Neuroscience
Psychology dominated at last night's Ig Nobel Awards - the alternative ceremony for research that makes you laugh and then makes you think. (The Digest provides you with links to the psychology-related journal abstracts and pdfs below).
Marc Abrahams, the founder of the awards, told MSNBC's Cosmic Log: "Psychology has the bizarre quality as an academic field that it's both the hardest and the easiest thing to do. To really explain anything about how people behave is just hard. But to almost explain it in a way that's probably wrong - that's easy."
The awards are broken down into various categories with only the "cognitive science" prize explicitly aimed at psychological research. However, winners in several categories were clearly psychology-related:
Nutrition prize: Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy and British psychologist Charles Spence of Oxford University, UK, for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is.
Medicine prize: Dan Ariely of Duke University, USA, for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine.
Cognitive science prize: Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Hokkaido University, Japan, and colleagues for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.
Economics prize: Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that a professional lap dancer's ovulatory cycle affects her tip earnings (link is to full-text PDF via author's website).
Literature prize: David Sims of Cass Business School. London, UK, for his lovingly written study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations."
Link to Ig Nobel Awards.
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Neuroscience
Psychology dominates at the Ig Nobel Awards
Psychology dominated at last night's Ig Nobel Awards - the alternative ceremony for research that makes you laugh and then makes you think. (The Digest provides you with links to the psychology-related journal abstracts and pdfs below).Marc Abrahams, the founder of the awards, told MSNBC's Cosmic Log: "Psychology has the bizarre quality as an academic field that it's both the hardest and the easiest thing to do. To really explain anything about how people behave is just hard. But to almost explain it in a way that's probably wrong - that's easy."
The awards are broken down into various categories with only the "cognitive science" prize explicitly aimed at psychological research. However, winners in several categories were clearly psychology-related:
Nutrition prize: Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy and British psychologist Charles Spence of Oxford University, UK, for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is.
Medicine prize: Dan Ariely of Duke University, USA, for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine.
Cognitive science prize: Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Hokkaido University, Japan, and colleagues for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.
Economics prize: Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that a professional lap dancer's ovulatory cycle affects her tip earnings (link is to full-text PDF via author's website).
Literature prize: David Sims of Cass Business School. London, UK, for his lovingly written study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations."
If any Digest readers locate freely-available full-text pdfs of any of these articles online, please let me know the link(s) via comments, and I'll add them to this post.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Link to Ig Nobel Awards.
- Research Digest Voted Best Psychology Blog
I'm thrilled to announce that the Research Digest blog has been voted the best psychology blog in the inaugural Research Blogging Awards. My thanks to everyone who voted for the Digest, to the awards founder Dave Munger and the sponsors at Seed Magazine....
- Obit: Dr. David Hubel
From The Washington Post: David H. Hubel, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist, dies at 87 23 September 2013 Read the article Here is a link to his Nobel Prize lecture: link...
- The Nobel Prize For Medicine
From the CBC: Montreal-born scientist dies before Nobel honour Nobel committee unaware of recipient's recent death CBC News Posted: Oct 3, 2011 5:54 AM ET Last Updated: Oct 3, 2011 10:20 AM ET "Montreal-born scientist Ralph Steinman was announced...
- Dr. Brenda Milner
From the CBC: McGill neuroscientist wins $1M research prize Last Updated: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 | 5:26 PM ET [snip] McGill University Prof. Brenda Milner has won the International Balzan Prize for 2009. The prize is one million Swiss francs, or...
- Drs. Brenda Milner And Endel Tulving Honored
From The Globe and Mail:Award recognizes Canadian memory research Cognitive neuroscientists Brenda Milner of McGill University in Montreal and Endel Tulving of the University of Toronto are recipients of the 2005 Gairdner Awards By JORDAN PRESS Saturday,...