-
The Cost of Racial Bias in Economic Decisions
When financial gain depends on cooperation, we might expect that people would put aside their differences and focus on the bottom line. But new research suggests that people’s racial biases make them more likely to leave money on the table when a windfall is not split evenly between groups. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “It has been suggested that race bias in economic decisions may not occur in a market where discrimination is costly, but these findings provide the first evidence that this assumption is false,” explain psychological scientists Jennifer Kubota and Elizabeth Phelps of New York University.
-
Tip-of-the-Tongue Moments May be Benign
Despite the common fear that those annoying tip-of-the-tongue moments are signals of age-related memory decline, the two phenomena appear to be independent, according to findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
-
Veterans With Gulf War Illness Show Brain Changes Linked to Memory Deficits
New research illuminates definitive brain alterations in troops with Gulf War Illness (GWI) thought to result from the exposure to neurotoxic chemicals, including sarin gas, during the first Persian Gulf War. “More than 250,000 troops, or approximately 25% of those deployed during the first Persian Gulf War, have been diagnosed with Gulf War Illness (GWI). Although medical professionals have recognized the chronic and often disabling illness for almost two decades, brain changes that uniquely identify GWI have been elusive until now,” explained researcher Bart Rypma, principal investigator at the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas.
-
Brief Memory Test ‘Ages’ Older Adults
A simple memory test can have a noticeable impact on just how old some older adults feel, results from a cognitive study show.
-
New Research on Genetics and Intelligence
Read about the latest research on genetics and intelligence: Literacy and Numeracy Are More Heritable Than Intelligence in Primary School Yulia Kovas, Ivan Voronin, Andrey Kaydalov, Sergey B. Malykh, Philip S. Dale, and Robert Plomin Are literacy and numeracy less heritable than general cognitive ability? Monozygotic and dizygotic twins were assessed for literacy, numeracy, and general cognitive ability at ages 7, 9, and 12. Literacy and numeracy were found to be more heritable than general cognitive ability at ages 7 and 9 but not at age 12.
-
Genes May Predispose Some People to Focus on the Negative
New research finds that a previously known gene variant may predispose individuals to perceive emotional events — especially negative ones — more vividly than others. The new findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “This is the first study to find that this genetic variation can significantly affect how people see and experience the world,” says psychological scientist Rebecca Todd of the University of British Columbia.
