academic articles summaries

Lauren Flatt
COMP 106
October 12, 2009
Academic Article Summaries

I always found psychology to be very interesting. I think that to study how and why people do the things they do is one of the most fascinating things a person can learn. Within psychology, there is a lot to learn about such as behavior, development, cognition, relationships with ourselves, others and more. That is why I plan to change my studies major to psychology, I feel I truly connect with that field.
My first article is titled “What did Triplett really find? A Contemporary Analysis of the First Experiment in Social Psychology” by Michael J. Strube of Washington University. It was published in the American Journal of Psychology in the Summer of 2005.
This article talks about the dynamics in pace making and competition based on Norman Triplett’s first experiment in social and sports psychology. What he did was observe the Racing Board of the League of American Wheelmen and noticed that paced and competitive races had an effect on performance speed and in this he described a number of explanations for why this performance occurs. He explained that the first competitor gets the energy and stimulation from the second competitor’s presence which will make the competitor move faster. Triplett conducted studies and experimented on different groups of people and his data now represents the research on audience and co- actor effects. What was concluded is that an audience’s presence actually increases the arousal in the actor to perform well and therefore he will make a better performance. Triplett was very smart and creative and laid the groundwork for the latter research that followed his first experiment.
The second article that struck my attention is titled “The Howard Crosby Warren Medal: Psychology’s First Award” by David B. Baker from the University of Akron and Kevin T. Mahoney from Slippery Rock University. It was published in the Fall of 2005 in the American Journal of Psychology.
This article talks about the first major award given in Psychology called the “Howard Crosby Warren Medal.” Howard Crosby Warren was a man born in the 1860’s that attended Princeton University with an interest in psychology and later spent his career there as a chair member of the psychology department.
This award was given in 1936 to two young Princeton psychologists named Earnest G. Wever and Charles W. Bray. These two men conducted research on auditory nerve responses in insects, reptiles, and mammals. This award given was exceptionally interesting because there was psychology behind the award given for psychology. The reason for this award being issued was to increase the respect of men of science and to bring attention towards the importance of it. The Howard Crosby Warren Medal truly honors the excellence in psychological science.
My last article is titled “Comparison of the Efficacy of Two Name- Learning Techniques: Expanding Rehearsal and Name-Face Imagery” by Jeffrey S. Neuschatz and Elizabeth L. Preston of University of Alabama, Michael P. Toglia of State Univeristy of New York at Cortland and Joseph S. Neuschatz of Roger Williams University. It was published in the 2005 edition of the American Journal of Psychology.
I found this interesting because it talks about two different name learning techniques. One technique is known as the expanding rehearsal technique and the other is known as name- face imagery. Sometimes I have a very difficult time remembering names but I could always remember a face. I thought it was just me but since reading this article, I see that this is common with most people. An experiment was conducted on regular middle-aged people to go to a social function and attempt to remember people’s names. The goal of this article was to compare the effectiveness of strategies used on testing different people’s ability to retain names and faces over a long period of time. I also learned from this article an interesting fact, that one of the areas of memory that gives adults the most difficulty is name learning. From the experiment done, we conclude that out of the two name learning techniques, there is a better long term memory in the expanding rehearsal condition.
I felt that these three articles that I chose: “What Did Triplett Really Find? A Contemporary Analysis of the First Experiment in Social Psychology”, “The Howard Crosby Warren Medal: Psychology’s First Award”, and “Comparison of the Efficacy of Two Name- Learning Techniques: Expanding Rehearsal and Name- Face Imagery” were three diverse articles all having to do with Psychology because they covered different topics within the study of psychology. These articles were slightly difficult for me to understand but were definitely interesting and I learned a lot from reading them.