-
Is this as smart as we get?
The Globe and Mail: “A provocative new paper warns that our societal effort to do whatever it takes to improve intelligence may be misguided, as any increases in thinking ability are likely to come with problems,” reports Psych Central. “In a paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, the authors looked to evolution to understand why humans are only as smart as we are and not any smarter. … To answer the question, the authors reviewed the evolutionary process and discovered that additional intelligence gains would most likely be offset by some other unintended consequence.
-
Fewer teens getting driver’s licenses as more seniors retain them
Los Angeles Times: In an era of expensive gasoline and a threadbare economy, fewer young people are getting driver's licenses and more older people are holding on to them as long as possible. The data reflect big behavioral, technological and economic shifts, said Michael Sivak, research professor at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute. "The availability of virtual contact through electronic means has reduced the need for actual contact among young people," said Sivak, who holds a doctorate in psychology.
-
Ritalin and Other Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs Probably Won’t Make You Smarter
Scientific American: On Monday, I put up a post on whether we would ever be able to upload our brains into a computer, merging ourselves into the great digital Singularity that would provide us with eternal life—and virtually infinite sensory powers and intelligence. The take home: This is akin to a cargo cult-like religion. Don’t hold your breath (or freeze your brain) in anticipation.
-
Impatient? It Could Be The Reason Your Credit Score Stinks
Business Insider: Those who exert more patience and are willing to wait for larger financial payouts down the line have credit scores an average of 30 points higher than those who are less patient, according to a study to be published in the journal Psychological Science next month. Time Moneyland's Martha White reports that Stephan Meier and Charles Sprenger, professors at Columbia and Stanford, respectively, found that people who need instant gratification are also more likely to pay their credit cards late or skip a payment altogether. Impatient consumers want to feel the immediate benefit of cash in the bank, which outweighs the benefit of not paying interest or late fees.
-
What Surveys Don’t Know About You
The Wall Street Journal: Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture riffs today on how meaningless he finds the National Retail Federation surveys of how much consumers expect to spend at holiday time. His table of year-over-year changes in expected vs. actual spending is an eye-opener. The same phenomenon has been documented by social scientists for decades: People are almost freakishly inept at forecasting their future behavior. That’s largely because you predict your future behavior by assessing how you feel now about a decision you won’t be making for some time to come. Your assessment of how you think you will feel in the future depends very largely on how you feel in the present.
-
Wie Gesichter in der Erinnerung bleiben
Der Spiegel: Auge, Nase, Mund - wer Gesichter nur als Summe ihrer Bestandteile wahrnimmt, erkennt sie später schlechter wieder. Wer das Antlitz seines Gegenübers allerdings im Ganzen wahrnimmt, wird sich später eher an die Person erinnern. Das berichten Forscher von der chinesischen Beijing Normal University in dem Fachjournal "Psychological Science". "Im täglichen Leben nehmen wir unsere Welt sowohl holistisch, also im großen Ganzen wahr, aber auch analytisch, also in ihren Details", sagt der Autor der Studie, Liu Jia. Während das Gehirn generell alle möglichen Objekte wie Autos, Tiere und Häuser analysiere, sei für Gesichter eine ganzheitliche Verarbeitung bedeutsam.