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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Social-Network Complexity in Humans Is Associated With the Neural Response to Social Information Sarah L. Dziura and James C. Thompson Research has suggested that with an increase in the complexity of humans' social groups comes a corresponding enhancement of the brain areas involved in social processing. Participants viewed point-light arrays displaying biological or scrambled motion while they were being scanned in an fMRI machine. Participants also completed a social network index that assessed the complexity of their social network.
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Positive Implicit Messages May Improve Older Adults’ Physical Functioning
Older adults who were exposed to positive stereotypes about aging without being aware of it showed improved physical functioning that lasted up to several weeks, according to research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. A team of researchers led by psychological scientist Becca Levy of the Yale School of Public Health used a novel intervention method to examine whether exposure to positive age stereotypes could weaken negative age stereotypes and their effects over time, and lead to healthier outcomes.
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Teens’ Science Interest Linked With Knowledge, but Only in Wealthier Nations
It seems logical that a student who is interested in science as an academic subject would also know a lot about science, but new findings show that this link depends on the overall wealth of the country that the teen calls home. The research suggests that individual science achievement may be influenced as much by broad national-level resources as it is by personal interest and motivation.
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Memories of Pain During Childbirth Tied to Intensity Rather than Length of Labor
Childbirth is physically intense and, for many women, it is the most painful experience they will have. And yet, new research shows that the amount of time a woman spends in labor doesn’t seem to impact how she remembers her labor pain afterwards. The research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that the peak and end levels of pain women experienced, and whether they received an epidural, impacted their recall of labor pain afterward.
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New Research From Clinical Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Clinical Psychological Science: Dysfunctional Activation of the Cerebellum in Schizophrenia: A Functional Neuroimaging Meta-Analysis Jessica A. Bernard and Vijay A. Mittal The cognitive dysmetria framework posits that the deficits seen in schizophrenia are the result of cerebello-thalamo-cortical dysfunction.
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Talking While Driving Safest With Someone Who Can See What You See
Talking on a cell phone is a known driving distraction, but new research suggests that talking to someone who can see what you see may actually contribute to driving safety. Results from a driving simulator study showed that conversation partners who could see the driver’s view via videophone were able to modulate their conversation according to what was happening on the road. The findings are forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “We’ve done years of study on driver distraction, and previous studies suggest that passengers often aren’t distracting.
