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NIH Funding Opportunity: Modeling Social Behavior
See full announcement for deadlines. The National Institutes of Health have announced a research project grant on Modeling Social Behavior, issued by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications for developing and testing innovative theories and computational, mathematical, or engineering approaches to deepen our understanding of complex social behavior. This research will examine phenomena at multiple scales to address the emergence of collective behaviors that arise from individual elements or parts of a system working together.
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Talking Directly to Toddlers Strengthens Their Language Skills
Just as young children need nourishing food to build physical strength, they also need linguistic nutrition for optimal development of language and cognitive abilities. New research from psychology researchers at Stanford University shows that by talking more to their toddler, parents help the child learn to process language more quickly, which accelerates vocabulary growth. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. It is well-known that socioeconomic status (SES) plays a role in language development.
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Learning New Skills Keeps an Aging Mind Sharp
Older adults are encouraged to stay active to keep their minds sharp. But new findings from a longitudinal study suggests that only demanding activities — such as learning photography — will benefit cognitive functioning.
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21st Annual RAND Summer Institute
21st Annual RAND Summer Institute, July 7-10, 2014, Santa Monica, CA. Two conferences addressing critical issues facing our aging population: Mini-Medical School for Social Scientists; Workshop on the Demography, Economics, Psychology, and Epidemiology of Aging. Interested researchers can apply for financial support covering travel and accommodations. More information and application form: www.rand.org/labor/aging/rsi.html.
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Big Salary Hikes Today Could Lead to a Psychological Fall Tomorrow
Think hefty merit raises, commissions, and bonus structures are the best motivators? Maybe not. Such remuneration schemes can actually backfire. Staff morale can take a big dive during lean times, when bonuses and raises are curtailed. Temporary declines in income—say, from lower sales commissions due to a business slowdown— have a much larger impact on our feeling of contentment than income gains of the same magnitude. A new study conducted in Europe demonstrates this.
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Adaptation to Faces and Voices: Unimodal, Cross-Modal, and Sex-Specific Effects Anthony C. Little, David R. Feinberg, Lisa M. DeBruine, and Benedict C. Jones Past research has shown that exposure to faces can alter subsequent perceptions of novel faces. The same adaptation effect has been shown for voices. In this study, the authors examined whether there is cross-modal adaptation between sound and visual stimuli. Participants' perception of female faces was assessed by having them rate the normality of masculinized or feminized faces.
