(Press-News.org) A Spontaneous Self-Reference Effect in Memory: Why Some Birthdays Are Harder to Remember Than Others (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/10/1525.abstract)
Selin Kesebir and Shigehiro Oishi
People may have a better memory for birthdays that are closer to their own: Volunteers recalling their friends' birthdays tended to remember birthdays that were closer to their own than birthdays that were farther away from their own birthday. In a separate experiment, after reading brief biographies of people they did not know, volunteers correctly remembered the birthdays of the people whose birthdays were closer to their own than birthdays that were more distant. These findings indicate that the self-reference effect in memory—a memory advantage for materials that are related to us—may occur spontaneously if the material to be learned automatically activates self-relevant information.
The Implicit "Go": Masked Action Cues Directly Mobilize Mental Effort (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/10/1389.abstract)
Guido H.E. Gendolla and Nicolas Silvestrini
The amount of effort individuals exert on a cognitive task may be influenced by masked action or inaction cues. Volunteers were primed with action (e.g., run), inaction (e.g., slow), or control words and completed a short-term memory task. The intensity of effort volunteers exerted on the task was estimated by measuring their heart responses in the cardiac preejection period (PEP; an index of the heart's ability to contract) as they completed the task. PEP reactivity was stronger in the action-prime condition than it was during the inaction-prime and control conditions. Reaction times were longer in the inaction-prime condition than they were in the action-primed condition, suggesting that reaction times decrease with strong PEP reactivity.
The Role of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Genotype, Parental Depression, and Relationship Discord in Predicting Early-Emerging Negative Emotionality (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/10/04/0956797610385357.abstract)
Elizabeth P. Hayden, Daniel N. Klein, Lea R. Dougherty, Thomas M. Olino, Margaret W. Dyson, C. Emily Durbin, Haroon I. Sheikh, and Shiva M. Singh
The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene is thought to influence children's propensity to negative emotions, but this influence may depend on family environment during early childhood. Children with a specific mutation in the BDNF gene (a valine-to-methionine substitution) exhibited elevated negative emotionality, but only when a parent had a history of depressive disorder or when parents' relationship was discordant. In contrast, children with the methionine mutation exhibited very low negative emotionality when parental depression was absent and when the parents' relationship was not discordant. These results indicate that the BDNF mutation may increase a child's sensitivity to both positive and negative influences in their environment.
Does Facial Processing Prioritize Change Detection? Change Blindness Illustrates Costs and Benefits of Holistic Processing (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/10/08/0956797610385952.abstract)
Miko M. Wilford and Gary L. Wells
When we get a haircut, our friends will often note that we look different, but they may not be able to pinpoint what has changed. This may result from our tendency to process faces as a whole—holistically—rather than as individual features. Volunteers were shown an image of a face or a house, followed by a similar image which may or may not have changed. They were better at detecting that a change had occurred in faces than in houses, but were better at identifying which feature had changed in houses than faces. These findings suggest that holistic and featural processing may be both advantageous and disadvantageous, depending on the nature of the task.
Border Bias: The Belief That State Borders Can Protect Against Disasters (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/10/12/0956797610385950.abstract)
Arul Mishra and Himanshu Mishra
Perception of risk plays a large role in decisions that individuals make and there is new evidence that state borders may influence risk perception. Volunteers were ask to select among vacation homes in two different states. When they read that an earthquake had struck one of the states, they tended to choose a home in the other state. The findings of subsequent experiments suggest that people categorize locations within a state differently than locations in different states. This categorization may result in the perception of state borders as being physical barriers that can block out disasters, a finding that has important policy implications (e.g., disaster-warning procedures).
Dissociable Neural Systems Support Retrieval of How and Why Action Knowledge (http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/10/18/0956797610386618.abstract)
Robert P. Spunt, Emily B. Falk, and Matthew D. Lieberman
Actions consist of two parts: how (e.g., physical movements) and why (e.g., beliefs and intentions of the actor). Where do these two aspects of action knowledge arise in the brain? fMRI scans were obtained as volunteers thought about how or why they would perform certain actions. How action knowledge was associated with motor systems for executing actions and the visual system for recognizing action-related objects. Why action knowledge was associated with the brain regions involved in agency and reasoning about mental states. These findings indicate that the brain may distinguish how to do something from why it is being done in the first place.
###
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For copies of these articles and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Keri Chiodo at 202-293-9300 or kchiodo@psychologicalscience.org.
END
In an article published in November 3 edition of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Chad Boult, MD, MPH, MBA, professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, calls for key improvements to primary care in order to improve the health of the nation's most costly patients—older adults with multiple chronic conditions. Boult and his co-author, G. Darryl Wieland, PhD, MPH, research director of Geriatrics Services at Palmetto Health Richland Hospital, Columbia, South Carolina, evaluated studies of new primary care ...
WORCESTER, Mass. – A potentially life-threatening challenge characterized by pauses in breathing that can last for more than 20 seconds, apnea of prematurity (AOP) affects more than 50 percent of premature infants and is almost universal in the smallest of preemies. Caused in part by an underdeveloped central nervous system that can't adequately regulate breathing outside of the womb, especially during sleep, AOP is not yet fully understood by scientists and remains a grave concern among neonatologists and parents alike. New research published in the October issue of Pediatrics ...
A new material with a split personality -- part superconductor, part metal -- has been observed by a Princeton University-led research team. The discovery may have implications for the development of next-generation electronics that could transform the way information is stored and processed.
The new material -- a crystal called a topological superconductor -- has two electronic identities at once. At very low temperatures, the interior of the crystal behaves like a normal superconductor, able to conduct electricity with zero resistance. At the same time, the surface ...
NEW YORK (November 2, 2010) -- For patients with the most common form of hepatitis C being treated for the first time, the addition of an investigational hepatitis C–specific protease inhibitor called telaprevir to the current standard therapy markedly improved their sustained viral response (SVR or viral cure) rate.
The lead investigator reporting the results of the ADVANCE trial is Dr. Ira M. Jacobson, chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and the Vincent Astor Distinguished Professor ...
The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Water Resources Research (WRR), and Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR-D).
1. Toxic levels of chemicals found kilometers from Gulf spill site
Oil contains compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which can be toxic. These compounds were released into the water during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which was larger than any previously studied release of oil. The impacts of the oil spill on marine life are not ...
Turns out the high school guidance counselor was right. Students who have high aspirations and put thought into their futures during their high school years tend to reach higher levels of educational attainment, according to a recent study.
And what's a significant factor in those goals and expectations taking shape in the first place? It matters if teens are involved in extracurricular activities -- whether it's football, fine arts or French club.
The research, by Sarah Beal and Lisa Crockett of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, surveyed hundreds of high school students ...
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed two strategies to ward off cattle fever ticks that are crossing the border from Mexico into the United States. These ticks transmit bovine babesiosis, commonly known as Texas cattle fever, a deadly disease of cattle that's caused by singled-celled organisms.
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Kerrville, Texas, are developing and testing new interventions to eliminate cattle fever ticks within U.S. borders and mitigate the impact on the livestock industry. ARS is USDA's principal ...
Women now dominate the field of veterinary medicine — the result of a nearly 40-year trend that is likely to repeat itself in the fields of medicine and law.
That's the conclusion of a new study that found three factors that appear to be driving the change: the 1972 federal amendment that outlaws discrimination against female students; male applicants to graduate schools who may be deterred by a growing number of women enrolling; and the increasing number of women earning Bachelor's degrees in numbers that far exceed those of male graduates, says sociologist Anne E. Lincoln.
An ...
SANTA MONICA, CA—Humans have walked on the Moon, and inevitably, according to NASA, humans will tread the Red Planet as well, possibly by 2037. An ergonomist and an industrial designer pondered the challenges of the Martian environment and developed an award-winning concept rover that could someday transport and house astronauts on the surface of Mars. The rover is described in an article to be published in Ergonomics in Design: The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications.
Using a human factors/ergonomics method called function analysis, part of a larger systems approach, ...
Acritum Software has released One-click BackUp for WinRAR 2.30, a handy file backup utility for Windows. The product is available as freeware for home users and non-commercial organizations. Professional version with network support is available for corporate and advanced users at a small price.
It's important to have backup copies of all important documents, so you can restore your information if accidentally erase it, or if you have a hardware malfunction or virus attack. Because creating daily backups is boring, most people don't do it. One-click BackUp makes your ...
