Psychology in the Supermarket

I have this app called Flipboard that I use on my iPad.  It's great for reading articles across genres and topics online.  The flipboard link above has links to downloading the app to your portable device.

Today I found this gem.

"How to Buy Food: The Psychology of the Supermarket" on a website I had never heard of, BonAppetit.com.  I love food, but am not a foodie.

The article examines several factors that are manipulating the consumer including layout/design, the no longer accurate "perimeter rule," identity politics, hunger and more.  This is potentially a great article to use for introducing kids to social psychology, persuasion techniques, Human Factors and Applied Cognition, offering your samples, and more.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Harvard's Free Online Neuroscience Course--Lots of Media

I first discovered this new source from a link off of Google News:
http://www.psfk.com/2014/10/harvards-online-neuroscience-course-educates-with-enticing-animation.html

This article gives a nice overview of the course which I will not repeat here.

The course itself is available here:
http://www.mcb80x.org/
To access it, you'll need to register through EdX or one of your social media accounts.

It looks very promising.  Here are a couple of sample videos they use:





posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Depression Cartoon

October is Depression Screening Month and I recently came upon this cartoon in the blog, Blogzuola.

http://blogzuola.blogspot.com/2014/10/depression.html#.VEWCJfnF-So

I post the first two frames here, but please check out that blog for more.  It's really quite accurate and gives a positive message.

Emotions, Language, and the Untranslatable

This is a cross-post to both the Teaching High School Sociology and Psychology Blogs.  This chart shows primary emotions and the less-used words that are related.  The chart also offers us some untranslatable nuanced terms that are found in other, non-English languages.

It is an infographic that I found from Mental Floss at this address:
http://mentalfloss.com/sites/default/legacy/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Other_Languages_b1.png

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

New TOPSS Lesson Plans are Here! New TOPSS Lesson Plans are Here!

If you're not yet a member of TOPSS, now would be a great time to join! New members can join now and get an extra few months of membership (through Dec. 2015)!

If you already are a member of TOPSS, now is a great time to rejoice!

Why you ask? All the great new lesson plans available for TOPSS members!

• Psychological Disorders (DSM 5 compliant!)  This lesson plan was written by the fabulous (and college question leader at the AP Psychology reading!) Richard Seefeldt, EdD, of the University of Wisconsin River Falls, and reviewed by TOPSS members Scott Reed and Nancy Diehl, PhD.
• Perspectives on Psychological Science, written by the equally fabulous Ken Keith (former college question leader and chief reader at the AP Psychology reading, and one of the reasons why high school psychology is a thing!). Lesson plan reviewed by a team of TOPSS members including Nancy Fenton!
• And a "problem based unit plan" on Childhood Obesity - really well organized and complete unit plan that will get your students going on their inquiry/critical thinking skills! Written by Jeanne Blakeslee, high school psych teacher extraordinaire from MD.

Find the complete list of lesson plans at the link below - thanks TOPSS!
TOPSS Unit Lesson Plans
http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/lessons/index.aspx

posted by Rob McEntarffer

Infographic on Hearing and Decibels

Was doing some other research/demo for students and discovered this little gem.

The actual infographic can be found at this link:
http://dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/hearing-loss-infographic1.jpg

The entire article from DailyInfographic can be found here:
http://dailyinfographic.com/hearing-loss-infographic-2/hearing-loss-infographic-3



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

How Does Pain and Pain-Relievers Work

I am sitting at a volleyball match with my iPad and discovered this wonderful video. I cannot find a link to embed it, so here it is.  It's short, animated and talks about brain cells, nocireceptors, prostaglandins and more physiology.  In short, great for psych or ap psych.

Since it is a TedEd lesson, there are more links for you to check out and have your kids look deeper into the subject. 

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-do-pain-relievers-work#digdeeper

I will update the tags and links with pictures when I get to a regular computer. 

Post by Chuck Schallhorn 

Sleeping and Twitching--Why Do We Twitch??

I was doing some other research and shared this find with a couple students doing their own research on sleep.  This has information about the process of neurotransmitters and sleep I was not familiar with.  Great Stuff.
http://news.discovery.com/human/videos/why-do-we-twitch-before-falling-asleep-video-141013.htm

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Your Brain on Games (Video/Phone)

I was listening to NPR this morning on the way to work.  I heard this story about video games and how game designers use behavioral scientists to get people to use, keep using, and eventually purchase within the game.  They talked about consumer psychology, economics, and the reporters desire to create a game about making toast.  So much fun and great awareness of the human psyche. Great source of insight for both teachers and students.  I arrived at school excited to share this information.

This is Your Brain on Candy Crush
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/10/09/354649902/this-is-your-brain-on-candy-crush


Nir Ayal, one of the interviewees, wrote a book, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products which comes out next month talks about this topic in more detail.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

Crash Course Psychology videos - with reflection questions!

Does anyone use the Crash Course Psychology videos? I'm pretty impressed with them:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6

One limitation is that they move pretty fast, which gave me the idea that the videos may benefit from reflection/ "check for understanding" questions during the video. I learned about an online resource called "EdPuzzle" which allows you to add questions to a video (and you can get student responses to questions, etc.) I'm slowly working my way through the videos, adding questions. 

Video 1: Intro (history and perspectives) https://edpuzzle.com/media/54218d04db8386321980926e

Video 2: Research Methods https://edpuzzle.com/media/5429b42fa0025ba005be8f07

Video 3: Neural structure and function https://edpuzzle.com/media/542ec6f85953dabf044308c7

Video 4: Brain structure and function https://edpuzzle.com/media/543029b1478febe80a677bb9

I hope these are useful to someone - I think I'll keep working my way through them, and I'll add the links here as I get them done (bookmark this post if you'd like to keep track of it?) Please respond in the comments section if you use these Edpuzzle videos or have other ideas about how to use the Crash Course videos.

posted by Rob McEntarffer