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Mimes Get Us to “See” Things That aren’t There
To explore how the mind processes the objects mimes seem to interact with, researchers brought the art of miming into the lab, concluding that invisible, implied surfaces are represented rapidly and automatically. The work appears in the journal Psychological Science. “Most of the time, we know which objects are around us because we can just see them directly. But what we explored here was how the mind automatically builds representations of objects that we can’t see at all but that we know must be there because of how they are affecting the world,” says senior author Chaz Firestone, an assistant professor who directs the university’s Perception & Mind Laboratory.
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The Mime And The Mind
When you watch a mime pull an invisible rope or run into an invisible wall you as the viewer are tricked into visualizing something that isn’t there. But is it all in the mime? Or does the mind play a role? Chaz Firestone, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University joins Ira to discuss his latest research on how the mind “helps” us see these invisible objects. ...
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Parents, Stop Talking About the ‘Lost Year’
They’re calling it a “lost year.” On and offline, parents are trading stories — poignant and painful — about all of the ways that they fear their middle schoolers are losing ground. ... They reason they’ll be fine is built right into the biology of early adolescence, explained Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University and the author of “Age of Opportunity,” the influential 2014 book on adolescent brain science. The fact that middle schoolers are going through a “critical period” of heightened brain flexibility, instability and plasticity, he said, means that they are hypersensitive and ultra-vulnerable — and also extra-primed for adaptability and resilience. ...
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The Pandemic Doesn’t Mean We Have to Choose between Physical and Mental Health
If you’re thinking about the COVID pandemic as an assault against physical health alone, you’ve got it all wrong. The statistics on illness and death are staggering—but there’s been an equally staggering toll exacted on our mental health. Nearly one third of Americans are experiencing symptoms of clinical depression or anxiety, and the Well Being Trust estimates we will suffer up to 150,000 additional deaths tied to the social isolation and economic stressors associated with COVID-19. In nonpandemic times, making choices that benefit both physical health and mental health was relatively straightforward, for these choices were often one and the same.
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Society’s Role in Covid’s Spread
Fareed gives his take on how varying degrees of tolerance for rules have influenced national responses to the pandemic across the world. ...
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Two APS Fellows Receive 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship
APS Fellows Mesmin Destin and Seth Pollak have received a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in psychology.
