Look in just about any psychology professor’s office and you’re bound to find something like the image above: a model mapping out a person’s “faculties” based on the bumps and dents of the skull. This type of skull study was … Read More
Counting Cards, Sending Signals
This is an activity I created to illustrate the concepts of excitatory/inhibitory stimulation and triggering thresholds using a deck of playing cards. Students form groups of 5: of these 4 students will play the roles of dendrites and one student will … Read More
Key Terms for Biological Bases of Behavior
Download a free pdf of this key terms list here: Biological-Bases-of-Behavior-Key-Terms Find explanations and examples of all of these key terms and more here: Master Introductory Psychology: Complete Edition reductionism parsimony neuron structure dendrites … Read More
Finding Freud’s Legacy in Neuroscience?
This is a link to an interesting article from Discover Magazine which looks at the intersection of Freudian psychoanalysis and modern-day neuroscience research. It covers quite a lot of ground along the way, considering cases of brain damage, anosognosia, Damasio’s … Read More
Hallucinations
I recently finished reading Oliver Sacks’ book Hallucinations. It’s a fascinating look at different types of hallucinatory experiences, from the visual scenes of Charles Bonnet Syndrome to hearing voices and feeling mystical religious ecstasy. In one chapter, Sacks also describes his … Read More
Amy Cuddy on Power Posing
This is one of my favorite TED talks from a few years ago and I just realized that I never posted it here. In this video, Amy Cuddy discusses her research (and personal experience) in how our body language influences … Read More
Tali Sharot on Optimism Bias
In this video Tali Sharot discusses how, for better or worse, optimism can bias our views of the world, particularly when it comes to assessing our own likelihood of experiencing negative events. She also mentions how it influences our self-assessment … Read More
Alzheimer’s Simulation
This ABC news segment shows two people undergoing a simulation to represent the difficulties that Alzheimer’s sufferers face. While Alzheimer’s is often mentioned in intro psych classes and textbooks in the context of acetylcholine function in learning, concentration, and memory, … Read More
A Young Stroke Victim’s Story
In this touching story (with beautiful illustrations) Christine Hyung-Oak Lee describes her experience of having a stroke: the confusion, the feelings of being trapped inside her own brain, and the slow process of her recovery. While strokes are often discussed … Read More
Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery
Here’s a clip of some news coverage of the amazing surgery performed on banjo legend Eddie Adcock in 2008. Through deep brain stimulation surgery the essential tremor in his right hand was reduced, restoring his ability to play.