Improbable Research

Prof. Dr. Marcel D. Waldinger of The Hague Leyenburg General Hospital, in The Netherlands, has “renamed [a] combination of complaints as he speaks of Restless Genital Syndrome.” Here are details:

Restless Genital Syndrome is a medical disorder that has been reported only in women. These women report weird sensations at the clitoris, vagina, labia and the region around the vagina, (such as on the pubic bone and the groins) and sometimes the anal region….

The weird sensations consist of tingling, itching-like and wave-like sensations, small shocks or cramps in or around the clitoris and vagina. Women usually experience a close to orgasm sensation as if they are on the verge on getting an orgasm.

Seasonal research brought to our attention by investigator Kristine Danowski:

“Another White Christmas: fantasy proneness and reports of ‘hallucinatory experiences’ in undergraduate students,” Harald Merckelbach and Vincent van de Ven, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, vol. 32, no. 3, September 2001, pp. 137-144.  The authors, at Maastricht University, in The Netherlands, report:

“44 undergraduate students were asked to listen to white noise and instructed to press a button when they believed hearing a recording of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas without this record actually being presented. Fourteen participants (32%) pressed the button at least once…. hallucinatory reports obtained during the White Christmas test [might] reflect a non-specific preference for odd items rather than schizophrenia-like, internal experiences.”

We have discovered what may be the world’s strangest collection of academic journals. Published by a shadowy entity, it suggests — at first glance, anyway — some kind of scam. But is there a scam, or not? If there is, what’s the point of it? If there’s not, same question. Maybe you can help us find the answers.

One journal is named Psychology. All its articles have been previously published elsewhere, some almost a decade ago — but nowhere is that mentioned. You can download the entire first issue. It contains four articles. Here are links to the originals of those articles, which are essentially identical to the versions in this new journal:

Bob Kentridge has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. He says:

I am a Reader in Psychology at Durham University in England. I have conducted research in many areas of psychology. My recent work has focussed on neuropsychological deficits of vision, in particular cerebral achromatopsia and blindsight and, more generally, the relationship between attention and awareness. Earlier in my career I published papers in the vitally important (literally) research area of Cricket and death – do left arm bowlers die younger than right-armers? When? Why? You should read the papers to find out. My hair has been feeling especially luxuriant and flowing of late so the time seemed right for the LFHCfS.

Bob Kentridge, Ph.D., LFHCfS
Reader in Psychology
Durham University
Durham, UK

Ig Nobel Prize-winning bra/facemask inventor Elena Bodnar explains and demonstrates, on Swiss TV’s “20 Minuten Online”, why size does not matter.

UPDATE: Dr. Bodnar will be appearing at the Improbable Research session at the AAAS Annual Meeting, in February in San Diego, and also on the Ig Nobel Tour of the UK, in March. Details will be posted on the Improbable events schedule.