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How Monotony Promotes Sleepiness in Self-Driving Vehicles
Scientists are studying whether engaging in interesting tasks in an autonomous car might keep drivers awake and alert, or might distract them from preparing to take control of the vehicle when necessary.
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Starbucks’s Troubles Can Be a Test for Anti-Bias Training: Does It Work?
Earlier this month, two black men were arrested for trespassing at a Starbucks cafe in Philadelphia. They were waiting for a friend but had not bought anything and would not leave, so the store manager called 911. The friend showed up just as six police officers handcuffed the two men and led them away. Viral cellphone videos, news reports and protests made the incident an international example of corporate racial insensitivity. In response, Starbucks announced last week that it will close all 8,000 of its company-owned stores nationwide for an entire afternoon on Tuesday, May 29, to give all of its employees training in racial-bias reduction.
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Revisiting the Marshmallow Test
Remember the marshmallow test? Stanford University researchers in the early 1960s offered young children a choice between one sweet treat they could immediately eat, or two they could enjoy after a short wait. They found those who took the second option ultimately got higher test scores, and generally had more successful lives. That ability to delay gratification is usually described as an internal trait, perhaps enhanced by proper parenting. But new research suggests another element is also at play. It reports kids faced with this now-or-later dilemma are strongly influenced by their peers' pattern of behavior.
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Postdoctoral Fellowship in Global Health Research for African Psychological Scientists
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are partnering with the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI), a program that recruits and trains early-career African scientists at an intramural lab at NIH in a global health research area priority of their home institutions/countries.
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Balancing Speaking and Listening for Language Learning
The second language learning literature emphasizes comprehension for language learning, but memory research suggests that producing the language is just as important for learning.
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NSF Funding for Smart and Connected Health
The National Science Foundation invites proposals for the interagency “Smart and Connected Health (SCH): Connecting Data, People, and Systems” program, which funds high-risk/high-reward research, including behavioral and cognitive projects, on the development of technologies and analytical models in health and medicine.
