Memory Master

Activities for Students: Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. Compare Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories. Make a note of the ways in which they are similar? In what ways are they different? Do they miss out anything that is important to learning?

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. Do we still need teachers?
2. What factors make it difficult to learn and how do these relate to the theories discussed in this chapter?
3. Is assimilation learning?
4. Why do students not like active learning even though it leads to better achievement?
5. Is there a role for the traditional lecture?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. Is the distinction between active and passive learning creating a divide between state and private education? An interesting read in this article from the Guardian newspaper in August 2020.
2. Dr Hector Perez has established an active learning classroom at University of Florida. Listen to this 16 minute podcast to find out about his active learning philosophy.
3. If you would like to find out more about Piaget's stages of cognitive development, have a look at this video which summarizes the key stages. Remember this is not about being able to memorise the information but about thinking how this applies to your own learning now. How are you encouraged to "construct" your own learning?

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Think about your own experience of learning. What from this chapter can you relate to your own experience? What doesn’t fit so well?

Memory Master

Activities for Students: Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. Put your creative skills to the test. Try to outline a potential video-game that you could use to educate people about applied psychology. Think about what the game would be called, what content you would focus on and how you might use the game to facilitate learning (what would users have to do?). Reflect on whether you think this might be useful for learning.

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. What makes some video-games more successful than others?
2. To what extent do video-games add something to the learning process? Are they a luxury or an integral part of how learning can be facilitated?
3. Should competitive, violent video-games be banned?
4. Are video-games a facilitator or or an inhibitor of social interaction? Are we becoming more isolated as we engage more with this sort of media?
5. Do video-games have any use beyond pure play?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. Can videogames make us happy? Listen to this podcast where Dr Ryan Kelly talks about why they might just do this.

1. Can video-games be used to improve mental health? This article, taken from the Guardian newspaper, suggests so.
2. Want to multi-task more effectively? Play video games. At least according to Daphne Bavelier in this TED talk.  It's 18 minutes long and well worth a watch.

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Try to identify three reasons why we might want to urge caution about the claim that video-games facilitate cognitive performance. Try to identify three reasons why we might want to urge caution about the claim that violent video-games make us more anti-social.

Memory Master

Activities for Students: Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. A number of businesses use colour to brand themselves. What colour do the following companies use? Selfridges, Hermes, Tiffany? See if you can identify other businesses that use colour in their branding.

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. To what extent do we consciously make decisions about others based on what they wear?
2. Are we prisoners of our primitive past?
3. When we select what to wear, are we simply thinking about how to manipulate others’ view of ourselves?
4. Can our clothing affect our judgement and confidence?
5. Do you think that sexuality makes a difference to the romantic red effect?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. What do your clothes say about you? Read this article from Psychologist World that gives an insight into research in this area.
2. Do you want to read more about the social psychology of dress? This open access article gives a good overview of the relationship between clothing, body and self.
3. What is meant by enclothed cognition? Find out by watching this short video clip and reading the accompanying text.

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Why not get out your colouring pencils and produce some mind maps- do one for red and one for black and see how many different points you can recall from this chapter relating to each.

Memory Master

Activities for Students: Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. Identify all the different sports mentioned in this chapter and next to each, briefly note down how they have been researched. Use this as a starting point for thinking about how this might affect our knowledge of sport psychology.

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. Is success in sport simply down to practice?
2. Is it possible to be “too” confident in the sporting arena?
3. To what extent can the findings outlined in this chapter be applied to other contexts?
4. If the placebo effect is so strong, do we really need any actual interventions to succeed?
5. Is sporting success down to individual attributes?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. Does smiling help athletic performance? Apparently so. Read more about this phenomenon in this article from Runner’s World.
2. What is different about champion athletes? This TED talk by Professor Martin Hagger from Curtin University raises some possibilities.
3. How do athletes maintain their motivation? Listen to this podcast, available on itunes, from the Sport and Exercise Psychology series by the Open University: Keeping motivated to make a real change

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Imagine you are giving advice to the next Olympic coach on how he can boost his team’s chances of success. Make a list of the key messages you would give and next to each add one sentence to explain.

Memory Master

Activities for Students: Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. Think about how the workplace has changed since COVID-19. Then look back at the key ideas mentioned in this chapter. Do you think it is easier or more difficult to ensure happiness in employees since the COVID lockdowns? Create a table showing the two different perspectives and try to explain your reasoning.

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. Is working from home as productive as being in the office? What do you think the disadvantages might be?
2. Why might happiness promote creativity in the workplace?
3. If happiness leads to more productive workers, should we still bother with recruitment processes?
4. What does it mean to be happy at work?
5. Do you think that increased reliance on technology will reduce or increase happiness in the workplace?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. How can we practically facilitate happiness at work? This podcast is 1 hour long but explores the science behind workplace happiness.
2. In this TED talk, Mike Robinson, tell us why every desk should have a plant on it. It is a 20 minute clip.
3. Take a look at this article in Science Daily. It suggests that green offices make us more productive.

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Try to summarise the key points from the chapter using a 5 - 4- 3- 2- 1 exercise. Identify the 5 key reasons why it is useful to have happy employees, then see if you can add 4 points to each, then identify 3 suggestions that can be used to promote happiness, think about 2 reasons why it may not always be advantageous to have happy employees and then identify 1 message that you think you could take from the chapter.

Memory Master

Activities for Students: Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. How good are you at detecting deception? Why not try this task developed by the Open University: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/detecting-deception. In some of the scenarios, the person is telling the truth, in the others, they are lying. Which is which? After each participant has been interviewed, you will be asked to make a decision about whether they are lying or not and why you think this. There are eight trials in total. At the end, you will receive feedback on your performance.

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. Can we ever detect deception in others if we can’t stop deceiving ourselves?
2. Deception research tries to identify methods of improving our ability to identify lie-tellers. Is there a danger that by publishing this research, we are empowering criminals?
3. To what extent do you think there is a link between the ability to deceive and creativity?
4. Does it take a liar to catch a liar?
5. Is deception always a bad thing?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. Are lie detectors of any use? Read this article from January 2020 which features Professor Tom Ormerod's research.
2. Can thermal imaging be used as a method of detecting deception? Read more about this experimental trial conducted in an airport.
3. Become more attuned to how to detect deception. Watch this 18 minute TED talk by Pamela Meyer on how to spot a liar.

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Draw a six pointed star. In each point of the star write a different label: Verbal cues, Non-verbal cues, Unconscious Lie Detector, Groups, Drawing, Unexpected questions. The first three correspond to what we know about how to detect lie-telling, The latter three correspond to suggestions that have been made about how to improve deception detection. See how much detail you can recall about each. Then look back to the chapter to fill in any missing key points.

Memory Master

Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. What does a criminal look like? Have a look at this you tube video which shows some of the early photos taken of criminals for police records. Try to apply Lombroso’s theory- do they match his description?

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. Does changing our appearance change our behaviour?
2. A lot of the research in this area stemmed from Victorian and Edwardian times when criminals were photographed. Do you think appearance still plays as much of a role now?
3. What dangers might there be of relying too much on physical appearance to detect criminality?
4. Should court cases be delivered via auditory means only?
5. To what extent do crime shows on TV influence our criminal stereotype?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. What are the ethical issues involved in predicting criminality? Read about a recent ethical controversy in this article from the BBC.
2. Who was Cesare Lombroso? Find out more about his theories and the influence he had on forensic psychology in this 7 minute video from Criminologyweb.
3. Take a look at this site which details the history of the idea of the criminal stereotype.

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Create a mindmap to show all the different elements that have been suggested for the criminal stereotype. How many different ideas can you find in this chapter?

Memory Master

Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. Plan a daily walk through green space. Take photographs of things that inspire you or that grab your attention. Think about whether this activity is helping to improve your concentration, reduce your stress and/or improve your mood. Why do you think this?

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. To what extent is access to green space a political issue?
2. Are some types of green space less restorative?
3. Should green space be “prescribed” as a treatment? If so, what ethical issues might this lead to?
4. How can we encourage more people to make use of green space?
5. Is the effect of green space on mental health an indirect effect or a direct effect?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. Are houseplants good for us? This video questions why it is so difficult to identify the reason why plants have an effect on us.
2. Is it green space that is essential for good mental well-being or is it biodiversity?Read this article which describes a study conducted in Bradford in the UK.
3. Do green spaces make us healthier? Listen to this 33 minute podcast from CrowdScience which explores some of the research and relates this to a particular question from a listener.

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. See if you can identify 3 reasons why greenspace has been considered good for us, 4 key theories and 5 evaluations of this idea.

Memory Master

Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. Much research suggests that access to blue space such as the sea is restorative. The sea has often been the subject of many famous paintings. Try to find ten famous works of art that include the sea. How do the majority of these paintings depict the sea? Does it fit with the idea of the sea as restorative? Why do you think this is? Try to explain your reasoning.

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. To what extent is blue space health-enabling?
2. Is it just our perception of blue space as healthy that is important?
3. Does blue space have positive effects because it forces us to use senses other than just vision?
4. Are people happier being near the sea?
5. To what extent do we need others to share the experience of blue space with us?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. Have you experienced "blue mind" before? Not sure what it is? Watch this 30-minute TED talk from Dr Wallace Nichols to find out more.
2. Listen to the first 10 minutes of this podcast  from the BBC series "All in the Mind". which talks about "blue health".
3. Is living near water the secret to happiness? Read this article from the Guardian newspaper in 2019 and make up your own mind as to the claims.

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Try to identify as many different effects of blue space on individuals as you can. This can form a mind map for example, then try to extend some of these key points by adding on a second layer to show mediating factors.

Memory Master

Application Apprentice (1 activity)

1. Think about other celebrations, festivals or religious occasions. What common features do many of these share? Use these ideas to create a “recipe” for a celebration!

Discussion and Debate (5 qus)

1. Are the benefits of celebrations based on social togetherness?
2. In an increasingly stressful world, are holidays and celebrations becoming more important as a chance to rest?
3. Are celebrations truly prosocial?
4. Is there a dark side to celebrations?
5. Does Santa really exist?

Diving in deeper (3 ideas for further study)

1. Why does Christmas make us feel warm inside? Read this article from Crobox to find out more about the psychology behind the celebrations.
2. What impact does Christmas have on the brain? Watch this short vlog that explains more.
3. What is the psychological impact of Christmas? Find out more in this article here.

Journal Jamboree (1 reflection activity to help with revision)

1. Try to create a mnemonic to help you remember the different aspects of the psychology of Christmas For example, PACES might represent Presents, Activity (such as singing), Community, Eating and Shopping. Mnemonics are useful to help you recall key sections of the story. You can then add to each section with key findings.