Thatcher’s Britain: : a new take on an old illusion

The Thatcher Illusion is generally discussed as a phenomenon related to face perception. Nonetheless, we show that compellingly strong Thatcher Effects can be elicited with nonface stimuli, provided that the stimulus set has a familiar standard configuration and a canonical view. Apparently, the Thatcher Illusion is not about faces, and nor is it about Thatcher. It just might, however, be about Britain

Interview with Elliott Johnston

Don Dunstan Oral History Project interview transcripts. Conditions of use: No conditions are imposed on the reuse of this transcript by the interviewee. However, further publication in full by others is not permitted without permission from the State Library of South Australia, and any partial use or quoting in research publications requires proper acknowledgement of the State Library of South Australia.Interview with Elliott Johnston (AO QC) by Rob Linn on 12th November 2004

Predicting population responses to environmental change from individual-level mechanisms: towards a standardized mechanistic approach

Animal populations will mediate the response of global biodiversity to environmental changes. Population models are thus important tools for both understanding and predicting animal responses to uncertain future conditions. Most approaches, however, are correlative and ignore the individual-level mechanisms that give rise to population dynamics. Here, we assess several existing population modelling approaches, and find limitations to both ‘correlative’ and ‘mechanistic’ models. We advocate the need for a standardised mechanistic approach for linking individual mechanisms (physiology, behaviour and evolution) to population dynamics in spatially explicit landscapes. Such an approach is potentially more flexible and informative than current population models. Key to realising this goal, however, is overcoming current data limitations, the development and testing of eco-evolutionary theory to represent interactions between individual mechanisms, and standardised multidimensional environmental change scenarios which incorporate multiple stressors. Such progress is essential in supporting environmental decisions in uncertain future conditions

Viewers base estimates of face matching accuracy on their own familiarity: Explaining the photo-ID paradox

Matching two different images of a face is a very easy task for familiar viewers, but much harder for unfamiliar viewers. Despite this, use of photo-ID is widespread, and people appear not to know how unreliable it is. We present a series of experiments investigating bias both when performing a matching task and when predicting other people’s performance. Participants saw pairs of faces and were asked to make a same/different judgement, after which they were asked to predict how well other people, unfamiliar with these faces, would perform. In four experiments we show different groups of participants familiar and unfamiliar faces, manipulating this in different ways: celebrities in experiments 1 to 3 and personally familiar faces in experiment 4. The results consistently show that people match images of familiar faces more accurately than unfamiliar faces. However, people also reliably predict that the faces they themselves know will be more accurately matched by different viewers. This bias is discussed in the context of current theoretical debates about face recognition, and we suggest that it may underlie the continued use of photo-ID, despite the availability of evidence about its unreliability

Psychiatry, subjectivity and emotion - deepening the medical model

Morale among psychiatrists continues to be seriously challenged in the face of recruitment difficulties, unfilled posts, diagnostic controversies, service reconfigurations and public criticism of psychiatric care, in addition to other difficulties. In this article, we argue that the positivist paradigm that continues to dominate British psychiatry has led to an undervaluing of subjectivity and of the role of emotions within psychiatric training and practice. Reintegrating the subjective perspective and promoting emotional awareness and reflection may go some way towards restoring faith in the psychiatric specialty

Using psychological theory to understand the clinical management of type 2 diabetes in Primary Care : a comparison across two European countries

Peer reviewedPublisher PD