Feast

• Why do we like scaring ourselves? The latest issue of The Psychologist magazine is online and has a cover feature on the lure of horror (free pdf), by Digest editor Christian Jarrett. Free digital preview of November issue. Full contents.

• The Royal Society has made all journal articles in its archive over 70-years-old free-to-access.

• Nobel laureate and psychologist Daniel Kahneman has a new book out “Thinking fast and slow” (excerpts). Review by Jonah Lehrer.

• Video gives advice on getting published in academic journals.

• Do you never forget a face? New mass-experiment at London’s Science Museum on the notion of super-recognisers.

• Teach yourself charisma – new post over at our off-spring title The BPS Occupational Digest.

• Can I borrow Mo’s keyboard? Guardian blogger and Digest contributor Mo Costandi with a lovely report on new research showing how golfers’ performance improves when they think they’re using an expert’s equipment (their perception of the size of the hole is affected too!).

• Book claims Sybil faked her multiple personalities.

• Digest friend and contributor Vaughan Bell with a balanced and illuminating review of Steve Pinker’s new book on the decline of violence.

• There’s still time to hear BBC Radio 4 get inside the mind of Steve Pinker on Life Scientific (on iPlayer). Pinker also says how he’d run the world in Prospect magazine. He was also on the Colbert Report (US viewers only).

• The Sound of Fear, on BBC iPlayer, explores scary sounds.

• Digest friend and contributor Wray Herbert with an intriguing report on new research showing that some decisions are made more effectively by older people relative to younger folk.

• Test Your Brain – TV series – continues on National Geographic Channel UK. Check the website for clips.

• Brace yourselves for a feast of Mind and Brain programming next month on BBC Radio Four.

• Inaugural podcast from the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

• Nearly forgot to say: The Memory Network has launched. “The Memory Network brings together researchers, authors and artists, and organisations to provoke and fuel original ways of thinking about memory.”

• Do you ever miss your phone? Maybe you have Misophonia. Sorry, my mistake, it’s a condition that has to do with being troubled by subtle sounds.

• The latest episode of the ever-popular Psychfiles podcast.

• Cartoon animation of fascinating lecture by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist on our divided brain.

• Last, but not least, there’s hope for us all: Scott Barry Kaufman debunks overly simplistic media reports that greatness depends more on working memory skill than practice. In fact, as his analysis shows, high working memory isn’t necessary for greatness. “So next time you see a study that says some ability is necessary for some form of greatness,” Kaufman says, “remember that this isn’t necessarily the case. You can personally get there, regardless of the group trend. After all, working memory is common, but greatness is rare.”

PS. Feast is the new name for our new regular round-up of psychology on the web (previously known as Morsels).