-
Do you speak a second, or third, language?
The New York Times: Cognitive neuroscientist Ellen Bialystok has been studying how being able to speak two languages sharpens the mind. In her conversation with Claudia Dreifus, she states that kids who are bilingual have a way of thinking that helps them better distinguish important information from the less important. Are you or someone you are close to able to speak two (or more) languages fluently? Have you noticed any advantages other than being able to communicate with more people? In the article based on their conversation "The Bilingual Advantage" Ellen Bialystok explains why bilinguals are able to sort information as they do: Read more at: The New York Times
-
The Intelligence of Nations
Modern Japan has very few of the world’s natural resources—oil, forests, precious metals. Yet this archipelago has given rise to the world’s third largest economy. Nigeria, by contrast, is blessed with ample natural resources, including lots of land, yet it is one of the planet’s poorer nations. Why is that? Why is there not a simple link between natural bounty and prosperity? The short answer is national intelligence. A nation’s cognitive resources amplify its natural resources. That’s the view of University of Washington psychological scientist Earl Hunt, who argues that, given equal national intelligence, Nigeria would be richer than Japan.
-
New Research From Psychological Science
One to Four, and Nothing More: Nonconscious Parallel Individuation of Objects During Action Planning Jason P. Gallivan, Craig S. Chapman, Daniel K. Wood, Jennifer L. Milne, Daniel Ansari, Jody C. Culham, and Melvyn A. Goodale Processing sensory information about multiple objects at once is limited, but is there a processing limit when someone is planning to do something with the objects (action planning)? Participants were asked to touch targets on a computer screen within a certain period of time. The number of targets that appeared, as well as their distance from the center of the screen, varied.
-
Boys Who Lack Empathy Don’t React to a Fearful Face
Scientific American: Psychopaths can't connect emotionally. Researchers have thought that trait may be connected with an outsized drive for reward and an inability to register fearful expressions in others’ faces. And that training them to pay attention to such expressions might help. Training, however, has not been successful, and a paper to be published in the journal Psychological Science suggests why. Read more: Scientific American
-
Older people not good liars
Otago Daily Times: A University of Otago study suggests the ability to recognise deceit may wear down with age, making older people less able to lie or recognise they are being lied to. University of Otago department of psychology researchers Ted Ruffman, Janice Murray and Jamin Halberstadt compared young and old adults' skills at deception as judged by listeners within and outside their age group. The results of the lie detection test showed both young and old listeners found it easier to differentiate truths and lies when the speaker was an older adult compared to a young adult, Associate Professor Halberstadt said. Read more: Otago Daily Times
-
L’affetto dei nonni allunga la vita ai nipotini
Salute 24: Avere i nonni accanto fa vivere di più i nipoti: nelle famiglie in cui sono presenti più generazioni, infatti, anche in situazioni difficili la possibilità di sopravvivenza dei più piccoli è maggiore. È quanto emerge da uno studio pubblicato su Current Directions in Psychological Science dal team guidato da David A. Coall, ricercatore della Edith Cowan University di Perth (Australia). Read more: Salute 24
