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You can pay attention without actually doing so
Times of India: But a new study has found that they are not inextricably linked as previously thought, and are actually two separate things, that is, 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? Po-Jang Hsieh, of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore and MIT, said. Hsieh co-wrote the study with Jaron T. Colas and Nancy Kanwisher of MIT. To test this, Hsieh and his colleagues came up with an experiment that used the phenomenon called visual pop-out. They set each participant up with a display that showed a different video to each eye.
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When the Melody Takes a Detour, the Science Begins
The New York Times: In the middle of a World Science Festival panel on Saturday night, the guitarist Pat Metheny took a sudden U-turn from the program he had planned. Instead of performing one of his innovative compositions, plucked from any of the phases of his career as a style-shifting jazz omnivore, Mr. Metheny, performing with the bassist Larry Grenadier, decided on the spot to play a jazz standard. And not just any jazz standard, but an especially ubiquitous one: "Autumn Leaves." Read more: The New York Times
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Why So Much Abuse Is Allowed to Continue in Residential Care
TIME: The stories are beyond horrifying: an autistic boy crushed to death by a "restraint" gone awry; a disabled woman's diaper pulled aside as she is raped; an elderly woman left to lie on a urine-soaked box spring for six days after being beaten. In two of the nation's largest states, major media investigations this spring revealed hellish conditions in institutions for the disabled: The New York Times exposed ongoing violations, including physical and psychological abuse, in state-run homes for the developmentally disabled, while the Miami Herald uncovered similar tales of maltreatment and neglect in assisted-living homes for the elderly. Read more: TIME
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The Psychology of Forgiveness
The Huffington Post: It was excruciating to watch Anthony Weiner, a U.S. Representative from New York, making public amends this week for tweeting lewd photos of himself to a young woman he didn't even know. He was clearly mortified -- at least his taut jaw and flat expression suggested that he was. But politicians are practiced at sending non-verbal messages, and Weiner was no doubt using every tool in his kit. Maybe he was just chagrined and upset at getting caught in such a foolish stunt. He hasn't won my trust back yet, and I'm guessing that others feel this way as well. Trust recovery -- apologizing, promising change, insisting we've changed -- is tricky business.
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I’m sorry. I’ve changed. I promise. Really.
It was excruciating to watch Anthony Weiner, the New York lawmaker, making public amends this week for tweeting lewd photos of himself to a young woman he didn’t even know. He was clearly mortified—at least his taut jaw and flat expression suggested that he was. But politicians are practiced at sending non-verbal messages, and Weiner was no doubt using every tool in his kit. Maybe he was just chagrined and upset at getting caught in such a foolish stunt. He hasn’t won my trust back yet, and I’m guessing that others feel this way as well. Trust recovery—apologizing, promising change, insisting we’ve changed—is tricky business.
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Virginity and Promiscuity: Evidence For the Very First Time
True Love Waits is a virginity pledge program, probably the largest of its kind. Started by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1993, it now claims more than 2.5 million members, teenagers and young adults who have promised to remain sexually “pure” until marriage. Many other virginity pledge programs have sprouted up since the ‘90s, and what’s more, state lawmakers have jumped on the abstinence bandwagon. Thirty-four states now require that abstinence be taught or emphasized in the school curricula, while only 15 mandate instruction in contraception.
