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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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THSP Surpasses One Million Views

The Teaching High School Psychology Blog is four years old--we began in February of 2009 with just three of us blogging.  We've added several members to the team and continue to grow.  We've posted 876 blog entries.  Our regular contributors have included:

• Steve Jones
• Kent Korek
• Chuck Schallhorn
• Rob McEntarffer
• Kirstin Whitlock
• Nancy Diehl

along with several guest bloggers

Sometime in the past month, this blog went over the one million views mark.  That represents the number of pages on this blog that someone has viewed.

To our readers and contributors, the team of bloggers here gives you our profound thanks.  We strive to share relevant and quality ideas and teaching resources.


posted by Chuck

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Support David Myers and the hearing loop movement

 

If you teach psychology, and particularly high school psychology, you are no doubt very familiar with David Myers. Even if you don't use one of his textbooks, you know the name and the dedication and support he has given to high school psychology teachers. I have used his books for years and on the first day of my classes I always introduce him to the students as if he is my co-instructor. Throughout the year I always select passages written by Myers from the text and ask students to comment and reflect on the passage - it's not "what does this term or concept mean for the AP test," but rather "how is David Myers getting us to think in new ways about this term or concept."

One of my favorite moments every year is on Day Two, when students come in and we talk about the content they read the previous night. And every year the same thing happens: without my prompting, a student will say "You know, I really enjoyed reading last night. It was like the author was talking to me." This, of course, is followed by a collective nodding of heads and yeah-me-toos all around the classroom.

So when I heard about the project above it was a no-brainer: could I support a movement that David Myers was behind that was a terrific way to blend psychology with social action? Definitely. I would encourage you all to visit the Oticon page to vote for David Myers.

-- posted by Steve

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Step Inside the Real World of Compulsive Hoarders

 

Many of our students are watching programs about hoarding, such as Hoarders on A&E and Hoarding:  Buried Alive on TLC.  This Scientific American article, Step Inside the Real World of Compulsive Hoarders, discusses how recent research has changed how mental health professionals diagnose and treat those who hoard.  In the DSM-IV-TR, hoarding was linked to OCD.  However, research has demonstrated that OCD is both genetically and neurologically distinct from hoarding.  It is reported that hoarding may be genetically recessive whereas OCD is dominant.  In addition, thoughts about hoarding are not unpleasant or intrusive, where OCD sufferers find their obsessive thinking to be both.  Reportedly hoarding will be considered a disorder unlinked to OCD in the DSM V scheduled to be released this May.  Read more at:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=real-world-hoarding&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20130225

Kristin H. Whitlock

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Replication and Psychology: Show me the Data!

During the research methods unit, we often talk with students about "replication" being a final step in the scientific method. One issue I never thought much about is: how often do researchers actually try to replicate each others' results?

Brian Nosek from the University of Virginia is shouldering this considerable task. He and others are working on "The Reproducibility Project," and they are going to try to replicate every study published in three psychology journals over one year.

It's a big project, and it will be fascinating to see how it works out. Replication is a vital "check" that can help prevent fale reports (like the odd, sad case of Diederik Stapel) and can help refine theories through better operational definitions and more specific findings.

We psychology teachers have an opportunity: in many sciences, students have to wait until grad school until they have the training and access to equipment that can replicate important studies. But in psychology, our high school students might be able to do it! Some social psychology, memory, and other studies could be replicated with effort and care in high school settings. What if we could help complete this "science loop?" What if some of our students were able to identify an important nuance of  an operational definition? This could be a "shortcut" route into an great research project for students - instead of developing their own hypothesis/literature review/etc., students could "adopt" the first part of someone else's study and see if they can replicate their findings.

image credit: http://skepchick.org/2012/10/free-the-art/

posted by Rob McEntarffer

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