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¿Por qué no somos ya más inteligentes?: los perjuicios de tener una supermente
ABC Espana: Los seres humanos nos esforzamos en mejorar nuestra memoria, inteligencia y atención de múltiples maneras, desde tomar una taza de café que nos despeje la mente hasta consumir medicamentos psicoestimulantes. Pero quizás, aunque parezca contradictorio, ser más inteligentes no nos convenga como especie. Un nuevo artículo publicado en Psychological Science, una revista de la Asociación para la Ciencia Psicológica de EE.UU., advierte de que hay límites en cómo obtener la inteligencia y de que cualquier aumento en la capacidad de pensar puede traer algún problema añadido. Read the whole story: ABC Espana
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Why It Really Is Better to Give Than to Receive
The Wall Street Journal: The Beatles famously sang money can't buy love. But can it buy happiness? Satisfaction? Appreciation? These questions surfaced in my mind the other day as I raced to finish—um, I mean start—my holiday shopping. For many of you, the hunt for the perfect gift began early this year. A record-breaking 226 million shoppers tore out of the gate over Black Friday weekend, spending an estimated $52.4 billion collectively—another record—at stores and websites, all in the hopes of spreading a little joy to family members, friends and assorted acquaintances. Unfortunately, our good intentions notwithstanding, research suggests that by and large we miss the mark.
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All It Takes is a Smile (For Some Guys)…
Does she or doesn’t she . . .? Sexual cues are ambiguous, and confounding. We—especially men—often read them wrong. A new study hypothesizes that the men who get it wrong might be the ones that evolution has favored. “There are tons of studies showing that men think women are interested when they’re not,” says Williams College psychologist Carin Perilloux, who conducted the research with Judith A. Easton and David M. Buss of University of Texas at Austin. “Ours is the first to systematically examine individual differences.” The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.
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Funding Opportunity 2012 NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards
Letters of Intent due by December 30, 2011 Announcing a funding opportunity for the NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards: For junior investigators wishing to “skip the post-doc” and immediately begin independent research Eligible candidates must be within one year of receipt of terminal research degree or completion of clinical residency Only up to two applications per institution (as defined by unique DUNS number) permitted All areas of research relevant to the mission of NIH welcome Budgets may be up to $250,000 in direct costs per year for up to five years The deadline for submitting Early Independence Award applications is January 30, 2012 with Letters of Intent due by December 30, 2…
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OppNet Request for Applications for Three-year Research Projects: Basic Research on Decision Making(R01)
OppNet, NIH’s Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Network, released a new RFA for three-year research projects: Basic research on decision making: Cognitive, affective, and developmental perspectives (R01). Basic research on decision making: Cognitive, affective, and developmental perspectives (R01) Deadlines Letter of intent: December 18, 2011 Application: January 18, 2012 This OppNet Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages research grant applications that propose to increase understanding of the basic cognitive, affective, motivational, and social processes that underlie decision making across the lifespan.
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Robert Sapolsky: The uniqueness of humans
Humans enjoy having a laugh at the seemingly silly things other animals do, oblivious to the fact that they offer up plenty of humorous fodder to the rest of Mother Nature in kind. Thanks to his extensive work with baboons, Robert Sapolsky looks at his fellow men and women through an intriguing (and hilarious) biological lens. Although they share plenty of parallels with other mammals, people certainly pull it off in their own unique, strange way. Watch the Ted Talk here