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Link Feast

Our pick of the best psychology and neuroscience links from the past week or so.

28 February 2015

By Christian Jarrett

The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Colour of This Dress
The internet is abuzz with talk of the dress that some people see as white and gold, others as blue and black. Adam Rogers at WIRED provides an explanation.

Hard Feelings: Science’s Struggle to Define Emotions
“While it’s possible for researchers to study facial expressions, brain patterns, behavior, and more,” writes Julie Beck at The Atlantic, “each of these is only part of a more elusive whole”.

Words and Sorcery
Simon Oxenham and Jon Sutton at The Psychologist consider the causes and consequences of bad writing in psychology.

Five Things Alice in Wonderland Reveals About the Brain
“All of us can learn something about ourselves from Alice in Wonderland – if only we look in the right way,” says David Robson at BBC Future.

Do Blind People Really Experience Complete Darkness?
No. “For me,” says Damon Rose at BBC News, who is completely blind, “dark has come to signify quiet, and because my built-in fireworks never go away I describe what I’ve got as a kind of visual tinnitus.”

Why Are Men Committing Suicide?
“We are living in an epidemic of male suicide,” writes Marc Judge at Acculturated.

The Elastic Brain
“A child’s brain can master anything from language to music,” argues Rebecca Boyle at Aeon. “Can neuroscience extend that genius across the lifespan?”

Confessions Of A Disordered Eater
“After a lifetime struggling with compulsive, secretive, and restrictive eating, I’m still figuring out how to have a healthy relationship with food,” says Anita Badejo at Buzzfeed.

Brain-controlled Drone Shown Off by Tekever in Lisbon
“… one aviation expert told the BBC he thought the industry would be unlikely to adopt such technology due to a perception of being potentially unsafe.”

Why Reading and Writing on Paper Can be Better For Your Brain
“I can’t imagine teaching my son to read in a house without any physical books, pens or paper. But I can’t imagine denying him the limitless words and worlds a screen can bring to him either,” says Tom Chatfield at The Guardian.