“Outstanding Young Psychologist Named As First Winner Of British Academy Wiley Prize In Psychology” plus 3 more

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• Outstanding Young Psychologist Named As First Winner Of British Academy Wiley Prize In Psychology
• Brain Study: Sensitive Persons' Perception Moderates Responses Based On Culture
• Phil Sheridan: Danny Briere's special goal
• Today, May 3 in Ridgewood

Outstanding Young Psychologist Named As First Winner Of British Academy Wiley Prize In Psychology Posted: 03 May 2010 04:18 AM PDT Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health Article Date: 03 May 2010 - 1:00 PDT email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions Dr Essi Viding, an outstanding young developmental psychologist from University College London specialising in the causes of violent antisocial behaviour in children and adolescents, has been named by the British Academy and Wiley-Blackwell as the winner of the 2010 Wiley Prize, awarded for the first time this year to an early career scholar. The Academy's Wiley Prize in Psychology, worth £5,000, was created in 2009 as an annual award to recognize outstanding contributions in a field of psychology. For the first time this year it rewards research by a younger UK-based psychologist (within five years of receipt of doctorate) whose research and achievements show exceptional promise. The Prize alternates annually between "lifetime achievement" and "outstanding promise". The first award in 2009, for lifetime achievement, went to one of the world's leading pioneers of modern psychology, Professor Martin Seligman, who directs the University of Pennsylvania's world famous Positive Psychology Center. Dr Viding's work brings together genetics, social development and cognitive neuroscience in innovative new ways to explore the causes of violent antisocial behaviour in young people. She was appointed Reader in Developmental Psychopathology at UCL in 2008 and is heavily committed to translating her basic science findings into practice with advisory roles for school based interventions and government policy. Dr Viding is at the top of her field, not only in developmental psychopathology, but also ranking highly in the much broader field of social cognition. Essi Viding, Winner of the 2010 British Academy Wiley Prize in Psychology said: "It is a great honour that the British Academy and Wiley-Blackwell have recognised the research I conduct with my team and collaborators. I have been fortunate that UCL have strongly supported my early career development. This Prize is also a testament to the wonderful mentoring I have been lucky to receive to date." Sir Adam Roberts, President of the British Academy said: "Encouraging talented younger researchers is a crucial part of the British Academy's mission and I'm delighted that the Wiley Prize enables us to offer just this kind of national recognition. Dr Viding is undoubtedly one of the country's most exciting new talents in psychology research and I'm certain we'll hear a great deal more of her in the coming years." Philip Carpenter, VP and Managing Director, Social Science and Humanities at Wiley-Blackwell, said: "John Wiley and Sons has a deep commitment to supporting research and publication in psychology and we are therefore proud to sponsor the British Academy's Wiley Prize. "Following last year's award to Professor Martin Seligman, we are delighted that the 2010 prize is being given to Dr Essi Viding for her outstanding work in developmental psychopathology, which includes a number of key articles in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and other Wiley publications." Source: Julia Lampam Wiley-Blackwell Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Brain Study: Sensitive Persons' Perception Moderates Responses Based On Culture Posted: 03 May 2010 03:06 PM PDT "Our data suggest that some categories of individuals, based on their natural traits, are less influenced by their cultural context than others," says Dr. Aron. He adds that the study is the first to analyze how a basic temperament/personality trait, called sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), interacts with culture and neural responses. SPS is characterized by sensitivity to both internal and external stimuli, including social and emotional cues. Scientists estimate that something like high sensitivity is found in approximately 20 percent of more than 100 species, from fruit flies and fish to canines and primates and has evolved as a particular survival strategy that differs from the majority. The standard measure in humans is the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) Scale, previously developed by Dr. Aron and his wife, Dr. Elaine Aron. An example of one item on the HSP scale is "do you seem to be aware of subtleties in your environment." Dr. Aron says those who score high on the scale report being easily overwhelmed when too much is happening, startle easily, are conscientious, enjoy the arts more, and have a lower pain threshold. They are more emotionally reactive and more affected by the environment compared to those who score low on the scale. The researchers measured SPS in 10 East Asian individuals temporarily in the U.S. and and 10 Americans of Western-European ancestry. In a previous study, these same 20 individuals had undergone brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a cognitive task of comparing the length of lines inside boxes. The participants' responses to the task tested their perception of the independence versus interdependence of objects as the fMRI measured the neural basis of their responses. The major finding of that study was that the frontal-parietal brain region (see Figure) known to be engaged during attention-demanding tasks was more activated for East Asians when making judgments ignoring context, not their specialty, but was more activated for Americans when making judgments when they had to take context into account, not their specialty. This discovery, says Dr. Aron, illustrated that each group engaged this attention system more strongly during a task more difficult for them because it is not generally supported by their cultural context. That is, even when doing a simple, abstract cognitive task, culture influences perception. In the SPS study, Dr. Aron and colleagues took the brain activations in these two groups from the previous study and considered them in light of the SPS scores of the same individuals. They found SPS as a trait yielded a very clear pattern of results: "The influence of culture on effortful perception was especially strong for those who scored low on the scale measuring sensitivity, but for those who scored high on the measure (highly sensitive individuals), there was no cultural difference at all," says Dr. Aron. Regarding the fMRI, Dr Aron adds: "Culture did not influence the degree of activation of highly sensitive individuals' brains when doing the two kinds of perceptual tasks used in the previous study. Also, how much they identified with their culture had no effect. It was as if, for them, culture was not an influence on their perception." Dr. Aron emphasized that the new research suggests that characteristics possessed by high SPS individuals, such as being emotionally reactive or conscientious, actually flow out of or are side effects of the overriding feature of processing information more thoroughly than low SPS individuals. While the results showed a clear, statistically significant connection between SPS, cognitive processing, and culturally-based thinking, Dr. Aron indicates that the small numbers of participants does not rule out the possibility that these results could be sample specific, so conclusions must be taken as preliminary and only as suggestive. Replications of the study and larger sample sizes, he adds, would help to further the research. Co-authors of the study titled, "Temperament trait of sensory processing sensitivity moderates cultural differences in neural response," include: Sarah Ketay, Ph.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Trey Heddan, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D., Stony Brook University; Hazel Rose Markus, Ph.D., Stanford University, and John D.E. Gabrieli, MIT. Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Phil Sheridan: Danny Briere's special goal Posted: 03 May 2010 12:00 AM PDT Daniel Briere's tying goal in the third period of Game 1 Saturday was a perfect example. Briere got the puck just inside the Flyers' defensive zone. He skated through center ice as two Boston defenders dropped back to guard him. A couple of Flyers trailed Briere, but no one was in his sight line. Ninety-nine percent of the time, a player in Briere's spot would dump the puck into the Boston zone or, at most, skate it in and pull up to wait for friendlies to join him. But Briere suddenly sped up, skated between the Bruins, fired a backhand shot and then flipped his own rebound past Tuukka Rask for the goal that sent the game into overtime. So if Briere is capable of such artistry, why doesn't he do it more often? The answer is complex and sheds light on the psychology of players rising to the occasion in big games. And Briere does that. He has a long history of playoff success, even if he sometimes seems to get lost for stretches during the regular season. "He certainly has a special set of skills," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "He's a gifted player, and those players have every opportunity to make a difference." Briere explained his thought process as the play developed. It all began, he said, with a sense of embarrassment. He'd made a defensive mistake that led directly to the Bruins' fourth goal. "Sometimes that's going to happen," Briere said after Sunday's practice at the TD Garden. "It's a game of mistakes. I wish I could have that one back, but it's too late now. It's a mistake. Everyone makes them. I think it's how you bounce back from a bad shift or a bad play. You try to learn from it and move on. . . . In my mind, I knew I had to get it back somehow." A few minutes later, Briere skated behind the Boston net and fed Scott Hartnell, whose shot was blocked by Rask. Mike Richards pounced on the rebound and swatted the puck into a wide-open left side of the net. So now, down a goal, Briere had the puck and some room to skate. Defensemen Dennis Wideman, to his left, and Matt Hunwick were backing up into their zone. Briere knew two things: He wanted to make up for that defensive lapse, and his teammates were due for a line change. That's important, because it gave him a bit of freedom from the Flyers' normal system. If you watched any of the Washington Capitals' first-round series against Montreal, you saw Alex Ovechkin trying to make play after play single-handedly. It made him easier to defend, and it took his teammates out of the action. There's a fine line between a great individual play and plain selfishness. "Usually you don't want to lose the puck in the neutral zone," Briere said, "but that late in the game, I knew it was a one-on-two, and my teammates were going to change [lines]. I just tried to go for it." He planned to cut left and go wide of Wideman, but the defenseman anticipated that and moved toward the boards. "I had a little opening in the middle of ice," Briere said. He split the two defenders. Hunwick swiped at the puck, knocking it off Briere's skate. It bounced back into his control and he fired a shot at Rask. Perhaps the most amazing piece of work was the way Briere, at full speed, was able to follow the rebound and flick a shot before Rask could regroup. Briere said it was probably one of the better goals of his career, "but it would mean more if we'd been able to find a way to win in overtime." It's probably not fair to expect a repeat performance, but it is fair to expect Briere to continue to produce goals. With Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne lost to injuries, Briere may be the key to the Flyers' chances to advance to the conference final. Richards, Chris Pronger and Brian Boucher play key roles, of course, but they have become givens. Briere is capable of creating goals, and he has a history of doing just that in the playoffs. "I really can't explain it," Briere said. "Maybe confidence. That's why I play the game, that's why I love the game. You want to be in these moments."   Contact columnist Phil Sheridan at 215-854-2844 or psheridan@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/philsheridan   Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Today, May 3 in Ridgewood Posted: 03 May 2010 06:00 AM PDT Monday, May 3 * Mother's Day Story and Craft for children ages 4 to 7, Ridgewood Public Library, 125 N. Maple Ave., 4 p.m. Information/registration: 201-670-5600. * Ridgewood High School psychology students present a psychology exhibit, Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, 3 to 7 p.m. * Board of Education public meeting, reorganizational meeting, Education Center, 7:30 p.m. * Ridgewood Planning Board H-Zone meeting, Ben Franklin Middle School, 335 N. Van Dien Ave., 7:30 p.m. Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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