Feast

"What happened in the basement of the psych building 40 years ago shocked the world. How do the guards, prisoners and researchers in the Stanford Prison Experiment feel about it now?" (Stanford Magazine). And catch Zimbardo, one of the guards, and a prisoner speaking to BBC Radio 4.

Why cities are like brains. Jason Goldman explains on his Thoughtful Animal blog. His post is part of a larger special issue of Scientific American, all about the science of cities, including plenty of psychology.

Get your diary out: more psychology at the One Culture festival of literature and arts at the Royal Society in October.

Also, this month, there's a show at the Edinburgh Fringe inspired by the amnesiac HM, plus a chance to meet neuroscientists who worked with HM, and who sliced up his brain (after he died, in 2008).

The proportion of scientific papers being retracted has increased sharply over recent years. Neuro-writer Jonah Lehrer reflects on why.

Even urban pockets of greenery can have a rejuvenating effect on well-being, says Wray Herbert for the Association for Psychological Science.

Some people are affected for longer than others by positive and negative events – what Alex Fradera for the Occupational Digest blog calls "Emotional Hangovers".

False confessions: "People have a strange and worrying tendency to admit to things they have not, in fact, done" says the Economist.

We've updated our round-up of the psych commentary on the English riots.

A new 2-part series on BBC Radio 4 explores human cultural and genetic evolution and how they interact (features Steve Pinker and others).

The contents of visual working memory can affect our perception of incoming sensory stimuli – says an intriguing post from Mo Costandi at his Neurophilosophy blog.

A hair-thin electronic skin that can monitor brain activity and enable remote computer control, plus lots more. Ed Yong on an exciting technological innovation.