Adam Clark's List: Human Science

"In recent years anthropologists have begun to point out that sensory perception is culturally specific. “Sensory perception,” Constance Classen, the author of “The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch,” says, “is a cultural as well as physical act.” It’s a controversial claim made famous by Marshall McLuhan’s insistence that nonliterate societies were governed by spoken words and sound, while literate societies experienced words visually and so were dominated by sight. Few anthropologists would accept that straightforwardly today. But more and more are willing to argue that sensory perception is as much about the cultural training of attention as it is about biological capacity."

"A 2013 poll surveying over 2000 Americans found that 65 percent thought that this statement is true. And yet, the simple and unequivocal answer is: No. Despite a myth so prevalent that it is easily accepted as a pivotal plot point in movies or a motivational tactic or even justification for psychic claims, everyone uses 100 percent of their brain.

There are a number of logical refutations of this myth—why would big brains evolve if they're nothing but dead weight?—but outright proving its fallacy is relatively easy with modern technology. PET and fMRI scans show that even when we're sleeping, our entire brain is active on some level."

"This is a skull with a story, and you can listen to it right here:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/taung-child/

Radiolab worked with folks at MakerBot and the Field Museum to get this thing scanned. The scan was refined and made more detailed (and more badass) by shootdigital."

"Today, the story of one little thing that has radically changed what we know about humanity’s humble beginnings and the kinds of creatures that were out to get us way back when."

Stanford researchers found that walking boosts creative inspiration. They examined creativity levels of people while they walked versus while they sat. A person's creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when walking.

This is the research behind Dan Ariely's mention of the relationship between pain duration and intensity in his TED talk called the Truth about Lying. 

"Ben Goldacre, doctor and author of Bad Science, explains what the placebo effect is and describes its role in medical research and in the pharmaceutical industry."

Informative and compelling video about the Nocebo Effect

A growing number of psychologists – particularly the younger generation – are fed up with results that don’t replicate, journals that value story-telling over truth, and an academic culture in which researchers treat data as their personal property. Psychologists are realising that major scientific advances will require us to stamp out malpractice, face our own weaknesses, and overcome the ego-driven ideals that maintain the status quo.

"For many of us, being in a large crowd can be a stressful experience. But for some, this type of environment can make a person feel at their happiest. Now, a new study published in the journal PLOS One suggests reasons behind these different feelings about busy environments."

"In the study, published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers in Toronto examined the ways in which we deal with embarrassment. With help from 200 college students from Hong Kong, they found that embarrassment led to a significant desire to symbolically hide the face."

"The terms "left-brained" and "right-brained" have come to refer to personality types in popular culture, with an assumption that people who use the right side of their brains more are more creative, thoughtful and subjective, while those who tap the left side more are more logical, detail-oriented and analytical."

Gentile, D. A. (2009). Pathological video game use among youth 8 to 18: A national study. Psychological Science.

Psychological impact of #Japan disaster will be felt 'for some time to come' http://j.mp/i03n18

The Psychology of Cheating - http://nyti.ms/exyLSP #edchat #schoolcounseling

"That panicked feeling we get when the family pet goes missing is the same when we misplace our mobile phone" http://j.mp/mJ4VZH #tech

"Criminal courts in the United States are facing a surge in the number of defendants arguing that their brains were to blame for their crimes and relying on questionable scans and other controversial, unproven neuroscience, a legal expert who has advised the president has warned."