Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2628 )

• Male Sex Hormones Alter the Brain After Exercise.

  Numerous experiments have shown that exercise ability our ability to remember and think, and causes formation of new nerve cells. Read more

  Posted on 25 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• On Being Nothing...

  The "Opinionater" feature of the New York Times has "Anxiety" as one of its topics inviting online essays. I wanted to pass on a piece submitted by Brian Jay... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Signing Beforehand Increases Honesty.

  Here is a fascinating simple study by Shu et al. Simply signing a statement of honesty at the top rather the bottom of a form makes you more honest. Read more

  Posted on 21 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Distinct Prefrontal Areas Regulating Cognitive Control and Value Decisions.

  

  A massive study involving workers at five different universities has utilized a dataset on brain lesions accumulated over many decades to reveal two distinct... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Motivation Influences How Time Flies When You’re Having Fun.

  Numerous studies have shown that a positive state, relative to a negative state, makes time appear to pass more quickly and causes assessments of elapsed time t... Read more

  Posted on 19 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Neural Signature of Affiliative Emotions.

  

  Moll et al. do an interesting study to experimentally disentangle affiliative experience from general emotional valence, by demonstrating that brain areas... Read more

  Posted on 18 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Do Implicit Attitudes Predict Actual Voting Behavior?

  How can psychologists and pollsters predict the voting behavior of undecided voters? Is there is any hope for us Obama supporters who worry about the... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Psychological Distance Enhances Conformity to Group Norms.

  In yet another of one of those studies that give what would appear to be a generally applicable result, but is based on experiments carried out on two rather... Read more

  Posted on 14 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Zero Effect of Caloric Restriction on Lifespan

  I would be very surprised if there were any blog readers who are unaware of this material, released two weeks ago with saturation coverage by the popular... Read more

  Posted on 13 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Cognitive Load Disrupts Implicit Theory of Mind Processing.

  I'm passing this on because I was totally unaware of the implicit theory of mind (TOM) system that is explained in these clips from the article by Schneider et... Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Why the Sex Gap in Affective Disorders?

  Here is an abstract from Hu et al., which I pass on to you even though it is rather technical, that shows that an increase in negative affective behavior in... Read more

  Posted on 11 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Investing in Karma - When Wanting Promotes Helping

  An interesting piece from Converse et al. provides reliable evidence that people do good deeds when they want something beyond their control. Read more

  Posted on 10 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Alcohol and Group Formation.

  Sayette et al. do what looks like a thorough piece of work, but I also have a "Duh...tell us something else we didn't already know" kind of reaction. Read more

  Posted on 07 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Where Thinking About Thinking Happens in the Brain.

  We evaluate and alter the cognitive functions we perform, as when we revise or edit our writing or speaking. This monitoring and controlling is usually... Read more

  Posted on 06 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Unimaginable Complexity of Our Evolved Human Systems.

  In the face of all the current hubris about redesigning and engineering humans using modern genetic and biochemical tools, trying to reverse engineer brain... Read more

  Posted on 05 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Mapping Discrete and Dimensional Emotions onto the Brain.

  

  Here I am passing on the abstract and one summary figure from a useful recent review article by Stephan Hamann: A longstanding controversy in the field of... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• How Childhood Musical Training Shapes the Adult Brain.

  From Skoe and Kraus: Playing a musical instrument changes the anatomy and function of the brain. But do these changes persist after music training stops? Read more

  Posted on 03 September 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Scientific Basis of a Psychotherapy.

  I've been wanting to pass on elements of a nice essay written by Eric Kandel for last year's Edge question, which describes Aaron Beck's development of cognitiv... Read more

  Posted on 31 August 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Freud, the Tea Party, and Deluded Individualism.

  A nice piece by DeBrabander in The Stone forum on the NYTimes has an interesting take on how it is that stalwart red state tea party supporters who admit they... Read more

  Posted on 30 August 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Quotable Gore Vidal.

  I just can't resist passing on these wonderful quotes from Gore Vidal, from the PBS website: 1. “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.” 2. “Style is... Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2012 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE