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Getting to The Heart of The Appeal of Videogames
San Francisco Chronicle: People spend 3 billion hours a week playing videogames but little is known scientifically about why they are actually fun in the first place. The vast majority of research into videogames has concentrated on the possible harmful effects of playing videogames, ignoring the simple question of why people actually want to play them. But new research led by scientists at the University of Essex sheds some light on the appeal of videogames and why millions of people around the world find playing them so much fun.
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The Role of Mirror Neurons in Human Behavior
U.S. News & World Report: We are all familiar with the phrase “monkey see, monkey do”—but have we actually thought about what it means? Over the last two decades, neuroscience research has been investigating whether this popular saying has a real basis in human behavior. Over twenty years ago, a team of scientists, led by Giacomo Rizzolatti at the University of Parma, discovered special brain cells, called mirror neurons, in monkeys. These cells appeared to be activated both when the monkey did something itself and when the monkey simply watched another monkey do the same thing. The function of such mirror neurons in humans has since become a hot topic.
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Your memory is not as powerful as you think
MSNBC: A significant number of Americans believe that memory is more powerful, objective and reliable than it actually is, a new survey finds. Some memory myths are so pervasive that up to 83 percent of people believe them. The survey, published online today (Aug. 3) in the journal PLoS ONE, queried a nationally representative sample of 1,500 Americans about a variety of common beliefs about memory. The survey found that almost two-thirds of Americans believe that memory works like a video camera, accurately recording events for later review.
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Will Pets Give You Good Health and Longevity?
Yahoo Taiwan: （法新社華盛頓3日電） 長期以來，寵物飼主被洗腦認為，比起沒養寵物者，自己更快樂、健康又長壽，但美國最新研究指出，這些飼主可能只是「自我感覺良好」。 西卡羅來納大學（Western Carolina University）心理學教授赫佐格 （Howard Herzog）表示，過去針對飼養寵物能否促進健康和長壽的研究，卻發現「夾雜衝突性結果」。 赫佐格在8月號「心理科學最新指南」（Current Directions in Psychological Science）中指出：「無庸置疑，飼養寵物對部分民眾有益，但『養寵物的人比沒養寵物者還健康、快樂或更長壽』的論述，缺乏充足佐證。」 阅读更多/Read more: Yahoo Taiwan
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A Bias Against Creativity?
Vincent Van Gogh may be the most famous unappreciated artist of all time. Indeed, he was a failed painter, selling only two of his more than 2000 works during his lifetime. Yet his vibrant post-Impressionist style would influence generations of painters to come, and nowadays few would dispute his creative genius. His Portrait of Dr. Gachet sold some years ago for $82.5 million. Van Gogh is in good company. El Greco was scorned by critics, and Johannes Vermeer died in obscurity. Similarly, the writers Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe and Franz Kafka—all innovators—received little in the way of honors or recognition in their own eras. This is a puzzle.
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Getting to The Heart of The Appeal of Videogames
People spend 3 billion hours a week playing videogames but little is known scientifically about why they are actually fun in the first place. The vast majority of research into videogames has concentrated on the possible harmful effects of playing videogames, ignoring the simple question of why people actually want to play them. But new research led by scientists at the University of Essex sheds some light on the appeal of videogames and why millions of people around the world find playing them so much fun. The study investigated the idea that many people enjoy playing videogames because it gives them the chance to “try on” characteristics which they would like to have as their ideal self.
