Today in the News of No Shit

Watching steamy sex scenes with your parents is not fun, so say researchers.

Reading Between the Lines

We are not so good at it -- at least the ability doesn't seem to improve with time or intimacy. There is a new study where people read lines that could have multiple interpretations ("What have you been up to?" could mean "Why are you late?" or "I'd like to know how you are," or a lot of other things.) The participants read the lines to their long-time spouses or to a couple they didn't know. The spouse and the strangers guessed what the meaning was behind the line. The strangers and the spouse guessed correctly at the same rate.

Now, there are lots of issues with a single study -- the scenarios were contrived blah blah blah -- but another piece of the puzzle is that the spouses thought they were more accurate than the strangers. They definitely weren't.

So, say what you mean, folks!

Study Habits

I am constantly flabbergasted by the number of college students who think that reading their notes three times, or even five times, is a good way to study. No flashcards, no self-testing. Just rereading. This is a terrible way to study. My sense is that I came to this conclusion on my own. However, I had an excellent preparatory education, so it's entirely possible that someone along the way told me this. In fact, it's probable.

Students are really surprised when I tell them that they have to test themselves in some way before the test. I have only once had a student who was struggling come to me and say that she had self-tested. (And I've had lots of students come to me and say they are struggling.) If I were a betting person, I'd say that self-testing as a study strategy is probably what separates the successful students from the unsuccessful ones.

Anyway, this is all to say that there is a new study out that I can now point to and say, "See? Re-reading? It's no good."

The Botox Freeze

The facial feedback theory states that facial movements can influence the experience of emotions. Experimentally, this has been shown by forcing people to mimic smiling and frowning. This is typically accomplished by having the participant hold a pencil between the teeth (forced smile) or between the upper lip and nose (forced frown). Forced smile groups find the same video clip more amusing than forced frown groups. Researchers have observed processing and memory differences as well, depending on experimental group.

So what happens when you've frozen your face and you can't smile properly -- fake or otherwise? According to a new study, botox impairs your ability to process emotional language and may flatten emotional experience in general.

Ugly Babies, Dumb Reporters

This is what irritates me about the way psychology is covered in the news. The title of the article is "Is an Ugly Baby Harder to Love?" It starts out suggesting that moms may love their infants more if they're pretty. The evidence? Women--moms and non-moms--looked at pictures of "flawed" infants (those with cleft palates, etc.) for shorter periods of time than did men & both looked at pretty babies longer than "flawed" babies. Granted, they offer alternative explanations, but most people will read the title & nothing else, or stop after the first few paragraphs, going away with the notion that mothers care for and love their prettier infants more than their less-than-perfect infants. Dumb.