Have you had an earworm? Can’t get that song out of your head?
It’s all about encoding according to Dr Vicky Williamson, a memory expert at Goldsmith’s College in London.
Here’s the article….
Posts archived in Memory
I’ve just heard that there are some Limited Edition AQA Complete Companion Revision Packs for AS Psychology coming out later this month, I thought I’d let you all know so you can snap them up! The pack is £15.00 and will include a copy of the AS Exam Companion and the AS Mini Companion (a saving of approx. £6.00 if the books are purchased individually). If you’d like me to order you some before they are relased please email me at claire.beatt@oup.com - alternatively they will be available on Amazon (ISBN 978 019 912996 6).
Do your students struggle with research methods in A Level Psychology? Then you’ll be pleased to hear that Cara is currently working on a new book, The Research Methods Companion. Out this summer, this textbook is a practical, activity-based resource designed to boost students’ confidence and provide the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to get to grips with this part of their course (AQA A, AQA B, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC).
We’ve already had feedback from teachers on the first chapter, they’ve said: “I feel this will help to engage students in what most of them find a relatively dull topic area of Psychology. Importantly, you have achieved what I feel is a good balance between making something look interesting without losing the essential content needed for success in exams.” Jeff Hardman, Head of Psychology at Holy Cross College in Greater Manchester.
For more information or if you’re a school or college wishing to order an inspection copy (free for 30 days), please email me at claire.beatt@oup.com with your address.
Back in September we gave you new free spreads to support you with the changes to the specification, now we’re about to publish Third Editions of the Complete Companions for AQA A matched to the revised 2012 specification. Out this summer, these new editions of the AS and A2 Complete Companions for AQA A Student Books, Exam Companions and Mini Companions, match the revised 2012 specification.
Written by the same author team, Mike Cardwell and Cara Flanagan, these essential companions provide a range of resources for every learning style. They can be used independently or together to support everyone teaching and studying the AQA A Psychology 2012 specification.
But, what about our new A2 Exam Companion out this March? It just so happens that the A2 Exam Companion is publishing in perfect time for us to make sure it also matches the 2012 specification as part of the Third Editions series, so you can rest assured that this book will help with preparation for the exams. Take a peek at some preview material here.
For more information about the new editions or to order inspection copies, please email me at claire.beatt@oup.com with your school or college address.
A team led by Dr David Glahn (Glahn et al., 2012) claims to have identified a gene RNF123 which may play a role in major depression (as distinct from bipolar disorder/depression). This gene has been shown to affect the hippocampus, which in turn is implicated in depression. Smaller hippocampal volumes are often found in people with recurrent bouts of major depression. Smaller hippocampal volumes also appear to be associated with a lower probability of remission of depression with antidepressants.However, the causal nature of this relationship is not entirely clear. Hippocampal volume may be either a cause of depression or a consequence of it. For example, it might be the case that people born with a smaller hippocampus (because of the RNF123 gene) may be more vulnerable to depression (the diathesis-stress model). Alternatively, it could also be the case that the duration of untreated depression might in some way affect hippocampal volumes.
The picture above is apparently what RNF123 looks like!
The UK-based charity Science about Science aims to equip people to make sense about the scientific and medical claims in public discussions. Part of your study of psychology has similar aims – to teach you to make educated assessments of information presented to you.
Sense about Science gets particularly annoyed by the things said by celebrities. So every year they publish some of the claims made by people who 
know very little. For example the US reality TV personality Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi said: “I don’t really like the beach. I hate sharks, and the water’s all whale sperm. That’s why the ocean’s salty.” No Snooki, the ocean is not salty because of whale sperm. And Simon Cowell also made the bad science list in 2011. Read these and more here.
You might also be interested in some of their other publications, such as this one about peer review.
According to today’s Guardian
“The use of antidepressants has risen by more than a quarter in England in just three years, amid fears that more people are suffering from depression due to the economic crisis. The number of prescriptions for antidepressants increased by 28% from 34m in 2007-08 to 43.4m in 2010-11, according to the NHS information centre”.
But elsewhere of course there are doubts regarding the usefulness of such treatments, for example according to a “meta-analysis carried out by evolutionary psychologist Paul Andrews, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour. His findings suggest that people who have not taken medication for depression are at a 25 per cent risk of relapse, compared to 42 per cent or higher for those who have taken and gone off an anti-depressant”.
Furthermore “Paul believes that anti-depressants interfere with the brain’s natural self-regulation of serotonin and other neurotransmitters, and that the brain can overcorrect once medication is suspended, triggering new episodes.”
(See links here and here for full details)
I thought I’d share a couple of photos from Cara’s Science and Pseudoscience Conference on Friday. For those of you who missed it, we were joined by Psychologist and Author, Professor Richard Wiseman, and Hypnotist, Andrew Newton. One student in particular certainly won’t be forgetting the day in a hurry… under Andrew’s hypnosis he managed to get his finger firmly stuck up his nose and gave us all a good giggle.
I've picked the next experiment just for you
All of this hypnosis is very tiring...
Thank you to everyone who popped by to say hello to us on the Oxford stand. For anyone kicking themselves afterwards for not taking advantage of our ‘Better than Amazon’ discount on The Complete Companions on the day, don’t worry – just drop me a line at claire.beatt@oup.com for the best offers on these well-loved resources. See you at the Zimbardo conference in March.
Heather Henry alerted me to these fantastic youtube clips – the multi-store model and the working memory model set to Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer and Jingle Bells. Just in time for Christmas.