Where children sleep.

Now I lay me down to sleep...

Your eyes can be tricked.

It's kind of a Public Service Announcement of sorts, I suppose, but I'm not sure about the wisdom of this recent optical illusion painted on the road of a British Columbia street. It is supposed to "drive" home the message about watching out for kids on the street. I appreciate the intent, but am not so sure it won't actually cause accidents rather than prevent them.



On the other hand I kind of love this PSA - for a number of reasons I suppose. First off is the soft spot I have in my heart for Jason Bateman, given his involvement in this.  Second, I love the demonstration of how things have changed. Make that about cellphone usage nowadays and it might fit - but the idea of lugging around a huge boombox, well, no more.

 

Public service announcements don't always work. I'm not sure if Jason Bateman's plea to politeness had a noticeable effect on boombox noise pollution in the late 80s, but certainly various campaigns have resulted in shifts in public awareness. For example, one of the most famous - the Back to Sleep campaign - resulted in a 50% reduction in the number of infants suffering from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. On the other hand, public service campaigns geared towards changing the public's conceptions of how often oil should be changed in a car haven't resulted in any changes, and some, like the funny but unfair (and rightly critiqued) breastfeeding PSAs might have actually led to a backlash.

Which public service announcement do you remember from your childhood?  Did they work? Why or why not?

Back to school. Back to studying.

So, despite the deceptive weather here in Virginia, the march of the seasons goes forward and school begins anew. And rather than spending summer evenings relaxing in the warmth of the season, it's time to buckle down and get back to work - and studying.

I don't think too many people like studying, although certainly the rewards can be great. Studying is something you have to do - it's generally necessary for the genuine acquisition of complex knowledge. Given that - how can you make your studying more effective?

Well, it's apparently not teaching styles.

Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded.

And, it's shocking to see that it's apparently not teaching style either. This scandalous finding is sure to be overturned. 

Ditto for teaching styles, researchers say. Some excellent instructors caper in front of the blackboard like summer-theater Falstaffs; others are reserved to the point of shyness. “We have yet to identify the common threads between teachers who create a constructive learning atmosphere..."

So what do we know about learning?  Well, when you look at what individual behaviors can be used to promote learning, there are some easy to institute behaviors that can help you retain the most bang for your studying buck.

For instance, one helpful technique is to change study location. Generally, advice about performance suggests that one should pick a quiet, uncluttered location and dedicate it to studying. Research, however, seems to indicate that switching locations aids retention, perhaps by encouraging your mind to make multiple associations to material for each of the locations in which you studied, rather than just one.

Switch it up too. Rather than spending all your study block on one subjects, break subjects into short blocks. And while everyone knows that cramming may help for short term memory, it seems to fade rapidly once the test is over. However, people may not realize how strong this effect is. It really matters. Theorists suggest that it may be because when you revisit information, you have to reorient yourself to where you were - kind of like reading a few pages of the book you half forgot over so that you remember where the plot was going. And that process reinforces the material.

“The idea is that forgetting is the friend of learning,” said Dr. Kornell. “When you forget something, it allows you to relearn, and do so effectively, the next time you see it.”

Last, practice tests and quizzes can be a powerful means of increasing retention. They show you where your information is lacking, and force you to review materials.

 Dr. Roediger uses the analogy of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics, which holds that the act of measuring a property of a particle (position, for example) reduces the accuracy with which you can know another property (momentum, for example): “Testing not only measures knowledge but changes it,” he says — and, happily, in the direction of more certainty, not less.

So here's hoping for a productive term that makes maximal use of your study time.  

I'll be back momentarily...

I apologize for my long absence. I just completed a move cross-country to Virginia Wesleyan College, where I accepted a position as a faculty member.

No more drizzly Portland days and earnest baristas for me, no more Powell's and the cold and lovely coast, fewer bridges. No more snowy mountains on the horizon, and no roses blooming wild everywhere you look.

I'm sure I will discover great things here too though.

I'll be back to posting on a regular basis. Momentarily.


Moments from Everynone on Vimeo.

In honor of the 4th...

Have a great weekend!

Philosophy

The Nietzsche Family Circus


Idleness is the parent of psychology


The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote.

Mapping the Brain in Decline

Alzheimer's is a nasty disease, resulting in progressive, permanent, neurological deterioration, leading eventually to dementia - and the loss of the unique you that existed before the disease - even if your heart remains strong and your body robust. The causes and progression of Alzheimer's are not well understood.

One of the reasons research in Alzheimer's has been hampered is because of a lack of a reliable method to diagnose it. Alzheimer's is diagnosed with a constellation of symptoms, including memory loss, mood swings, aggression, symptoms of mental decline, and, most notably, amyloid plaques on the brain. Amyloid plaques - bunches of protein fibers in the gray matter of the brain - are necessary for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's, but testing for their presence was not possible until after the person died and their brain could be examined in an autopsy.

A new study shows great promise in the detection of these plaques, however. In this research, radioactive dye is injected into the brain.  This "lights up" the plaques in brain scans, and therefore makes them viewable. This is important for a variety of reasons.

Brain scans that showed plaque could help with some fundamental questions — who has or is getting Alzheimer’s, whether the disease ever stops or slows down on its own and even whether plaque is the main culprit causing brain cell death.

Being able to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's would be pivotal in the development of means by which to combat its effects. For example, we might be able to identify people who were in the process of getting Alzheimer's - a breakthrough that could provide help to people before declines begin. It would also give us more information about whether or not new drugs developed to treat it were working.

But my favorite part of this emerging research? The creativity and tenacity of the scientists who conducted the study. The FDA insisted that proof be supplied that the amyloid plaques being detected in the brain scans are the same as the ones that are identified in the brains of dead Alheimer's patients. How can a researcher collect this information in a reasonable amount of time, given that patients with Alzheimer's often survive for decades after the initial diagnosis is made? Well, the researchers came up with a solution to this - conduct research on participants in a hospice, close to death and nearing their final stop in the march of life. While some criticized this initially as being unethical or demeaning to potential participants, the research was allowed to proceed (and from accounts, people were glad to participate). And the research worked. And now, because of this, a new technique to monitor a terrible disease is within our sights.

Science is not pure. It is shaped and molded by pragmatic and ethical constraints. The trick is not just knowing what to study, but how to go about doing so in a way that is both scientifically valid, ethically justifiable, and practically possible. Kudos to this research team for their ingenuity.

Dubious Inventions

The 10 most ridiculous college courses.

My dad, who is a college professor too, used to tease me sometimes about courses I took in college that did not meet his standards of academic rigor.  His favorite joke was to call them all "Underwater Basket Weaving."

In that same spirit, just a little comic relief  before the final.  By the way, Human Development is most certainly NOT ridiculous and NOT in this category at all.

Parrots and Scientists

There is some evidence that much as we are wired for language, and much as language is part and parcel of our humanity, music may also be coded in our neurobiology. Brain imaging suggests that the way we process musical "grammar" is akin to how we process language - the circuits overlap, the patterns mix together, language and music intertwine.

So our love of music may have something to do with our ear for the prosody - the beat and rhythm and tempo and pitch - of language. Oddly enough, we are not the only animals to enjoy a beat even though we are the only species with true generative language. Snowball the dancing cockatoo's rhythmic dancing to the Backstreet Boys' suggests that although other species may not have the best musical taste, they might share the joy of moving their bodies to a tune. Before Snowball's example emerged, it was considered to be a uniquely human behavior.

Although perhaps not one scientists are all that good at, as the following video illustrates nicely.

On getting older.

The brain. 
Not as bad as it was once thought to be, and even better than young brains at some things.

The brain, as it traverses middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture. If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns, and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can.

How do we keep it sharp?  Exercise, health, good relationship, and a bit of healthy disagreement apparently.

Happiness.
And there's more good news.

On the global measure [of happiness], people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves, and then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than when they were 18.

So hang in there if things are rough. Your knees may go, your back may ache, and you may need to cock your ear towards conversations to hear what people say. But apparently happiness is built out of more.

Sex.
And remember how I mentioned in class today that people except for my parents of course still have sex when they enter later adulthood? Here's some advice on how to get your groove on (pretty sfw by the way, despite the youtube warning).

A world opens

Here, a baby, hearing his mother's voice for the first time after a cochlear implant is activated, smiles in response. It will make your heart explode is very cute.

Links! Extra Credit! And more!

Hi all,
Two quick links.

First, a link to a questionnaires about the use of the ECHO video podcast system I used to videotape this quarter's lectures. Please note that this is not my questionnaire, but one being conducted by the university to find out how students feel about the system.  If you liked the video podcasts and want to see more of them, or if you hated them and want to see less, here's your chance to have your voice heard.  This questionnaire is not for extra credit.

Second, a link to a study being conducted by one of the graduate students in the Psychology Department at Portland State on personality and work.  You can earn a point of extra credit for completing it - just make sure you enter your first and last name at the end, as well as the class you are completing it for (this info will not be linked to your survey responses).

And then just for the hell of it, a video link.  Give it 90 seconds.  Really.  It just gets crazy.

Learning from our Enemies

We hear a lot nowadays about bullying; how to stop it, what it does to children, how it's linked to bad things like depression and suicide, and how the fast clip of technology and open world of social networking has led to the extension of these bad behaviors online.  But is it always bad?  Can we learn something from our enemies?

Well, most of the work on children who are rejected in childhood - children who are not liked by other kids - suggests that they are low in social competence, aggressive and depressed, and that many of these effects may persist on a relatively long-term basis. Not good.

But a new article in the New York Times suggests that these effects may be overstated, at least for the majority of children.  As it turns out, the research on our childhood enemies may have been skewed by our focus on rejected children.  Chronically disliked, highly aggressive, often impulsive and hostile - these children are a special, smaller group and may not accurately represent the influence of our more moderate adversaries. Many many of us had enemies in our childhood years - the mean kid, the one who threw your lunch or called you names, the friend who turned against you and laughed in your face, the foe who spread nasty rumors about you.  But most of us turn out okay.  In fact, not just okay.  Those interactions with our enemies may have actually led to increases in our social competence.  They may have actually helped us.

“Friendships provide a context in which children develop, but of course so do negative peer relations,” said Maurissa Abecassis, a psychologist at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. “We should expect that both types of relationships, as different as they are, present opportunities for growth.”

But how can this be?  What might enemies be teaching us? Well, we will always encounter people we dislike - the infinite variability of those around us ensures that to be true. And there will always be people who don't like us. Being able to identify this and respond appropriately is a skill, and it is a skill that can be honed in childhood as we navigate the land mines of the social world.  If someone hates you, it's actually adaptive to realize that and not waste energy on trying to be friends - a process that may ultimately be for naught.  And a shared enemy?  We've known for a long time that that helps us to strengthen our social bonds with our allies.

So we don't have to like our childhood enemies.  But we should perhaps thank them for teaching us some important, if unpleasant lessons.

Infant Perception

Here, a short video on prenatal and early influences on taste preferences in young children.

Extra Credit: Undergraduate Assessment

Give your opinions about instructors, course offerings and advising.  And EXTRA CREDIT.  2 points to be specific.

Undergraduate Assessment Survey

Back to work.

So you want to be a teacher?

Information on becoming a teacher in Oregon is here, for those interested in that path.

Theory Shmeary

So you know how sometimes people complain about theories being just a theory?  You know, as opposed to a law?  Ever wondered what that really meant?

Theories are organized sets of hypotheses, organized sets of whys laid out in an attempt to understand some group of facts that have been observed. In scientific terms at least, theories have stronger support and explanatory power than laws.  Good theories are testable, they can be shown to be wrong, or if we are lucky good and careful scientists, perhaps on the road to right. So theory schmeary and all that.

And, in scientific terms at least, "law" doesn't mean quite the same thing as in everyday speech.  In everyday speech, laws are rules we are supposed to obey - things we have to do but sometimes don't or things we get in trouble for doing.  By contrast, in scientific terminology laws are descriptions of things that happen.  They are primarily observatory in nature, meaning they tell us what happens under a certain set of circumstances.  Apple rolls off head, apple falls.  It tells us the what of what happened.  But - and here's a crucial part - it doesn't tell us the why, and that's because we generally don't understand why they happened, we just know that they do. So in terms of evidence and explanatory power, theories are the better bet.

However, in the spirit of internet memes, let me pass on for you a PSA recently forwarded to me about a law you should follow.

Because seatbelts?  Not just a good idea.  The LAW.

Research Internship at OHSU

Research Intern

Oregon Health Science University, Sleep and Mood Disorders Laboratory http://www.ohsu.edu/sleeplab
The Sleep and Mood Disorders Laboratory at OHSU conducts studies on human circadian rhythm disorders, including experiments testing the effectiveness of properly-timed doses of melatonin to treat such disorders in totally blind people.  Other research studies include work in circadian misalignment in non-seasonal major depression and the genetics of morning and evening types.

We are currently looking for one or more psychology, biology or pre-med students to assist in various levels of the research process, including data entry and analysis, literature searches, transcribing sleep diaries, filing journal articles, and preparing materials for research subjects. This position may also require interaction with research subjects, including recruitment and screening.  Good communication skills and attention to detail are required. Knowledge of computer application software (Word, Excel) is preferred.  This position is an unpaid internship.  To apply for this position, please submit cover letter and resume to Amber Laurie at sleeplab@ohsu.edusleeplab@ohsu.edu>.

Money for Participating in a Research Study!

Hi all,
Robert Roesser, of the psychology department here at Portland State, is recruiting students for a study on contemplative education.  His website is here, his blog is here, and the recruitment information is here.


                  

Scholarship opportunity

Hi all,
I just wanted to alert you to a potential scholarship opportunity.  The Ronald E. McNair Scholar's Program  is a fabulous opportunity for a motivated student.  It is designed to help students from low income, first generation or traditionally underrepresented groups get into graduate school.  Basically, you participate in a series of professional development courses all year, are matched with a faculty advisor, and then design, carry out, write up and present your own research project during the summer (with a salary! that means money!).  I've served as an advisor three times and am a HUGE fan of the program.  I've linked above to the webpage, but feel free to ask me questions about it as well.

Perception.

Science, meet art.  Your eyes can be tricked. 

Small cars: Not just for clowns anymore

What's your romantic attachment style?

In line with what I promised in class yesterday, here's a short quiz to measure your romantic attachment style.

This particular questionnaire will break down your beliefs about romantic relationships in two dimensions - anxiety and avoidance.  Anxiety relates to your feelings of self-worth and whether or not you are worthy of the love of others.  Avoidance relates to your desire for closeness in a relationship.

Comic Relief

You know how babies explore everything with their mouths?





Well, we forget how sensitive our mouths really are.  There's a lot that can be identified with the numerous and sensitive cells of the tongue. Like, for instance, Star Wars action figures.

Speaking without words

How much can we say to another person without actually saying a word?  As it turns out, quite a bit.  A recent series of studies suggests that small touches -  the passing pat on the back, the weight of a hand on the shoulder, the clasping of a warm palm - these brief moments of physical contact can actually have a profound effect on the way we feel about an interaction.

The evidence that such messages can lead to clear, almost immediate changes in how people think and behave is accumulating fast. Students who received a supportive touch on the back or arm from a teacher were nearly twice as likely to volunteer in class as those who did not, studies have found. A sympathetic touch from a doctor leaves people with the impression that the visit lasted twice as long, compared with estimates from people who were untouched.Research by Tiffany Field of the Touch Research Institute in Miami has found that a massage from a loved one can not only ease pain but also soothe depression and strengthen a relationship.

 Psychologists have known for a long time that much of what we say to each other is communicated via nonverbal channels.  What is new and what is interesting about this, however, is that this new work focuses on the actual physical touch as a medium for the transmission of emotional state.

What I find really fascinating about this kind of work is the idea that there is so much under the surface that influences us.  We might not notice that someone touching us alters our perceptions of what happens.  But it nonetheless might have a significant impact on the way we feel.

Body Talk

Anyone remember reading Amelia Bedelia books when you were young?  Amelia Bedelia was a maid who wore crazy hats and took things literally - throwing a tent away after being asked to pitch it, putting clothes on the chicken she was asked to dress, and decorating the curtains she was asked to draw. Funny stuff to a 6-year old.

Amelia Bedelia did not understood that conversations are not supposed to be taken literally. We all make extensive use of metaphors in speech - we can think of talking about our troubles weighing us down, or feeling like we are on cloud nine; of someone who has a cold heart, or who warms our soul; of feeling puffed up with pride, or in the case of unwelcome events, very small.  As we get older, we understand that these are symbolic in nature.  However, as it turns out, we may not have left all that literalism behind with our youth. 

A series of recent studies suggest that many of our abstract cognitions may be interpreted literally.  In other words, our bodies may in some cases mirror and reflect our abstract thoughts.  Many of us still hold to the concept of mind-body dualism; the idea there is something unique and special and separate about our minds versus our bodies.  This series of clever studies suggest that this dichotomy is even more false than it is generally acknowledged to be. 

"Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found that when people were asked to engage in a bit of mental time travel, and to recall past events or imagine future ones, participants’ bodies subliminally acted out the metaphors embedded in how we commonly conceptualized the flow of time. As they thought about years gone by, participants leaned slightly backward, while in fantasizing about the future, they listed to the fore. "

In a similar fashion, other studies in this newly emerging field of embodied cognition suggest that we might find people friendlier when we are holding a warm drink, or might be more likely to use handiwipes when we're reminded of the wrongs we have committed, and think heavier textbooks contain more vital information.  

“How we process information is related not just to our brains but to our entire body,” said Nils B. Jostmann of the University of Amsterdam. “We use every system available to us to come to a conclusion and make sense of what’s going on.”

These physical accompaniments to the metaphors in language suggest that we think, not just with our heads, but also with our bodies.   They also suggest a number of fascinating areas for future research.  It remains to be seen whether the effects found in the laboratory translate into an influence in the real world.  There are also implications with respect to cross-cultural differences.  Would cultures with different metaphors show different  physical correlates?  In Chinese, the past is thought of as being in front of you, and the future behind you.  Would Chinese subjects lean in the opposite direction to American samples?  And last, and perhaps more importantly - can we influence people's thoughts by influencing their bodies?

Educational Opportunities

Anyone interested in medicine?  Oregon Health and Science University has a summer internship program for undergraduate students in the Center for Research in Occupational and Environmental Toxicology.  Work at OHSU for the summer, receive a stipend, and gain valuable experience to make your graduate/medical school application more competitive.  Plus, as you will be required to take mass transportation to work every day, you might get to ride this on a daily basis. 

Capstone anyone?  Finish up your required Capstone course in 2 weeks outside in the beautiful summertime Portland weather helping children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities enjoy summer camp.  Information here. By the way, all students I have talked to who have completed this Capstone have said really good things about it.  I highly recommend it. 

Or, if you prefer, put up with me for another quarter by taking my Early Childhood Education Capstone course. I'm teaching a small course in which students will be placed in local daycare centers to work with young children (ages 3 months to 5 years).  We'll meet to discuss application of developmental principles into applied settings, and you will be asked to complete a final project to present to your daycare center at the conclusion of the quarter.  See me for more information, and relatively soon, as class size is limited.

Healthy body, healthy life, healthy mind.  We all know the health benefits of exercise.  Let PSU and a little competition help you out here with the 20.20.20 mini-triathlon at the Academic and Student Recreation Center on February 20.  20 minute lap swim, 20 minute stationary bike, and 20 minute run.  

Five Quick Takes

1.  Often, I get asked about sleeping issues with young children, and whether or not sleep training techniques such as cry-it-out (CIO) are damaging to young children.  Well, research suggests not, and that while consistency in technique used is the key variable of influence, CIO works most effectively.  However, using it is like ripping your heart out in pieces and throwing it down on a crowded subway somewhat difficult for most parents, and many simply can't do it.

I was pleased, by the way, to see this addressed in one of my new favorite shows, Modern Family.



2.  I used to have a crazy dog.  She not once, but TWICE jumped out of second stories windows for no apparent reason.  She was also very obsessive and would focus on one thing (like a tennis ball or a patch of light) and have a difficult time pulling away from it.  Well, as it turns out, she may have had a recently discovered gene associated with compulsive behaviors.  How does this apply to psychology?  Well, a similar gene may be responsible for these behaviors in both humans and dogs.  Either way, it kind of sucked as her owner as she was really quite neurotic.

She WAS pretty cute though.

3.  Sometimes humans can be pretty nasty.  We can be aggressive and selfish and mean.  But humans can also at times demonstrate an amazing amount of altruism and be moved to give and help others in truly significant, beautiful ways.  Well, there are some suggestions that some of this may be innate, start early, and presumably be a consequence of our hypersocial nature, as demonstrated in the linked clips to the PBS show, The Human Spark.  Check them out - they're cute and pretty cool to boot.

4.  An interesting article here on the liberal bias in academia.  What these scholars suggest is that the question is not so much why academia has a liberal bias, but why so many liberals want to be professors.  The answer, apparently, has a little to do with history, a little with our desire to fit in, and quite a bit with what could be termed a stereotype of what professors are like.

5.  You may have realized that even with the copious amounts of coffee I drink, my memory still sometimes leaves something to be desired.  Perhaps you might have experienced the same thing?  Well - here - some information on how to keep the aging mind agile.

Undergraduate Opportunity for Scholarship to Child and Family Sciences Conference

I just wanted to let you know about a professional development opportunity for students interested in child and family studies. Apparently, Arizona State University is hosting a conference focused on professional development for undergraduate seniors interested in going into a research-oriented career. There's an application link, and if you are accepted, they pay for all your expenses (except for incidentals) and you attend a two and a half day conference designed to help you get into graduate school.  It sounds like a great opportunity - check it out!

By the way, if you are interested in graduate school (in any area, really, not just child and family studies, and not just psychology) then please do talk to an advisor about how best to prepare yourself for graduate school!  It's a competitive process, and it's good to start preparing well before graduation.

It's a kid's world.

A link to Scientific American Frontiers: It's a kid's world. This has the magical events video, some fun segments (which we won't be covering) on motor development, and some segments on Theory of Mind and Language which we will watch later in the quarter.

Eye Color Calculator

As promised in class, an eye color calculator....

There is a more in-depth explanation of the genetics of eye color at the links at the bottom of the page.  As I mentioned in class, eye color is more complicated than the simple Mendelian example I gave in class.

Marketing

In many social niches in the US, there has been an effort to become more "green".  Given our population, and the vast amount of resources we consume, this is a good thing.  It's not always an easy path though.  For example, a recent article in the New York Times suggests that couples are spending more time fighting over green issues.  We are loathe to give up our cars, and continue to buy, and dispose of, large amounts of consumer goods.  We like our air conditioners and our heaters and eat far more meat than we really should.

In response to issues such as these, information is now out there to help us make decisions about what products might be a more sustainable choice.  The economic choices we make in terms of what we purchase can have larger consequences in that some companies are better than others at preserving our world's resources.  Smart companies take note of this consumer preference, and have started to respond.

But the best laid plans can sometimes fail.  A recent product roll-out by Proctor & Gamble shows that when companies fail to appreciate the power of the informational exchange afforded by the internet, things can go terribly wrong.  Proctor & Gamble has recently developed a new, greener diaper which test marketing prior to its introduction suggested would be met with positive responses from parents.

Pampers' breakthrough new Dry Max diaper is 20% thinner and way more absorbent than its predecessor or the competition in tests, leading Procter & Gamble Co. executives to hail it as the iPod of baby care.

 The key to the Dry Max diaper is a revamped, more permeable "absorbent gel material," which P&G claims absorbs more fluid faster than an unnamed competitor, i.e. Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s Huggies. Using more of the petrochemical absorbent gel allowed P&G to do away with the mesh liner in Pampers and a considerable amount of wood-based fiber, said Kerri Hailey, section head of global baby care research and development at P&G, who has been testing the diapers with her own children since 2005. The net result was considerably less environmental impact; Ms. Hailey also cited substantial reductions in packaging, trucks needed to haul diapers and energy required to harvest and process wood pulp, among other things.

Sounds great, right?  Works well, more environmentally sustainable, and more absorbent.  What could go wrong?  Well the problem was that Proctor & Gamble started releasing the diapers in certain areas of the US, without any marketing campaign.  They wanted to wait until more parents had access to the product before rolling out their advertising.  And nature abhors a vacuum. In the absence of any explanation or discussion, a few, rather angry consumers quickly inundated parents' message boards and chat rooms with unfavorable reviews of the new product. Online reviews of the new diapers are predominantly negative, and despite the fact that they appear to represent a relatively low proportion of consumers (one parent, for example, has posted over 75 reviews on 50 different websites), this groundswell of criticism threatens the success of the diaper.

While certainly companies are aware of the value of research into how products will be responded to (in fact, Proctor & Gamble did extensive testing of the product before releasing it at all) the rapid informational exchange of the internet means that sometimes companies will just not be able to easily keep up with the changing landscape.  We humans are smart, very smart, but we have a habit of doing things - particularly within the realm of technological advances - without really considering the consequences.  Proctor & Gamble, by ignoring the ways in which the internet has exponentially changed the nature of word-of-mouth, potentially cost itself the success of its newest product, ironically designed in response to consumer preferences.  Advertising is littered with the detritus of such decisions, but now more than ever, companies need to take note of the ways in which information is transmitted.

The ever increasing pace of the world.

The New York Times just printed an interesting article on the ways in which technology - and the ever increasing pace of change that comes concordant with that - might be affecting our children.  This is interesting in and of itself.  We might wonder how our children's malleable young minds are shaped by the cacophony of media they are exposed to, how their understanding of the world might shift as they inhabit more and more time in electronic and online activities, and how the absence of many of the influences of the past might shape their development. Already we see some differences - younger generations expect information immediately, seem to have less privacy concerns and are better at multitasking than older adults.  These changes may not be all good.  For example, the increase in multitasking could potentially have negative effects on the ability to focus on materials for longer periods of time - such as is needed in schooling.

But there's another issue that has to do more with the increasing pace of change rather than the actual experiences themselves.  We'll be talking about research methods tomorrow, and we'll be discussing types of studies that utilize what are called "developmental designs".  I know you'll be excited to learn about won't really have a choice but to listen to me talk about cross-sectional, longitudinal and sequential designs.  All three of these are ways of looking at change over time.  Cross-sectional designs focus on looking at a group of people of slightly different ages at one point in time, with the implicit assumption often being that by looking at the differently aged people, you can figure out what changes in development due to the effects of age. Longitudinal designs focus on a single group of people over time with the implicit assumption often being that that particular group of people should be illustrative of how development generally occurs in people outside of your specific study sample.  We'll talk about why these assumptions are not always correct, but for now I will just note that sequential designs are an attempt to pin down the actual differences between age effects, cohort effects and time of measurement effects by basically combining longitudinal and cross-sectional designs.

But what happens when change gets really fast?

Researchers are exploring this notion too. They theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.

“People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing, and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.”

 Already, we have to be careful in research to attend to which of our findings are driven by actual developmental change and not by cohort.  What happens when cohorts shrink in size?

Opportunity to study Psychology and Law

Hi all,
I just got an email describing a training opportunity I thought I would pass on. It's a program in which students study the intersection of law and psychology (with room and board and tuition and even a stipend) for one year at University of Nebraska/Lincoln.  It looks like a great opportunity, so I thought I would pass on the information.

http://www.unl.edu/psychlawreu/

Consumption

I mentioned today I love coffee.  I really really do.  I also mentioned that coffee, or presumably the caffeine in coffee, has been demonstrated to have a positive effect on cognitive performance.  I like this data.  A lot.

I also like this recent article.  It's an overview of some of the effects that have been found related to coffee consumption.

This month alone, an analysis in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that people who drink three to four cups of java a day are 25% less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who drink fewer than two cups. And a study presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting found that men who drink at least six cups a day have a 60% lower risk of developing advanced prostate cancer than those who didn't drink any

And it gets BETTER even.

Earlier studies also linked coffee consumption with a lower risk of getting colon, mouth, throat, esophageal and endometrial cancers. People who drink coffee are also less likely to have cavities, gallstones, cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, or to commit suicide, studies have found. Last year, researchers at Harvard University and the University of Madrid assessed data on more than 100,000 people over 20 years and concluded that the more coffee they drank, the less likely they were to die during that period from any cause.

Seriously - that's music to my ears.

But...I also talked today about how one of the reasons that every psychology course has a section on research methods, and one of the reasons that I go on and on and on until you fall asleep spend so much time and energy trying to hammer home research methods is that understanding some of the details and rules about how science is conducted helps us become better consumers of science.  Just because we find a relationship between two variables (i.e. a correlation) doesn't necessarily imply a causal relationship, even it it's something we really really want to believe.

The WSJ article actually does a relatively good job pointing out some of the complications with the rosy view of coffee presented above.  For example, they point out that while certainly those beneficial effects have been noted, negative effects for coffee consumption have also been found in other research.

But those studies come on the heels of older ones showing that coffee—particularly the caffeine it contains—raises blood pressure, heart rate and levels of homocysteine, an amino acid in blood that is associated with stroke and heart disease. Pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day have a higher rate of miscarriages and lower birth-weight babies; caffeine has also been linked to benign breast lumps and bone loss in elderly women. And, as many people can attest, coffee can also aggravate anxiety, irritability, heartburn and sleeplessness, which brings its own set of problems, including a higher risk of obesity. 

Moreover, as they point out, research on coffee consumption is plagued by many of the same methodological concerns common to most research focusing on lifestyle issues.  For reasons of both pragmatics and ethics, most studies such as the ones cited above involve observational designs.  In other words, people report on their consumption.  As such, there may be something different about regular coffee drinkers than those who abstain, or people's memories may be faulty or incorrect. And lab studies which do control for these factors can be critiqued on the grounds that they are not ecologically valid.  What happens in the lab may not necessarily mirror what happens in real  life.

The authors of the article conclude that while there are some indications that coffee can be a healthy drink, there is not enough evidence to suggest that non-coffee drinkers take up the habit, and that certain groups (e.g. pregnant women, people with high blood pressure) should consider reducing their intake.

As for me?  I'll stick with my caffeine habit.  After all it makes the morning headache go away just tastes so darned good in the morning!