Thoughts on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Last weekend I saw the latest film in the Hunger Games series. I enjoyed it – always assuming that “enjoy” is the right verb to use for this kind of film. But before you read any further, I do have a...
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One term down, five to go
My first few weeks as a distance learner at Leicester have flown by, so with one term down and five to go, I feel that ought to let you know how I’ve been getting on. In hindsight, the first two weeks...
View ArticleThe Occupational Psychology of Open All Hours
One of the more enjoyable television highlights this Christmas was watching David Jason reprise his role as Granville in Still Open All Hours, which aired Boxing Day on BBC One. Open All Hours, with...
View ArticleThere’s gold in them thar hills
As I wrote just before Christmas, I’m now working my way through the second module of the Occupational Psychology MSc – Personnel Selection and Assessment. I also appear to be on track as far as my own...
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Random acts of kindness
Earlier on today I was in London on business. After my meetings had finished I made my way back to St. Pancras Station using the underground. Just as the train was about to leave, a man, dressed for...
View ArticleComing up for air
The problem with writing a blog, particularly when it concerns your study plans and ambitions, is that it creates hostages to fortune. For example, in December I wrote the following words: As an...
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Artificial Intelligence
I remember vividly when I first became interested in psychology. It was 1985 and I was a final year computer science undergraduate. One of the modules I took covered artificial intelligence and expert...
View ArticlePerformance appraisals
One of the constants of my working life has been the periodic need to submit to performance appraisals. It doesn’t matter where I’ve worked, the ‘a’ word has invariably come up at one point or another....
View ArticlePostgraduate focus week
Next week (18th – 21st March 2014) is postgraduate focus week at the University of Leicester. If you’re interested in finding out more about postgraduate study, you will be able to chat to staff and...
View ArticleFrom personnel selection and assessment to ergonomics
Last weekend saw me submit the second and final assignment for the Personnel Selection and Assessment (PSA) module. I can’t say that I’m sorry to see the end of this module (I’m not!), but I’m...
View ArticleOccupational psychology course conference – looking forward
I’m pleased to report that despite my struggles with the library website last weekend, the book I ordered duly turned up. Having just taken a quick peek it seems rather useful, so I suppose I’d better...
View ArticleThe myth of cognitive decline
Good news for those of us who have a few miles on the clock reaches my ears today from a study by Ramscar, Hendrix, Shaoul, Milin & Baayen. They argue that the commonly held belief that cognitive...
View ArticleOccupational psychology course conference – looking back
Before I talk a little about my experience of this year’s course conference, here’s my recommendation to future students: If you’re able to attend, then do so! It was a very interesting and useful two...
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Weird stuff I do on my course number 94 …
… spend a Saturday morning cleaning the inside of my car (for appearances sake, you understand) and then taking photographs of its controls and displays for an assignment I’m writing. I hadn’t noticed...
View ArticleFollowership
Now that the first Ergonomics module assignment is out of the way and I’ve made a reasonable start in planning how I’m going to tackle the second, my thoughts have turned to my main study task for...
View ArticlePassing the Turing test is an achievement – but the Lovelace test is terrifying!
Congratulations are due to the creators of Eugene Goostman, the first computer program to pass the “Turing test”. It’s a remarkably difficult thing to create a program that is able to imitate...
View ArticleGood news – OU psychology MSc courses to get a reboot in 2016
Good news reaches me from the Open University. After a gap of several years, the foreseeable future has arrived and there are now plans to offer three different masters qualifications in psychology...
View ArticleThe Psychology of Organising (myself)
Farewell ergonomics, hello dissertation proposal! At least, that’s what I started to write last Sunday evening, before realising that I also have Module 4 on The Psychology of Organising and two...
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An unexpected, but welcome present
Dear School of Psychology, Thank you very much for this unexpected, but very welcome present! I suppose I really do have no excuses left for not getting on with it now … This article was originally...
View ArticlePsychologists love electric shocks
The use (and pretend use) of electric shocks in psychological experiments has a long and disturbing pedigree. #117144602 / gettyimages.com Perhaps the most infamous (pretend) use of electric shocks are...
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