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Problem Solving in a Doggy Age
San Francisco Chronicle: Allow me to quote from the first paragraph of an article on the site Science Daily: "Stuck solving a problem? Seek the obscure, says Tony McCaffrey, a psychology PhD from the University of Massachusetts. 'There's a classic obstacle to innovation called "functional fixedness," which is the tendency to fixate on the common use of an object or its parts.
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The Risks of ‘Racy’ Thinking
I worked in the news business for many years, and sometimes the pace could get hectic. But the work day didn’t really charge up until mid-morning. In the early morning hours, my routine was to leaf through several of the day’s newspapers, including the sports section, usually with my feet up on my desk. Occasionally I would check the AP ticker or turn on the TV, but not until after I had spent some time with the papers and my morning coffee. This was back in the 20th century, of course, and looking back that pace seems almost leisurely by today’s standards. Technology has radically altered the way that many of us consume information.
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Just 60 Seconds of Combat Impairs Memory
Just 60 seconds of all-out physical exertion in a threatening situation can seriously damage the memories of those involved for many details of the incident, according to a new study of police officers. Police officers, witnesses and victims of crime suffer loss of memory, recognition and awareness of their environment if they have had to use bursts of physical energy in a combative encounter, according to scientists.
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What Happened to the Girls in Le Roy
The New York Times: Before the media vans took over Main Street, before the environmental testers came to dig at the soil, before the doctor came to take blood, before strangers started knocking on doors and asking question after question, Katie Krautwurst, a high-school cheerleader from Le Roy, N.Y., woke up from a nap. Instantly, she knew something was wrong. Her chin was jutting forward uncontrollably and her face was contracting into spasms. She was still twitching a few weeks later when her best friend, Thera Sanchez, captain of one of the school’s cheerleading squads, awoke from a nap stuttering and then later started twitching, her arms flailing and head jerking.
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Why police officers can forget
Belfast Telegraph: Extreme physical exertion in a threatening situation lasting just 60 seconds can "seriously damage" the memories of those involved, according to a new study of police officers. Police officers, witnesses and victims of crime suffer loss of memory, recognition and awareness of their environment if they have to use bursts of physical energy in a combative encounter. This can occur in situations such as an officer chasing a fleeing suspect, according to Lorraine Hope of the University of Portsmouth. She said that her findings, published in Psychological Science, are a warning of the problems with witness statements to the courts. Read the whole story: Belfast Telegraph
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‘The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts’ in face recognition
Yahoo! India: Until now, most research has suggested that we recognize faces 'holistically' - we look at all the features-eyes, nose, mouth-simultaneously and, perceiving the relationships among them, gain an advantage over taking in each feature individually. Now, a new study overturns this theory. The researchers-Jason M. Gold and Patrick J. Mundy of the Indiana University and Bosco S. Tjan of the University of California Los Angeles-found that people's performance in recognizing a whole face is no better than their performance with each individual feature shown alone. "Surprisingly, the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts," said Gold.
