We’re excited to announce that we are offering a new MSc by Research in the Psychology of Creativity and Performance Expertise, here at the University of Buckingham, with entry dates in September and January each year. This MSc is ideal for those with a first degree in Psychology who wish to take their knowledge further in this exciting field. Students can be full- or part-time.
Gill Hill asks us to consider whether we are perpetuating the stereotype of the ‘creative white male’ in the incidental references to ‘Creative Greats’ we use in our talks and publications.
Kathryn Friedlander reviews David Astle’s fascinating guide to cryptic crosswords. Should we all consider taking up cryptic crossword solving, as the book suggests, to ‘improve our memory and boost the power and agility of our brain’?
Continue readingKathryn Friedlander takes a look at an alternative way of studying expertise, the Grounded Expertise Components Approach, suggesting that this might address some pitfalls of previous research.
We’ve all seen the long-running arguments over ‘expertise’ … Are the world’s greatest performers endowed at birth with a lucky genetic advantage? Or are they trained to excel through 10,000 hours of gruelling practice? Or perhaps a blend of both?
Continue readingKathryn Friedlander explores the ‘kick’ we get from cracking a really good cryptic crossword clue.
A number of stories in the press earlier this year reported work carried out in Vienna and London on solving puzzles in a brain scanner. The study suggested that solving a clue to a puzzle can trigger a highly rewarding ‘Aha!’ (or ‘Eureka!’) insight moment, which releases dopamine into the brain. This is the reward chemical associated with daily activities such as eating, winning money … and having sex. This led to headlines promising that cryptic crosswords were ‘better than sex’… but what’s the reality behind the hype?
Gill Hill explains why investigating creative problem solving is sometimes – quite literally – child’s play.
People might be surprised to hear that the games they played as children can help scientists to explain how people think. For example, researchers have recently used rock, paper scissors as a model for decision making. Furthermore, chess is seen as a pursuit for ‘thinkers’ around the world, and we have consequently seen lots of research exploring psychological processes whilst people play.
Postgraduate researchers Nicole Gwynne and Adam Davidson offer some further advice on recruiting participants.
Asking people to give you their time can seem scary, whether you’re seeking a romantic date or participation in your scientific study. Face-to-face interviews and experiments can appear laborious and inconvenient, so many researchers become bashful regarding recruitment.
Don’t worry, there is a simple process to follow when pursuing potential participants for in-person research. We can’t guarantee it’ll work for your romantic dating life, but here are the steps to getting the dates that yield data. Continue reading
