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Connect With Someone In A Second Flat
Prevention: Faking a grin reduces stress, but research recently published in Psychological Science reveals that people respond to the real thing instinctively, often reacting with true smiles of their own subconsciously. UK researchers found that people responded to genuine smiles in less than 200 milliseconds (the fastest we can process an expression and respond with a voluntary one) more often than when their partner put on a polite grin. Although the researchers classified any smile involving the eye muscles as genuine during analysis of 48 videotaped one-on-one conversations between adults of the same sex, the real markers are internal.
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For Kids This Summer, How Safe Is Too Safe?
NPR: But does the child lose anything from playing it too safe? Kathy Hirsh-Pasek is a professor of psychology at Temple University, and she says, sometimes, yes. KATHY HIRSH-PASEK: Look, I don't mind changing from wood to plastic, but I do think that we have to let kids climb a little bit higher because we learn a tremendous amount from getting that skinned knee. And we become successes not just by succeeding but sometimes by failing. SHEIR: What about those who say that our children's safety is the most important thing, as in, you know, sometimes it's more than a skinned knee or a bruised elbow.
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Intelligence Agents May Be Prone to Irrational Decision Making
Research suggests that intelligence agents may be more prone to irrational inconsistencies in decision making compared to college students and post-college adults.
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Hong Kong skyscrapers toppling? No, it just looks that way
NBC: The illusion of toppling skyscrapers in Hong Kong is now yielding insights on how the brain distinguishes up from down, researchers say. A popular way to gaze at the Hong Kong skyline that millions of people take advantage of every year is to ride a tram there up Victoria Peak, the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island. "On one trip, I noticed that the city's skyscrapers next to the tram started to appear very tilted, as if they were falling, which anyone with common sense knows is impossible," said lead researcher Chia-huei Tseng, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Hong Kong.
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What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit, Research Shows
The New York Times: Not long after moving to the University of Southampton, Constantine Sedikides had lunch with a colleague in the psychology department and described some unusual symptoms he’d been feeling. A few times a week, he was suddenly hit with nostalgia for his previous home at the University of North Carolina: memories of old friends, Tar Heel basketball games, fried okra, the sweet smells of autumn in Chapel Hill. ... In the 19th and 20th centuries nostalgia was variously classified as an “immigrant psychosis,” a form of “melancholia” and a “mentally repressive compulsive disorder” among other pathologies. But when Dr.
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ADHD Drugs Don’t Boost Kids’ Grades
The Wall Street Journal: It's no longer shocking to hear of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder—and others simply facing a big test—taking ADHD medicine to boost their performance in school. But new studies point to a problem: There's little evidence that the drugs actually improve academic outcomes. Stimulants used to treat ADHD like Ritalin and Adderall are sometimes called "cognitive enhancers" because they have been shown in a number of studies to improve attention, concentration and even certain types of memory in the short-term. Similar drugs were given to World War II soldiers to improve their ability to stay alert while scanning radars for enemy aircraft. ...
