Peer-reviewed Articles

Rusch, T., Han, Y., Liang, D., Hopkins, A. R., Lawrence, C. V., Maoz, U., … & COVID-Dynamic Team. (2023). COVID-Dynamic: A large-scale longitudinal study of socioemotional and behavioral change across the pandemic. Scientific Data, 10(1), 71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01901-6

Gavenas, J., Hieronymi, P., & Maoz, U. (2022). Diverging lay intuitions about concepts related to free will in arbitrary and deliberate decisions. Consciousness and Cognition, 106, 103434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2022.103434

Herzog, M. H., Schurger, A., & Doerig, A. (2022). First-person experience cannot rescue causal structure theories from the unfolding argument. Consciousness and Cognition, 98, 103261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103261

Liad Mudrik, Inbal Gur Arie, Yoni Amir, Yarden Shir, Pamela Hieronymi, Uri Maoz, Timothy O’Connor, Aaron Schurger, Manuel Vargas, Tillmann Vierkant, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Adina Roskies. (2022). Free will without consciousness?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.03.005

Liang, D., Frederick, D. A., Lledo, E. E., Rosenfield, N., Berardi, V., Linstead, E., & Maoz, U. (2022). Examining the utility of nonlinear machine learning approaches versus linear regression for predicting body image outcomes: The US Body Project I. Body Image, 41, 32-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.01.013

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Books

Casting Light on the Dark Side of Brain Imaging

Most people find colorful brain scans highly compelling—and yet, many experts don’t. This discrepancy begs the question: What can we learn from neuroimaging? Is brain information useful in fields such as psychiatry, law, or education? How do neuroscientists create brain activation maps and why do we admire them?
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Hypnosis and meditation

Research over the past decade has helped to demystify hypnosis and meditation, bringing these practices into the scientific and clinical mainstream. Yet, while hypnosis and meditation overlap on many levels, few scientific accounts have explored their complementary rapprochement. Despite cultural and historical differences, hypnosis and meditation share common phenomenology, cognitive processes, and potential therapeutic merits.
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Placebo Talks

Why do red placebos stimulate whereas blue placebos calm? Why do more placebos work better than few? And why do more expensive placebos work better than cheaper ones? These are some of the key questions that often come to mind when we consider the slippery and counterintuitive field of placebo science.
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The Psychology of Magic and the Magic of Psychology

Magicians have dazzled audiences for many centuries; however, few researchers have studied how, let alone why, most tricks work. The psychology of magic is a nascent field of research that examines the underlying mechanisms that conjurers use to achieve enchanting phenomena, including sensory illusions, misdirection of attention, and the appearance of mind-control and nuanced persuasion. Most studies to date have focused on either the psychological principles involved in watching and performing magic or “neuromagic” — the neural correlates of such phenomena. Whereas performers sometimes question the contributions that modern science may offer to the advancement of the magical arts, the history of magic reveals that scientific discovery often charts new territories for magicians. In this research topic we sketch out the symbiotic relationship between psychological science and the art of magic.
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How (not) to train the brain

Brain training is all the rage. Commercial and clinical initiatives capitalize on trailblazing interdisciplinary research that spans domains such as education, psychological and brain science, cognitive remediation, and mental health. Promotional materials boast that we can learn to think and respond faster, focus better, and control our emotions; companies and authors market techniques to boost memory, increase confidence, and overcome cognitive impairments.
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