Noggin - The Simple Psychology Podcast

Can you recall an experience where you were so in the zone doing something that time was flying by? That is a flow experience, which is the topic of today's episode. We discuss what a flow experience is, how to achieve it, and how it can help your life. References: Jackson, S. (1995). Factors influencing the occurrence of flow state in elite athletes. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 7, 138–166. Payne, B. R., Jackson, J. J., Noh, S. R., & Stine-Morrow, E. A. L. (2011). In the zone: Flow state and cognition in older adults. Psychology and Aging, 26(3), 738–743. Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). The concept of flow. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 239-263). Springer, Dordrecht.

How are you feeling right now? Today we discuss the benefits of naming the emotions we are currently experiencing. Spoiler alert: We talk about "Inside Out". References: Kircanski, K., Lieberman, M. D., & Craske, M. G. (2012). Feelings into words: Contributions of language to exposure therapy. Psychological science, 23(10), 1086-1091. Vlasenko, V. V., Rogers, E. G., & Waugh, C. E. (2021). Affect labelling increases the intensity of positive emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 35(7), 1350-1364.

Family curses? Paris is the capital of France? Naps? Today we discuss how sleep affects declarative and motor memory. References: Walker, M. P., Brakefield, T., Morgan, A., Hobson, J. A., & Stickgold, R. (2002). Practice with sleep makes perfect: sleep-dependent motor skill learning. Neuron, 35(1), 205-211. Tucker, M. A., Hirota, Y., Wamsley, E. J., Lau, H., Chaklader, A., & Fishbein, W. (2006). A daytime nap containing solely non-REM sleep enhances declarative but not procedural memory. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 86(2), 241-247. Nishida, M., & Walker, M. P. (2007). Daytime naps, motor memory consolidation and regionally specific sleep spindles. PloS one, 2(4), e341.

Do you ever feel like you're living your life on autopilot? Today we discuss savoring and how to enjoy life in a more mindful way. References: Jose, P. E., Lim, B. T., & Bryant, F. B. (2012). Does savoring increase happiness? A daily diary study. The Journal of Positive Psychology , 7 (3), 176-187. Quoidbach, J., Berry, E. V., Hansenne, M., & Mikolajczak, M. (2010). Positive emotion regulation and well-being: Comparing the impact of eight savoring and dampening strategies. Personality and individual differences , 49 (5), 368-373. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1933/01/three-days-to-see/371679/ Mybestself101.org

The news often talks about how social media is destroying our lives, relationships, and mental health. But is that really the case? In today's episode, we talk about research that attempts to answer this question. References: Coyne, S. M., Rogers, A. A., Zurcher, J. D., Stockdale, L., & Booth, M. (2020). Does time spent using social media impact mental health?: An eight year longitudinal study. Computers in Human Behavior , 104 , 106160. Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature human behaviour , 3 (2), 173-182. Huang, C. (2017). Time spent on social network sites and psychological well-being: A meta-analysis. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 20 (6), 346-354. Barasch, A., Diehl, K., & Zauberman, G. (2014). When happiness shared is happiness halved: how taking photos to share with others affects experiences and memories. ACR North American Advances . Diehl, K., Zauberman, G., & Barasch, A. (2016). How taking photos increases enjoyment of experiences. Journal of personality and social psychology , 111 (2), 119.

Welcome to Season 2 of Noggin - The Simple Psychology Podcast! McKay and Ben have been hard at work (and also relaxing hard over break) creating new episodes to share with you all and we are finally back! Today we discuss research looking at what goes on inside your brain when you feel pain, when you see someone you love in pain, and what that means for you and your relationships. References: Singer, T., Seymour, B., O'doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D. (2004). Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain. Science , 303 (5661), 1157-1162. Goldstein, P., Weissman-Fogel, I., Dumas, G., & Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2018). Brain-to-brain coupling during handholding is associated with pain reduction. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences , 115 (11), E2528-E2537.

Have you ever been really excited to buy something, only to feel extremely underwhelmed by the satisfaction this thing gives you shortly after purchasing it? Have you ever experienced a negative change in your life that you thought would impact you more negatively than it did? Our body's natural tendency to "get used" to things involves something called hedonic adaptation. We've discussed this on the show before, but we thought it deserved its own episode. So, today we discuss what the research says about how to maximize our well-being by not "getting used" to the good things in our life. Note: We recorded this episode the day before the World Cup match between the US and The Netherlands. Spoiler alert: The US lost. References: Wu, S. (2001). Adapting to heart conditions: A test of the hedonic treadmill. Journal of Health Economics , 20 (4), 495-507. Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2012). The challenge of staying happier: Testing the hedonic adaptation prevention model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(5), 670-680.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy this breathing meditation.

In honor of Thanksgiving, we discuss the benefits of being grateful according to the research. In that spirit of gratitude, thank you for listening to our podcast! We are honored that you spend time listening to us. References: The How of Happiness - Sonya Lyubomirsky Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of personality and social psychology , 84 (2), 377. McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J. A. (2002). The grateful disposition: a conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of personality and social psychology , 82 (1), 112.

In honor of everyone's sleep/wake schedule being disrupted because of daylight saving time ending, we thought it would be a good idea to talk about our body's rhythms and cycles. We discuss what is helpful and what is not helpful for our body's rhythms. References: Fernandez, D. C., Fogerson, P. M., Ospri, L. L., Thomsen, M. B., Layne, R. M., Severin, D., ... & Hattar, S. (2018). Light affects mood and learning through distinct retina-brain pathways. Cell , 175 (1), 71-84. Reppert, S. M., & Weaver, D. R. (2002). Coordination of circadian timing in mammals. Nature , 418 (6901), 935-941. Bonmati-Carrion, M. A., Revell, V. L., Cook, T. J., Welch, T. R., Rol, M. A., Skene, D. J., & Madrid, J. A. (2020). Living Without Temporal Cues: A Case Study. Frontiers in Physiology , 11.

Mindfulness is something that comes up a lot in the psychological world. But what is it? How is it practiced? What kind of benefits can it have? These are some of the questions we answer about mindfulness in today's episode. References: Steffen, P. R., & Larson, M. J. (2015). A brief mindfulness exercise reduces cardiovascular reactivity during a laboratory stressor paradigm. Mindfulness, 6(4), 803-811. Basso, J. C., McHale, A., Ende, V., Oberlin, D. J., & Suzuki, W. A. (2019). Brief, daily meditation enhances attention, memory, mood, and emotional regulation in non-experienced meditators. Behavioural brain research, 356, 208-220. mybestself101.org

We are back with another full episode this week! We hope you have enjoyed our meditation bonus episodes. We will continue to upload those periodically. This week we discuss the difference between religiosity and spirituality, and what distinct benefits they offer according to the research.

Hello friends! This week on Noggin we have another meditation for you. This exercise can be completed before you go to bed, or anytime throughout your day when you need a moment to relax. So sit back, press play, and get ready to relax.

As promised in last week's episode on compassion and self-compassion, today's bonus episode is meant to help you practice compassion toward others and compassion toward yourself. This meditation can be something you listen to regularly as you develop your compassion muscles. We hope you enjoy this special bonus episode!

What is the difference between self-pity, self-indulgence, and self-compassion? What are the benefits of being compassionate towards others? Today we talk about Dr. Kristen Neff's research on compassion and self-compassion, and how it can benefit your life. We also discuss Dr. Neff's argument for self-compassion over self-esteem. References: Weng, H. Y., Lapate, R. C., Stodola, D. E., Rogers, G. M., & Davidson, R. J. (2018). Visual attention to suffering after compassion training is associated with decreased amygdala responses. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 771. Neff, K. D. (2011). Self‐compassion, self‐esteem, and well‐being. Social and personality psychology compass, 5(1), 1-12. https://self-compassion.org/the-three-elements-of-self-compassion-2/ https://positivepsychology.com/compassion-meditation/#scripts

We love to think that we act rationally most of the time, especially when it comes to the choices we make with our money. However, behavioral economics tells us that humans are notoriously irrational when dealing with money. Today we dive into two basic behavioral economic principles and discuss things to be aware of when it comes to money. References: Worchel, S., Lee, J., & Adewole, A. (1975). Effects of supply and demand on ratings of object value. Journal of personality and social psychology , 32 (5), 906. Novemsky, N., & Kahneman, D. (2005). The Boundaries of Loss Aversion. Journal of Marketing Research, 42(2), 119–128.

What if we told you that the view from your hospital window could play a role in your recovery from surgery? Today we talk about the benefits of spending time in natural spaces. References: Ulrich, R. S. (1984). View through a window may influence recovery from surgery. science , 224 (4647), 420-421. White, M. P., Alcock, I., Grellier, J., Wheeler, B. W., Hartig, T., Warber, S. L., ... & Fleming, L. E. (2019). Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-11.

What is the difference between correlation and causation? How can researchers actually know when one thing CAUSES another? We received questions like these in response to our episode on reading fiction. So, today we discuss how researchers can establish causality as we revisit the research on reading fiction.

Prayer is a common spiritual practice in which many religions regularly engage. While it seems obvious that communicating with one's higher power can have spiritual benefits, today we will be exploring the less obvious physiological benefits of prayer. References: Cooper, D., Thayer, J., & Waldstein, S. (2014). Coping with racism: The impact of prayer on cardiovascular reactivity and post-stress recovery in African American women. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 47(2), 218-230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-013-9540-4 The How of Happiness - Sonja Lyubomirsky Meints, S. M., Mosher, C., Rand, K. L., Ashburn-Nardo, L., & Hirsh, A. T. (2018). An experimental investigation of the relationships among race, prayer, and pain. Scandinavian Journal of Pain, 18 (3), 545-553. https://doi.org/10.1515/sjpain-2018-0040

How does someone who is blind avoid objects that are placed in front of them? Our brains are constantly taking in information, even outside our conscious awareness. Today we share research about something called blindsight and also fMRI studies that show that our brain reacts to things that are shown to us faster than we can perceive. Finally, we discuss how the information our brain takes in affects us, even if we don't notice it, and also how we can challenge the snap judgments our brains make. References: Freeman, J. B., Stolier, R. M., Ingbretsen, Z. A., & Hehman, E. A. (2014). Amygdala responsivity to high-level social information from unseen faces. Journal of Neuroscience , 34 (32), 10573-10581. Öhman, A., & Soares, J. J. (1994). " Unconscious anxiety": phobic responses to masked stimuli. Journal of abnormal psychology , 103 (2), 231