In this video Tali Sharot discusses how, for better or worse, optimism can bias our views of the world, particularly when it comes to assessing our own likelihood of experiencing negative events. She also mentions how it influences our self-assessment … Read More
Alzheimer’s Simulation
This ABC news segment shows two people undergoing a simulation to represent the difficulties that Alzheimer’s sufferers face. While Alzheimer’s is often mentioned in intro psych classes and textbooks in the context of acetylcholine function in learning, concentration, and memory, … Read More
Oliver Sacks on Living and Dying
Oliver Sacks has just written some thoughts on life and death, published in the New York Times, upon learning that he has terminal cancer of the liver. It’s a brief but touching read on aging, death, and gratitude for all … Read More
Psych File Drawer
If you’ve ever wondered just how well some famous effects have replicated, I encourage you to check out http://www.psychfiledrawer.org/. This site lists a number of influential studies (such as Bargh, Chen, and Burrows’ priming study on age-related stereotype activation) with … Read More
Norm Macdonald on the Availability Heuristic
Though he doesn’t refer to it by name, comedian Norm Macdonald gives us a great example of the availability heuristic midway through this clip from Me Doing Standup. He describes how we worry about things that will almost assuredly never happen … Read More
REM Behavior Disorder
In the following video, we can see an example of a patient with REM Behavior Disorder. Remember that REM Behavior Disorder differs from sleepwalking, which generally occurs during Slow Wave sleep (stage 3 and 4).
Dan Ariely on “Decision Illusions”
In this TEDtalk, behavioral economist Dan Ariely begins by describing visual illusions as a metaphor for understanding the “decision illusions” that we make. He notes that we are exceptionally good at vision (and get lots of practice) but not so … Read More
A Young Stroke Victim’s Story
In this touching story (with beautiful illustrations) Christine Hyung-Oak Lee describes her experience of having a stroke: the confusion, the feelings of being trapped inside her own brain, and the slow process of her recovery. While strokes are often discussed … Read More
Visual Illusions from Stuart Anstis
Here’s a link to some great demonstrations from Stuart Anstis at UCSD. You can also find audio from all of the lectures of his Psych 102 class on Sensation and Perception here. The link here is to the latest edition … Read More
Magic and Change Blindness
Here’s another example of change blindness featuring Magic Singh performing some close-up illusions, followed by Beau Lotto explaining why this type of blindness occurs. While the video refers to inattentional blindness, this is probably better referred to as change blindness, … Read More