Have you heard the saying “You only remember what you want to remember”? Now there is evidence that it may well be correct. New research from Lund University in Sweden shows that we can train ourselves to forget things.
The assumption that we human beings can control and intentionally forget unwanted memories has been controversial ever since Freud asserted it at the beginning of the 20th century. Now, psychology researcher Gerd Thomas Waldhauser has shown in neuroimaging studies that Freud was correct in his assumptions: in the same way as we can control our motor impulses (we can for example rapidly instruct the brain not to catch a cactus which is falling from a table), we can control our memory.

Waldhauser’s tests are carried out in a laboratory environment where volunteers are asked to practise forgetting, or attempting to forget facts. Through EEG measurements, Waldhauser shows that the same parts of the brain are activated when we restrain a motor impulse and when we suppress a memory. And just as we can practise restraining motor impulses, we can also train ourselves to repress memories, i.e. to forget. [continue reading…]

Social Benefits of Heavy Drinking Outweigh Harms

A study by University of Washington psychologists shows some people continue to drink heavily because of perceived positive effects, despite experiencing negative effects such as hangovers, fights and regrettable sexual situations.

According to participants in the study, boosts of courage, chattiness and other social benefits of drinking outweigh its harms, which they generally did not consider as strong deterrents.

The findings offer a new direction for programs targeting binge drinking, which tend to limit their focus to avoiding alcohol’s ill effects rather than considering its rewards.

“This study suggest why some people can experience a lot of bad consequences of drinking but not change their behavior,” said Kevin King, co-author and UW assistant professor of psychology.

“People think, ‘It’s not going to happen to me’ or ‘I’ll never drink that much again.’ They do not seem to associate their own heavy drinking with negative consequences,” he said.

The paper was published online May 30 in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. [continue reading…]

A responsive, mechanised toy designed especially for autistic children six months and up has been created to teach positive play behaviours.

‘Auti’ develops speaking, touching, and collaborating skills. It shuts down in response to any negative behaviour such as hitting or screaming, but quickly responds to the slightest positive interaction such as speaking gently or stroking. Each sensor can be adjusted to respond appropriately to a child’s individual characteristics.

Auti from Helen Andreae on Vimeo.

“Autistic children find it difficult to play,” says designer Helen Andreae, who developed Auti through an industrial design paper at Victoria University in the final year of her Honours degree last year under the supervision of lecturers Tim Miller and Edgar Rodríguez Ramírez.

“They have great difficulty using their imagination to develop even the simplest fictional scenarios and have even further difficulties playing with other children because they often don’t understand how they should control their voice and body. This can scare other children away when they are trying to make friends.

“I have had an awareness of autism for a long time, through family discussions and through observing the autistic child of a friend. In developing my design challenge, I thought a toy which could help families dealing with autism would be a positive area to focus my energies on.”

The toy was designed in consultation with a child psychologist who works with autistic children and a professor whose research specialty is teaching autistic children. Dr Peter Andreae from Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science did the computer programming.

Ms Andreae says the toy is currently a prototype, so she has only allowed children of friends and family to play with it to avoid damage.

“The response to it has been positive—children love the fluffiness of Auti which is made of possum fur,” she says.

“If one day Auti was commercialised it would need further fine tuning and I’d look at broadening its functions for a range of teaching applications.”

Source: University of Wellington