Brainy Bumblebees And The Uncanny Valley: The Week ’s Best Psychology Links

Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web When creating cute creatures for movies, designers and animators must walk a fine line to avoid falling into the uncanny valley. Baby-like features — big eyes, large heads, round faces — can be appealing, writes Allyssia Alleyne at Wired. But make your character too human and it can look horrific, because we start to see it as one of our own kind, flaws and all. Psychologists have criticised the use of AI systems to analyse people’s facial expressions, reports Hannah Devlin for The Guardian. Organisations claim that such systems can help with everything from job recruitment to border security — but researchers point out that emotional expressions vary between cultures. Many of the psychological assessments used in American courts are not backed up by evidence, Clare Wilson reports for New Scientist. Only two-thirds of the tools are generally accepted by experts, leaving courts often reliant on evidence from suspect tests such as Rorschach inkblots. Yet the validity of these tests is rarely challenged, researchers found. The strategies we use to learn new skills or information are not always as effective as they could be. Learn how to learn better with these psychologically-informed tips from David Robson in The Observer. Do you feel pain as something that happens in the mind or in the body? It turns out that people vary in whether they see pain as a “mental” or “bodily” experien...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Weekly links Source Type: blogs