Posts tagged as:

Psychology

What’s new with this blog

by Andy DeSoto on May 27, 2008

Although things may seem quiet on the surface of www.andydesoto.com, I’ve been busy over the last week and a half implementing a bunch of improvements and changes to better suit the aims and reach of this site.  If you’re a new reader of the blog, or have dropped by once or twice already, here’s a list of some of the more notable new features:

  • Thanks to some gentle prodding by friend and frequent commenter Heidi Cool, the index page here is finally valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.  Soon, all the pages on this site will fully support interoperability.
  • There’s now an iPhone and iPod Touch compatible version of this site, thanks to BraveNewCode’s wpTouch plugin.  Revisit the site with one of these devices to enjoy the saucy Apple styling!
  • This site features two new pages: the Stream tab, which features all of my recent web activity; and the Live tab, which is linked to my Yahoo! Live account for when I’m video streaming, a feature I hope to take more advantage of in the future.  The Calendar page has been taken off the front page since it’s not as relevant in the summer.
  • As this site’s scope is pretty large, chances are good you might only be interested in one or two of the topics I write about.  To help with this, I’ve linked similar articles at the end of every post to ease navigation to related articles.  There may be content-specific feeds in the future, too.  Eventually.
  • I am now a member of ResearchBlogging.org, the premiere home for blogging about peer-reviewed science articles.  If you see a little “Blogging about Peer-Reviewed Research” icon on one of my psychology articles, you’ll know it’s serious stuff.
  • Articles on this site are now integrated with FriendFeed, the popular aggregator and social network.  You can leave or view FriendFeed comments for any of my articles, now– just take a look near the regular comment form on any post.

Hope you enjoy some of these changes!  As always, let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see new or changed on the site, just send me an e-mail or leave a comment.

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New theories of using nonverbal communication persuasively

by Andy DeSoto on May 20, 2008

When we attempt to persuade someone into giving us what we want, whether its a lucrative business deal, a better grade on an essay, or an extra cookie from the jar, we prefer to use as many tools at our disposal as possible to ensure success.  Recent research from psychologists Joseph Cesario and Tory Higgins equips us with a new implement to add to our persuasive arsenal: context-dependent nonverbal communication.  According to these researchers, the context in which one uses certain forms of nonverbal communication can be just as important as the type of communication used.

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Virginia Undergraduate Psychology Conference

by Andy DeSoto on April 20, 2008

This Thursday and Friday proved to be a whirlwind of activity as I traveled to Charlottesville for the University of Virginia’s Undergraduate Psychology Conference.  I had been planning to present on my sentence memory work for some time, but it was nice to be able to tag along with the folks in Psi Chi, also headed to the conference with faculty advisor Dr. Jeanine Stefanucci.

You can see my poster here (click), but make sure to hear the rest of the story after the cut!

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