THE READING ROOM
Notes on
the notes.
The research behind the field notes, one article to a card. The cards are filed by author, A to Z, the way a library would, with room for more as the reading grows.
HOUSE RULES
I. Cards are filed by first author, A to Z.
II. A number in the margin matches a small figure in a field note.
III. Where the evidence is mixed, the card says so.
EX LIBRIS
Hagoski
field notes on the human animal
FILED BY AUTHOR · A TO Z
⁂
THE CATALOG
Filed by author, A to Z
One card for each article, the way a library would keep them. The number in a card’s margin matches the small raised number in a field note, and the link beneath it goes back to that note.
HOW TO READ A CARD
AGN · 1966
Call number: the first author and the year.
No. 8 · NOTE 03 ↑
Cited on the homepage, with a link back.
WHAT IT FOUND
The finding, in plain words.
WORTH KNOWING
Limits, caveats and mixed evidence.
SUBJECTS
Topics, library style.
READ IT ↗
Opens the original source.
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Amtrak (2014)
Sound of silence: The Amtrak Quiet Car
Amtrak blog, November 2014
SUBJECTS
Rail travel · Noise · Etiquette
WHAT IT FOUND
Amtrak’s own account: in early 2000, regular commuters on an early-morning Philadelphia–Washington train, worn out by other riders’ phone calls, talked their conductor into keeping one car quiet. The idea spread quickly.
AMT
2014
A
Appleton, J. (1975)
The experience of landscape
London: John Wiley & Sons (book)
SUBJECTS
Landscape · Prospect and refuge · Aesthetics
WHAT IT FOUND
Proposed prospect-refuge theory: people are drawn to places where they can see out while staying sheltered, a preference he traced back to survival.
WORTH KNOWING
A 2016 review of the tests (Dosen & Ostwald) found the evidence inconsistent, which is why the homepage says “may.”
APP
1975
B
Brooks, A. W. (2014)
Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1144–1158
SUBJECTS
Anxiety · Performance · Reappraisal
WHAT IT FOUND
Across karaoke, public speaking and math tasks, people who reappraised anxiety as excitement, for example by saying “I am excited,” felt more excited, took more of an opportunity mindset and performed better than people who tried to calm down.
WORTH KNOWING
A 2025 direct replication of the speech study found the same boost in self-reported excitement but no difference in how observers rated the speeches. Feeling better is well supported; performing better, less so.
BRO
2014
E
Emberson, L. L., Lupyan, G., Goldstein, M. H. & Spivey, M. J. (2010)
Overheard cell-phone conversations: When less speech is more distracting
Psychological Science, 21(10), 1383–1388
SUBJECTS
Attention · Distraction · Mobile phones
WHAT IT FOUND
Overhearing one side of a phone call hurt performance on attention tasks; hearing both sides, or one person’s monologue, didn’t. Once muffled so the words couldn’t be made out, the half-conversation stopped distracting.
EMB
2010
A
Epley, N. & Schroeder, J. (2014)
Mistakenly seeking solitude
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1980–1999
SUBJECTS
Strangers · Conversation · Commuting
WHAT IT FOUND
Across nine experiments on Chicago trains and buses, in taxis and in a lab waiting room, people told to connect with a stranger had a more positive experience than people told to sit in solitude. Commuters asked beforehand predicted the reverse, largely because they underestimated how interested others would be in talking.
EPL
2014
H
Hirschauer, S. (2005)
On doing being a stranger: The practical constitution of civil inattention
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 35(1), 41–67
SUBJECTS
Public space · Strangers · Civil inattention
WHAT IT FOUND
A close study of elevator rides: how strangers place their bodies, avoid contact and look occupied, and how much quiet effort it takes to stay strangers in a small box.
WORTH KNOWING
See also Zuckerman, Miserandino & Bernieri (1983): about half of solo riders gave a fellow passenger one brief glance, then kept their eyes elsewhere.
HIR
2005
K
Kardas, M., Kumar, A. & Epley, N. (2022)
Overly shallow?: Miscalibrated expectations create a barrier to deeper conversation
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(3), 367–398
SUBJECTS
Conversation · Strangers · Forecasting
WHAT IT FOUND
In 12 experiments with more than 1,800 people, both shallow and deep conversations went better than expected, but people overestimated the awkwardness of deep ones most. When people had one of each, they had expected to prefer the shallow one and ended up preferring the deep one.
WORTH KNOWING
Not every comparison showed a clear difference in connection, and some deep talks were slightly more awkward than shallow ones. The steady finding is the forecasting error, not that deep always beats shallow.
KAR
2022
A
Kim, J. & de Dear, R. (2013)
Workspace satisfaction: The privacy-communication trade-off in open-plan offices
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 36, 18–26
SUBJECTS
Workplaces · Open-plan offices · Privacy
WHAT IT FOUND
In surveys of more than 42,000 office workers, people in private offices were the most satisfied. In open plans, noise and lost privacy outweighed any gain in easy interaction.
WORTH KNOWING
Behind the open-plan aside on the homepage. It measures satisfaction, not who chooses which desk.
KIM
2013
A
Kimes, S. E. & Robson, S. K. A. (2004)
The impact of restaurant table characteristics on meal duration and spending
Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 45(4), 333–346
SUBJECTS
Restaurants · Seating · Personal space
WHAT IT FOUND
Over 1,400 meals at one 210-seat restaurant, parties lingered at wall-side banquettes and finished faster at exposed tables in busy traffic areas.
WORTH KNOWING
One restaurant, so the authors treat the results as tentative.
KIM
2004
A
Kumar, A. & Epley, N. (2018)
Undervaluing gratitude: Expressers misunderstand the consequences of showing appreciation
Psychological Science, 29(9), 1423–1435
SUBJECTS
Gratitude · Relationships · Forecasting
WHAT IT FOUND
In three experiments, people wrote gratitude letters and predicted how recipients would react. Recipients felt more positive, more surprised by what the letter said and less awkward than writers predicted, and writers underestimated how warm and articulate their letters would seem.
KUM
2018
A
Kumar, A. & Epley, N. (2022)
A little good goes an unexpectedly long way: Underestimating the positive impact of kindness on recipients
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (published online 2022)
SUBJECTS
Kindness · Strangers · Generosity
WHAT IT FOUND
Across field and lab experiments, people who performed a random act of kindness consistently underestimated how good recipients would feel. In the park study, givers predicted a mood of 2.7 on a −5 to 5 scale; recipients reported 3.5. People who received a kindness were also more generous to a stranger afterward.
KUM
2022
L
Li, N. P., van Vugt, M. & Colarelli, S. M. (2018)
The evolutionary mismatch hypothesis: Implications for psychological science
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(1), 38–44
SUBJECTS
Evolutionary mismatch · Evolutionary psychology
WHAT IT FOUND
Minds evolved to handle the inputs of ancestral settings. Modern surroundings supply different ones, in new amounts and intensities, so responses that once helped can misfire.
LI
2018
A
LoBue, V. & DeLoache, J. S. (2008)
Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear-relevant stimuli by adults and young children
Psychological Science, 19(3), 284–289
SUBJECTS
Attention · Threat detection · Child development
WHAT IT FOUND
Preschoolers and adults, including the children’s own parents, picked out a snake among flowers, frogs or caterpillars faster than the reverse. People who didn’t fear snakes were just as quick.
WORTH KNOWING
It shows fast detection, not an inborn fear.
LOB
2008
M
Milkman, K. L., Beshears, J., Choi, J. J., Laibson, D. & Madrian, B. C. (2011)
Using implementation intentions prompts to enhance influenza vaccination rates
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(26), 10415–10420
SUBJECTS
Planning · Follow-through · Vaccination
WHAT IT FOUND
Among 3,272 employees, 33.1 percent of those who got a standard reminder were vaccinated. A prompt to write down a date added a non-significant 1.5 points; a prompt to write down a date and a time added a significant 4.2 points. The effect was largest where clinics ran only one day.
MIL
2011
A
Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A. & Volpp, K. G. M. (2014)
Holding the Hunger Games hostage at the gym: An evaluation of temptation bundling
Management Science, 60(2), 283–299
SUBJECTS
Habits · Exercise · Self-control
WHAT IT FOUND
People with gym-only access to tempting audiobooks visited the gym about 51 percent more often than a control group early in the study. Afterward, 61 percent chose to pay for gym-only access to audiobooks.
WORTH KNOWING
The effect faded over time and dropped sharply after the Thanksgiving break; a nudge for getting started, not a lasting habit by itself.
MIL
2014
N
Nesse, R. M. (2019)
The smoke detector principle: Signal detection and optimal defense regulation
Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2019(1), 1
SUBJECTS
Signal detection · Defenses · Evolutionary medicine
WHAT IT FOUND
When a false alarm is cheap and a miss is costly, the best-tuned defense goes off often. Plenty of false alarms is what a well-designed system should produce.
WORTH KNOWING
Also behind the “Got a minute?” aside on the homepage, which borrows the logic but hasn’t been tested.
NES
2019
R
Radvansky, G. A., Krawietz, S. A. & Tamplin, A. K. (2011)
Walking through doorways causes forgetting: Further explorations
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(8), 1632–1645
SUBJECTS
Memory · Event boundaries
WHAT IT FOUND
In virtual and real rooms, people remembered less about objects they had just handled after walking through a doorway than after walking the same distance inside one room.
WORTH KNOWING
Not settled: four 2021 experiments (McFadyen et al.) found no reliable doorway effect, except under extra memory load.
RAD
2011
A
Rattenborg, N. C., Amlaner, C. J. & Lima, S. L. (2000)
Behavioral, neurophysiological and evolutionary perspectives on unihemispheric sleep
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 24(8), 817–842
SUBJECTS
Sleep · Animal behavior · Vigilance
WHAT IT FOUND
Some animals sleep with one half of the brain while the other stays awake. Among mammals it turns up only in aquatic species such as dolphins; in birds it’s widespread and helps them watch for predators.
RAT
2000
A
Robson, S. K. A. (2009)
Build for comfort and for speed: Designing your dining room seating for maximum performance
Restaurant Startup & Growth, January 2009, 29–33
SUBJECTS
Restaurants · Seating · Design
WHAT IT FOUND
Asked to choose a restaurant table, people of many ages and backgrounds chose ones against a wall. Tables in the middle of the room were picked less than 2 percent of the time.
WORTH KNOWING
A trade-magazine summary of Cornell survey research, not a peer-reviewed paper.
ROB
2009
A
Roediger, H. L., III & Karpicke, J. D. (2006)
Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention
Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255
SUBJECTS
Memory · Learning · Retrieval practice
WHAT IT FOUND
Students who studied a prose passage and then practiced recalling it kept much more after a week than students who restudied it (about 61 vs. 40 percent in one experiment), even though restudying did better on a test five minutes later.
ROE
2006
T
Tamaki, M., Bang, J. W., Watanabe, T. & Sasaki, Y. (2016)
Night watch in one brain hemisphere during sleep associated with the first-night effect in humans
Current Biology, 26(9), 1190–1194
SUBJECTS
Sleep · Vigilance · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
On a first night in the lab, a network in the left hemisphere slept less deeply than its partner on the right, and odd sounds sent to that side woke people more often and faster. By the second night, the difference was gone.
WORTH KNOWING
“Night watch” is the authors’ reading. Only the first deep-sleep stretch of the night was measured.
TAM
2016
U
Ulrich, R. S. (1984)
View through a window may influence recovery from surgery
Science, 224(4647), 420–421
SUBJECTS
Nature · Hospitals · Recovery
WHAT IT FOUND
In records from one Pennsylvania hospital, gallbladder-surgery patients whose window looked onto trees went home sooner, drew fewer negative nurse notes and needed fewer strong painkillers than matched patients facing a brick wall.
WORTH KNOWING
23 matched pairs: influential, but small.
ULR
1984
W
Wardle, S. G., Taubert, J., Teichmann, L. & Baker, C. I. (2020)
Rapid and dynamic processing of face pareidolia in the human brain
Nature Communications, 11, 4518
SUBJECTS
Face perception · Pareidolia
WHAT IT FOUND
Brain recordings showed illusory faces in everyday objects get picked up almost as fast as real faces before being sorted out as objects. The authors read this as a face detector tuned to catch every face, at the price of false alarms.
WAR
2020
A
Wegner, D. M., Schneider, D. J., Carter, S. R. & White, T. L. (1987)
Paradoxical effects of thought suppression
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(1), 5–13
SUBJECTS
Thought suppression · Attention · Mental control
WHAT IT FOUND
People asked not to think of a white bear for five minutes rang a bell each time it came to mind, often more than once a minute, and thought of it even more afterward. In a second experiment, people given one specific alternative to focus on, a red Volkswagen, avoided that rebound.
WORTH KNOWING
The green tiger is the field note’s own stand-in; the original studies used a white bear, with a red Volkswagen as the substitute.
WEG
1987
A
Wenzlaff, R. M. & Bates, D. E. (2000)
The relative efficacy of concentration and suppression strategies of mental control
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(10), 1200–1212
SUBJECTS
Thought suppression · Concentration · Mental control
WHAT IT FOUND
People told to concentrate on a chosen line of thought, especially a positive one, showed neither the surge nor the later rebound of unwanted thoughts that suppression produced, even under mental load.
WEN
2000
A
Whillans, A. V., Dunn, E. W., Smeets, P., Bekkers, R. & Norton, M. I. (2017)
Buying time promotes happiness
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(32), 8523–8527
SUBJECTS
Time · Money · Well-being
WHAT IT FOUND
In surveys of more than 6,000 adults in the US, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands, spending money to buy free time went with greater life satisfaction, across incomes. In a field experiment, 60 working adults felt better after a $40 time-saving purchase than after a $40 material one. Only 2 percent of a separate group said they’d spend a windfall that way.
WORTH KNOWING
The causal evidence rests on one small experiment with a modest sum; the larger surveys show a link, not a cause.
WHI
2017
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966
A
Agnew, H. W., Webb, W. B. & Williams, R. L. (1966)
The first night effect: An EEG study of sleep
Psychophysiology, 2(3), 263–266
SUBJECTS
Sleep · First-night effect
WHAT IT FOUND
Over four nights in a sleep lab, 43 young adults woke more and got less REM sleep on the first night. By the second night, their sleep had largely settled.
AGN
1966