Posts Tagged ‘cognitive science’
No kidding: Humor eases fear
STANFORD (US) — Humor, particularly positive humor, can help us manage fear when we see something frightening or disturbing, new research shows. Continue…
Thursday, August 4, 2011 10:48 - 0 Comments
Top Stories - Mar 23, 2011 11:44 - 0 Comments
More proof signers think like bilinguals
PENN STATE (US) — A person fluent in sign language processes both words and signs while reading, juggling both like a bilingual. (more…)
Society & Culture - Mar 18, 2011 11:38 - 8 Comments
Free will may not be so free after all
U. ARIZONA (US) — Is life guided by free will or is it predetermined by a continuous chain of events over which we have no control? (more…)
Health & Medicine - Jan 24, 2011 14:21 - 2 Comments
Sleep meds put seniors’ safety at risk
U. COLORADO (US) — Taking one of the world’s most commonly prescribed sleep medications puts senior adults at significant risk for nighttime falls and potential injury—and essentially doubles cognitive impairment. (more…)
Society & Culture - Jan 12, 2011 11:24 - 2 Comments
Being poor stunts cognitive growth
U.TEXAS-AUSTIN (US) — Growing up poor can suppress a child’s genetic potential to excel cognitively even before the age of 2. (more…)
Health & Medicine - Oct 4, 2010 15:14 - 0 Comments
Heal thyself: Touch eases pain
UCL (UK) — Self-touch offers significant relief from acute pain, according to new research. (more…)
Science & Technology - Sep 13, 2010 13:23 - 7 Comments
Video games speed up reaction time
U. ROCHESTER (US)—Playing action video games trains people to make the right decisions faster, according to a new study. (more…)
Science & Technology - Aug 11, 2010 11:37 - 0 Comments
Peeking inside the mind of a piglet
U. ILLINOIS (US)—Researchers have found that neonatal piglets are capable of being trained in traditional learning and memory tests. As a result, these piglets can provide critical information that could directly benefit human health. (more…)
Science & Technology - Jul 30, 2010 16:13 - 0 Comments
Kids with injured brains tell shorter stories
U. CHICAGO (US)—Children with brain lesions have difficulty developing storytelling skills even though other language abilities, such as vocabulary, tend to catch up with other children as they mature, research shows. (more…)
Science & Technology - Jul 12, 2010 15:57 - 1 Comment
Hearing helps us see what we can’t see
U. PENN (US)—Hearing the name of an object improves chances of seeing it, even when the object is flashed onscreen in conditions and speeds (50 milliseconds) that would render it invisible, recent experiments show. (more…)
Science & Technology - Jun 2, 2010 12:17 - 1 Comment
Distinct strategies help brain take action
CALTECH (US)—The process of learning requires the sophisticated ability to constantly update our expectations of future rewards so we may make accurate predictions about those rewards in the face of a changing environment. (more…)
Society & Culture - May 28, 2010 15:27 - 13 Comments
Should cell phone bans apply to passengers?
CORNELL (US)—Overhearing people chatting on mobile phones can be more than annoying. It’s so distracting that it affects cognitive performance, new research shows. (more…)
Society & Culture - May 27, 2010 12:30 - 4 Comments
Why our intuitions are often wrong
U. ILLINOIS (US)—We may think we’re a good judge of character, observant, and perceptive, but research by two psychologist suggests we’re almost certainly not as good at those skills as we think we are. (more…)
Health & Medicine - May 24, 2010 11:03 - 1 Comment
Calorie restriction: longer life, fewer memories?
PRINCETON (US)—Decreasing calorie intake and tweaking the activity of the hormone insulin are two methods long known to increase lifespan in a wide range of organisms. Now, biologists have uncovered evidence that these mechanisms also have an impact on learning and memory. (more…)
Science & Technology - May 3, 2010 10:19 - 2 Comments
Multiple brain regions wired for language
U. ROCHESTER (US)—A new study finds there is no single advanced area of the human brain that makes it suited to parse language. Instead, humans rely on several regions, each designed to accomplish different primitive tasks, in order to make sense of a sentence. (more…)
Health & Medicine - Mar 24, 2010 11:01 - 2 Comments
Estrogen’s memory boost fades with age
YALE (US)—While hormone therapy appears to enhance memory for women just entering menopause, new research suggests it is of little cognitive benefit to older women and leaves them at increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke. (more…)
Health & Medicine - Feb 3, 2010 15:17 - 4 Comments
Higher bipolar risk for straight-A students
KING’S COLLEGE LONDON (UK)—A recent study offers the first evidence linking exceptional intellectual ability to bipolar disorder. Researchers found top students were almost four times as likely to develop bipolar disorder as adults, compared to those with average grades. (more…)
Science & Technology - Jan 28, 2010 15:30 - 11 Comments
Break time may improve memory
NYU (US)—Taking a rest break—while awake—can help strengthen memories, a new study suggests. (more…)
Science & Technology - Jan 25, 2010 11:16 - 1 Comment
There’s nothing lucky about catching flies
BROWN (US)—New research supports a long-standing theory about how outfielders catch fly balls. The eye continuously tracks the ball as its visual velocity increases or decreases, and the outfielder runs backward or forward to compensate. (more…)
