Research found that parental education moderates genetic influences on reading disability, suggesting genes play a larger role in high-education families. The study's results have implications for national education policies, suggesting a more nuanced approach to meeting academic standards.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that spending time in nature improves attention and memory processes. Volunteers who took a walk in a park performed better on a task than those who walked downtown or viewed urban scenes.
Researchers found that when we see an object, multiple motor programs are involuntarily activated, competing for control. The brain uses a common mechanism to filter out irrelevant information, allowing us to execute precise movements.
Researchers found that most respondents reported improved mood after a good cry, but some felt worse or no improvement. Criers who received social support experienced the most significant improvements in mood. The study highlights the complexities of crying behavior and its physical and emotional effects.
Research suggests that brief hesitations in conversation can increase anxiety in interracial interactions. In a study, participants experienced heightened anxiety when having conversations with someone of a different racial background after being delayed by just one second. This delay was undetectable to the participants.
A recent study published in Psychological Science found that individuals with a higher sense of power experienced less compassion and distress when confronted with another's suffering. High-power individuals' autonomic emotion regulation increased, buffering against their partner's distress.
Research shows nostalgia enhances psychological health by boosting self-esteem and perceptions of social support. Nostalgia also counteracts loneliness and provides a link between past and present selves.
Researchers investigated two theories of forgetfulness and found that temporal confusability, not decay, is the main cause of forgetting over the short term. The study reveals that making information distinct can alleviate and even reverse the classic pattern of forgetting.
A recent study found that powerful individuals make better decisions when they engage in unconscious thinking, similar to the way most people process information. The research suggests that having power changes how people think and approach complex decision-making.
Research by University of Chicago psychologist Sian L. Beilock reveals that math anxiety can be debilitating due to the consumption of working memory resources by worries and stereotypes. Individuals with higher working memory capacity are more prone to 'choke under pressure' when stressed.
Researchers found that unconscious thought was not always effective in making the best choices. Instead, thinking about a decision at one's own pace and focusing on the problem led to larger payoffs. The study suggests that relying on self-paced conscious thought can be a more reliable approach for complex decisions.
A new study found that empty nests can increase marital satisfaction, particularly when it comes to the quality of time spent together. Researchers tracked women over 18 years and discovered that those whose children left home enjoyed more fulfilling time with their partners.
New research in Psychological Science found that cleanliness significantly influences moral judgment, with participants exercising less severe judgments after washing their hands. The study suggests that our intuition and subconscious feelings of 'cleanliness' play a role in shaping our perception of right and wrong.
A study by University of California, Santa Barbara psychologists found that starting with difficult problems can improve understanding of new material. Participants who began with harder problems were able to think abstractly and perform well on the task, whereas those who started with easy problems struggled with more complicated issues.
A recent study found that prejudice influences people's perceptions of what ethnic minority faces look like, with prejudiced individuals viewing certain faces as more criminal-looking. The research suggests that this bias may serve as a stereotype-maintaining device.
A study by Daniel Fiset and colleagues reveals that line terminations are the most important feature for recognizing both uppercase and lowercase letters. The researchers used the 'Bubbles' technique to evaluate which areas of each letter were crucial for recognition.
A new study published in Psychological Science found that neurotic individuals react stronger to uncertain feedback than clear negative information. This suggests that some people prefer the devil they know over the unknown, and high levels of Neuroticism contribute to this dislike.
Researchers found that rats and humans with disrupted attention share similar patterns of behavior in a feature binding task, suggesting acetylcholine is necessary for this process. The study has important clinical implications, potentially leading to improved therapies for disorders like Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers found that déjà vu experiences are associated with a sense of familiarity, even when the source is unknown. The study suggests that specific aspects of current situations can trigger feelings of familiarity, leading to Déjà vu experiences.
Researchers found that adding a visual or auditory signal can increase the perception of an electrical stimulus, even if it's not initially detected. Multisensory integration plays a crucial role in this process, modifying peripheral systems to enhance our understanding of the world.
A study published in Psychological Science found that nostalgia can amplify perceptions of social support, counteracting feelings of loneliness. The research suggests that individuals who use nostalgia as a coping mechanism are more resilient and better equipped to handle social exclusion.
Researchers found that making comparisons, even on unrelated topics, activates a comparative mind-set that boosts willingness to buy one out of two options. This effect persists and influences decisions in subsequent situations.
Researchers found that people choose differently when given feedback in experiential choices compared to descriptive choices. The study suggests that feedback may drive individuals towards rational decision-making by treating small probabilities more objectively.
A study found that participants who received exercise instructions in a difficult font were less motivated to engage in regular exercise, whereas those who received easy-to-read instructions were more willing to adopt the habit. Similarly, a recipe with a hard-to-read format led to lower willingness to attempt making sushi compared to ...
A new study reveals that preschoolers critically depend on gender information when making comparisons with peers, leading to lasting negative consequences on behavior and self-concept. Children who see a same-gender or gender-unidentified peer perform better tend to improve their performance and increase positive self-evaluations.
Research reveals that infants can differentiate between individual speech sounds and recognize the auditory forms of words from an early age. This knowledge helps them develop vocabulary and eventually grammar, even if they don't understand the word meanings yet.
Researchers found that females were more often chosen as leaders of intragroup conditions while males were preferred to lead intergroup situations. Female leaders were also viewed as being more effective in maintaining positive relationships within the group.
Scientists found that boundary extension, a type of false memory, occurs quickly when visual input is disrupted, suggesting the role of amodal perception and spatial perception in scene perception. The study suggests that errors in boundary judgment may be beneficial for understanding the world as a coherent whole.
Researchers identified 1500 young adolescents with high math scores on the SAT and followed their careers. Those who scored highest in math went on to publish more scientific papers and earn patents in advanced degrees groups. High math achievement also predicted success among graduate students at top-ranked science universities.
A recent study published in Psychological Science found that socially rejected individuals are particularly good at discerning fake smiles from real ones. This may be because they have an increased motivation to be accepted and are more sensitive to specific social cues indicating opportunities for inclusion.
A study by Frederik Anseel and Wouter Duyck found that employees are more likely to work for companies with matching initials, a phenomenon known as the name-letter effect. The researchers analyzed data from over 100 Belgian employees and discovered a significant correlation between employee initials and company names.
A new study by UCL researchers suggests that hypnosis can induce synaesthetic experiences in people without extra brain connections. They used posthypnotic suggestion to show that non-synesthetes could experience digit-colour synaesthesia, reporting similar experiences as real synaesthetes.
Researchers studied how our brains process faces and found that looking at the nose is crucial for face recognition. The study showed that making two fixations, rather than one, leads to better performance in recognizing faces.
A study published in Psychological Science found that people who rely on their emotions during negotiations tend to make simpler and cleaner offers, but still achieve good outcomes. This suggests that emotional decision making may be both simpler and more lucrative than traditional calculation-based approaches.
A new report highlights the issue of statistical illiteracy in health, with misleading presentation of relative risks and lack of absolute risk information. The problem affects both doctors and patients, leading to incorrect decisions and actions.
A new study found a positive relationship between violent TV viewing and negative personality attributes among white males and females, and African-American females. However, African-American males showed no increased aggression or lower IQ despite watching violent TV.
New research finds that distractions can aid in solving complex problems through unconscious thought, but conscious thought is necessary for applying solutions. In contrast, easier problems may require focused attention to find the solution.
Studies found that people with high sociability tend to migrate to urban areas over long distances, while those with high activity have a tendency to move both urban and rural locales. Emotional individuals are more likely to move away from home but don't migrate far or often.
A study found that amnesics remember grammar but not the meaning of new sentences, indicating separate components for language function. The researchers suggest syntactic knowledge is a specialized skill akin to riding a bike, shaped by basic memory mechanisms.
Researchers Chen-Bo Zhong and Geoffrey Leonardelli found that socially excluded individuals experience a physical feeling of coldness, which is linked to their preference for warm food and drinks. This study suggests that warm chicken soup may be a literal coping mechanism for social isolation.
A study found that participants with greater activation in the anterior prefrontal cortex, a key brain structure for short-term memory, scored higher on intelligence tests and exhibited better self-control. This neural link suggests that improving brain function in this area may lead to increased self-control.
A study published in Psychological Science found that socially painful experiences can be revisited through memory recall, causing increased emotional pain. In contrast, physically painful events tend to fade with time. The study's findings suggest an evolutionary aspect of human brain development, particularly in the cerebral cortex, ...
A new study shows that people can create false memories of their past, which can lead to lasting changes in their behavior. Participants who were told they had become ill after eating egg salad as children avoided the food and gave it lower evaluations than those who did not develop false memories.
A new study found that referees tend to award more points to tae kwon do competitors dressed in red than those dressed in blue. The researchers discovered a split-second bias toward red-clad athletes when competitors are evenly matched in skill.
Researchers found that excluding participants from a game led to automatic mimicry of another person's behaviors, influencing feelings of belonging. This phenomenon suggests that nonconscious mimicry is an automatic response to social exclusion, with implications for human behavior.
Children's ability to plan for the future develops around age 4, with 4- and 5-year-olds performing better than 3-year-olds. Additionally, children's current physiological state can affect their ability to imagine themselves in a specific situation, as seen in studies on pretend scenarios and hunger.
Research suggests that alliteration improves memory for both content and thematic aspects of literature. Participants who read works with similar alliterative sounds performed better in memory recall than those who read without or with different sounds.
A new study found that writing about important values decreases defensiveness and increases feelings of love and connection. Researchers suggest this happens by enabling people to transcend the self and focus on others.
Researchers used different hues of orange and yellow on various objects to examine color perception and constancy. Participants redefined colors based on their knowledge of object colors, not just the hue.
A recent study found that older adults are less likely to commit the sunk-cost fallacy, instead viewing situations from a balanced perspective. This allows them to recognize that past investments cannot be recovered by continuing to invest time.