Can You Handle More on Phineas?

Most of us have seen and seen again so much about our "poster boy" of brain damage, Phineas Gage--we've even included a few posts about him in our blog:
http://teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/2009/09/phineas-gage-newly-discovered-picture.html
http://teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/2010/05/phineas-gage-news.html
http://teachinghighschoolpsychology.blogspot.com/2012/08/another-modern-day-phineas-gage.html


Recently, the folks at Mind Hacks did another followup linked here:
http://mindhacks.com/2013/03/23/the-postmortem-portraits-of-phineas-gage/

In the comments, I found these links from Vermont and their claim to Phineas:
The Phineas Gage Info Page
http://www.uakron.edu/gage/

The 150th Anniversary Page
http://www.uakron.edu/gage/anniversary.dot

The Phineas Gage Memorial
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/phineas-gage-memorial

The Rutland, Vermont Newspaper Story
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100520/NEWS02/5200388

More links:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10858
http://scienceblogs.com/neuronculture/2010/05/20/see-exactly-where-phineas-gage/



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Psychology of Magic

For AP teachers, this probably falls in the category of "something to do after the exam," but I think it could be fascinating: I'm reading more and more lately about partnerships between psychological researchers and magicians/illusionists and how these collaborations are producing some unexpected findings in the areas of selective attention and sensation & perception. A few examples (not an exhaustive list!)

• The Nova special "Magic and the Brain" is a great place to start - introduction to some of the neuroscience-based collaborations, and great visuals. 
• One of my favorite magicians is Teller (of Penn and Teller) and this WIRED magazine article is a fairly in-depth examination of some of what drives his artistic/magic/performance pieces along with some psychological connections.
• This slightly more academic Scientific American article details some of the cognitive psychology work into concepts like misdirection (those same authors maintain this summary "psychology of magic" website)
• This list of presentations from the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness is a good overview of some of the "hot topics" (Teller presented here too! He's all over. Also presenting: The Amazing Randi, one of my heroes.)
• This Psychology Today blog post describes some simple "tricks" we can all do to demonstrate principles of experimental methodology, memory, and classical conditioning

It's very possible that you have some kiddos in your classes who are/were interested in magic as a hobby, and/or a local amateur magician who wouldn't mind demonstrating some tricks for your class. If anyone uses any of this, please let me know - I'm thinking this might be our first psychology club activity next year!

image source: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_neuroscienceofmagic?currentPage=all

posted by Rob McEntarffer

The return of AP Psych review

It's back! Last year there was a wonderful global experiment called #appsychreview and it's coming back again in 2013. I would like to officially get it started again this Monday, March 25 and continue through May 6.

• What is this? The idea is to offer students anywhere the chance to get some help reviewing for the AP Psych exam. 
• How will students get help? They can simply post their questions on Twitter, adding #appsychreview as a hashtag (#) at the end of their question. 
• Who will answer the questions? I will - and as I discovered last year - so will more than a dozen other AP Psych teachers. 

ONE PLEA FROM ME: I beg you NOT to tell your students to post ALL of their questions this way. Last year a teacher misunderstood and gave extra credit to his students for asking a question, which resulted in dozens of questions being posted in just a few minutes. Also, if the student has a question like "Who is Piaget" we're probably going to refer them to their textbook or to Wikipedia, as opposed to a student who asks something like "How can I remember the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?"

If you want to follow the madness or jump in and answer questions, feel free to visit this link https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23appsychreview - we'd love to have you!

--posted by Steve

THSP is a Top Psychology Blog

Our Teaching High School Psychology blog has been named a "Top 30 Psychology Blog for 2012" by the Website "OnlinePsychologyDegree.info."  We are in very good company along with Mind Hacks, Psychology Today and the British Psychological Society.

The rest of our esteemed colleagues can be found at this link: http://www.onlinepsychologydegree.info/top-30-psychology-blogs-of-2012/ 

We thank the editors of that site for this honor.














posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Guide to the Brain--Scientific American Mind

I recently rediscovered these two links and videos that will likely be helpful for AP review.  Check them out and enjoy.


Social Cues in the Brain [Interactive]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=social-cues-in-brain







Memory in the Brain [Interactive]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=memory-brain-tour-video







 posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Brain Awareness Week March 11-17, 2013

Here are a few links for celebrating this year's Brain Awareness Week

DANA.org
http://www.dana.org/brainweek/

BrainFacts.org
http://www.sfn.org/baw/

Neuroscience for Kids
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/baw.html

Brain Awareness on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BrainAwarenessWeek

The Brain Institute at University of Utah
http://brain.utah.edu/communities/sfn-intermountain/brain-awareness-week.php

Aspen Brain Forum
http://aspenbrainforum.com/brain-awareness-week.html
This last site has many links to other sites and activities

Enjoy your brain awareness week whether you honor brains this week or another time during your respective school years.

Posted by Chuck Schallhorn