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Can romance be reduced to pronouns?
Edmonton Journal: People have struggled for years to figure out what makes a good relationship. Is it common interests? Argument styles? Face shapes? Now, a Texas psychologist says his study shows how pronoun use and mirroring will reveal whether a romance will work out, the New York Times reports in its Love Well blog. Behavioural scientists have long known that humans have a tendency to subconsciously mimic the sounds, style and movement of others. James W. Pennebaker, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, asked 187 students to take part in several four-minute speed dates.
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The psychology of happiness
WXVT CBS: Everyone wants to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is such a basic human drive that the Founding Fathers included it in the Declaration of Independence. Researchers have found that there are real benefits to being happy. Happiness leads to: Better health and longer life Better relationships Greater success at work More ethical behavior The problem is, people aren't very good at predicting what will make them happy. Winning the lottery doesn't do it. After the excitement wears off, lottery winners are no happier than non-winners. Wealth isn't the key. Once you have enough money to take care of your needs, having more won't make you much happier.
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What the Brain Sees After the Eye Stops Looking
When we gaze at a shape and then the shape disappears, a strange thing happens: We see an afterimage in the complementary color. Now a Japanese study has observed for the first time an equally strange illusion: The afterimage appears in a “complementary” shape—circles as hexagons, and vice-versa. “The finding suggests that the afterimage is formed in the brain, not in the eye,” the author, Hiroyuki Ito of Kyushu University, wrote in an email. More specifically, the illusion is produced in the brain’s shape-processing visual cortex, not the eye’s light-receiving, message-sending retina.
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24th NIMH Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience
The 24th NIMH Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience will be held from June 24 - July 7, 2012. This year's topics are "Does Brain Plasticity Account for Everything?" with Jon H. Kaas, and "The Indispensable Role of Episodic Memory in Adaptive Behavior" with Ian Dobbins and Mike Miller. Both weeks feature an international faculty of leaders in the field. Applications are invited from eligible beginning and established researchers. The Summer Institute values diversity and welcomes applications from all qualified scientists. For applications and further information, visit our website at http://sicn.cmb.ucdavis.edu.
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Meaningful Meals
As you prepare a meal to share with family and friends, learn what not to feed your guests and why comfort food make us feel so much better when we’re down.
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Your Broker Is Probably a Master of Illusion
U.S. News & World Report: Daniel Kahneman is an Israeli-born psychologist. He won the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 2002. He is best known for his work in behavioral economics, which attempts to explain how investors make decisions. In a thoughtful article adapted from his upcoming book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman makes some interesting observations.
