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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Two Ways to Facial Expression Recognition? Motor and Visual Information Have Different Effects on Facial Expression Recognition Stephan de la Rosa, Laura Fademrecht, Heinrich H. Bülthoff, Martin A. Giese, and Cristóbal Curio People are usually good at using facial expressions to infer other people’s emotions. Motor-based theories propose that viewing a facial expression activates a sensorimotor response that causes the viewer to simulate the expression and thus recognize the associated emotion. These theories predict that sensorimotor and visual processes should lead to the same effects in facial expression recognition.
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Why Does Every Soccer Player Do This?
Goals in soccer games can be few and far between, which helps explain the delirious nature of most scoring celebrations. Some players yank off their jerseys or drop to their knees and glide across the turf in glee. They all often end up at the bottom of a pile of jubilant teammates. Then there are the players who are presented with a goal-scoring opportunity and, for whatever reason, fail. When this happens, they all do the same thing: raise their hands and place them on their heads — apparently the universal gesture to signify, How in the world did I miss that?
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Study Links Children’s Eye-Hand Coordination with Their Academic Performance
New findings signal an important relationship between children’s ability to physically interact with their environment and their cognitive development.
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Do You Discover Your Passion, or Cultivate It?
People with a growth attitude may explore different interests and fight through challenges and setbacks, helping them to learn to love what they do, researchers find.
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Do You Like ‘Dogs Playing Poker’? Science Would Like to Know Why
If you’ve ever wondered whether the title on a work of abstract art — say “Blue No. 2” — influences how you feel about it, you’ll be intrigued by a new study from the University of Pittsburgh. Researchers there found that people prefer works with straightforward titles like “Curved Lines” or “Dots of Color” to those with figurative titles like “Ice Dancing” or “Sabotage.” Another study released last month by psychologists at Boston College found that a big reason people favor an artist’s work over an identical copy is their belief that some essence of the artist is left behind in the original.
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How casual daily interactions protect your health
Close relationships with family and friends, we know, are important for our health and well-being. But what about the people who make up our broader social networks: the parents at school drop-off, the neighbor down the street or that colleague in another department who always makes you laugh? While research on the benefits of social connections has generally focused on the importance of “strong ties,” or the intimate relationships we have with family and close friends, a growing body of research is shedding light on the hidden benefits of casual acquaintances, too.
