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The Grass is Always Greener…Or is It? The Neural Basis of Searching Behaviors
What motivates some to constantly seek out the next best thing, the greener grass, while others of us are content to stick with what’s known and safe? Our ancient ancestors had to forage in the
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Trouble Quitting? New Pitt-Carnegie Mellon Smoking Study May Reveal Why
A new study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University sheds light on why smokers’ intentions to quit “cold turkey” often fizzle out within days or even hours. If a smoker
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It Runs in the Family: Siblings Closer in Age Have Similar IQ
An ongoing debate in science is the impact of “nature vs. nurture” on intelligence— are brainiacs simply born that way or is their intelligence influenced by their environment? Although numerous studies involving fraternal and identical
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Constructing Emotion: The Fundamental Components of Fear
During a crisis, our behavior can often be unpredictable. Some people might respond with anger, others with fear and still others may show no reaction at all. The nature of emotion is so basic and
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As Good as it Gets? Illusion vs. Reality: Age-Related Differences in Expectations for Future Happiness
Albert Einstein once quipped, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” The famous scientist might have added that the illusion of reality shifts over time. According to a new Brandeis University study
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Un-total Recall: Amnesics Remember Grammar, but Not Meaning of New Sentences
Syntactic persistence is the tendency for speakers to produce sentences using similar grammatical patterns and rules of language as those they have used before. Although the way this occurs is not well understood, previous research
