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“Ce l’ho sulla punta della lingua”: è un primo segnale di demenza in arrivo? (“Tip-of-the-Tongue” moments a sign of aging?)
La Stampa: A tutti sarà capitato almeno una volta di avere “sulla punta della lingua” quel termine, quel nome… quella cosa insomma che, proprio adesso, non ci sovviene. Ma, a parte il disagio che questi episodi possono provocare, potrebbero essere un primo segnale che stiamo perdendo la memoria? Che possiamo essere vittime della temuta demenza? A cercare di comprendere se queste défaillance nella memoria sono normali o il segnale di qualcosa di patologico sottostante o in fase di insorgenza è uno studio condotto dai ricercatori dell’Università della Virginia pubblicato sulla rivista Psychological Science, una rivista della Association for Psychological Science (APS).
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Living Through War Leads to In-Group Solidarity
War experiences have a long-term effect on human psychology, shifting people’s motivations toward greater equality for members of their own group, according to research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. According to study co-author Joseph Henrich of the University of British Columbia, “these effects have the potential to explain both why conflict sometimes leads to cycles of war and sometimes stimulates nation-building in its wake.” “Our research shows that exposure to war affects human psychology in specific ways,” says psychological scientist and economist Michal Bauer of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.
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“Please Feed Me”: The Power of Putting a Human Face on Social Causes
Companies often put a personal face on products to connect with consumers. The same idea may also work for social causes, like recycling and energy conservation, according to a series of studies.
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Social Status Woes: Facial Structure Predicts Strategy for Getting to the Top
Whether you’re low on the totem pole at a new firm or a raking in a piddling salary in a dead-end job, the thought of climbing the social status ladder is intimidating. It often seems like clawing -- rather than climbing -- might be the most effective way to get the social status boost that comes with a promotion offer or salary hike. Oddly enough, for a particular subset of men with greater facial width-to-height ratios (FWHR) -- a physical sign of high testosterone levels -- aggressive behavior might actually be a go-to strategy for getting what they want.
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Optical Illusion Can Improve Your Golf Game
Inside Science: In studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., cognitive psychologist Jessica Witt found that simply making a hole appear larger on the green can improve a golfer's putting accuracy by as much as ten percent. “When the hole looked bigger participants were also more successful at putting. So, making the golf hole look bigger, even though it hadn’t changed size, it just looked bigger, led to more golf putting success,” said Witt, now at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Read the whole story: Inside Science
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Alcoholism Research Agency Names New Director
Science: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced yesterday that it has tapped neurobiologist George Koob of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, to direct the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), starting January 2014. The move signals the end of a long period of limbo for the agency, which has operated under an acting director for several years while NIH deliberated on whether to merge the agency with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
