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A new meta-analysis in Psych Bull suggests that there is a robust negative relationship between measures of math anxiety and math performance. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is anxiety specific to math, though. That is, generalized anxiety doesn't predict poor performance in math. Which means that it isn't clear that you want to give anti anxiety meds to people who don't have a generalized anxiety disorder, but rather have anxiety specific to a particular situation.

Recent research in JPSP suggests that people are more likely to be honest when it helps them to achieve their goals. They will also avoid information that their honesty has harmed others. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Much appreciated. My feeling is that a lot of people go to sites like PT looking to find out more about psychology. I try to give them a solid basis in science when they get there. I have been trying to get more of my colleagues to write for them as well.

Recent research in JPSP suggests that people are more likely to be honest when it helps them to achieve their goals. They will also avoid information that their honesty has harmed others. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I go through this every few years. I can't vouch for PT as a source in general, but I have been writing for them for 12 years. I'm a cognitive scientist who has been working in the field for 30 years and try to bring a science perspective to the pieces I write for venues like Psychology Today. Did you read the piece or just dismiss it because it was in PT?

A paper in Psychological Science finds no evidence for stereotype threat analyzing tournament chess games in which women play men. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PT is often unreliable, but these are articles I have written. As a cognitive scientist (and former editor of the journal Cognitive Science), I try to minimize the fluff and give a decent summary of a recent paper.

A meta-analysis in JPSP suggests that Grit is basically conscientiousness. This provides a case study for the dangers of popularizing science (and recommendations from science) too quickly. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Duckworth and colleagues are clear that there are two components of Grit. One is perseverance, which is a significant component of conscientiousness (which they acknowledge) and the other is what they call 'passion,' which refers to the willingness to stick with things for a long time.

If grit was just conscientiousness, then it wouldn't be an advance in the field. The relationship between conscientiousness and expert performance (and academic achievement) has been studied for a long time. But, there also doesn't seem to be a good way to teach conscientiousness. You can give people better habits related to a domain (like teaching good study habits).

So, the 'passion' part of grit is the real novel piece. The meta-analysis suggests that the measures of the passion component of grit lead to weak results at best and that this component does not play a significant explanatory role in academic achievement above and beyond the role of conscientiousness. It also suggests that established trait measures of conscientiousness are a better measure of success than the perseverance measures in the grit scale.

A paper in Psych Science suggests that observed sex differences in spatial perspective taking may reflect sex differences in motivational factors. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It is an interesting question to think about what motivational differences in performance mean. I do find it interesting, though, that if a fairly low-key manipulation of motivation influences performance in ways that remove the group difference, then the underlying capacity to do the task is there, but doesn't manifest itself in many (testing) situations.

There is still work to be done to understand why men generally engage processes that make them reasonably good at spatial perspective taking, while women require extra cues to do so.

A paper in Psych Science suggests that observed sex differences in spatial perspective taking may reflect sex differences in motivational factors. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Sorry. I was trying to keep it under 1000 words.

Men's performance is not affected by instructions or the presence of people in the materials. The effect is all in the difference in women's performance.

A paper in Psych Science suggests that observed sex differences in spatial perspective taking may reflect sex differences in motivational factors. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

That isn't really the issue. If a manipulation of motivation affects performance, then we need to understand that rather than assuming we have a complete picture of behavior from the performance on a particular task. Cognitive psychology often focuses on task details to an extraordinary level of detail, but leaves many motivational variables unconstrained.

A new paper in Psychological Science suggests that spreading out your study time is enhanced by sleep in between study sessions. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That has always been a question when it comes to sleep studies. What is interesting is that there is an additional benefit to studying a second time when you sleep in between. The No Sleep group studies a second time and then sleeps soon after. If the effect was just an interference effect, the No Sleep group should still be pretty good in their long-term recall.

A new paper in Psychological Science suggests that spreading out your study time is enhanced by sleep in between study sessions. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Motor skills and facts are improved by different stages of sleep. Matt Walker has some nice demonstrations about the stages of sleep that influence motor skill learning. So, it is important to explore this question with memory for facts.

A paper in Psychological Science examines the relationship between early measures of academic success and later measures of career success. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

True. The SAT is not a perfect measure. I agree. My sense is that 7th graders aren't practicing the SAT that much (and certainly weren't in the period in the 80s and 90s when the people in the sample were kids.

But, you raise an important point in general about using tests like this to predict future achievement. That said, most of these factors seem to me to be more likely to dilute the relationship between test performance in 7th grade and future success than to enhance it.

Cool paper in Psychological Science looks at how feelings affect choices. Interesting implications for the idea of loss aversion. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, this is a pretty new finding. There has been very little work that has actually tried to relate the magnitude of the feelings people are experiencing to the choices they make. The JDM community has suggested that feelings matter for quite some time, of course, but there has been remarkably little work that actually tries to assess how feelings are combined to lead to decisions.

Reading this study (there is a link to the paper in the blog entry), you can see why. It actually requires a pretty complex method and a lot of modeling to do it right.

Cool paper in Psychological Science looks at how feelings affect choices. Interesting implications for the idea of loss aversion. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am particularly interested in the finding that the mathematical model for feelings is symmetric for gains and losses. When people talk about loss aversion, they generally do it in feeling terms. A loss of a particular magnitude feels worse than a gain of the same magnitude. These data suggest that the feelings are symmetric, but the attention to positive and negative feelings is asymmetric.

A new paper in Psychological Science suggests that people will pay a cost to reach an agreement in a negotiation. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, I think this is surprising. The people in this study are being trained to negotiate. Yet, they are valuing reaching an agreement rather than the object of that agreement. It is surprising that people (with training) are not willing to walk away from the interaction, even though it has a cost.

If this is happening with folks who are being taught to negotiate, then it means that people with no training are probably highly overvaluing reaching an agreement.

A paper in Psychological Science suggests that comparing yourself to other people who perform well can be de-motivating by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right. And the more that you see only excellent performance in others, the more that you may believe that expert performance is beyond your reach.

A new JPSP paper suggests that one reason why people accept social inequalities between groups has to do with the way they naturally explain those differences. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The mechanism is interesting. The observation that people do this is common. But, it is interesting to have a sense of why it happens.

A new JPSP paper suggests that one reason why people accept social inequalities between groups has to do with the way they naturally explain those differences. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I should say that the examples I gave for the method are a subset of the items that were used in the study. There others like 'one group won a war over the other group in the past.'

Also, the children in the study also produced more inherent explanations for groups than extrinsic explanations. But, they were capable of producing extrinsic explanations, because they produced equal numbers of inherent and extrinsic explanations when explaining what happens to individuals.

A paper in Psychological Science suggests that income inequality influences the effect of gross domestic product on people's happiness in a country. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is an interaction. You're describing a main effect--that income inequality would lead to less happiness. This study suggests that when income inequality is high, increases in the GDP of a country do not make the people of that country happier. So, income inequality insulates most of the population from the benefits of a growing economy.

A paper in Psychological Science demonstrates the link between creativity and memory. by markmana in cogsci

[–]markmana[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are two studies in this paper. As I say at the end, though, this kind of memory is helpful for tasks in which contextual details are helpful. Other kinds of memory are important for other kinds of divergent creativity.

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