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What Happened to the Girls in Le Roy
The New York Times: Before the media vans took over Main Street, before the environmental testers came to dig at the soil, before the doctor came to take blood, before strangers started knocking on doors and asking question after question, Katie Krautwurst, a high-school cheerleader from Le Roy, N.Y., woke up from a nap. Instantly, she knew something was wrong. Her chin was jutting forward uncontrollably and her face was contracting into spasms. She was still twitching a few weeks later when her best friend, Thera Sanchez, captain of one of the school’s cheerleading squads, awoke from a nap stuttering and then later started twitching, her arms flailing and head jerking.
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Why police officers can forget
Belfast Telegraph: Extreme physical exertion in a threatening situation lasting just 60 seconds can "seriously damage" the memories of those involved, according to a new study of police officers. Police officers, witnesses and victims of crime suffer loss of memory, recognition and awareness of their environment if they have to use bursts of physical energy in a combative encounter. This can occur in situations such as an officer chasing a fleeing suspect, according to Lorraine Hope of the University of Portsmouth. She said that her findings, published in Psychological Science, are a warning of the problems with witness statements to the courts. Read the whole story: Belfast Telegraph
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‘The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts’ in face recognition
Yahoo! India: Until now, most research has suggested that we recognize faces 'holistically' - we look at all the features-eyes, nose, mouth-simultaneously and, perceiving the relationships among them, gain an advantage over taking in each feature individually. Now, a new study overturns this theory. The researchers-Jason M. Gold and Patrick J. Mundy of the Indiana University and Bosco S. Tjan of the University of California Los Angeles-found that people's performance in recognizing a whole face is no better than their performance with each individual feature shown alone. "Surprisingly, the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts," said Gold.
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“La creatività? Basta allenarsi” Il talento non è indispensabile
La Repubblica: NON BASTAVANO i 15 minuti di notorietà di cui parlava Andy Warhol. Secondo lo psicologo cognitivo Anthony McCaffrey tutti, prima o poi, avremo anche il nostro portentoso momento di creatività. Che di minuti ne duri cinque, quindici o due non importa, quel che conta è che produca risultati interessanti almeno quanto la teoria dello studioso della University of Massachusetts Amherst, secondo cui l'"aha moment", il momento in cui il cervello produce un'idea geniale, non è prerogativa di pochi talentuosi ma realtà accessibile a tutti. Al prezzo di un minimo di studio e sacrificio, ovviamente.
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When Today’s Deal Is Tomorrow’s Regret
The New York Times: HOW much is a $150 coupon worth? For Matt Sumell, the cost turned out to be one new relationship, as well as a little bit of pride. In January 2011, Mr. Sumell bought a $150 coupon for a romantic overnight stay in a hotel from LivingSocial, the daily deal site (a savings of about 50 percent). He planned to use it with a woman he had been dating for five years, until that relationship ended. But Mr. Sumell, an English teacher and fiction writer from Los Angeles, is not one to throw away money. So 11 months later, with the coupon unused and an expiration date looming, he set aside his better judgment and invited a woman he had been dating for only a month.
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Does thinking quickly make life risky?
Business Insider: Faster thinking made people more likely to take risks: "In two experiments, we tested for a causal link between thought speed and risk taking. In Experiment 1, we manipulated thought speed by presenting neutral-content text at either a fast or a slow pace and having participants read the text aloud. In Experiment 2, we manipulated thought speed by presenting fast-, medium-, or slow-paced movie clips that contained similar content. Participants who were induced to think more quickly took more risks with actual money in Experiment 1 and reported greater intentions to engage in real-world risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex and illegal drug use, in Experiment 2.
