Fidget spinners are everywhere, nowadays. My younger cousins adore theirs. They spent the better part of last Sunday night showing me tricks and the different kinds they have. Some even light up. Their streamlined motion, wide assortment of colors, and the clever tricks you can perform with them, have made them a noteworthy trend, if but a footnote in fashion history, along with the slap bracelet, sea monkeys, and Rubik's Cube. Theyre also making some folks rich. As of this month, fidget spinners are one of Amazons top 10 selling toys.

Florida inventor Catherine Hettinger created the first prototype back in 1993 to interact with her daughter, who is disabled. She patented her version in 1997. Unfortunately, no one picked it up. She tried to sell it as a therapeutic device for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, or autism. After years of trying, she gave up. That mightve been her tragic error.

Pretty soon, other models were on the market and last Christmas, the spinners really took off. Though first marketed to stressed-out adults, fidget spinners were soon adopted by the nations youth. Now, theyre all over elementary and middle schools, and giving teachers a headache. Ms. Hettinger isnt down and out about it. In fact, now age 62, she is currently crowdfunding her classic spinner. One wonders if shes missed the mark once again.

The original inventor may have missed out on a fortune. Getty Images.

Earlier this month, the fad began to sour, perhaps due to its pervasiveness. Or maybe science is now starting to catch up with the hyperbole. Dr. Mark Rappaport, at the University of Central Florida, in an interview with the Daily Mail, said that, rather than help a child with ADHD focus, using a spinner-like gadget is more likely to serve as a distraction.

Some schools are now banning them. In Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Florida, and England, schools have barred students from even having them on school property. In some places, the ban is school system-wide. So do fidget spinners actually help people to focus or are they merely a distraction?

Currently, there are no peer-reviewed studies that support or refute marketers claims. Preliminary research suggests that children with ADHD who are allowed to fidget or squeeze a stress ball, are better able to pay attention. Julie Schweitzer is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California-Davis. She says that a fidget spinner, in being so captivating, probably undermines any potential benefit gained by allowing a student to fidget with it.

They may be so much fun that instead of helping one focus, they add to distraction. Getty Images.

I have a lot of teacher friends who groan about these toys on their Facebook pages. Their top complaint is that they distract students from completing their assignments. Some alternatives have been offered to give kids a chance to fidget in a way thats less distracting to themselves and others.

Velcro on the desktop or allowing certain students to chew gum may work. Whats wrong with the fidgeting staples of my youth: pencils, erasers, and paperclips? Though advertisers are as smooth as ever, note that, theres no evidence that fidget spinners provide any therapeutic benefit, whether it be stress-busting, anxiety-squashing, or what-have-you.

Dr. David Anderson is a clinical psychologist and the senior director of the ADHD and Behavioral Disorders Center, at the Child Mind Institute, in New York. He told Money, Mental illness is difficult to treat, and its not something for which there are simple solutions. Most experts say a whole treatment plan should be fashioned to suit the particular needs of each child which may include: lifestyle changes, changes to the childs environment, therapy, and even medication. Fidget spinners may not be included. Sad.

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Can a Fidget Spinner Really Help You Focus? - Big Think

How Laws of Physics Govern Growth in Business and in Cities New York Times Mr. West's core argument is that the basic mathematical laws of physics governing growth in the physical world apply equally to biological, political and corporate organisms. On its face, his book's objective is to contribute to an overarching ...

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How Laws of Physics Govern Growth in Business and in Cities - New York Times

Sacramento Bee

Lodi senior earns 9 associate degrees, picks UC Davis over 11 others Sacramento Bee ... has earned associate degrees in the areas of arts and humanities, Spanish, teacher education preparation, business, retail management and merchandising, mathematics and science. He is adding degrees in social and behavioral science and business. and more »

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Lodi senior earns 9 associate degrees, picks UC Davis over 11 others - Sacramento Bee

Hundreds of people representing a broad spectrum of healthcare, research and technology converged on Duke University on May 24 and 25 for the Precision Medicine World Conference (PMWC). The gathering spotlighted the rapid growth of biomedical technologies spurring initiatives that enable the translation of precision medicine into direct improvements in healthcare.

The conference, co-hosted by Duke Health and Duke University, marked the first time the PMWC was held on the East Coast. This years theme was Translating the Power of Precision Technologies into Better Health Care. More than 30 sessions were held over the two days, featuring a total of more than 100 speakers from the healthcare and biotechnology sectors.

These types of conferences are critical for us to share information and harness the power of precision medicine to change health, said Mary Klotman, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine and vice chancellor for health affairs and dean-designate of the School of Medicine. This is an exciting revolution. Yet it also can be frustrating, because we know where were going eventually but its going take a lot of work and understanding of the science to get there.

Geoffrey Ginsburg, MD, PhD, director of Duke Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine and conference co-chair along with Chancellor Emeritus Ralph Snyderman, MD, said the meeting reflects a powerful convergence of important disciplines ranging from genome sciences and data sciences to information technology, tissue and genetic engineering, behavioral science, and immune and cancer biology.

That convergence is resulting in an unprecedented agenda that is driving precision medicine and research in ways that can impact both individual and population health, Ginsburg said.

Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), outlined NIHs All of Us precision medicine initiative to study the impact of genes and environment. The study hopes to enroll 32,000 volunteers by the end of 2017 and 1 million by 2022. The data it collects will be accessible to researchers.

This is a pretty exciting time to contemplate where we are in precision medicine and where we are going, said Collins. Collins later received a PMWC Luminary Award, which recognizes recent contributions of leaders who have accelerated personalized medicine into the clinical marketplace.

The conference was co-hostedby Ginsburg and Ralph Snyderman, MD, Chancellor Emeritus of Duke University and the James B. Duke Professor of Medicine.

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Duke Hosts Precision Medicine World Conference - Duke Today (blog)

The American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences (AABSS) holds an annual conference that brings together scholars from around the U.S. and abroad in order to presentscholarship related to a wide variety of contexts, including theory, practice, empirical research, and conceptual advancement.It is a juried conference, meaning that presentation proposals undergo peer-review prior to potential acceptance for presentation. We are in the 21stannual year and expect a robust conference with ample opportunities to exchangetheoretical ideas, share research results, help advance practice,make collaborative connections, and learn from one anothers scholarship.

21st Annual American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Conference

February 2627, 2018

Call for Papers

We invite submissions for potential presentation at this years AABSS conference from a broad range of topics related to the social and behavioral sciences. Strands may include empirical or theoretical scholarship as well as research methodology evaluation, meta-analyses, critical literature reviews, and topics related to applied practice that are grounded in scholarship. Where possible, topics will be grouped together for presentation within similar tracks.

Submit a proposal that includes a title, an abstract of not more than 150 words, and a summary that does not exceed more than 600 words. If the proposal is accepted for presentation, then the title and abstract will be included in the conference program.

Proposal Submission Deadline is November 19, 2017.

All presented papers are eligible for submission to theJournal of Behavioral and Social Sciences(JBSS),and all submitted papers will be peer-reviewed forpotential publication.

Location

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American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences

For decades, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have championed federal funding for research and development funding that provides incredible value for our nations health, economy, and security. Yet, the current White House is proposing a budget that would ignore R&Ds value, starve science, and hinder growth.

U.S. investments in scientific and engineering R&D have created millions of jobs in both the public and private sectors, improved state economies, and generated commercial growth. According to a Congressional Research Service report, scientists and engineers only account for about five percent of the nations workforce, but they still help create jobs across the rest of the workforce. Scientists discoveries and products extend far beyond the research laboratory, affecting people across the business sector from designers to builders to consumers.

We can be thankful that Congress understands the need to invest in biomedical research. Despite a proposal from the White House to cut the NIH budget by $1.23 billion for the remainder of 2017, Congress recently decided to invest an additional $2 billion in NIH programs.

When considering the 2018 budget proposal, Congress must continue to uphold and protect its bipartisan support for investment in basic and applied scientific research across all disciplines so that the U.S. can maintain its leadership.

Other countries recognize the enormous value of R&D and the foundation it lays for enhancing 21st century economic growth and global competitiveness. For example, from 2000-2013, Chinas investments in R&D grew 17 percent, South Koreas 8.3 percent, and Russias 8.2 percent, while the U.S. stagnated. There is a clear trend among global leaders that investing in R&D is a critical factor in determining a nations ability to grow its economy and help solve challenging problems.

For generations, U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have supported continued investment in basic and applied research because they witnessed and celebrated the profound and positive impacts that these investments have on our health, economy, and global leadership. Across every business industry and sector, investment in R&D provides clear opportunities for Americans and advances economic prosperity.

Because of federal funding for weather and environmental research, for example, business owners and farmers can make informed decisions that improve food security and benefit our agriculture sector. Funding for material and engineering sciences has improved energy sources, space exploration, and bridge and infrastructure, and enabled countless technologies and products now essential to modern lives. Social and behavioral science research has been critical to helping us respond effectively to disasters, enhance intelligence, and improve international relations.

Even our defense industry one of the few sectors to see increased investment under the White Houses budget proposal benefits tremendously from investments in science. Because of defense R&D, contractors can better supply our armed forces with technology and equipment that helps them deter emerging threats and protect our homeland. As an example, computer science R&D enables massive companies to solidify their cybersecurity infrastructures so that their business can flourish in an Internet economy.

Our country can explore and better understand the most efficient and effective ways to fight disease, expand agriculture, and foster economic prosperity, but we must continue to invest in science R&D to do so. We urge Congress not to sacrifice the nations future innovation, and to not cut R&D investments as the Presidents budget proposes. When government, science, and business sectors work together, millions of Americans and people around the world live healthier and more prosperous lives.

Rush Holt (D-N.J.) is the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), executive publisher of the Science family of journals, and a former Congressman from New Jersey.

Elias Zerhouni is president of global research and development at the Sanofi pharmaceutical company and former director of the National Institutes of Health.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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The president's budget proposal threatens science - The Hill (blog)

New York Times

Some Social Scientists Are Tired of Asking for Permission New York Times Students are the usual subjects in social science research made to play games, fill out questionnaires, look at pictures and otherwise provide data points for their professors' investigations into human behavior, cognition and perception. But who ...

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Some Social Scientists Are Tired of Asking for Permission - New York Times

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Western Wayne High School and Middle School students competed at the state meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science held May 14-16 at Penn State University, Main Campus. Representing the high school: Mallory Jablon received a first award for her research in behavioral science and was chosen as a Pennsylvania Science Talent Search award recipient. Kirstin Metschulat received a first award for her research in behavioral science. Darlene Black received a second award for her research in ecology. Caitlin Falloon served as a technician for the presentations. Representing the Middle School: Jamie Bryan received a first award for her research in behavioral science. Caydence Faatz received a second award for her research in zoology. From left: Jamie, Caydence, Kirstin, Caitlin, Darlene and Mallory.

Western Wayne High School and Middle School students competed at the state meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science held May 14-16 at Penn State University, Main Campus. Representing the high school: Mallory Jablon received a first award for her research in behavioral science and was chosen as a Pennsylvania Science Talent Search award recipient. Kirstin Metschulat received a first award for her research in behavioral science. Darlene Black received a second award for her research in ecology. Caitlin Falloon served as a technician for the presentations. Representing the middle school: Jamie Bryan received a first award for her research in behavioral science. Caydence Faatz received a second award for her research in zoology. From left: Jamie, Caydence, Kirstin, Caitlin, Darlene and Mallory.

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Western Wayne students participate in PJAS competition - News ... - Scranton Times-Tribune

Psychology is a broad social science that seeks to understand the physiological, emotional, and mental processes that drive and influence human behavior; it is also a profession that takes the scientific foundation of psychology and applies it to try to solve human problems. Some psychologists are scientists interested in basic questions about human behavior such as: "How do children develop a sense of morality?" "How does memory work?" "What predicts divorce?" "What makes some people happier than others?" "What treatments work best for Schizophrenia?" Others are practitioners who use the science of psychology to help individuals, families, and society by methods such as treating depression, helping couples, and families improve their relationships, and conducting mental health evaluations for the courts. The best part about psychology is that every single person that takes a class can apply what they learn to their own life. Psychologists work in a variety of settings including laboratories, hospitals, courtrooms, schools and universities, community health centers, prisons, and corporate offices. According to economists at the Department of Labor, opportunities for people with graduate degrees in Psychology are expected to grow between 10% and 20% by 2010.

1. Students will critically analyze quantitative data in order to draw empirically supported conclusions about human behaviors. 2. Students will write in a professional manner, defined as a mastery of the mechanics of basic writing, the conventions of professional writing (e.g., conforming to a publication style), and the ability to produce a coherent argument.

http://www.apa.org - American Psychological Association http://www.psychologicalscience.org - Association for Psychological Science http://careersinpsychology.org/ - Online resource for careers and degrees in psychology http://www.psychologycareercenter.org/ - Psychology Career Center http://www.counselor-license.com/ - Counselor License Requirements

View degree and Psychology emphasis requirements View Psychology course descriptions

Psychology Advisor (Student Last Names beginning with A - J) - Cindy Lau Phone: 801.863.8120 Office: CB 506F Click here to schedule an appointment

Psychology Advisor (Student Last Names beginning with K - Z) - April KirkPhone: 801.863.5347 Office: CB 506E Click here to schedule an appointment

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Behavioral Science - Psychology | Behavioral Science | Home

Utah Valley University in Orem has announced two new deans.

Steven Clark will replace David Yells as the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences after Yells left the university to become the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M Texarkana.

Clark has been the colleges interim dean since the first of the year.

Stephen Pullen will be the universitys next dean and artistic director of the School of Arts, effective July 1. He will replace K. Newell Dayley, who is retiring.

Clark intends to spend his first few months listening to individuals with UVUs different colleges and departments.

His appointment as dean of UVUs largest college was effective immediately. The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is made up of the behavioral science, communication, English and literature, history and political science, integrated studies, languages and cultures, and philosophy and humanities departments.

Clark has previously been a member and president of UVUs Faculty Senate, an associate dean for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and was the chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences. He joined UVUs staff in 2000 after spending time as an assistant professor at Lamar University and a lecturer at the University of New Hampshire.

While he said he does miss teaching as hes moved into administrative duties, hes also enjoyed the challenges the new positions have brought.

I enjoy teaching because you see in the students that they learn something new, but I also like the idea of working at the institutional level with systems and processes and making changes that will affect a lot more students than I can teach personally, Clark said.

Clark said hes supportive of UVU administration as it works with the Legislature for funds as the university grows.

One of his biggest priorities right now is also student success. Clark said he wants more students to be involved on campus and be engaged with the community and their courses. That can be difficult, especially on a commuter campus where many students are nontraditional, work full-time or have children.

He said he recently had a dinner with students who said getting involved, whether it was in student government, in a club or in a research experience, made a difference to him.

It was like a transformative experience to get really involved and not just go back and forth between their classroom and their apartment and work, Clark said.

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UVU's largest college appoints a new dean - Daily Herald

In 2003, I wrote my first analytics package. I had the same problem all marketers had: I could do almost anything with digital marketing. I could easily create ads, pages and emails with any text, any font, any image. I could add video, animations, and even make aliens dance to sell car insurance. But how could I know which would work best for me?

Big e-commerce sites had access to sophisticated analytics packages costing thousands of dollars a month. Not me. I was spending about a quarter of my time evolving the code I wrote. I eventually released it to SourceForge as Open Source Online Marketing, or OSOM.

Then, in 2005, Google launched Google Analytics. Overnight, managing my analytics setup took just a fraction of my time. And it was free. This was my first experience of Moores Law in the world of behavioral data.

Apparently, we cant shake Moores Law, not even those of us in the marketing and advertising game.

It is now cheaper to create and use behavioral data than it is not to.

Quick grounding: Moores Law was originally defined in a 1965 paper by Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. It states, roughly, that the number of transistors you could fit onto a silicon chip would double every two years. In the semiconductor world, this also meant the cost of electronics would drop by half.

Moore was talking about microchips, but what about the devices that these chips power?

In his new book, Thank You for Being Late, Thomas L. Friedman identifies several technologies that have ridden Moores Law, changing everything from wealth distribution to where we live we being everyone on the globe. Think about the ready availability of inexpensive cloud storage. Think about the proliferation of sensors, many in our phones, that track epidemics or allow Waze to route us around traffic.

Friedman presents evidence that 2007 was the year that all of these trends came together, creating a supernova of change and innovation. Its now 2017, and marketing has not been left out of this radical shift.

We dont have to look at Scott Brinkers Marketing Technology Landscape to know that marketing departments are inundated with new technologies at an astounding rate, from 150 companies in 2011 to nearly 5,000 in 2017.

(Click to enlarge.)

I recently spoke with Joey Goldberg of Sticky, a company that offers eye-tracking and emotion-tracking services through the use of everyday webcams. Whats the amazing technology breakthrough that allows Sticky to track our eyes and measure our expressions without expensive infrared cameras? Its the proliferation of HD-resolution cameras. The stock webcams shipped with most laptops are of such high quality that we can track the minute movements of a persons eyes with them.

In 2012, our agency, Conversion Sciences, did an eye-tracking study to see what kinds of video would be most effective on business websites. It required an expensive camera, some sophisticated software and a couple of weeks work compiling all of the results. We recruited 22 visitors to come to our facility, then spent two days watching them view our videos. The results were very helpful.

Today, companies like Sticky can easily put 100 people in front of a video, an ad or a landing page in just a couple of days, delivering amazing reports right to our desktops. We dont even have to leave our desks. Webcam technology followed Moores Law, and the marketing solutions followed suit.

For a recent presentation, I documented nine kinds of behavioral studies a marketer could do building just one landing page, all at a low cost and without leaving their desk. These tests include AdWords data, email performance data, preference testing from sites like UsabilityHub, heatmap data from businesses like Crazy Egg and Hotjar, and AI-driven session recording from SessionCam. We are collecting qualitative data from the likes of Qualaroo and UserTesting. And we cant forget the power of AB testing tools.

Get used to it.

This is my new mantra: It is now cheaper to create and use behavioral data than it is not to.

The opportunity cost of websites, ads and email campaigns that return mediocre results is too high.

Marketing has accelerated. The cost of launch and see is now higher than the cost of the tools and time needed to test campaigns during development. The opportunity cost of websites, ads and email campaigns that return mediocre results is too high. With inexpensive behavioral tools, we can now launch campaigns with confidence.

The real boon in all of this is for business owners, product managers, product marketing managers and P&L (profit and loss) managers. No longer is this kind of data the strict domain of UX designers.

Weve used behavior data to determine the most profitable pricing mix for Automatic. Weve used it to provide redesign insurance for companies like Wasp Barcode. Weve used it to determine if using Amazon is as profitable as using a Shopify cart.

These are the tools of what has been called growth hacking. But they are no longer mysterious tools of marketing research firms. They are now a part of every managers arsenal.

Behavioral marketing is no longer someone elses job.

Big companies use big data to gain an advantage. Yet the quality of your data doesnt determine the success of your business anymore. It is the quality of your questions because we can now answer almost any question you have with behavioral science driven by Moores Law.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily MarTech Today. Staff authors are listed here.

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The effect of Moore's Law on behavioral marketing - MarTech Today