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Is Serena Williams angry or ecstatic? Context is everything in reading facial emotion, say psychologists
The Daily Mail: With her mouth is wide open, teeth bared and eyes pressed tensely shut, tennis star Serena Williams looks a picture of pure anger in this close-up photograph. Has she just lost the final of a Grand Slam? Or perhaps had to withdraw through injury? Or is she, in fact, ecstatically happy? When the image is widened out to include her body language the answer is made more clear. The pumped fist is an indicator of her happiness and, as it happens, this photograph was actually taken at the moment she defeated her sister Venus at the 2008 U.S. Open.
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People say they want to eat healthy, then order junk food
Two faces, double chin “Never mind that some restaurants have started listing calories on their menus,” says Associated Press. “Forget even that we keep saying we want to eat healthy. When Americans eat out, we order burgers and fries anyway. … In a country where more than two-thirds of the population is overweight or obese, food choices are often made on impulse, not intellect.
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Myslet i v analogiích umí i opice
Science World: Co se přesně analogií myslí? Např. to, že kočka se stará o koťata a dospělý pták o ptáčata. Nebo že můžeme rozpůlit čtverec podobně jako kruh – abstraktní idea společná těmto vztahům (vztah matka-potomek a půlení). Řada vědců si ale dosud myslela, že k tomu, abychom to takto chápali, potřebujeme jazyk/přemýšlení v pojmech. Jak se zdá, není to pravda. Netřeba k tomu ani inteligence velkých lidoopů. Joël Fagot z Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (CNRS/Université de Provence) a Roger Thompson z Franklin & Marshall College (USA) provedli následující experiment, o němž referoval časopis Psychological Science.
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Teens Get Smarter as They Age, Especially the Older Ones
International Business Times: Parents need not worry on the mental advancement of their teens as a U.S. study showed that adolescence actually breeds more excellence, thanks much to years of learning and experience. Results of a research work published on September by the medical journal Psychological Science pointed to suggestions that regular teens, with sufficient stimulus and nutrition, are bound to undergo mental faculty enhancement.
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Being Easily Embarrassed Could Make You More Trustworthy
The Huffington Post: Easily embarrassed? That could make you more trustworthy, a new study suggests. People who are easily embarrassed -- not to be confused with people with social anxiety or constant feelings of shame -- were shown in several experiments to be more generous, trustworthy and desirable in social situations, according to a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "Moderate levels of embarrassment are signs of virtue," study researcher Matthew Feinberg, a doctoral student in psychology at University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.
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Learning from your mistakes is all in the mind
The Telegraph: How people react to their mistakes depends on their mindset, and whether people believe it is not worth trying harder if they fail a test, psychologists said. The study, to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people who think they can learn from their mistakes have a different brain reaction to mistakes than people who think intelligence is fixed. "One big difference between people who think intelligence is malleable and those who think intelligence is fixed is how they respond to mistakes," says Jason S. Moser, of Michigan State University in the US.
