Call for short commentaries: The Psychology of Creative Performance and Expertise

Kathryn Friedlander highlights the recent launch of a Journal of Expertise Special Issue centred on her 2024 book, The Psychology of Creative Performance and Expertise (Taylor & Francis).

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Announcing My New Book: The Psychology of Creative Performance and Expertise

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Kathryn Friedlander introduces us to her new book, which addresses a gap in the field of expertise studies, offering insights that range across diverse creative domains, from the arts to STEM fields, to puzzles and board games.

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‘Rewording the Brain’ – Can cryptic crosswords fight off dementia?

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’?

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Book Review: ‘The Joy of Quiz’ by Alan Connor

Kathryn Friedlander reviews ‘The Joy of Quiz‘ and explores its relevance to the study of expert performance, puzzle solving and niche hobbies.


Joy of Quiz‘Here’s a question: ‘Why do we spend our childhood in fear of exams, then quite willingly put ourselves through pretty much the same tests as adults?’ … The short answer is: fun. The joy of quiz is in making a gratifying game out of all that knowledge sploshing around in our heads – fascinating information, but information for which our jobs and our personal lives stubbornly refuse to find any use’.

So begins this engaging romp through the world of quizzing: an engrossing compendium of trivia and analysis drawn from social history, psychology and real-life ‘behind-the-scenes’ knowledge, based on Alan Connor‘s own experiences as a quiz editor for the BBC2 quiz Only Connect.

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