How do you create a sense of depth in a flat image? In this video I’ll show you how to use 5 cues of depth perception to turn a flat image into one that looks like it has depth. I’ll be drawing from terms you would learn about in a chapter from a psychology text on Sensation and Perception. We’ll … Read More
Ep 195: How To Memorize Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Do you need to memorize Piaget’s stages for a test? You’ve found what you’re looking for. I’ll use some familiar mnemonics (“1 is a bun”, etc.) and some wacky images to get those stages – and what happens during them – into your mind. You’ll be able to remember when object permanence occurs, when children are capable of assimilation and … Read More
Ep: 175 – How to Protect Yourself from the Persuasive Tactics of the Car Salesperson
In the market for a car? They have seen you coming and are ready to use sophisticated techniques to persuade you to buy. Be prepared. This video shows you some of the persuasion techniques used to get you to buy the car THEY want you to buy. Avoid these subtle techniques and buy the car YOU want. Loading…
Ep 173: An Interactive Neuron and Map Using ThingLink
Every once in a while a really cool tool comes along and I like to show everyone the fun I had with it. In this video episode I show how I easily made an interactive image of a neuron and an interactive map containing videos and locations for some of the major studies in psychology. Do you know where, for … Read More
Ep 168: Reliability – the Foundation of Any Good Test
Can you tell your personality from what flavor ice cream you like? There are lots and lots of so called Personality tests on the web. How do you know when you’ve come across a good one? For example, are the inner workings of your personality revealed in the playlists you have on your smartphone or mp3 device? In this episode … Read More
Ep 165 (video): Psychological Research Under Fire: What Can We Do About It?
What’s going on with Psychology? There have been a number of reports about poorly conducted or completely fraudulent research in the field such as this one that appeared in the New York Times. Well, there’s bad research in all fields, but psychology, which has through its history struggled for scientific credibility, is particularly sensitive to this issue and many psychologists … Read More
Ep 160: How to Spend Your Money and Truly Make Yourself Happy
Why aren’t rich people happier than those with less money? We think money will bring happiness, but research in the area of positive psychology has consistently found that having more money does NOT make us happier. Find out how to spend your money the right way so that it really can bring happiness into your life. Affective Forecasting Error The … Read More
Ep 151: Popular Heuristics Explained
We all take shortcuts when we are making decisions. And in those shortcuts often lie our mistakes. In this episode find out the difference between the availability and representativeness heuristics, as well as the “Take the Best“, Hindsight, and the Base Rate Neglect (Fallacy) heuristics. Lots of examples of these heuristics at work are included. Let’s face it – we … Read More
Video: Object Permanence – Does Your Dog Have It?
Piaget’s concept of object permanence is essential to understand. But how did they study this idea among 1 year olds? Obviously children can’t tell you that they believe that something no longer exists when they can’t see it, so how do we know what is going on inside a child’s mind? How about this challenge: do animals also understand object permanence? If you’ve ever seen your cat or dog look under or around objects for a lost toy then yes – you’ve seen that they do understand object permanence.
Episode 130 (video): Why Are We So Fascinated by Famous People?
f you’ve ever met a famous person you know how exciting that feels. But why? What is it about fame that draws so many people to it? In this episode I examine fame from two very perspectives: the Basking in Reflected Glory theory and Terror Management Theory. Along the way we’ll see what this all has to do with the rock band Queen, baseball and Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
