The road to intimacy is faster than a speeding bullet: Metaphors and social judgments
We all use metaphors in our daily language. Metaphors often enrich story telling, and they also have emotional and social consequences: They bring actors closer together. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - March 12, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
Power Steps to Perfection: Learning is not always smooth
Practice makes perfect. But how? Recent research suggests that it may involve step changes, (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - March 10, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
Trouble finding the red pen? Just say “tomato.” High-level conceptual information can direct our attention during visual search.
We take in a lot of information when we read words. Reading a word such as “tomato” that has a strong color bias draws our attention to that color and makes subsequent visual search easier, showing that attentional selection is affected by conceptual representations. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - March 2, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
If you're smart, you won't stack the dishwasher while your partner is watching: Choking under pressure
There is strong evidence that performance can falter under pressure. Somewhat paradoxically, this choking under pressure affects people more if their high working memory capacity predisposes them to perform well. Recent research has addressed this paradox and proposes an explanation. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - February 26, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
The full moon and my toddler: The role of unexpected events in causal learning
How do we learn causal relationships? Maybe in the same way we sometimes develop prejudices: Things that are unexpected are processed more and perhaps remembered better. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - February 25, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
Remembering Florence Nightingale in your rough neighborhood
Why do people cooperate? Is it because evolution has endowed us with the ability to detect and remember cheaters and bullies? Or is it something different? And what does this have to do with remembering Florence Nightingale? (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - February 19, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
Unlocking your inner Mozart: Musical talent, genetics, and practice
Mozart was a child prodigy who composed from the age of five. Was his talent genetically determined or did he have the good fortune to be coached from an early age and did he acquire his musical genius through learning? Recent research has quantified the contributions of "nature" and "nurture" to musical accomplishment. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - February 17, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
Wide awake and seeing nothing: Men In Black or Multiple Inattentional Blindness?
People have an astounding ability to watch things and fail to see some pretty big stimuli--such as a gorilla walking through a basketball game. Recent research reveals that we can miss things even if we expect something unexpected to happen. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - February 12, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
Immigrating to America but speaking your mother's tongue at home: Diversity trumps frequency
Although humans communicate in nearly 7000 languages, many are currently under threat of extinction. How does one preserve one's "heritage" language--that is, the language spoken by immigrant parents at home? Recent research highlights the importance of diversity over mere frequency. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - February 10, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
Your face reveals how you feel--even to a computer
Methods to assess facial movements have potential to shed light on important behavioral phenomena, ranging from emotion and social interaction to psychological
disorders and health. Computer programs can now automate the measurement of such movements. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - February 5, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
Lying through your dientes is no different from lying through your teeth (almost)
Lying is an emotional stressor. So is speaking in a foreign language. What happens if you put the two together and ask people to lie in a foreign language? (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - February 3, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
When aniseed does not smell at all like lemon: Sugar helps you tell apart smells, but only if they aren't sweet
Why do things have flavor? It's because we taste them and also smell them while we are eating. And the way in which taste and smell interact is quite intriguing. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - January 29, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
To remember, just ask about survival
People who imagine that they are stranded on a desert island will remember material better if they examine it with respect to how it might aid their survival. This "survival benefit" is well known but the reasons for it are not fully understood. Recent research sheds some light on the underlying processes. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - January 27, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
When the going gets tough the beautiful get going
Finding a visual target can be easy. But when it's difficult, it helps if the target is aesthetically appealing. Beauty can help us perform better. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - January 20, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
People conform--sometimes we even conform with a computer
We are social beings, and much of our behavior is determined by the signals sent by other people. We conform to social norms in many situations--from queueing for a bus to copying our neighbors' recycling behavior. As it turns out, we sometimes even conform with computers. (Source: Psychonomic Society News)
Source: Psychonomic Society News - January 15, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news
