. A. (2017). Brightening the day with flashes of positive mental imagery: A case study of an individual with depression. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 73(5), 579–589. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22455. [Download full text.]     References Frantz, S. (2024, July 20). The classic motor cortex map is wrong. Macmillan and BFW Teaching Community. https://community.macmillanlearning.com/t5/psychology-blog/the-classic-motor-cortex-map-is-wrong/ba-p/21746 Gordon, E. M., Chauvin, R. J., Van, A. N., Rajesh, A., Nielsen, A., Newbold, D. J., Lynch, C. J., Seider, N. A., Krimmel, S. R., Scheidter, K. M., Monk, J., Miller, R. L., Metoki, A., Montez, D. F., Zheng, A., Elbau, I., Madison, T., Nishino, T., Myers, M. J., … Dosenbach, N. U. F. (2023). A somato-cognitive action network alternates with effector regions in motor cortex. Nature, 617(7960), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05964-2 Gurung, R. A. R., Hackathorn, J., Enns, C., Frantz, S., Cacioppo, J. T., Loop, T., & Freeman, J. E. (2016). Strengthening Introductory Psychology: A new model for teaching the introductory course. American Psychologist, 71(2), 112–124. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0040012 Kean, S. (2014, May 7). Phineas Gage, neuroscience’s most famous patient. Slate. https://slate.com/technology/2014/05/phineas-gage-neuroscience-case-true-story-of-famous-frontal-lobe-patient-is-better-than-textbook-accounts.html ... View more

When we cover sensation and perception in Intro Psych, we commonly discuss each sense in turn with most emphasis put on vision and hearing. Some of us even discuss synesthesia, a sort of mixing of the senses where a person might, for example, see different colors upon hearing different sounds. It is pretty common for us to use one of our senses to supplement or replace another sense. For example, we may turn on captions while streaming a movie or television program, using vision to supplement sound. For the blind and vision impaired, audio descriptions of movie, television, and game scenes (“descriptive video service”) can be enabled. (See Descriptive Video Works for more information.) Here's another example of how one sense can be used to give information about another sense. Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz created the sound shirt (or soundshirt, or SoundShirt, or Soundshirt—I’ve seen it rendered all of these ways). The sound shirt was originally designed to be worn by people who are deaf and hearing impaired while attending the symphony (CuteCircuit, 2018). The shirt is embedded with 28-30 actuators that are programmed to respond with a vibration to sounds coming from microphones placed around the concert space. At the symphony, for example, “violins can be felt on the arms and the drums on the back” (Marchese, 2019). The newest iteration of the sound shirt was created to be worn by fans who are deaf or hard of hearing attending Newcastle United soccer matches (Gornall, 2024). Just as in concert venues, microphones were placed around the stadium to capture the noise of the crowd. Actuators in the Newcastle United replica jersey sound shirt vibrate depending on the nature or the cause of the noise. For example, the singing crowd causes the shirt sleeves to vibrate, and a goal by the opposing team causes vibrations on the back (Eveleigh, 2024). Francesca Rosella “has degrees [in] interior architecture and Master’s degrees in Sustainable Design, and in Interaction Design” (“Francesca Rosella,” 2020). Ryan Genz has degrees in studio art and anthropology as well as a Master’s degree in Interaction Design (“Ryan Genz,” 2020). While the institution where Rosella and Genz earned their degrees (Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy) was short-lived (2001-2006) (“Interaction Design Institute Ivrea,” 2024), the field of interaction design is very much alive. In fact, interaction design is part of the broader field of human-computer interaction (Löwgren, 2024) which is part of the even broader field of human factors and engineering psychology. The American Psychological Association has a brief introduction to this field. After sharing this information with students, invite students to work in small groups to answer the following questions: In what other contexts might a sound shirt be useful for people who are deaf or hearing impaired? Explain. Are there contexts where those with perfectly fine hearing might benefit from a sound shirt? Explain. Instead of using the sense of touch, might there be a way to turn sound into light waves? Explain how the crowd noise at a soccer match could be displayed via, say, virtual reality (VR) goggles. For people who are blind or vision impaired, how might a “sight shirt” work at a soccer match to help communicate the action on the pitch?   References CuteCircuit. (2018, May 11). Biography. CuteCircuit. https://cutecircuit.com/biography/ Eveleigh, R. (2024, June 5). Newcastle United introduces ‘sound shirts’ for deaf supporters. Positive News. https://www.positive.news/lifestyle/sport/newcastle-united-introduces-sound-shirts-for-deaf-supporters/ Francesca Rosella. (2020, August 25). Explore Mars. https://www.exploremars.org/speaker/francesca-rosella/ Gornall, K. (2024, April 11). Newcastle United introduce “sound shirts” for deaf fans. BBC Sport. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/68780625 Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. (2024). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Interaction_Design_Institute_Ivrea&oldid=1206070266 Löwgren, J. (2024). Interaction Design—Brief intro. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/interaction-design-brief-intro Marchese, K. (2019, October 4). The sound shirt lets deaf people feel music on their skin. Designboom. https://www.designboom.com/technology/cute-circuit-deaf-people-feel-music-skin-soundshirt-haptic-sensors-10-04-2019/ Ryan Genz. (2020, August 25). Explore Mars. https://www.exploremars.org/speaker/ryan-genz/   ... View more

“In the U.S., 42% of people are now myopic [nearsighted] – up from 25% back in the 1970s. In some East Asian countries, as many as 90% of people are myopic by the time they're young adults” (Godoy, 2024). That’s a lot of people who need corrective lenses. But the news is worse than that. “Once a kid gets myopia, their eyeball will keep stretching and the condition will get progressively worse. If they develop high myopia, it can increase the risk of serious eye problems down the road, such as retinal detachments, glaucoma and cataracts. It can even lead to blindness” (Godoy, 2024). That, I did not know. I also did not know “that light stimulates the eye to release the neurotransmitter dopamine, which can slow the eyeball from stretching” (Godoy, 2024). Researchers thought this would make for a good correlational study. In a study of 4,000 children, researchers found that the more time the children spent outside, the lower levels of myopia they had, even after “adjusting for near work, parental myopia, and ethnicity” (Rose et al., 2008). Here's an opportunity to give your students some experimental design practice in the sensation and perception chapter. After sharing the above information with students, give small groups this hypothesis: If children spend at least two hours a day outdoors, they will develop less myopia (nearsightedness). Ask students to address the following: Design an experiment that will test the hypothesis. Identify your independent variable, including the experimental group and the control group. Identify your dependent variable. All variables should include operational definitions. Your experiment should include random assignment to conditions. Briefly explain the importance of random assignment. Review the five general principles from the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association. By these standards, would it be ethical to conduct your study? Why or why not? Invite a spokesperson from each group to share their group’s research design and their assessment of the ethics of conducting that study. To conclude this activity, share this information with your students. A Taiwanese ophthalmologist, Pei-Chang Wu, whose son was entering first grade convinced his son’s school to allow the children to spend more time outside. At the same time, he convinced another school to allow him to test their school children for myopia. “A year later, his son's school had half as many new myopia cases as the other school” (Godoy, 2024).  After these preliminary results, Wu did similar studies at other schools and found similar results. Pause here to ask your students to assess whether Wu’s research meets American Psychological Association’s ethical guidelines. Why or why not. Wu obviously has some pretty mean persuasive skills, but check out what he did next. With the data in hand, he convinced Taiwan’s Minister of Education to make a policy change that required schools to get children outside for two hours a day. “The program launched in September 2010. And after decades of trending upward, the rate of myopia among Taiwan's elementary school students began falling – from an all-time high of 50% in 2011 down to 45.1% by 2015” (Godoy, 2024). If time allows, ask students what schools and parents can do to help ensure children are getting two hours outside each day per the recommendation of ophthalmologists. Are your students ready to start a letter-writing campaign to their local school boards?   References Godoy, M. (2024, May 13). Want to protect your kids’ eyes from myopia? Get them to play outside. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/13/1250555639/kids-eyesight-myopia-near-sighted-nearsightedness-outdoor-play Rose, K. A., Morgan, I. G., Ip, J., Kifley, A., Huynh, S., Smith, W., & Mitchell, P. (2008). Outdoor activity reduces the prevalence of myopia in children. Ophthalmology, 115(8), 1279–1285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2007.12.019   ... View more

Recently, my wife and I saw the film “Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition” at one our local theaters. In the spring of 2023, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam opened its doors to the largest Vermeer exhibition in history. The show sold out within days of going on sale. This film offers you the chance to experience the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition on the big screen… With loans from across the world, this major retrospective will bring together Vermeer’s most famous masterpieces including Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Geographer, The Milkmaid, The Little Street, Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, and Woman Holding a Balance. In all, 28 of his surviving 35 works. (Exhibition on Screen 2023, n.d.) The art of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) gave me a lot to think about, as good art should. The experts interviewed in the film noted the lack of visible brush strokes in his art work. The Essential Vermeer website tracks the location of every known Vermeer painting (Janson, 2023). The next time a Vermeer painting and I are in the same city, I’ll be making time to see it in person. What I find phenomenal about artists who can paint realistic images is their ability to turn off perception and paint only what their eyes see. For example, in The Music Lesson, look at the tile floor. If I, a non-artist, would attempt to draw such a tile floor, my tiles would all be the same size. Or rather, I’d know on an intellectual level that they’d have to become smaller the farther away they are, so I’d make them smaller, but I’m certain the perspective would not look right. Switching off shape constancy is a big ask. For me, anyway. Even more difficult for me would be switching off color constancy. Look at The Milkmaid—my favorite Vermeer—for example. We know that, in reality, the tablecloth would be all the same color. But we also know that how light falls on a scene changes the colors our eyes see. When part of a tablecloth is in shadow, our eyes see that that shadowed part is darker. During perception, our brain accounts for this different lighting. We know that the shadowed part of the tablecloth is not actually darker. Here, Vermeer is able to see that the shadowed tablecloth appears darker, and so he paints it darker. The milkmaid’s bodice is nearly white where the light from the window appears to shine on it but is dark brown in the shade. What I find particularly stunning in this painting is the bread. The next time you look at a loaf of bread, pay particular attention to the light as it reflects off the surface. There is nothing uniform about those reflections. The Girl with the Pearl Earring is Vermeer’s most famous painting. Again, we see Vermeer’s mastery of light. With one single apostrophe of white paint against a dark background, the earring sparkles. I have an advantage that Vermeer didn’t. I live in the age of color photographs. If I were to look at a photograph of a milkmaid pouring milk next to a basket of bread, I could zoom in and look at the colors, pixel by pixel. Vermeer, working 300 years before the development of color photography, did not have that opportunity. He had to rely solely on his ability to turn off his perception in order to reproduce what his eyes saw. We see what Vermeer saw, which, in many ways, is a more intimate experience than viewing a photographer’s picture. Did the photographer see the texture of the bread they photographed? Maybe. Did Vermeer see the texture of the bread he painted? Absolutely.   References Exhibition on Screen 2023. (n.d.). Vermeer: The greatest exhibition – Exhibition on Screen. Retrieved May 8, 2023, from https://exhibitiononscreen.com/films/vermeer-blockbuster-exhibition/ Janson, J. (2023, March 31). Complete catalogue of the painting of Johannes Vermeer. Essential Vermeer 3.0. http://www.essentialvermeer.com/vermeer_painting_part_one.html   ... View more

The Introduction to Psychology course is the hardest course to teach because we do not have expertise in the vast majority of the material. When you teach Intro Psych for the very first time, you get used to saying, “I don’t know.” As the years have rolled by, I’ve accepted that “I don’t know” is just part of my Intro Psych teaching lexicon. For me, however, it’s not the not knowing that’s problematic. It’s all of the information that I thought I knew, but, alas, did not. Finding out that I’ve gotten something wrong makes me wish I could contact all of my previous students and say, “Hey! Remember that thing I told you about? No, you don’t remember? Well, anyway, it turns out I was wrong. Here’s the right information. Or at least here’s the right information as we know it today.” Okay, maybe it’s best that I can’t contact my previous students. In some cases, the scientific research has given us updated information. For example, research published a week ago in Nature reveals that the motor cortex is not all about motor control (Gordon et al., 2023). There are pockets of neurons in between the motor control sections of the motor cortex that connect with other parts of the body. “As a result, the act of, say, reaching for a cup of coffee can directly influence blood pressure and heart rate. And the movement is seamlessly integrated into brain systems involved in planning, goals and emotion” (Hamilton, 2023). This is a beautiful example of the first of APA’s overarching themes for Intro Psych: “Psychological science relies on empirical evidence and adapts as new data develop” (Halonen et al., 2022) In some cases what I got wrong was me just not understanding. For example, if you used to teach that the cat running to the sound of the can opener was classical conditioning, you can identify with what I’m saying. (See this 2016 blog post for the explanation as to why this is not classical conditioning, but operant conditioning.) While I don’t have any suggestions on how we can speed up science, I do have some suggestions on how we can mitigate how much stuff we don’t understand, and, thus, mis-teach to our students. Here are some excellent books that will expand your Intro Psych knowledge. Most are written by experts in the field. Others were written by people who got deeply interested in the topic. If you have books that you have found useful for expanding your Intro Psych knowledge, please add them to the comments. Thanks! Neuroscience The tale of the dueling neurosurgeons: The history of the human brain as revealed by true stories of trauma, madness, and recovery written by Sam Kean Incognito: The secret lives of the brain by David Eagleman Livewired: The inside story of the ever-changing brain by David Eagleman Sensation and Perception An immense world: How animal senses reveal the hidden realms us by Ed Yong Perception: How our bodies shape our minds by Dennis Proffitt and Drake Baer Consciousness Why we sleep: Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams by Matthew Walker Buzzed: The straight facts about the most used and abused drugs from alcohol to ecstasy, 3e by, Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swartzwelder, and Wilkie Wilson Development Breaking the age code: How your beliefs about aging determine how long and well you live by Becca Levy The gardener and the carpenter: What the new science of child development tells us about the relationship between parents and children by Alison Gopnik Memory The memory illusion: Remembering, forgetting, and the science of false memory by Julia Shaw Moonwalking with Einstein: The art and science of remembering everything by Joshua Foer Cognition Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman The undoing project: A friendship that changed our minds by Michael Lewis Emotion Aroused: The history of hormones and how they control just about everything by Randi Hutter Epstein Why zebras don’t get ulcers: the acclaimed guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping, 3e by Robert M. Sapolsky Stumbling on happiness by Daniel Gilbert Social Aggression and violence: A social psychological perspective by Brad J. Bushman Kitty Genovese: The murder, the bystanders, and the crime that changed America by Kevin Cook Personality Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking by Susan Cain   References Gordon, E. M., Chauvin, R. J., Van, A. N., Rajesh, A., Nielsen, A., Newbold, D. J., Lynch, C. J., Seider, N. A., Krimmel, S. R., Scheidter, K. M., Monk, J., Miller, R. L., Metoki, A., Montez, D. F., Zheng, A., Elbau, I., Madison, T., Nishino, T., Myers, M. J., … Dosenbach, N. U. F. (2023). A somato-cognitive action network alternates with effector regions in motor cortex. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05964-2 Halonen, J., Thompson, J. L. W., Whitlock, K. H., Landrum, R. E., & Frantz, S. (2022). Measuring meaningful learning in Introductory Psychology: The IPI student learning outcomes. In R. A. R. Gurung & G. Neufeld (Eds.), Transforming Introductory Psychology: Expert advice on teacher training, course design, and student success (pp. 57–80). American Psychological Association. Hamilton, J. (2023, April 20). An overlooked brain system helps you grab a coffee—And plan your next cup. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/04/20/1171004199/an-overlooked-brain-system-helps-you-grab-a-coffee-and-plan-your-next-cup         ... View more

Instructors of Intro Psych are familiar with the Gestalt grouping principles of proximity and similarity. If we look in a room of 15 people, and we see five people standing near each other to our right, five people standing near each other to our left, and five people standing near each other directly in front of us, we are most likely to group those individuals accordingly and perceive three groups of people rather than perceive 15 individuals. Even though the room also contains tables and chairs, we mentally group people together because of their similarity. We do not also include the nearby chairs with those groups of people. While this room full of people is a perfectly fine example of proximity and similarity at work, a 2022 Psychological Science article provides another example. Psychological scientists at the University of Melbourne combined forces with an astronomer to explore the constellations perceived by different cultures (Kemp et al., 2022). While researchers for decades have noted cultural similarities in some constellations, for this research article, they took a more systematic approach. First, using star map software, they removed all of the stars with a brightness magnitude less than 4.5. That left them with a map of the brightest stars in the sky. Next, the researchers identified the constellations recognized by 22 cultures from around the world and mapped those constellations to see the amount of agreement across cultures. The ten constellations with the greatest overlap are Pleiades, Orion, Hyades, Big Dipper, Southern Cross, Corona Borealis, Castor & Pollux, Cassiopeia, Delphinus, and the head of Aries. Of course, each culture has their own stories and their own imagery, but the stars they use to create those images and stories are sometimes the same. As an example, the researchers noted that the Southern Cross is also perceived as a stingray (Yolgnu in northern Australia), an anchor (Tainui in New Zealand), and a curassow bird (Lokono in the Guianas). Interestingly, there is some overlap in the stories cultures tell about the images they see in the stars. The researchers give as an example Orion and the Pleiades. In Greek tradition, the hunter Orion is chasing the seven sisters (the Pleiades). In a number of Australian Aboriginal cultures, the stars of Orion also represent a hunter (or a group of boys) who is (are) chasing the women of the Pleiades. (For more information, see this blog post by Ray Norris, an astronomer at Western Sydney University.) Next, the researchers wondered what constellations a computer would create based on start brightness (similarity) and proximity. Their computer model identified the same ten constellations that have the greatest overlap across cultures as well as several other constellations or parts of several others. The researchers acknowledged that their computer model identified the star clusters, but did not identify how the stars in those star clusters are perceived to be arranged. In other words, while the model grouped the stars of Orion together, the model is unable to explain why we see the stars of Orion’s belt as, well, Orion’s belt. Or why so many cultures created a similar story of a man or boys pursuing a group of women. There are a few things I love about bringing this example of similarity and proximity into Intro Psych. First, every time students look at the stars in the sky, they will think of psychology. Second, it is a great example of what happens when researchers in different fields—psychology and astronomy, in this case—work with each other. And third, even though people of different cultures attach different interpretations to what they see, the perceptual principles are the same.   Reference Kemp, C., Hamacher, D. W., Little, D. R., & Cropper, S. J. (2022). Perceptual grouping explains similarities in constellations across cultures. Psychological Science, 33(3), 354–363. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211044157       ... View more

In the June 2022 edition of the APA Monitor on Psychology is an excellent article on the psychology of traffic safety. The article features David Strayer’s “four horsemen of death”: speed, impairment, fatigue, and distraction. Given the number and breadth of psychological concepts covered, this article provides fodder for a good end-of-term assignment. It may also save the lives of your students. Note that the journalist uses the term “crash” rather than “accident.” “Crash” is the preferred term by U.S. government agencies, such as the CDC and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The word “accident” implies an incident that could not be avoided. The word “crash” does not carry that connotation. Giving the causes of traffic fatalities are due to driver decision-making, whether it be the driver of the vehicle or the driver of another vehicle, “crash” is a better descriptor than “accident.”   Ask students to read the article “Improving Traffic Safety” (Pappas, 2022), and then answer the following questions. How many people died on U.S. roadways in 2020? Speed. What percentage of the 2020 traffic fatalities were estimated to be caused by excessive speed? The article describes three ways that our environment can contribute to unsafe driving. Take a photo of a road in your area that illustrates one or more of these environmental hazards. Explain. The article also describes three ways that our environment can contribute to safe driving. Take a photo of a road in your area that illustrates one or more of these environmental benefits. Explain. In a survey of drivers at the beginning of the pandemic, researchers “saw an increase in respondents saying they were more likely to break the law because they knew they were less likely to be caught.” Explain this finding in terms of operant conditioning. With fewer people on the roads during the pandemic shut-down, researchers speculate that street racing may have increased. What Ontario law led to a reduction in street racing? Explain this effect in terms of operant conditioning. If you are primarily a driver, what can you do to reduce your chances of dying in a car crash due to speed? If you primarily a passenger, what can you do to reduce your chances of dying in a car crash due to speed? Impairment. What percentage of the 2020 traffic fatalities were estimated to be caused by impaired driving? Based on your reading of the article, describe the relationship between stress, alcohol, and driving while impaired. What Big Five personality trait is associated with a history of driving while impaired and reckless driving? Given your knowledge of this trait, why might that association exist? Fatigue. What percentage of the 2020 traffic fatalities were estimated to be caused by fatigue? Why might this number be an underestimation? Summarize what you learned in this course about the effects of sleep deprivation. Choose five effects, and for each, briefly explain how it could negatively effect driving.   According to the article, what have Australian highway authorities done to combat boredom on empty stretches of highway? Distraction. What percentage of the 2020 traffic fatalities were estimated to be caused by distracted driving? Explain how stress may contribute to distracted driving. Explain how the design of cars may contribute to distracted driving. Give at least one example. Conclusion. What was the most surprising thing you learned in this article? Explain. Identify at least one concept you learned in this course that could apply to speed, impairment, fatigue, or distraction but was not discussed in the article. Briefly describe the concept, and then explain how it could be a contributor to car crashes.   Reference Pappas, S. (2022, June). Improving traffic safety. Monitor on Psychology, 53(4), 46–55.       ... View more

What a great discussion-starter for Sensation & Perception. What if we had these abilities too? Five Animals That Can Sense Things You Can't ... View more

In Intro Psych, the sense of smell typically takes a distant backseat to vision and hearing. Part of that short shrift is due to the comparatively sparse research into our sense of smell and smell’s close relative, taste. With temporary loss of smell being one of the common symptoms of Covid-19, thousands of people have gained a new appreciation for this often-taken-for-granted sense. (See this blog post for more information--Covid-19 and a loss of smell: Discussion topic.) During your coverage of the memory chapter, ask your students to consider common odors associated with food: freshly baked cookies or bread, curry, fish, kimchi, etc. Or the smell of the cologne or perfume worn by a loved one. Or the smell of cigarette smoke. Do any of these odors invoke strong memories?  In a small-group—synchronous or asynchronous—discussion, ask your students to share the odor and any associated memories they are comfortable sharing. When you bring students back together as a class, ask the following question using your favorite polling tool: How strong was your memory? Very strong Somewhat strong Neither strong nor weak Somewhat weak Very weak I didn’t have a memory This tendency for odors or tastes to act as retrieval cues for strong autobiographical memories is known as the Proust phenomenon or Proust effect, named for Marcel Proust. In the first book of his 7-book tour-de-force, In Search of Lost Time (also sometimes titled, Remembrance of Things Past), Proust writes of how a madeleine—a buttery cookie—dipped in tea evoked a powerful childhood memory. A recent fMRI study (Zhou et al., 2021) found a strong connection between our sense of smell and our hippocampus—a connection that is much stronger than that for touch, hearing, or vision. The researchers posit that while the pathways for touch, hearing, and vision were all rerouted—over the course of our evolution—to the cerebral cortex before heading back to the hippocampus, that did not happen for smell. Our sense of smell has maintained its direct connection to the hippocampus—the brain structure most associated with the creation of new memories.   Reference Zhou, G., Olofsson, J. K., Koubeissi, M. Z., Menelaou, G., Rosenow, J., Schuele, S. U., Xu, P., Voss, J. L., Lane, G., & Zelano, C. (2021). Human hippocampal connectivity is stronger in olfaction than other sensory systems. Progress in Neurobiology, February. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2021.102027     ... View more

This is a whole new level of walking in someone else's shoes! Virtual Body Swapping With Friend Can Alter Your Sense of Self https://psychcentral.com/news/2020/08/31/virtual-body-swapping-with-friend-can-alter-your-sense-of-self?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=owned&utm_content=2021-02-24#1 ... View more

“People are able to see and recognize patterns that can help them make decisions or form judgments, and a lot of this recognition is outside of conscious awareness.” The Science Behind Gut Feelings https://elemental.medium.com/the-science-behind-gut-feelings-e4ed0be994e9 ... View more

In a recent New York Times article(Katz, 2020), the author, Suzy Katz (2020), reflects on how the loss of the sense of smell courtesy of Covid-19 has affected her experience of the world. Most people who have a positive test for Covid-19 will lose their sense of smell or experience “smell distortions,” almost 90% of those infected will regain it within four weeks. That means that 10% don’t (Feuer, 2020). The author of the New York Times article is a member of that 10%--it’s been nine months since she tested positive for Covid-19, and her sense of smell is still AWOL (Katz, 2020). Interestingly, Covid-19 appears to not attack the olfactory neurons themselves, but the cells that support those neurons (Feuer, 2020). Although, that’s small consolation to those, like Katz, who miss their sense of smell. I remember the first student I had who reported not having a sense of smell. Her loss was the result of a head injury. Anosmia—lacking a sense of smell—is a not uncommon effect of head injury. In fact, 13% to 25% of people with head injuries have anosmia. The greater the injury, the greater the likelihood of anosmia. Additionally, 25% to 33% of those with head injuries experience “abnormal odor sensations”—parosmia (Howell et al., 2018). People with parosmia “no longer wake up and can’t smell the coffee; because of parosmia, their coffee smells like burning rubber or sewage. Parosmia is most often an unpleasant smell, a distortion of an actual odor, making many foods smell and taste revolting.” (Feuer, 2020). “Olfactory loss is often discounted as an annoyance, rather than a major health concern by both patients and many healthcare providers. Patients with olfactory impairment have diminished quality of life, decreased satisfaction with life, and increased risk for personal injury” (Howell et al., 2018). For my student, her loss of the sense of smell did not seem to greatly affect her quality of life or her satisfaction with life. My student reported not being particularly bothered by not being able to smell. The biggest change she noted was that she does more laundry than she used to since she can’t sniff her clothes to see if they can make it one more day.  The “increased risk for personal injury,” though, is an interesting point. Katz writes that “I accidentally left a burner on in my apartment and nearly started a fire” (Katz, 2020). How many of us take our sense of smell for granted? Suggested discussion topic Writing prompt for initial post Take an hour and make a note of everything that you smell, e.g., baking cookies, a partner’s perfume/cologne, a pet’s flatulence. If you lack the sense of smell, ask a friend or family member to send you a list of odors that they detected over the course of an hour. Read this article: “Covid stole my sense of smell. The city’s not the same.” [Instructors: provide a library database link to this New York Times article. Your librarians can help you with that.] Quote something from the article that you found particularly interesting. In 150+ words of reflection, explain why. Be sure to use quotation marks for your quote. The quotation is not part of the 150+ word count. Of the odors on your list, which one would you miss the most? Why? If you asked a friend or family member to provide a list for you, which odor would you most like to smell? Why? Writing prompt for responses Please respond to the initial posts of two of your classmates. with at least two of the following types of comments. A compliment, e.g., "I like how... because...," I like that... because..." A comment, e.g., "I agree that... because...," "I disagree that... because..." A connection, e.g., "I have also read that...," "I have also thought that...," "That reminds me of..." A question, e.g., "I wonder why...," "I wonder how..."    References Feuer, S. (2020, September 21). How does Covid-19 affect smell? Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-covid-19-patients-are-suffering-distorted-and-phantom-smells-180975826/ Howell, J., Costanzo, R. M., & Reiter, E. R. (2018). Head trauma and olfactory function. World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, 4(1), 39–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wjorl.2018.02.001 Katz, S. (2020, December 15). Covid stole my sense of smell. The city’s not the same. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/well/live/covid-sense-of-smell.html ... View more

"Together, the results from these studies suggest that individuals with social anxiety show an irregular attentional pattern when they are viewing emotional faces." Eye Tracking Evidence Shows that Social Anxiety Changes the Picture http://ow.ly/CfaM30r1XvU #psychstudentrss  ... View more

In the Intro Psych sensation and perception chapter, we often cover monocular cues. While it’s fine to think about how monocular cues help us perceive depth, I had never given much thought to what we would perceive if we lacked several monocular cues. In Your Inner Fish, the author, paleontologist and anatomy professor Neil Shubin, writes There is no field manual for Arctic paleontology. We received gear recommendations from friends and colleagues, and we read books-only to realize that nothing could prepare us for the experience itself. At no time is this more sharply felt than when the helicopter drops one off for the first time in some godforsaken part of the Arctic totally alone. The first thought is of polar bears. I can't tell you how many times I've scanned the landscape looking for white specks that move. This anxiety can make you see things. In our first week in the Arctic, one of the crew saw a moving white speck. It looked like a polar bear about a quarter mile away. We scrambled like Keystone Kops for our guns, flares, and whistles until we discovered that our bear was a white Arctic hare two hundred feet away. With no trees or houses by which to judge distance, you lose perspective in the Arctic (pg. 17).  This photo of Arctic Alaska can help you picture what Shubin and his colleagues were seeing—or not seeing. The caption says that those dark dots are caribou. Looking at this tundra is not unlike looking at the sky, and the sky also frequently lacks monocular cues. When I see a speck with the sky as the background, if I perceive that speck as really close, then it’s a gnat. If I perceive it a little farther away, it’s a bird. If I perceive it really far away, it’s a plane. If I perceive the speck as being someplace between the bird and the plane, it’s Superman. In Shubin’s case, the Arctic tundra didn’t give him many monocular cues to work with. Without a solid sense of distance, it’s difficult to determine the size of the object or critter. After covering monocular cues, share with students the Arctic Alaska photo. Drag your browser so the description of the caribou is off the screen. Ask students to identify the dots in the photo. After all of the guesses are in, tell students that the dots are caribou. Ask students which of the monocular cues you covered can be seen in the photo, such as relative height. Ask students which ones are missing, such as linear perspective. The fewer distance cues we have, the harder it is to determine distance. To close the activity, read students Shubin’s hare/bear paragraph. That will give you a leaping off point to talk about the ways in which our expectations can affect our perceptions. Shubin and his colleagues could have perceived the critter as a hare from the very beginning, but because polar bears were very much on their minds, a polar bear is what they all perceived. That is, until further evidence proved them wrong. ... View more