Psychologist logo
Feed your brain
Research

Link Feast

Tuck into our latest round-up of the best psych and neuro links.

01 June 2012

By Christian Jarrett

In an open-access feature on Toilet Psychology for The Psychologist, Nick Haslam argues that psychologists should stop averting their eyes from the bathroom. “In 30 years of studying the field I rarely came across any recognition that human beings are creatures who excrete,” he writes.

How Mark Changizi turned Japanese (perceptually) in just one week.

The science and ethics of voluntary amputation, the latest from Mo Costandi’s Neurophilosophy blog.

Crowdsourcing is transforming the science of psychology.

The latest Neuropod podcast is online, including a feature on a paralysed woman able to control a robot arm with her thoughts.

MPs in the UK have published a new report into the causes and consequences of body image dissatisfaction.

How close are we to a forgetting pill (Amy Milton with a guest post on Jon Simons’ blog).

Latest Psychfiles podcast – protect yourself from the persuasive techniques of the car salesman.

The 85-plus generation are much happier than perceived.

One for the diary – can you become musical at any age? Gary Marcus in London on June 11 discussing his new book Guitar Zero, the Science of Learning to Be Musical.

Will there one day be a vaccination against depression? Just one of the topics covered on the latest episode of BBC Radio 4’s All in the Mind.

Interested in becoming a sports psychologist? Here’s a video showing a day in the life of sports psych Dr John Mathers.

An amusing conversation between an evolutionary psychologist and a biologist.

Why it’s important to tackle brain myths head-on.

Lots of great interviews published online in the last week:

– Ian Leslie (author of Born Liars, Why We Can’t Live Without Deceit) interviewed Jonah Lehrer (author of Imagine, How Creativity Works).

– Jonah Lehrer interviewed Bruce Hood (author of the Self Illusion).

– On BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific, Jim Al-Khalili met Cambridge psychologist Barbara Sahakian.

Vaughan Bell for the Observer wrote about the beguiling nature of brain scans and the complexities involved in how to interpret them. (He followed up with some more detail on the Mind Hacks blog).

The latest episode of Digital Human on BBC Radio 4 explored online relationships.

Some new books worth checking out: What A Plant Knows, a field guide to the sensesThe Winner Effect, how power affects your brainHow To Stay SaneFrom Melancholia to Prozac: A History of Depression.

What is empathy? A question explored in a new docu-film “Love, hate & everything in between“.

Finally, I was lucky enough to be inspired by succeedology guru L Vaughan Spencer last Saturday. Here he is explaining why thinking is the enemy of innovation.

That’s all, have a great Jubilee weekend!