Psychologist logo
Feed your brain
Research

Link feast

Our pick of the week’s best psychology and neuroscience links.

16 January 2016

By Christian Jarrett

Memories of Glyn W. Humphreys
Psychology is mourning the sudden loss of a hugely influential researcher, teacher and kind man.

The Stanford Professor Who Pioneered Praising Kids For Effort Says We’ve Totally Missed The Point
Rather than saying “Not everybody is a good at math. Just do your best,” a teacher or parent should say “When you learn how to do a new math problem, it grows your brain.” Jenny Anderson for Quartz.

Where Are We Now? – David Bowie and Psychosis
Bowie’s experiences of psychosis influenced his art, and his art in turn has influenced the manifestation of psychosis in others. Vaughan Bell reports for Mind Hacks.

Why Boredom Is Anything But Boring
“Implicated in everything from traumatic brain injury to learning ability, boredom has become extremely interesting to scientists,” writes Maggie Koerth-Baker at Nature.

The Joy of Psyching Myself Out­
Musings from Maria Konnikova at the New York Times on the similarities and (supposed) differences of seeing the world as a writer and psychologist.

Does Cannabis Really Lower Your IQ?
My recent research has shown that differences other than cannabis use might be causing the much-discussed disparities in cognitive function, writes PhD student Claire Mokrysz for the Guardian.

The Secret to Making Anxiety Work in Your Favour
In this excerpt from her new book Presence, psychologist Amy Cuddy explains we may not be able to extinguish anxiety but we can learn to interpret it differently.

In 2016, Think Really Hard About Why You Might Be Wrong
“Even as we feel our most closely held beliefs couldn’t possibly be disproven,” writes Jesse Singal at New York’s Science of Us, “we know that human history is nothing but closely held beliefs being disproven.”