PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Trouble starting a task? Perception of time may be the problem, study finds

2014-09-03
(Press-News.org) Completing tasks and crossing them off the ubiquitous "to-do" list is a great feeling. But what about those nagging tasks we keep putting off? What's the difference between those jobs that get completed and those that do not?

The answer may be our perception of time, according to new research by Yanping Tu, a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

The study, "The Categorization of Time and Its Impact on Task Initiation," recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research, finds that people are more likely to begin a job when, from a time perspective, it appears to be part of the present. On the other hand, they are less likely to start work on assignments that seem to be part of the future.

"The key step in getting things done is getting started. If you never get started, you can't possibly finish," Tu explains. "But that urgency, that need to actually work on a task, happens when that task is seen as part of a person's present."

Tu and her coauthor, Dilip Soman of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, conducted a series of studies to support their theory. For example, in one study, 100 undergraduates were told that they had five days in which to complete a four-hour data entry assignment. This assignment was made at the end of April, and those who were assigned the task on April 24th or 25th and had to finish by the 29th or 30th were more likely to begin work than those who were assigned on the 28th and told they needed to finish in the first few days of May. The change in month provided a barrier to the students that made the task seem less like it was part of the present and more like it was part of the future.

"We have shown how goals are perceived in time is clearly linked to people's views of when and whether to begin work," Tu adds. "It would be interesting to look at how these temporal views affect other aspects of success, such persistence in completing jobs and the quality of a job done." INFORMATION:


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

How much gravity is enough?

2014-09-03
TORONTO, September 3, 2014 – Keeping upright in a low-gravity environment is not easy, and NASA documents abound with examples of astronauts falling on the lunar surface. Now, a new study by an international team of researchers led by York University professors Laurence Harris and Michael Jenkin, published today in PLOS ONE, suggests that the reason for all these moon mishaps might be because its gravity isn't sufficient to provide astronauts with unambiguous information on which way is "up". "The perception of the relative orientation of oneself and the world is important ...

Team develops new, inexpensive method for understanding earthquake topography

Team develops new, inexpensive method for understanding earthquake topography
2014-09-03
Boulder, Colo., USA – Using high-resolution topography models not available in the past, geologists can greatly enrich their research. However, current methods of acquisition are costly and require trained personnel with high-tech, cumbersome equipment. In light of this, Kendra Johnson and colleagues have developed a new system that takes advantage of affordable, user-friendly equipment and software to produce topography data over small, sparsely vegetated sites at comparable (or better) resolution and accuracy to standard methods. Their workflow is based on structure ...

Study sets guideline for determining effectiveness of college football training methods

Study sets guideline for determining effectiveness of college football training methods
2014-09-03
VIDEO: Athletic performance varies from day to day, which can make it difficult for strength and conditioning professionals to judge whether athletes' improvements are due to effective training. Now, University of... Click here for more information. COLUMBIA, Mo. –Athletic performance varies from day to day, which can make it difficult for strength and conditioning professionals to judge whether athletes' improvements are due to effective training. Now, University of Missouri ...

NIH-led scientists discover HIV antibody that binds to novel target on virus

2014-09-03
WHAT: An NIH-led team of scientists has discovered a new vulnerability in the armor of HIV that a vaccine, other preventive regimen or treatment could exploit. The site straddles two proteins, gp41 and gp120, that jut out of the virus and augments other known places where broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) bind to HIV. This newly identified site on the viral spike is where a new antibody found by the scientists in an HIV-infected person binds to the virus. Called 35O22, the antibody prevents 62 percent of known HIV strains from infecting cells in the laboratory and ...

Hawaii scientist maps, names Laniakea, our home supercluster of galaxies

Hawaii scientist maps, names Laniakea, our home supercluster of galaxies
2014-09-03
University of Hawaii at Manoa astronomer R. Brent Tully, who recently shared the 2014 Gruber Cosmology Prize and the 2014 Victor Ambartsumian International Prize, has led an international team of astronomers in defining the contours of the immense supercluster of galaxies containing our own Milky Way. They have named the supercluster "Laniakea," meaning "immense heaven" in Hawaiian. The paper explaining this work is the cover story of the September 4 issue of the prestigious journal Nature. Galaxies are not distributed randomly throughout the universe. Instead, they are ...

Sequencing of 5 African fishes reveals diverse molecular mechanisms underlying evolution

2014-09-03
Cambridge, MA. Wed. September 3, 2014 — In an effort to understand the molecular basis of adaptation in vertebrates, researchers sequenced the genomes and transcriptomes of five species of African cichlid fishes. A research team led by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard uncovered a variety of features in the cichlid genomes that enabled the fishes to thrive in new habitats and ecological niches within the Great Lakes of East Africa. In addition to helping explain the complex genomic mechanisms that give rise to incredible diversity among cichlid fishes, ...

Airlock-like transport protein structure discovered

Airlock-like transport protein structure discovered
2014-09-03
Palo Alto, CA—Sugars are an essential source of energy for microrganisms, animals and humans. They are produced by plants, which convert energy from sunlight into chemical energy in the form of sugars through photosynthesis. These sugars are taken up into cells, no matter whether these are bacteria, yeast, human cells or plant cells, by proteins that create sugar-specific pores in the membrane that surrounds a cell. These transport proteins are thus essential in all organisms. It is not surprising that the transporters of humans and plants are very similar since they ...

Carbon stored in the world's soils more vulnerable to climate change than expected

Carbon stored in the worlds soils more vulnerable to climate change than expected
2014-09-03
The response of soil microbial communities to changes in temperature increases the potential for more carbon dioxide to be released from the world's soils as global temperatures rise, scientists have revealed. The potential for global warming to stimulate decomposition rates in soils, and thus release large quantities of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, has long been considered to be one of the potentially most important positive feedbacks to climate change. However, the results from more recent studies have suggested that responses within microbial communities could ...

Study shows cellular RNA can template DNA repair in yeast

Study shows cellular RNA can template DNA repair in yeast
2014-09-03
The ability to accurately repair DNA damaged by spontaneous errors, oxidation or mutagens is crucial to the survival of cells. This repair is normally accomplished by using an identical or homologous intact sequence of DNA, but scientists have now shown that RNA produced within cells of a common budding yeast can serve as a template for repairing the most devastating DNA damage – a break in both strands of a DNA helix. Earlier research had shown that synthetic RNA oligonucleotides introduced into cells could help repair DNA breaks, but the new study is believed to be ...

Newly identified galactic supercluster is home to the Milky Way

Newly identified galactic supercluster is home to the Milky Way
2014-09-03
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) -- among other telescopes -- have determined that our own Milky Way galaxy is part of a newly identified ginormous supercluster of galaxies, which they have dubbed "Laniakea," which means "immense heaven" in Hawaiian. This discovery clarifies the boundaries of our galactic neighborhood and establishes previously unrecognized linkages among various galaxy clusters in the local Universe. "We have finally established the contours that define the supercluster of galaxies we can call home," said ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Using lightning to make ammonia out of thin air

Machine learning potential-driven insights into pH-dependent CO₂ reduction

Physician associates provide safe care for diagnosed patients when directly supervised by a doctor

How game-play with robots can bring out their human side

Asthma: patient expectations influence the course of the disease

UNM physician tests drug that causes nerve tissue to emit light, enabling faster, safer surgery

New study identifies EMP1 as a key driver of pancreatic cancer progression and poor prognosis

XPR1 identified as a key regulator of ovarian cancer growth through autophagy and immune evasion

Flexible, eco-friendly electronic plastic for wearable tech, sensors

Can the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?

Stuckeman professor’s new book explores ‘socially sustainable’ architecture

Synthetic DNA nanoparticles for gene therapy

New model to find treatments for an aggressive blood cancer

Special issue of Journal of Intensive Medicine analyzes non-invasive respiratory support

T cells take aim at Chikungunya virus

Gantangqing site in southwest China yields 300,000-year-old wooden tools

Forests can’t keep up: Adaptation will lag behind climate change

Sturgeon reintroduction initiative yields promising first-year survival rate

Study: Babies’ poor vision may help organize visual brain pathways

Research reveals Arctic region was permafrost-free when global temperatures were 4.5˚ C higher than today

Novel insights into chromophobe renal cell carcinoma biology and potential therapeutic strategies

A breakthrough in motor safety: AI-powered warning system enhances capability to uncover hidden winding faults

Research teases apart competing transcription organization models

Connect or reject: Extensive rewiring builds binocular vision in the brain

Benefits and risks: informal use of antibiotics to prevent sexually transmitted infections on the rise in key populations in the Netherlands

New molecular tool sheds light on how cancer cells repair telomeres

First large-scale stem cell bank enables worldwide studies on genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease

Hearing devices significantly improve social lives of those with hearing loss

CNIC scientists reveal how the cellular energy system evolved—and how this knowledge could improve the diagnosis of rare genetic diseases

AI sharpens pathologists' interpretation of tissue samples

[Press-News.org] Trouble starting a task? Perception of time may be the problem, study finds