SONA systems Spring 2009

2009 June 6

by Christopher H. Ramey, Ph.D.

If you participated in extra credit research during Spring 2009 and wish to confirm that you received credit, please send me an email. I now received a printout for all my courses this term. On behalf of my fellow researchers, thank you for contributing to the science of psychology!

Five Most Recent Tweets from “meyourprofessor”

PSY 480: If you haven't already, check out the new post on the 'self' and 'free will' & the continued movie discussion http://wp.me/pg5Zd-Ui posted 20 hours ago

PSY 230: Non-associative learning http://wp.me/pg5Zd-Uq posted 20 hours ago

Letters: A Vanishing Diagnosis (3 Letters) http://bit.ly/4562rg (via @nytimesscience) posted 20 hours ago

A Vast Right Arm Conspiracy? Handedness may determine how we view the length of our arms http://ow.ly/zha3 (via @PsychScience) posted 20 hours ago

Washington Post: In pain? Look at photos of your loved ones http://ow.ly/yRkk (via @PsychScience) posted 20 hours ago

Categories

Did you know you could subscribe to RSS feeds of sites like Cognitive Daily?

Do chimps understand what Jon Stewart (or another chimp) believes? November 10, 2009

Take a look at this video from last night's episode of Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show." If you'd like, you can skip past all the political snark to the 4:47 mark to watch Jon bring cognitive psychology into prime time (or at least latenight cable)! That's right; you saw it: Jon Stewart mentioned the psychological concept of […]

What's the best way to take a study break? November 5, 2009

Greta and I did our undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, or as a commonly-sold T-shirt on campus put it, "where fun goes to die." To say that Chicago didn't emphasize academics over a social life is to deny that people literally lived in the library (a full-scale campsite was found behind one of the stairwells in the stacks; stu […]

Can artificial sweeteners really help us lose weight? November 4, 2009

My SEED column this week focuses on artificial sweeteners. Can switching to artificial sweeteners help solve the obesity problem in the U.S.? Here's a snippet: Saunders says an August report from the American Heart Association (AHA) made it quite clear that excessive sugar consumption is dangerous, and he argues that sugar should be seen as a toxic subs […]

Anime film characters: Do we perceive the intended race, or our own? November 3, 2009

One of my favorite cartoons as a child was "Speed Racer." It featured an all-American boy (first name, "Speed," last name, "Racer") engaging in that most American of pastimes: driving fast cars. Except that "Speed Racer" wasn't really American; it was made in Japan, and the original Japanese voices were crudely ov […]

Casual Fridays: Is political wishy-washiness a general phenomenon? October 30, 2009

Political opinion polls are very tricky. Answers to questions depend on the order they're asked in, and on precisely how they are phrased. If you ask people whether they're in favor of killing unborn children, you'll get a much different response than if you ask if there's any situation where women should be allowed to terminate a pregnan […]

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A Case for the Distractible Toddler November 10, 2009

When my oldest son was three years old, someone gave him a very large can of Legos as a gift, enough to build a fortress. So we decided to build a fortress. Or I did, but he was an enthusiastic co-conspirator in the project—at least for about ten minutes. But then he got distracted by the sound of an ambulance siren outside; then he re-discovered a plastic t […]