-
Be It Numbers or Words – The Structure of Our Language Remains the Same
It is one of the wonders of language: We cannot possibly anticipate or memorize every potential word, phrase, or sentence. Yet we have no trouble constructing and understanding myriads of novel utterances every day. How do we do it? Linguists say we naturally and unconsciously employ abstract rules—syntax. How abstract is language? What is the nature of these abstract representations? And do the same rules travel among realms of cognition? A new study exploring these questions—by psychologists Christoph Scheepers, Catherine J.
-
Using Your Brain to Get Smarter
We may inherit a good deal of our intelligence, but that doesn't mean a person can't get any smarter. That is the upshot of the ongoing cognitive research presented by John Jonides of the University of Michigan during the William James Fellow Award Address this morning at the APS 23rd Annual Convention. "Fluid intelligence is often thought to be highly heritable, and some people draw the conclusion that it is immutable, and I hope to disabuse you of that idea today," Jonides said.
-
Do We Dare to Change America’s Diet?
In his Bring the Family Address at the APS 23rd Annual Convention, Kelly D. Brownell of Yale University charged convention-goers to ask themselves whether we have the courage necessary to change America’s diet. Brownell, a psychological scientist and Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale, argued that this courage is essential because of the many obstacles – including powerful economic forces – that stand in the way of promoting health in the United States. Over the last 25 years, the rate of obesity has risen dramatically in the United States.
-
Attention and Awareness Aren’t The Same
Paying attention to something and being aware of it seem like the same thing -they both involve somehow knowing the thing is there. However, a new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that these are actually separate; your brain can pay attention to something without you being aware that it’s there. “We wanted to ask, can things attract your attention even when you don’t see them at all?” says Po-Jang Hsieh, of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore and MIT. He co-wrote the study with Jaron T. Colas and Nancy Kanwisher of MIT.
-
Facebook spreads emotions among friends
San Jose Mercury News: Next time you feel like broadcasting some gloomy tale of woe on Facebook, you might want to think twice. Your friends could catch your feelings. Psychologists have long known that emotions, just like germs, are contagious. People exposed to a person experiencing strong emotions may experience similar feelings, catching them through facial expressions, tones of voice or some other means. But now there is a new means of transmission -- social media. Facebook data scientist Adam D.I.
-
Depression linked to negative thoughts
Times of India: A new study has revealed that people suffering from depression get stuck on bad thoughts because they're unable to turn their attention away. Such people keep brooding over a fight with a friend, a divorce or the loss of a parent. Though a majority of the population is able to pull out of the negative thoughts caused by these situations, some fail to do so. This leads them to develop major depression. "They basically get stuck in a mindset where they relive what happened to them over and over again," said Jutta Joormann of the University of Miami. Read more: Times of India