-
Can’t Stop Worrying? Try Tetris To Ease Your Mind
If you've ever played Tetris — whether it was at an old-school Gameboy, or just on your iPhone — then you know: It's 8-bit enchantment. "Years of my life were lost disappearing into a game of Tetris on my Nintendo system," says Kate Sweeny, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside. But maybe the hours she spent lining those little blocks ("tetriminos") into perfect rows of 10 weren't a total waste. Her latest research suggests that Tetris can ease us through periods of anxiety by getting us to a blissfully engrossed mental state that psychologists call "flow." "The state of flow is one where you're completely absorbed or engaged in some kind of activity," Sweeny explains.
-
Voters’ Preexisting Opinions Shift to Align with Political Party Positions
The views expressed by political party leaders can change how individual voters feel about an issue, according to findings from a longitudinal study of voters in New Zealand.
-
New Research From Psychological Science
A sample of research exploring contingent attentional engagement, cooperation in chimpanzees, and the role of eye gaze in decision making.
-
People Link Body Shapes With Personality Traits
Our first impressions of the personality traits of people we’ve just met may depend on their body shape.
-
There’s a Downside to Attending an Academically Selective School, Study Says
When sending their children to school, parents will often aim for schools with high scores and challenging programs, but according to a new analysis of data from Project TALENT, selective schools with a higher average achievement level may actually exert a negative influence on students' long-term success. The nationally representative, longitudinal study of over 377,000 high school students found that while students who attend socioeconomically advantaged high schools tend to complete more schooling, earn higher annual incomes, and work in more prestigious jobs 11 and 50 years later, those who attend selective, high-achieving schools tend to experience the opposite.
-
How Children Learn to Recognize Faces
“I’m very, very good at recognizing faces,” said Kang Lee, a professor of applied psychology and human development at the University of Toronto, who studies the development of facial recognition skills in children. If he has met a person once, he said, he will recognize that person two or three years later. “One encounter for me is sufficient, my brain has encoded it.” But young children take years to master this skill. And this is a holiday season when we mess around with faces. For those just developing the ability to recognize faces, Halloween masks, costumes, fake noses, false beards, wigs and elaborate makeup present special challenges.
