March 26, 2007
Psyc Senior I.S. Celebration!!
Psych Club will be hosting a celebration for the seniors this Wednesday at 4 pm in the 1st floor lounge of Morgan Hall- snacks provided. All are welcome to join the festivities!!
April 30, 2007
Another PSYC Party!!
Hello Seniors: The psychology department faculty would like to celebrate with you and honor you for all of your hard work and achievements at The College. For the past several years, we have held a party for seniors during the late afternoon on the Thursday of the I.S. dinner . We would like to do the same this year.
So we invite you to a party on Thursday, May 3rd, from 4:00 to 5:30 in Morgan Hall 117 and 119 (the dinner starts at 5:45).
Please come and celebrate together!
March 12, 2007
Sweet Smelling Sleep Enhances Memory…
Researchers at University of Lübeck and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany delivered a pleasant scent (roses) while subjects were learning the location of matched card pairs (remember the game “Memory”?). They then delivered the scent again while the subjects were in slow wave sleep. The experimental subjects showed 13% better memory for the card pairs than control subjects. However, the memory enhancement only occurred when the scent was delivered during slow-wave sleep, a time when memories are thought to be consolidated. The research appears in the journal “Science” and is reviewed here in the NY Times.
Comments(1)March 7, 2007
Don’t Steal the Seal.
It’s time to start putting the finishing touches on that I.S. project. This is just a reminder that The College prohibits the use of The College Seal on any departmental documents (including I. S. manuscripts) without express written permission etc. Apparently, a while back, someone thought it looked nice on the cover of their I.S. Then, some other students thought it was required. Actually though, The College prohibits its use on I.S. manuscripts. Nonetheless, we still get one or two each year with the seal on it. Then we make you hand in a revision, without the seal.
Check out the official statute statement of the use of The College Seal.
March 6, 2007
Using Technology to “Read Minds”…
Okay, this is just a little scary. Apparently, some enterprising researchers in Berlin have determined how to predict someone’s intention to do high-level cognitive processes such as addition or subtraction by scanning their brain. So yes, I think we can safely say that technology has now allowed psychologists to read minds (at a greater than chance level in a forced choice task, for the moment). Let’s hope they use their powers for good instead of evil.
“If you knew which thought signatures to look for, you could theoretically predict in more detail what people were going to do in the future,” said Haynes. Apparently no official comment was immediately available from the ACLU…
Of course, this gives a whole new perspective on what finals week might look like 50 years from now…
March 3, 2007
“Seeing Red” Impairs Test Performance…
No, really…seeing the color red has recently been shown to cause poorer test performance because of its association with errors and mistakes. Sound like a flimsy finding appearing in a cheesy journal? Not so. The study appears in the February issue of the prestigious Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Careful what you wear to your next exam.
Lead author Andrew J. Elliot and his colleagues next plan to study the effect of the color green on life satisfaction in what they hope to term the “Kermit the Frog Effect” (it’s not easy being green). Okay, I made that last part up….
February 28, 2007
College Students Are More Narcisistic…
“We need to stop endlessly repeating ‘You’re special’ and having children repeat that back. Kids are self-centered enough already.”
No, these are not the words of Dr. Casey, (not an exact quote anyway). Rather, the quote comes from Psychologist Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. AP writer DAVID CRARY reports that Twenge is the lead author on a recent study suggesting that today’s college students are more narcissistic than those of 25 years ago. The study examined changes in scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006.
Is it just a little ironic that someone who studies narcissism has a press release for almost ALL of her publications?
Play Ball!
The Cleveland Indians spring training baseball schedule begins tomorrow! What does baseball have to do with Psychology you ask? Lots, and it’s not just the “sports psychologist” connection. Sure, many teams employ psychologists to improve team or individual performance. But, baseball and psychology also intersect in visual perception, naive theories of physics, statistics, history, and motor control and many other areas.
Connections closer to home? Senior Psychology student (and Woo baseball player) Brandon Boesiger recently completed his I.S., which examined the visual and auditory information that batters use to time the arrival of the pitch. It turns out that players can time the arrival of the pitch with their ears almost as well as they can with their eyes!
February 26, 2007
Hey Professor, What’s In Your iPod?
Or, in your 8-track player (as the case may be). This question was recently posed to the Psyc faculty and received the following responses…
Casey: |
It’s probably not surprising but I don’t own an iPod, or any kind of music making machine for that matter. I really don’t care that much for music. I like books on tape or CD, but that’s not really the same thing I guess. |
Neuhoff: |
I DO have an iPod. It’s a few years old. It belonged to my 14 yr. old daughter. When she got a new one she gave the old to her 7 yr. old brother. When she got a NEWER one she gave her second one to my 7 yr. old again. He gave me the old, old one. What’s inside? Ray Charles, Delbert McClinton, Albert Collins, Bill Withers, Steely Dan, & old Motown. Newer stuff? Nickleback, Cartel & McFly (yes I have a 14 yr. old). |
Stavnezer: |
This is too embarrassing to answer –..please recall back to the days when (your kids) wanted to listen to Sesame Street incessantly, and so you gave in because you would do anything for (them)! My play list (in the iPod I don’t own) - kid’s music, classical and when I’m in my office streaming ITunes 80’s music. |
Thompson: |
Lately I’ve been listening to William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, and some Early American Shape Note singing. Bach is the best all-around “fallback” to listen to. If I listen to more recent music, it’s likely to be Gladys Knight , Aretha Franklin, or Bonnie Raitt. |
Garcia: |
I purchased my ipod this summer for a trip to Hungary. I’ve been istening to Neil Young, Sufjan Stevens, the new Pete Yorn album, and Prince (of course!). I’m also a big fan of This American Life (weekly podcast) and the Ricky Gervais show. |
Wickline |
I mainly use my IPod for working out…so it generally has more upbeat stuff, including some international music, a chunk of fave rap/hip hop/rock songs, a little Christian gospel, Evanescence, and Fiona Apple, Phish, Lauryn Hill/Wycliffe Jean (WHY haven’t the Fugees gotten back together?!?). |
Summer Internship Opportunities
Did you know that the department has a page of summer internship opportunities? Check it out! Maybe you can do something fun and interesting this summer to advance your education and career.
Oh yeah, did we mention you get paid?