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How to Make People Laugh
Women's Health: If you’ve ever watched a good SNL skit, you know that impersonations can be hilarious. Want to spread the giggles yourself? The best way to master an impression is to practice in front of a mirror, according to a study published in Psychological Science. British researchers videotaped 20 adults as they recited jokes, then asked participants to recreate and photograph four facial expressions featured in their videos. While practicing, some people looked at photos of their attempts, and some rehearsed without any visual feedback.
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Implicit Race Bias Increases the Differences in the Neural Representations of Black and White Faces
Racial stereotypes have been shown to have subtle and unintended consequences on how we treat members of different race groups. According to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, race bias also increases differences in the brain’s representations of faces. Psychological scientists Tobias Brosch of the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Eyal Bar-David and Elizabeth Phelps of New York University examined activity in the brain while participants looked at pictures of White and Black faces. Afterwards, participants performed a task that assessed their unconscious or implicit expression of race attitudes.
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A Million First Dates
The Atlantic: Psychologists who study relationships say that three ingredients generally determine the strength of commitment: overall satisfaction with the relationship; the investment one has put into it (time and effort, shared experiences and emotions, etc.); and the quality of perceived alternatives. Two of the three—satisfaction and quality of alternatives—could be directly affected by the larger mating pool that the Internet offers. At the selection stage, researchers have seen that as the range of options grows larger, mate-seekers are liable to become “cognitively overwhelmed,” and deal with the overload by adopting lazy comparison strategies and examining fewer cues.
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When I was your age…: Or, what is it with kids these days?
Scientific American: When I was your age, children knew to respect their parents. We didn’t give anyone any lip. We owned up to our responsibilities. We took advantage of our opportunities. We knew what was what. Kids these days have gotten everything all messed up. Kids these days just aren’t what they used to be. Kids these days. Or, this version, if you’d prefer. When I was your age, we had to walk to school ten miles. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways. And let me tell you a thing or two about the meaning of hard work. You think what you’re doing is working hard? Well, you just take a good listen. ...
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Scanning the Brain: Scientists Examine the Impact of fMRI Over the Past 20 Years
Understanding the human brain is one of the greatest scientific quests of all time, but the available methods have been very limited until recently. The development of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) -- a tool used to gauge real-time brain activity by measuring changes in blood flow -- opened up an exciting new landscape for exploration. Now, twenty years after the first fMRI study was published, a group of distinguished psychological scientists reflect on the contributions fMRI has made to our understanding of human thought.
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All In The Mind
Australian Broadcasting Radio: Memory – it’s the thread that runs through our lives, but how are our early memories formed? Psychologists are finding that the way we talk with our young children and tell them family stories affects their early memories and their sense of themselves when they become teenagers. And, why we forget most of what we learn when we cram for an exam. Research suggests that repeated study is not as effective for enduring learning, as regular testing of newly acquired knowledge. Read the whole story: Australian Broadcasting Radio
