Neuroscience
I've reported on well over a hundred psychology studies this year, as well as publishing a variety of other posts and guest features. Can you guess which were the most popular, in terms of web-clicks?
Here are the Digest top 5 posts for 2011:
How walking through a doorway increases forgetting? (over 39,000 page views so far!) This study, by Gabriel Radvansky at the University of Notre Dame and his colleagues, showed how walking through a doorway creates an episode boundary in our memories.
Toddlers won't bother learning from you if you're daft (over 11,000 page views so far) Diane Poulin-Dubois and her team at Concordia University demonstrated that children as young as 14 months are discerning in who they learn from. Many infant participants didn't bother copying the behaviour of an adult who had previously acted surprised for no reason.
The books and journal articles all psychologists should read (over 10,000 page views to date) The one-on-one series of interviews with leading psychologists in The Psychologist magazine includes a challenge to name one book or journal article that all psychologists should read. This post gathers all the answers together in one place.
Psychology to the rescue (over 9,000 page views to date) This post is the "menu" for our anniversary feature in which psychologists shared their experiences of using psychology in real life. A selection also appear in this month's (Jan 2012) issue of The Psychologist.
Is it time to rethink the way university lectures are delivered? (over 8,000 page views so far) Physics students enrolled on a week-long course of unconventional lectures, including group discussions, quizzes, mutual critiquing, instructor feedback and clicker questions, showed a dramatic improvement in their academic performance, and far greater engagement, as compared to a control group of their peers who sat and listened passively to a highly skilled lecturer.
Are you surprised that these were the most popular Digest posts? Which were your favourites this year? If you like, you can use the archive menu at the top of the right-hand column to browse through the year's posts. Merry Christmas!
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Post written by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.
- Imagining Walking Through A Doorway Triggers Increased Forgetting
We've all had that experience of going purposefully from one room to another, only to get there and forget why we made the journey. Four years ago, researcher Gabriel Radvansky and his colleagues stripped this effect down, showing that the simple...
- A New Morning
So it's the morning after the night before, when I raised a glass to my departing friend and colleague Dr Christian Jarrett. As Editor of the Research Digest and Journalist on The Psychologist, Christian has given more than a decade of exemplary service...
- Please Vote For The Research Digest
Friends, please consider voting for the BPS Research Digest in the inaugural Science Seeker Awards. Science Seeker is a fantastic website that aggregates all the world's science blogs in one place and organises them by topic. A panel of judges will...
- How Walking Through A Doorway Increases Forgetting
Like information in a book, unfolding events are stored in human memory in successive chapters or episodes. One consequence is that information in the current episode is easier to recall than information in a previous episode. An obvious question then...
- Is It Time To Rethink The Way University Lectures Are Delivered?
A more interactive, discussion- and quiz-based style of university teaching brings dramatic benefits to science learning, according to a new study. The interactive approach takes its inspiration from psychologist Anders Ericsson's theory of "deliberate...
Neuroscience
The top-5 most popular posts on the Digest this year
Here are the Digest top 5 posts for 2011:
How walking through a doorway increases forgetting? (over 39,000 page views so far!) This study, by Gabriel Radvansky at the University of Notre Dame and his colleagues, showed how walking through a doorway creates an episode boundary in our memories.
Toddlers won't bother learning from you if you're daft (over 11,000 page views so far) Diane Poulin-Dubois and her team at Concordia University demonstrated that children as young as 14 months are discerning in who they learn from. Many infant participants didn't bother copying the behaviour of an adult who had previously acted surprised for no reason.
The books and journal articles all psychologists should read (over 10,000 page views to date) The one-on-one series of interviews with leading psychologists in The Psychologist magazine includes a challenge to name one book or journal article that all psychologists should read. This post gathers all the answers together in one place.
Psychology to the rescue (over 9,000 page views to date) This post is the "menu" for our anniversary feature in which psychologists shared their experiences of using psychology in real life. A selection also appear in this month's (Jan 2012) issue of The Psychologist.
Is it time to rethink the way university lectures are delivered? (over 8,000 page views so far) Physics students enrolled on a week-long course of unconventional lectures, including group discussions, quizzes, mutual critiquing, instructor feedback and clicker questions, showed a dramatic improvement in their academic performance, and far greater engagement, as compared to a control group of their peers who sat and listened passively to a highly skilled lecturer.
Are you surprised that these were the most popular Digest posts? Which were your favourites this year? If you like, you can use the archive menu at the top of the right-hand column to browse through the year's posts. Merry Christmas!
--
Post written by Christian Jarrett for the BPS Research Digest.
- Imagining Walking Through A Doorway Triggers Increased Forgetting
We've all had that experience of going purposefully from one room to another, only to get there and forget why we made the journey. Four years ago, researcher Gabriel Radvansky and his colleagues stripped this effect down, showing that the simple...
- A New Morning
So it's the morning after the night before, when I raised a glass to my departing friend and colleague Dr Christian Jarrett. As Editor of the Research Digest and Journalist on The Psychologist, Christian has given more than a decade of exemplary service...
- Please Vote For The Research Digest
Friends, please consider voting for the BPS Research Digest in the inaugural Science Seeker Awards. Science Seeker is a fantastic website that aggregates all the world's science blogs in one place and organises them by topic. A panel of judges will...
- How Walking Through A Doorway Increases Forgetting
Like information in a book, unfolding events are stored in human memory in successive chapters or episodes. One consequence is that information in the current episode is easier to recall than information in a previous episode. An obvious question then...
- Is It Time To Rethink The Way University Lectures Are Delivered?
A more interactive, discussion- and quiz-based style of university teaching brings dramatic benefits to science learning, according to a new study. The interactive approach takes its inspiration from psychologist Anders Ericsson's theory of "deliberate...