When confronted with the Black Death in the middle ages, leading authorities resorted to analysis of the position of the planets —Jupiter’s hostility against Mars features prominently— to explain the plague. Today, authorities rely mainly on science to explain and manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The success of this is borne out in countries such as […]
Digital Event
Academic peer review of scientific manuscripts often falls short. It invariably slows and sometimes prevents the publication of good research. And it sometimes leads to the distribution and amplification of flawed research. Prestigious journals sometimes publish research grounded on shaking theory that used weak measures and inappropriate analyses to reach dubious conclusions. Failings of peer […]
By now, you know about preprints, and I bet you’ve read some, too – perhaps a manuscript posted on PsyArXiv, BioRxiv, or MedRxiv. With the posting of unrefereed manuscripts now normalized in psychology and other fields, no longer must new findings gather dust while languishing in journal management systems, waiting for slow reviewers, a busy […]
The COVID-19 crisis has challenged all sectors of society, including science. The crisis demands an all-out scientific response if it is to be mastered with minimal damage. This means that we, as a community of scientists, need to think about how we can adapt to the moment in order to be maximally beneficial. How can […]
So much stuff If there was ever any doubt whether there could be too much of a good thing in science, we are currently witnessing a very clear demonstration of it—both in science in general, and in the behavioral sciences in particular. Stating the obvious: There is just so much COVID-19 related information emerging every […]
Without effective treatment or vaccine, social measures remain at the heart of the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With this, behaviour change remains one of the top three scientific priorities for the coming months, according to the Lancet, and the behavioural sciences are implicated throughout the complex task of bringing societies out of lockdown. […]
Authors: Patrick S. Forscher*, Simine Vazire*, and Farid Anvari* In his 1969 address, former APA president George Miller issued a challenge: psychologists should “give psychology away” by using their science to solve social problems. Miller argued that psychology is relevant to everything that people do, giving it enormous potential to create social good. Yet Miller […]
When it became clear that the world was about to change from the global pandemic, the Psychonomic Society went into action. The Governing Board Chair, Jim Pomerantz, contacted me (I think because I am the Editor-in-Chief of a PS journal, Learning & Behavior) to suggest that we might be able to help stem the spread […]
I’m delighted to kick off this Digital Event called Research in Time of Crisis. This event is the brainchild of Stephan Lewandowsky, the previous Psychonomic Society Digital Content Editor, who approached me with the idea of focusing our Society’s online discussion on research in the time of crisis. Behavioral scientists have a large role to […]
Once upon a time, in the realm of psychology, a haughty woman summoned her two beloved daughters – perception and attention – and said them: “Tonight the Prince of higher cognition will give a ball. All persons of fashion are invited – including you, my darlings.” Her stepdaughter – action – was listening, too. But […]