PsychCrunch

Why do some songs get stuck in our heads? In this episode, our presenter Ginny Smith explores the psychology of earworms. Ginny hears about the possible evolutionary reasons for why we experience the phenomenon, learns what earworms can teach us about memory — and finds out how to get rid of them.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Kelly Jakubowski, assistant professor of music psychology at Durham University; Petr Janata, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis; and Michael K. Scullin, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Research from our guests includes:

Dissecting an Earworm: Melodic Features and Song Popularity Predict Involuntary Musical Imagery

Spontaneous mental replay of music improves memory for incidentally associated event knowledge.

Bedtime Music, Involuntary Musical Imagery, and Sleep

This is Episode 27 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

At Latitude Festival in Suffolk in July, The Psychologist Editor Dr Jon Sutton hosted a conversation in The Listening Post with Greta Defeyter, Professor of Developmental Psychology and founder and Director of the "Healthy Living" Lab at Northumbria University. An expert on food insecurity, social injustice, school feeding programmes and holiday hunger, Professor Defeyter considered why children go hungry, what we can do about it, and how her own experiences of poverty have shaped her.

Episode credits: Presented by Jon Sutton. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Thanks to Latitude Festival's arts and special events curator Kirsty Taylor. We hope to return with more from 'The Psychologist Presents…' in 2022. Tickets for next year's event are already on sale via http://latitudefestival.com

Background reading

Professor Defeyter has just published her new book, Holiday Hunger in the UK, co-authored by Michael A. Long and Paul B. Stretesky

The Psychologist also met Professor Defeyter as part of their special edition around the British Psychological Society policy theme of 'From poverty to flourishing'

Reports and transcripts from other appearances at Latitude Festival

This is Episode 26 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

What impact has the pandemic had on people's mental health? In this episode, our presenter Ginny Smith talks to researchers who have been conducting work throughout the pandemic to understand the toll that it has taken on our wellbeing. Ginny learns about the different factors that can make us more or less vulnerable to these effects, finds out how pregnant women have fared during this stressful time, and also hears about emerging data that finds links between the virus itself and mental health conditions.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Dr Susanne Schweizer, Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow at the University of Cambridge, and Professor Paul Harrison from the University of Oxford.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Background reading for this episode

• More information about the CORAL study is available on their website
• Paul Harrison's paper describing the link between Covid-19 infection and mental health conditions is available open access here. There is also a university press release about the work, and another related paper by the team

This is Episode 25 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

Are our personalities set in stone, or can we choose to change them? In this bonus episode, Matthew Warren talks to former Research Digest editor Christian Jarrett about his new book Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change. Christian discusses the evidence-based methods you can use to alter your personality, whether you're an introvert who wants to become the life of the party, or you simply wish you were a little more open to new experiences. He also explains how our personalities evolve over the course of our lifespans, even when we're not consciously trying to change them, and ponders how they might be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change is out on May 18th in the United States and May 20th in the United Kingdom.

Episode credits: Presented by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Work discussed in this episode includes:

• Merely desiring to alter your personality is not enough, and may backfire unless you take concrete action to change
• Longest ever personality study finds no correlation between measures taken at age 14 and age 77
• Here's How Our Personality Changes As We Age

Other background reading

• A little discussed effect of therapy: it changes your personality
• Here's How Personality Changes In Young Adulthood Can Lead To Greater Career Satisfaction
• When Deciding How To Improve Our Personalities, Moral Character Is Not A Priority
• New insights into lifetime personality change from "meta-study" featuring 50,000 participants

This is Episode 24 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

What role does play have in child development? In this episode, our presenter Ginny Smith talks to some top play researchers to find out how children learn new skills and concepts through play, and explores what teachers and parents can do to encourage this kind of learning. Ginny also discovers how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way kids play and learn.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Professor Marilyn Fleer and Dr Prabhat Rai from Monash University, and Dr Suzanne Egan from the University of Limerick.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Background reading for this episode

• The website for Fleer's Conceptual PlayWorld contains more information about the model discussed by Marilyn Fleer and Prabhat Rai
• Publications and working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab are available here
• Here are some of the key findings from the PLEY survey discussed by Suzanne Egan

This is Episode 23 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest.

In this episode, Emily Reynolds, staff writer at Research Digest, explores modern psychology's relationship with race and representation. It's well-known that psychology has a generalisability problem, with studies overwhelmingly using so-called "WEIRD" participants: those who are Western and educated and from industrialised, rich and democratic societies. But how does that shape the assumptions we make about participants of different racial identities or cultures? And how can top-tier psychology journals improve diversity among not only participants but also authors and editors?

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Dr Bobby Cheon, Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Dr Steven O. Roberts, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Emily Reynolds. Script edits by Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Research mentioned in this episode includes:

• How USA-Centric Is Psychology? An Archival Study of Implicit Assumptions of Generalizability of Findings to Human Nature Based on Origins of Study Samples
• Racial Inequality in Psychological Research: Trends of the Past and Recommendations for the Future
• Toward a psychology of Homo sapiens: Making psychological science more representative of the human population

This is Episode 22 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

In this episode, Ella Rhodes, Journalist for The Psychologist, explores the boundaries between wakefulness and dreaming. What can we can learn about consciousness from the strange transition period between being awake and asleep, known as hypnagogia? And why do some people experience visions and imaginings that take them away for hours at a time?

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Dr Valdas Noreika, lecturer in Psychology at Queen Mary University of London, and Dr Nirit Soffer-Dudek, clinical psychologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ella Rhodes, with additional content from Matthew Warren. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw.

Background reading for this episode:

Dreams: Everyone's Guide to Inner Space, a paper by Deborah Wesley, is free to access thanks to our sponsors Routledge Psychology.

Relevant research from our guests includes:

• Intrusions of a drowsy mind: neural markers of phenomenological unpredictability
• Trapped in a Daydream: Daily Elevations in Maladaptive Daydreaming Are Associated With Daily Psychopathological Symptoms
• The Comorbidity of Daydreaming Disorder (Maladaptive Daydreaming)

This is Episode 21 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

What can we do to stay connected in the middle of a pandemic? We've all played our part in fighting COVID-19, and for many of us that has meant staying away from our friends and families. In this episode, our presenter Ginny Smith explores how this unprecedented period of separation has reinforced the importance of connection. Ginny looks at how video chats compare to in-person interaction, and how psychology could help improve virtual communication in the future. She also examines the importance of touch for reducing stress — and asks whether interactions with our furry friends could make up for a lack of human contact.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are Dr Shane Rogers, lecturer in psychology at Edith Cowan University, Australia, and Professor Patricia Pendry, from Washington State University.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work by Tim Grimshaw. Script edits by Matthew Warren.

Background reading for this episode:

Characteristics of Student– Dog Interaction during a Meet-and-Greet Activity in a University-Based Animal Visitation Program, a paper by Patricia Pendry and colleagues, is free to access thanks to our sponsors Routledge Psychology.

Other research mentioned in this episode includes:

• Contact Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Eye Contact Illusion
• Using dual eye tracking to uncover personal gaze patterns during social interaction
• Animal Visitation Program (AVP) Reduces Cortisol Levels of University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

This is Episode 20 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

What can psychology teach us about dealing with pain? Our presenter Ginny Smith learns that swearing can have a pain-reducing effect, and puts the theory to the test with an experiment on editor Matthew Warren. Ginny also hears about how virtual reality could provide a welcome distraction to patients suffering from chronic pain.

Our guests, in order of appearance, are: Dr Richard Stephens, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Keele University, and Dr Sam Hughes, Research Fellow in pain neuroimaging at King's College London.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ginny Smith, with additional content from Matthew Warren and Sana Suri. Mixing and editing Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work Tim Grimshaw.

Background reading for this episode:

Managing limb pain using virtual reality: a systematic review of clinical and experimental studies, a paper by Priscilla G Wittkopf and colleagues, is free to access thanks to our sponsors Routledge Psychology.

Research mentioned in this episode includes:

• Swearing as a response to pain
• Swearing as a response to pain-effect of daily swearing frequency
• Swearing as a response to pain: Assessing hypoalgesic effects of novel "swear" words
• Attenuation of capsaicin-induced ongoing pain and secondary hyperalgesia during exposure to an immersive virtual reality environment

Both Research Digest and The Psychologist have plenty of posts on pain in the archives, including:

Encouraging self-compassion may help people with chronic pain lead more active, happier lives

Super altruists (who've donated a kidney to a stranger) show heightened empathic brain activity when witnessing strangers in pain

Women who practice submissive BDSM displayed reduced empathy and an atypical neural response to other people's pain

What's different about the brains of the minority of us who feel other people's physical pain?

Watching someone suffer extreme pain has a lasting effect on the brain

Does it matter whether or not pain medication is branded?

Pain at Christmas: Ella Rhodes reports from the British Neuroscience Association's Christmas symposium

5 minutes with… Dr Harbinder Sandhu: A large trial aims to help people with chronic pain taper their opioid use

The pain of youth: Line Caes and Abbie Jordan call for creativity in research design with adolescents living with chronic health conditions

Big Picture: Portraits of pain: Measuring pain with drawings

Pain – the backdrop of our lives: Ella Rhodes reports from a conference at UCL

This is Episode 19 of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology.

Do we worry too much about screen time? The issue of screen use by children and teenagers is rarely out of the headlines, and institutions including the World Health Organization have recommended specific limits on screen time for the youngest age groups. But what does the science actually say about the effects of screen time?

To find out, our presenter Ella Rhodes talks to Dr Amy Orben, Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and winner of the 2019 BPS award for Outstanding Doctoral Research, who has explored the psychological effects of screen time in her research.

Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ella Rhodes, journalist for The Psychologist, with help from the Research Digest and Psychologist teams. Mixing and editing by Jeff Knowler. PsychCrunch theme music by Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler; additional music by Ketsa. Artwork by Tim Grimshaw.

Background resources for this episode:

Screen Time, Laptop Bans, and the Fears that Shape the Use of Technology for Learning, a paper by Dr Torrey Trust in the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, is free to access thanks to our sponsors Routledge Psychology.

The work by Amy Orben and her colleagues discussed in this episode includes:

• The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use
• Screens, Teens, and Psychological Well-Being: Evidence From Three Time-Use-Diary Studies
• How Much Is Too Much? Examining the Relationship Between Digital Screen Engagement and Psychosocial Functioning in a Confirmatory Cohort Study
• Social media's enduring effect on adolescent life satisfaction

Here are the WHO guidelines on screen time mentioned at the beginning of the podcast.

Both The Psychologist and Research Digest have a number of articles on screen time and media effects, including:

The Psychologist Presents… Screen time debunked A transcript of Professor Andrew Przybylski's session with editor Jon Sutton at Latitude Festival in summer 2019.

Seeing screen time differently Jon Sutton reports from a one-day event on research, policy and communication in a digital era, held out the Wellcome Collection in London in 2018.

'There are wolves in the forest…' Professor Andrew Przybylski picks three myths around screen time – and how science, and some common sense, can help.

What is actually behind the screen? Ella Rhodes reports on last year's parliamentary report from the Science and Technology Committee.

'Games have helped me a lot throughout my life' Annie Brookman-Byrne interviews Dr Pete Etchells, Reader in Psychology and Science Communication at Bath Spa University, about his book Lost in a Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can Do For Us.

Amy Orben honoured Dr Orben wins the British Psychological Society's Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research.

Link Between Teens' Time On Digital Devices And Lower Wellbeing Is "Too Small To Merit Substantial Scientific Discussion"

Abstaining From Social Media Doesn't Improve Well-Being, Experimental Study Finds

These Violent Delights Don't Have Violent Ends: Study Finds No link Between Violent Video Games And Teen Aggression

Hard-core players of violent video games do not have emotionally blunted brains