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Peer Review

Mind Hacks - Neuroscience and psychology news and views

Reviewed:
Feb 18, 2023 by Psychology
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.8 stars
Content Quality: 4.8 stars
Effectiveness: 5.0 stars
Ease of Use: 4.8 stars
Overview:

The Mind Hacks blog is a virtual accompaniment to Tom Stafford's and Matt Webb's book by the same name. A well-populated collection of "neuroscience news and views" from 2004 to present day, the blog presents demonstrations and opportunities for new learning about the workings of the brain. The blog's landing page links out to additional individual blogs that cover a wide variety of topics in psychology. 

  •   A link to the Mind Hacks book can be found here. Mind Hacks
Type of Material:

Collection (Blog)

Recommended Uses:

 

  • Pedagogically, the blog would be useful for students to search topics related to their classes in Psychology (e.g., Neuroscience, Sensation and Perception). The blog articles can be used to promote class discussion or can be applied as part of an assignment.
  • Students could explore topics individually or as a group. In particular, it may be useful to have students explore the linked-out resources that are helpfully provided by the authors of this site. 
Technical Requirements:

None.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Learners/visitors will read about (and experience) various neuropsychological effects and phenomena. (The blog articles provide substantial explanation and critique.)

Target Student Population:

College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

 

  • Much of the content is mid-level undergraduate in psychology; therefore, at minimum a basic understanding of introductory psychology would be useful for better understanding the materials presented on the various topics. 
  • A basic understanding of research in psychology would be helpful but not required.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

 

  • The topics included are all quite interesting and relevant to conversations and research within the field of psychology. The link-outs are helpful and could be used by students and faculty alike. 
  • Blogs include active links and sources to many topics related to psychology and neuroscience.
  • The site is exactly what it claims to be – news and views.
Concerns:

 

  • It is not immediately clear how a user is to search for content. The search box does not seem to return items that are related in the way one might expect. A beneficial approach would be to use key words within the blog articles (2004 and forward) to categorize topics. In testing the search function, key words did not always return successful searches. 

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

 

  • This is a long-running blog dating back to November 2004. Topics are readily and easily assigned across various classes in psychology and social science coursework. 
  • Blogs are concise and to the point. 
  • The pages are simple and clean (without advertising) and feature links the authors find interesting.
  • The blog article present explanation and critique (vs. "telling" the reader what to believe).  
Concerns:

None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

 

  • The blog runs on a web browser, is easy to use, and includes a search feature.  
  • The topics are excellent, and the details and link-outs are helpful across a wide variety of topics in psychology. Many of the discussions are relevant in today's interactive society as there are connections to Twitter posts, other authors' blogs and articles, and more, making the content interactive and interesting to students. 
Concerns:

 

  • This site could be improved fairly easily by embedding navigation into recent posts and other topics (perhaps by year, rather than by month dating back to 2004) at the top of the page. Given the current construction of the homepage, it would be somewhat challenging for a faculty member to direct a student on how to locate an individual item (from the homepage). Adding navigation at the top is a more traditional method of navigation location, and this approach would assist all users with navigation to other materials from the homepage. 
Other Issues and Comments:

Tom Stafford and Matt Webb, who wrote the book Mind Hacks, run the blogs on this site. 

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