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What We Finally Got Around to Learning at the Procrastination Research Conference
The New York Times: The shuttle driver got lost on the way to the 10th Procrastination Research Conference, threatening to derail the schedule. Still by 9:20 a.m. last Thursday, the 60 or so attendees had already completed check-in at DePaul University, welcome remarks and the first of dozens of presentations. As they filed toward the coffee, their badges flashed their countries of origin — Germany, Turkey, Peru, India, Israel and Australia, among others. “I remember when I couldn’t get anyone to talk about procrastination. Look at us now,” said Joseph R. Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul and this year’s conference chairman, who has published four books on procrastination.
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The neuroscience of inequality: does poverty show up in children’s brains?
The Guardian: With its bright colours, anthropomorphic animal motif and nautical-themed puzzle play mat, Dr Kimberly Noble’s laboratory at Columbia University in New York looks like your typical day-care centre – save for the team of cognitive neuroscientists observing kids from behind a large two-way mirror. The Neurocognition, Early Experience and Development Lab is home to cutting-edge research on how poverty affects young brains, and I’ve come here to learn how Noble and her colleagues could soon definitively prove that growing up poor can keep a child’s brain from developing. Read the whole story: The Guardian
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There are 3 types of smile – reward, affiliation, dominance
Wired: There are three distinct types of smile, a new study has revealed. People switch between 'reward', 'affiliation' and 'dominance' smiles, using different facial muscle combinations to make them, according to researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ... "When distinguishing among smiles, both scientists and laypeople have tended to focus on true and false smiles," said Paula Niedenthal, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Read the whole story: Wired
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: What's Worth Talking About? Information Theory Reveals How Children Balance Informativeness and Ease of Production Colin Bannard, Marla Rosner, and Danielle Matthews Greenfield's principle of informativeness suggests that children comment on things they find uncommon or uncertain rather than on things that are constant or can be assumed. The researchers quantified this tendency by performing a series of experiments in which 3-year-old children heard an experimenter describe images using noun-adjective combinations (e.g., bumpy road, old woman). The adjectives differed in their informativeness and unexpectedness.
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Believing the Future Will Be Favorable May Prevent Action
Findings from a series of studies show that people tend to believe others will come around to their point of view over time, a trend that holds across various contexts and cultures.
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Turning Up the Heat on Prosocial Behavior
Studies dating back to the 1940s have shown that the temperature can shape emotions and perception.
