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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Edward Gibson, Steven T. Piantadosi, Kimberly Brink, Leon Bergen, Eunice Lim, and Rebecca Saxe Research has suggested that the default word order across languages is subject, object, then verb (SOV), so why have so many languages developed with a subject-verb-object (SVO) order? One explanation is the noisy-channel hypothesis, which supposes that individuals choose a speech pattern that gives the listener the best chance of understanding the original meaning of a message.
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Hong Kong Skyscrapers Appear to Fall in Real-World Illusion
No matter how we jump, roll, sit, or lie down, our brain manages to maintain a visual representation of the world that stays upright relative to the pull of gravity. But a new study of rider experiences on the Hong Kong Peak Tram, a popular tourist attraction, shows that specific features of the environment can dominate our perception of verticality, making skyscrapers appear to fall. The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The Hong Kong Peak Tram to Victoria Peak is a popular way to survey the Hong Kong skyline and millions of people ride the tram every year.
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Brain Can Plan Actions Toward Things the Eye Doesn’t See
People can plan strategic movements to several different targets at the same time, even when they see far fewer targets than are actually present, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. A team of researchers at the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario took advantage of a pictorial illusion -- known as the “connectedness illusion” -- that causes people to underestimate the number of targets they see. "The Connectedness Illusion": Connecting the circles creates the illusion of fewer circles on the right.
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Beliefs About Causes of Obesity May Impact Weight, Eating Behavior
People who indicated that diet was the primary cause of obesity actually had lower BMIs than those who implicated lack of exercise.
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2013 SRA and RISE Winners and Honorable Mentions
Student Research Award The APS Student Research Award (SRA) serves a dual purpose: to provide students with experience of the peer review process (both as submitters and reviewers) and to recognize outstanding research conducted by students. This year’s competition received 260 submissions, representing all areas of psychological science. The quality of submissions was exceptionally high, and competition was stiff. In response to record growth in the contest’s popularity over the last few years, this year’s contest featured a lengthier application process to provide additional information for our peer reviewers. Four overall winners and eight honorable mentions were selected.
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People Attribute Minds to Robots, Corpses That Are Targets of Harm
As Descartes famously noted, there’s no way to really know that another person has a mind -- every mind we observe is, in a sense, a mind we create. Now, new research suggests that victimization may be one condition that leads us to perceive minds in others, even in entities we don’t normally think of as having minds. This research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows that people attribute minds to entities they perceive as being targets of harm, even when the entity in question is a robot or a corpse.
