I used to teach introductory psychology. As I skimmed introductory psych texts, I could sense the disinterest that almost all the authors of these books had for my field — experimental psychology. Pavlov, memory — that was boring. What did that stuff have to do with everyday life? the authors seemed to be saying.
The Shangri-La Diet was built on thousands of experiments about Pavlovian learning. Empirical generalizations from that data helped me make the mental jump from experiments by Israel Ramirez to a new theory of weight control. A conceptual understanding of Pavlovian learning (what makes an association weak or strong) allowed me to use the new theory to find new ways of losing weight. Suddenly that boring stuff was relevant.
My omega-3 findings (such as this), if they hold up, would do the same thing for two other areas of experimental psychology. The experimental designs I use, such as ABA, are straight from Skinnerian psychology. Although I am now measuring my balance — not part of experimental psychology — my guess is that most of the measurements will eventually be more “mental.” I assume that omega-3s improve my whole brain, not just the balance-related part. Experimental psychologists have spent 100 years developing simple and effective measures of many mental functions; all that measurement work should help us figure out how much omega-3 and omega-6 we should consume. Too little omega-3 and too much omega-6 appear to cause a vast range of health problems, including the most serious. The problem is that it is extremely hard to measure the functioning of our immune system or our circulatory system or most other parts of our body. It is even hard to measure how well our mood-regulating system is working. (Too little omega-3 appears to increase the risk of bipolar disorder.) It is much easier to measure memory.
Experimental psychology can be divided into two parts — human (Part A) and animal (Part B). Part B can be subdivided into B1 (Skinnerian) and B2 (associative learning). Part B2 can be subdivided into B21 (Pavlovian learning) and B22 (instrumental learning). If you know the field you know these are the natural divisions. All my mainstream work has been in B22. I have managed (or hope to manage) to show the relevance of every area of experimental psychology except my own. Curious.