-
Pitchers Bean More Batters in the Heat of the Summer
Pitchers’ temperatures — and tempers — seem to flare when the thermometer tops 90 degrees, research shows.
-
Sleep Deprivation May Encourage Risky Decisions
Bloomberg (HealthDay): Sleep deprivation may lead to overly optimistic thinking that fails to properly consider the potential consequences of financial risks, a new study suggests. Duke University researchers assessed the effects of sleep deprivation on 29 adult volunteers who were asked to take part in several economic decision-making tasks in the morning after a normal night of sleep and again one morning after a night of sleep deprivation. Read the whole story: Bloomberg (HealthDay)
-
The Visual Side of Pain
The Wall Street Journal: Perceptions of pain can be changed by distorting the view of the affected body part, a new study finds, opening a fresh window onto the psychological side of pain. Researchers affixed a heat-producing device to the left index fingers of 18 volunteers. A mirror was set up so that when the subjects looked toward their left hand what they saw was really a reflection of their right hand. (To complete the effect, the right index finger got its own non-functioning thermode.) Then they started turning up the heat, slowly. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
-
Push It Back
When an alcoholic sees a drink, it’s hard to resist the impulsive response to approach it. Turning that impulse to grab it into an impulse to avoid it may help. A study published in Psychological Science found that a new cognitive-bias modification (CBM) treatment involving approach-avoidance tasks may help alcoholics stay abstinent from drinking. Alcoholic volunteers were trained to push away pictures of alcoholic drinks. When tested a week later, their approach bias for alcohol had changed to avoidance bias, compared to the control group that showed no such changes.
-
Experts – lots of them – weigh in on Charlie Sheen
The Washington Post: Like the sight of relief workers pouring into devastated areas, nothing so heartens reporters chronicling the gut-wrenching story of a Hollywood celebrity crackup as the sight of e-mails streaming in to offer unsolicited assistance in the form of easy quotes from academics, lawyers, and other aspiring talking heads. Read the whole story: The Washington Post
-
More Reasons to Be Nice: It’s Less Work for Everyone
A polite act shows respect. But a new study of a common etiquette—holding a door for someone—suggests that courtesy may have a more practical, though unconscious, shared motivation: to reduce the work for those involved. The research, by Joseph P. Santamaria and David A. Rosenbaum of Pennsylvania State University, is the first to combine two fields of study ordinarily considered unrelated: altruism and motor control. It is to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
