Link Feast

1. The doyenne of British psychology, Professor Uta Frith DBE, has written an article for the Huffington Post calling for more recognition of female scientists. She says that one way to do this is through creating and editing Wikipedia entries about inspiring female scientists past and present, and today the Royal Society (of which Frith is a Fellow) begins an edit-athon to do just that. One example of a glaring omission on Wikipedia at present, mentioned by Frith, is the lack of an entry for cognitive neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire of UCL, despite how hugely influential her work has been. (update: Frith also has a related article in the Daily Telegraph).

2. Interpreting the classic marshmallow test of children’s willpower just got more complicated.

3. Feeling swamped with emails (who isn’t?). Tom Stafford of Mind Hacks offers some defence mechanisms based on a better understanding of basic human psychology.

4. “I would say that neuroeconomics is about 90 percent neuroscience and 10 percent economists,” Colin F. Camerer tells The Chronicle in an intriguing article that ponders why economists are largely ignoring relevant brain science.

5. DNA evidence isn’t as objective as we often assume – Vaughan Bell in the Observer explains the part played by psychological biases (see also).

6. BBC Radio 4 broadcast an excellent programme on hallucinations – available for a few more days on iPlayer.

7. A pioneer in positive psychology has passed away. Psychology Today has an online tribute to Christopher Petersen (see also).

8. ADHD voices is a new report and campaign that aims to find out what children think and feel about having a diagnosis of ADHD.

9. Near-death experiences are fascinating, powerful phenomena but they don’t prove existence of the soul. The Brain Myths blog takes an objective look at the evidence.

10. I love this brain-inspired art: – “the elegant forms of neurons painted in the Asian sumi-e style“.