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Steven Pinker on music
TRBQ: Pinning down a definition of music is harder than it sounds. A song composed by a human easily fits into the category of music. But what about a song composed by a bird? Or the rumble of a freight train? Steven Pinker is a cognitive scientist at Harvard, and he’s written best-selling books about evolutionary psychology and language. He says music is tied to language. “Music has a set of rhythms within rhythms that can align uncannily with those of speech,” Pinker says. There’s an ongoing debate about whether music is “adaptive” — whether it serves a direct evolutionary purpose. Steven Pinker doesn’t think it does.
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A Quest to Understand What Makes Things Funny
The New Yorker: What would happen if Communism were introduced to Saudi Arabia? Nothing—at first. But soon there’d be a shortage of sand. This—one of many political jokes circulating inside the Soviet Union during the late Cold War—is Joel Warner’s favorite. Warner is the co-author, with Peter McGraw, of “The Humor Code,” which was released on April Fool’s Day. “It can be analyzed all sorts of ways,” he told me. “Did Soviet citizens tell jokes like this as a form of coping, of using humor to lessen their psychological distress? Or was it a reflection of changing attitudes and growing unease among the populace?
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Piccole carezze ai neonati migliorano il loro sviluppo sociale (pleasant touch may promote early social development in infants)
La Stampa: Accarezzare gentilmente un neonato è importante anche per il suo sviluppo sociale e fisiologico. Lo hanno scoperto alcuni scienziati del Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences di Leipzig, Germania. A quanto si legge sulla rivista Psychological Science, i risultati di questa ricerca forniscono prove fisiologiche e comportamentali che la sensibilità alle piccole carezze si sviluppa molto presto nel neonato e gioca un ruolo importantissimo nella regolazione delle interazioni sociali umane. Read the whole story: La Stampa
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Want To Be More Patient? Practice Gratitude
The Huffington Post: Patience -- it's good, but notoriously hard, to have. Now, a new study shows a potential way to increase it: Have gratitude. Published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers from Northeastern University, the University of California, Riverside, and Harvard University found that feelings of gratitude are associated with increased patience in the context of a test where waiting leads to a greater monetary reward.
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Illustrated Story Teaches Young Kids Natural Selection
Scientific American: Once upon a time, there was an animal called a pilosa that caught insects with its trunk. Some pilosas had wide trunks. Others had skinny trunks. When habitat changes caused their dinners to tunnel underground, pilosas with wide trunks began to starve and die. The pilosas with thin trunks could still reach the bugs. So they stayed healthy and had babies that also had thin trunks. Eventually, all pilosas had skinny trunks and they lived happily ever after. Or they might have, if they were real. Read the whole story: Scientific American
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What are you laughing at? New book explores what we find funny
CBS News: According to "The Humor Code" co-author and University of Colorado professor Peter McGraw, at the core of humor is one simple formula. "CBS This Morning" contributor Jamie Wax spoke with McGraw and his co-author Joel Warner about testing the formula around the world. Read the whole story: CBS News
