A blog about problems in the field of psychology and attempts to fix them.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Some worthwhile links

Four things worth looking at:

1) Should faculty have input into course software decisions? At Penn State, the Faculty Senate has control over the curriculum (and is merely advisory on pretty much any other matter they chose to deliberate upon). One faculty member has suggested that because course software now dictates the structure of courses, and when and how content can be delivered, it should be thought of as a curriculum issue, which would give faculty control. Read/discuss, and give your input on a poll here.

2) Is there a distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge? Read/discuss here.

3) Should peer review remain a sacred pillar of academia? Read/discuss here.

4) Should Black Studies get shut down because a Chronicle blogger doesn't like the titles of a few dissertations? Read/discuss here. Or should the blogger be fired? Read/discuss here.

4 comments:

  1. Hi, regarding pratical knowledge I just recently got aware of ecological psychology and I was wondering some pratical applications of it, not only in psychology but to other fields also, could you give me some exampes to help me understand better?
    What ecological psychology brings to the table in pratical terms and how can it be applies to real word?
    Thanks!

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  2. Ooo, great question. I'm not the best person to answer this, but I can say that the obvious applications are many. In particular, Eco Psych has had great success in dealing with tasks that are clearly perception-action tasks. There has been a lot of recent work dealing with kineseology and sports psychology, lots of work dealing with people who have disabilities in their perception-action systems, and some really fun recent work on applications such as how to design standard issue military gear to allow soldiers to react faster and more effectively in various situations. Probably your best bet, if your library can get them, is to browse the Studies in Perception and Action book series (they are the poster books from ICPA conferences). Most of the stuff won't strike you as terribly useful, but given the number of contributions, each book still contains quite a bit showing the practical applications.

    There is also a lot of application in areas that might not initially seem to be perception-action problems, but it is easier to understand those applications if you understand a few of the more obvious ones first.

    If you tell me which types of practical concerns you are particularly interested in, I might be able to be more specific.

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  3. Thanks for your answer.

    In sports for exemple, how would Eco Psych be applied (or has been applied) to increase an athlete's or team performance?

    The military gear example sounds interesting too, but how?

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