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Loneliness narrows the uncanny valley
CNET: Talking to inanimate objects when you're feeling lonely may not be so strange after all. According to new research conducted by a team at Darmouth College in the UK and Harvard University in the US, we're more likely to perceive life in inanimate faces when we're feeling socially disconnected. In short, if you're low on human contact, you might start feeling a little less creeped out by the uncanny valley -- because those faces look more alive to you. This is because, when people are starved of social contact, they start attributing human characteristics to objects: a face on a volleyball, for instance. Or a doll. Or... a robot.
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Why Hands-Free Phones Are A Driving Danger
By now, we should all know that talking on a cell phone while driving is a bad idea. So far, 14 states have banned driving with a handheld phone, but researchers caution that hands-free phones may be just as dangerous and distracting. In 2011 the National Transportation Safety Board called for an end to all cellphone use in the car saying, "there is no difference between hand-helds and hands-free." New research from a team of psychological scientists from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada further confirms that even hands-free phone conversations can have a negative impact on driver performance.
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Some Things You Can Do In Your Sleep, Literally
NPR: For those who find themselves sleeping through work — you may one day find yourself working through sleep. People who are fast asleep can correctly respond to simple verbal instructions, according to a study by researchers in France. They think this may help explain why you might wake if someone calls your name or why your alarm clock is more likely to rouse you than any other noise.
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When Taking a Break Could Be a Matter of Life and Death
Knowledge@Wharton: The so-called “secondary tasks” that many professionals are expected to attend to at work can become big problems when ignored over time — think about a trucker constantly forgetting to obey the speed limit, even if only by a few miles per hour. But new Wharton research shows for the first time that those little things can begin to slip through the cracks due to fatigue that develops even within a single work day. In some cases, that drop-off can cost tens of thousands of lives and cost billions of dollars a year. Wharton operations and information management professor Katherine L. Milkman and Wharton Ph.D.
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How Diversity Makes Us Smarter
Scientific American: The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male. It is reasonable to ask what good diversity does us.
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Can Memories Be Implanted and Then Removed?
The New Yorker: At the turn of the twentieth century, Ivan Pavlov conducted the experiments that turned his last name into an adjective. By playing a sound just before he presented dogs with a snack, he taught them to salivate upon hearing the tone alone, even when no food was offered. That type of learning is now called classical—or Pavlovian—conditioning. Less well known is an experiment that Pavlov was conducting at around the same time: when some unfortunate canines heard the same sound, they were given acid.
