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Hit-and-run drivers not uncommon, but not well understood
The Baltimore Sun: Over the past eight days, three people died and another was injured in three hit-and-run accidents in the Baltimore region. Police are still seeking the drivers in all three incidents. On Wednesday, Bishop Heather Elizabeth Cook was indicted on charges of automobile manslaughter, driving under the influence, texting while driving, and leaving the scene of the accident that killed bicyclist Thomas Palermo just days after Christmas. What leads someone to flee an accident where another person might have suffered harm? Data shows fleeing an accident is not uncommon, but there's little research on the behavior.
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Training the Mind Not to Wander
The New York Times: A wandering mind can lead to accidents and lost productivity. Now, a study finds that real-time brain monitoring can be used to help people regain focus. Neuroscientists at Princeton University monitored the brain activity of students who were asked to perform a repetitive task that required close attention. While lying inside an functional magnetic resonance imaging, or f.M.R.I., machine, the students were shown a series of pictures of human faces superimposed over scenery. They were told to press a button when they saw a particular kind of face (female or male) or when they saw a particular kind of scenery (inside or outside).
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Handwriting Isn’t Dead—Smart Pens and Styluses Are Saving It
The Wall Street Journal: Keyboards and touch screens may have turned our once-fine penmanship into a sloppy mess, but reports of the death of handwriting are premature. I can prove it: I wrote this entire column by hand. Not once did I place my hands on my laptop, tablet or phone’s keyboard. Yet every word I scribbled was almost instantly transmitted to those devices. Yes, the very technology that has put pen and paper on life support is now trying to save it. ... “People who handwrite reframe the content, and understand it better.
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Psychological Biases Play A Part In Vaccination Decisions
NPR: With the recent outbreak of measles originating from Disneyland, there's been no shortage of speculation, accusation and recrimination concerning why some people won't vaccinate their children. There's also been some — but only some — more historically and psychologically informed discussion. Some people's motivation for skipping vaccines likely comes from persistent misinformation and, in particular, the unfounded belief that there's a link between vaccines and autism. And, as Adam Frank pointed out in a post last week, vaccinations also play into a larger cultural conversation about science and its place in society. Read the whole story: NPR
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Driving in Rain, Sleet, or Snow? Cognitive Biases Worsen Winter Driving
This winter much of the United States has been battered by snowstorms and record freezing temperatures. But snowflakes and black ice aren’t the only things making winter roads dangerous -- it’s likely that many drivers succumb to common cognitive biases that lead them to overestimate their skill at handling hazardous road conditions. Psychological scientists have long known that people generally tend to view their skills in optimistic terms—regardless of how their abilities actually hold up in reality.
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Babies Know What’s Up
New York Magazine: Babies as young as 13 months seem to be able to follow the complexities of a tense social situation, even showing surprise when those involved don't behave as expected, suggests a new paper in Psychological Science. You-jung Choi and Yuyan Luo of the University of Missouri did their research by putting on a simple puppet show for 48 infants and their parents. ... Choi and Luo were curious: How would the babies react to subsequent interactions between puppets A and B, and how would those reactions differ according to which version of the show the babies had seen? Obviously, the 13-month-olds couldn't tell the researchers what they were thinking.
