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Are psychologists more immune to psychological problems?

Does knowledge of a psychological problem prevent (or enable one to better defend) the development of psychological issues? For example, if a person has studied about depression and is familiar with the causes and cures of it, is that person more…
kevin
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Does Golden Hammer really exist?

Note: I am not talking about Law of the instrument. I am referring to the following (anti-)pattern of behavior: A person very competent in one area (say, Philosophy) peremptorily expressing his opinion on an unrelated area (say, Medicine) as if he…
sds
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What term describes people that cannot feel pain?

I remember a case study about a girl who could not feel pain due to lacking certain somatosensory receptors; she went on to burn herself on a radiator because she could not feel her flesh burning and suffered many other injuries due to the loss of…
Ben Brocka
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Does typical duration of Short Term Memory differ between tasks?

The duration of Short Term Memory is a fuzzy thing; Wikipedia notes several disputes over it's length and I recently alluded to this fuzziness myself. However, I wonder if part of the apparently unpredictable duration is to do with the different…
Ben Brocka
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Signal detection theory: How to calculate c' when d' is 0?

Reframed the original question to include more background information: My experiment concerns the recall ability of individuals concerning information about animals. Within-subject design: Whether an animal is dangerous or safe (danger). Whether an…
Dion
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Is there an effect of visual expertise on eye movements when examining an image?

In the following linked image, you can see the eye movement traces of a subject examining a bust of Nefertiti (I came across this image while reading the following blog). When I was in grade school, I often heard art teachers claim that they were…
Mynah
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Who first used the term 'heuristic' in a cognitive science context?

I seem to recall that Herbert Simon borrowed the term from computer science, but I cannot remember the initial paper in which he made use of this borrowing. A google scholar search reveals some papers from 1957-1958, for instance this one, but I…
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What research exists in the areas of formulating questions and "problem shaping"?

After recalling Eric Steven Raymond and Rick Moen's How to Ask Questions The Smart Way and a discussion in a systems engineering course regarding the impact of the proper formulation of a problem in order to achieve the optimal solution(s), I began…
Thomas Owens
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What is the difference between solving a problem and acquiring a skill?

Within the confines of cognitive psychology, what is the difference between these two tasks? In the literature, playing chess is generally seen as the exemplar of problem solving. But recently (thanks to this site), I've stumbled upon quite a few…
zergylord
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Can psychosomatic reactions be completely unconcious?

I had always considered that psychosomatic reactions, such as Psychogenic pain, while "real" to the person experiencing them, would be a concious reaction at some level. That is to say, if the person told themselves "this isn't real" - they would…
EBongo
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Are some methods of teaching reading "bad"?

I have a young daughter who I am teaching to read, and I was given a "Your Baby Can Read" DVD set by a friend. When discussing it with friends, several of my teacher friends frowned upon the use of "memorization" to teach reading, and implied it…
EBongo
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Web-based tools for documenting studies?

I am interested in how open science could be done in psychology. Are there good web-based tools that could house and share a study? When I say "study" I mean: Lab notes from collecting data Raw data Code for analyses Results Discussion of…
Joshua
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What is the information storage capacity of the human brain?

Related/bonus points: I seem to remember reading about some equation that states the amount of information that can be held by a neural network with n neurons in it arranged in l layers, or something vaguely like that (n and l probably weren't even…
DJG
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Does the number of alternatives in a multiple choice question affect the learning output?

I have built several apps in Norwegian about hunting, philosophy etc. Students use the app to learn a subject and test their knowledge before doing their exam. In current state i have one question with three alternatives, where one is correct. The…
bogen
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What is a reliable physiological measure (e.g., serotonin levels) of positive affect?

Is there a reliable physiological measure or correlate to positive affect? What does research say on this? I thought that serotonin levels are correlated with self-reported happiness levels, but, after a google scholar search I am not so sure. I…