Category: Psychology

A couple of years ago there was an email going around that claimed to explain how we read. The email began:

“Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”

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If people know that excessive exposure to UV rays causes cancer, why do they still insist on grilling themselves? Health psychologists would love to know the answer so they could help curb the growing rates of skin cancer. The obvious answer is that people think that tanned skin makes them look more attractive, but this is not the whole story.

Continue reading “Evidence Tanning Is Addictive”

Humans are thought be the only species that have asymmetrical brains. It is this specialisation between the sides of the brain that may have been an important factor in the development of language. Now, one researcher is suggesting that brain symmetry is important in mental illness.

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One in ten of us has had an out of body experience at some point in our lives. This can take the form of feeling like we have floated outside the confines of our bodies and are looking down on ourselves. Understandably, rigorous scientific studies are few and far between, but a few researchers have shown an interest in proving that the mind is able to travel outside the body.

Continue reading “Out of Body Experiences: Real or Imagined?”

The tragic shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes (left) raises important questions about eyewitness testimony and face recognition. BBC news have an article concentrating on the incredible disparity between different eyewitness reports of the event. But, more importantly for the police and for all our safety, how easy is it to mis-identify an unfamiliar person?

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New research analysing data that may have been with withheld by drug companies suggests that the widely-used anti-depressant known as Seroxat in the UK, increases the likelihood of suicide.

According to this new analysis the chances that the risk of suicide is increased by taking Seroxat is 90%. This is not the sort of probability level that can be ignored.

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Conformity. It’s everywhere you look in human society. We’re all copying each other like crazy all the time, often without realising it. It’s well established by researchers – like Solomon Asch in his famous experiment in 1955 – that people will disown the evidence of their own eyes in the struggle to conform with other people. (You can try a simple version of it here – damn it I conformed!)

Continue reading “Chimpanzees Conform to Cultural Norms”

A group of neuroscientists, computer specialists and statisticians, amongst others, are creating the most detailed simulation ever of brain function. The Blue Brain project aims to simulate 8,000 neurons that make up a neocortical column (left) – a fundamental building block of the most complicated part of mammalian brains: the neocortex.

Continue reading “Blue Brain: Computer Simulation of the Neocortex”