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Test Flags Babies With Autism, But Also Feeds False Alarms
NPR: Pediatricians can use a five-minute questionnaire to identify many 1-year-olds with autism, according to a new study in Journal of Pediatrics. But the screening test also flags a whole lot of babies who aren't autistic. Even so, the result provides "an exciting proof of concept," says Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, in a statement. NIMH helped pay for the study. Read the whole story: NPR
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Ansteckende Erinnerungen
Süddeutsche Zeitung: Erinnerungen erscheinen dem Menschen mitunter so unverrückbar, als wären sie in Stein gemeißelt. Doch Erinnerungen leben. Sie verändern sich, wenn Menschen sie mit anderen teilen. Und manchmal sterben sie, weil jemand stirbt, der sie mit einem Lebenden teilt. Zu dieser Erkenntnis kam die Psychologin Suparna Rajaram vor einigen Jahren. Damals entdeckte sie den Mechanismus der ansteckenden Erinnerung an einem Pärchen: Einer der Partner litt an einer schweren Demenz - und mit dem Gedächtnisverlust des einen verlor auch der andere Partner seine Erinnerungen.
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The Science of Short Fuses: Joe Palca, Flora Lichtman, ‘Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us’ at Politics & Prose
The Express: This just in: People can be irritating. But did you know that there are scientific reasons that we get annoyed? In "Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us" ($26, Wiley), NPR science correspondents Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman explain why everyday things can drive you into a homicidal rage. Custom phone numbers that have too many letters, for instance. (No, 1-800-MATTRESS. You don't leave the last "s" off for "savings." You leave it off because you are OUT OF NUMBERS.) Ahead of the authors' talk Sunday at Politics and Prose, we asked Lichtman to shed some light on a few bugaboos that drive us up the wall.
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Alcohol, Mood and Me (Not You)
Thanks in part to studies that follow subjects for a long time, psychologists are learning more about differences between people. In a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the author describes how psychologists can use their data to learn about the different ways that people's minds work. Most psychology research is done by asking a big group of people the same questions at the same time.
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The Perils of Comparative Thinking
“I wept because I had no Porsche, and then I saw a man who had no BMW.” That’s an ancient proverb, slightly doctored for modern American sensibilities. The point is that, regardless of our life circumstances, we derive our happiness and our disappointment from comparisons with others’ fortunes. Indeed, the human brain seems to be perversely wired for relative judgments, even when the comparisons sabotage our well-being. Is there any way to avoid the comparison trap? It should be obvious that my successes or failures in life have nothing to do with you, nor do your troubles or good fortunes reflect on me. How can we make meaningful and helpful comparisons, while avoiding maladaptive ones?
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Taking Safety Personally
A year after the BP explosion and oil spill, those trying to find someone to blame are misguided, says psychological scientist E. Scott Geller, Alumni Distinguished professor at Virginia Tech, and author of a new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Geller has spent much of his 42-year career developing interventions to keep people safe, particularly helping companies develop a culture that promotes occupational safety.
