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the
psychologist vol 25 no 8
august 2012
letters 558 tackling the environmental crisis; voluntary work; learning disability; and more
THE ISSUE
news and digest fraud or scientific mistake?; Queen’s Birthday Honours; consciousness conference; nuggets from the Society’s Research Digest; and more
Bertrand Russell once said: ’To realise the unimportance of time is the gate to wisdom.’ Several authors in this issue would beg to differ. According to Dan Zakay, in the first contribution to our special feature (see p.578), ‘…time shapes human life and behaviour. Physical events proceed according to objective time and biological cycles are controlled by internal pacemakers, but psychological time – how humans experience it – differs in various important ways.’ This month we explore time and drugs, children, sleep and much more. For extra time, see our online-only articles at www.thepsychologist.org.uk. John Wearden, who was instrumental in gathering these contributions, says succinctly ‘time is all you’ve got’ (see p.582). Not in this issue it isn’t: there’s loads more, including (on p.600) my own piece on psychology and Lego, with a ‘love letter to Lego’ from Uta Frith (now a ‘DBE’ – congratulations to her!). Can you find an hour or two to spend with The Psychologist this summer? If you’re feeling pressed, remember it’s all in the mind. As Douglas Adams said, ‘Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.’ Dr Jon Sutton
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media 576 sex and zombie cannibals, with Mark Sergeant; science journalism; and more
CREDIT
Experiencing time in daily life Dan Zakay on the evidence behind beliefs ‘Time is all you’ve got’ We talk to John Wearden Children and time Sylvie Droit-Volet on what we can learn High time Ruth Ogden and Catharine Montgomery Time and the sleeping brain Penelope A. Lewis and Warren H. Meck
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BIG PICTURE
pull out
Untangling the web second series). She describes this as ‘a long-view about the true revolutionary nature of the web. For example, in the episode about “capture”, we look at the web's effects on memory, and how our historical attempts at capturing phenomena throughout the ages reflect social hierarchies and power dynamics.’ She tells us: ‘I’m also pursuing my own academic study based in the Media and Communications Department of the LSE where I am a Visiting Fellow, funded by the Nominet Trust and Google. I am investigating how the designers of the web services we use every day have fit the “messy”, holistic human into binary systems: what have they chosen to include and what have they chosen to ignore? The first outcome of this line of inquiry is the “Serendipity Engine”, a system that critiques the assumptions Google have made about end-user attributions of insight, relevance and value. See tinyurl.com/serendipityengine for more information.’
COPYRIGHT GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA LTD 2010
Image by Lynsey Irvine and Peter Storey, for a series written by Aleks Krotoski. E-mail ideas for ‘Big picture’ to jon.sutton@bps.org.uk. How has the most revolutionary innovation of our time – the internet – transformed our world? What does it mean for the modern family? How has it changed our concepts of privacy? Of celebrity? Of love, sex and hate? Psychologist Dr Aleks Krotoski has been investigating, in a major series for The Guardian [see tinyurl.com/utwaleks). A book extending the series, Untangling the Web, is due out next month. Krotoski has a PhD in social psychology from the University of Surrey, for a thesis which examined how information spreads around the social networks of the web. In February 2010, she presented The Virtual Revolution, a TV documentary series described by the BBC as ‘charting two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web, weighing up the huge benefits and the unforeseen downsides’. Followed by 20,000 on Twitter, she also presents the BBC Radio 4 series The Digital Human (back in October for a
When psychologists become builders 600 Jon Sutton investigates where Lego and psychology interact, with help from Uta Frith A look through the PRISM 604 David J. Cooke and Lorraine Johnstone on preventing violence in institutions
careers and psychologist appointments
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book reviews 608 time warped; evolutionary psychology; cyberbullying; British untouchables; and more
we talk to Jean Gross OBE and Tom Stafford; featured job; how to advertise; and all the latest vacancies new voices suppressed voices, neglected lives, by Romana Farooq in the latest of our articles from first-time authors
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society 614 international profile and more in the President’s column; guidance on the use of social media; honorary status in the Society; socially inclusive parenting; member engagement in Northern Ireland; forthcoming events; and more
looking back
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the 1920 ‘grand tour’ of Great Britain by American psychologist Walter Miles, recounted by C. James Goodwin one on one
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…with Ruby Bell
read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
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