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FDA’s Graphic Cigarette Images: Will They Work?
Can graphic images persuade people to make lasting changes to their behavior? The answer, according to psychological research, is probably not. Howard Leventhal, the Board of Governors Professor of Health Psychology at Rutgers, agrees that photos are in fact stronger than words, but that images may not lead to long-term behavioral effects. Leventhal states, “You don’t need a lot of threat to get something to happen as long as the threat is associated with a clear, simple plan of action.
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Ovulating women better at spotting straight men: study
CTV Canada: Women can more accurately identify a man's sexual orientation the closer she is to ovulation, according to a study released this month. The study, a joint project by the University of Toronto and Tufts University in Boston, looked at the ability of 40 undergraduate women to judge whether a man is gay or straight based on viewing a photograph of his face. In the first of three experiments, the women looked at 80 images, half of which were gay men, and were told to determine each man's sexual orientation. Read more: CTV Canada
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Expert on Mental Illness Reveals Her Own Fight
The New York Times: HARTFORD — Are you one of us? The patient wanted to know, and her therapist — Marsha M. Linehan of the University of Washington, creator of a treatment used worldwide for severely suicidal people — had a ready answer. It was the one she always used to cut the question short, whether a patient asked it hopefully, accusingly or knowingly, having glimpsed the macramé of faded burns, cuts and welts on Dr. Linehan’s arms: “You mean, have I suffered?” “No, Marsha,” the patient replied, in an encounter last spring. “I mean one of us. Like us. Because if you were, it would give all of us so much hope.” “That did it,” said Dr.
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Memory training improves intelligence in some children, report says
Los Angeles Times: Training a child to hold a whole cluster of items in his or her memory for even a short time may feel like trying to hold a wave on the sand. But a study published Monday says it's a drill that can yield lasting benefits. Children who've had such training have better abstract reasoning and solve problems more creatively than kids who haven't, the study found. But here's a warning to parents already grooming their young children for entry into elite universities: Don't automatically rush out to enroll your young genius in brain-training summer camp or invest in DVDs promising to deliver high IQs.
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How our brains make the most of recalling bad memories
Irish Times: CAN NEGATIVE emotions help memory? It seems they can, under certain circumstances, according to a new study published in Psychological Science. Researchers asked students to study lists of Swahili words and their translations into English, then the students were asked to recall the meanings. After each correct answer, the students were shown a negative image, a neutral picture or a blank screen. When that first test was over, they did a quick multiplication exercise, then the students were quizzed again on the Swahili- English items. Read more: Irish Times
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Women’s prejudice linked with menstrual cycle
Times of India: A study byMichigan State University psychologist researchers has indicated that women's bias against male strangers increases when women are fertile, suggesting prejudice may be partly fuelled by genetics. "Our findings suggest that women's prejudice, at least in part, may be a byproduct of their biology," said Melissa McDonald, a doctoral student and lead author on the paper. Read more: Times of India
